Ambushed on the way to Sinai

They are approaching the mountain. God is about to give them His commandments. And out from the hills come the Amalekites — desert pirates, attacking the stragglers, the people at the back who were already struggling.

Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.

Deuteronomy 25:17–18  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

So a council is called. These people had been slaves for four hundred years. They did not know how to fight. Moses had been a general in Pharaoh’s army — and Moses says: I am going to hold up my hands and pray.

Who the Amalekites were

Amalek was a descendant of Esau (Genesis 36:12) — the man who sold his birthright and gave away his blessing from God. His children are despisers of the things of God. They hated Israel, the descendants of Jacob. They hated God.

And there is something behind it. Contained within the nation of Israel was Jesus — so there was a demonic urge to destroy the people who would bring Him to us. This is the first time we see demonic power invested in people to destroy the people of God. In Egypt they were not yet a nation, only a family. Now they are a nation, and now they are attacked.

So at this first occasion, God shows us how it is to be handled: not by human might, but by covenant — and by a sign lifted up where the people can see it.

The first time Moses does not know what to do

Notice what is new here. Before this, Moses simply pronounced and it happened. He put forth the rod. God told him what to do and he did it — no prayer involved.

This time there is no direction. He does not know what to do. But he knows God is committed by covenant. So he does the obvious thing: he sends out the troops, and then he goes up the mountain to pray.

So it happened when Moses raised his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then 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 one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set.

Exodus 17:11–12  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

Look at what the army in the valley can see. A man on high ground with the rod of God held above his head. That is a standard — a pole lifted where scattered people can look up and find it. While it is up they prevail; when it drops, the sign is gone and so is the battle. And the hands say what the sign says: we are helpless in and of ourselves; we are dependent.

And he could not hold it up alone. His hands grew heavy, and Aaron and Hur put a stone under him and held his arms, one on each side, until the sun went down. The man who carries the sign has to be carried himself.

And the people see something new in God. They see that they are to be the people of God among the nations, that God has a purpose for them, and that God will fight their battles because of that purpose. The enemies will not be defeated through our efforts, but by the Spirit of God.

Why did it depend on a man?

This is the hard question in the chapter, and it should not be smoothed over. While the sign was up, the power of God flowed. Somehow Moses was the channel. If Moses did not hold it up, the people of God failed.

The implication. God’s victory comes in covenant with man. He does not do it alone and He has not chosen to — there is always human agency in it. And the man holding the sign up needs others holding him.

And that is the pattern, not the exception. Before a battle the priest was to remind the army that Yahweh goes with them to fight for them — and then the ranks were thinned, sending home the man who had built a house, planted a vineyard, become engaged, or was simply afraid (Deuteronomy 20:1–9). A handful of men who understand the name are enough. Gideon was cut to three hundred. David went out as one boy against a champion, representing the whole nation (I Samuel 17). Jehoshaphat sent the singers out in front of the army (II Chronicles 20:21). God does it — but the human participation of faith is required.

Moses is calling on a covenant term, and he knows it:

Five of you will pursue one hundred, and one hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

Leviticus 26:8  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

The battle was not on the battlefield. It was in the covenant. Moses, who could have directed the fighting expertly, laid down all his natural understanding of battle and took hold of the promise instead.

The altar, and the name

And Moses built an altar and named it Yahweh is My Banner; and he said, “Because He has sworn with a hand upon the throne of Yah, Yahweh will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

Exodus 17:15–16  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

A banner is not a weapon. It is a sign of who you belong to and who is fighting for you — and it is lifted up, like a pair of hands on a hill.

Where this goes — lifted up, and drawing all men

Hold on to the picture, because Scripture does not let go of it.

The word Moses gives the altar is nes — a standard, a signal, a pole raised where everyone can see it and gather to it. It returns almost at once. When the people are dying of snakebite, God tells Moses to “make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it, will live” (Numbers 21:8). The same word, and the same remedy: look up.

Jesus takes it and applies it to Himself — “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14) — and then says what it is for: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32).

Isaiah had already seen the end of it. The nations will seek the root of Jesse, “who will stand as a standard for the peoples” (Isaiah 11:10). The rallying point is no longer a rod above one valley. It is a Man, lifted up, and the gathering is worldwide.

On a hill above Rephidim it was a rod in the hands of a tired man, held up by two others. On a hill outside Jerusalem it was the Son of God. Yahweh Nissi.