How to Cope When your Overloaded or Overwhelmed. (Exodus 18: 1-27)
It is not uncommon for people to be overloaded. Sometimes it's temporary, like for a business at the end of the tax year. Sometimes there's just so much for a person to do that they get overwhelmed and overworked. This can happen within the family context, where a mother can get overloaded. It can happen at work with anyone, and it can happen at church. It can even happen in ministry. In fact, anyone who has been in any kind of ministry, whether as a volunteer or full-time, I am sure will have experienced the overload that I'm talking about. So, how do you address a situation where you feel overloaded? What should you do? What I'm about to say might not apply to every situation, but it does apply across the board to many, situations in families, work, church, and any kind of organization. It's a rather simple solution, and it's in Exodus chapter 18.
So, let’s look together at Exodus chapter 18. We have a fascinating story in Exodus chapter 18. Now again, this seems to be a long passage, so I'm not going to read the whole thing, but not at once, we will read it verse by verse, in sections and try and unpack it as we go along. So, let's start with that first section.
1And Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people—that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, 3 with her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land”) 4 and the name of the other was Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”); 5 and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 Now he had said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”"
(Exodus 18: 1-5)
Did you notice who gets mentioned here over and over again? Jethro. And who is he? He's the father-in-law of Moses. So, the first segment just talks about Jethro's coming to see Moses, and it takes place in these first six verses. And it tells us is that he brought back Moses his wife and his two sons. Well, know from earlier in his life, Moses went to Midian, and he got married. And then the Lord called him, and he went back to Egypt. Apparently, he didn't take his wife with him, or he might have sent her back to her father when things got dangerous. But at any rate, his wife has been with her father for some time, with their two children. So, anyway Jethro, his father-in-law, brought his daughter, Moses' wife, and their children back to be with Moses.
The other thing that's interesting in these six verses is that it says in verse five that Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. What will become very evident as we read through the book of Exodus that the mountain of God is Mount Sinai. That is a place that will become significant but not yet. The next segment tells us a little bit about what happened when he got there. Let's pick it up at verse 7.
7 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent. 8 And Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and
how the Lord had delivered them. 9 Then Jethro rejoiced for all the
good which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 And Jethro said, “Blessed
be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the
Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
(Exodus 17: 7-12)
Alright, what’s going on here is simply that they meet, and Moses bows and he kisses his father-in-law. The bow is a sign of respect, and the kiss is obviously affection, perhaps even gratitude for looking after and now bringing back his family. So, we’re told right off the bat that they had a good relationship. Relationships are built on things like respect, gratitude, and affection, and these two men certainly seem to have that for each other.
I want you to focus for a second on verse 8. In it tells us that Moses told his father-in-law everything that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the hardship that they had come upon them, and how the Lord had delivered them. If you’ll notice in my text, it's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Did you see that? That’s the personal name of God. So, Moses sits Jethro down and he says, "Let me just tell you all that the LORD has done since I last saw you."
If I had to use a label to describe what's going on in verse 8, the word would be ‘fellowship’. Now, I think that word gets tossed around a lot in our day in a way that isn’t exactly in the scripture. We talk about the fact that after the service, we’re going to have fellowship. A lot of churches even have a part of a building they call the fellowship hall. But what is fellowship? Well, friends it more than just catching up about what is going on in everyone’s lives. All of that is perfectly legitimate, it has its place. I am not condemning it at all, not at all. But it’s not fellowship.
So, what is fellowship? I can’t think of a better verse than that one right there. "And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done." Now, when was the last time you ever had fellowship in the sense you meet with someone or some people and talked about the Lord? Fellowship is meeting together to talk about the Lord. In Act chapter 2 on the Day of Pentecost, it tells us 3,000 people came to the Lord, and verse 42 says, "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." You see as Christian communities we are meant to set aside a time and a place where we teach the Scriptures, and we pray together.
Fellowship should have an element of teaching as part of it? Did you see that? So how do we create fellowship. I just want to point out that that's the way you grow. It's not just the teaching of the Scripture it the teaching combined with the interaction with one another and there's no finer illustration of that than Exodus chapter 18, verse 8. By the way, that means you can’t just listen to something like this on-line and then still never meet with other Christians.
