18:21
So Moses would give the people overall guidance, he was then to appoint “able men who fear God”. No one is meant to lead alone. It can seem easier to do everything yourself, for when you give the job to someone else you are losing control, or so it seems. But we have to do this. There has to be trust in people, and faith in God. Ultimately our confidence has to be not in our being in total control, but in God being in total control. The men chosen were to be of good Godly character.
18:22,23
The “chiefs” were to be entrusted to do the judging for the majority of cases, only the really difficult or major cases were to be brought before Moses. Following this system Moses would be in a far better position to judge the difficult cases. If he was dealing with all the cases he would not be able to devote proper attention to the difficult cases. Jethro tells him that if he does this, God would direct him and he would be able to endure. If he didn't then Moses would wear himself out. Moses doing everything was of no benefit to himself, nor to the people, and he could not expect to receive God’s approval in this.
18:24
Moses took on board the advice of his father-in-law. Moses chose able and godly men to be “chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens”. So people of all levels of leadership ability could be involved. Moses handled the big cases, the rest were handled by the leaders. Jethro was then allowed to depart back to his own country.
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