Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.’

10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.’

15 Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. 16 He said, ‘Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.’

We have spent much of this last week in this passage. Whenever I come back to it, I always feel it has something abidingly significant to say to the church about prayer. It stirs something very deep within me that I can’t always adequately put into words, but I know it’s important.

So let’s reprise the whole story before we move on, and here’s a final observation on it from Alec Motyer:

Jesus ‘ trembled in Gethsemane (Mark 14:33) and though stepping into the arena of extreme trial and suffering, never trembled again. The disciples slept in Gethsemane and never stopped trembling thereafter. Or, in better words, the Lord in Gethsemane made the place of trembling the place of prayer; they were called to prayer but refused the call. Without prayer nothing will bring victory. The essential battle is the battle for the secret place.’ (Emphasis mine).‘The message of Exodus’, p.163.

PRAYER: Lord, I confess that I admire the idea of prevailing prayer, and I have great respect for the intercessors I know (or have heard about); but I also know that prayer can be hard work and demanding to engage in. Help me to overcome my reticence, please, and enable me to seek you with all my heart.

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.’

15 Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. 16 He said, ‘Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.’

The intercession battle may have been long and tiring, but the prayer victory was total.

I read recently some words of Martin Luther that seem pertinent: ‘None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience.’

Alec Motyer says verse 16 should be translated literally like this: “For (there is) a hand upon the throne of Yahweh.” The uplifted hand touching the throne, may also cause us to think about the moment when Esther touched the golden sceptre of her husband, the king (Esth.5:1,2). Motyer writes: ‘It was this ‘touching of the throne’ which brought the help the Israelites needed (11; cf.Heb.4:14-16) and was met with the response that the Lord would never cease to be the enemy of those who sought to hinder his pilgrims’ onward march (15; cf.1 Sam. 15:1-9).’ ‘The message of Exodus’, p.163.

There is maybe the double thought that the Amalekites raised their hands in animosity against God’s Throne, but Moses raised his hands in prayer.

Note that none of the people heavily involved in this fight (whether in the valley or on the mountain top) took any credit for the glorious outcome.They did not build monuments to themselves. Rather they gave the credit to God. The victory was His, and it was overwhelming.

There is some wisdom in the counsel to:

‘Work as if it all depends on you, and pray as if it all depends on God.’

‘Work as if it all depends on you’ – there is much work to be done;

‘Pray as if it all depends on God’ – because it does!

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

‘If you do not pray except when you feel like praying, you will not pray much, nor pray when you most need it.’ C.H. Spurgeon.

As we saw yesterday, in this battle – the only one recorded in Exodus – the victory was dependant upon the uplifted hands of Moses. Although this symbolism is not explained in its context, there is no need to think it means anything different to its usual use elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is the customary gesture of prayer or praise (Neh.8:6; Pss.28:2; 63;4; 134:2; 141:2).

The prayer battle can be exhausting. It can take it out of you. How we thank God for those who ‘hold up our hands’ in prayer – those who willingly offer prayer support. We need each other. We may instinctively feel that Moses and Joshua play the lead roles in this drama, but let’s not forget the ‘support cast’. Aaron and Hur did such an important job. You don’t have to be prominent to be significant. Every member of the church is needed. You may not ‘win the Oscar’, but those who do receive such plaudits know, if they are honest, how much they owe to a whole team. (Think about how long it takes to roll the credits at the end of a film: so many people involved who played a part but who will never be famous. Nevertheless, their names, and their contributions matter).

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill (11);

So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword (13).

Here is the power of prevailing prayer.

I believe that although all Christians are called to pray, some are called to a very deep place in prayer  – a place beyond just ‘saying prayers’. That is not to belittle saying prayers by the way. Paul writes that there are “all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:18). It’s a matter of the Spirit’s leading and equipping (see the first part of Eph.6:18). But in my view, if you read for example, the book about Rees Howells: ‘Intercessor’, you will see that some individuals like him, are led into this deep place. There is something attractive about it, but you are not long into such a season of prayer before you are aware of being in an intense battle. It’s not easy and can be exhausting, as we will see tomorrow.

Nevertheless, let’s not miss the point that this story illustrates the power of such prevailing prayer.

‘The fight may have taken place in the valley but the victory was won on the mountain (10b-12). Joshua did the fighting and conquered the enemy (10a, 13), but it was Moses who won the battle (11-12). This is not to say that the battle in the valley was not ‘real’ and costly…’

However…

‘The sustained prayer of Moses was the secret ingredient securing the military victory of Joshua. This…is an abiding scriptural truth, as the hymn expresses it:

Work as if on that alone hung the issue of the day;

Pray that help may be sent down: watch and pray.’ (Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, pp.162, 163).