Here is his. First, he rejoices at all the good things the LORD, has done. So, Moses is deliberately saying he rejoiced in the LORD
The second thing he did is it says, “he blessed the Lord”, which is another way of saying they praised the Lord together. They have their “fellowship”, and what's the result of that fellowship is joy and praise. Isn't that interesting? If you were sharing with each other what the Lord had done, it should provoke other people to say, "Wow, look at what the Lord has done, and praise him." Because that's the spiritual impact of fellowship.
Verse 10 and 11 is what has led some to say this is when Jethro gets converted. Well, I'm not sure that's the case. I think he could have been converted before, but it is for certain he is now. And then verse 12 says, "Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron and all the elders sat down together and ate bread with Moses and his father-in-law before God."
Alright, two things here. They sacrificed, that is, they offered an animal sacrifice in thanksgiving to the Lord for what he had done. And then they sat down and ate together, and they invited other people. They invited Aaron and the elders they eat a meal before God. The meal was before the Lord.
The third part of this story is what the chapter is all about. Let’s pick it up at verse 13.
13 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. 14 So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.
(Exodus 18: 13-16)
Moses was their leader, their only leader, and apparently, as will become a little evident later in the passage, people were having conflicts. Do you know why they were having conflicts with each other? Because they were human beings, that’s why, just like you and me. So, in order to resolve these problems, they came to their leader, Moses. Remember the Children of Israel where a large nation now. How many people came out of Egypt? Well, it depends on how you interpret the numbers in the Old Testament, but a very common explanation, as you've heard me say, is 2 million. That’s a conservative estimate by the way. 2 million is a lot of people, and the people are coming to him, morning until evening. He's dealing with one person after another, all day long. So, guess what happened to Moses? He got overworked and overloaded. He was doing more than any one person should be doing. When Moses' father-in-law sees this, he says, why are you doing all this alone? This is why I introduced today’s message by saying you can get overloaded, because that's what's going on in this passage of scripture. Moses is overloaded, overworked, and overwhelmed. A Christian Psychologist who I recently read an article by said this.
"The social sector jobs have drawn concerned people into the roles of trying to help others. In time, many of them end up being what I call, ‘burned out Samaritans’. After a few years of listening to other people's problems and trying to solve them, they get to the place where they can't handle it anymore. This happens to nurses, care assistants, doctors, ministers, social workers, psychiatrists, and policemen. To save themselves emotionally, they must either quit, stop caring, or readjust."
Things can get a little overwhelming at times. If you really listen to people and they're telling you all their problems, and you care, there's something that just can overwhelm you sometimes, and it can be exhausting. I want you to know, I've been there, and I've done that. I have talked to people about difficult situation to the point where I needed the next day to recoup. There's only one solution to that you have got to regroup and recoup. So, rather than battle on, take a break and just going to cool it, ‘chill’, as my kids would say. I'm simply trying to say it is entirely possible to be overwhelmed trying to help people, especially when that caring is pastoral in nature, because we naturally want to be empathetic to people’s problems, and that's what was going on with Moses. And here, on this occasion Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, saw it and said something about it. If, Moses got burned out completely that wouldn’t help anybody. So, Jethro gives some advice, and that's the point of this section.
15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
(Exodus 18: 15-16)
But wait a minute, we haven't been to Sinai yet, so we haven't got to the full revelation of God's law, we're going to get there pretty soon, in a couple chapter , in fact. So, apparently, some of the statutes of God, in relations to dealing with issues between people were given to Moses before Sinai. V18
So, Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good.
(Exodus 18: 17)
Wow, underline that, helping people, doing ministry, but doing too much, to the point of being overwhelmed, God says is not good.
Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. 19 Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So, it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will also go to their place in peace.
(Exodus 18: 18-23)
Alright, what's going on? I'm calling this Jethro's advice.
They had fellowship, out of that fellowship was worship, and then he gained an insight into what was going on and because of that he felt able to offer some advice. So, what's the advice? There are basically three things here. Three things that I feel still apply today when we feel overwhelmed. Number one, take all this to the Lord.
Number one, you should do is pray, take your problems to the Lord, pray.
