Exodus 17 and Psalms 24

Quite a few things popped out to me in today’s readings. First, in Exodus 17, the people of Israel are attacked by the Amalekites. Moses tells Joshua to grab some men and go out there and fight them.

Joshua and his warriors are in a brutal battle that has raged for hours. As long as Moses holds his staff up, the Israelites have the upper hand, but when he lowers it, the Amalekites start winning. Moses gets so tired that he can’t hold that staff up. Imagine swords clashing, clanging. It was up-close-and-personal, vicious, hand-to-hand combat for life and death. Moses’s hands are trembling, and he’s exhausted. But Aaron and Hur hurry and find a rock for him to sit on, then each grabs one of his hands and helps him keep the staff up.

Every one of us is in a spiritual battle, and without support, even the strongest leaders, the mightiest warriors can’t win. We have to pray, to physically get involved. We need great, Godly relationships, people who pray and hold each other up. We can’t do that if we aren’t in community, if we are going through the wilderness, battles alone.

Verse 1 in Psalms 24 hit me, on how small I am and how big God is.

‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. ‘
Psalms 24:1 https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PSA.24.1

The world and all its people belong to him. Every person, tree, blade of grass, street, and every neighborhood belongs to God. The world would be a better place if we could remember that. Years ago, I got into martial arts pretty heavily. I was training daily. We had a guy walk into the club that looked like an 80’s rock star, he was painfully thin, with huge 80’s hair. The instructor asked if I’d be willing to spar with him, and I was like, sure, I had 50 pounds on him and thought, this is going to be easy. Well, he beat me like corn bread batter. On the ground, standing up, I couldn’t hang. You would think after that, I would know not to judge a book by its cover.

We need to remember that the world and all its people belong to God. We look at people and size them up, but God says — they are mine. He desires a relationship with everybody. He created them. We need to look at people from his perspective. We are called to love those who persecute us. Christ died for the world, not just our little corner of it, and the people who are on the same team as us.

Heavenly Father, praise your holy name, you are the King of Glory. Thank you for your son, Jesus, who died for the world, so that we could be saved. The world and everything, and everyone in it, belongs to you. Lord, help us support each other and remember our battle isn’t against flesh and blood. Help us to see people as you see them, to be patient, quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, and quick to love. In Jesus name, Amen.