I want to read a few verses,
beginning in verse 8 of Exodus 17. And I promise you this will
be the last time we're in Exodus. We're going to leave Exodus.
But we've hit a chapter here, the last two chapters, well,
three chapters I guess or so, that sort of ran together. And
I want us to finish this chapter. I was going to finish it last
week on the water of life, but there's one more point here I
want us to look at this afternoon. So let's begin reading in Exodus
chapter 17, and let's look in verse 8. Then came Amalek, and
fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand,
So Joshua did as Moses had said unto him, and fought with Amalek.
And Moses and Aaron and Her went up to the top of the hill. And
it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his
hands, and one on the one side and the other on the other side,
and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And
Joshua disconfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the
sword. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the
ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek
from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nesai. And he said, Because the
Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. Jehovah Nesai. Did I pronounce
that rightly, Larry? That's the Lord our banner. That's
one of those names of Jehovah. Sid Canoe and Jehovah Jireh,
Jehovah the Lord our Righteousness. I want us to look at beginning
here in verse 8, and this is the first battle. One of the
reasons I want to look at this, this is the first time the children
of Israel ever picked up a sword as a nation and went to battle.
And this is very important, the timing of this and the context
of this. These Old Testament stories,
they're very important to us. the way God's physically dealt
with the children of Israel, it's meant to teach us some spiritual
lessons. The Apostle Paul made this statement
in Romans 15.4. He said, Whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And in 1 Corinthians
10, he was talking about the very text that you and I have
been studying on. The children of Israel growing
through the Red Sea and eating the bread from heaven and drinking
out of this rock of flint. And he made this statement concerning
that. He said, these things are our
example. All of these things happen unto
them for our examples and they're written for our admonition. They're written to instruct us,
to help us and encourage us. So I want us to go back this
evening and look at this for that very reason. These things
instruct us. Now, here's the thing we've got
to be careful of when we read out of the Old Testament. We
read these examples. We read out of these shadows
and types and parables and so on. We've got to be careful not
to establish doctrine. I can't go here tonight in the
text that I've read and establish doctrine out of it, but we can
go other places where the Scripture is plain and established doctrine.
We go to the New Testament and establish doctrine. Then when
we come here to these examples or shadows or types, then because
we know the doctrine, we can see what the Holy Spirit is teaching
us by these examples. So that's what we'll do this
afternoon. And I'll give you a good example of what I'm saying. Remember when the children of
Israel had sinned against the Lord and they were dying because
God had sent serpents among them? And the Lord instructed Moses
to beat out a grass serpent and put it on a pole and said, everybody
that looks to that serpent shall live. And don't you imagine there
was most of the people there wondering, what is this all about?
But you and I know what this is about because we go to the
New Testament and the Lord Himself says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. And in John chapter 12, He said,
if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to Me. This He spake
of the death that He should die. So that serpent being lifted
up upon a pole, we know what that means because the New Testament
tells us That's Christ and Him crucified. And when a poor sinner
looks to Christ crucified, he lives. He lives. So tonight,
let's go here and look at this, beginning here in verse 8, and
see what we can see from this example here. As I said, this
is Israel's first battle as a nation. Before, what were they? They
were slaves, weren't they? They were Pharaoh's slaves. They
weren't young enough. in the brick kilns. He beat them. He burdened them. He hated them. They worked from sunup to sundown. And they were unwilling and unable
to deliver themselves. They were slaves. It was the
Lord, we're told, in Exodus, in this very book, the Lord took
in hand to deliver this people with signs and wonders and miracles. Do you remember all the things
the Lord did for them down in Egypt? He sent lice among the
Egyptians. He turned the water to blood.
He sent frogs in their ovens and in their beds, in their homes. And the last miracle that He
did down in Egypt was when He destroyed the firstborn. What
did the children of Israel have to do in turning away the judgment
of God from them that night? All they did was stay behind
the blood, wasn't it? All they did was wait for the
death angel to come through and that blood to turn the judgment
of God from them. It was the blood. It wasn't what
they did. It was the blood. When I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. They came to the Red Sea. And
their Pharaoh was behind them. The Red Sea was before them.
And what were they told to do? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Stand you still. The battle is
not yours. The Lord is going to work and
you are going to hold your peace. They did nothing, did they? When
they crossed the Red Sea, they got into the wilderness. There
was no bread for them to eat. What did they do? Nothing. The
Lord sent them bread from heaven. Angels' food, He called it. All
they did was went out and gathered it and eat it and it sustained
them for 40 years. They had no water to drink in
the wilderness. What did they do? They did nothing.
