Exodus 17:8-16 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.… Various circumstances are to be noted in connection with this attack of Amalek on Israel. 1. It was unprovoked. "Then came Amalek" (ver. 8). 2. It was unfriendly. The Amalekites were descended from a grandson of Esau, and so were related to the Israelites (Genesis 36:12). 3. It was bitterly hostile. This fierce and warlike tribe attacked Israel in the rear, and with great cruelty smote those who had fallen behind, whether from natural infirmity or from weariness and faintness in the march (Deuteronomy 25:18). This was a peculiarly malignant and vindictive act, and as perpetrated upon the people with whose well-being God had specially identified himself, was never to be forgotten. It was in truth one of those wrongs which burn themselves into the memory of a nation, and never can be forgotten. A special Nemesis waits on acts of flagrant inhumanity. 4. It was not without knowledge of the mighty works which God had wrought for Israel. We may be certain of that from what was said in ch. 15. of the effects produced on the surrounding peoples by the deliverance of the Red Sea. The Amalekites knew that the children of Israel were the people of Jehovah. They knew what great things Jehovah had done for his nation. They probably shared in the fear which these wonders of Jehovah had inspired. Their hostility to Israel, indeed, may partly have sprung from this cause. The opportunity seemed given them of making a successful raid upon a people whom they both dreaded and despised, and they hastened to avail themselves of it. Knowing that the Israelites were inexperienced in war, and being themselves numerous and powerful, they may have counted on an easy victory, especially as the people were fatigued with marching and. encumbered with baggage, with women and children, and with the aged and infirm. It was a time well chosen for delivering an attack, and for inflicting a mortal injury on the advancing host. 5. It was the first attack of its kind. And this circumstance gives it a very special significance. It makes it typical. In the issue of the conflict with Amalek is to be seen the result of the whole conflict, prolonged down the ages, between the friends and the enemies of God, between the Church of living believers and the world that hates and seeks to destroy it, waging against it an incessant warfare. Consider - I. THE BATTLE. 1. HOW fought. Observe (1) Fighting was in this case called for. It was not a case, like that at the Red Sea, where the Israelites could do nothing to help themselves. The command, accordingly, is not, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exodus 14:13), but, "Go out, fight with Amalek" (ver. 9). When means of help are put within our reach, God expects us to use them. He would have us exercise our own powers, still, however, in the spirit of due dependence upon him. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you," etc. (Philippians 2:12, 13). (2) The conflict was entered upon with a full appreciation of the gravity of the crisis. The leaders did not commit the error of despising their enemy. They knew how ill-prepared they were for entering upon a contest of the kind. There was no disguising the fact that the men of Israel were raw, undisciplined, wanting in courage, and prone to panic, while those of Amalek were men of the desert, bold, warlike, fierce, able to hold their own with the stoutest foe. This was the first battle of the former; it was but an episode in the life of continual warfare of the latter. Judged by appearances, the chances of war were, therefore, greatly against the Israelites, and it was felt that the most strenuous efforts, aided by earnest intercessions, would be needed to gain a victory. The Church, in like manner, will do well not to take too poor an estimate of her spiritual enemies. They are not to be made light of. They are not to be fought with sham weapons, or in the indolent, half-in-earnest spirit, with which so many are content to attempt the conquest. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," etc. (Ephesians 6:12). The Church need not count on cheap victories. (3) The dispositions for the fight were made with skill and judgment. The men sent into the battle were picked men, and over them was appointed a brave general - Joshua (ver. 9). This is the first appearance of Joshua in the history, but he must have been already known to Israel as a man possessed of the strategical and other qualifications needful in a military commander. Another lesson as to the use of means, and as to the adaptation of means to ends in God's service. The battle was God's, but it was to be fought through human instrumentalities. The strongest, bravest, most valorous men in the camp were, accordingly, selected for the service. No measure was omitted which was likely to ensure success. It is the old law of the economy of miracles. What man can do for himself, God will not work miracles to do for him. Doubtless, but for Moses' intercession on the hill, the battle would still have been lost; on the other hand, had the military arrangements been less perfect, even Moses' prayers might not have turned the tide of conflict so decisively in favour of the Israelites. Cf. Cromwell's advice to his men - "Trust in Providence, and keep your powder dry." Note, further, how the same God who gave the Israelites a Moses, gave them also a Joshua, when a man of Joshua's gifts was specially required. Cf. with the promise as to Christ, Isaiah 55:4. It is for our own benefit that God thus summons our gifts into exercise, and furnishes occasions for their trial and development. 2. How won. First, as seen above, by dint of hard fighting, but second, and more specially, by Moses' intercessions. This portion of the narrative (vers. 10-12) is full of richest instruction. Observe - (1) Moses took with him Aaron and Hur, and ascended to the hill summit, to watch the battle, and to pray (ver. 10). Advanced in years, he could not personally take part in the melee; but he could pray for those who were in it. His prayer was as essential to success as their fighting. It was fighting of its own kind (cf. Colossians 4:12). Real prayer is hard, exhausting work. Even had Moses been physically capable of taking part in the conflict, he was better employed where he was, in this work of earnest intercession. Gifts differ. Joshua's right place was on the field; that of Moses, on the hill. Many can pray who are debarred from fighting, e.g., invalids - Moses sitting on the stone (ver. 12), they, perhaps, lying on their couches - and it is well for them to realise the value of their work, how much they can still do, how useful they are. Note, also, it was in view of the battle that this intercession of Moses was carried on. Prayer needs to be fed by knowledge, by watchful interest in events as they shape themselves around us, by study of the special needs of circumstances of the time. Of what essential service would it be in the warfare of the Church were praying men and women to act more on this principle - seeking, as far as possible, to keep themselves informed of the progress and vicissitudes of the Lord's work at home and abroad, and endeavouring to order their prayers with constant reference to the fluctuations in the battle! Moses praying on the hill may remind us of Christ in heaven, interceding for his Church militant on earth. (2) Moses interceded, while holding up in his hands the rod of God (vers. 9, 11). The rod was the symbol of God's power as pledged for the defence of Israel. Faith holds up the rod in laying hold on God's word and promise, and pleading the same before him. (3) Moses had able coadjutors. Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands when they grew heavy through fatigue (ver. 12). It is a happy circumstance when those who bear the principal burden of responsibility in spiritual work can rely on being aided by the sympathy and co-operation of others, "like-minded" (Philippians 2:20), with themselves in their desire to see God's kingdom making progress. God's people hold up the hands of ministers by praying for them (1 Thessalonians 5:25). (4) The intercession of Moses had a decisive influence upon the tide of battle. When Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed (ver. 11). His hands being steadily supported till the going down of the sun, Amalek was completely discomfited (ver. 13). The letting down of Moses' hands may have been accompanied by a corresponding flagging in the earnestness of his supplications; or it may have been that the outward act, as indicative of the need of sustained and persevering entreaty of God, was itself made essential to the victory. In either case, we have a testimony to the power of prayer. Would that the Church were more alive to this secret of gaining victories by earnest supplication! The influence of prayer cannot be overrated. It decides battles. It sways the tides of history. It opens and shuts the windows of heaven (James 5:17, 18). It puts to the rout spiritual enemies. Paul made use of this mighty power (Romans 1:9, 10; Philippians 1:4, 9, etc.). But even Paul did not pray so much as Christ (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12, etc.). 3. Connection with previous miracle. Is it fanciful to trace in the boldness, valour, and spiritual confidence of the Israelites in this battle, some relation to the wonderful deliverance they have just experienced? It was "at Rephidim," the scene of the miraculous supply of water, that the attack of Amalek took place (ver. 8). This water, in the first place, refreshed the Israelites physically, and so enabled them to fight; but we may believe that it had also a powerful, if temporary, effect upon their minds. It would banish doubt, restore trust, inspire enthusiasm. They drank of the brook by the way, and now lifted up the head (Psalm 110:7). Thus does God time his mercies to our trials, and make the one a preparation for the other. II. THE RECORD IN THE BOOK (ver. 14). This command to insert in "the book" an account of the battle with Amalek was connected: 1. With God's design to give his Church a Bible. A "book" is presupposed, in which, apparently, a journal was kept of the transactions of the march. Such a contemporary record was plainly necessary, if exact accounts of these mighty acts of God in the desert were to be preserved. In no other way could the knowledge of them have been handed down to posterity without distortion, mutilation and adulteration. And God was not giving these mighty revelations of himself, to waste them on the air of the wilderness, or to leave them to the risk of being mixed up with legendary matter of man's adding. This part of Israel's history was being shaped and guided with a view to the instruction of the Church to the end of time (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11); and it was requisite that a proper account should be kept of its memorable events. Hence the existence of "the book," out of the contents of which, we may believe, these narratives in the book of Exodus are principally compiled. 2. With a special significance attaching to this particular event. Amalek's attack on Israel was, as already observed, the first of its kind. "In Amalek the heathen world commenced that conflict with the people of God, which, while it aims at their destruction, can only be terminated by the complete annihilation of the ungodly powers of the world" (Keil). This explains the severe sentence pronounced upon the tribe, as also the weighty significance attached to this first defeat. It takes many types to set forth completely the many-sided enmity of the world to God and to his Church. Pharaoh was one type, Amalek is another. Pharaoh was more especially the type of the enmity of the world against the church, viewed as having escaped from its power. Amalek, as Edom afterwards, is peculiarly the type of vindictive hostility to the kingdom of God as such - of implacable hate. Between Amalek (spiritually) and the church, therefore, there can never be aught but warfare. "Because his hand is against the throne of the Lord" (marg.), therefore "the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (ver. 16). In this first defeat we have the type of all. III. JEHOVAH-NISSI. Moses reared an altar in commemoration of the victory, and inscribed upon it the name - "Jehovah-Nissi" - "Jehovah, my banner' (ver. 15). This name inscribed upon the altar is at the same time a name of God. It extracts and generalises the principle involved in the victory over Amalek, as a former name, "Jehovah-jireh" (Genesis 22:14) extracted and generalised the principle involved in the interposition on Moriah; and as the words, "I am Jehovah that healeth them" (Exodus 15:26), extracted and generalised the principle involved in the miracle at Marah. The truth taught by the name is precious and consolatory. Jehovah is the Church's banner. His invisible presence goes with her in her conflicts. His help is certain. With him on her side, she is assured of victory. His name is her sure and all-sufficient trust. Learn 1. God's deeds reveal His name. The revelation of the Bible is a fact-revelation. 2. It is the Church's duty gratefully to remember the interpositions of God on her behalf. 3. It is her duty to seek to apprehend the principle of God's dealings with her, and to treasure up the knowledge for further use. - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. |
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