“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.
