Lift Up The Hands Which Hang Down - Joel Schrock

Also want to greet you all in the name of

Jesus and welcome everyone here. It's good to see you all.

Also want to add my thanks to everyone involved yesterday.

It's Gerald mentioned. It's a lot of effort from the

students to the teachers, to the school board. Somehow lots

of good food made it out into the gym, So

thank you All's a good day this morning. I'd like

to look at I'll give you. I'll give you the

title of the message right away, and it may not

be obvious till part way through. I think it will

become the title of the messages. Lift up the hands

which hang down. And I'd like to look at a

story in the book of Exodus, so Exodus seventeen. You

can turn in there if you want to. But before

we get to that, I'd like to give a bit

of an overview of what had been going on with

Moses and the children of Israel in the last little bit. Here.

All familiar stories. Sometimes we can, you know, separate them

too far, put them too close together. But just a

little overview here God had after four hundred some years

of slavery in Egypt. God had miraculously delivered the children

of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand. I

believe it says a high hand following ten plagues. And

these ten plagues showed in no uncertain terms Jehovah's eminence

over Egypt and Egypt's pharaoh and Egypt's gods. In fact,

that's an interesting it's interesting just to look at those

who not going to but what the different plagues represented

as far as as gods and idols in Egypt, and

how God showed that he is Jehovah and He's almighty.

So they Alrea delivered and miraculously. Children of Israel witnessed

a lot of amazing things up until this point in

a relatively short period. But it wasn't long until the

children of Israel were trapped between the Red Sea and

Pharaoh's army. And Pharaoh's army was nothing to Uh. We

could we could say nothing to be sneezed at. Right,

this is they were kind of the world power at

the time. Six hundred chariots included the UH. Pharaoh's army

and their chariots were a terrifying thing. These men were trained.

They could they could shoot arrows with pinpoint accuracy off

of galloping behind galloping horses. The children of Israel began

what became a predictable, somewhat predictable cycle we could say,

of complaining and chiding or it is used or quarreling

with their leaders time and time again. And so this situation,

and I've read some of these and some other contexts.

Like I said, it's all familiar. But leading up to

the story, when I look at today, said, because there

were no graves in Egypt, tasks, I've taken us away

to die in the wilderness. And Moses replied that they

should stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,

because the Lord would fight for them. And God provided

again a miraculous deliverance through the Red Sea, dry ground,

walls of water on both sides. It was miraculous. These

people never seen anything like it, and they responded with

songs and celebrations. But only three days journey later, they're

in the wilderness. It's easy to be hard on them,

but this this is tough stuff. There's no water, or

at least the water they did have they found was bitter,

bitter water. Couldn't drink it. And so they murmured again,

and this time Moses cries out to God, and God

provided another deliverance. We could say, throw that tree and

the water, it'll become sweet. And he did that, and

they headed out again. They came to Elim, where there

were twelve wells and seventy palm trees, kind of an

oasis experience for them, lots of water, lots of shade.

But they couldn't stay there. They were headed somewhere that

had a mission in mind, and that took them into

the wilderness again. And in chapter sixteen we see that

the whole congregation it's a lot of people. Really, conservative

estimates had put it at two million. It was likely

more than that people. But whatever the whole congregation was,

it was a lot. It was a lot of people.

And they murmured against Moses and Aaron again we see,

and they said, would to God, we had died by

the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,

when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we

did eat the bread to the full. For ye, do

you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill

this whole assembly with hunger? What business do you have

delivering us from our slavery? Anyways, because at least there

we had food, and you would think that by now

the children of Israel would have come up with a

different approach, like maybe a little more thoughtful, thankful way

to request things. But seems like they were slow learners.

But God answered this problem by sending manna. For forty years,

manna was available every day, at least if they gathered

it up before the sabbath, they could have on the

sabbath to sent quail to cover the land. And that

brings us to chapter seventeen. Now once again the children

of Israel in the wilderness, in the desert, nothing to drink,

and once again we see they didn't learn very well

how to say please, or didn't learn much about gratitude.

Let's say, in the King James version, it says they

begin to chide with Moses, and Ivy uses the word

quarrel they and they said, wherefore is this that thou

hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us

and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses

cries out to God. And he doesn't cry out and

say what shall I do with my people? Or what

shall I do with your people? He says what he says,

what shall I do with this people? They be almost

ready to stone me. And so God says, Moses, take

your take, take the elders, go ahead and surround yourself

with some respectable people, helpers, get your rod, and go

before the people. And he said. God told Moses, he said,

I will stand in front of the rock, and instructed

Moses that he should strike it. And so Moses does it,

and miraculously, once again water comes forth out of that rock.

