Exodus chapter 17 and verse 8. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel at Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out, men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.'
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur 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 her stayed up his
hands, the 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 discomfited 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 Nissi. For he said, Because the
Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. This is an important little passage
that we have before us for a number of reasons. Not least of which
is it introduces us to this man called Joshua. We haven't heard
of Joshua before, but Joshua would be a great man in the history
of Israel. And so as we encounter him here,
it is perhaps good for us to realise that he was a minister
to Moses. He was a man who assisted Moses
and helped Moses. He was a younger man than Moses
and he was a man who proved to be faithful and to be committed
to the service of the children of Israel. This passage also
shows us how the children of Israel, as they travelled through
the wilderness, had to encounter many different kinds of difficulties. We've seen, for example, how
they were pursued by the Egyptians. We've seen how they were troubled
by a lack of food. There was problems about drinking
water. And here we find that they also
had to contend with enemies who caused them trouble. And we will
discover as we think about the children of Israel and their
journey that they would be watched and they would be resisted and
they would be hindered by enemy nations from round about the
country that they were travelling through. They were heading to
the land of Canaan, that promised land, the land that had been
promised to them by God. That land was itself inhabited
by a number of different nations and both those nations and other
nations in this wilderness area would contend against the children
of Israel. They would come out and fight
against them. So this would be the first of
many battles that the children of Israel would have to face.
but Joshua would prove to be a great general and a brave commander
of the people. But not only is there some history
set before us here in these few verses, I believe that there
are also some lessons here for us to draw as well that brings,
as it were, this history of Israel which took place a long time
ago and far away. and yet has a relevance and an
importance and a significance for us today in our own lives. So these truths will come right
up to date for us because not only did the children of Israel
face their enemies in battle, but you and me, we too, have
to face the battles of our lives and we must fight in our own
lives and in our own experiences if we are to be followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now these Amalekites, or Amalek
as they are sometimes called, they were probably a nomadic
people, a nation who lived by moving their flocks around the
wilderness. but they were also a warring
nation and they were known in the writings of other nations
from this time as being a nation of plunderers. And it seems from
other parts of the scriptures that this attack that the children
of Israel faced from the Amalekites was in fact something akin to
a raid or a war party or an ambush that took place against the children
of Israel. And I can well imagine, in my
own mind's eye, I have this view of the children of Israel migrating,
moving through the wilderness, a vast number, a great number
of people, hundreds of thousands and perhaps even into the millions,
but a great number of people making their way through the
wilderness. And what seems to have taken
place is that the people of Amalek had attacked the rear of this
great migration of people. They had attacked those who were
slowest, those who were weakest, and those who were the most weary. And so they had picked an easy
target, and they had ambushed the rear of the Israelite camp
where the weakest and the weariest people were travelling. In the
book of Deuteronomy, for example, we're told that there the Lord
is speaking and he speaks through Moses and it is said, Amalek
met thee by the way, so as they were going through the wilderness,
Amalek met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of thee. So they attacked the very end
this great caravan of people, even all that were feeble behind
thee, when thou wast faint and weary. So this attack may have
occurred just as God was giving Moses water from the rock maybe
even before some of the people at the end of this great group
of people had managed to get anything to drink so that they
would be refreshed and restored. So the people were still weak
and weary when they were attacked by the Amalekites. And that tells
us something that we should remember. The devil is sometimes pictured
as being like Amalek or the Amalekites. The devil attacks the Lord's
people with temptation and he often does so when and where
we are the weakest. and when and where we are most
weary. And often it's a surprise attack. It comes at us from behind when
we least expect it. When we are growing up, when
we are growing older, There's lots of things that we have to
learn about and one of those things is that we learn about
ourselves and we learn how we are weak and we learn where our
problems are and where our vulnerabilities are. And that is something that
it is good for the Lord's people to learn because the devil will
often attack us in those areas of our life where we are most
prone to failure. And we always have to be aware
of these things. There are a lot of lessons in
this respect that are here to be learned. and one of them is
that we need to learn our own weaknesses as well as our strengths. Having been attacked then by
these Amalekites, Moses tells Joshua to choose out men who
are fit to fight and to go and face Amalek. Moses tells Joshua
that he will stand on a hill in the sight of the soldiers
and he will intercede for them with God. Now going to battle
for the children of Israel was a completely new experience. They had not been warriors in
Egypt, they had been servants, they had been builders, they
had been shepherds. but now they were called to be
warriors. And Joshua had to choose out
men who would go into battle with Amalek. And we might wonder
where they got their swords and their shields and their armour. Well, it's quite possible that
these weapons and these shields and armour that they had for
the battle was equipment that they had taken from the dead
bodies of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, when those bodies had
been washed up on the shore. And it seems to be that it was
at that time that the Children of Israel in plundering the bodies,
were able to take some weapons to themselves. But Israel had
been attacked and they had to respond. And while the Lord could
have gained a victory by some supernatural means for the people,
What he is showing Moses and Joshua here is that the people
were also called to protect themselves and to defend themselves and
to look after one another. They had a duty to protect the
weak among them. They too were learning lessons
about being followers of God in this world. Now, when Moses
reached the top of the hill the next day with Aaron and her. Now, we've heard about Aaron
before. We haven't heard of her before, but it's quite possible
that he is a relative of Moses. In fact, some of the Jewish writers,
not that it's in the scriptures, but some of the Jewish writers
think that he may have been the husband of Miriam. who was Mosey's sister, but be
that as it may, here is another man that we encounter called
Her. And the three of these men make
their way to the top of the hill. And as they're up at the top
of the hill, and they're looking down into the valley where this
battle is being fought, Moses held up his rod in his hands. And they discovered that when
Moses held up the rod, the soldiers of Israel made advances against
the Amalekites. But when Moses' arms got heavy,
it's not an easy thing to hold your hand up, for a long time.