The Lord cleaved the rock and waters gushed up from the deep
and all of them drank and all of their animals. Then it was
said here in verse 8, then, then Amalek made war against Israel. It was until then, Joshua said,
pick you out men and go fight with Amalek. Now this is very,
very, very important. The first thing that you and
I can glean from that is this. They never lifted a finger to
deliver themselves out of Egypt. The Lord did it all. They never
lifted a hand to eat the bread from heaven in a way of providing
it for themselves, or the water from the rock. It was after the
Lord Himself delivered them, after He had fought for them,
after He gave them the bread of life and the water of life,
then, and not until then, did the battle begin. Now what does
that teach us? That teaches us a very good lesson,
doesn't it? It teaches us that Long before you and I were ever
converted, the Lord Jesus Christ by Himself obtained deliverance
for us. That He hanged on the cross Himself
alone, He by Himself purged our sin. By one sacrifice, by one
sacrifice, He perfected forever them that are sanctified. He
hung on the cross alone. He went into the tomb alone.
We weren't there. He, by His own resurrection,
defeated death and got the victory over hell and the grave. He ascended
into heaven alone and took possession of that place for us. And we
did nothing, did we? We did nothing. We lay dead in
trespasses and sins. Christ, by His blessed Holy Spirit,
He came to us He gave us life. He gave us the bread of life
to eat. He gave us the water of life to drink. That is the
Spirit. God sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts, that life-giving Spirit. And when
He came as light, and light, Paul said He caused the light
to shine out of darkness. He shined in your heart to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And not until that happens does
our battle, does our warfare begin. We don't lift a hand until
we've been delivered to it. Everything's been done on our
behalf. The bread's been obtained. The
water of life has been given. And then when the Holy Spirit
comes and brings light unto our souls, then it's where the conflict
begins with darkness. If we're still in darkness, there's
no conflict. The conflict comes with darkness
after light has come. And that's what we learn here
in this passage. And then, and then, did you notice
how the Holy Spirit said that? And then, then. Paul said in
Galatians 4, 6, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts crying, Father, Father. Then what happens, brothers and
sisters? That's when the battle begins,
ain't it? That's when you begin to fight the first war, because
that's when the flesh begins to lust against the Spirit, and
that's when the Spirit begins to lust against the flesh. Now,
we see the Lord Jesus Christ in all these passages that you
and I have been studying in. He's full of His glorious person
and His work in these passages. We see His blood stay in the
wrath of God down in Egypt. That's Christ. That's Christ's
blood. We see His power delivering from Satan and bondage going
across the Red Sea. That's the power of Christ. We
see His bread. He's the bread that they eat
come down from heaven. He's the water of life that they
drink out there in the wilderness. And now we come here to our text
and we see Joshua. That's our Jesus, ain't it? You
know Joshua in the Old Testament is the same as Jesus in the New
Testament? The very same word? And what
do we see Joshua doing here? He's out in the midst of these
people, and he's fighting the battle with them. And where's
Moses? We see Moses, who represents
Christ to us, he's on the hill. That's Christ, isn't it? He's not on a hill, but he's
up in heaven. between us and God, making intercessions for
us as we begin to fight and continue to fight our battles. And we're
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. We don't see
Moses here. Don't look. If you see Moses,
see Christ in Moses. If you see Joshua, see Christ
in Joshua, leading us out to battle. And you see Christ in
Moses up on the hill with his outstretched hand. And when He's
there with outstretched hands, Israel's winning the battle.
That's what we see Christ in everything, don't we? We see
Him in everything. Now, I want to deal with that
just a little bit in a few minutes. But I want to look at this because
He said here, then came Amalek and fought with Israel. And Moses
said, Choose you out men and go fight with Amalek. Well, who
is this Amalek? Who is this fellow? Well, I want
you to look at a couple of places. Look in Genesis 36. I want you
to put your marker there at Exodus 17. Look back in Genesis 36. Amalek, he was the king of the
Amalekites. He was like Pharaoh. They called
him Amalek, even though that wasn't their name. But they called
the Pharaohs, the kings, they called them Amalek. But there
was a man by the name of Amalek, and this is Amalek's descendants.
