Daily Lesson for April 15, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 24 verses 12 through 14:


12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

Who was Hur?

All of us know Moses. Most of us know his brother Aaron. And Joshua, their lieutenant who brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, we probably recall vaguely. But who was Hur?

Other than in genealogies Hur is mentioned only twice in the Bible: here, as one with sufficient authority to be left in charge over all the Israelites; and another time in the book of Exodus during the Battle of Rephidim, as the other person along with Aaron helping to hold Moses' arms up while the Israelites were on the battlefield. After these two, Hur just disappears.

And that makes me think, that's mostly the way it is with the best of church folk. They're there -- always in the background, quiet and unnoticed. But at some moment, they get called upon to help keep the pastors bodies from dragging. They have strength even when we don't. And then some moment comes along when they are put in charge of something very vital.  They never sought a role of leadership; but when they are called they rise to the occasion and say yes.

And then, they disappear.  They only get maybe a brief mention in the newsletter or year-end report, or their name inscribed among many other names on a plaque hanging on some wall in the fellowship hall. In another generation the plaque is taken down and put into a closet somewhere in the youth room.  In a quarter of a century they'll just be another face in the old directory that a grandmother has pulled out to show her granddaughter what her parents and pastor looked like when she herself was a little girl.

Moses and Aaron, they're remembered. And maybe Joshua too. But Hur is mostly forgotten, almost unnoticed altogether. But that's okay with Hur because Hur doesn't do it for Hur's glory; Hur does what Hur does for the LORD -- and for the LORD's people.

And for that I say, "Thanks be to God", and to Hur -- because without Hur's help yesterday we wouldn't be where we are today.

Amen.