How the rest was won

HOW THE REST WAS WON
Exodus 17:7 the people of Israel had argued against God and provoked God by saying, "Is Jehovah going to take care of us or not?". And now the warriors of Amalek came to fight against the people of Israel at Rephidim, so Moses instructed Joshua to issue a call to arms to the Israelites, to fight the army of Amalek.

‘Tomorrow, ‘Moses told him, "I will stand at the top of the hill, with the staff of God in my hand!" So Joshua and his men went out to fight the army of Amalek. Meanwhile Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. And as long as Moses held up the staff in his hands, Israel was winning; but whenever he rested his arms at his sides, the soldiers of Amalek were winning. Moses' arms finally became too tired to hold up the staff any longer; so Aaron and Hur rolled a stone for him to sit on, and they stood on each side, holding up his hands until sunset. As a result, Joshua and his troops crushed the army of Amalek, putting them to the sword.

Then the Lord instructed Moses, ’Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.’ Moses built an altar there and called it ‘Jehovah-nissi’ (meaning ’Jehovah is my flag’).
"Raise the banner of the Lord!" Moses said." For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation."

So let’s look at the background story to the lead up to this battle that Israel had with Amalek.
Israel had been complaining continually that God was not looking after them and was no longer with them. There are ten major incidents spoken of where they provoked God concerning this complaint, and God acted from Heaven every time to either show himself as their savior and provider(crossing the red sea- feeding them with manna etc), or to bring judgment upon them for their rebellion and unbelief.

In this story the complaint that Yahweh was not with them and not caring for them came at the time of Israel’s first experience of warfare against another nation, the nation of Amalek. This was at a place called Rephidim. Rephidim means ‘The land of rest – hence the title of the sermon – How the rest was won…

Moses was told by God to take his staff and hold it up to God from on top of a mountain overlooking the battle of Rephidim.
This was the staff that God told first Moses to take up when he spoke to him at the burning bush. It proved to be symbol of the faith and authority that God was giving to Moses to show that God was with him and would do mighty works through him for the salvation and provision of his people. God said to Moses; ‘what is that in your hand Moses’ which meant ‘what is it that you have within your grasp - your God given ability to do with your life as God would have you to do. In this story what God says to Moses he is saying to all of us. God then told him to throw it to the ground, whereby the staff turned into a snake that chased Moses who fled from it through fear, then God told Moses to turn and take up the snake and it became the staff of authority again. God says the same to us. When Moses let go of the staff of his faith and authority in God he invited the serpent in - to come after him to overcome his faith. The snake - from the beginning, speaks of deception and temptation and sin. Fear took over instead of faith. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12 to cast aside the sin that so easily besets you, or ensnares you. It is called the besetting sin and it is driven by some kind of fear. Moses appears to have had a fear of injustice that trapped him into having to get justice done in his own emotional strength instead of having faith in God to work justice. Moses fell into this trap a number of times in the Bible. The first time was forty years earlier when he killed an Egyptian because of the injustice being done to his fellow Israelites as slaves of Pharaoh – this got him into a lot of trouble and he had to escape and stay in hiding for forty years in Midian, where God finally came to him at this time at the burning bush. He did it later by disobeying God striking the rock twice instead of simply speaking to it as God told him to – again another angry outburst because of the injustice of Israel’s murmuring against God. That cost Moses his entry into the promised land.

But he turned ie repent and picked up the snake by the tail and faith and authority returned.

Moses was instructed to use this staff of faith and authority to perform the supernatural works in Egypt in turning the rivers to blood and bringing the plagues and judgments upon Pharaoh before Israel were set free from Egypt. It was that staff of faith and authority that Moses held over the red sea and the staff that he used obediently (on that occasion) to bring forth life-giving water from a rock. And now it was the staff of faith and authority that would win the battle for Israel against Amalek at Rephidim.

