God Our Banner

Intro: The battle is rarely ever won where the battle actually takes place. It is often in other places, at other times, where decisive victories are had. For in war-time, it is often how leaders prepare and react to movements and actions of the enemy. It is often won in the war-room. Strategies are implemented.

In life, we “win” certain situations through preparations or actions taken elsewhere. Succeeding in taking a test is not done at actual test time. It is won in preparation for it. Hunters prepare with blinds and scoping out where they believe their game is going to be.

I use this as an introduction to get us thinking about the spiritual war that we are a part of, and a reminder that the battle is not won where we currently are at. This text reminds us that the battle belongs not even to our preparation, but the work and battle fought by someone else. And because this battle has been won, we then look to the one whom won it and rest in His victorious work.

CTS: Look to Christ our Banner who wins the battle for the souls of men.

I. Defining the Battle (8-11)

A. Who is the enemy and what war are we waging?

The enemy of God’s people is rooted always in Satan himself. The Amalekites, just like Egypt, were people that were trying to thwart God’s people from their destination. God takes that personally. Amalekites will be seen through Israel’s history and be a thorn in their side until David. They were most likely nomadic people who made a living on trying stealing and defeating weak people traveling. But more than that, The Enemy is using them to thwart God’s people from their intended end, the Promised Land and an eventual nation from which a reigning king would come.

God took it personally and will defeat those that attempt to thwart His plan of redemption.

We are to be reminded though that our enemy isn’t people, but Satan who is trying steal the glory from God. He is the one who tempted Adam and Eve and is working ferociously to keep people in darkness and sin. Does he know he is defeated? I don’t know. I would think he does. Or maybe he has deceived himself to think he still has a shot at defeating God. Regardless, he is trying to war against God’s people.

So, it’s not man and woman we are fighting, or, at least what we think is the biggest threat. I like how one commentator put it:

Our enemies are those who actions have redemptive significance. It is far too easy to pick people with whom we have some disagreement and fancy that they are our enemies. We do not battle primarily against people who want to cheat us, affect our political system in ways we disagree with, or who want to put shows on television that shouldn’t be there. Many of us should stand up against those types of things, but those who purport such devious views are not the “Amalekites in our lives.”

The real enemies we must guard against are those who can seriously affect our spiritual state, and such enemies (it has been my experience) are rarely easy to label by political, social, or even theological titles. Spiritual warfare is a subtle business. - Peter Enns

The enemy is Satan, and war against him is the cause. We are not a single nation like Israel with land as Christians, but we are part of a global people. We don’t battle with flesh and blood. Rather, we battle spiritual foes. Often, we battle against our own enemies, the subtle work of Satan to thwart us and keep us off track to honor God.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

B. How is victory achieved?

Joshua is introduced in this text for the first time. He will be seen again a number of times through the rest of the Pentateuch and will be the one whom will lead God’s people into the promised land. It is no accident it seems that this is the case, for it looks like the Joshua has some military background and ability to lead an army and fight.

Moses on the other hand is not going to be on the battlefield, but rather on a hill that is overlooking the battle. He will there be lifting his hands with, I think a safe assumption, the staff of God in his hand. Remember what the staff of God was instrumental in doing earlier in Exodus. Swallowing snakes. Bringing certain plagues. Parting the Red Sea. The significance of that is that we see that this Moses doesn’t have the power, but that this power comes from God. And that will be the same here as well. Moses may be on the hill, but in essence, he will be on the frontline of the battle. What he does, or rather, what God does through him will decide the battle.

On that hill, when Moses kept his arms lifted with the staff in his hand, the battle was in favor of the Israelites. But when his arms grew weary and fell, the Amalekites began to prevail. The lifting of the hands is significant. It showed that Moses was calling upon God to win the battle. Some have debated if this was a sign of praying. I think that this is a possibility. Whatever the case may be, Moses is trusting and calling upon God to win the battle. That is what prayer ultimately is. Calling on God to work and trusting in that work.

TRANSITION: The church and spiritual warfare. Who is our enemy? What war are we involved in? How is the war won?

II. Conquering the Enemy (12-13)

A. Lifted hands of Moses win the wilderness battle

Prophet, Priest, and King: We see in verses 12-13 that Moses cannot keep his hands up. He is weary and in need of help. Aaron his brother, who will also be priest, and Hur, the grandfather of Bezalel who would be instrumental in building the tabernacle and its contents (from the tribe of Judah, from where kings will come). In essence, we see on this hill Prophet, Priest, and King. And it is there that Aaron and Hur come beside Moses and help keep his arms up. It is through this that Israel wins.

