To Rephidim came the Israelites and once again they had a great plight. Not enough water for man and beast to drink. Just like at Kadish and now what should they think?
They hollered at Moses to give him shame.
Just as in the past they forgot God’s name.
Moses’s reply was quick and clear,
remember its God that you should fear.
After all He has done for both me and you,
God is so faithful and always so true.
But, maybe we should not be so quick to judge. In our land of plenty only a small minority are willing to thank God for all we have.
And remember, they lived 400 years in a country that worshipped Pharaoh as their god-man.
Under those circumstances it might be easy to revert to the thought that their leader was not just a man, but a god-man.
Once again the Israelites were mad, their reply was, why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst.”
All through the first five books of the Old Testament
we will find evidence that the Israelites confused the personalities and personages of God with Moses.
We tend to assume Moses was conflicted. He cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people?
Before long they will be stoning me.”
Protests in that day were symbolized by the stoning of those the people were unhappy with. Moses evidently was afraid of that fate.
We don’t know if Moses was truly afraid the Lord may allow him to be stoned to death or not.
Put yourself in his place, would you be afraid of that type of riot?
But the Lord had an answer. He told Moses to Pass before the people with some of the elders of Israel
and take your rod that has performed favorably in the past.
God then assured him. I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horab. Smite the rock and water will issue forth from it and the people will drink.
This place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested God. Massahtranslates quarreled, Meribah translates tested.
After that incident there was a fourth crisis that fell upon the Israelite people.
The nation of Amalek, though unprovoked, came and fought with the Israelites. Moses instructed Joshua to pick some men to go out and battle Amalek.
But Moses didn’t just send Joshua, he gave him confidence that he would also be there.
He said, “I will station myself on the top of the hill,
with the rod of God in my hand.”
Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek while Moses, Aaron and Hur went on top of the hill.
I don’t know about you, but that man named Hurcaught my attention, because I never heard of him before. Though I remembered the movie “Ben Hur”.
Well there are three separate men named Hur mentioned in the Bible, all in the Old Testament.
The least-known of the three is simply mentioned by name in Nehemiah 3:9. He was the father of Rephaiah, one of the rulers of Jerusalem who repaired a section of the walls of Jerusalem.
Another Hur in the Bible was one of the five rulers of Midian in the time of Moses.
But the most well-known Hur appears in the book of Exodus. He is described as being from the tribe of Judah.
As Hur is most often mentioned in conjunction with Aaron, Moses’ brother and high priest of the Israelites; it is likely that Hur also had a place of authority among the people.
Hur is one of the two men who went to the top of the hill with Moses, while the Israelites’ battled
against the Amalekites.
At the top of the hill whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, but whenever he let down his hand Amalek prevailed.
Well you can imagine poor Mosses, his hand grew weary. So they took a stone and put it under his armwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hand
on each side. Mosses hand stayed steady until the sun set.
Some interpret the fact of holding up his hand was so the Israelites could look up and dedicate their hearts to their father in Heaven, and then they prevailed; but when they forgot to look up they failed.
And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek
with the sword.
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