“At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes.” Deuteronomy 1:9-15

This passage of Scripture deals with authority, and how one earthly man cannot single-handedly rule over a nation alone; as the numbers increase, so does the burden of listening to all their arguments and complaints, and the task of responding to everyone in a proper manner. While this passage talks about dividing up one’s authority, and giving others responsibility as well, I’d like to take it at a slightly different angle and look at what happens when God begins to bring multiplication into our lives in other areas.

Multiplication can be a good thing – especially if God is the one causing things within our lives to multiply. Who hasn’t wanted an increase in their finances, an increase in their understanding of God’s Word, or an increase in their God-given talents? I know I have asked many times for God to increase me in certain areas. However, with the increase comes an increase in responsibility as well. What do we do with all that God has given us? We have a responsibility to use our increase wisely.

We see in this passage of Deuteronomy, that when Moses was faced with an increase, He didn’t curse God or the people because it became too much to bear. He recognized the increase as a promise God had made to the people – “May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you!” (Emphasis added). Sometimes we pray and ask God for the increase, but begin complaining about it as soon as we begin receiving it! “What am I going to do with all this? This is too much for me.” What is the solution then, instead of manifesting an ungrateful attitude?

Moses received a solution from his father-in-law, Jethro –

“What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice; I will give you advice and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statues and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide for themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” Exodus 18:17-23

As God brings the increase, and it begins to be more than we need, or more than we can handle, it’s important that we begin to divvy it up and share it with others. This includes: responsibility, authority finances, physical goods, talents, etc. We don’t complain because we don’t know what to do with our excess; we thank God and we share it with those around us. The principle of seed time and harvest is used here. As God multiplies the seed in our hand (our talents, our finances, etc.), and we plant the seed (or sow it into the lives of others), our harvest will continue to increase. Pretty soon, we will not have even finished harvesting before we’re planting again (Amos 9:13). Not only does it bless us, and relieve our burdens, but it also blesses others. What if Beethoven had never released and shared his excess of God-given talent with the world, and had kept it all to himself?

God will multiply things to us so greatly that it’s way too much for one person to bear. If we hold onto everything God gives us, or hoard it, it can actually become a burden to try and manage it all.

Let’s use vehicles as an example.

If God were to multiply the vehicles in our life, and we ended up with 100 BMW’s, what would we do with them all? We would have to find a place to store them all, tend to them all so that the batteries all stayed charged and the gas didn’t go bad. We’d have to put plates and tags on them all, put insurance on them all, and find a high enough paying job to pay for the upkeep of them all! However, if we began to give them away (sow a car into someone else’s life), it becomes less of a burden on us.

Let’s think about Beethoven again, and on more of a realistic scale. Imagine Beethoven with all that pent up skill and ability, never sharing it with the world. Imagine him sitting home, all alone, composing symphonies for himself, that no one would ever hear. I would think Beethoven would have become depressed. We are not put on this earth to be a blessing unto ourselves, and to serve ourselves, but to bless and serve others. We are God’s distributors. He puts it in our hands so that we can release it to others.

Many people do not see this form of multiplication in their lives because they choose to hold tightly to what they have; they choose to hold tightly to their place of authority, wanting to be the only one in charge; they choose to hold tightly to that bonus check, instead of helping their neighbor out who just lost their job, because they’d rather install a swimming pool; they choose to hold tightly to every one of their possessions because they “worked hard for all of this, and nobody is going to take away what I worked all these years for.” Little do they know, if they would just release it, God would multiply it back to them in an even greater way. God is a giver.

I’d like to encourage you today, to take inventory of the things you have been holding onto for no real reason – things that have just been piling up and causing you stress, or that have just become a burden to you. Maybe you need to learn how to delegate and allow others to take on some more responsibility. Maybe you need to clean out your closet, or your basement, and give some items to charity. Are there areas of talent you possess that you could pass on to others, and sow into their lives in that way? Whatever the case may be, it’s time to simplify and make life easier on yourself, and on others, and watch what God begins to do for you.