Asking for Help

In Exodus 17, the people of Israel were attacked by the army of Amalek in the wilderness.  Moses told Joshua to get some men and lead them into battle against the Amalekites.  During the battle, Moses stood on top of a hill and held up the staff of God, the same one used to part the Red Sea, to give the Israelites the advantage on the battlefield.  As long as he held the staff up, the Israelites would have the advantage.  However, if he lowered his arm or held the staff down, the Amalekites would have the advantage.

When Moses was too weak to hold the staff up, Aaron and Hur first sat him down on a large stone.  They then stood on each side of Moses and held his hands up.  As a result, Joshua and the Israelites easily defeated the army of Amalek in battle.

There are two lessons to learn from this story.  One of them is that if we have a loved one like a friend or family member that we know is struggling with something, we should assist then with what they’re struggling with.  If we see someone we know walking down a long road, we should ask them, “do you need a ride?”  There are a lot of proud people out here, so even if they don’t ask for help, if we know they need help, we should try to assist them anyway unless they adamantly refused it.

Which brings me to my second point: if we are struggling with something and deep down, we know that we need help, we shouldn’t be afraid to ask someone for it.  In the Bible, it never mentioned if Moses asked Aaron or Hur for help when he was struggling with the staff.  I believed he did, since he’s asked for Aaron’s assistance numerous times in the past, and that their survival was at stake if he failed to keep the staff up.

Likewise, if you needed some money to get some food for your kids, or you need a ride to a job interview, please don’t let your pride stop you from asking a loved one for help.  A lot of us have a habit of assuming that people will not want to help us when we ask for it, or that we will become a burden to someone helping us.  We need to get that kind of thinking out of our head.  Chances are, you will probably find more people that would love to help you in your time of need than those that would decide to not help you.  So, we must not let our pride stop us from asking someone for help when we really need it. 

In closing, if we are to be successful in this world, we need to first pray to God for assistance with the battles we face in life.  Secondly, we should be like Aaron and Hur and help our fellow man and woman whenever we see them struggling with something.  That way, we all will have favor in God’s eyes.