10th September 2025

10th September 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 17:8-16 focus v10-13)


Message (Alan Burke)


I many years ago got given a staff, it’s at my mum’s house near Castlerock at her front door as one of those decorative pieces. Apparently it’s not acceptable for me to walk around in public with and because of the peer pressure I’ve faced I have had to accept that until I’m an eccentric old man living in a shack in the middle of a field somewhere that it will just remain as a decorative piece. Moses had a staff, we’re not told what it looked like but it was the staff of God the one that God had used to bring the victory over the Egyptians and part the Red Sea and this is significant as we come to this passage. Because Moses was up the hill with the staff of God in his hand and Joshua fought the Amalekites and as long as Moses held up the staff the Israelites were winning and whenever he lowered it the Amalekites were winning. 


Now we’re not given a blow by blow account but basically staff held aloft they are winning. So the focus is on Moses and the staff in his hands held up before Joshua and those fighting. The staff had been used throughout the account of the Exodus right from the moment that the Lord had called Moses and it was a sign of the Lord’s power and presence. 


This wasn’t Moses holding the staff in the air to give the people a bit of encouragement, “ah look, it’s the staff, we can fight God is with us” it wasn’t that because the Lord was there visibly before them in the pilar of cloud and fire. Nor is this Moses in prayer, and I’ve read lots of commentaries making applications that would make any saint feel guilty. Rather this is the conveyance of the blessing of God and we see this in scripture. 


Leviticus 9:22 Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, he stepped down. Luke 24:50-51,  When he (speaking of Jesus) had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. 


Moses lifting up his hands was God's visible sign of blessing to the people and his blessing was seen in that they had the victory. Just as in the benediction the Lord blesses us as his people, it is God’s word of blessing upon us, with hands lifted up to visibly portray the conveyance of the blessing of God. Moses held the staff of the Lord and the Lord blessed his people providing the victory for them over the Amalekites. I do not hold up my staff on the Lord’s day but I hold up my hands as ministers do all across this land and this world and we convey the blessing of God upon his people, something glorious happens in the Benediction because the Lord blesses his people through it just as he blessed his people on the battle field. In the Benediction God assures us of his covenant promises towards us how in it we receive the very things we need for life, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14). The Lord used Moses to bless his people that day and through those who are ordained he blesses his people with his grace, love and fellowship.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q70 What is the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
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