The Names of God: YHWH Nissi
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OPENING REMARKS
OPENING REMARKS
This Hebrew name for God, which means ‘The Lord is my banner’ appears just once in the text of scripture, in Exodus 17:15. But we will see today how this passage of scripture and this name for God becomes a core motif which runs through the Old Testament and into the very heart of the Gospel itself.
So let’s turn our attention to the passage:
8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
So to get some context, this is all happening just a short time after Israel has crossed the Red sea. They are in the wilderness of Sinai and the people have been grumbling! They began grumbling almost immediately after crossing the red sea that there was no water and God turned the bitter waters of Marah sweet. Then they began to grumble that there was no food for them to eat saying:
2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
And so God gave them both quail and manna from heaven to eat. And now they arrive at this place called Rephadim, a barren plain near Mount Sinai and again the people start moaning:
3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
Notice that each time the people grumbled against Moses, they made their complaint to him - ‘you have brought us up to kill us’, ‘why did you bring us out of Egypt?’ But who were the people really grumbling against?
8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”
Though the people grumbled and moaned at Moses, they were truly grumbling at God, God took their moaning personally. How often do we complain and grumble to our spouses, our friends, our family about some difficulty we are navigating, not giving thought to the fact that we might actually be grumbling against the Lord. And on some level we are doing it in the hope that God might hear our moaning and do something about it! I know I’ve done this before! That’s almost certainly what the Israelites were doing, they knew God had brought them out of Egypt, they knew it was Him who led them into the wilderness, but they didn’t take their concerns to God in prayer, they went sideways with it, they moaned, they grumbled, they complained. You know what that is? That’s trying to manipulate God. And guess what, He didn’t respond to their moaning. He responded to Moses’s prayer. So here’s a lesson for all of us - the next time you go to have a good moan to someone about the place God has led you in life, remember this story. If you want to see His provision in the wilderness then get praying and stop complaining.
By the time the people arrive at Rephadim they are ready to stone Moses! Bear in mind these are the same people who have seen with their own eyes God part the red sea for them just a few months earlier! They have already seen God miraculously provide food and water for them previously, so why did they have no faith this time? It’s easy to judge them from where we sit today and think ‘I would never be like that’. But here was their problem - their problem was expectation vs reality. On some level they expected that when God delivered them from slavery in Egypt that they would never have to go hungry again, that they wouldn’t experience hardship any more, but that wasn’t their reality. They were out in a barren wilderness, hundreds of thousands of them, with young infants and elderly relatives, there was no running water, no irrigation, no houses, no comforts. They weren’t used to this, they felt exposed, fearful and they doubted. How often are we just like this?! We somehow expected that when God saved us from slavery to sin that we would never again have to worry about experiencing hardship, difficulties, sickness, relational issues, battles with sin, problems at work, problems at church. And there are difficulties that you experience as a Christian that you never had to face when you were in Egypt! You never had to fight sin, you never had to battle the powers of darkness like you do now. The devil was quite happy to let you alone in your sin, but now he is attacking you, just like Amalek in the wilderness. But don’t be concerned that you have turned the wrong way! All of God’s people experience these challenges in life. It’s realistic to expect them, it doesn’t mean we have turned the wrong way, or that God has left us, it just means that we’re supposed to lean on Him all the more.
And so Moses prays, God opens up a rock and water pours out and the people drink. Often we think of this rock as being small and the water being a trickle, but think of how much water you would need to satisfy a million people?! This was no small rock, this was a boulder, and this was no trickle, but a torrent! When God provides, He provides plentifully!
So here’s what I want you to take from the context; God’s people hadn’t exactly ingratiated themselves to Him! They had behaved appallingly. Why do I say this? I say this to make it absolutely clear to you that they in no way merited what He was about to do for them. When God saved them from the Amalekites it was literally the last thing they deserved, He saved them because of His covenant with them, because of His promises to them, because of His love for them. And that is why He saves anyone - not because they were deserving of it, not because they merited it in any way, but because of His love for them, end of.
This passage has a number of significant firsts;
This is the first mention of the Amalekites
It’s the first mention we have of Joshua
It’s the first battle that the Israelites fight
It’s the first altar Moses built
So who was Amalek? Well, Amalek was one of one of Esau’s descendants, his grandson actually, who became the father of this nation known as the Amalekites. Esau was of course the elder brother of Jacob, also named Israel, it was Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew and Jacob who took the blessing from his father Isaac instead.
There was no love lost between the people of Jacob and the people of Esau, and his descendents the Amalekites and the Edomites continued to oppose Israel.
