“When Moses’s hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat down on it. Then Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his army with the sword.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The writer of Hebrews told his audience of believers that they should not give up on meeting with one another – that is, being the church together. The reason for this command was rooted in their need for one another as they sought to advance God’s kingdom together. The idea that we need help doing God’s work was not a new one. Even relying on God’s power is not something we can manage on our own. Moses experienced that here. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, and why doing God’s work in community is better than trying it on our own.

God’s battle plans for Israel were weird. There are a few times when they fight what would have been pretty traditional battles against their enemies, but more often (at least the ones we are told about in the Scriptures) He had them do things that ranged from bizarre to insane in order to achieve victory. The point of all this variety was not simply because God wanted to be creative in helping them win their fights. He wanted there to be absolutely no doubt that He was the source of their victory. By coming up with things they never would have imagined on their own (like, for instance, marching around a heavily fortified city for seven days and then shouting really loudly), it was as clear as could be that their victory came from Him and not from something they did.

When Amalek launched this unprovoked attack on the Israelites as they were making their way to the wilderness of Sinai, God’s plan was for Moses to go up on a hilltop overlooking the battlefield and hold up the staff of God over the action. As long as that staff remained in the air, the Israelites were going to win.

Now, was there anything magical or miraculous about that staff? Well, yes and no. God used it before the people as a kind of talisman of His power several times as we talked about yesterday. But other than that, no, there really wasn’t. It was a piece of wood. The Israelites were fighting whether the staff was in the air or not. Perhaps by seeing it raised, the people fought harder, and when they saw it was down a bit, their confidence waned, and the Amalekite warriors gained the upper hand, but the exact mechanics of how this victory worked aren’t important. What matters is the symbolism of the raised staff and the understanding it gave that however He did it, God was the one giving the people their victory.

In this sense, Moses really played a critical role in the whole process. As long as he was there holding up his arms with the staff raised over the people, they were going to win. The thing is, battles aren’t often short affairs. And I don’t know about you, but when I hold my arms up over my head for very long, they start to get tired. I remember once my high school volleyball coach made us all hold our arms up over our heads with our hands in a setting position during a team meeting. He talked for something like 10 minutes and wouldn’t let us put them down at all. We were dying by the time it was over. Moses had to hold up the staff over the battlefield all day. This was a feat of strength of which he was not capable on his own.

Thankfully, he wasn’t on his own.

The people were depending on Moses. The burden on him was enormous in this moment. And he surely knew it. He wasn’t going to be able to do what he had to do without God’s help. But his relying on God’s help wasn’t going to look like his standing on the top of the mountain all by himself. He went up there with Aaron and Hur. And when Moses got tired of doing what God had called him to do, they helped him. First, they gave him what he needed to continue doing what he had to do on his own. Then, when that still wasn’t enough, they came alongside him and helped him do it. And the odds are good that the warriors down on the battlefield didn’t know about any of this. All they knew was that they were trusting Moses to do his part so they could do theirs. They were completely oblivious to the fact that Moses couldn’t do his part without help just like he was being the help they needed. Not a single part of Israel’s victory that day was the result of the effort of just one person. Everyone gave and received helped.

We live in a loner society. Social media has made us lonelier and more isolated than we have ever been in our history. The British National Health Service, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, and the World Health Organization have all declared loneliness to be a public health epidemic. This is nothing more than the outworking of sin. It was not how God designed us to work. We were designed for community, and we will never take any meaningful steps in the direction of who He has created and called us to be apart from community.

This is true generally. This is true specifically in the context of the church. In fact, it is even more true there. The church is the body of Christ. Jesus’ followers are individually members of the collective body. Individuals absolutely matter to God individually, but He made individuals to operate in community with one another. We can’t do what He calls us to do on our own. The Lone Ranger Christian is a myth, and a bad one at that. There is not even a shred of truth to that particular narrative. We can’t even rely on God’s power to help us do what we need to do on our own. We need community for that too.

As we continue to take baby steps forward into this new year, you need to make a resolution to be in community if you aren’t already there. Don’t spend any more time alone this year than you absolutely have to. Get yourself plugged into a community of faith who can help you grow more fully into who God made you to be, and with whom you can help someone else do the same thing. If you are already part of a community, make a commitment to become an even more vital part of it. Look for ways you can intentionally invest in another person. Seek out the opportunity to be mentored by someone further along in their journey of faith than you are. Grow a relationship to the point that you can invite the other person in close so they can help you with being accountable for sticking with the path of Christ. Get in community. You can’t do this alone. You can’t even rely on God by yourself. So don’t.