Daily Thoughts from Deuteronomy 1:9-13: Leaders (Rashekem)

2. Leaders (Rashekem)

“At that time I told you, ‘You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. Yahweh your God has multiplied your numbers, so that there are as many of you today as there are stars in the sky.  May Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, increase you yet a thousandfold and bless you, as he has promised you!   But you are burdensome, bothersome and quarrelsome! How can I bear it by myself alone?  Pick for yourselves from each of your tribes men who are wise, understanding and knowledgeable; and I will make them heads over you.’

(D’varim 1:9-13)

It was amazing how well he slept.  He thanked his Father for such a gift of sleep that left him feeling refreshed and ready for a new day.  He used the latrine that John had dug some yards away, realizing that as he continued to fast it would be used less and less.  He drank some water and pulled out his scroll and opened to where he had finished in D’varim.

Here was Moshe, fasting for forty days as he listened to Yahweh on the mountain top.  Yahweh said Moshe did not eat bread nor drink water for forty days and forty nights.  Yahweh was miraculously caring for His servant.  And though, unlike Moshe, he was drinking water, he was amazed that he was feeling no hunger.

Moshe had found the burden of shepherding the people overwhelming.  His wife’s father had chastised him for trying to judge all the conflicts between the people and had suggested the very plan Moshe said here that he employed.  Yahweh had shared leadership with Moshe and now Moshe was sharing leadership with the people.  God was willing to take of Moshe’s spirit and divide it among men of character who could be heads over the people, listen to their conflicts and make wise settlements.

He would have to do the same thing.  He would have to share leadership with those who followed him.  As he had learned himself under the tutoring of knowledgeable rabbis, so he would tutor talmudim himself, training them to carry on the work after him.  There was no doubt in his mind that he would not be long for this world.  The Scriptures made it clear that he would be rejected.  Death was his destiny.

He thought of his father and mother.  They were his first rabbis, he their first talmid.  They had heard the prophecies concerning him from Elizabeth, Zechariah, Anna, Simeon and from angels themselves.  It was still hard for them to comprehend what his Father was doing through him, but from an early age they had taught him well.

His father was a good man, and though not highly educated, he was a faithful man who read torah and lived it.  He taught him the Father’s commands, the history of his people, the importance of the covenant Yahweh had with them, and the promises Yahweh had made of His coming kingdom.  And he taught him his trade as a carpenter, and how a godly man conducted himself in work and life.  What he wouldn’t give to work another project with his father.

His mother.  She was the most extraordinary woman he knew.  Widowed now but still the pillar of their family and still strong in her faith.  She had shared with him the secret of his birth, something most people would not believe or accept.  He knew she had showed great courage and faith, as his father had, to face the shame people heaped upon them.

Now he must invest in men and women the way his parents and teachers had invested in him.

“Father, guide me to those men and women whom you would give to me to aid me in this work.”

“I will guide you, my son, and you will show them who I am and you will love them as I love you.”

He spent the next several hours meditating on what Moshe taught and how he would implement it in his own work.  He would imitate Yahweh in His dealings with His leaders.  He would be their example to follow, bless them when they did well, rebuke them when they did poorly, forgive them at all times and push them to grow and learn.

He spent the evening exploring the area around his cave.  He viewed the sun setting behind the escarpment, sending long shadows over the land, and built a fire to warm the evening and purify some water.  It had been a good day.