13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
And it was the Amalekites who were the first to attack Israel as they made their way towards their inheritance. Deuteronomy 25:17-19
17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God.
So the Amalekites raided and attacked the Israelites by first attacking the slow and the weary at the back. They went for the vulnerable, the weak, those not protected at the heart of the pack.
Isn’t this just a picture of how satan attacks the people of God;
He only attacks those who are following God.
He trys to prevent you from entering God’s promise for your life.
He especially attacks those who are vulnerable; who have become separated from church community, or weak in their faith.
So Moses tells Joshua to select men to fight the Amalekites, bear in mind that none of these men had never had to fight in a battle before, they had been slaves their whole lives! The Amalekites would have been battle ready.
As Joshua goes out to fight the Amalekites, Moses, Aaron and Hur head up on a hill with the staff of God.
When Moses held up his hands in prayer, Israel prevailed, when he lowered his arms Amalek prevailed. So Aaron and Hur bring a stone for Moses (who was over 80 at this point) to sit on and then they stand on either side of him and hold his arms up for him until the sun goes down, and we are told that Joshua overwhelmed Amalek.
After the victory is won, Moses instructs them to write this down in a book to be recited in the ears of Joshua, that God will blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, and this is ultimately accomplished by the Simeonites in the time of Hezekiah.
Then Moses builds an altar to commemorate the victory and names the altar YHWH Nissi, The Lord is my banner.
What is meant by this? How is the Lord a banner? Well, the Hebrew word we get banner from ‘nes’, could also be translated ‘signal’ and it shows up significantly a number of other times in the Old testament:
22 Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and raise my signal to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their arms,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
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.
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.
26 He will raise a signal for nations far away,
and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
See how the theme is always salvation?! A banner is a rallying point of safety for God’s people.
What is even more interesting is that this word is also used in Numbers 21 to describe the bronse serpent that was raised up before the people of Israel, all who looked at the signal were healed.
8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
And it is this signal, this banner of the bronze serpent that Jesus Himself identifies Himself with in John 3.
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.
So The Lord is my Banner speaks of salvation. Salvation of the Israelites from Amalek, salvation for God’s people through Christ.
This becomes even clearer when we take a fresh look at this passage with the cross in mind -
Here is Moses going up on top of a hill carrying a piece of wood to save God’s people. Who else do we know who went up on a hill carrying a piece of wood to save God’s people?
Moses’s hands are raised up on either side of him until the evening. What shape do you get when you do that? The shape of the cross! God’s people prevailed under the shadow of the cross. Just as Christs hands were raised on the cross until evening on Good Friday.
Who was it who fought on behalf of the Israelites? Who was it who was on the battlefield fighting the wicked Amalekites? It was Joshua, or in Hebrew Yahoshua. A compound name that derives from two other words - Yeho (Yhwh) and yasha (to save). The name means ‘God saves’. We know someone else who had this name - Jesus. Who fought in the valley of the shadow of death on our behalf, who destroyed the powers of darkness, sin and death, and we stand in His victory.
So this story, this name YHWH Nissi speaks to us so clearly of the cross! It points forward to the ultimate victory that we have in Jesus.
So a banner was like a rallying point, a place you ran to for safety, for salvation. So when the devil attacks us in our weakest places, we don’t trust in our own ability to fight him off, we run to the banner of the Lord, we look to Jesus. So when we are fighting sin, we don’t fight under our own banner, under our own will power, but under the power of God under His banner.
Just as the people only had victory when Moses’s arms were raised, so we only have victory in the cross of Christ. As we fight under the shadow of the cross, always looking to Jesus, always trusting in Him we have the victory. Then we will see the Kingdom come in our lives, old sins dying, the lies of Satan exposed and cast down, life flowing in and through us even as we walk through the wilderness.
Moses is a picture of Christ in this passage. As He prays on behalf of His people. Remember John 17? Remember that Jesus’s is right now praying for His people, He is interceding for all His sheep, that their faith will not fail, that they will endure, that they will prevail. And will not His prayers be answered?
If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million of enemies. Yet the distance makes no difference; He is praying for me.” –Robert Murray McCheyne
Remember that Moses’s altar wasn’t The LORD is a banner, or even The LORD is THE banner, but The Lord is MY banner. Is He you banner? Is He who you run to in times of need, is He your salvation or are you still trusting in your own strength, in your own resources?
Are you under enemy attack? Are there weak and frail areas in your life that are being raided by the powers of darkness? Are you ready to stand and fight? Are you under His banner?
Pray