‘ONLY’ our UNITY will DEFEAT our ENEMY!
January
23 Bible Reading: Exodus Chapters 16-18
‘ONLY’ our UNITY will DEFEAT our ENEMY!
Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in
Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, "Choose us some men and go out, fight
with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God
in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek.
And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when
Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put
it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on
one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the
going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated
Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. (Exodus 17:8-13)
After the
defeat of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, this was the children of Israel’s
first encounter with a hostile people that took place at Rephidim. Israel had watched
God defeat the Egyptians at the Red Sea, but now they had to enter the battle themselves and trust God for victory!
The
Amalekites, a nomadic group based in southern Palestine, were the descendants
of Esau (Gen. 36:12–16) and according to Deut. 25: 17–19, they launched a
preemptive unprovoked assault upon Israel from the rear. In fact, they took
cruel advantage of those who were weak, faint and weary among the Israelite
stragglers, as they “did not fear God.”
As Esau’s descendants, the Amalekites also had a deep-seated grudge against the
Israelites (Jacob’s descendants), especially seeing their rapid prosperity due
to the blessing contained in their birthright.
- How did Israel defeat their enemy? Joshua (meaning ‘salvation’) and his army engaged in direct warfare with the enemy.
Israel’s success against Amalek was determined by the uplifted hand of Moses
(v. 11). However, we see that “Moses’
hands became heavy” (v. 12). When that happened, Aaron and Hur were with
him to support him by holding his hands up from both sides until sunset when
the Amalekites were defeated. Aaron was the brother of Moses and Hur was the
husband of Miriam, Moses’ sister (according to the Jewish historian Josephus).
Joshua defeated the Amalekites with the edge of his sword, and won a conclusive
victory.
- How can we defeat our enemy? We have only one enemy - Satan and his demonic forces (Ephesians 6:12). Let us
understand that it takes intercession on the mountain as well as intervention
in the valley for us to win the victory over Satan. The uplifted hand of Moses
(v. 11) signifies our prayer and
supplication to God with uplifted
hands (Psalms 28:2; 1 Tim. 2:8). However, we see that “Moses’ hands became heavy” (v. 12) signifying us growing weary in
prayer while we “always ought to pray and
not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Aaron and Hur holding the hands of Moses show
the intercessory prayerful support of
our spiritual brothers and sisters. Finally, it was Joshua who defeated the
Amalekites with the edge of his sword that tells us that we too should apply God’s Word (see Hebrews
4:12) as an offensive weapon in
defeating Satan, just like Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan (Luke 4:1-13).
