10. Three essentials for God's people - Exodus 17:8-18:26 (Sunday July 20, 2025)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In his book “Touching the Void”, mountaineer Joe Simpson describes a disastrous climb in the Peruvian Andes. Simpson later reflected three essential elements are required for a successful expedition:
courage and skill to face the challenges,
clear communication about the route and conditions,
and shared responsibility where every team member contributes.
Remove any element, and the expedition fails.
Last week we saw Israel learning to trust God through the life-or-death challenges of finding food and water in the wilderness.
Today we will see that as Israel continues their wilderness journey, God teaches them three essential elements for how to they are to live as His people of faith.
These three elements are just as vital for God’s people - the church - today.
Fight in God’s Power (Exodus 17:8-16)
Fight in God’s Power (Exodus 17:8-16)
The event
The event
While the people were enjoying the miraculous supply of water from the rock at Rephidim, they came under attack from a people called the Amalekites.
The Amalekites were nomadic raiders descended from a grandson of Esau called Amalek. They used domesticated camels for swift surprise attacks to plunder other people they came across.
We don’t know why they attacked Israel at this time. But Moses later recalls their cowardice in attacking the stragglers - the elderly, the sick, the children.
17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, 18 how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.
As a result, God said
Deut 25:19.
19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.
Moses tells Joshua to gather together what men he could and go out and fight the Amalekites.
The next day, Israel led by Joshua used physical weapons to fight their enemy. They were inexperienced in battle, but courageous. Throughout history, men and women of faith have been actively engaged in battle against the forces of evil.
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Paul writes that we too as Christians today are engaged in battle.
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
But the Amalekites were more experienced, more powerful, and probably more numerous than the men that Joshua could muster. On their own, they would be defeated despite their courage.
Moses went up on a hillside overlooking the battle scene, and raised his shepherd’s staff - the one God had told him earlier to raise before each plague in Egypt. This staff was a symbol of God’s power.
While Moses held up the staff, the Israelites were winning.
But as the battle raged, Moses’s arms grew tired. But when his arms dropped, the Israelites starting losing the battle. And so his brother Aaron and his friend Hur came alongside him and held up his arms.
The fact that the men of Israel only prevailed when Moses help up the staff showed the people that they were totally dependent on God’s power.
God’s power enabled them to have victory against the odds. And they completely defeated the attacking Amalekites.
What did Moses and the people learn?
What did Moses and the people learn?
The first event showed the Israelites that they would face battles that they had to fight. But they could only win because of God’s power.
The people would encounter many more battles with fierce enemies. But as God’s people of faith, they must depend on God’s power for victory.
What do we learn?
What do we learn?
The New Testament tells us that as Christians we face great enemies - the world, the flesh, and the devil. That phrase is not a direct quotation from the Bible. It comes from a question in the Church of England’s book of common prayer for someone who wants to be baptised. They are asked "do you renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, and all sinful desires of the flesh."
But these three enemies are clearly described in the Bible. The world in general is hostile towards those believe and follow Christ .
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
The flesh is our old nature that fights against the Holy Spirit who is in us and wants to make us like Christ:
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
And the devil is that fallen angel who is trying to put himself in the place of God and hates Christ and Christians.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Although we must actively fight these battles, we are dependent on God’s power for victory.
When Moses held up his staff above his head as a symbol of God’s power, he was holding his hands in a way that other Bible passages say implies prayer:
2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
Perhaps you have seen people on a roller coaster. Why do people raise their hands? They are saying in a sense “this is out of my control, but that is OK (but perhaps scary).
In our battles as Christians, we must hold up our hands to God’s throne and say “It is out of my control” and lift up our hands in prayer to God, depending on His power to help.
Tell others what God has done for us
Tell others what God has done for us
The event
The event
The second learning event occurs a short time after the battle with the Amalekites, Moses’s father in law Jethro arrived from Midian. He was bringing Moses’s wife Zipporah and their two sons Gershom and Eliezer to reunite them with Moses. After hearing God’s call at the burning bush to go to Egypt to rescue the people, it seems Moses had sent his family back home to Jethro for safety.
Jethro is described as the priest of Midian. He was one of the chief religious leaders to the Midianites. Archaeological evidence suggests Midianites practiced typical Ancient Near Eastern polytheism, likely worshipping various gods associated with fertility, weather, and tribal protection. Being descendents from Abraham’s second wife Keturah they may also have had some knowledge of the God of Abraham.
So Jethro is a close family member - Moses gave him a warm family welcome.
7 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent.
But one who was committed to a different religion.
It is hard to speak to family members about Christ, it is very easy to come across as “holier than thou” and “preachy”. But Moses gives us a hint as to how to witness to close family members.
8 And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.
He told Jethro all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to rescue the people of Israel. And then after being rescued, how God had rescued them from all the hardships that had come along on the way from Egypt to where they are now.
