For the next few Sundays I want to dip into the Old Testament teachings. There are individuals in the Old Testament that we can learn a lot of things about and from. One of those things is mentoring others.
Currently we have several individuals in our church who have volunteered to be mentors to students at the elementary and junior high schools at East Central. They have just gotten started and so I'm not sure how it is going but I am sure as time goes by that these children will remember things that these adults have taught them.
(Recognize our mentors)
You see, we have a choice in life. We can learn from our experiences, or we can learn from the experience of others. Learning from our own experiences can many times be painful, frustrating, and time consuming. Learning from others shortens that time frame and lessens that pain and frustration. If we were wise, we would let others go through the stress and learn from their experiences.
Basically, we need three types of people in our lives. We need friends, those who walk alongside us who we can mutually support and encourage. We need mentors, those who share their wisdom and life lessons and challenge us to grow and fulfill our potential. Thirdly, we need those that we mentor, those we support, invest in, and challenge to grow just as others have done for us.
One of the courses I had in seminary involved two years of sitting with a mentor for a few hours every other week. My mentor was brother Mark Briggs, the father of David Briggs. I learned a lot from him. However, he told my mom and dad he thought he was learning more from me.
But as we have been mentored, we can do the same for someone else. Everyone can profit from the wisdom and the experience of others. The message today looks at a brief incident of mentoring in the life of Moses. And without this mentoring that took place, Moses’ life could have been quite different. Let's see if we can learn some things about mentoring from God's word today. Prayer.
We are going to be using Exodus 18 from the Old testament today. Most of us know who Moses was. Especially after the Easter season and for some reason the television network ties in the Ten Commandments to Easter, which is not related to Easter at all. But Moses was the great Israelite leader of the exodus of God's people out of Egypt. Moses learned a lot from his mentoring relationship with his father-in-law, Jethro. He learned these lessons in the early years of the journey out of Egypt.
Moses first met Jethro in the second chapter of Exodus. Moses actually married one of Jethro's daughters, Zipporah. For the next 40 years, Moses tended the flocks of Jethro in the wilderness area of Midian. After Moses had an encounter with God at the burning bush, he decided to return to Egypt with his wife and family.
At some point, either during that journey back to Egypt or after arriving in Egypt, Moses sent Zipporah and his two sons back to Jethro. We still don't know exactly why he did this, but it might have been because Moses wanted to protect them from the wrath of Pharaoh during those months before the Exodus event began.
Exodus 18: 9-11 – “Jethro rejoiced over all the good things the Lord had done for Israel when he rescued them from the power of the Egyptians. 10 “Blessed be the Lord,” Jethro exclaimed, “who rescued you from the power of Egypt and from the power of Pharaoh. He has rescued the people from under the power of Egypt! 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because he did wonders when the Egyptians acted arrogantly against Israel.”
When we get to the 18th chapter of Exodus, Moses and the children of Israel had seen the plagues in Egypt and experienced the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. They had seen water come from a rock and quail and manna come from heaven in the wilderness. Hearing of all the ways God had acted on behalf of His people, Jethro acknowledged how great Yahweh was, and led the leaders of Israel in a joyous celebration of all that God had done for the nation to this point in time. All of this began a brief, yet critical period of mentoring between Jethro and Moses.
If we look below the surface of the verses that we just read, we can gain some valuable truths about mentoring from Moses and Jethro. For instance:
- a lot of times we have people in our own families that we can turn to for advice and direction. There's a lot that can be learned from family members. If you look closely within your own family, you can probably find someone to turn to for wisdom and counsel as a mentor. Moses was going to learn from his father-in-law Jethro. I learned from my dad about construction, electrical work, plumbing, etc.
- on the other hand, there may be people in our families who need to profit from our life experiences and knowledge.
- the mentoring relationship between Jethro and Moses wasn't a long one. This tells us that we may have occasions like that as well where there are short-term situations in which our guidance is needed. We need to watch for that and see the opportunities. There could also be brief periods when we need direction from someone else.
- another thing we learned is that in all mentoring relationships we need to celebrate the good things that are happening. Begin with positive reinforcements before offering constructive criticism or direction. The relationship of mentoring between Jethro and Moses was brief, and yet it was extremely profitable for Moses.
I remember on my resume that I handed over to the pastor search committee here at Southeast Baptist Church when I was looking for a church to pastor. My objective of ministry was to not only make disciples, but to make disciple makers. If we not only make disciples but we make disciple makers, we are making others into those that will carry on the work and God's work will expand exponentially.
Exodus 18:14-15 – “When Moses’s father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, “What is this you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”
Moses replied to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.”
Jethro watched what Moses was doing. He turned his observations into some questions. Difficulties in relationships will happen. We're imperfect and sinful people, and disagreements and disputes will happen. That was the case among the children of Israel as they made their way from Egypt to the land that God had promised them. When you think about the nation of Israel at that time it was comprised of thousands of families. You can kind of get an idea of the challenge that was facing Moses. He found himself spending his entire day making a decision between one man and another.
As Jethro observed, he asked some questions. What is this you're doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all people stand around you from morning until evening? Jethro wanted to hear from Moses's lips an explanation for this overwhelming situation. Moses was trying to handle it all. The question he asked may have helped Jethro understand the situation and likely proved to be eye-opening for Moses.
Here's the lesson that we learn from this. By observing what is going on and questioning, we as mentors can lead those we help to come to their own understanding of the situation. Some good questions follow these guidelines:
- the questions you should ask should be open-ended and lead to more than a yes or no answer.
