Theme: Augmenting Human Efforts with Persistent Prayer
In the history of the Israelites’ journey through the desert, they were faced with several challenges. At Rephidim, there was no water for them to drink and while they murmured against Moses, Moses prayed to God for intervention. But when God decided to provide water for them from a rock, they had barely satisfied their thirst when the Amalekites rose against them as we see in the 1st reading (Exodus 17:8-13). Applying this reading to our context today, the Amalekites represent those near-success challenges that confront us when we are about to enjoy something good. It could be disappointment at the threshold of marriage, financial crisis when beginning a new business, legal dispute when acquiring a new property, etc. The examples of the leaders of Israel is presented to us today as a paradigm of our response when confronted with such challenges. What did they do?