The Bible tells of us people who gave wise guidance.
After the children of Israel left Egypt, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, came and brought Moses’ wife Zipporah and their two sons to him. Moses told him how wonderfully God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt with signs and wonders.
The next day, Moses judged the people and proclaimed God’s counsel to them. All the people stood before him all day long and had to wait a long time, since they came before him one by one. Moses’ father-in-law rebuked him and said, “The thing that you do 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” (Exodus 18:17-18).
And now follows some excellent advice that Jethro gave:
“You shall select from all the people able men…and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 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” (Exodus 18:21-22).
Here we have a special example of how God used Moses’ father-in-law to give counsel of lasting value—advice that proves to be a blessing both in practical, everyday matters and in the spiritual realm.
Dear reader, are you prepared to accept criticism when someone says to you, “What you are doing is not good!”? Does it hurt your feelings? Or do you think about it and accept the criticism gratefully?
In Jesus’ time, we read about two groups. One group gladly accepted His advice, while the other despised Him: “And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him” (Luke 7:29-30).
In Romans 10:21, we find what the Apostle Paul writes: “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
How many people have heard God’s Word and listened to the Savior’s gracious invitation—yet ignored it, rejected it, or even spoken against it. In their disobedience and unbelief, they have perished, eternally lost and separated from God.
Dear reader, is it not both wise and essential to listen to God’s Word and receive it in faith? I, too, can testify from my own life that the Lord truly “is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.”
H.D. Nimz
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