effort

To me, the story of Joshua’s fight with the Amalekites (told in Exodus 17) has always been kind of odd. 

Exodus 17:10-13: “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.”

What’s up with the hands in the air? God didn’t really need those hands to win that fight.

It makes me think of Basic Training. The second most common punishment, right after push-ups, was to hold my seven-pound M16 over my head at arm’s length. Sixty seconds of that was a long time.

Maybe God wanted some effort out of Moses. Maybe the lesson is that rather than God just taking care of me, he’ll give me something to do to help myself. 

Maybe God wanted obedience out of Moses. Maybe the lesson is that no matter how odd or unnecessary it looks to me, success will come from doing what God wants me to do.

That seems like a good place to start: Do what God tells me, no matter how it looks, and don’t expect it come without some effort. I’m sure there’s more here than that, but for this morning, that’s enough.