Yesterday, the sermon at church was about the importance of community. He focused on the community of believers in the Church, and he mentioned a few examples from the Bible.

Photo credit: ©iStockphoto/Mikosch

In one of the illustrations, the preacher used an interesting episode from the Bible, from Exodus 17:8-13:

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” 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.

Moses delegated to Joshua the leadership of the army, and he gave him this assignment: gather soldiers and fight the enemy. People would probably think that Joshua and the army were the ones who would determine the outcome of the battle, victory or defeat. They were the ones who were actually doing the fighting, right?

Not so quick. Moses also had his part. He should bless the Israelite army during the battle. Even though he wasn’t participating directly in the fight (he didn’t choose the soldiers, he wasn’t leading them into battle, he didn’t choose the strategy), his actions would influence its outcome. Hands up, Israelites winning. Hands down, Israelites losing.

But Moses was an old man, and he wasn’t able to keep his arms up too long. He wasn’t able to fulfill his assignment. And his physical limitation was a danger even more critical to the Israelite army than the enemy’s army itself.

Aaron and Hur were not assigned any task. They were probably thinking that they would be just observers in this battle. But when they saw that Moses’ raised hands were affecting the battle and that he could no longer keep them up, they intervened immediately. They took action to help their leader.

Even though they had no specific assignment of their own, they took as their responsibility to help their leader fulfill his. And their actions were of utmost importance to the final outcome of the battle.

Moses didn’t delegate the task that he had to do himself. But he recognized that he wasn’t able to do it alone and accepted the help of his friends.

This episode teaches us:

• The importance of delegating tasks, so you can focus on the things that only you can do.
• The importance, as a leader, of realizing that you need help, and accept it.
• The importance of helping one another as soon as we realize that help is needed.

In life, we will often find ourselves in one of the situations above. We may be called to lead the community, or to fight the battle, or we may be called to fulfill supportive roles. Whatever it is, do it and ask for help if you feel you can’t go on. And even if you don’t receive an explicit assignment, don’t just sit and wait. Someone is out there feeling weak and close to giving up. You don’t need to wait for orders. Just go and offer your helping hand.