Never Alone

“But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.” Exodus 17:12

            Life has often been compared to the sea, and rightly so.  The ever changing and challenging environment of life drowns us in the metaphor that is the sea.  We sail along, sometimes with sunny skies and calm winds; other times, dark clouds and relentless storms.  The good news is that we are not alone.  We are never alone.  We have a Captain who doesn’t just know the waters, but controls them; and we are sailing with a crew that is our family.  A family of God. In this, we have victory.    

Joshua was commanded to go and fight while Moses went up to the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand.  Not long after, Moses was put in a situation where the job was too great for him to accomplish alone.  The rod of God lifted up determined the success of Joshua in the battle below.  The responsibility of this was not lost on Moses, no doubt he labored to keep the rod of God high and lifted up, but his hands were heavy.  This is applicable to our lives.  The responsibility of service to Christ and our effect on our fellow man is not lost on the people of God.  We are, or at least we should be, well aware that what we do and what we say affects those around us, and our testimony for Christ.  We are not here to lift up ourselves but God.  Though this is within our scope of understanding, we still are human.  We get tired, weak, discouraged; being sanctified does not make you invincible.  We still have this experience within the human experience and life can take its toll.  One of the hardest things for people to do sometimes is ask for help.  Therefore, when they do, what follows should be the easiest thing for them.  The Lord gave us so many wonderful tools at our disposal to help us get to heaven.  We have the Spirit, the Word, and we have each other.  The scripture tells us that Aaron and Hur stayed up Moses’s hands.  They understood the cause, and they saw that Moses was fainting under the burden.  They saw a brother in need and they helped him.  There was not a long meeting about it, or an hour-long Q&A session.  It was simple service.  We live in an information age, so often someone is in need and we want to go into investigation mode about it.  What happened?  Why did it happen?  Who was involved? Was it there fault?  Some of this is necessary and some of it natural.  That said, being “in the know” is not being a part of the solution.  Job’s friends fell into this trap.  They were very concerned about understanding and commenting on the situation.  They went to great lengths to debate, discuss, and of course, give their opinion; rather than actually doing anything to help Job.  At the end of the day, the goal is victory.  Joshua could only win if the rod of God was lifted up.  Moses could only hold his hands up for so long, so Aaron and Hur came to his aid.  No one was in it for himself; they were in it so God’s people would get the victory.  When we call, text, email…when we reach out to someone in need, we must ask ourselves: is it for them or us?  Are we doing it so we can help, or just be the first to post on Facebook?  Those who are concerned about victory are a help, those who are not are a hindrance.  Assessment and gossip are two very different things, which all too often, failed to be divorced from one another.  Think back in your own life, when you traveled through a great storm, who was there for you?  Why were they there for you?  What did they do to help you?   

God placed us in the body, not only for his glory, but also as a help to one another.  He placed us in the body with Jesus Christ as the head of the body and the body in subjection to his direction.  There is no substitute for sacrifice, service, and genuine Godly love.  We have the victory over sin, death, hell and the grave; but the devil would blind us with the trials and tribulations of life.  Satan would make us to believe that we are without victory and without hope.  We can be miserable counselors who spend our day’s mining for answers, projecting our own insecurities, and further strengthening the fabric of Satan’s facade.  On the other hand, we can rally to the cause of Christ and pull together to lift up the rod of God, sometimes by simply lifting up our brothers and sisters.  We are not in this alone; let us stand with one another, lift up the rod of God and proclaim victory for Captain.