[AI translation] It is a war and a victory fought in a very special way in the holy Word that is read. The people of the Lord, having crossed the Red Sea and were now on their way to the promised land, suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves confronted by an enemy: King Amalek and his army were standing in the way of their march. Moses was determined to confront the Amalekites. He puts Joshua the Younger in charge of the armed troops, sends them forward to the front line, and he himself, with Aaron and Hur, retreats to the top of the hill behind the front, away from the battlefield. What are these three leading men doing there in the background? Have they gone up the hill to watch their people fight the enemy from a safe, distant vantage point? Surely not! We read of Moses raising his two hands in the air, and as long as he held his hands up, Israel was victorious, and as soon as he lowered his two hands, Amalek was victorious. When, during the long struggle, Moses' arms grew weary and heavy, Aaron and Hur sat him on a great stone and took hold of his raised hands, one and one. So Moses' hands remained raised until the people had completely defeated the enemy. The way of warfare described here may seem strange, but the whole story becomes very profound when we know that this lifting up of the two hands was an expression of humble supplication: just as we nowadays kneel down and clasp hands. It is true that Moses was behind the line of battle, but not out of laziness, not out of fear, but out of the most earnest sense of duty: he was helping his people to victory by his prayer. In Moses' hands, prayer was a greater power than Joshua's was a weapon, for Moses invoked the power of God to strengthen the people fighting from the hill in the valley.According to the New Testament, this story is also written for our learning. (1 Cor 10:11) Let us now try to hear God's message to us.
1) The first message of this Word is a solemn warning: the people who had been so miraculously delivered from Egyptian bondage and from the persecuting Egyptians across the parted Red Sea could rightly believe that they could now go on their way to the promised land in peace and quiet. And, lo and behold, it turned out not. An enemy comes out and wages war against Israel. And he is sneakily, insidiously attacking the weary people. It must have been a very painful ambush, for Moses remembers it later in the giving of the law: 'Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt: How he came upon thee in the way, and smote the remnant of the host, and all the fainthearted that were behind, when thou thyself was weary and faint, and fearedest not God." (Deuteronomy 25:17-18)
What this Scripture warns us is that the same insidious and ever-renewing attack is constantly coming to the believer. The man delivered from Egypt, the man forgiven of sin by the blood of Christ, the man converted and born again and set out for the promised land will experience the same as Israel: after great and costly experiences, the struggles will come again. The weakness and weariness of the flesh will be exploited by the renewal of sins, by temptations which the believer thought long ago did not exist for him. The believer thinks that he can now go forward in the ways of the Lord unmolested, for he is past the Red Sea, the death and resurrection of Christ, which separates him from Egypt, from death and damnation. He has also experienced what it means to feed on the manna of heaven, the Word of the Lord, and what it means to drink from the spiritual rock, Christ, and when everything is at its most wonderful, most wonderful: suddenly an enemy appears, sneaks up, attacks and often does great damage, before the believer realizes that he must fight him!
Newly converted people are often bitter and discouraged when, just after their conversion, they are confronted with struggles and temptations that never occurred before! There are believers who have begun to really doubt even the existence of God, who have begun to struggle seriously with the enemy who attacks them in their doubts, after they have had a happy experience of faith in salvation, after they have started on the path of faith. Another believer complained that he had been troubled with the temptation of fornication ever since he had accepted Christ as his Saviour. He had no struggles in this area before, but since then this Amalek keeps coming back and fighting against him! And this is natural: the light is always struggling with the darkness! Where everything is dark, there is no struggle, darkness is at peace with darkness. The struggle begins when light shines in the darkness. No believer can spare this ever-renewed attack and struggle.
But what kind of enemy is this that can trouble us even beyond the Red Sea? Pharaoh and Amalek are two different powers or enemies. Against the one the Lord fought, against the other the people of the Lord must fight. Let us note: they did not fight Pharaoh, they did not destroy the power of Egypt, and they did not themselves break the shackles of their slavery. They did not part the sea, and they did not submerge Pharaoh's army. They did not and could not do any of this. In the battle against Pharaoh, they had been commanded, "The Lord will fight for you, and you shall be destroyed" (v. 4). The battle up to this point had been between the Eternal God and the great enemy, and the children of Israel had only to stand still, gazing in wonder at the power of the Lord and enjoying the fruits of His victory. But now they themselves must take up the fight against another enemy.
