“What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.”
Exodus 18:17b-18
Read Exodus 18:1-27
One of the virtues western culture espouses is the idea of independence. We can live our life on our own. The novelist Ayn Rand captured this when she said,:
“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” (Atlas Shrugged)
It has the ring of independence and of strength, but at its heart is unliveable as we will all wear out and run out of strength one day.
Moses now faces the arduous task of nation building. The people of Israel have gone from an idea and concept to a reality and entity. Nation building requires planning, money, strength, integrity and justice to name a few things.
In this episode of the Exodus, Moses is meting out justice. Rather than gather a team and empower them, Moses sets out to do it all on his own. He would rather bear the weight of the world than acknowledge that he may actually need help. He would rather rely on his own strength than ask God and the people of God for help.
We are very much like Moses, We may pay lip-service to our dependence on God, yet live life as though we were functionally independent from most everything. This way of living is exhausting. We will fulfill the words Jethro spoke to Moses, “You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out”(Exodus 18:18).
One of the aspects of sin is a desire for complete autonomy and independence. There is only one being in the whole universe who can be said to be completely autonomous and independent, God. If we try to be God we will place a burden too heavy for our souls to carry. Acknowledging our finiteness and our need for help is one of the aspects of repentance. Dependence is not a sign of weakness, rather it is a sign of strength. It is a sign of being empowered.
Paul writes, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”(Gal. 6:2). God calls us to relinquish our indepence and lean on Him. He calls us to lean on one another. We all have different gifts and are in need of our brother and sisters to complement and strengthen us.
Reflect on two things today: 1.What way will you rely on God today as a sign of dependence? 2. What way will you rely on someone else to remind yourself of your humanity and creatureliness?