“and Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand ... . and it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.”
Exodus 17:9,119And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. (Exodus 17:9)
11And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (Exodus 17:11)
By the time of this story, Moses had already had several experiences in which God had told him to take the rod of God in his hand and God would do a miracle. The first time we read of the rod in Moses’ hand is in Exodus 4, where the Lord has him cast it on the ground and it becomes a serpent. Then in verse 17 of this same chapter, it says the Lord told Moses to take the rod and that with it he would do signs; and indeed it was used in several of the plagues. In Exodus 14:1616But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. (Exodus 14:16) we read that the Lord told him to “lift ... up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.”
In our verse we read that there was a terrible battle between the Amalekites and the children of Israel, and then Moses said he would take the rod of God. I wonder if he thought he would simply wave it over the battlefield below him and God would do another miracle in rescuing the children of Israel from the hand of their enemy. Instead Moses held the rod up until he was weary. When his arms got tired and he put them down to rest, the Amalekites prevailed. The only way for there to be a victory for the people he loved was for him to keep his hands, with the rod, lifted towards the heavens.
In the Scriptures we find that the Amalekites speak to us of our sinful flesh. We have to be willing to put hard work into our prayer life to see our children have a victory over the flesh. We can’t just hope and wave a wand. It may take hours of intercessory prayer before we see God come in and give them victory over their flesh.