Deuteronomy 1:9–18

Deuteronomy 1:9–18: The Appointment of Leaders

Synopsis

In this passage, Moses recounts the appointing of leaders. (I believe this might be referring to Exodus 18, but I’m not 100% sure; for some reason, I’m thinking there might have been another occasion when Moses appointed leaders in Israel.)

The reason that Moses had to appoint leaders, to help him out, was that Israel had become “too heavy a burden for [Moses] to carry alone” (verse 9), because the LORD had increased their numbers so that they were “as many as the stars in the sky” (verse 10). So it was decided to choose some “wise, understanding and respected men” from each of their tribes (verse 13), to be set over the Israelites.

The people agreed with Moses’ proposal, so men were appointed to be leaders, and charged with judging the Israelites impartially, hearing “both small and great alike” (verse 17).

Thoughts

My thoughts on this are probably the same as countless thousands of others who have read about this: Moses was uniquely chosen by God, for a position of leadership, in a way that few in history ever have been—but that didn’t mean that he was supposed to do it all on his own.

Which, to extrapolate, means that we should never assume that we’re supposed to be doing God’s work on our own, either. Even those of us who are in positions of leadership should be leading with the cooperation and participation of the people we’re leading.