Number two, teach others to help deal with the problem. Gather people together, and teach them what God says, and they can go solve their own problems among themselves.
Number three, appoint judges, and he comes up with an elaborate organization of judges, in that some people only oversee ten, right up to those responsible for 1000 souls, and then let those judges judge minor matters, and you only ever going to be responsible for the major things.
Jethro says that's what you should do, and then you are going to be able to endure the burdens of the people and remain able to help everyone. You're not going to be overworked, overwhelmed, and collapse under the pressure. Then you are going to be able to live in peace. This leads me to say that the problem was they were in conflict with each other, and they were bringing their disputes to Moses, and Moses had to tell them how to solve it. In essence, Jethro was saying you need to delegate some of the responsibility to other people. So, one possible solution to being overloaded in the work of the ministry is to delegate responsibility to qualified people. Notice verse 21, 'You shall select from all the people, ‘able men.' I'm using the word qualified, today. Qualified, so what then qualifies some to be qualified, what do you have to be in order to qualify as able?
Firstly, you fear God, Now in the Old Testament, fearing God doesn’t mean trembling at God's presence, it means standing in awe of God.
I think it includes trusting the Lord and having a heathy respect of what might happen if you step out of line, knowing you will pay the consequences. But it is mainly about trusting and respecting the LORD.
First of all, these judges must have a relationship with the Word. They have to be men of truth, but they've got to understand God's truth. They have to be men of integrity. Then he says, they should also hate covetousness. So, you can't put selfish people about doing this. They have to be people who know the Lord, who know the truth, and aren't out to serve themselves. Implied here that their motivation should genuinely be to help other people and they are not doing it for selfish reasons. They're in this to help others. Bottom line here, when you're overloaded, that's one solution. It's not the only one, but it's the one this passage tells us to do. It is no kindness to others or service to God to do more than your share in the sacred duties of church life.' Translated, get other people involved and let them help also.
24 So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26 So they judged the people at all times; the hard[i] cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves. 27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own land.
(Exodus 18: 24-27)
The bottom line is, Moses' implemented all three of Jethro's suggestions. He prayed; he taught the people, and he appointed judges, able men, and his father-in-law went back home.
Let me close by making a couple of observations.
Firstly, if you're overloaded and you're the leader, like Moses, then what do you do? Make sure you get qualified people to help you.
The second thing I would say is, if you're not a Moses and your part of the general people, then you ought to be delegated too, or to put it another way. It is your duty to find out where you fit, among the church community. Find your place and do it so that the work is spread around.
Now, I'm going to tell you what's at the top of that list. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10, 'Encourage one another daily.' If you can't think of anything else you can do, go encourage someone. Go to lunch, meet for coffee, get to know somebody, and encourage them. Find someone who is struggling with something you have gone through and offer to try and support them. The great thing about doing that, is to do that, to serve in that way, you don’t need any equipment. The only equipment you need is two ears. Most people just want somebody to talk to, so go listen.
The other thing they want, they want to be understood, you would be amazed how much understanding where people are coming from ministers to them. Let them tell you their tale of woe, just sit there and listen till they take a breath and I go, 'I understand.' Now that doesn’t mean to people that you say, I understand what you are going through, because most of the times you will not be standing in their shoes at that moment. But it does mean you can say, but I do understand what it means to feel overwhelmed. So let me help you with that.' You'll be amazed how that encourages people. I think everybody ought to be able to encourage someone else. So, let's take a look around and ask yourself the question, who should I be encouraging? Here's a little list.
Find out who's discouraged and encourage them.
Find out who's afraid and encourage them.
Find out who's sick and encourage them.
Find out who's confused and encourage them.
Find out who's worried and encourage them.
Find out who's lonely and encourage them.
Find out who's struggling and encourage them.
Find out who's doubting and encourage them.
Find out who's defeated and encourage them.
That's a pretty good start.
You can do that, and you know what you are already qualified.
Here’s the third thing, the final thing.
When you are the one who is being overwhelmed, when you are the one who is being encouraged, then follow the advice. The result will be the same for you as it was for Moses, he didn't burn out, and the people lived in peace. And I can't think of a better ending than that.