Prayer our Weapon, Action our Duty, The LORD our Victory.

Introduction

I once saw a commercial about financial planning. It featured a college student just after his graduation ceremony. When the ceremony is over the student takes off his cap and gown and begins to take about moving in with his parents and retiring. I think I am leaving out details but one thing I clearly remember is the announcer stating some steps can’t be skipped and need to be planned for. As I think about that I am reminded of our spiritual journey. Israel didn’t leave Egypt and go immediately into the promised land. There was time in the wilderness where various preparations and actions were needed before they could receive their inheritance. So it is with believers today. We don’t go from salvation to glorification. We must go through the process of sanctification. During that process we will often find ourselves in spiritual battle, many unexpected. When we do there are steps we must take, as we will see today as we explore Prayer our Weapon, Action our Duty, The LORD our Victory.

Background

Who is Amalek and who are the Amalekites? According to the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible: “Amalek was the son of Eliphaz (Esau’s son) by his concubine, Timna (Gn 36:12; 1 Chr 1:36). Descendants of this tribal chief of Edom were known as Amalekites. They settled in the Negeb desert and became allies of the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, Ishmaelites, and Midianites. The Amalekites were notable enemies of Israel. Amalek inherited the fraternal feud that had begun with his grandfather Esau’s antagonism toward Jacob. Since Jacob was one of the progenitors of Israel, the conflict between Amalek and Israel had both a theological and political basis.” Israel will deal with the Amalekites until the reign of King Hezekiah when they are finally destroyed, although the book of Esther does refer to Haman as an Agagite (referencing King Agag whom Samuel killed).

Exposition

Verses 8 - 10: We are not told the reason why Amalek attacked Israel. We are told at the end of our passage that the LORD will fight with Amalek throughout history. It is possible he saw the sizable number of people as a major threat. He no doubt heard what happened to Egypt. Now these people were close to his territory. By all accounts it was an unprovoked and cowardly attack on the people of God, one they probably thought would be easy to win. Moses later tells us later they attacked from the rear, going after the most weary and week (Deut. 25:18). This evil act would result Amalek’s ultimate destruction. This surprise attack in the natural reflects what we face in the spiritual. In the words of Charles Spurgeon: “Just so will sin do with you and me. If the devil would send me a notice when he means to tempt me, I might readily contend with him and defeat him, but this he will never do. He will not tell you whether or not to-morrow he will tempt you in your business; this is not his way of hunting for his game: “Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.” He will, if possible, take you unawares, and before you can put on your armour his arrows will sorely wound you.”[2] This is only the first’s of Israel’s wilderness battles. There will be a few during their 40 year sojourn. This is also our first introduction to Joshua, the son of Nun. As we will see he is a faithful servant of Moses whom trusts the words of Yahweh and eventually becomes Moses’s successor. It is Joshua, along with Caleb, whom gives a positive report about the promised land and calls the people to trust God and enter. It is Joshua and Caleb alone, whom are able to enter the promised land from among the current generation. It is Joshua who, under the hand of God, will lead Israel into victorious battle against the nations of Canaan. We see here he is already considered a valiant warrior able to go into battle. Moses chooses him to lead the men of Israel into this fight. Moses however is careful to tell the reader that it is God who will give the victory. How could it be any other way? After all, we are talking about a group of former slaves, not soldiers. They have literally never known battle. Yet now they must fight one. Again to cite Spurgeon: “Moses never said to the children of Israel while they were in Egypt, “Go, fight with Pharaoh.” Not at all: it is God’s work to bring us out of Egypt and make us his people, but when we are delivered from bondage, although it is God’s work to help us, we must be active in our cause. Now that we are alive from the dead we must wrestle with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness if we are to overcome. “Go fight,” is the command.”[3] The thing is they likely didn’t come out of Egypt with abundant military hardware. Even if they did most wouldn’t have known how to use it. Their only chance to win against this trained army coming out against them is the LORD of Hosts, the commander-in-chief of heaven’s army whom is with and for them. So Joshua goes out the fight and Moses goes to the top of the hill where he can call on the LORD for help.

Verses 11 - 13: The battle rages on throughout the day but swings back and forth in Israel and Amalek’s favor. Sometimes Israel prevails and somethings Amalek, but why? Did the raised hand of Moses have anything to do with it. There are a couple of things we must take note off. First, Moses, up to this point, never used the staff of his own accord. He used it at the command of Yahweh. Second, the staff has no power in itself. It is the means by which Yahweh choose to work but otherwise it was another piece of wood. Finally, everything Israel experienced up til now came via the power of God. With this in mind we can draw some conclusions from what the text does and doesn’t say. The message here is the power of God is being brought to bear for His people. The LORD is for them. Victory comes from the LORD and the raised him means Moses is interceding and trusting in Yahweh for such. Many commentators point out that there is no statement that Moses prayed found in the text. That is literally true. Yet the raising of the hands is a common posture of prayer (Ex. 9:19, Ps 63:4, 1 Tim. 2:8). Additionally, there is no command from the LORD for Moses to take the staff and go to up to the hill which the text does say. Any claim that there must have been such a command is an assumption. Up until now we have stressed the importance of trusting and obeying the LORD during our wilderness journey to the promised land. Another element is introduced here. We must seek the LORD in prayer, constant prayer, to receive strength and hope to endure our spiritual journey. We will not make it otherwise. Next we must address the weariness of his hands.

He could not keep his hands up so Aaron and Hur had to bear his hands up. Why is this? Remember Moses is human. Have you ever tried to hold your arms up for long periods of time. You will get tired and your arms will hurt. I won’t stop there however, because I believe there is something more going on here. Even as the physical soldier eventually gets tired and needs help from his fellow warriors so the spiritual soldier also has need. Human frailty means we often need help from fellow believers for us to continue. Ultimately we rely on the solid rock that is Christ. We can’t win the battle on our own. We aren’t supposed to. Sometimes we tire of praying. Other times we fail to pray. In these situations we call upon the LORD and draw support from our brothers and sisters. Corporate prayer is vital and a powerful tool, as witnessed in scripture (Acts 2:1-4; 12:12).

Verses 14 - 16: The defeat of the Amalekite nation was comprehensive. The LORD has given a great victory and this must be recorded. Specifically it must be recited to Joshua (because he has many battles ahead)? Yahweh makes it clear he will utterly destroy the grandson of Esau and his people. To commemorate and celebrate what the LORD has done, Moses follows the tradition of Noah and the Patriarchs (Gen. 12:7; 22:14; 35:7) by building an altar and naming it. That name is Yawheh-Nissi, The LORD our banner. By banner, Moses is referring to a signal pole were troops would go to rally, regroup, and receive additional orders.[4] is the source of victory and power. He is the one we rally to in our time of need. Our ultimate identity is found in Christ. As long as we look to him. We shall have the victory.

Bibliography

[1] White, W., Jr. (1988). Amalek, Amalekites. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 64). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

[2] Spurgeon, C. H. (1866). War with Amalek. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 12, p. 533). London: Passmore & Alabaster.”

[3] ibid. Pg 534

[4] Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 400). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.