Exodus 24:12–14 – Learning to delegate work to responsible people

We are not told when Moses and the 73 of them came back to the people at the base of Mount Sinai, but they did. Then God summoned Moses to come before Him in the mountain again and to remain there. He even specifically told Moses that He would be giving him two tablets containing the Law and commandment which God had personally written for their instruction. Specifically, He was referring to the Ten Commandments. God could have written everything on only one tablet but instead, He had it written in two. Why? We often think that the Ten Commandments were written in two parts on two stone tablets. We surmise that one part contains the obligation that men had to God and the other, the obligations they had to his neighbours. But this was not the case. In reality, both the stone tablets contain the whole decalogue. This is because in every covenant, what had been agreed would have been written down in two copies. One for each of the parties making the covenant. In this case, God wanted to give both the copies to Moses for the people of Israel. They were obliged to keep their obligations not only to God but also to their neighbours. God need not keep a copy for Himself because the very nature of His faithfulness makes Him incapable to renege on His word. We need to know that the laws came from God and that He Himself had them written on the tablets of stone. They were not Moses’ word. The Ten Commandments are the moral compass to guide men in their walk of life.

This time Moses took Joshua, his aide with him. Joshua was not part of the entourage that went with Moses the previous time. He was relatively unknown at this point. Moses kept him close to mentor him. He was only serving as Moses’ porter. Spiritual leadership is cultivated and developed as one follows a leader in service. Moses was a capable leader, and he knew he had to delegate others to the task in his absence. So, he appointed Aaron and Hur to the task. At least they seemed to be the best people. For in the battle with the Amalekites in Exodus 17, they each supported one arm of Moses while Joshua and the men were engaged in battle with the enemies. This underscore for us that leadership should only be delegated to people who can responsibly discharge their duties. Presumably, Aaron and Hur were the right people or at least that was what Moses thought. So, having delegated the leadership to Aaron and Hur, Moses made his journey with Joshua up to the mountain.

The work of God must be shared and leaders must learn to train others while delegating tasks to them who have the capacity to do the work. To fulfil the task at hand, we need to adopt the principle shown in 2 Timothy 2:2. Paul instructs Timothy his protege saying, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Let’s be faithful to the task God has assigned us. But let’s also find faithful men whom we can delegate some part so that together we can effectively fulfil the task.