OUR BANNER
“We are all better when we stand together”. I have heard this type of quote more than once recently (It is used on the Weather Channel 6-8 PM program and other places). What this means is there is strength in numbers. Sometimes life can feel so insurmountable that no amount of help and support makes a difference and these types of statements offer no help. Think about some things we rely on for protection. Thankfully, God stands over the world, and He stands over every single issue we face. We are always covered by God’s protection and believers live with that assurance. As the Israelites discovered, God is a banner over us, covering us with His protecting presence.
Read Exodus 17:8-10
Moving on from Elim, the Israelites journeyed to the Wilderness of Sin (leaving Shur), where they again fell into grumbling against God’s spokesman Moses and his brother Aaron. In their hunger, they complained that Moses and Aaron had led them out into the wilderness to die of starvation. They also longed for their former life in Egypt where there was plenty to eat. Did you really expect something different from them? God mercifully provided the Israelites manna to eat (Exodus chapter 16). They then traveled on to Rephidim, where they again grumbled against Moses and complained of lack of water (17:1-3). SURPRISE!!! But in spite of the people’s insults and testing of the Lord, God again graciously provided for their needs (vv. 4-7). This where our Scripture for this lesson begins.
Suddenly a crisis of a different kind confronted Israel. The earlier crises that had crippled Israel’s faith had been pursuit by an enemy whom they thought had been defeated and the lack of provision in the wilderness when they thought they could not survive. With the Amalekites, there was an enemy in front of them, prohibiting them from continuing on their way to Sinai. The Amalekites were descendants of Amalek, a grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:12). They are constantly seen in the Old Testament as Israel’s enemies. They were a fierce nomadic tribe that lived in the desert region of the Dead Sea. They made part of their livelihood by conducting frequent raids on other settlements and carrying off plundered goods. They killed for pleasure. One of the greatest insults in Israelite culture was to call someone “a friend of Amalek”. When the Israelites entered the region, the warriors of Amalek saw this as a perfect opportunity for both pleasure and profit. But this hostile tribe was moving in on the wrong group – a people led by God. For the Israelite slaves to defeat
Such a warlike nation was more than enough proof that God was with them as He had promised to be.
Here we meet Joshua for the first time. Later, he would become the great leader who would bring God’s people into the Promised Land. At this point there is no indication that Joshua would one day succeed Moses in leading Israel. As a general of the Israelite army in this story, he was gaining valuable experience for the greater battles to come. In verse 9, Moses told Joshua to pick some warriors and go fight against Amalek. Moses, Aaron and Hur went together up to the hilltop where Moses would use God’s staff as he was told to do. This is first time Hur is mentioned in Scripture. Later Hur and Aaron would be left in charge of the camp when Moses and Joshua went up onto Mount Sinai to meet with God (24:14).
Read Exodus 17:11-13
Verses 11 and 12 describe what I mentioned last week about Aaron and Hur helping to support Moses’ hands when they grew heavy. (I had not read ahead to realize this was coming up in this lesson.) The action of Moses in overseeing the battle is probably best understood in the form of symbolic actions of the prophets. By such actions they seem actually to have been involved in the release of divine power. This kind of act was always considered to be an outpouring of divine grace. Aaron and Hur are portrayed as faithful servants who literally undergirded their leader in his faithful service. By their aid, with Joshua’s military leadership, and as a result of God’s power, Israel had the victory.
Aaron and Hur stood by Moses’ side to help ensure the victory against Amalek. As long as Moses held up the staff, the Israelite were winning, but when Moses got tired and his staff dropped, the tide was turning in Amalek’s favor. So, even though Aaron and Hur, at first, just seemed to be bystanders, they were key to the victory. We need to “hold up the hands” of our spiritual leaders as well. Shouldering some responsibility, lending a word of encouragement, or offering a prayer are ways of refreshing spiritual leaders in their work. While God calls and equips some individuals to serve in unique places of leadership, He also calls countless others to support the primary leaders and to carry on the work when necessary.
The staff was a symbol of the power that God had supplied and would continue to supply to enable the Israelites to conquer their enemies and take control of the Promised Land. It was an object lesson for the Israelites that dependence on and trust in God, not their own strategies or strength, was what would win their battles. We have spiritual symbols today in our church buildings and in our homes. We use empty crosses to remind us both of Jesus’ sacrificial death and His resurrection. However, we don’t bow down to a cross, we bow down to a risen Savior. We don’t wear crosses as means of protection but as signs to us and others of God’s presence and power that are in us through our faith in Jesus. Only through our faith in Jesus so we have the power to prevail in our spiritual battles with Satan and sin.
Read Exodus 17:14-16
There is a major dimension in the conclusion of this episode. Moses was commanded to commit something to writing. The Hebrew has a definite article, making the order refer to “the book”. This was apparently a record of the past that was intended to be used as a basis for future actions. It may have been some sort of official journal. This might be considered strange for a leader of slaves. It should not be strange for a man who had been trained as a child of Pharaoh. In that capacity, Moses would have been made knowledgeable of the importance of good records. There was certainly one major reason that the Lord wanted this recorded and recited to Joshua. God wanted to “completely plot out the memory of Amalek under heaven”.
Then in verse 15, Moses was said to have built an altar and gave it a name: “The Lord is My Banner”. Banners were used to identify families and tribes. Having a Lord as their banner associated the Israelites with their covenant God, Yahweh. As God is our “banner” (protection), what kind of saying should be our banner for God?
So, regardless how the rank and file Israelites felt, Moses was giving all the credit to the Lord. The last phrases of this passage have some very difficult Hebrew. Although we cannot be sure of all the details of this passage, it obviously served as a prediction of a long series of future conflicts between Israel and Amalek. The basic meaning seems to have been that God would always serve as an ensign of the of the armies of Israel. Whatever option we might choose in translating this verse, the emphasis is that though the fighting of this initial battle and future battles involved the Israelite people. God Himself would be fighting on their behalf against the Amalekites (the descendants of Esau). Because Jesus has come as God’s fullest revelation, we can look both backward and forward in God’s salvation history and see the full meaning of God as our banner. Isaiah 11:10 says “the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples”. We know that Isaiah was talking about Jesus, who he called the Messiah.
For a deeper look at God and His Word,
EXPERIENCE GOD'S PRESENCE
REVELATION: Receive and Abide in the Presence of God by Understanding Him. Learn to taste Heaven now. Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Teaching you to think differently about earthly things to freely receive the glory of God.