THE BATTLE. Moses had instructed Joshua to lead Israel in the battle, and whenever Moses held up the staff Israel under Joshua would overcome Amalek, but when Moses lowered the staff of faith and authority because his arms became weary then Amalek would start overcoming Israel. Aaron and Hur supported Moses arms and allowed him to sit down so that the staff of faith and authority kept Joshua in a winning position. This is an illustration of the power of prayerful intercession from those who support one another in times of spiritual challenge and warfare. Aaron was Moses brother and Hur was the son of Caleb. These were men that were both faithful to the purposes of God, for his will to be done. We can uphold our brothers and sisters as an Aaron and a Hur and we can know that we are being upheld as a Moses by them also. I expect to be upheld by my brothers and sisters in this way, just as I expect of myself to be effective for my brothers and sisters in my upholding them.

JOSHUA – This is the first time Joshua is mentioned in the Bible, and he is seen as the one who leads God’s people in this battle and saves and overcomes for them. They would not have been skilled soldiers at this stage but it was the skilled leadership of Joshua and the faith of Moses in raising his staff to Heaven that released the supernatural victory through Joshua, or Yeshua, which means savior and which is the same name as Jesus. This is how our faith operates. We, like Moses, take hold of our authority of the faith that we lift up to God, for him to be with us and care for us and to provide for us and for those we pray for. and Jesus is released in our hearts and he goes into action on our behalf.

WHAT WAS THE CONFLICT ABOUT? -The battle was to win the territory of REPHIDIM.
‘The place of rest’. That speaks to us of winning the place of the rest of faith in our hearts, knowing that Jesus does the fighting for us. When Jesus goes into action on our behalf the power of Heaven subdues all things on the earth that would try to prevent God’s will from coming to pass. Our faith is that Jesus is at work on our behalf to bring about the father’s good will to us.

WHO WAS THE ENEMY COMING AGAINST GOD’S PEOPLE? – Amalek went into war against Israel. Israel was the nation that descended from Jacob, who wrestled with God and would not let him go and whose name was changed to Israel which means ‘power with God’. Amalek was the nation that descended from Esau, who was Jacob’s brother.
The Bible tells us in the New Testament (Hebrews 12) that Esau was not interested in the things of God, but in the things of the world. But Jacob valued the spiritual blessing of God and received that blessing instead of Esau, and this brought them into constant conflict. God is referred to in the Old Testament as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that speaks of the Trinity – Abraham the father, Isaac the Son, and Jacob speaks of the Holy Spirit.

THAT CONFLICT IS AT WORK WITH ALL OF US. We have the conflict of the Esau side of our nature that trusts in the things of the world and go after them, the Bible calls that the flesh - and we have the Jacob side of our nature that values the spiritual blessing and goes after that. The Bible tells us that our old nature of the flesh is always fighting against our new nature of the Spirit, and that Jacob side to us, the Spirit releases our Joshua, our Jesus going in to fight for us.
and here we have the battle plan that wins for us the place of rest in our hearts and our minds and in our souls – our Rephidim.

GOD WANTS US TO BE FULLY CONSCIOUS OF THIS AT ALL TIMES.
Then the Lord instructed Moses, ’Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.’ Moses built an altar there and called it ‘Jehovah-nissi’ (meaning God is my battle flag of victory’).
"Raise the flag of the Lord!" Moses said." For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.
One day when we see The Lord face to face there will be no more sin and temptation and the Old creation will have passed away and the New Creation will have finally come. But until then we are in this battle of Rephidim every moment of our lives.

This is the living out of the Gospel, the working out of our salvation to be who God wants us to be where he wants us to be doing what he wants us to do.

You will either be taking hold of your faith, as the staff that God has placed in your hands to do his will in your life, or you will be being chased by the serpent who will confuse your mind and emotionally trouble your soul and weaken your will and seek to get you to miss the mark in your faithful decision making to take you forward in life. You will know when the serpent is after you in the way I just described it, and that is when you turn, with faith and courage and pick that cunning thing up and lay hold of your faith again. Remember also to uphold your brothers and sisters and to know that you are being upheld by them also, when the weakness and weariness of our humanity bears upon us. God bless you all Amen.