Editorial May 6, 1944 Issue

The Task of Aaron and Hur

John Randall Dunn

An arresting word picture is drawn in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus. In their flight from the taskmasters of Egypt into the promised land, the children of Israel encounter one difficult problem after another. When their passage through the Red Sea is safely concluded, they are confronted with a shortage of food. No sooner is this mastered, through a miraculous appearance of manna and quails, than we find the Israelites murmuring because there is no water for the host. O doubting and ungrateful people! Do they not typify, through all time, the blindness and ingratitude of those who are bereft of vision and faith? When water finally gushes forth to meet their human need, an enemy named Amalek appears and engages the Israelites in battle.

Moses, his brother Aaron, and a friend named Hur view the conflict from a hilltop. Says the Scripture, "And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." When from sheer weariness Moses seemed unable to continue, we are told that Aaron on one side and Hur on the other "stayed up his hands...until the going down of the sun." And the enemy was put to flight.

Does some skeptical modern raise quizzical eyebrows and ask. "Do you believe that this actually happened?" The Christian Scientist becoming accustomed to what the world calls miracles but what are really divinely natural manifestations of spiritual power, answers in the affirmative; but he sees far more in this experience. The mere act of Moses in lifting his arms heavenward could certainly bring no superhuman power to his followers. This gesture but outwardly pictured a mighty reaching out to omnipotent Mind, and reliance on a strength, force, and guidance apart from matter. Moses' sublime faith and prayer vanquished his enemies.

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