That we could say they were delivered again from death,

from thirst, from dying in the wilderness. All of the men, women, children,

and cattle had plenty of water. M Moses called this

place I guess I'm saying this right Massa, which I

guess one one way we could understand that it is testing,

maybe tempting, and maraba, which would be rebellion. And this testing,

this temptations rebellion was the reference multiple times later in

the Bible this particular event. Deuteronomy six, verse sixteen says,

ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as he

tempted him at Massa. So this was something that God remembered.

We don't see God being, we don't see the anger

of God in this passage, but it's something God remembered

as not good. This this what they did in this situation,

the spirit they came in was wrong. And Deuteronomy nine

twenty two and at Tabraa and Massa and at Kibrath

hatebah Ye provoked the Lord to wrath. This tempting of

the Lord made the Lord angry. This is not the

way to approach God. And also the word Marabah is

used again nearly forty years later, when once again the

children of Israel were complaining in the desert, and God

told Moses to speak to their ac and whether through unbelief, frustration,

whatever Moses strikes it, water came forth. But that word

Marabah is used in that situation again. So here, despite

God's miraculous providence time and time again, and this time

in particular, we see the children of Israel in the wilderness.

We see the children of Israel unthankful, testing God, tempting God, rebellion, avery.

It seems like at every turn when you just read

through it, and these were pretty close together, it seems,

and so is it any wonder then that this is

the time when the Amalakites struck Amelek. The Amalakites are

the we could say archetypal enemy of Israel. In the

Old Testament, they stand for certain things. They symbolize certain things.

Opposition to God for one thing. No fear of God.

The flesh evil stand for these things. Up till now,

God had solved their problems. They ran into a they

ran into a brick wall. God miraculously opened it up,

made things happen. God had fought for them. God had

fed them, God had watered them. God had led them

through the sea and out of Egypt. But now the

Israelites faced something new. They needed to go out and

get dirty, and actually, in this situation, needed to fight,

and they needed to trust God in that. Now, who

are the Amalakites? Kind of interesting. Amelek was the grandson

of Esau and his concubine tim Na. So talk about

the generations that that Gerald was. We've got another four

generation thing going on here. He was a second cousin

then to Jacob's grandchildren. Okay, Amelik. So even though Israel

and his descendants, again we have this hundreds of years

in Egypt, there were only uh believe four generations. Well okay,

maybe that's not quite right, but just a few generations

from Jacob to Moses. Very few uh so Jacob son Levi. Okay,

he had a son co hath So co Hath Amelik.

The second cousins m Coth had a son Amram, who

had a son. All right, This means that's quite possible

when the Amalekites struck Israel, there could have been some

at least fourth cousins going on there. Now Moses was older,

he was eighty, so you know, you multiple generations under it,

but not that far removed really. But the Amalekites, as

I said, they were a wicked, bloodthirsty people that stood

for certain things. As we read through the Old Testament,

this action which we don't see precisely why in Exodus seventeen,

but we see it later. This action of the Amalekites

such an abomination to God. He gave special instructions to

the children of Israel and Deuteronomy, and Deuteronomy explains a

little bit more of what happened Deuteronomy twenty five, verses seventeen. Well,

starting in verse seventeen, God says, to remember what Amelek

did into thee by the way when you were come

forth out of Egypt. How he met thee by the way,

And listen to what they did he and smote the

hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee,

when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God.

Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath

given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in

the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee foreign

inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the

remembrance of Amelek from under heaven. Thou shalt not forget it.

That's a hard that's kind of a hard verse to read,

understand what is going on there. It's easier to understand

it in a spiritual sense, as Amelek representing the flesh

in our lives, which will get to some but a

couple of things I'd like to point out here that

are going on. Amelk, as I mentioned, and as we

see in Deuteronomy, and as we see actually over and

over again through the Old Testament, was a cruel people.

They did not meet the children of Israel in the front.

They did not meet the warriors on the battlefield, But

like scavengers, they came along behind, snuck up out of

the rocks in the back when it was hot and

dusty and dry, and everybody was tired. They got the stragglers,

the women, the children, the old people, the feeble, the cripples.