When Moses' hands got heavy, then the people of Amalek, the
Amalekites, they prevailed against Israel. Now some people have
thought that maybe Moses had a flag or a banner that he was
holding up and that this was to encourage the army of Israel
as it was fighting in the valley below. But I think that there
is a better explanation than that. I think it is more likely
that what Moses was doing here was lifting up his hands, or
his arms, in the attitude of prayer. That when he prayed to
the Lord, when he interceded on behalf of Joshua and the army,
then the people prevailed, And when he became weary in his prayers,
and when his arms began to sag, then they found that Amalek prevailed. Had it simply been that the raising
of the rod meant that there was a toing and froing of the battle,
then these other two men could have lifted up the rod on Moses'
behalf. But it was Moses' intercession
that was important here, and the fact that he was going before
the Lord on behalf of the people. And I think there are lessons
for us here as well. These men, Aaron and Hurst, supported
Moses, and they got a seat for him to sit upon, and then they
helped raise his arms. And throughout the day, between
the three of these men, until the setting of the sun, Joshua
and his army prevailed against Amalek, and Joshua gained the
victory. Israel defeated Amalek and his
people. that little reference to Amalek
and his people there may suggest that there were other groups
in support of the Amalekites as well at this time. In the
last couple of verses of this passage, the Lord tells Moses
to write down the events of this day in a book for a memorial. It was to be written in a book
because you lose a piece of paper too easily. So this was to be
written in a book and it was to be confirmed with Joshua,
it was to be repeated in his hearing, that's what the word
rehearsed means, and it was a true, that it was a true testimony
of what had happened, so that the generations following would
know what the Lord had done in this battle. And the Lord told
Moses that Amalek would be destroyed as a nation, and they afterwards
were because at the time of David, David finally brought an end
to that nation in battle. And Moses also built an altar
for sacrifice and thanksgiving. No doubt because of the victory
over Amalek and also because of the provision of water from
the rock in this place. And he called the name of the
place Jehovah Nisi and that means that the Lord is my banner or
the Lord is my miracle. Let me just pick up a couple
of little things from these verses that we might apply to ourselves. Here's the first one. Israel
had been delivered from Egypt, and that deliverance from Egypt
might be likened to a believer's conversion when we first trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ and we first commit our heart to
the Lord. And when we first realise that
the Lord has done a work in our lives and we trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's what we call a person's conversion. Being brought out of Egypt is
a little bit like conversion, because they were freed from
the servitude, they were free from slavery, they were free
from under Pharaoh's dominion. And this can be likened to the
conversion of people like us, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if that comparison holds, then what we realise is that
even as the children of Israel had to fight in their wilderness
journey, so believers also have a struggle in our journey through
life. There are times when we get into
trouble. There were times of famine and
drought and warring for Israel and there are times when we too
have to face challenges and troubles in our lives. Even thinking about
warring, not that we're talking here about going to war, although
we know that that is happening in the world in some places today.