And here's what's so peculiar. Amalek and these Amalekites that
came out to fight war with Israel, they were close relatives of
the children of Israel. Now look here in Genesis 36 and
begin in verse 9. Genesis 36 and look in verse
9. These are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites
in Mount Seir. These are the names of Esau's
sons. Remember who Esau was? Remember
who his brother was? Anybody remember who Esau's brother
was? Jacob. Jacob and Esau. Remember, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated? Well, this was some near kinsmen,
wasn't it? The Israel could trace theirs
back to Jacob. Esau was Jacob's brother. Look
here who this was. These are the names of Esau's
sons. Eliphaz, the son of Adar, the wife of Esau. Reuel, the
son of Vashemoth, the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz
were Teban, Omar, Zephor, and Gatham, and Kenaz. Timnah was
concubine to Eliphaz. Esau's son, and she bore to Eliphaz
Amalek. These are the sons of Ada, Esau's
wife. Amalek was Esau's grandson. Now look back a few more verses
with me. Look in chapter 25. I just want to show you where
Amalek came from. He was Esau's grandson. Here
is the history of Rebekah. When Jacob and Esau was in her
womb, you'll remember this. This is very important. Look
in Genesis 25, verse 20. Isaac was 40 years old when he
took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Paddan-aram,
and sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord
for his wife because she was barren, And the Lord was entreated
of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And look at this,
the children struggled together within her, and she said, If
it be so, why am I thus? And she inquired of the Lord,
and the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and
two manner of people shall be separated from thy vows. The
one people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder
shall serve the younger." This was Jacob and Esau. Two manner
of people were in her womb. We come over to our text, and
here are the descendants of these two brethren, and they're still
fighting each other. They're still that enmity. They
fought each other in the womb. They're still fighting each other
in the desert. And here's the spiritual application
to that. If you're a child of God, They're
still fighting each other in your heart. What's this war about? There's somebody that's very
close to kin, and that's ourselves. That's this old Esau within. And this Jacob. The children
of Israel and the children of Esau fighting one another. Now, I want you to look at some
Scripture with me. I want you to look in Deuteronomy chapter
25. Just over to your right. Deuteronomy 25. I want to look
at some things concerning Amalek. Look here at what he
says in Deuteronomy chapter 25 and look in verse 17. See if
you can relate to this. Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse
17. Amalek was a cruel man. Boy, he was sneaky. He was a
coward. He was deceitful. He was a murderer. His descendants were that way.
And look here what's said of him concerning what he did to
the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.
In verse 17 of Deuteronomy 25, Remember what Amalek did unto
thee by the way when you were come out of Egypt, how he met
thee by the way, and smote the hindermost of thee, he smote
those that were coming up behind, even all that were feeble behind
thee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God."
Boy, that was a cruel nation, wasn't it? Amalek was a cruel
man. His descendants were cruel. When
the children of Israel were coming up out of Egypt here in the desert,
And some of them were weak and thirsty and hungry. Here he brought
his army in behind them and got those who were lagging behind
because they were weary and slaughtered them. Killed them. Women and
men and children. He is cruel. He is cruel. Can you relate to that in your
own nature? What do we think about ourselves? Are we sneaky? Are we conniving? Are we deceitful? Do you see yourself that way?
Do you see every potential in you to do harm, not only to heaven,
but to this earth? Has God begun to teach us that
we're fallen creatures? That our heart is indeed desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things? How often do we read
that verse? until God brings it home to our
hearts. And then we keep our face in
the dust because we realize, oh, my soul, my heart is deceitful. If you want to read sometime
how bad we are, read Galatians 5, beginning around verse 17,
and Paul talks about the work of the flesh. The idolatry, and
the adultery, and the fornication, and the drunkenness, and the
deceit, and the anger, and it goes on, and on, and on. And
he lists these things, and we think sometimes, well, I don't
do those things. And thank God that we don't openly
do them. But it's in here, isn't it? Out
of the heart. Perceive evil thoughts out of
the heart perceives adultery. And thank God that we can keep
these things in check. Our poor generation is not doing
a good job of doing it. But that's what we are. That's
what we are. We're just like Amalek. We're
cruel and we're deceitful and we're sneaky. You remember when
David had one last little town that him and his men and their
wives settled in. They had one place to go, Zak
Lag. And you remember the country, the tribe that come and burnt
that place down and took their wives and took all their goods.
You remember who that was? Amalek. That was Amalek. Took
them and took his wives and everything they had, took them. David went
and got it all back. He got it all back. This is why
the Lord told Moses, you're to make war with these. He told King Saul, he said, don't
you spare the Amalekites. I want you to kill the men. I
want you to kill the women. I want you to kill the babies.
