There are seasons where the fight goes on longer than you thought it would. You believed you could hold yourself together. You believed you could endure. You believed you had enough strength. Then the hours turn into days and the days into months, and you feel yourself slipping. Your arms get tired. Your resolve weakens. Your heart sinks. Exodus 17 shows us a moment exactly like this. It teaches us that God never intended His people to fight alone. He gives us community not as an optional extra but as a way that His strength reaches us when our own strength runs out.
Exodus 17:8–16 (ESV)
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.
This is the first battle Israel faces after leaving Egypt. They have not trained as soldiers. They do not know how to fight. They have no military experience. Yet Amalek attacks them. The wilderness is not empty. It is full of real dangers. And here Israel learns that God does not merely save them from something. He saves them into a life where trust is needed at every turn.
Moses sends Joshua to lead the battle while he goes to the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hand. The staff is the sign of God’s power. It struck the Nile. It parted the sea. It symbolises the God who fights for His people. And as long as Moses holds up his hand, Israel prevails. But when his hand sinks, Amalek begins to win. The point is not that Moses is doing magic. The point is that Israel wins only as they depend on God. The raised hands are a posture of dependence.
But Moses gets tired. His arms grow heavy. He cannot hold them up forever. And this is where the beauty of this passage shines. Aaron and Hur come beside him. They put a stone under him so he can sit. Then they hold up his hands, one on each side. Together they keep his arms steady until sunset. And because of this, Israel wins the battle.
There is something deeply human here. Even the strongest servants of God grow tired. Even faithful leaders become weary. Even people of great faith reach their limits. God never designed you to hold your arms up forever on your own. He gives brothers and sisters to hold you up when you can no longer hold yourself up.
Some battles in life are not won by individual strength. They are won by community dependence. They are won when others pray for you, when others lift you up, when others carry you through. God uses the hands of your friends to steady your own. And this is not weakness. This is faith lived out in community. God designed His people to hold one another up.
After the victory the Lord tells Moses to write it down. Israel must remember that their triumph came from the Lord. Moses builds an altar and calls it The Lord is my banner. A banner was the rallying point in battle. The standard under which an army marched. Moses is saying that God Himself is the one under whom they fight and through whom they prevail. Their strength does not come from their swords or their numbers or their bravery. It comes from the presence of God in their midst.
This story also foreshadows something greater. One day another man would stand on a hill with His hands outstretched. Not in fatigue but in willing sacrifice. And in that moment the true victory would be won. Not against Amalek but against sin and death. Jesus is the one who holds His arms out so that victory might come to His people. He is the one who fights for us when we cannot fight for ourselves.
So this passage puts a question to your heart. Where are your arms tired. Where have you reached the end of your endurance. Who has God placed beside you to hold you up. And perhaps even more importantly, whose arms are you meant to hold up. The Christian life is not a solo battle. It is a shared one. And God meets His people in their weakness through the hands of those He has placed around them.
Prayer
Father, help us to recognise our need for one another. Strengthen us when our arms grow tired. Surround us with people who will hold us up in faith and help us to hold up others in their weakness. Teach us to depend on you in the battles we face. Remind us that you are our banner and that victory belongs to you alone. Lead us to trust in the one who stretched out His hands for our salvation. In Jesus name, Amen.