Journal Entry ~ 09/05/18

11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12 But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. - Exodus 17:11-13

There are some who read the stories in the Old Testament and are uncomfortable with the miraculous nature of them. Things that doesn’t seem to make sense in our world happen all the time in the Old Testament, leaving people challenged when processing them. Some dismiss the stories of the Old Testament as as metaphorical, others believe they are just stories without any historical value, and many just stay away from them because some of the things they say cause a dissonance with what we know to be true today. 

I used to steer clear of the Old Testament myself because it made me uncomfortable. Things like parting the Red Sea and burning bushes that talk made me uncomfortable because it’s not something I’ve ever seen with my own eyes, so I could figure out how to explain it. And there were so many battles, so much destruction, that I just chose to avoid it for my years as a new believer because I didn’t understand how to process the dissonance these stories had with my life. 

But as my faith has grown, and my love and trust for God has increased, He has helped me to see and understand the purpose of these stories. He had been writing scripture for us for thousands of years, and was purposely controlling these events because He knew these stories would be written down and read for for even longer. These stories hold so much truth for us - if we only take the time to dig a little deeper, we will walk away with principles that will change our lives. 

His Word is the way God has chosen to communicate with us, and He wanted to be very clear in what He was saying to us. The God who created this great big, magnificent world could have chosen any way to communicate with us, and He chose to write a book. Every single one of His Words have purpose and meaning for us - we don’t get to discount any of them because they make us uncomfortable. 

His stories are purposeful, and He doesn’t want any misunderstandings of the truths He is trying to put forth, and this story is not any different. God loves to win battles in way that says only he could have done it. There is no mistaking in this story that God won the battle. God is still active today, and He still wins battles all the time. My life is story after story of battles won by God, but none so obvious as this one. God wanted to be clear as He communicated with us that He alone wins out battles. 


Press on ~ you are loved 💗

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