Article April 26, 1982 Issue

Holding up the hands

RICHARD C. BERGENHEIM

The children of Israel were fighting an important battle against Amalek. As long as Moses held his rod high above his head, they prospered in battle. When he weakened and lowered the rod, the battle went against them. So Aaron and Hur helped hold up Moses' hands. They provided a rock for him to sit on and helped sustain him until the battle was successfully concluded.^{See Ex. 17:8–13 .}

This account has been quite helpful to me, since there have been many times when I haven't reacted the way Aaron and Hur did. Out there on the battlefield I'd have made some caustic and choice comments such as: There goes Moses letting the rod go down again. Whoever put him in charge in the first place? If he doesn't have enough strength to do the job right, why doesn't he get someone else to do it? Don't you think Moses is getting a little old for this line of work?

If men like me had been with Moses, we would have loaded his rod with such a weight of criticism and complaint, it would have plummeted to the ground and been firmly embedded in the earth. So much for the battle—lost because of ambush from within!

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