And if you see any infants sucking on their mother's breast, you
jerk them off and decapitate them or bust their skulls on
a rock. Don't let any survive. Even kill
their beast. Why would God demand something
like that? They're wicked people. They're
wicked people. Remember Saul brought back Agag
and said, Boy, I've done just like the Lord commanded. And
Samuel said, You brought back the king. And he took his sword
and hewed him to pieces. David went after them as Zach
lagged and killed every one of them that he could get, but 400
of them escaped. I'm telling you, you could not
kill them out. They would just pop up everywhere. Isn't that
the old man? We're told to crucify Him. We're
told to mortify Him. We're told to keep Him beat down.
But I'm telling you what, folks, He'll keep popping up. He's mean. He's sneaky. He's cruel. Let
me show you another place. Look over in Psalms 83. Look something else that's said
about Him. And I think we can relate to
this too. Look in Psalm 83. And look in verse 1. Psalm 83,
verse 1. This tells us something else
about Amalek. Amalek. Keep not thou silence,
O God. Hold not thy peace, and be not
still, O God. Verse 2. For, lo, your enemies
make a turmoil, And they that hate thee have lifted up the
head. They have taken crafty counsel together against thy
people, and consulted against thy hidden ones, those that are
in Christ. They have said, Come, and let
us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be
no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together
with one consent, They are confederate against you. Who are these people? Well, look who they are. They're
some close relatives of Israel. The tabernacles of Edom. That
was Esau, wasn't it? Esau was their father. And the
Ishmaelites. Remember Abraham's son with Hagar? Of Moab. Remember who Moab was? He's one of those sons that Lot
had with his daughter. Verse 7, Gabel and Ammon, there's
that other son, and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants
of Tyre. Asherah also is joined with them. They have helped them, the children
of Lot. Amalek, this sorry Amalek. All of these came against Israel
and they said, let's cut them off from the nation. Is there
something in us to gain its own sinful and lustful ends? Would
take us from God? Would take us from Christ? Take
our hope? Take heaven? And send us off
to eternal ruin just to gain its own sinful ends? Yes, there
is. And it's somebody very close
to us. It's our closest relative. He lives in the house with us.
It's us. It's this Amalek, a very close
relative of ours. And you know something? There's
no reconciliation with ourselves. There's no reconciliation. As
long as we're in this body, there's going to be war. The Lord said
there's going to be war between me and Amalek from generation
to generation. And as long, brothers and sisters,
as we're in this flash, we've got a fallen nature. And that
fallen nature is against God, it's against us, it's against
our own salvation. And the only thing you and I
can do for Him is to crucify Him, is to keep Him beat down. Somebody said this. I forgot
who it was that said this. Somebody said this. The new nature
is merely the renewing or changing of the old nature. Have you ever
heard that? The regeneration is simply or
merely the change or renewing of the old nature. If regeneration
is just a renewing of the old nature, and the old nature is
renewed, then who is this we're fighting? What is this flesh if it's not
the fallen nature? And if it's renewed in regeneration,
why is the Holy Spirit making war against it? No. In regeneration, this old man
is not touched. We have a new nature. We have
a new man. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. This old man, this old nature,
still does not understand the things of God. There's still
foolishness unto him. And God doesn't change him. And
He's not going to change him. Someday, just like Amalek, He's
going to destroy him. And he's going to be gone. But
until then, we've got an old nature. And that's what we have
to contend with. That's why we come here then
to our text, back in our text. And we find here in verse 11
something that's very comforting. How was it the children of Israel
fought to win the battle with Amalek. Well, they had an intercessor,
didn't they? They had an intercessor. They
had someone make it intercessions for them. We find that out here
in verse 11. Look here in verse 11 and 13. Exodus chapter 17. Look in verse
11. It came to pass when Moses lifted
up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him, and he set thereon. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his
hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other, all
the day. And his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua therefore disconfited
Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." Now this
teaches us a good lesson about the intercession of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But we've got to be careful,
I think, how we look at it. Because when we talk about Christ
letting His hands down, we've got to be careful of that, don't
we? But here's the way I look at this, and here's the way I
think is meant to teach us about this. You know the Lord Jesus
makes intercessions in two places for us. He's in two places making
intercessions for us. In His Spirit, He is within us. Make an intercession. God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And what does He
do in our hearts? Romans 8 tells us we know not
what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit makes intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now here is where
this lesson comes in of sometimes the hands being slack. When the Spirit is making intercessions
for us, and you notice this in your own life sometimes, you're
aware of this, you're so aware of this, when He is in you, when
He's praying in you, when He's holding you up in prayer, giving
you utterance to pray, He's strengthening your heart. And in our own apprehension,
and to some degree, what happens when the Spirit of God does not
strengthen us to pray? Have you ever went to prayer
and sometimes the Spirit didn't make intercessions for you? I
think He does this sometimes to teach us that we can't even
pray without Him strengthening us to pray. And there we lay
in prayer. We don't have strength to pray.
