Moses' Choice To Take Advice.

3. Moses' Choice To Take Advice.

"So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said." - Exodus 18:24 In reading all of Exodus 18:1-27, we find that Moses made a choice to choose able men to help him in judging the nation of Israel, based in the advice of his father-in-law. You will recall that Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had witnessed Moses judging all the people by himself which became a tremendous burden. Notice in Exodus 18:14 :

"And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?"

What Moses was doing took up all of his time.  We are told in Exodus 18:18 :

"Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone."

We find that the advice of Moses' father-in-law was to search out people, teach them and allow them to help Moses in the work.  We find this in Exodus 18:21 :

"Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens."

Moses' response is recorded in Exodus 18:24 :

"So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said."

Moses chose able men from all Israel and made them heads over the people.  Notice Moses' reasoning for whom he chose in Exodus 18:25 :

"They were able men."

God chooses us on the basis of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The point is, Moses had a right to make a choice.  Here he took the advice of his father-in-law, which was very good advice.  But again, Moses had the free will in order to make a choice or reject the advice of Jethro.  God uses people to take the Gospel and influence others to put their faith in Christ.  In Romans 10:17 we are told that:

"...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

God uses Christians to help other Christians.  We, as Christians, should listen to other Christians and at least hear what they have to say.  We can benefit from their experience and knowledge and then make our decisions based on the Word of God.  A wise pastor will always listen to the advice of experienced deacons, as many times they have good sound advice.  They can be a tremendous help to a pastor with their experience.  Therefore, each one of us is responsible for the decisions that we make.  God never imposes His will to over-ride our free will to make those decisions.