Friday, March 23, 2007

God Needs Offensive Linemen Too

So the other day I was reading in Exodus (Exodus 17: 8 - 16 to be exact) and came upon this passage:



8 Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9 And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-LORD-Is-My-Banner;[a] 16 for he said, “Because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”



Out of all the things I have heard people take from this, the power of God, how God uses His people to do His will, how God's judgment will ALWAYS come to fruition on the wicked; I never heard anyone talk about Aaron and Hur, except in passing.

Where I work we provide support for Christians all over the globe, to be specific, I am in accounting which provides support for people providing support for Believers all over the globe. So that means I am supporting the supporters.

I'm not sure how much farther behind the "front lines" you can get. I am not Joshua out front leading the troops, bringing God's judgment on the wicked, I am not Moses, the living proof of God's awesome power, I am the guys holding up Moses' arms. Heck, I might even just be the rock he sat on.

That's it. Not much glory in that is there. At the end of the day when the troops came home and were celebrated for their valor and God was worshiped for His display of power through Moses I doubt that Hur was carried around on anyone's shoulders in victory.

When I was in high school, at a small private school, we put together a flag football team to play other small private schools in the area. Our first practice when people were asked what position they wanted to play there were a few people who wanted to play running back, a few who wanted to play quarterback, but we all wanted to be wide receivers.

And no one wanted to be on the offensive line. No one. Those of us who were told that we were on the O-line felt slighted, as if we were playing left field, not good enough.

Of course, if there were no one playing offensive line then the quarterback would have no time to throw the ball, but still, as I saw dropped pass after dropped pass I got rather frustrated since even the coach knew that I could catch better than those schmucks out there, yet I stayed on the O-line since that was were I was needed most. And I chafed at that. When a touchdown is scored no one ever runs over to the center and says, "Great block! If it weren't for you we wouldn't have scored!"

It feels that way sometimes where I work and I know that people chafe at that, I might chafe at that sometimes too.

But I look at Aaron and Hur and realize that if all of us were Minsters or Missionaries we wouldn't have the support people needed to pay the minsters and support the missionaries. So even though sometimes I wish for something more, maybe something that would have someone say, "Wow! Look at what he did!"

*You mean like getting slaughtered for the Gospel?*

Hmmm, that might be a bit extreme at the moment.

People send cards in here all the time thanking us for what we do, most of them are sent to a certain department, the voice and face of the organization, but one day I got a card sent to me, thanking me for what I did, and I have to say that was rather nice.

So for all you other offensive linemen out there, be content with what God is having you do, if Hur hadn't been content to merely hold Moses' hands up he never would have gotten his name listed in the most popular and important book of all time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jonathan--what did you do with Fritz?

I think this may very well be your best post yet. Thank you for writing it.

Jeremy Beach said...

Jonathan,

I work in the department that I suspect you were referring to as "the voice and face of the organization." It actually embarrasses me when members thank me. You see, I get to spend all day on the phone with members who relay absolutely amazing stories about what God is doing in their lives...stories of miraculous healings, the power of prayer, and of unimaginable financial provision. Talking to our members always reminds me of just how far in the background I am to God and to what He is doing through Samaritan. During those moments I don't even feel like an offensive lineman. At best, I'd describe myself as the third string tight end, on a Madden football video game...you know, the guys who always have putrid rankings such as 46!

By the way, if you really want to think of yourself as an offensive lineman at Samaritan, I hope at least see yourself as an All-Pro, future Hall of Fame lock. You do a great job, and I'm certainly not the only one there who thinks so. Thank you for all that you do, especially the ways in which you make my job so much easier.

Adiel said...

This was a really encouraging thought for me. As a wife and mommy, I feel like everything I do all day is done "behind the scenes." How am I furthering Christ's kingdom by changing this dirty diaper? But if I do my job well then I am helping my husband to succeed in the goals God has given him and I am raising little Christian warriors.
We folks with the "thankless" jobs have to keep reminding each other that God sees what we do and He will reward us in time.

Gabrielle said...

Thank you for writing this, Jonathan. I spend my days being a helper to someone's helper; it's hard not to feel unnoticed and unappreciated. That's probably because for the most part I am unnoticed. I doubt very much that I will ever have my name written in any book, much less the most popular and important book of all time, but I know that God notices what we support people do.