These lifted hands, lifted to God, win the battle. So, it is a clear reminder that God wins the battle for His people. We see this fulfilled in the true and better Moses, Jesus Christ.

B. Lifted hands of Christ win the cosmic battle

As Moses the prophet lifted his hands, flanked by Aaron the priest, Hur from Judah, from whom a king would come, we are then to look to Jesus, as we spent Christmas showing that His offices, His work as Prophet, Priest, and King bring salvation as the Savior. God came in flesh, and lifted his hands to win the battle for the souls of men.

As Prophet, he revealed the truth of the Gospel and He is the culmination of the truth. He is the way, the truth, and the life. As Priest, he intercedes on behalf of humanity and became sacrifice needed for our salvation, the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, the Passover Lamb, and now is interceding on behalf of God’s people, as Aaron and Moses did on the hill.

Hebrews 7:25 ESV

25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

As King, he leads people to victory over the conquered enemies of sin and death, and we look to His throne, to one worthy of all honor and praise, giving our allegiance to the slain Lamb for us. There is no greater king.

So we are reminded again, that we do not win the battle. The battle for our souls was won by Christ. The enemy cannot be defeated by us. Just as Joshua and Israel could not win the battle on their own and needed God to defeat their enemies, we stand in the same position as the church. We are not powerful enough to defeat darkness. But our Savior who saved us, justified us, and live with us in the person of the Holy Spirit can and will win.

You cannot win against sin by yourself: It is only in the death of Christ and His resurrection that our old ways are defeated. The battle you face is spiritual. We often like to correlate spiritual warfare to minor inconveniences. But the battle is much greater than that. Its deeper than that. Its against sin when enemy attacks. When the temptation to lust is before your eyes, when the coworker really lets you have it and yells at you, when you the temptation to boast over yourself instead of the Savior, to get upset at a change in your workplace, your home, or in the church that gets you angry and you begin to gossip, when we are tempted to bring revenge upon those that have wronged us. That’s where the battle lies. And only Christ can win the battle, and has won the battle, and has given us the Holy Spirit to cause us to die to our sin, our selves, and live for Christ.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We cannot win the battle for souls: What I mean by this is that we cannot do the work of the ministry, the work of proclaiming the Gospel, making disciples, and influence our culture with truth and love in our own power. We can’t be creative enough. We can’t be cool enough. We can’t be relevant enough. Only the power of Christ in His church can win the battle for the souls of men. We cannot take the Gospel to the nations without Christ. And how does He do this in His church? When we lift our hands in prayer to Him, acknowledging that it is only God that can do this.

D-Day (decisive victory, but the war wasn’t ended yet). V-Day (day of surrender of the Axis powers). We are living inbetween. The battle has been won by Christ, but we live between the cross and his second coming. We should be reminded of this:

We battle against spiritual powers today not simply with the belief that victory is in sight, but that the victory has already in principle been truly achieved by Christ, our warrior. - Enns

So how do we win this battle? We don’t. But we go the one who has already won. Jesus! This means we must be people of prayer. This means I must be a pastor that is constantly battling not in my own strength, but battling against sin in prayer and submission to the Spirit. It means that I must be praying for God’s power upon me as I minister, preach, make disciples. It means that I cannot save this church or change this church to make it more like Christ. Only Jesus can do that. Can I tell you that this is a constant struggle for me? And I imagine that for many of you, you can relate. But if we want to see God work in us and in His church, we must lift our hands to God and ask Him to win the battle. We must ask him to kill sin in us and do what He calls us to do to kill that sin. We must ask Him to save souls in our community, so use us and show us how to show Him to the lost. We must ask Him to make this church healthy, so we look to Him for what He wants us to do. The individual Christian, the family at home, and the church.

II. Remembering the Victory (14-16)

A. Memorial for Israel

For the current generation: God commands Moses to write of this event in a book for it to be remembered, so that Joshua will remember it. (A hint of his coming task that Joshua will be instrumental in conquering the Promised Land). Moses would do so and also make an altar, a memorial to what had just happened. This is commanded by God several times throughout Exodus and for His people in general in their history. Why? Because they are a forgetful people. We have seen that already. They forgot last week about God’s work and provision to deliver them. It caused them to grumble and complain. God institutes memorials so that we will remember.

