Exodus Going With God #12: Going To Battle Exodus 17:8-16

 

Exodus Going With God #12: Going To Battle

Exodus 17:8-16

 The Americans and Russians at the height of the arms race realized that if they continued in the usual manner they were going to blow up the whole world.  One day they sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with one dog fight.  They would have five years to breed the best fighting dog in the world and whichever side's dog won would be entitled to dominate the world.

The Russians found the biggest meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and bred them with the biggest meanest Siberian wolves.  They selected only the biggest and strongest puppy from each litter, removed his siblings, which gave him all the milk.  After five years they came up with the biggest meanest dog the world had ever seen.

Its cage needed steel bars that were five inches thick and nobody could get near it.

When the day came for the dog fight, the Americans showed up with a strange animal.  It was a nine foot long Dachshund.

Everyone felt sorry for the Americans because they knew there was no way that this dog could possibly last 10 seconds with the Russian dog.

When the cages were opened up, the Dachshund came out of it's cage and slowly waddled over towards the Russian dog.

The Russian dog snarled and leaped out of it's cage and charged the American dachshund.  But, when it got close enough to bite the Dachshund's neck, the Dachshund opened it's mouth and consumed the Russian dog in one bite. There was nothing left at all of the Russian dog.

The Russians came up to the Americans shaking their heads in disbelief.  "We don't understand how this could have happened. We had our best people working for five years with the meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and the biggest meanest Siberian wolves."

"That's nothing", an American replied.  "We had our best plastic surgeons working for five years to make an alligator look like a Dachshund."

Now lets talk about a real battle, a battle between the people of God and a people under the power of Satan, Israel and Amalek. This battle in Exodus 17 was not just a skirmish on the edge of the desert it indeed was a battle for the future of mankind.

The Amalekites were not just raiders on a random raid, they were acting as  the agents of Satan sent to destroy the very hope of the world.  Among the millions of the Hebrews is a man who is the ancestor of the future king of Israel David. David is the ancestor of Joseph and Mary the line through which Jesus the savior of the world would be born.  Destroy this man and his children and the hope of the world is destroyed. Destroy these people and the future writers of scripture are erased. Destroy Moses and God cannot give him the 10 commandments. Destroy Aaron and the tabernacle and its sacrifices are lost.

This battle was for much more than just the protection of the Hebrew people moving to the promised land, it was also a battle for eternity.

The Unmerciful Enemy Comes - Exodus 17:8-10

 Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow 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.  

Amalek Attacks

The Amalekites were a tribe of nomadic raiders, who lived by bringing death to others. Their kind is still with us today and always will be. The Amaleks were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s wild brother. As the Hebrews traveled through their ranging territory, they make a tempting target to these predators. The normal tactic for these robber tribes would be to attack the flanks and rear of a moving caravan, killing, stealing supplies and taking slaves. They often attacked the rear because that was where the women and children would travel along with the carts of supplies and cattle of the tribes.

In this battle it might be that Amalek wanted the new source of water that Moses had miraculously opened for the people. Water in the wilderness was mor precious than gold.

The Bible simply says, Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. Moses’ command to Joshua the military leader of Israel is in Exodus 17:9 Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

Fight against this predator tribe, he tells Joshua and while you fight I will move to the hill overlooking the battle and lift the rod of God toward heaven.

 Satan Attacks

In this battle we can see a parallel for all of God’s people in all generations. Like God’s people then, God’s people today have an enemy, a predator an unmerciful foe who attacks when we are most vulnerable and in the weakest places of life. Our enemy today is the same one that empowered and inspired the Amalekites to attack the Hebrews. Satan, attack us when we are spiritually, emotionally and physically at our weakest and most vulnerable. His intention is to take life and make slaves of as many of God’s people as He can.  

The Bible tells us that he is as relentless as a lion on the hunt in 1 Peter 5.

1Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Your life, your family, your church, your community and was we seen so clearly even your nation is under attack by the enemy who wishes to destroy all that is good, moral and just in your life because those good things are the evidence of God in your life and all the way up to your nation. And Satan hates all things that reveal God.

Make no mistake, the battles we fight in our lives, our families and the ones we are fighting in our nation today are spiritual battles. They may play out in the arena of politics or in the streets of our cities but the real battle, the power then behind Amalek and the power today behind  Antifa, BLM and especially the LGTBQ predators is as it always has been Satan. And those that support these godless, atheistic, immoral movements are also driven by Satan. Make no mistake the battle is first spiritual long before it is manifested in the physical world arounds us.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said, in 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The Enemy is advancing, and he is unmerciful in his attacks and complete in his destruction because everything about you, as God’s creation in His image, fills him with rage.

Today the church, Christianity, the family and religious freedom are under the greatest attack in centuries. I could fill the rest of the sermon with nothing but examples of the hurt, sorrow and pain that is being inflicted by those under the power of the enemy.

In our country, Christians are labeled as haters, ridiculed, and marginalized. Never doubt who is truly in control of these forces. You aren’t standing against just political foes, you are fighting the spiritual enemy who empowers them.  In other lands where Satan’s power is much greater, Christians are being slaughtered, crucified, shot in public, beheaded and their children being sold into slavery.

Heed Peter’s warning, “Be sober, be vigilant because everything that it good, every gift of God, is at risk then the enemy comes.

Moses knew that Joshua and the Hebrews would fight a physical battle that day, but he also knew that it would be won through spiritual means. He tells Joshua get ready for your battle and I will go up on this hill and with the Rod of God get ready for mine.

The Uplifted Hands of Moses - Exodus 17:11-13

 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, 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.

Prayer Wins The Battle

When Moses held his hands up the People of God prevailed when he let them fall the people retreated. When he was too tired to stand alone, Aaron and Hur stood beside him. They then put him on the rock to rest. They grabbed his hands and once again raised them toward heaven. The battle was won because God’s man rested on the rock and good men shared the burden when it grew too heavy to bear.

What exactly was Moses doing on that hill with the rod of God that he had used to bring the plagues to Egypt, part the Red Sea and bring water when he struck the rock. That rod represented the power of God and when Moses went to the top of that hill it wasn’t just to watch the battle below it was to fight in the power of prayer in order to win the battle below.

We pray with bowed heads but for the people of God then prayer was often down with uplifted hands.

Psalms 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

Psalms 63:3-4 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

Psalms 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Moses went up and he prayed for without God’s power there could be no victory and the people of God and the plan of God for the ages would have been annihilated.

Prayer Brings God’s Power

I believe the picture of Moses on the rock with his hands lifted toward heaven and Aaron and Hur standing beside him is a dynamic picture of how God wins through us today.

First, Moses hands toward heaven show us where strength must come from.

Moses knew that it was God’s power that would win the battle, God’s strength that would carry the day and God’s judgment that would destroy the enemy. So, he lifted his hands toward heaven and beseeched God for his help and God poured His power into His people.

If we are to win the skirmishes for our soul, the fights for our family and the contest for our country, then we must know that only God’s power can overcome the Enemy.

As Moses lifted up his hand in supplication for God’s strength, we must lift up our hearts in prayer for God’s power. Jesus said in Luke 18:1 men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

Jesus was saying there is only one way to stand and not suffer defeat, “Pray and you will not faint in the heat of battle.”

The Rod: The rod represented God’s appointed tool for Moses leadership. It was appointed by God to be with him and used by him in everything he did in God’s name. God had given it to Moses for every obstacle, every battle, every question. When God wanted Moses to do something he would tell him, “Use the Rod, I have given you.”

The rod in Moses’ hand is what the Bible should be in our hand.

God has given it to us as the inspired, pure and holy Word of God. It contains every word and every thought that God wants us to have.

 He gives it to us to deal with every obstacle, question and to provide the guidance that we need.

