It’s another beautiful day. Let’s all enjoy God’s goodness as we go along. Here is day Eleven of our devotion series. Thanks for all the reactions and words of encouragement. They are all appreciated.
Day Eleven
Exodus 17:8-13
Aaron and Hur
When we think of being a Servant to the Servants, what comes to mind? Seldom do we think that holding someone’s hand, or arm in today’s study to be very important. We want to be the one who does something that is well known and can’t be done by anyone else. That was not the case with Aaron and Hur in this instance, but what they did had a dramatic affect on the children of Israel. Some ancient scholars said that Hur was the husband of Moses sister Miriam. This would explain his high ranking and closeness to Moses. Aaron was Moses brother and father of the Jewish priests. He was the person that God chose to speak for Moses when he said he could not speak in front of Pharaoh.
On this occasion, the Children of Israel are not many months out of Egypt. They are on their first trip to the promised land. Suddenly Amalek the king comes and prepares to fight with them. Moses tells Joshua to choose an army and to defend themselves while he would go up to the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand. Joshua did just like Moses said to do and Moses along with Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill overlooking the battle field. When the battle began to be fought, Moses stood and held his arm up holding the rod of God. When he did this, the children of Israel prevailed against Amalek. Unfortunately, Moses grew tired and his arms grew heavy. When his arms came down, Amalek and his army began to prevail over the children of Israel. When Aaron and Hur saw this, they got a stone and placed it under Moses so that he could sit down. Then they got on each side of Moses and held up his hands with the rod of God until the end of the day. When the day was over, Joshua and the children of Israel had defeated Amalek and his much greater armies.
This seems like such a small thing, but it shows that Aaron and Hur understood their place. There is no place in scripture where either Aaron or Hur tried to take the rod of God and hold it themselves. They knew that high leader of the children of Israel was the job of Moses and not them. Instead of trying to do the job themselves, they came up with a way to allow Moses to do his job and not to be overcome with exhaustion. One of the things that is not said in the bible, but seems to be common sense to me is that Aaron and Hur weren’t sitting down. They stood up beside Moses and held his arms up until the battle was won. I am sure that both of them got very tired of standing in one place. But they were willing to do it because they knew that was necessary for the children of Israel to win the battle. If you also look in scripture, nothing else is said about their sacrifice. They did not receive a party or some kind of commendation. They just went about doing what was necessary for God’s people to be successful.
Why is it that these days, the majority of people are not willing to do anything that would inconvenience them. And if they did something that would inconvenience them, then they would want a lot of praise and honor. We as Christians should be looking for people who are serving and do whatever we can to help them to serve. We don’t have to be the center of attention. In fact, we should desire to be as far from attention as we can get. God does not need us to let the world know what we are doing for him. If it needs to be known, he or others will do the telling. What about our Pastors or Deacons or Elders in our church. If we see them struggling in their work for the kingdom, do we stand to the side and make snide remarks about if they were doing God’s will they wouldn’t get tired. Or do we try to take the job away from them and do it ourselves, even if in our hearts we are trying to do a good deed. We should all take a lesson from Aaron and Hur. When we see one of God’s servants doing what he or she is called to do, but struggling with exhaustion or financial difficulties or maybe just anxiety, we should make the effort to help them accomplish what God has called them to do. Moses was God’s man above all others of the children of Israel. He was doing exactly what he needed to be doing as he held up the rod of God in the blessing of God’s people in battle. But even Moses, the great man of God, got tired and needed someone to come along side of him and hold his hands up. This didn’t mean that Moses was any less a man of God, it just meant that sometimes God’s servants need other servants to help them finish the job. May we each and every one of us always look for ways to help those who are called to do something different from us and make a way for them to follow through with it. Though there is no scripture reference that Aaron and Hur were praised, I believe that God saw their actions and blessed them accordingly because he blesses those who diligently serve him and serve his servants.
