The Context

The Israelites are passing through the dessert. There are various theories about their path. At this point they're through the first worst stretch and are beginning to encounter inhabitants of towns and cities along their way from Egypt to Canaan.

The Amalekites (a marauding, nomadic tribe of people who often opposed Israel) are the group in Exodus 17 that are hostile to this traveling horde of Israelites.

Here's The Strategy

Moses tells Joshua, "You go get an army. I'll go get my staff." So Joshua organizes the fighting men for battle, and leads them against the Amalekites. Moses takes his staff to the top of a hill overlooking the battlefield. He also takes Aaron (his brother and spokesman) and Hur (hardly mentioned elsewhere, if at all).

While Joshua and the Israelite Army battle, Moses' staff is the chief weapon.

Realize, it isn't the first time Moses has used that staff. Earlier in the story, the staff turned into a serpent to evidence God's power. The staff was rapped against a rock to produce water at the time of great need. During the plagues, Moses would stretch out a hand or his staff at critical moments and God would act powerfully. It's not necessarily a magic staff, but a symbolic one. God is going to shepherd his people out of slavery and into a better life so the staff, miraculously empowered by God, is like a divining (divine) rod.

So now, whenever Moses holds up the staff, the Israelites are winning. And whenever he lowers the staff, they lose ground.

So enter Aaron and Hur. Because we already know Aaron, I choose to highlight Hur, one of the unsung (hurros, uh) heroes of the Bible. But these guys step up. First they put a rock under Moses to ease the strain of holding up the staff; and then they each take an arm. They hold Moses up as Moses holds the staff up. So that by sunset the battle is won.

The Lord tells Moses to recast the event, to tell Joshua what happened (Joshua needed to know who really won the battle), and to set up an altar. The altar or the memorial mound is called "The Lord is my banner." Hands are lifted up to the Lord and the Lord wins this battle.

It's a short story, and the messages aren't subtle. The first and most obvious message is that God is the Lord. Trusting God is the way to win life's battles. The other more human message is that sometimes we need friends to hold up our arms, to share our burdens, to come alongside us when the load is heavy.

Life can be heavy. As we've talked about in recent weeks, leadership can be heavy. What makes leadership so heavy?

1. A leader is subject to every kind of personal attack. From inside the ranks there's criticism and second guessing and swells of disagreement, disrespect and even rebellion. From the outside, the leader is a target. If key leaders go down, thinks the enemy, so goes the whole army or enterprise or movement. And from the interior or even Satan, there are more attacks.
2. Leadership is lonely. No matter how friendly a leader happens to be, relationships will always be tainted or hindered or fettered by the degree of separation in the hierarchies of human institutions. And any leader who has been burned before naturally wonders about the motives of those who pursue friendship. The leader asks, justifiably, do I have any friends.
3. Leadership can be heavy because of the leader(s) sets the tone or flavor or personality of the culture. And the leader can't really afford to have bummer days. It's true in a football huddle. The quarterback doesn't just deliver the ball. The quarterback decides when to get the troops riled up and when to get them calmed down; when to yell at a lineman who false starts or when to say, "It's okay, forget about it." As I said 2 weeks ago, spirit is critical to any worthy group effort, and leaders are like thermostats - they set the temperature. That can get heavy, especially if there are opposing influences at work in the ranks of the culture.
4. Leadership is heavy because any leader feels somewhat responsible for the lot of others. While it's helpful to remind ourselves that we're responsible to more than for, the reality is that my decisions as a leader affect a lot of other people. If I have a conscience at all, that can wear heavily.
5. Leadership is heavy because there's a special responsibility to God. For example, James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers…because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." As a leader or teacher, you can't read that without a little shiver, and then, hopefully a renewed desire to shore up the integrity of our lives.

Hebrews 13:17 says that leaders in the church "keep watch over you as men who must give account to God." Wo Nelly. It also says, so treat them "so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be no advantage to you."
And it's true. Healthy leaders tend to lead healthily so keeping leaders healthy is critical. It's to no one's advantage to make leadership unnecessarily burdensome or painful.

