Are you familiar with Hur?
Not Ben Hur, just Hur. He’s a bit player in a story during Moses’ life. In this story, Joshua is leading an army against the Amalekites and the narrator tells us this:
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. (Exodus 17)
In this story, the most obvious contributors are Joshua and his army. As it says at the end, Joshua overcame the army with the sword. But the story also reveals that for whatever reason God ordained it that when the leader, Moses, stood with his hands raised the Israelites conquered and when he lowered his hands they would lose. It now becomes apparent that without Joshua the battle will fail and without Moses Joshua will fail. But then we have this interesting point about Aaron and Hur, Moses is human and grows weary. Try holding your arms over your head for a mere five minutes and you’ll began to realize how taxing this can be. So Aaron and Hur each hold his arms up, one on each side. So now we see that without the Army the Israelites lose, without Joshua the army losses, without Moses Joshua fails, and without Aaron and Hur, Moses fails.
Churches all over this country are fighting to accomplish the task of becoming the church. Pastors all over this country report that they are tired, weary, discouraged and struggling in leading these armies. Sure God can do what he wants without any of these people, just as He could have won the battle in any way He chose, but He chose to win through Joshua’s sword, And Joshua needed Moses who needed Aaron and Hur.
God has ordained that Churches need pastors and pastors need Aarons and Hurs. I’m looking for people who want to help hold up Moses’ arms as it were. Hur is largely unsung, appearing, as far as I recall, only in this story, this one paragraph in one chapter in one book of the Bible. And yet God ordained that His work was necessary to win the battle.
I am putting together a team of dedicated Prayer warriors to pray for the churches and Pastors I am helping through Discipleship Matters. Currently there are 5 pastors and about 8 prayer warriors. My goal is to reach a dozen on the team by the end of March Are you interesting in being one of these 12? If you are, just comment here, or contact me via my email (Pastormac_@mac.com)
Weekly I will send you two kinds of Prayer requests: 1) specific requests from Pastors and 2) Pauline prayers for broader significant church issues which are relevant to every church.
I will include with these requests the current list of pastors and churches for whom we are praying.
All I ask from you is that you pray for at least one of these pastors each week. I am not stipulating length of prayer, time of day to pray or style of prayer. I trust that God will lead you through to pray as is needed. Maybe some of you pray for one request and some of you for another. I trust God to work it all out.
Here’s an example of a Pauline prayer.
If nothing else you might considering praying this for your pastor and your church.
Ephesians 3:14-21 Imagine a vision of pastors, rooted and established in love, strengthened out of God’s glorious riches!For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.