Exodus 17:8-13 - The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and
Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the
Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were
winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired,
they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his
hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady
till sunset. So Joshua overcame the
Amalekite army with the sword.
Self-reliance is NOT a biblical
virtue. That might need repeating
because it is hard for us rugged individualists to hear. Self-reliance is not a biblical virtue. The stories of our biblical heroes we are
journeying through show over and over that the heroes and she-roes of our faith
did not do what they did by their own power and skill. They relied first and foremost upon God’s
strength, but they also relied on other people.
This story of the Israelites battle with the Amalekites illustrates
both,
Moses instructs Joshua, his
military commander, to go and fight the enemy. Moses’s role would be to simply
hold up God’s staff. This is a crazy
strategy if you think about it. Imagine
a modern day battlefield where the only thing the General does is hold up an
iPad. Holding up something brings no
advantage UNLESS that act of holding something up is an act of complete
surrender and dependence on God. God had
given the staff to Moses to signify that God’s power was with the
Israelites. Moses held the staff up to
remind himself and all who fought that God was with them.
But even this act of faith is not
sustainable alone. If you doubt this,
try holding just your arms straight out from your side for one minute. Go ahead; I’ll wait. I’m guessing it wasn’t really hard, but
imagine doing that all day long. It’s
humanly impossible on our own. So invariably,
when Moses held up his staff, his arms eventually failed him. He couldn’t
sustain even this simple act of faith.
So others stepped in and held up his arms. All of a sudden, an impossible task becomes
easy. The battle is won because God’s
power is invoked not just by the leader, but by the entire community. That is God’s desire – that we trust him
together. We invoke his presence and
power together. It brings Jesus
statement into greater focus; when two or three are gathered together in My
name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Our faith is not an individual
faith. We do our faithing together or we
fail. This is a harder proposition right
now, so we have to work a little harder at it.
But there are ways to “hold each up” no matter the circumstances. I know because many of you have been doing it
for me. You send me encouraging emails
or cards in the mail. You are
encouraging and kind in social media posts on our worship services. Some of you
have even called me. I want you to know that really helps me. Do these things
for each other as well. We’re all having
trouble “holding up our staffs” right now.
Let’s find ways to do it together.
Prayer: Hold us
together Lord. Show us the ways we can rely on your power together in these
challenging times.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for churches that are on the verge of closing right now because all that’s
happening and thank God that our church is NOT one of them.
Song: United We Stand
- Brotherhood of Man
No comments:
Post a Comment