Ex. 17
I would just remark in passing, that it is sin not to have confidence in the Lord, not to be quite sure that He will help us, whatever the need may be when we are walking in His ways. It is recorded of the children of Israel as sin, that they tempted the Lord in that which they said here, “Is Jehovah among us, or not” (ver. 7)? When we are going on wickedly and willfully, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? no evil can come upon us,” (Mic. 11) this is quite a different thing. Our God will indeed be with us, if His children, even then; but to chasten us. Whenever there is real need in the wilderness, it is sin to doubt whether God will help us or not. If we are not as sure of water in the midst of the sandy desert as though we saw rivers of water running through the country, we are tempting God.
This is the force of that expression of our Lord to Satan, It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Satan wanted Jesus to try by an experiment whether God would be as good as His word. Had He done so, it would have implied a doubt. His answer was, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Tempting the Lord is doubting the supply of His goodness in giving us all that we need.
The supply of water and of manna to the Israelites did not take them out of trouble. They drank and were refreshed: there was the gathering up a little strength, and then Amalek comes and fights against them. It was but the preparation for conflict. So those who feed on Christ as the manna, and have in their souls the well of water springing up into everlasting life, have still the wilderness and conflict with Amalek.
In that sense we have to do with Satan, though we are entirely delivered from his bondage. We are never more under the power of Satan, as Israel was under the power of Pharaoh. (If Israel binds itself to Amalek, it is its own fault.) It is said to us, “Sin shall not have the dominion over you; for ye are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:1414For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)). But we have to fight with Amalek though delivered from Pharaoh. When we have been brought into the wilderness, and fed and refreshed through this grace, Christian conflict begins. We are called, like the Lord Jesus, never to doubt the Father's love; but was He out of conflict? No, it was just the very thing that set Him in it. The being delivered from the bondage of Satan, and the being ranged on the Lord's side, is that which brings us into conflict; and in this the Lord never lets us be taken out of dependence on Himself. The moment we forget this we shall be overcome. Satan can never make us his slaves again, but we may be beaten and wounded by him. In every detail of our lives there is no blessing but in dependence on God. Whenever self-dependence comes in, whenever our own wills are working, there is failure. If, in speaking to you now, I were to cease from depending on the Lord in doing it, all blessing to my own soul would cease. “Without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:55I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5).) Neither can I speak, nor you hear, to profit, without dependence on Him. If a Christian gets out of dependence on the Lord, he will be beaten by Satan in conflict. Yet we ought not merely not to be beaten by Satan, but ever to be gaining ground upon him. Whether it be in winning souls to Christ, or whether it be in making progress truly ourselves in knowledge, or in holiness or in love, we are gaining ground on Satan's possessions. We have been delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. As Satan takes possession of my heart by ignorance, then every step I make in the knowledge of God is gain on the possessions of Satan. He uses our flesh too; so that to mortify and keep the flesh in death is gaining ground upon him. But every inch must be won, every bit of knowledge gained, by conflict. In this conflict we are directly and hourly cast in dependence upon God.
God did not put Amalek out of the way of Israel—they must fight with him: and it is just so with us. “And 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” (ver. 9). This is very different from what we get in chapter 14, “Jehovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
See what the Lord had said to Moses concerning Israel (chap. 3:8); that He would “bring them up out of the land of Egypt unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Now where are they brought? Into the wilderness, to thirst for water, and to fight with Amalek. They had not reckoned on this (ver. 3). And thus it is often with the saints of God; when they have had joy, and have sung the song of triumph, in being delivered from the power of Satan, they are afterward astonished on finding themselves not in Canaan but in the wilderness. Jeremiah found the Lord's word the joy and rejoicing of his heart (Jer. 15:1616Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)), yet afterward he was so discouraged that he says, “O Jehovah thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived:” of course this is only a strong expression of sorrow, “thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil: because the word of Jehovah was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name,” &c. (Jer. 20). When the saint finds what the road is, he is apt to forget the end, where there will be fullness of joy and blessing. The Lord desires to purge out that which would hinder our blessing and keep us from having our hearts and hopes set upon the end, and to humble us.
Moses, Aaron, and Hur go up to the top of the hill, and Israel under Joshua fights in the plain below with Amalek (ver. 10). They fought the Lord's battle: but it is not sufficient even to be fighting the Lord's battle unless the Lord stretches forth His hand to help them. Otherwise “Amalek prevailed.” Israel might have reasoned on the manner of their fighting, on the strength of the enemy, and on ten thousand things; but after all their success depended on Moses' hands being stretched out. It is very hard for us to see ourselves and Satan to be as nothing, and God to be everything. The moment we get out of dependence on God, we find out our own weakness; though we have this comfort, that under whatever circumstances, through the priesthood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, our blessing is substantially maintained for us, and this unto the going down of the sun. “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun” (vers. 11, 12).
Enemies were as nothing when Israel had the power of God with them. The day is won “Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword” (ver. 13).
“And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a Memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi (i.e., Jehovah my banner): for he said, Because Jah hath sworn that Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (vers. 14-16). I dare say many of us have thought, when we have seen the necessity of dependence on the Lord, that one good battle with Satan, and all will be over; but no such thing, we have security and the certainty of victory, but no promise of cessation from conflict whilst in the wilderness. God has promised that He “will bruise Satan under our feet shortly;” as He did to Israel that He would “utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven;” but still “Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Till Christ comes, and Satan be bound, when we shall have the full result of victory, we must reckon on conflict (not on slavery to Pharaoh, but on war with Amalek), but with the comfort of knowing that it is Jehovah who makes war, though it is through Israel, and Israel therefore has to fight. It is the Lord's battle against Satan—there is our comfort, but still a battle which we have to carry on; hence we are kept in an unceasing state of dependence. The moment it was not so, Israel were put to the worse.
As it regards the accusations of Satan, the blood on the door-posts is the eternal answer to them.
As to slavery to Satan, the Lord Jesus has delivered us from that; we have stood, the living ones, on the other side of the Red Sea; and we “shall see” Pharaoh and his host “no more again forever.”
What we find in the desert is, grace, conflict, and Jehovah having war with Amalek from generation to generation.
We are to be kept, moment by moment, in a state of dependence, yet reckoning on the constant grace and help of God. There is not blessing and joy and comfort where there is not dependence on the Lord exercised. It is not enough for victory that in the battle we have ranged ourselves on the Lord's side. You will find the tendency of the flesh, whether in praying or preaching or anything else, is to get out of dependence on God. We may be saying true things in prayer or in testimony; but if we are not realizing our dependence on the Lord, we shall not have His strength in the battle; and the Lord must make us learn our dependence on Him, through weakness, and failure, and defeat, because we have refused to learn it in the joy and confidence of communion with Himself.
Victory is turned to worship in the scene before us. “And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah is my banner).” When victory does not tend to worship, we and God part company as soon as the victory is achieved. How sad to see victory often leading to mere joy, instead of still greater dependence on, and delight in, God!
May we trace out, in all these paths of His wondrous ways, still more and more of the depths of His divine love!
J. N. D.
(Concluded from p. 70).