 2 Timothy 3:16 -17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Moses would have failed and the battle would have been lost that day if He had not used the rod of God.  You and I will fail in our battles if we do not carry the Word of God with us. It must be in our hands, it should be in hearts and we must use it in the battles of our lives.

Paul said it is our spiritual weapon in Hebrew 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Also remember that the men who stood beside Moses that day. They were vital to the victory.

 If they had not stood with their leader, if they had not put him on the rock when he began to grow weary, if they had not held up his arms when he was too tired to go on, then the Amalekites would have destroyed God’s people.

 This is a great lesson for praying for and standing with your pastor. To encourage him by being with him in the work of the Lord. But I also believe it is a picture of standing beside any of God’s children when they are battling Satan. It may be a personal battle or one that rages in their family, but whatever the battle we should stand beside them and uphold them in our prayers and sustain them by our presence. Sometimes just being there means more than you can imagine and in the same truth, your absence hurts more than you realize.

 Stand with me and stand with God’s people, just be there and show your commitment. And if in the spiritual battle, weariness overtakes, then place them upon the Rock of Jesus Christ through your prayers, join your hands with theirs and hold them up as they fight the Lord’s battles.

Holding the Ropes

William Carey, before he was named the father of modern missions, was a shoemaker in England, but then God put the lost of India upon his heart. He yearned to go and to preach at a time when most believed, “If God wants the pagans saved He will do it without us.”

Once at a mission society meeting the preacher leading the service, called out to the assembly, "Who will go down to the heathen and take them the Gospel?" Carey spoke up and said, "I will go...but you must hold the rope for me!" He had in mind the image of a man descending into a pit to look for treasure but knew he could not succeed unless others held the rope in support.

For any leader of God to have a sustained ministry, he must have God’s power, God’s Word and God’s people as his help or he will fail.

In your spiritual battles, you will need God’s power unleashed through prayer, His Word contained in the Bible and His help experienced thought the support of brothers and sisters in Christ.

One last thing needed to be done for the victory to be complete.  

The Unforgettable Memorial To God - Exodus 17:14-16
 

 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 Jehovahnissi: For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Israel Must Remember The Battle

God told Moses to write about this event, this battle in a book. Isn’t it amazing that you hold a copy of that book in your hand today? Think about it for a moment. Do you carry around a copy of the Battle of Thermopylae, or Gettysburg or Hamburger Hill? No, you can’t count the internet on your smart phone.  Yet we do carry the book that Moses wrote and the battle that we just read about. That is by the power of God and his preservation of His Word.

God wanted the nation of Israel to remember what had been done to win the battle. He wanted especially wanted Joshua, the leader of the next generation, to remember those who fought beside him, to remember God’s power, remember God’s people and to remember the unmerciful enemy that God would promised he would ultimately destroy.

Moses did as God said and wrote it down in the book, he also built an altar of remembrance that day. He called the name of that memorial Jehovahnissi, which means the Lord Our Banner. A reminder of Moses raising his rod on high, finding the power of God through prayer and of Joshua and the army winning the battle under the banner of God.

To Moses and Joshua that day God was their battle flag. This memorial was to remind them that they fight under the power and to the glory of God. They move, march and win under God’s colors and as His people.

In ancient times the battle flag was the way armies communicated and identified themselves. The battle flag was vitally important, and the honor of the soldiers was directly tied to their colors. The battle flag was always protected by a flag bearer and by an honor guard who in the midst of all the battles had only one job, protect the flag at all costs.  There was no greater loss and no greater shame for a company of soldiers than to lose their colors.

We Must Remember

Memorials are all around us and yet too often we fail to remember why they were built. Today in our nation many memorials are being destroyed. Don’t misunderstand me, long before they were tearing down the Confederate memorials they were tearing down the Christian memorials. Crosses, Bibles, plaques that were erected to honor heroes and the God they believed in were being systematically removed from public view. Remember, the enemy despises any reminder of God in our nation or schools.  

