But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
All Commentaries on Exodus 17:12 Go To Exodus 17
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
When Moses sat on the stone, it prefigured the law resting on the church. But this law had heavy hands, because it did not deal mercifully with those who were sinners but treated them with extreme harshness. “Aaron” means “mountain of strength,” and “Hur” means “fire.” Who is meant by “mountain of strength”? Our Redeemer, of whom the prophet said, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.” And who is prefigured by “fire” but the Holy Spirit, of whom our Redeemer said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth”? Aaron and Hur support the heavy hands of Moses and make them lighter by their support. Similarly the “Mediator between God and men,” coming with the fire of the Holy Spirit, revealed that the heavy commandments of the law, which cannot be borne when taken literally, become more tolerable for us when they are understood spiritually. It is as if he made the hands of Moses light when he changed the weight of the law’s commandments into the strength that comes from confession.