But that there are battles that we have to fight in our own lives. Battles that we have to fight
with the world around about us. And sometimes we might think
of Amalek as Satan who attacks and tempts the Lord's people. and that is a picture of our
fallen nature as well and our sinful passions because Satan
attacks our sinful passions and he causes our flesh to want to
do things that our spirits know are not good for us and we soon
find out after we have been converted to the Lord that there is a war
that goes on in our own lives between the things of this world
and the things of the flesh and the things that are of the Spirit
of God. And even if we've been a Christian
for a long time, that battle still goes on in our lives. And we discover that Satan comes
against us and he comes at us where we are weakest and he comes
at us when we are weariest. and he attacks us where we are
most vulnerable. Now I want you to notice something
about this because God didn't simply destroy the Amalekites
as he might have done by some amazing supernatural miracle. He did that in a sense with the
Egyptians. He might even have done that
before they attacked Israel and had done any harm. but rather
he called. to Moses and through Moses to
Joshua for Israel to go out and fight against their enemies for
themselves. That didn't mean that God wasn't
going to help them, but it did mean that as men and women and
as boys and girls, we have to take responsibility for what
we know is right and for what we know is true. Believers have
to earnestly contend for the truth. and we have to fight against
the temptation that Satan brings into our lives. So Paul can tell
us in Ephesians chapter 6, And this armour of God is not real
armour in the sense of helmets and shoes and breastplates and
a sword, but it is a spiritual armour. whereby we take the truths of
the gospel, and we take the revelations of God, and we take the blessings
that God has given us, and we employ these truths in order
to withstand the devil's attacks. And though we are young, we have
been taught the truth, and we have heard the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And we will be tempted by Satan
not to believe that Gospel. And we will be tried by the world
to disobey the Word of God. And our flesh will tell us to
go ahead and do the things that we imagine will bring us pleasure. And these temptations are the
battle that every believer has to face. Whether we're older
or whether we're younger, we are in a war and we all have
to fight. And here's the second thing that
we can learn from this passage. Moses' intercession for Joshua
reminds us that in this war, we will not prevail in our own
strength, but that we need the Lord and we need the support
of our friends for the constant spiritual refreshment and rearming
that we require. That's the reason why the Lord
has placed us in churches. That's the reason why the Lord
has placed us in congregations and given us a fellowship of
fellow believers. And so as we come together we
find that we are enabled not only to draw support from the
Lord but also to share and support one another. There is a resistance,
as we've just seen, to be made on the battlefield of this world. But our strength must come from
the Lord, or we shall be defeated. And Moses' prayers, as he raised
his arms in prayers and his appeals for help, reminds us to seek
the Lord, both in personal prayer and in reading the scriptures
and in hearing his word. God strengthens us through the
hearing of the gospel. And just let us remember that.
Maybe you think to yourself, do we really need to hear that
man speaking every week? We know what he's going to say.
Do we really need to sit and listen to him week after week
after week? Well, you know, maybe you do
know what I am going to say, and if you do, I'm pleased. But
let me ask you a question. Do you have to eat your dinner
every day? If you don't eat your dinner,
you will very quickly become very weak, and ultimately you
will become very ill, and after that, you will die. Because our
bodies need food. and our spirits need spiritual
food. If we are going to run a race,
if we are going to fight a battle, if we are going to labour and
work and get on with our lives, we need food in our bodies. And in order to serve the Lord,
we need to be spiritually nourished and spiritually refreshed. And
prayer is spiritual food. And the Gospel is spiritual food. And fellowshipping together with
the Lord's people and reading our Bibles is how the Lord nourishes
us and builds us up. When we come to worship God,
it is to thank him for the blessings that he has given us in the past
and it is to ask him for more blessings for the future. And Moses knew that the children
of Israel needed that help that day. And Aaron and Har supported
Moses in that spiritual mission. And so we have helps too. We
have a pastor who points us to the Lord Jesus and we have friends
who uphold us together in prayer. We have brothers and sisters
in Christ who support us and care for our needs and who are
willing to help one another, willing to sacrifice for the
cause of the gospel, willing for the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his people to help one another in spiritual growth
that the Lord's people might continue to grow and prosper. That's a lovely picture. we're
all in this spiritual battle together. Joshua, he wielded
the sword. Moses, he prayed to the Lord. And Aaron and Har restored the
strength of Moses in that time. So at the end of the day, the
battle was won. And one final thought and then
we're done. Though we labour together, we remember that the
victory belongs to the Lord. Joshua is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In fact, Joshua means saviour
and it is the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament name Jesus. So Joshua and Jesus are the same
name. One in the Old Testament, one
in the New Testament. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he
went to battle with our enemies on the cross. We're going to
be thinking a little bit more about that in a few minutes.
There he defeated Satan, just as Joshua defeated Amalek. There he defeated death and hell. And a memorial, just as Moses
wrote his memorial in a book, so a memorial has been written
in a book, which is our Bible. And our Bible carries the testimony
of salvation, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That gospel,
that battle that was won for us by our Saviour. Moses built
an altar and sacrificed to the Lord. Well, we don't have physical
altars anymore, but we still come to worship the Lord when
we gather together on these occasions. And we come to the altar that
is Christ. That altar that Christ made for
us by his sacrifice for our sins. God is our God and we are his
people because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
for us on the cross. So when we look at these Old
Testament histories, we can see that there is much to learn from
them, but there are also applications which are made in our own lives
to help us to serve the Lord and to follow after him more
closely. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.