But it is not just the secular arenas where memorials are being removed. Baptist Churches are removing the name of Baptist. Some Christians meeting together don’t even bother with the name church anymore. Have they forgotten those who dedicated their lives, sacrificed their future and even died that we might have the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Have we forgotten those who have held the banner of Christian and Baptist throughout the centuries?

Do we know the names of any of the people who were the church of Jesus before they were called Baptist? Have you read their stories, studied their lives and wept over their deaths? Do we remember the Paulicians, the Waldensians, or the Anabaptists?

If we have forgotten, is there any hope of winning the battles we fight now or in the future?

If we have forgotten them, forgotten the ones who fought to bring us God’s word in our language, the ones who died rather than accept the heresies of domination of the state church, will it be long before we forget the God under whose banner they fought?

Jesus warned the church in Sardis in Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Is that not exactly what we are seeing today in so many who call themselves Christian but do not stand for the truth that Christ taught? There is no chance to turn back the tide of sin and immorality in our communities and in our country without remembering the banner of God under which we fight under. There is no hope of turning back the invasion of apathy and immorality unless we once remember and once again raise high our battle flag.  

Story of the National Anthem Star Spangled Banner

Last week we celebrated the birth of our nation which took place on July 4th 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. Only a few years after the United States of America won its freedom at the Battle of Saratoga, we were once again in a war with Britian. A war that if lost could signal the end of our freedom as a sovereign nation. One of the Battles fought in the War of 1812 took place in the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland at a fort name McHenry. The British had already burned Washington DC and if they could take the fort then the city of Baltimore would fall as well. The war could be lost.

A young lawyer by the name of Francis Scott Key had gone out in a ship the day before the battle to plead for the life of a friend, now a prisoner, a doctor who had been arrested because he refused to give food and water to the British soldier who demanded it when they came upon his house in Maryland. For this crime he was condemned to be hanged. Key sailed out under a flag of truce, spoke with the Admiral of the fleet and with letters from British soldiers who had been treated by Dr. William Beanes, he secured the doctors release. But because Key and Beanes had overheard plans for the attack on Fort McHenry they were held until the battle would be over.

For the next 25 hours the British Fleet bombarded the fort, from dawn to dawn. Key watched as the bomb, mortars and rockets were fired into the fort. In total over 1500 bombs and rockets were fired into the fort. Key watched until the light faded and the only thing that could be seen was the explosions lighting the sky above and in the fort throughout the night.

The defenders of the fort had erected a small storm flag at the beginning of the battle and that flag silhouetted against the dying light was the last thing Key saw as darkness fell. In the morning by the dawn’s early light Key and the doctor he came to free looked to see if the flag still stood. If it had fallen, if the fort had struck their colors then that meant the battle was lost.

What they saw that morning was not the small storm flag but instead the commander of the fort Major George Armistead raised a thirty by forty-two-foot, 15 star and 15 striped, United States Flag over the fort. This garrison flag was raised every morning at reveille, but after 25 hours of bombardment this Star Spangled banner sent a message. The fort had not fallen, the young republic was still fighting and would not surrender. Key and Beanes were released and the British sailed of to New Orleans there to face Andrew Jackson and the worst defeat.

That flag was just a decorated piece of cloth, in itself it meant nothing, but what it represented as the banner under which they fought it meant everything. The rod of Moses was just a piece of wood, in itself it was just a poor shepherd’s tool, but in Moses hands that day, it represented Jehovah God and as long as it is raised toward heaven God’s people knew they could not lose the battle.

Conclusion: The Battle still rages

Satan still attacks our families, our churches, our heritage and nation and we must know, where do we stand in the battle? Have we taken our position in the front lines? Have we ascended the hill to seek God’s power?  Are we lifting our hands and hearts to God praying for the power and strength we need? Are we holding to the Word of God like Moses held to the Rod?  Are we upholding God’s leaders and God’s people in our prayers and by our presence?

Finally, are we still looking to Jehovah Our Banner? For as long as look to Him, we will not lose the battle..