Now to the points. It's to everyone's advantage if the leader or leaders have a Hur. Do you have a Hur?

If you don't, oh, find one, or two or three.

Leadership Catalysts, Bill Thrall and Bruce McNichol, advocate a high trust culture where people not only rely on each other, but make each other vulnerable to each other. If the old school theory is, "don't let'em see you sweat," the new think-tank of high-trust, high-collaboration, high authorization leadership is this! "Folks, you need to know what makes me sweat and help me. Hold me up. Let's do this together."

McNichol/Thrall write that immature leaders protect themselves, isolate themselves and hide behind masks of projected competence, both creating painful internal stresses and serious integrity issues. Transparency and even brokenness lend toward the honest acknowledgement of actual needs, the expressed desire to meet each other's needs, the choice to trust others (even in the face of past hurts) and an actual love relationship. I let you meet my needs. You let me meet yours. They suggest that is what healthy, mature people do. It's real help for the leader and real validation and shared leadership for others.

Needless to say that flies in the face of the John Wayne, James Dean notion of the cool leader who needs no one and nothing. Some of us, of course, are too proud or too wounded or too bitter or too afraid - too untrusting - to learn how to rely on others, or to admit that we need anyone. Or else we're just in the habit of doing everything ourselves, which makes us the bottlenecks of our organizations. Or else we're too picky or finicky and think our way is the only way, so that, even when I'm spinning way too many plates, "hey the other person spins them counterclockwise when everyone knows you're supposed to spin the plates clockwise."

That isolation and arrogance is dangerous, not just for the leader but for all who are affected by the leader's influence.

Do you have a Hur? If not, find one, or two, or three. People who know our weaknesses. People who stand ready to hold our arms up, whenever our weakness or fallibility or even fatigue makes us vulnerable to harming ourselves or others.

If you do have a Hur, have you thanked him or Hur? Does Him or Hur know how much you appreciate Him or Hur?

Are you a Hur, or have you ever been a Hur? If so, don't devalue yourself or the importance of your role and contribution. You see so much. You know the Achilles Heel of the leader that you're propping up. Handle that knowledge wisely and learn to smile when the person you help tends to flash his/her weakness more. [Sometimes Hurs make the mistake of being overcritical as they tire of seeing the weakness of their Moses. Remember, Moses' weakness, Hur, is why you're here. It might even be why you were born.]

So what is the making of a Hur? What are the ingredients?

1. Spiritual gift of helps (I Corinthians 12:28). Some people have a God-given, supernatural, Holy Spirit infused, miraculous capacity to come alongside and hold people up. How cool!
2. A servant's spirit. This is the character of Christ growing in us and then put on display. Jesus said, "I did not come to be served but to serve." And that's his view of every role, including leaders and helpers of every kind.
3. Humility. It takes humility to be a Hur. It wasn't a glorious role, holding up Moses' arms. Moses had been walking in the desert for weeks, and in the original Hebrew it suggests that he hadn't changed his robe since Egypt and they ran out of Speedstick at the Red Sea. It takes a special kind of character to prop up someone else without requiring a lot of credit or notice. Humility, I Peter 5:6, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may lift you up in due time." "Clothe yourselves with humility." I Peter 5:5. [Philippians 2…have this attitude.]
4. Loyalty. When a leader demands loyalty, it's usually a mark of immaturity or past hurt. But when a Hur (or a Him) offers loyalty freely, that leader will change the world.
5. Readiness. A life that's alert, uncluttered, always watching and waiting for the chance to step up, help out, prop up and altogether be a quiet agent of strength.

And by the way…all leaders are asked to be Hurs, or hims, now and then. And all Hurs are asked to be leaders now and then. And really, God's gifting, a servant's spirit, humility, loyalty and readiness…why, they just come in handy for all of us most anytime.