Choose Wise Leaders

Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We are at numbers or Deuteronomy numbers Deuteronomy chapter 1 verses 9 through 18 So we are going to look at the leaders of Israel. You ready to have some coffee and pray Okay, I'll have your tea. You can have my coffee Yeah, right All right, you want to pray you want me to OK, Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for this time that we get to spend in your word. We pray that you would please help us to understand it. What a privilege it is to have your word in a language we can understand. Lord, we pray that you would please teach us.
We need your Holy Spirit to apply these truths to our lives in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Deuteronomy, chapter one, beginning at verse nine. Do you want to read the first part or the second part? There's kind of two paragraphs here. Which one do you want to read? Okay, go ahead. How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?
Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. And you answered me and said, the thing which you have told us to do is good. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes. Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Ye are the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, or the stranger who is with him.
Ye shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid in any man's presence, for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me and I will hear it. And I command you at that time all the things which you should do. Let's go ahead and move that microphone a little closer to you, right?
Because I think you want to hear from Deborah. Something like that. OK. So, what is this? We got our three questions. What are our three questions? ABCs. What is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, what are we called to do? Good. So, what do you think this is about, Debra? If you had to summarize verse nine through 18 in one sentence. Okay, so it's about the leaders of the people, okay? And so who's leading the people right now?
Moses. Remember what his father-in-law Jethro told him? Yeah, he can't do this alone, it's too much for him to bear, right? They're wearing him out, they're coming to him day and night, day and night, day and night. Hey Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses. They make huge lines at the tent and they won't just leave him alone. And what does his father-in-law Jethro say? You need some help. Yeah, you need some help, right?
And so who gets to choose the leaders? Did you notice that? Who chose the leaders? That's right. Verse 13, choose wise, understanding and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. Right. So the people got to choose their own judges, their own leaders, their own elders. Right. Is that a pretty important part of even the church today? Yeah. I think people should be, have a right to choose their own elders. Right. Uh, and then, Notice Moses, right? He's getting worn out by them, but does he get annoyed by them or, and like, just want them to bug off and go away? Or what's his attitude towards them? He's like, well, after you, well, you judges, if you need my help, just come to me.
But if you don't, I'm going to be in my tent sleeping. Well, I don't think that's exactly notice notice in verse 10 Right the Lord your God has multiplied you in here. You are today as the stars of heaven in multitude And then what's he saying verse 11?
Mm-hmm. What's his attitude about them? Bless you as he has promised Does he want them to go away so he doesn't have problems? Nope. He wants them to multiply. Yeah, right? He says God's already made his promise good to Abraham. Remember what he did to Abraham? He told him to go outside of his tent and look where?
Multiply. Look at the stars and what did he challenge him to do? Count them. Count them if he could. And then what did God promise? Would be more numerous than all the stars in the sky it's a pretty big promise for a 90 year old dude and now Are his sons more numerous than all the stars in the sky?
Yeah, that's right. That's right Yeah, right he's a tired old man at this point he's almost 120 years old at this point did you know that I Yeah, Moses is an old dude at this point. But when they do give judgment, this is the last part we'll talk about with a summary about what this is about. What are they not to do with their judgment? We should give the rich guy all of the...
You're fine. Good. Mr. Peasant, he didn't steal your stuff. Yeah, right. What would that be called? Partiality? Good. Partiality, right? Are they just to show partiality to the rich? Are they to show partiality to the poor? No, right? Because whose is the judgment? God's. God's is, right? And does God judge according to persons? Yeah. Uh-uh. No. Uh-uh. God judges according to what's right, not according to persons, right? Okay. Well, what do you think is the B best verse to summarize this?
13. 13. Why do you think 13? Because it's like choose wise on understanding and knowledgeable men from your tribes and I will make them heads up. And it's about choosing the tribe leaders. Good. Yeah. I like that too. Okay. So now let's, let's, let's end this up. Let's wrap it up quickly with C calling.
What are we called to do? We're called to judge fairly. Okay. judge fairly, judge righteously. What about when there's an election for like elders? You don't just be like, this guy's rich and he might give a lot of stuff to the church so he should vote for him. Yeah, no, right? Should we be choosing with wisdom and understanding and trying to find knowledgeable men from among the people who will judge righteously, who will lead us? Yeah, absolutely. Right.
And so we're looking for those types of leaders when we're choosing. So what do you think, when the election comes around, should that be what Daddy preaches on? When we're choosing a president? Maybe in a very general sense, right? But we should pray that God would give us godly leaders. Did God give them a godly leader in Moses? Should we thank the Lord when he gives us godly leaders? Yeah, and I think another thing we should remember is Moses remembers that God had made this promise to Abraham that they would be as the stars of the heaven and the multitude. And he says, God's done it. Dude, God is good, boys.
He's done it. Look at you. I hope you keep on growing. I hope the nation gets bigger and bigger and better and better. Just like the universe. Hmm. Just like the universe. OK, so should we take comfort that God keeps his promises? Yeah. Should we thank him that he gives us when he gives us good leaders? OK. You ready to pray? OK. You're going to pray for us or am I going to pray for us? What do you think? Oh, you're going to pray.
God, thank you so much that you are our promise keeping God. Lord, we pray that you would make us promise keeping people. And Lord, we pray that you would please give us good leaders in the churches, in our communities, and in our nation. Lord, we pray that you would please let us have wisdom and understanding. Let us follow in the ways you have set down for us. And Father, we pray that we most of all would follow after you and in your ways. Lord, please let the meditation of our heart and the delight of our minds be your word and in taking comfort in who you are. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. OK, well, may God bless you. May you take comfort knowing the God that God always keeps his promises. And we'll see you next time. Bye bye.