- the questions should move from surface issues to deeper subjects.
- your questions will allow that person to think more critically about challenges they face.
- those questions can progressively lead to growth, insight, and answers.
It amounts to that person that is being mentored reaching the point of seeing the problems or challenges for themselves. When they reach that point, they're ready for further guidance and how to address the situation. This is exactly what Jethro was doing with Moses.
Exodus 18:16 – 18 – “Whenever they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I make a decision between one man and another. I teach them God’s statutes and laws.” 17 “What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’s father-in-law said to him. 18 “You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.”
Just by observing what Moses was doing Jethro discerned the difficult situation that both Moses and the people were in. The people would stand all day waiting for their turn to speak with Moses, who was occupied continually in these menial tasks when, most likely, there were many more pressing issues that he should have been attending to.
Just by Jethro observing this and bringing it up to Moses, it allowed Moses to see the seriousness of the situation. That's what Jethro was doing when he told Moses, “What you were doing is not good.” Serving as a judge between people was an important role but so was communicating God's law. The way Moses was doing it wasn't good stewardship of his time, nor was it the best approach.
So mentoring begins by observing what's going on. It's followed with asking questions and listening with discernment. Mentoring requires honest communication and straightforwardness. If that's done with grace and a Christ-centered attitude, it will be a source of encouragement to the one that's being mentored.
Exodus 18:19-21 – “Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and God be with you. You be the one to represent the people before God and bring their cases to him. 20 Instruct them about the statutes and laws, and teach them the way to live and what they must do. 21 But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating dishonest profit. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.”
So, Jethro observes and listens to Moses and then offers advice. Jethro acknowledged that Moses’ essential task was being a representative between God and the people of Israel. In that role, Moses was to instruct them about the statues and laws, and teach them the way to live and what they must do.
When I say instruct them about the statutes and laws, I'm talking about the commands of God that are spelled out in the law that was given to Moses. That is much of what we do in the church, OR at least try to do. We try to teach the way to live and what we must do. But as we teach the way to live and what we must do, in obeying the commands of God, you also need to be taught the duties and actions involved in daily living. In other words, how to put it all into practice. As Moses taught these things to the people, he would also be teaching them about the God who had delivered them out of slavery and His plans for them as a nation.
Jethro acknowledged to Moses that what he was doing were certainly important tasks, but Moses didn't have to do it alone. Jethro advised his son-in-law Moses to divide the duty between capable men who could take the burden from Moses. These men were to be competent people with a firm trust in God. In addition, they were to be honest and not greedy for gain. Jethro even suggested a breakdown of how to organize these judges or commanders in their duties. Verse 24 says that Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.
In our church that is why we select Deacons to help the ministry staff here at SEBC. Then we elect yokefellows to help those deacons carry out those tasks. In our own way, we are following the outline that Jethro laid out for us.
Jethro sets Moses down and has a face-to-face talk with him about what he's doing wrong. He told Moses what was keeping him from giving his full attention to instructing and teaching the people. What was keeping Moses so tied up was serving as a judge and mediator in disagreements. Here again, this is where my deacons help me. I don't have time to get involved in every knit picking argument you might have with one another. So, my deacons are trained to help you work through those issues. They might eventually come across my desk if they are serious enough. But this is what Jethro was telling Moses. Moses was trying to handle every disagreement that came up between thousands of families.
You can easily see how that was tying up all of his time and energy. It was here that Jethro highlighted the greatest weakness in Moses’ approach to leadership. His current approach was going to wear him out and wear the people out as well.
When you think about it, in any mentoring relationship, a major role should include teaching concerning God and His ways. We call it teaching integrity. That is what I try my best to do each Sunday morning and Wednesday evening. Mentors should lead others to understand the way to live that will please and honor God. Also, a good mentoring relationship should focus on not simply identifying problems, but on discovering the solutions to those problems.
When I first became pastor here at SEBC, I was confronted with many of these types of conflicts. And so, I made a rule. If you come to me with a problem, then write down what you think the solution should be to solve that problem. You know what? That dissolved many conflicts because the people involved in those conflicts answered their own questions and were actually helping me solve the problem before it ever got to me.
Now for those who were being mentored, Moses modeled a critical component: he modeled a teachable spirit. He listens to Jethro and he did what he said. Moses wasn't so puffed up with pride that he couldn't learn from others. Instead, he was open to learning and improving. In any mentoring relationship, an attitude of humility and a willingness to learn is absolutely essential.
You are probably now wondering what all of this has to do with you. “That's your job pastor; to teach us. To mentor us.” You might be thinking that you are never involved in a mentoring relationship. Oh, but you are more than you think. People watch you. I tell the deacons that people watch them. And even more than any of that, our children and our youth are watching us. We may be mentoring them without even talking with them. So, I hope that what the Bible teaches us today will help us to be even better mentors than we ever dreamed we could be. By the way, Moses’ appointing these group leaders to help him was the beginning of what we know now as the Sanhedrin.
Speaking of mentors, I think you know who mentors us on a daily basis. Jesus wants us to model ourselves after Him. He set the best example for us to follow. So as we think about how our actions and attitudes affects other people, let's think about how much we are following Jesus's example. The more we are like Jesus, the more we are what God wants us to be.
As my last mentoring task this morning, I want you to remember that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then you are classified as lost. The only way that you can be saved from that is by asking Jesus to come into your heart and into your life. I give you that opportunity now.
