God of Good Friends

Israel had a battle to win. Moses, as commander of Israel's army, had a job to do. On the surface, it seems straightforward, but nothing in life ever is, is it? 

Moses was standing at a vantage point where he could see the whole battlefield. As the sun glinted off every weapon, it caught Moses's eye. His vision was darting back and forth across the landscape sprawled out before him as he watched Israel's men do what they would have to do well: fight. As he raised his hands in encouragement and in guidance, he noticed that his men seemed to become stronger. They were fighting harder. They were winning more definitively. 

But if his hands came down, his men started to lose. 

Again, it seems straightforward, doesn't it? But Moses is a man. Flesh and bones. Blood and a breath of Holy Spirit. He can't hold his arms up forever, and, well, there are a lot of enemies to be defeated. 

That's where his friends step in.

See, Moses doesn't stand on this lookout alone. No, he has at least two friends with him. At least two advisors. At least two other men who are seeing the same thing that he is seeing.

And when all their cries of, "Dude, hold your hands up again!" and "Bro, you got this," start to fail in his human frailty, these two friends do something remarkable: they find a stone for him to sit on and then, each one taking an arm, they hold up his hands for him. 

These are the friends that God provided for him. These are the men that God took out of the battle, men who might otherwise have been fighting, and called to stand on that lookout with Moses. For no other reason than that God knew Moses would need them. 

God gives all of us friends. He gives all of us those persons who could be fighting but instead are standing with us. He gives us those who can see the same battle we're looking at, who catch the same glints off the weapons as they flash around under the sun. He gives us those who can see our human frailty and know when we're growing weary. 

He gives us those who are willing to pull over a stone for us to sit on, then stand there and hold up our hands for us. 

I know it doesn't always feel that way, that sometimes, it feels like we are hopelessly alone. But God hasn't called us to live like that. From the very beginning, He said plainly that it isn't good. Not for man to be alone. And that's why He gives us friends. 

So that we never fight alone.