Moses shared with his father-in-law Jethro the story of God’s deliverance of His people from slavery. He told him about the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea that led to their salvation. He told him about the trials and troubles they had faced since the Red Sea, and he told him “how the LORD had delivered them.” Moses witnessed to dear old dad-in-law, telling him ALL that the Lord had done!

Saints, this is how we tell anyone about Jesus. Some believe that though Jethro was a monotheist as the Midianite priest, he did not know the one he worshiped. And that this was the point of his salvation, as he said to Moses after hearing his story, “Now I know that the LORD (Yahweh) is greater than all gods.” Why? Because Moses had been careful to tell his father-in-law all that he had seen God do with his own eyes. He loved Jethro with the truth. He loved Jethro with a testimony of God’s great faithfulness to His people. Moses shared the good news of Israel’s salvation by the signs and wonders and the miracles that God had performed for His people who had been enslaved for more than four centuries. Moses pointed his father-in-law to God and His goodness and mercy to save. 

We have the same testimony! We have all been slaves to sin and we have all, if we are disciples of Christ now, been delivered from sin by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. “We preach Christ crucified,” Paul wrote. And we preach Christ risen from the dead. “He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures.” And when we do that, sometimes God brings life where there is no life. 

I love the story of CT Studd, the famous missionary to Africa and China who left his wealth and his fame as a cricketer to serve the Lord on two continents. But do you know how he came to Christ? His father, Edward Studd, was a wealthy Englishman who was profoundly converted by the preaching of DL Moody. His sons were in school at the time and they knew nothing about what had happened with Dad. Until he shocked them by coming to Eton to see them in the middle of the semester. Instead of taking them to the theater as he normally did when he visited, he took them to hear DL Moody preach. CT Studd wrote later, “Before that time, I used to think that religion was a Sunday thing, like one’s Sunday clothes, to be put away on Monday morning.  We boys were brought up to go to church regularly, but, although we had a kind of religion, it didn’t amount to much…Then all at once I had the good fortune to meet a real live…Christian.  It was my own father.  But it did make one’s hair stand on end.  Everyone in the house had a dog’s life of it until they were converted.  I was not altogether pleased with him.  He used to come into my room at night and ask if I was converted.” 

I love it! There was a father who would do all he could to see that his sons came to know Jesus, knowing full well that it would be Jesus only who saved them. You know what? There are perhaps millions in China and central Africa that are glad CT Studd’s father loved his sons enough to keep sowing and watering seeds until God gave the increase.

A humble, unashamed, and saved dad is a great witness to his family.

You all know this story well. Just a few weeks after God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, they were attacked by the Amalekites, who cowardly targeted the stragglers in the back of the procession. That led to Moses commissioning Joshua to gather men who would fight a battle the next day.  Men died on the battlefield, but God did not inspire Moses to write about the costs, how many men died and how many were injured. He inspired Moses to write about who won the battle, and the how and the why, the strategy that brought victory. Simply put, it was prayer. Moses took his staff and went up on the top of a hill, probably so the men could see him up there and so he could see the men. Aaron and Hur went with him. Every time Moses had lifted up his staff before this, he was directed by God and the staff was a symbol of God’s power. Now his people were being attacked and Moses lifted his staff as the battle raged below him. I believe Moses reaching up to ask the Lord to do what was needed, lifting up holy hands to our mighty Warrior God. It was a physical picture of prayer, whether he was actually saying any words or not. Moses also began to realize that whenever he lifted up his hand to God, Joshua’s army prevailed over the Amalekites. When he dropped his hand, the Amalekites prevailed. We might say, Moses, why do you keep dropping your hands? But seriously…how long could you hold up one or both of your hands in the air? Could you do it all day? Of course not. 

Aaron and Hur saw what was going on so they got a stone for Moses to sit on and then stood on either side of him, helping him hold up his hands. I honestly don’t know how they held up Moses’ hands all day long, but it may be that when they stepped up to help, God gave them strength beyond their ability. But I love this picture. These two men came alongside to strengthen their brother. We see this story played out in the lives of the first believers. Jesus told Peter that he was praying for him that his strength would not fail after Satan sifted him. Then Jesus said, “When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter did just that, didn’t he? He took the hand of the lame beggar and lifted him out of his infirmity. Later, when Peter was in prison and expected to be executed the next day, the church gathered to lift up their hands and their voices for him. God heard their prayers and sent an angel to deliver Peter from prison. The church could not physically deliver Peter from prison but they knew the One who could, so they came together for prayer. It is what we are called to do as well. To hold up the arms that are weary. Paul wrote, “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” 

We know this battle with Amalek is a physical picture of a spiritual reality. We get tired of battling with sin. We get weary of running the race God has called us to run. We get beaten down by the mundane chores of everyday life, taking care of a house and trying to stay healthy and paying the bills and just trying to keep our head above water. And added onto that for many are troubled marriages, kids rejecting the faith, young people longing to be married and not knowing where that person is, older people fearful of the future or a medical diagnosis. And all around we hear people crying, “I need help! I can’t keep going.” Be willing to answer that cry. You may be Aaron or Hur who hold the arms up for someone else.  You may sometimes be a Moses who needs others to hold your arms up. 