Moses simply describes what God has done for him. I’m sure Moses was trying to persued his father in law to believe in the true God.
Jethro was impressed. He was glad for all the good God had done for Israel.
Jethro I’m sure would have been inclined to be sceptical of the God of Israel because believing in Yahweh would require that he abandon the philosophy and faith that he had not only held but been a public leader in. But as he evaluated the overwhelming evidence presented by Moses, and saw Moses and the people there delivered from Egypt before his eyes, he turned to the true God.
10 And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.
Jethro’s conversion statement would be the equivalent nowadays of Paul:
12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
Or of blind Bartimaeus
25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”
Jethro then offered a burnt offering - the kind God said was required for the forgiveness of sins. And he publicly joined Moses and the elders of Israel in a special meal to commemorate his conversion.
His conversion would be big news when he returned to Midian!
What did the people of Israel learn?
What did the people of Israel learn?
This second event shows how when the people spoke of the great things God had done for them, even the most unlikely from other nations would be converted and trust in God.
God’s plan for the nation of Israel was not for their glory or power. But that the nation would be a light to other nations - to cause them to see who God is and to themselves trust in Him.
16 But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.
What do we learn?
What do we learn?
Moses reminds us that our responsibility as witnesses is to share what Christ has done personally for us. Both to save us when we first trusted in him, and how He has delivers us from the hardships we all experience.
The church exists to be a light in a dark world, drawing others to Christ who loved them and gave His life for them.
ILLUSTRATION:
You probably have heard of the Pony Express. But it only operated for 18 months from 1860 to 1861. It became legendary because riders risked their lives to carry vital messages across 2000 miles of dangerous frontier territory. They rode through blizzards, dodged hostile attackes, crossed treacherous terrain because the letters they carried could save lives, reunite families, and change the course of the nation.
In the same way, an essential element for God’s people the church today is to carry the life changing news that others desperately need to hear. How those who believe on the Son will not perish but have everlasting life.
Share in the work of Christ
Share in the work of Christ
The event
The event
The day after his conversion, Jethro watched as lines of people queued up to talk to Moses. In the ancient Middle East, part of the role of a leader was to hear people’s complaints and then render decisions on what was to be done. Moses was faithfully fulfilling his role.
But as night fell, Moses was still there, and there were still queues of people. Jethro saw this could not go on. As a leader and judge himself to the Midianites, it was obvious to him that Moses had overcommitted himself in this judicial role.
And so he said:
17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.
Moses had told Jethro that he felt only he could do this - he was the prophet that God had chosen to make known His statutes and laws.
15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
But it was obvious Moses couldn’t handle this alone. So wisely, Jethro urged Moses to delegate some of his responsibilities. He did not tell Moses to give up his responsibilities. He would continue to teach people the laws of God. But he should appoint spiritually and morally qualified men to act as judges.
20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Most of the disputes were minor that these men could handle using their own wisdom and the knowdedge of God’s commands. If anything was too hard for them, they could bring it to Moses who could directly ask God how to settle the dispute.
Jethro concluded:
23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”
What did Israel learn?
What did Israel learn?
The third event showed Moses and the people that one person, no matter how gifted, can’t do all God’s work by themselves. God’s work requires others to play a part to share out the load. In fact, everyone must play their part.
What do we learn?
What do we learn?
Like Israel’s judicial system, the New Testament shows us that there must be a number of qualified elders to oversee and equip God’s people in the church
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—6 if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, 8 but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, 9 holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
But as the elders equip the saints for the work of serving, that means every member of a local church is to serve in some capacity:
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Jesus Christ is the head, the chief Shepherd. Everyone must submit to Him. Under Him, He appoints elders as undershepherds, who teach God’s people to do the work of Christ. Each believer has received gifts to take part in this work.
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
ILLUSTRATION
Wikipedia became the world's largest encyclopedia not through a small team of expert writers, but because millions of contributors each added their knowledge and expertise. Unlike traditional encyclopedias written by elite scholars, Wikipedia's success came from recognizing that everyone has something valuable to contribute. Today it contains over 60 million articles in 300+ languages, all because ordinary people shared their gifts and knowledge
It is essential for a healthy church that not one person does everything. But that every member contributes their God-given gifts to build up the body of Christ.
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
Just as Joe Simpson identified three essential elements for a successful expedition, God taught the people of Israel three essential elements for being His people of faith:
To depend on God’s power in battle. So we too fight spiritual battles not in our strength but by depending on God in prayer
To declare what God has done for them. So we must witness by sharing what Christ has done in our lives.
To share the work God gives. So we serve together as Christ’s body, each carrying out the part God has given us to do.
Which one of these ingredients needs work in your CHristian life? Which one is God calling you to work on this week?