For future generations: God also institutes memorials to teach the next generation. That was the reasoning of the omer of manna. These memorials are meant to spark questions and answers from the next generation of what God has done.

The “Banner”: This altar of remembrance would be called the “The LORD is my Banner.” What is interesting to note is that banner here in the Hebrew can also mean “pole.” As a matter of fact, in Numbers 21, when God brings judgement upon his people for their continued grumbling and speaking against God, he sends out serpents that are poisonous. The people repent and God then tells Moses to make a pole with a serpent on it, that those who look upon the bronze serpent would live instead of die from the snake bite. Salvation was achieved.

What is interesting is that the event I just mentioned happened directly after God’s people complained about lack of water. Moses actually disobeys himself and is barred from leading God’s people into the Promised Land. But directly after that, there is a pole made that the people would look to to be saved.

Here in Exodus, another “banner” or pole, is made to remind people of God’s saving of them from the Amalekites. The LORD himself is the banner, the pole of salvation. He alone can save. He alone can defeat the enemies against God’s people.

B. Memorial for the church

Foreshadowing of one coming who stands as a banner for the peoples: This idea is continued on in the OT, particularly in Isaiah. In Isaiah 11:10-12, I want you to hear these words that God inspired Isaiah to prophesy:

Isaiah 11:10–12 ESV

10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. 12 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

There is coming one who will not only gather Israel for their salvation, but also, all the nations. The extending of the hand (Moses raising his hands) and signal, which is the same word used of “pole” and “banner.” The remnant of those that believe and trust in this Messiah, in Israel and across the world, will gather around this banner.

Jesus, Our Banner: Jesus fulfills in greater form the reality that God alone can save. In the same way, Jesus would be lifted up to be looked upon for salvation. Jesus fulfills the Isaiah passage and is the Banner of Salvation. It is him who was lifted up whom we look to.

John 3:14–15 ESV

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

John 12:31–32 ESV

31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Jesus’ empty tomb is the final and glorious memorial. The empty tomb serves as the final physical memorial that we can point to as to why we have salvation. Jesus conquered sin and death. He proved his work and his salvation. He brings resurrection life to all those that look to Him by faith alone in His death, burial, and resurrection for salvation. Not by works, but only by the power of God can we and the lost be saved.

The Bible our Memorial: So this Word we now hold in our hands is a written memorial. Like Moses wrote about, and what we hold in our hands is the evidence of that writing. This memorial is now completed because of Jesus. The Gospel proclaimed throughout its pages, OT and NT. This is how remind ourselves that “THE LORD IS OUR BANNER.” We preach to ourselves the Gospel daily in the Word, meditate on it, pray through it, study it, and eat it as the sustenance of our lives. This is what we proclaim to the coming generations. The work of discipleship is rooted in the Bible. And its intention is to show redemption and salvation through Christ. We don’t proclaim fun and games to our kids and students. We don’t proclaim cool events. We don’t proclaim “be better kids and teenagers.” We don’t do this to try to keep them out of trouble. No, we proclaim to the next generation the soul-saving Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We preach and teach the truths of biblical orthodoxy and why its so important to believe what we believe and why we believe.

And we cannot assume the Gospel anymore. We never should have. Remember? We are forgetful people. We need this beautiful gospel reiterated in song, in preaching, in reading, in all that we do. I’m reading a book alongside a couple of guys right now called “The Thrill of Orthodoxy.” The author Trevin Wax says this:

Assuming orthodoxy is the path to abandoning orthodoxy…we wander when we lose our wonder…Whenever we assume the truth of the gospel - whenever we look at the fundamental teachings of Christianity as boring, irrelevant, a liability, or something to transcend - we are in danger of drifting.

This Bible isn’t boring church. This is what points us to beautiful and thrilling doctrines of the grace, mercy, and love of God found in Jesus. It shows us a powerful and wonderful purpose and mission to go and tell the lost about this saving Jesus, our Banner of Salvation.

So this is how we fight. We look to the One who fought for us and saved us. We now live for Christ who won. We pray to Him and seek His power and wisdom to fight in the wilderness until we get home. We remember what He has done and faithfully proclaim it to the lost and to the next generations. Let us never forget that

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS OUR BANNER

LIFTED HIGH ON THE CROSS

THAT WHOEVER LOOKS TO HIM AND BELIEVES MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.