I like what JC Ryle said: “The Christian is known by two great marks: his inner warfare and his inner peace.” He is also known for his willingness to serve others who are weary from the battle and no longer able to stand. 

Go ahead. Lift up your hands, and help others do that, too!

When the children of Israel got to Rephidim in the wilderness, there was no water. They complained, just as they had at Marah where the water was undrinkable. God had healed the water there, but their memories were short, as ours often are. So they threatened Moses to the point that he thought they would stone him. He cried out to God and the Lord had him pass before the people with a few elders and take his staff with him. The staff that he struck the Nile with and God turned it to blood. Take your staff, Moses, and I will meet you at the rock at Horeb. Remember Horeb? It is where Moses first met God at the burning bush. It is where God commissioned him to go deliver the people from slavery. It is where Moses will meet with God later and receive the 10 Commandments. 

Moses is back at Horeb and God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock…and you shall strike the rock.” Notice this is the only time Moses was told to strike the rock. Years later, Moses finds himself in the same place again, back at Meribah with the people of Israel, and again there is no water. Again the people grumble and accuse Moses of trying to kill them. God tells Moses to take his staff and a few elders and speak to the rock. “Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water,” God says. Instead, in his anger at the people, Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock. Twice! The water flowed. Because of his disobedience, Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land. Why would this one sin disqualify Moses from going into Canaan? He was allowed to see it before he died but would never step one foot there. Why? I believe the reason is two-fold, first because of Moses’ disobedience, but second because of the significance of the rock.

 Remember, Scripture interprets Scripture! Paul wrote, “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” There has been much written about this, and we cannot say for sure what Paul meant. We know that God was with them in the wilderness. Does this mean that it was the pre-incarnate Christ who was there? We know about the cloud and the fire, but was there a rock that also followed the people in the wilderness? One thing we know for sure. This rock was a type. A shadow in the Old Testament that found its fulfillment in the New. 

God would send His Son to be born of a virgin some 1500 years after Moses. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came to Israel and said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger.”  He said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” All that the people in the wilderness had grumbled about would be provided by Christ, their spiritual food and drink. Jesus also said, “This is my body, broken for you.” And He said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.” The people had wanted to stone Moses in the wilderness, but God did not allow it. But God did send His Son so that they would crucify Him. It was not the Jews or the Romans who put Jesus on the cross. It was God. For your sake and for mine, the Father struck the Rock and gave His Son as a sacrifice for sin.

The Rock of Ages was cleft for you and for me.

Every day except Saturday, the people of God went out in the morning and gathered manna. On Saturday they rested. But every day but Saturday they went out and got their food for the day. Fresh bread. Fresh provision from God. Fresh opportunity to trust that morning by morning when they opened their tent flaps and stepped out, it would be there. Manna from heaven. Which gave them a fresh occasion to praise and thank God! Every day was the same. They started each morning receiving something from the Lord, but they did not receive it passively. They had to go out and pick it up, gather their “omer,” their half gallon of manna. And some people might say, so what’s the big deal? Well, on the physical level, they had to wake up and get out of bed every day. They had to get blanket victory and go out to work! We all have to do that. And there are consequences if we don’t. Paul said, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” The idea is that everyone in the wilderness who was physically able to gather manna would be expected to do that. Every day except one. 

But there is another application we need to make, and Moses helps us with it in his fifth book. He  wrote, “And (God) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” There’s the greater truth of this manna miracle. The Lord was teaching His people through daily provision that we do not live by bread alone. That the sustenance of our soul is not found in bread but in the very words of God. Every word that comes from the mouth of God is for our sustenance, our spiritual health, and that is why we need to feed on it every day. Anyone who eats and drinks enough to sustain the body can live. But only in Jesus can we have life. 

Did you know that Jesus quoted from Moses when He was hungry? Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days and had not eaten. That is about the time that your physical body starts to consume itself. He needed bread. The tempter, Satan, was there to offer Jesus a way to get food. He said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The temptations of Jesus were real. Jesus was hungry. Nearly starving. But His answer was that He would trust God, He would look to His Father, He would not take even one day off, not even one moment off, from being nourished in His very soul from His Father’s love and care for Him.

 God was training His people in the wilderness, sanctifying them, teaching them to look for His provision every morning, first thing. He was teaching them to look forward to it! It will always be there for you. They didn’t have the Bible like we do. Moses hadn’t started writing the first five books yet. But we now have the Word of God scattered all over our houses and on our phones and tablets and laptops. 

I look forward every morning to three things. A cup of coffee. Time in the Word and prayer by myself and then with my wife. And breakfast. 

We talk about spiritual “disciplines” as believers, and we should. But here’s something to think about: anything that becomes a habit does not require discipline. I don’t have to discipline myself in the morning to fix a cup of coffee. It is not a discipline to read the Bible and pray. 

It is a habit. And a delight!