Whoever's in the back is who they attacked, killed them,

took the spoils. That was their strategy. Amelek did not

fear God. God notes that he says, these people did

not fear Me. According to Josephus, a historian, word had

spread through the tribes and people the kingdoms that there's

a people, a large group of people that had miraculously

escaped from the clutches of Egypt, and it's kind of terrifying.

But instead of making peace, instead of seeing, well, who

are these people, who are they worshiping? What's going on here,

they begin to according to the historian, they begin to

go around to all the other people and lobby them

to join together and kill these people, wipe these people

out before they can get any kind of foothold anywhere,

mess up, mess their lives at all. And they were

the first ones to do so. And because of these things,

and because of the repeated attacks like this through the

Old Testament, there's a pretty harsh, harsh judgment that God,

God mentions here. Now we'll see here in a little bit.

They did battle them, they did come away victorious. They survived,

the children of Israel did. But over the years, and

we'll see you see numbers fourteen. The Amalekites joined the

Canaanites against Israel. As we go through this, think of

this in terms of opposition to God. The flesh evil

in our lives if it's not taken care of. Later

they joined the Moabites against Israel, and judges three, judges six.

They joined the Midianites against Israel, the whole story of Gideon. Later,

Saul was instructed after all this repeated trying to wipe

Israel off the face of them, of the earth, that

was their intent. Saul takes them on once the Kingdom

of Israel is established, and is too is to take

them out, and he defeats them in battle. But that's

but that's all. He left some there left kept some

of the best of things. The Amalakites plundered one of

city david cities. They took his wives, and David again

defeated them, but there were some that that escaped. King

haze KaiA later another another instance where it nearly wiped

him out. But as I understand it, some historical h

history would would point to is that years later, after

all the kingdoms of Israel and Judah fel, they're in Persia.

Haman was apparently a descendant of the Amalekites, and he

got the king of Persia to agree to completely wipe

the Jews off the face of the map. Hundreds of

years after the initial encounter, came back time and time

and time again. The Amalakites were a constant threat to

the survival of Israel. These were not defensive wars start with.

It wasn't for land, it wasn't for wealth, but it

seemed like a personal thing. Decade after decades, centuries they

prayed on the week, the vulnerable, the defenseless. They showed

no fear of God, no repentance with all the time

given them. And this I believe we see is symbolic

as I mentioned before, evil opposition, God of our flesh.

We're constantly in battle with the flesh. We're to do

away with it, we're to overcome it. But we like

we like to kind of leave a little bit here

and there and not quite get rid of everything, but

that little bit of the best kept back will come

back to destroy us. I think that's the lesson we

can learn from that. It's not the main point of

the message, but part of the story. So here we

are children of Israel facing their first battle against not

so distant relatives who are bent on destroying them. We're

going to read Exodus seventeen, verses eight to sixteen. Verse

eight of Exodus seventeen. Then came Amelek and fought with

Israel and reft him. And Moses said into Joshua, and

here we don't see what it means when they came

to fight Deuteronomy. See it means they snuck up in

the back and killed off the vulnerable. And Moses said

into Joshua, choose us out, men, and go out fight

with Amelek. Tomorrow. I will stand at the top of

the hill with the Rod of God in my hand.

So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and

fought with Amelek, and Moses erin, and Moses erin and

her went up to the top of the hill. And

it came to pass when Moses held up his hand

that Israel prevailed, And when he let down his hand,

Amelek prevail. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took

a stone and put it under him. And he sat

thereon and erin and her stayed up his hands, the

one on the one side and the other on the

other side, and his hands were steady until it going

down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amelek and his

people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord

said into Moses, write this for a memorial in a book,

and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I

will utterly put out the remembrance of Amelek from under heaven.

M And Moses built an altar and called the name

of it Jehovah. Nissy, I don't know how you say

that exactly, but uh, what that what that means is

the Lord is my banners. Understand it. In the old,

In the old, those old battles, the the banner was

a big deal. I don't know, you know a lot.

I don't know that the soldiers wore uniforms. It's like,

get into hand to hand combat, in which way are

we heading? And who's who? There's a meeting armies. They

would come under a banner, and it's a big deal.

Who got to hold the banner. You know, you look

back and see, Okay, we're heading this way, and that banner,

the Lord is my banner. That's what he called it

before he said, because the Lord has sworn that the

Lord will have war with Amelek from generation to generation.