We don't have strength to believe. We don't have strength to hope.
We don't have strength to fight ourselves and temptations. And
we feel so weak, and we feel like we're ready to be overcome. Well, what's happened? In our
own apprehension, the Holy Spirit has laid His hands down. Not
because He's weak, but in our apprehension, you see. And when
He lifts His hands back up as it was, what happens? Oh, then
we become firm in prayer, don't we? Then we can say the effectual
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Then we become strong.
Then we want to pray. Then we desire to pray. Then
often we know what to pray for. But sometimes, and you've noticed
this in yourself, if you'll beware, if you'll notice in your own
apprehension, sometimes the Holy Spirit, He don't manifest Himself,
His strength. So we need somebody in us to
make intercession. Who is that? That's Christ, the
Holy Spirit within us. Thank God Christ is in another
place to make intercession. And there, there, in no way in
our apprehension, in our faith, or by the Word, do we ever see
Him let down His hand. He's always got His hand stretched
forth to the Father. He's always got His hand stretched
forth to us. And that's why the Bible says
we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Do you ever
look at the context where Paul said that in Romans 8? We're
more than conquerors? You know that's the context where
he said, Who is He that condemned us? It's Christ that died. Yea, that's risen again. Who
is even at the right hand of God? Who makes intercessions
for us? Who shall separate us from the
love of God? What keeps us from being separated? His intercessions. His intercessions
for us. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And that's why
we're saved forevermore. Because He never lets down His
hands. may seem like He does within us, but He never does
in heaven. That's why, brothers and sisters,
before the battle is over, He'll sustain you. He'll sustain you
in your battle with yourself. Look here for instance in verse
14. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in
a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. I will utterly
put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." Now, when
you think about being your old, wretched, deceitful, sinful nature,
isn't that a wonderful thought? He is someday, brothers and sisters,
going to put out the remembrance of what we are now in ourselves. Wretched and deceitful. You won't
even Have a grievous memory of what you were in this lifetime.
Oh, you'll remember this lifetime for sure. But I tell you, you
won't remember it like you do now. When you think of yourself
now and your sin, what you still are, what you often do, your
faults, isn't it grievous upon your conscience? Isn't it a burden
to you? Well, he said, there's coming
a day when I'm going to stamp out the remembrance of your old
Amalek. You ain't going to remember what
He was. Your conscience, thank God! Thank God for that, huh? Oh, thank God for that. A new
heaven and a new earth, and all the tears are gone. All the pains
of conscience are gone. All the heaviness and sickness
of our heart trouble, all of that is gone. I'm going to stamp
out the remembrance. Oh, that will be heaven, won't
it? That will be heaven. And he never gets tired of fighting
with Amalek. He says here in verse 16, For
the Lord hath said, because the Lord hath sworn that He, look
at this, He will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. See, the Lord knows what we are. He knew who Amalek was. He knew
what a sorry, ungodly tribe of people they were. And He said,
I'm going to fight against them. Generation after generation.
You can't kill them out. I know you can't kill them out.
You've tried to kill them out. David the great king tried to
kill them out. But you can't kill them out. He said, I'm going
to keep fighting against them. They raise up and get a little
tribe together and their weapons, I'll be there to fight against
them. And that's what he tells his children. I know what you
are. I know the unrighteousness that's
in you. I know how deceitful your heart
is. I know your fallen nature. But listen, he said, my Spirit
is within you and He's going to take up the battle. He's going
to fight Himself and He's going to help you to fight. And He
never grows tired of fighting. I tell you, sometimes we look
at ourselves and we wonder how the Lord could love us, don't
we? How could He love us the way
we are? But He does. And He never grows weary of fighting
for us in this battle. I hope that was a blessing to
you. I hope that was a help to you.