Daily Thoughts from Exodus: Helping Our Leaders Lead (17:8-16)

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 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, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”  (Exodus 17:8-16)

There will always be those who feel they must destroy the “danger” that is the people of God. This has been the conflict through the ages that Yahweh said would happen, the serpent and his “seed” in conflict against the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). Amalek is and has been guided by evil principles and so much so that God has determined that this is a people who needs to be blotted out. God made all nations and He alone has the right to make such a determination.

If Israel had any question that Moses was God’s appointed leader for them, that should have been erased by this event, where only when Moses’ hands were raised in prayer for Israel did they prevail. But that Moses cannot do this alone should also be evident. Others must play their parts, like Aaron and Hur and Joshua. The same is true of all leaders and those they lead today. We must know whether they are chosen by God and we must aid them in our common task. Who is your God-appointed leader? What is your God-appointed responsibility to “hold up” his or her hands?

See John Maxwell’s “9 Ways to Lead Your Leader“