Exodus 7; Exodus 17
Aaron was literally Moses’ right hand man. As
Joshua fought the Amalekites, Moses held up his hands. 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, Aaron and Hur his
assistant held Moses’ hands up so they remained steady.
The raising
up of our hands is often a sign and a symbol of an appeal to God for help.
There is much for us to pray for these days. When asking for spiritual needs
and blessings we are to pray unconditionally. When asking for temporal needs we
must always pray, conditionally using the phrase, “Thy will be done,
Lord.” We pray not only for ourselves,
but we are to pray for our neighbor, and especially for our enemies. Paul in
his writing to fellow believers would simply request, “brothers, pray for us!” (1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1)
We pray for the furtherance of the Gospel. We pray that the message of grace
may be spread rapidly and be honored. We pray that those who are currently
missing might be added to the family of faith.
The encouragement for us and the
example of Aaron is for us to never grow weary in prayer.
Heavenly
Father, grant Your mercy and grace to Your people in their many and various
callings. Give them patience, and strengthen them in their Christian vocation
of witness to the world and of service to their neighbor in Christ’s name;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Schnorr
von Carolsfeld Woodcut used with permission © WELS
Collect for Christian
vocation, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
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