The story of Israel’s salvation from Amalek’s unprovoked attack at Rephidim is a fascinating one to me. First we meet this new character Joshua who obeys Moses and fought with Amalek. This shows us why Joshua is going to make a good successor to Moses and the defeat of Amalek foreshadows the conquest of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership. You may know that the people of Israel are going to take a forty year detour before that conquest because most of the people later have doubts about God’s promise to give it to them when they see that there are Amalekites among others in the land. Then we have mention of Moses’ staff and how he was going to hold it up. This reminds us of the plagues and especially the Exodus Event itself where Moses held up his staff and the people went through the sea on dry land with walls of water on both sides. And Moses goes up on a hill to do this foreshadowing how very soon the people will stop at a hill called Sinai and Moses will go up the hill to receive the law. Also the mention of a memorial would have reminded them of the way that the Feast of Unleavened Bread also was to be a memorial. And Moses is told to write it in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua just as he would do with the law when Joshua took over the leadership of Israel (Deuteronomy 31). This short passage then was designed to remind Israel of where they have been and foreshadow where they were eventually going. Hear the good news!
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This story is good news for the people of God.
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It was good news for Israel because not only were they saved from the Amalekites that day but God promised to fight from generation to generation against those Amalekites who wanted to exterminate the people of Israel. Make no mistake about it – the Amalekites saw this as their chance to wipe out all of Israel once and for all while Israel was still out in the wilderness. The people of Amalek throughout their history wanted nothing less than the complete destruction of the Hebrew people. It was a descendant of Amalek who tried to exterminate all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire in the days of Esther. So the Amalekites would be a recurring threat to Israel throughout the Hebrew Scriptures but the good news for Israel was that God promised to have war with the Amalekites from generation to generation and that one day He would blot out their memory on the earth.
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But there is a much deeper and bigger reason that this story is good news for the people of God. This good news is that Jesus died for our sins on the cross and Jesus is risen. Risen indeed. Yes, this story in Exodus is a little glimpse of Easter ahead of time. And while there are many ways that I might show you how this is the case I’m going to stick today to this one: It is a glimpse of Easter because those that tried to exterminate the true Israel of God named Jesus Christ were defeated in their efforts by His resurrection from the dead. It is a glimpse of Easter because Jesus who had been lifted up on a cross on a hill called Mount Calvary, his dead body then sealed in a tomb, on the third day conquered death for all those who believe in Him. Thus no matter what people try to do to us in this life, all those who believe in Jesus have eternal life. The Amalekites of this world cannot take it away from you. They fight in vain against the Lord and His people. The people of God can never be killed let alone be exterminated for we have eternal life in Christ Jesus. Moreover, that initial defeat of Satan and his armies at the empty tomb is a glimpse of their final defeat at Jesus’ Second Coming. If you have heard me preach much from the book of Exodus you know that the whole story is pointing us forward to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, this story of the defeat of the Satanic Amalek in Exodus does not just foreshadow the conquering of the Promised Land in the book of Joshua, but it foreshadows the death and resurrection of a new Joshua named Jesus Christ and His final conquest of the nations when He returns. Again the good news is that Jesus is risen, risen indeed, and coming again. (So apparently this is an Easter sermon after all. And like every good Easter sermon, the main application of this one too is for you to…)
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Believe in the risen Jesus – yes, Jesus is risen, risen indeed – and worship Him.
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The original purpose of this passage was to encourage Israel to support Moses and believe in God. You may have found it curious that Aaron and Hur helped support Moses by holding up his hands. This actually foreshadows the passage for next Sunday where Moses starts sharing the load of the work of ministry with many others. But already here is the idea that the the spiritual leaders in Israel need to support Moses. This passage also follows three where the people were grumbling for water, food, and for water again. So it only makes sense that God would call upon His people to support the leadership of Moses in this context. After all, grumbling at the leadership of Moses was fraught with peril as there were plenty of external enemies to worry about without having to worry about so-called “friendly fire.” But this half of the purpose was to support the second – that Israel believe in God and thus that Israel worship Him alone. The passage was to encourage Israel to believe God’s promise that He would fight against Amalek – to believe God’s promise that He would deliver the Promised Land to the people of Israel – with the ultimate goal being that Israel would worship Him. This worship goal is represented in the passage by Moses writing this as a memorial and by Moses building an altar.
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When we bring this passage through Jesus Christ and into the present the application is similar. One of the most striking things to me about this passage is how God worked through people to bring about the salvation of many. There was a lot on the line – the potential extermination of the people from whom Jesus would come – but God used people like Joshua and the men that he chose to go fight Amalek and God used people like Moses who got weary and needed the help of Aaron and Hur to steady his hands holding the staff of God in the air. Of course, God could have rained down fire and brimstone upon the Amalekites but He didn’t. He used people for this mission. And today our mission, for which we too need faith, is to share the good news that Jesus is risen. Risen indeed. You may think it would be better if somehow God would just rain down this message from heaven without it having to go through you, but He isn’t doing it that way. He is working through you to bring about the salvation of many. Some of you may be spiritual leaders called to hold up the hands of another on a hill, some of you may be spiritual officers and soldiers on the front lines sharing the good news, some of you may be in various other spiritual supporting roles, but God is using us all for this mission. Of course there are times when your faith may be shaken because the Amalekites look scary or because you think they might be prevailing or even because you thought the mission was dangerous enough without friendly fire and we need to look again to the tomb – Jesus is risen. Risen indeed. And then in faith we stop and gather for worship – Moses built an altar and called the name of it, ‘YHWH is My Banner’ – itself a glimpse of the promised new creation rest that awaits. True worship is a taste of the Promised Land for those who believe in the risen Jesus. I am reminded of the John Piper quote, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” So as you return to some part of the mission field on Monday morning, believe in the risen Jesus – and share the good news that Jesus is risen. Risen indeed.
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