Rule by the wise
Deuteronomy Chapter 1 Click here to read
Remember the burning bush where this whole story started? Remember the water from a rock when we first met the pattern where the people grumble, God gets angry, Moses pleads on their behalf, and God relents and gives them what they grumbled about needing?
Both of those events—the one that led Moses to demand the people’s freedom and the one that began their 40 years of wandering, took place at Horeb.
So that’s where Moses begins his story in Deuteronomy, a book that is essentially his farewell address to the people.
The book is mostly presented as a reflective historical speech, so adjust your reading accordingly. Moses believed it was important that the people remember where they had come from and what they had gone through so they could remember who, and whose, they were.
It’s also important for us.
In verses 13-18 we are reminded of the appointment of the judges who helped Moses settle disputes among the people. We first came across this in Exodus, Chapter 18. Once Moses dies, the judges become the effective rulers of Israel. There are two critical points to remember about the judges:

1. Their rule was decentralized and without any significant enforcement apparatus. This wasn’t a court system as much as it was a network of trusted neighbors who could resolve conflicts.
2. Their authority was as much personal as it was positional. In other words, the judges were people who were considered leaders; they weren’t considered leaders because they held the position of judge.

This is a challenging way to look at leadership for people like us who are used to extensive rules and governing structures—but it is the system of leadership that God first commanded for his chosen people, which suggests it has a lot going for it.
As you read the meditations from Proverbs, notice how many are in the form of a saying that boils down to “Wisdom does this, but foolishness does that.” These short, pithy sayings can teach us a lot.