So Moses here calls Joshua, and I believe this is

the first time we really read about Joshua. Moses tells him,

choose men and go out and meet Amelek. Now, go

out and face him head on, which is not what

Amelek was doing. What weapons these escapes and how many

weapons these escaped slaves had at this point, we don't know.

But according to sort of you know, just common sense

maybe and some historical some Jewish historical records would indicate

that the warring people of Amelek were much better suited

to this battle than the children of Israel. But we

see the simple obedience of Joshua here just says so

Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with

Amelek so weapons and training. Notwithstanding, Joshua, he had witnessed

the power of God time and time again in their deliverance.

He went out in faith and Moses Aaron and her

went to the top of the hill to deserve what's

going on. And we see here Moses said, I'll take

my rod, well, the rod of God. Actually, it's interesting

to note that in verse five. I believe it is

the Lord said to Moses, go before the people, take

thy rod, and here Moses calls it God's rod. And

so I don't know if this is a you know,

mutual respected as an instrument in the hand of man

the power of God. This rod is likely, very easily

could have been the same rod Moses had in the wilderness.

You know, he leaned on and watched the sheep munch.

God turned into a serpent and back into peace. Would

that Moses held out over the Red Sea, struck the

rock and water came out. But this rod was not magical.

This is Moses is not a magician out doing tricks.

It was a tool, an instrument in the hand of

a godly man, following God's commands. And as Moses sat

at the top of the hill with his hands up,

and I don't know, you know, if he's holding the

rod up over this battle, if he has his hands

up in prayer or both like which is probably most

likely But whatever the case, Moses hands are up and

the children of Israel push the Amalekites back. Notice here

that no instantaneous victory happened. This was not the parting

of the Red Sea. This was not water out of

the rock, no lightning bolt from heaven, no instant victory.

But the work of Joshua and these men down on

the ground prevailed. As Moses hands are up in the air,

I believe an intercession for them. God allowed a battle

to happen with Amelek, as he allows us to battle

our flesh, not an instantaneous boon. Just over right, Moses, here,

I believe interceded. Moses prayed, Moses lifted up his hands

over the battle we see Joshua took the men into battle.

Both are very important, and many men individually out there

on the battlefield, we're doing their part. Now. I don't

know how long you can hold your hands in the air,

especially if you have a rod in it. I didn't

time myself, didn't want to. Well, I just didn't take

the time to time it, I guess. But whatever the case,

I think we'd be surprised how fast our hands would

get tired, our arms would get tired, and it says

its hands they got heavy and probably brought them down

to rest a little bit, you know, I mean, you

have them. I don't know if your hand you don't

fall asleep eventually what would happen? But brings them down

and the Amalekites begin to push Israel back. And not

only Moses noticed this, but so did Aaron and her

And they could have said, come on, Moses, can't you

can do this. You don't let us down. Don't let

us down. Now. They could have said, Moses, we'll pray

for you this. This is a this is a tough

job you have. They could have said, just let me

know if there's anything I can do for you. Moses, Well,

this is I can see, this is something you're going through.

Or they could have looked at each other and said,

you know this, I really think that Eliezer and Jacob

could could really help Moses out here. Let's go find him.

Hang on, just just hang on a bit, Moses. And

I'm not saying that or trying to be little those

responses in life or said there's never a time to

say any of those things. There certainly are, there's certainly

a time to pray for people and to tell them

that you are for example. But I am pointing out

often do is has an advantage over saying I don't

know that. We don't know that Aaron and Herst said anything,

but we do know what they did. They brought a

stone over for Moses to sit on, and then they

stood one on one side, one on the other side,

and held his arms up until it was too dark

to see to fight anymore, and Israel came out victorious. Moses,

I believe, saw his men in need and interceded for them,

held up his hands, did whatever he could do for them.

But Aaron and her quietly, with no fanfare, this came

up beside Moses and lifted up the hands that hung down.

So as we think of this account as story, we

may be able to identify with different other characters at

different times in our life. You know, there were the soldiers,

as mentioned. On one hand, this is a pretty thankless job.

We don't know the names of probably really any of

these warriors. It was hot, it's dusty, it was dangerous.

One misstep and you're gone. But on the other hand,

it was a position full of action, doing moving forward, conquering.

They likely came back to their homes and families as heroes.

