Monday, October 25, 2010

Sometimes I Need To Fail

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. (Ex 17:11)

I remember being very impressed with this story when I was a little boy in Sunday School. It seemed like such an amazing miracle. Of course, I'm not sure I got the point. Looking at it now I can see how God wanted the Israelites to know it was not their own prowess in battle that won the fight. God gives the victory. In this first battle after the Exodus, God wanted to drive that point home. And the sign he used was significant – Moses raising his hands to entreat the help of God and acknowledge his lordship.

Now it occurs to me to wonder, was the miracle that God caused them to win when Moses raised his arms, or that God caused them to lose when Moses lowered them? There must be times in our lives when we are trusting in our own strength, and God must see to it that we fail so we do not draw the wrong lesson from it. Perhaps especially in this culture, dependence on God is a hard-won lesson. In every one of us beats the heart of a little child who wants to say, “See, Daddy! I did it all by myself!” That is laudable in our children, because we want them to grow up. When they do they will be adults like us, and every bit as competent to live independently as we are. But our relationship with God is different. We are not his equal, and never will be. It is the height of folly to imagine that we can live independently from him. Lord, help me to see how much I need you and embrace that dependence. I lift my hands to acknowledge that you are my Lord and I need you.

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