Sermon Tone Analysis

The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Introduction (background)

As we come to the Book of Exodus chapter 17, we learn about the journey Israel in the desert.

They were free from slavery in Egypt; they crossed the sea on dry land, saw the defeat of the Egyptian army when they pursued Israel.

Though it a lesson of history these lessons do share us a lot for us in improving our lives and I would like to draw your attention to this passage and the topic of today, the battle belongs to the Lord.

When we look and study from the book of Exodus, we see how and what God is doing in the history of Israel, and there is a lot to apply for our own lives as well because He is transitioning, He is transforming our lives, and we need to change.

God changed the Israelites and their lives and we see that we also need to improve, and change our lives accordingly.

God brought them out of Egypt as slaves, but they need to learn a lot on how to function as God’s children, and not just as freed people from Egypt.

Analysing the passage from we study one of the greatest miracles crossing the Red Sea, in the lives of the children of Israel and we can also learn about God and what he would do to bring about transformation in our lives, this is what we are going to learn about tonight.

There are some more details to the events before we come to chapter 17:8-16; we learn that the children of Israel started to grumble two times in the wilderness journey, firstly for water when they were travelling to Elim, God changed here the bitter waters by healing they got to know God is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals as he made the bitter water sweet and secondly, when they were travelling into the Wilderness of Sin, they grumbled for food, God provided for manna.

Again we see that there is grumbling within the children of Israel, when they travel further and the question they ask in , “is God with us or not?” we learn from verses 1-8, where God, provided miraculously as Moses was instructed to take his staff and to strike the rock and then when he struck the rock, then it burst forth and came forth with fresh water, fresh living water.

Now, this is important because in each of these events, he's showing us Jesus Christ and the provision of God in answering their needs.

See?

Because it's not just about water, it's not just about bread, it's about what God is doing.

It's about picture of Christ Jesus that, "I am the bread of life coming down out of heaven."

Then He said, "I am the living water.

Our point of study is from Rephidim, when the children of Israel were attacked by the Amalekites.

The Amalekites, people attacks Israel and here the Israelites learn another name of God as they raise the first banner for war, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my banner.

, we start in verse 8. We'll cover the other verses Wednesday at our verse-by-verse study.

Verse 8, Amalek came, fought against Israel at Rephidim.

Moses said to Joshua-- This is the first time we meet Joshua.

He will play significantly into the history in the story of Israel and in many ways, he's a picture of Jesus Christ himself.

In fact, his name is exactly the same name, Jesus and Joshua have the same name, one's Hebrew, one's Greek.

We've kind of Englified it, Englishified it.

That's a new word, I made that up.

We've Englishified it because in the Greek, his name is Iēsous.

We made it Jesus, but it's almost a transliteration.

His name in the Hebrew-- Now remember, Hebrew has no J, so it would be Yah, so Yahshua is his literal name in the Hebrew.

You've heard the expression likely, Yahshua Ha Mashiach, Jesus the Messiah, that literally is Joshua the Messiah.

It's a picture of Jesus Christ.

We'll hear more about Joshua as we read through the story.

Moses said that Joshua, "Now, choose men for us.

Go out, fight against Amalek.

For tomorrow, I will station myself at the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

Joshua did as Moses told him and he fought against Amalek and Moses and Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.

It came about that when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.

There's a point to this.

It's not just the hand.

There's nothing magical about the hand, something God is doing which we'll see.

Moses' hands became heavy and they took a stone and put it under him.

He's hand- he's had Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, one on the other, thus his hands were steady until the sun set.

Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this down."

We're glad he did.

That's why we have what we're having to read now.

Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

Moses built an altar there and he named it Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord is my banner.

He said, "The Lord had sworn it.

The Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation."

We know this is true in the history of Israel.

We know that in fact it was true.

The new name is established over them.

He is our banner.

It's a very powerful story in the history of Israel, a lot of lessons for us to learn.

We have to recognize that it's about transformation.

God is doing a work now, transforming Israel from the slaves that they were into a people that going to walk with God and have faith and to begin to live as men who are free in God.

This is important for us as we need to understand when we are saved, we come out of the world and we bring a lot of the world with us.

The key now is to understand that God doesn't want to leave you in the condition in which He found you, He wants to transform and the work is done inside our individual lives.

This battle for the Israelites is significant because here they learn that no one could hurt the children of God and live easily, and we also need to analyze this battle, we learn from this Battle; firstly, our greatest Battle is within our Personal lives.

In our day to day lives, there are lots of problems we face, but how we fight those issues is by how we first prepare ourselves internally.

One of the important things when we study about this battle, is how God helped the children of Israel to stand against the might of the Philistines, if God took them directly to the promised land we see, they would have become victims of war.

They were not ready for war, they were weak in faith and they needed to be transformed.

They came out of Egypt as slaves, and they needed to live as men and women of faith.

Even we as individuals, we also need a lot of transforming and when we pass through the wilderness in our lives this we need to see here how God is discipling our lives to be stronger to prepare us for a bigger purpose.

a.

The flesh makes many troubles

The battle with the Amalekites appears to be completely unprovoked.

We can surmise several possible reasons, however, and they all have to do with the desires driven by the flesh.

They were descended from Esau and perhaps still carried a grudge that Jacob, the father of the Jews, had been chosen by God to receive the blessing of Abraham instead of Esau their father.

In the Amalek people, the Amalekite people, the problem can be sorted right from their history.

Why are they doing this?

This is a completely unprovoked attack.

There is no reason to attack Israel unless we understand something.

They're related.

The Amalek people and Israel are like cousins.

They are the descendants of Esau, Israel being the descendants of Jacob, Esau and Jacob were twins, remember?

Esau was born first making him the oldest even by a few minutes, but nevertheless, typically, the oldest would be the patriarch, he would be the inheritor of the wealth and the power of the father, but God made a prophesy.

While they were in the womb, that the older would serve the younger and that the younger would be the one of power and the blessings of Abraham would flow through him.

Now, the descendants of Esau, the Amalekite people, they attack Israel, unprovoked.

Were they carrying a grudge?

Grudges are of the flesh, the problem's inside.

Carrying a grudge that their father had been chosen instead of Esau.

More likely, they believed Jacob stole the blessing, you stole it and now they're going to be an adversary.

It is more likely that they believed Jacob stole that blessing and were now opposed to them as a people.

They will become an adversary generation after generation.

The Amalekites’ might also have been concerned that more than 2 million people were crossing the desert and drinking their water.

The flesh has strong desires and thirst is one of them.

The only way to survive in the desert is to master the water.

The Amalekites, like other desert people, would have developed cisterns, many secretly hidden.

The Israelites appeared at Elim where there were 12 springs.

When they move to Rephidim, fresh water gushes forth from the rock of Horeb.

Israel is taking the water!

There is a carnal nature in all our lives and we as individuals need live by subduing our live.

b.

God is doing a new work

· God was teaching Israel to trust the Lord; that He would give them what they needed.

He's doing a new work.

He's teaching Israel to trust God, that He would meet their need.

The cravings of the soul, the cravings of life, let God meet them.

When they grumbled against God because they had no food, He gave the manna but just enough for each day, that they would have to trust God every day, that they would walk after God for their daily sustenance.