The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 5th October 2008 by Robin Hawkins
"Moses & The Amalekites"
EXODUS 17:8-16
While I was on holiday, the Lord impressed on me the need to keep on holding up before us, the vision we have as a church. Every week, our vision statement is printed on the back of the Newsheet; but I wonder how many of us could, without looking, tell me what it says. We have to keep reminding ourselves of, and renewing our vision. We get stale spiritually, we get tired, we grow weary in well-doing. The way to prevent that is to keep having fresh encounters with God, allowing the life in Him to renew us inwardly as well. We're going to see that prayer is a vital part of that. Dave challenged us a few weeks ago on the importance of praying together as a church. We all need to grasp afresh that Prayer changes things! Our prayers matter. They can make the difference between victory or defeat.
That's the major point of this story we read about Moses, although there's a bit more to it as far as the Israelites were concerned. Only a few verses before we read that the Israelites were so rebellious against Moses they were talking of stoning him! But God honours his leaders. He used this battle to show them that they needed Moses, and they needed his intercession for them. God had to convince Israel railing at Moses wasn't going to help. His hands did more for their safety than their hands, and his walking stick more than their swords. So God decided that they would win or lose the battle depending on whether Moses lifted or lowered his hands.
Rephidim has great significance for us in our spiritual warfare. For the Israelites it was the last stopping place before Sinai - the place of Covenant and breakthrough with God. Wasn't it just like the enemy to try to stop them getting there? For us the fight is often fiercest just before the breakthrough. But God may have wanted to use this battle in other ways. He may have wanted to use it to stir them up.
This place Rephidim means "Resting Place". It's just possible the Israelites, having been given a supply of water were digging in. Now there's good rest, and bad rest. We all need rest, but when we start to take our ease, the Lord will sometimes use a battle to shake us out of it. As Chris Hill once observed: "Christians were made to fight. If we don't join together against our common enemy, the danger is that we'll end up fighting against each other."
The common enemy here was the Amalekites. They were descended from Esau who sold his spiritual inheritance for a plate of stew because he was hungry. The Israelites should have been descended from Esau; as it was, the line descended through his brother, Jacob. It might be stretching a point to ally the Amalekites with our fight against our old nature with its bodily appetites and desires, but they're certainly a good analogy of it. They were a thorn in the side of the Israelites for generations. Time and again, God told them to wipe the Amalekites out. Time and again they failed to do so. Saul had the kingdom taken from him because he failed to destroy the Amalekites totally. Turn with me to 1Sam 15:2-3, 10-23 etc. There was something about the Amalekites that tainted everything they touched. It may have been something demonic, and in those days the only way that Israel could be protected from being tainted themselves, was for every living thing belonging to the Amalekites to be destroyed.
For us the Amalekites represent the things that get in the way of our walk with God - the trash we brought into our Christian lives, that we battle against constantly. They're the trash that would prevent us pressing on to meet with God. Trash can be attitudes of doubt and unbelief. Or it can be self-reliance, pride, selfishness, anger and unforgiveness.
Trash can be more substantial like being a workaholic, alcoholic, shopaholic, gamblaholic. Trash can be good things that shut out the best. We can have a good relationship with boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, family.... But if it's so good, there's no room for God, we've let something good shut out the best.
This will be an ongoing battle probably all our lives, yet the command of the Lord is to destroy the old nature completely and its effect on us. Most of us don't need to be reminded that we're in a battle. However, where most of us have trouble, is recognising where the battle is taking place. (If you're taking notes this is my first point.) How many of us let our times with God slip because we were on holiday?
Perhaps there's a misunderstanding. Somebody takes offence, and suddenly there's tension in the air. It doesn't have to be anything real. Satan plants a thought in your mind, accusing another brother of something. Perhaps you can't find the key to the admin office; and the thought comes to mind: "I bet Robin's gone off with it. He's so thoughtless, and inconsiderate..... Like a fool you believe those thoughts because they sound so plausible - and suddenly you have resentment against a brother, who is entirely innocent. (I have my own key!) This is the battle, Church.
The devil loves to sow disunity. How important is it guard our relationships. Choose not to take offence. Let love cover a multitude of sins. Be as ready to forgive as readily as we've been forgiven. Choose to believe the best of one another. Don't be quick to judge each motives. Don't keep a score of wrongs. These are the weapons of our warfare - as well as prayer.
So we've looked at the timing (just before Sinai), and the location ( a place that would have been easy to settle down in); and we've looked at the enemy, and the kind of enemies we've got. Now let's see how the battle was fought.
It was definitely teamwork. Joshua appears for the first time on the scene. It was the first time too that the Israelites had had to actually fight a battle. So Joshua and his warriors fight. Moses prays. Hur and Aaron are in a vital supportive ministry. I think it would be dangerous to draw too much on this. We are in a NT context where we are all called to pray. We are all called to be warriors and to engage in the battle. Prayer and action went together on this occasion. But there was no action without prayer, and that's my second point.
The real issue here is one of dependence upon God. (And this is my third point.) There's a time to be doing, but we cannot expect "doing" to succeed without prayer. Some of us are "doers" by nature, and we have to learn to be "leaners on God" first. God wants us to be totally dependent on him. More than that He wants to be our chief delight. After all, we are His chief delight. But God wants us to demonstrate that our joy is firstly and foremost in Him.
The battle ebbed and flowed for them as it does for us. One minute they were being driven back - More forgiveness needed! More love. More prayer! Then the battle moves forward again. When Moses held his staff up, it was symbolic of his dependence on God - and the battle went their way. When he lowered his arms, it was a sign of independence from God - and the battle went against them. But they didn't give up because the battle took a turn against them.
Nor was it acceptable to God for Moses to lower his hands because he was tired. There was a battle still being fought. There was a danger of defeat. They had to press on through. (And this is my fourth point.) But to do this, Moses did need help and support, and he had to be willing to accept it. So Hur and Aaron stood alongside him holding up his arms. Leaders do get tired, burnt out, and exhausted, but there's no let-up in the battle. Our enemy doesn't leave us alone because we're tired or we've had a bad day. On the contrary, he comes in harder at that point. We need desperately the prayers and encouragement of friends who will stand alongside us in support.
We have to learn to press on through in prayer until we sense the victory is ours. Give yourself to the battle, and who knows what will be accomplished that wouldn't have been otherwise. People will be saved who wouldn't have been. Others will stop backsliding. Others will be baptised in the Holy Spirit, and come into a new and deeper experience of God. Situations will be changed. Unity restored. Heaviness lifted, relationships healed - all because we prayed together. Moses told Joshua to "Choose some of our men to go out and fight the Amalekites." We've all been chosen and called to fight this battle at King's. It's not me choosing you because Jesus has already chosen you to go out and fight. The question is: "Will we respond to His call to battle?"
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1