This is My Goal

“And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses' hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.” Exodus 17:11-12

In this story in Exodus, God’s people are walking in the wilderness when they are attacked by the Amalekites. And Moses sent Joshua to fight against them as Moses goes on top of the hill. And that is where these verses pick up. As long as his hands were lifted up, Joshua and the people would be winning, but as soon as his arms got tired and they dropped, then the Israelites would begin to lose.

Now let us not skip over the gravity of what is going on here. This is an actual war with real weapons and real people dying. This wasn’t some kind of fencing match where you get tapped with a capped sword. So when Moses arms got tired and fell actual people died. Fathers, sons, brothers and friends lost limbs, lost their lives.

 And here Aaron and Hur are on top of a mountain watching all of this take place. They are watching Moses’ strength fail and they are seeing his arms shake and start to drop. So what do they do? Do they get down on their knees and start to pray that the Lord would give Moses strength to keep his arms up? Do they abandon Moses because he obviously didn’t have the strength to lead them properly? No, they supported him. They got off their bums and made themselves uncomfortable. They lifted a heavy rock and brought it over so Moses could sit. And they stood there and held up the hands of Moses. And guess what? Their people stopped being destroyed and they saw their people have victory.

I am an intern and have been called to be a missionary for this time. And I have to ask myself. Am I causing destruction to the people of God or am I helping them have victory? It is much easier for me to sit aside and watch as other people do the work. It is easy for me to say that I am not in charge so I don’t have to do it. I don’t have to pick up the trash in the church. I don’t have to greet that person because that is someone else’s job. In fact, instead of listening and taking the burden off of others I would prefer to constantly talk about my “problems”.

 In Matthew 11:28-30  Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

If Jesus left His throne in Heaven to die on a cross to relieve people of their burdens, who am I to put those burdens back? If the God who created the stars in the sky came down and had thorns shoved in His head and a spear shoved in His side, can I not get up an hour earlier to water the plants so someone else doesn’t have to do it? Can I not give up my Facebook time to help a lady bring groceries in? The Lord of Heaven and Earth gave up everything so that, through Him, there would be life. Can I not serve the people that He died for?

Die to self and lift the burden off of other people. That is my goal.