Exodus 17:8-16 At Rephidim the Amalekites came and fought against the Israelites. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men and go and fight the Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on the top of the hill and watch you. I will be holding the walking stick God gave me.” 10 Joshua obeyed Moses and went to fight the Amalekites the next day. At the same time Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 Any time Moses held his hands in the air, the men of Israel would start winning the fight. But when Moses put his hands down, the men of Israel began to lose the fight. 12 After some time, Moses’ arms became tired. So they put a large rock under Moses for him to sit on. Then Aaron and Hur held Moses’ hands in the air. Aaron was on one side of Moses and Hur was on the other side. They held his hands up like this until the sun went down. 13 So Joshua and his men defeated the Amalekites in this battle. 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write about this battle. Write these things in a book so that people will remember what happened here. And be sure to tell Joshua that I will completely destroy the Amalekites from the earth.” 15 Then Moses built an altar and named it, “The LORD is My Flag.” 16 Moses said, “I lifted my hands toward the LORD’S throne. So the LORD fought against the Amalekites, as he always has.”
Who are the Amalekites? “Dweller in a valley”, the son of Eliphaz by his wife Adah and grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:10,12; 1 Chronicles 1:36); Teman’s father; the chief of an Idumean (or Edomite) tribe (Genesis 36:16). His mother was a Horite, a tribe whose territory the descendants of Esau had seized.
1 Chronicles 1:34-43 And Abraham fathered Isaac. The sons of Isaac were Esau and Israel. (35) The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. (36) The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, and Omar, Zephi, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek. (37) The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. (38) And the sons of Seir: Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan. (39) And the sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. And Timna was Lotan’s sister. (40) The sons of Shobal: Alian, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shephi, and Onam. And the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. (41) The son of Anah was Dishon. And the sons of Dishon: Amram, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. (42) The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, and Zavan, and Jakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran. (43) And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before a king reigned over the sons of Israel: Bela the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
Why did they attack Israel? It could be that Esau’s descendants were knowledgeable of the promise and that Esau had lost his birthright. Maybe they were afraid Israel was on it’s way to claim the Promised Land? Or maybe they just wanted to steal and attacked the stragglers in the rear in order to steal from them? Maybe it was to take the water that now gushed from the rock?
Unprovoked attack:
Deuteronomy 25:17-18 Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, (18) how he met you by the way and struck those of you who were behind, all the feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary. And he did not fear God.
As the heathen world was now commencing its conflict with the people of God in the persons of the Amalekites, and the prototype of the heathen world, with its hostility to God, was opposing the nation of the Lord, that had been redeemed from the bondage of Egypt and was on its way to Canaan, to contest its entrance into the promised inheritance; so the battle which Israel fought with this foe possessed a typical significance in relation to all the future history of Israel. It could not conquer by the sword alone, but could only gain the victory by the power of God, coming down from on high, and obtained through prayer and those means of grace with which it had been entrusted. The means now possessed by Moses were the staff, which was, as it were, a channel through which the powers of omnipotence were conducted to him. In most cases he used it under the direction of God; but God had not promised him miraculous help for the conflict with the Amalekites, and for this reason he lifted up his hands with the staff in prayer to God, that he might thereby secure the assistance of Jehovah for His struggling people. At length he became exhausted, and with the falling of his hands and the staff he held, the flow of divine power ceased, so that it was necessary to support his arms, that they might be kept firmly directed upwards (אֱמוּנָה, lit., firmness) until the enemy was entirely subdued. And from this Israel was to learn the lesson, that in all its conflicts with the ungodly powers of the world, strength for victory could only be procured through the incessant lifting up of its hands in prayer. – Keil & Delitzsch
He had marched out from his own territories to assail an innocent and kindred race (“then came Amalek” Exodus 17:8), and his attack had been cruel and cowardly, he smote the hindmost, all that were feeble and in the rear, when they were faint and weary, and he feared not God (Deuteronomy 25:18). Against all such tactics the wrath of God was denounced when, because of them, Amalek was doomed to total extirpation. – Expositor’s Bible
(Exodus 17:14) And Jehovah said to Moses, Write this, a memorial in a book, and set it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heavens.
The account of this battle with Amelek should be put down in the annals, or journal, of Moses so it might be kept in memory, and transmitted to posterity; it being on the one hand an instance of great impiety, inhumanity, and rashness, in Amalek, and on the other a display of the goodness, kindness, and power of God on the behalf of his people. “Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua” As he would be the leader that followed Moses, it was imperative that he be told to utterly annihilate the Amalekites. God told Joshua to do it. This was fulfilled partly by Saul, 1 Samuel 15:8 and more completely by David, 1 Samuel 30:17,
(Exodus 17:15)
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah My Banner.
Jehovah-nissi = H3071= “Jehovah is my banner”
Have you gone through battles and come out victorious because of God? Are there times of travail that you’ve experienced and when you look back, you can now see the Hand of God? Have you documented God’s work, to bring Him glory, and taught it to your posterity? Have you shared a witness, a testimony, a story of God’s greatness in your own life? Is there a way to document and memorialize God’s glory and goodness, provision or protection in your life? A way that you can then go back and remember God and strengthen your faith or your children’s faith? Be sure it does not focus on, and glorifies, satan and sin but glorifies God.
Prayer, praise and gratitude journals
Scrapbooks
A memorial that reminds you of God and what He did
A memorial is to increase our faith in God, NOT to worship in place of God. Remember, do not make a graven image, or idol, of a memorial.
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