Exodus 18:17-22 And Moses' father in law said to him, The thing that you do is not good.… I. IT CAUSES AN UNDUE STRAIN UPON THE SOLITARY INDIVIDUAL. Wicked men sometimes kill themselves by excess of pleasure. Good men should not kill themselves by excess of work even in the service of God. Many great lives are lost to the Church through excessive toils. The Divine Judge can never grow weary in His administration of the universe. II. IT INTERFERES WITH THE EXECUTION OF THE HIGHER PART OF THE JUDICIAL OFFICE. How often are ministers engaged with the technical and local when they might be engaged in the spiritual and universal. Justice needs more than administrative power; it needs spiritual discernment and those qualities of moral character which are the outcome of moral nearness to God; hence it requires men to be for the people God ward. Jesus Christ is now for the people God-ward, the one Mediator between God and man. III. IT LEAVES UNUTILIZED A VAST NUMBER OF ABLE MEN QUITE EQUAL TO THE ORDINARY REQUIREMENTS OF JUSTICE. Ministers should not do all the work of the Church; they should call out latent talent for it. Society has many unrecognized judges. IV. THAT THIS FOLLY IS EVIDENT TO WISE OLD MEN WHO SEE SOLITARY JUDGESHIPS IN OPERATION. Others can form a more correct estimate of our work than we can. We are too near it to take the perspective of it. We are too much interested in it to form unprejudiced judgments concerning it. Let us be open to the voice of wise old men who often speak to young men as in the fear of God. Lessons: — 1. That positions of trust should not be monopolized by the few. 2. That the common crowds of men have unsuspected abilities. 3. That good men should not be prodigal of their physical and mental energy to the shortening of their lives. (J. S. Exell, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.WEB: Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good. |
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