Let me now relate this to the case of the believer: the battles by which the believer was redeemed from Satan and damnation were fought by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself alone. He fought for us, He alone was on the cross, He alone was in the grave. How could any man have been there, how could he have overcome Satan, endured the wrath of God, and quenched the sting of death? Jesus alone fought the tremendous battle of redemption from death and salvation, here sinful man can only do one thing: stand and watch the Lord deliver him! (Like the flower the sun.) But as soon as he accepted this deliverance: immediately the believer's struggle now began. With whom? Against his own evil nature! The believer still carries with him his old self, his old man, in the words of the New Testament: the flesh and its desires! This is the Amalek that always comes out, and always sneaks up on you.
The apostle Paul experienced this and expressed it this way: "the flesh strives against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you would." (Galatians 5:17) When the Holy Spirit of God begins to work in a person of faith, the flesh immediately opposes him with its desires, lusts, passions, and feelings. There the struggle between the Spirit and the sinful nature of the old man is immediately set in motion, and it is this flesh, this old man: this Amalek, which always, even beyond the Red Sea, disturbs, distresses, hinders the believers who are wandering towards the promised land, and prevents them from going on peacefully. This is the one against whom the believer must always array his best forces and engage him, and not rest until he has settled this struggle, as it is written in the story, "And Joshua smote Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." (verse 13) Almost in harmony with this is the like instruction of God in the New Testament, "But they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." (Galatians 5:24) So crucify the flesh with its lusts and desires, slay the old man! This is the same thing that Jesus said, "But if your right eye offends you, gouge it out and cast it away; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, than that your whole body should be burned. And if thy right hand offend thee, thou shalt cut it off, and cast it away from thee: for it is better for thee that one of thy members perish, than that thy whole body perish. (Mt 5,29-30)
I said there is a warning in this Word. Yes, the warning that sinful man, when he has happily acknowledged that Christ has won His decisive victory over Satan and secured his salvation: should always be ready for Amalek's attack and the fact that the battle against him will go on to the end of his life. I might say that Christ's fight for you against Satan and death has already taken place, and if you have already accepted this, Christ's fight in you now begins.
2) But this Word not only warns, it encourages and exhorts: it opens the prospect of certain victory. It is not only that Joshua and his army are fighting, but also that Moses is praying for them. In fact, Joshua's army was able to prevail over the much larger Amalekite army because of the divine strength they received from Moses' prayer. Every soldier was given new strength and enthusiasm by seeing Moses on the hill, with his hands raised in prayer for them as they fought the enemy. Moses kept the connection between the fighting troops and the mighty God through his prayer. Behold, how much Moses' intercessory prayer mattered! So did Jesus! For it is really about Him that this story is told! It is of Him that the New Testament says: "Therefore He is able to lead all who come to God through Him, for He lives to make intercession for them." (Heb 7:25) The arms of our great mediator never fall short like those of Moses, His intercession never wavers, never ceases, and always triumphs!
My brother! In your struggles, always remember that Someone is pleading for you with inexpressible supplications: that it is Someone's prayers for you that keep the link between you and the living God. Through this connection, mysterious heavenly powers are flowing down upon you, God Himself is fighting in you with His Holy Spirit! And if you take up the fight against Amalek with this faith, can you still doubt that victory is certain for you?
3) And finally, this Word not only warns and encourages, but also empowers and commissions: every believer is free, and indeed must, undertake the service that Moses, Aaron and Hur fulfilled on the mountain! Thus God calls us to this service in the New Testament: 'Pray for one another, that ye may be healed: for the fervent prayer of the righteous is very profitable' (Jas 5:16) In this church, this exhortation is addressed to those who have already crossed the Red Sea, that is, to living members who have come to a living faith. Do not be a mere spectator of another person's life, his struggle with sin, his daily struggle: you are free to participate, to intervene in the life of another by praying for him. I can imagine a true church community in which each person has a praying companion with whom they pray for each other and together for others! Through Moses' prayer, the power of God flowed down from heaven upon the struggling army on earth. Prayer is the means by which this heavenly power is released and absorbed. Praying for someone puts that person in touch with God, and through that sacred relationship, the power of God slowly permeates and penetrates them.
Our Reformed Church, at the disposal of the Covenant, today observes its annual Jewish Mission Sunday. The wounds which are aching in the hearts of many people, the destructive passions which are swelling up all over the world, only to burst out with terrible force, the spiritual and material problems which are becoming more and more tense: believe me, Brothers and Sisters, they will only be resolved, soothed and balanced if Christian people can pray for them earnestly. If Christ's faithful people can take up the matter so pleadingly, and find in this pleading prayer the praying hands of one another, as Moses, Aaron, and Hur on the mountain! He who has truly crossed the Red Sea can do so! Let us pray that the Lord will multiply the church with such worshippers!
Amen
Date: 4 December 1949.
Lesson
2Móz 17,1-7