There's Joshua, and we read many things about Joshua. It's

almost always in a good context positive. He was a

great leader, both in the battle and out of the battlefield.

He kept the children on the path of godliness after

Moses and Aaron were off the scene, and that was

no small small feet. There's a book of the Bible

named after him, and he was the face of Israel

as they went out on the battlefield to meet their enemy.

There was Moses, who was highly educated. Likely at one

point he was heir to the Egyptian throne. It's a

good chance of that at least. But Moses had fled

to Midian after getting ahead of God in rescuing the

children of Israel. Then, after forty years of watching sheep

in the wilderness, Moses seemed to be in no mood

to be a a very big part of delivering Israel

out of Egypt. He had himself a nice, quiet, nice

little life with a nice little wife and family. It appears,

and he's watching sheep in the wilderness and it's just

not that bad. But God called him and he followed eventually,

and he'd seen a bit a part of a lot

of miraculous workings of God. We read later Exodus thirty

three that God spoke to Moses as a man, face

to face. That's an amazing relationship. Moses was a tremendous leader.

We call him the meekest man. And it was with

the rising and the lowering of his hands that the

battle changed courses of course. And then there was Aaron

who was the older brother of Moses. He was the

mouthpiece of Moses. He was eloquent and I don't know

if he had a big booming voice or what, but

he was the mouthpiece of Moses. He was a spiritual

leader in many ways of the commandments that God gave,

and he was almost all by moses side. And then

there's her. Now who h you are? Not h e

r H? You are her? And who is her? And

what did her do? And was he? Was he a

strong man? Was he a good leader? Could he use

a spear or a sword? Was he good at speaking?

I don't think we know any of that. There's a

lot of speculation about who her is as some people

think he was their brother in law. Maybe he was

married to Miriam. Some people think he was Miriam's son,

Caleb's son, Caleb's dad, all sorts of ideas about who

he was. We don't know a lot about her or

what happened to him, Like he just kind of goes

off the scene, seems like in that story of the calf,

Golden Calf. And again we don't know what her said

or uh even if he said anything, but we do

see that her saw need and acted along with Aaron. Again,

they saw Moses hands in the air, the Israelites advancing,

They saw him get weak and put his hands down,

and the Amalekites advance, saw a need, and they acted

without any recorded words. They got a stone, stood patiently

on each side, held up his hands. As I said before,

now we could ask ourselves in that you know, who's

the most important person in this story? Know? Was it

Moses who led the children of Israel, who interceded continually

for them, who lifted up his hands with the result

of victory. Was it Joshua who led the children of

Israel into battle, strategizing in real time away victorious? Was

it Aaron, who is the mouthpiece for Moses, got the

word out? Maybe, but let us not forget that someone

we know very little about someone by the name of

Her quietly came up beside Moses in his hour of need,

set him down in a rock, and held up his

hand till nightfall. And don't forget that the outcome of

that battle changed once the helpers showed up, when someone

lifted the weary hands that hung down. Now it's easy

to celebrate the lead. It's easy to remember the soldiers

and the acts of valor. But what about the people

that show up and help. There's books, sermons, speeches about leaders,

about ministers, about fathers, about mothers, about all sorts of people.

Let's not forget those who are quietly praying, fasting. You

may never know it, making meals, visiting the sick, visiting

the lonely, sending words of encouragement, could be babysitting many things.

It's not flashy, it's not exciting, but it's really important.

And let's all remember to be that helper, to be

the her when it's our turn. I'd like to read

from two places in scripture that I believe reference this story,

reference this account. One is in Isaiah and Isaiah thirty

three talks about distress and help and deliverance, salvation from

that distress. Thirty four talks about God's judgment and the

vengeance he takes out on those that oppose him in

Isaiah thirty five, so it's sort of in that context.

Still get to Isaiah thirty five. Isaiah thirty five talks

about the joy of the redeemed and the path of holiness.

Going to read Isaiah thirty five, it's ten verses. Starting

in verse one, the wilderness and the solitary place shall

be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as

the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with

joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given

unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall

see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of

our God. Now specially note verses three and four. Here,

strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees.

Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong,

fear not. Behold, Your God will come with vengeance, even

God with a recompense. He will come and save you.

So notice what happens. Strengthen, confirm, encourage, God will save you.

And then verse five says. Then then the eyes of

the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the

death shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap

as in heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.

