“But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”
-Exodus 17:12
You may or may not know the context behind this passage is the people of Israel are in the middle of battle, and as long as Moses’ hands are lifted to God in prayer on this mountain, then the people of God are experiencing success in battle. But then when his hands come down, the people of God are struggling in battle, so Aaron and Hur, alongside Moses, make it possible for those hands to stay up, they make it possible for him to sit, and then this picture, Aaron on one side, Hur on the other, and they keep his hands steady and up, so that the people of God experienced victory.
None of us are called to live the Christian life in isolation.
This Verse Focuses on The Need for Community
In this picture of Exodus 17:12, there’s so many great things about this picture, but I want to encourage us to think specifically in our lives about the fact that we need help from others. So ultimately, yes, we need help from God, and yet, God ordains that we lean on others in order to help us in our relationship with God. And in the battles, so to speak, that we face in this world, none of us is called to live the Christian life in isolation.
We need people around us. People of God, people in whom the Spirit dwells, who are spurring us on in the battle, who are helping us in the battle, who are holding our arms up in the everyday battles we face with sin and temptation around us. Christian community, specifically in the church, as we see in the New Testament, is nonnegotiable, essential for every single one of us.
So let that inform your praying today in multiple ways. So we pray, God. We pray for other followers of Christ around us, that you would use them to spur us on toward you. That you would use other believers around us to help us grow in faith in you. God, we need your church. We need this community of faith that you have uniquely designed according to your word for our growth in Christ. So help us not to live isolated from the church. Help us to be plugged into, committed to, as a part of, a member of a local church where we are receiving the kind of help and assistance we all need. I need it, we all need it in our relationship with you.
Exodus 17:12 Calls for Strong Leaders in the Church
Then, God, we pray that you would help us to be Aaron and Hur for Moseses around us. Not just leaders, yes, for leaders in the church, but just for people around us. God, give us sensitivity to people around us right now in our families. In our churches, followers of Christ around us who need us to be praying specifically for them. Who need us to be helping them in this way or that way, holding their arms up.
God, give us your eyes for those who are hurting around us. For those who are struggling around us in particular with various temptation and sin. Father, help us to hold them up, help us to help them. God, as you help them, use our lives as an instrument of your help for them, that your victory might be experienced by them and us in the battlefield of life in a sinful world.
God, make us this kind of community in our churches. Help us to be these kinds of servants for others around us today, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
