Sermon Tone Analysis

*Christ in the Old Covenant*

*Exodus 17:8-16*

* *

We come to a short, somewhat simple, historical account that is actually packed with all kinds of important things.

READ Exodus 17:8-16.

Israel has faced thirst and hunger and danger, and now they face their first actual battle.

Keep in mind the larger context.

God is bringing out this people to be His people; they have to learn to know Him and trust Him and love Him.

He is developing their relationship with Himself.

You see that God does not do this by removing all of the hard things in their lives, but by pouring His blessing upon them in the hard things.

You can expect God to do the same thing in your life.

John 17:3 says that this is eternal life – to know God.

You were created for that, but it was torn apart by sin.

Now because of Christ God is once again developing our relationship with Himself.

And He does it through trials and tests and surprises and battles.

Let’s talk about five new topics in this text.

*1.      **The Amalekites.

*

In one sense, it seems pretty simple to understand the Amalekites.

Jacob’s brother Esau had a grandson named Amalek.

And so the Amalekites, like so many of Israel’s enemies, were their distant cousins through Esau.

But the Bible never actually says that the Amalekites mentioned in the Old Testament are from Esau’s grandson.

And before Esau was around, Genesis 14 mentions Amalekites.

So God hasn’t given us all the details there to understand all of that, but God did tell us plenty about the character of the Amalekites.

First of all, Deuteronomy 25 tells us more about what actually happened at this incident recorded in Exodus 17. Listen to Deut.

25:17-18 /Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, 18 how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.

/So this attack in Exodus 17 was not a frontal assault on Israel’s army – it started with some cheap attacks on the sick and weak that were at the back of the procession.

A year later, one of the reasons Israel refused to enter the promised land was because they were afraid of the Amalekites.

And then when Israel tried to go in without God’s blessing, the Amalekites helped drive them back.

Later, in the time of Gideon, the Amalekites would come and devastate the land, waiting until harvest time and then taking all of their produce and animals.

Saul had to fight the Amalekites, and failed to obey God completely; David had to fight the Amalekites; it wasn’t until the time of Hezekiah that the Amalekites were more thoroughly destroyed.

And even later, you remember Haman from the story of Esther – the Bible says that Haman was an Agagite, and Agag was probably the traditional name for the Amalekite ruler.

In other words, Haman was likely an Amalekite.

Even to this day some Jews use the term Amalekites to refer to their enemies.

So the Amalekites were a people who constantly opposed and oppressed God’s will in every way they possibly could.

*Study list on the Amalekites:* Genesis 36:2, 12; Numbers 13:29; Numbers 14:39-45; Numbers 24:20; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; Judges 3:13; Judges 6:3-5; Judges 10:12; I Samuel 14:48; I Samuel 15:2; I Samuel 28:18; I Samuel 30:18; I Chronicles 4:43; Psalm 83:7; Esther 3:1.

*2.      **Joshua*

Exodus 33:11 calls him Moses’s young assistant.

God has led Israel to use a very wise plan for developing Israel’s next leader.

Who could possibly step in to lead this entire nation after Moses?

But God will prepare Joshua for decades as he serves alongside Moses.

Moses uses the same leadership development method that Jesus would use: Jesus chose twelve to be with Him.

And Moses had Joshua, his young assistant, right there with Him as he led the nation of Israel.

Joshua has a very difficult job in this situation.

You see that verse 9 says “Choose men for us.”

And the middle of the verse tells us that the battle would be “tomorrow.”

In other words, Joshua has one day to draft and prepare an army for battle.

[God’s glory!]

*3.      **Hur*

We aren’t told much about Hur except that he and Aaron were clearly the next leaders in line after Moses and Joshua.

But he plays a very important role in this story, helping Joshua hold up Moses arms as the battle progresses.

If you’ve every done painting or drywall or other work above your head, you know how incredibly difficult it is to hold your arms up above your head for a long period of time.

So with Moses seated Aaron and Hur are able to hold up his arms.

*4.      **Oracle against a nation*

Another new theme in this text is an oracle against a nation.

In verses 14-16 God speaks promises of destruction regarding Amalek.

Later, in the prophets, we find extensive oracles against nations that have opposed God and His will.

One of the most intriguing sections is found in Amos, where God begins with oracles against Syria and the Philistines and Tyre and Ammon and Moab, but the oracles continue with Judah and Israel, showing that Israel is not except from the judgment of God.

*5.      **The written record*

For the first time we are told that Moses is writing things down.

God tells him to make sure there is a written record of this event.

And of course we are studying right now the written record that God inspired through Moses.

*Banner*

So we have those five new topics in this text.

We also have a couple of textual challenges.

First, we have this name “The Lord is My banner.”

This is the name that Moses gives to this altar that he builds.

This is an altar for bringing gifts of thanksgiving to God, and Moses names it “The Lord is My banner.”

* The translation “banner” is fine as long as you don’t think of a long skinny piece of paper taped to a wall.

This is a symbol that you hold up high in there; it is usually used in military contexts.

It may be like a flag, if you’ve seen videos about the civil war you’ve probably seen flag bearers going into battle waving their flag high in the air.

But it doesn’t have to be a flag – it can also just be a tall, decorated pole.

Some places in the OT it is translated standard, or signal, or mast.

* Sometimes it is a warning – you see that pole and you know the enemy is coming.

Sometimes it is a gathering point or a summons: the troops would gather to that pole.

Often times it is a sign of victory.

So often God speaks of this pole, this signal.

Display the signal pole, so that my enemies know God is coming.

Or display it to call my enemies to judgment.

Or display it to proclaim my victory.

* So it is a decorated pole, possibly including a flag, and it is used as a sign of battle or a sign of victory.

*Study list on banner* (/nēs/): Numbers 21:8, 26:10; Psalm 60:4; Isaiah 5:26, 11:10-12, 18:3, 31:9, 33:23, 49:22, 62:10; Jeremiah 4:6, 50:2, 51:12, 27; Ezekiel 27:7; the Greek translation of the Old Testament usually used the Greek word /semeion /to translate /nēs./

/Semeion/ (usually translated /sign/) is used in many important places in the NT, such as Luke 2:12, Matthew 12:39-40, and John 2:11.

*Verse 16*

The beginning of verse 16 is difficult to translate, because the style in which it was written was very abbreviated.

You can think of it like text messaging today, where we so severely abbreviate things.

Imagine if English wasn’t your language, and you were trying to learn to read it, and then imagine trying to read a text message!

That’s kind of what it is like for us trying to translate verse 16.

The NASB and KJV take it to mean “The Lord has sworn,” most people agree that the first phrase should mean something like “My hand is on the throne of the Lord.”

That’s how the ESV and NIV translate it.

I think it is most likely that Moses is referring to his staff, that as he lifted up his staff it was as if he was reaching to the Lord’s throne, and when the staff was lifted up the Sovereign Lord worked.

*TRANSITION: *So I know all of that probably seems kind of random, but I’ve just overviewed for you several of the topics and issues in this text.

Five new things, plus the issues of the meaning of the banner in verse 15 and the translation of verse 16.

Now, what does all of this mean?

All of the new stuff in this text very clearly reminds us of an old theme: the sovereignty and providence of God.

Remember that the word sovereignty refers to God’s rule; as Creator he has the right to rule His creation.

He is sovereign.

The word providence refers to the exercise of His rule, the actual outworking of His rule here on earth.

Because He is sovereign, God providentially accomplishes His will on earth.

That is so obvious in this text.

Moses has the staff, the staff that has been a symbol of God’s power and God’s sovereignty since the very beginning of Moses’ leadership.

This staff was used to symbolize God’s power in the plagues.