For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams

in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool,

and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation

of dragons, where each lay shall be grassed with reeds

and rushes. And then highways shall be there and away,

and it shall be called the way of holiness. The

unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be

for those the wayfaring men. No fools shall not err therein,

No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beasts shall

go up there on. It shall not be found there,

But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransom of

the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs

and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall between joy

and gladness, and sorrow and sigh shall flee away. That's

a really beautiful list there. Eyes of the blind will

be open, the deaf ears will be unstopped, leaping water

in the desert way of holiness, and that is I

believe in the context verses three and four, Look what

happens when we strengthen the weak cans, confirm the feeble knees,

and encourage each other. The Lord will will save you.

And then finally, I would like to look at Hebrews twelve, now,

the first eleven verses, and I want to say this

is actually I was reading through Hebrews in just my

personal devotions and these verses jumped out at me and

got me to thinking, this message is certainly not a

rebuke to our congregation. I think we do. I think

this group does very well at this, and I bless

you for that. This is just a moral message of encouragement.

Hebrews twelve, the first eleven verses, we could say, are

an exhortation to follow Christ. And it talks about how

God and the King James that uses the word chastens

us disciplines us. It's like, well, that's not so pleasant,

what's going on there, But we see that God does this.

He likens it to a father. Your father's will discipline

your children, and it's not because you don't love them,

it's because you do. It's because you care about them.

You care about how they'll turn out. You care about

the things, how they what kind of an adult grow

up to be. And it's not pleasant at the time

mentions that, but it's for a long term good and peace.

And that brings us chap to verse twelve. Wherefore, so

Hebrews twelve, starting in verse twelve, wherefore, lift up the

handswich hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight

paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be

turned out of the way, But let it rather be healed.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no

man shall see the Lord looking diligently, lest any man

fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness

springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. So

in times of being in the wilderness, I think we

could all pick out a wilderness in our life. At

some time of chastisement of discipline, discouragement, trials, things we

don't understand, happenings, we should come alongside, lift the hands

that hang down and the feeble knees, make straight or

level paths. And what do we see again? Following that?

We see peace, healing, We see peace, We see holiness,

remember the highway of holiness in Isaiah. And then I

believe we see the opposite in verse fifteen. What is

the opposite of helping? What is the opposite of lifting

up the hands that hang down? What is the opposite

of holiness of healing? Or at least what is a

hindrance to all those things? And I believe in verse

fifteen we see that it's the root of bitterness, which

could be an entire sermon or two in and of itself.

So we're not going to do that, We're not going

to go till midnight today. But that's the opposite, that's

the hindrance to It's the opposite of lifting up the hands,

root of bitternesses So practical level, what does all this mean? Well,

whether we want to admit it or not, likely most

of us, probably at some point in our life, we

want to be the Moses. We want to be the Joshua,

We want to be the mover or the shaker. Maybe

we want to be a good leader. Maybe we want

to be good at teaching, good at speaking, at preaching,

at business, at relationships, at fixing things, any number of things.

But what is the glue that holds us together. What

happens when weariness sets in Josiah talked about tired this morning.

What happens when the strong are weary and tired? What

happens when they run out of answers? What happens when

things happen that we don't understand we cannot make sense, sickness, disease, death,

different things around us. What happens when it looks like

the enemy has the upper hand. What happens when we

find ourselves in the wilderness. What happens when we see

a brother or sister in the wilderness? Are you a her?

Can you be a her? Can you allow God to

help you intercede? Now in the story we read, that

would be Moses, I believe, so take it one step further.

Can you allow God to help you help someone intercede

like her did? Can you quietly come alongside your brother

or sister, if no one will ever know, and, at

least figuratively speaking, pull up a stone, maybe a chair

to rest the feeble knees. Can you stand beside them

and hold up their arms till the day is over?

If necessary. We're all people in this church, believe it

or not. We all have stories, at least one I

suppose have some sort of hurt, something that drags us down,

makes us weary. My encouragement to all of us is

lift up the hands that hang down. And sometimes this

is something we didn't really talk about here. Sometimes it

is we that need to allow our brother or sister

to come beside us and help us. Moses had to

actually sit down on the rock and let people hold

his arms up in the air. That takes some humility.

So in closing here, whether you find yourself in the

place of Moses or in the place of Her, be

faithful in lifting up weary hands. God bless you.