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.’

10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.

There are tests that come our way not only in terms of lack, need and shortage, but also in the form of direct attack.

‘There is no such thing in the Bible as easy progress, victory without cost, or access on earth to some supposed higher life where striving sacrificially against foes inside and out is a thing of the past. Such will be heaven, but not earth.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.162.

In this situation Moses knew who he was and what he was called to do. May we be found in the right place at the right time, and it will not be the same place for us all. It is sadly possible to want to be someone other than God has made you, and to be somewhere other than where He places you. Other people’s roles can appear attractive and we can envy their ‘ministries.’ But it’s a good thing Moses did not try to be Joshua and Joshua did not try to be Moses. Moses had insight into what needed to be done and who needed to do it.

And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’

Alec Motyer writes so helpfully about this in ‘The message of Exodus’, p.182, and I simply want to quote him today:

‘The people ‘tested’ the Lord, and he ‘tested’ the people, which according to the Bible are two sides of the same thing. At the place named Massah and Meribah, Psalm 81: 7 (8) says, ‘I tested you at the waters of Meribah, whereas Psalm 95:9 says, ‘your fathers tested and tried me.’ ‘Testing’ God involves putting him on probation, withholding trust pending evidence. For the Israelites it meant doubting whether he who had proved sufficient in the past was still sufficient, now that things had taken a different turn (17:2-3). There is also an element of challenge to God, demanding that he prove his worth all over again: if, against all probabilities, he gets us out of this mess, then we will consider believing, but in the meantime we will suspend faith and obedience. For these reasons ‘testing’ – or in the older translations ‘tempting’ – God is deeply sinful.

When God ‘tests’ us, however, it is a different matter. He does so by bringing us into situations which call for trust and the endurance and obedience that proves our trust is real, so that by the exercise of faith in the face of new challenges, our trust in him can develop and mature until we come to see that everything that happens to us is under divine supervision and is brimful of divine purposes for good.’

I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).

Paul, writing about the wilderness journey of the Israelites in 1 Corinthians, states that Christ was with them and was their spiritual nourishment and sustenance. Even though they did not know it at the time, Jesus was with them. In fact, the rock Moses struck has regularly been seen by spiritual writers as  foreshadowing Christ, whose side was pierced (John 19:34) and the water coming from the rock as foreshadowing the giving of the Spirit (John 7:37-39).

For us, on our Christian journey, Christ is our nourishment; He is our sustainer. All we need is in Him.

Nevertheless there are warnings we need to heed, and this is what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10. It is sadly possible to feed on Christ, and to drink from Him, and yet still disobey and displease God (1 Cor.10:5-11). We can live well below the level of our privileges.

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.’

5 The Lord answered Moses, ‘Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

‘God does not crash your party. He waits for you to wake up. If I am too absorbed in my own affairs, if I am too impressed with my own religion, too intent on bringing my truth as I understand it to the world, I will not seek him, and I will not seek him appropriately. I will do it halfheartedly. The promise is never halfhearted seeking. You will recall, he says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).’ Dallas Willard, ‘Living in Christ’s presence.’

‘The promise is never halfhearted seeking.’ I found that to be the most arresting phrase when I came across it yesterday. There was nothing ‘halfhearted’ about Moses’ prayer. He uttered a desperate cry from the heart in dire circumstances, and He received ‘wonderful counsel’ from the ‘Wonderful Counsellor.’

The Lord answered definitely, specifically and clearly. When God speaks, we may not understand why He shows us to do certain things, but He has His reasons and it is for us to obey.

The American missionary, Frank Laubach, said:

‘Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation – and for me the most important part is listening to God’s replies.’

Also…

‘The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says ‘Amen’ and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas.’

PRAYER: Lord, please give me ‘ears to hear.’

Thought: The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.’ Alfred Brendel.

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.’

Moses asked for wisdom (James 1:5,6), and he received (see verses 5,6 here).

He described his dilemma and gave expression to his fear. He took it ‘to the Lord in prayer’

Pray for church leaders to be prayerful. It is incongruous for any of us to try to ‘figure it out’ for ourselves. The church needs leaders who both talk to God and listen to Him.

‘The prayer level of a church never rises any higher than the personal example and passion of the leaders. The quantity and quality of prayer in leadership meetings is the essential indicator of the amount of prayer that will eventually arise among the congregation.’ Daniel Henderson.