Winning Life's War

T with your Bible if you would to Exod chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17 verses 8 and following give us a better understanding of life's great war. You know, there's a common thread that's been happening through the life of Israel as we've studied their exodus from Egypt. It's been one trial after another. Kind of brings it home to our lives, doesn't it? Every day there's a new trial. Every day there's a new opportunity to trust the Lord. And every time they find themselves facing a trial, what happens is they usually complain, they delegate, they groan, they moan.

Every time something. Happens that they don't appreciate every time they find themselves in a circumstance that they don't like. And so we've seen that common thread throughout their lives. But on this day, in Exodus 17, verse number 8. There's no complaining. There's no grumbling. There's no murmuring when they face this battle. Why is that? It's because they were taken by surprise. They didn't have the opportunity to think about it. They had the opportunity to sit and think about, oh, gee, the Amalekites are going to come and fight us tomorrow.

What are we going to do? And begin to moan and groan because they came upon them suddenly and swiftly. To destroy their lives. And that's the way life's war is: a war that you face and I face every single day. I don't know what kind of battle you're in today, what kind of battle your family's been facing, but you know what? We face them every single day. And the Bible, because of its relevancy, because of its truth, because of its practicality, reveals to us how we are to handle life's ultimate battle.

The one that we face every day as we encounter trials and tribulations and difficulties and hardships that come down life's path. What does the Bible says we are supposed to do and how do we handle that difficulty?

Exodus 17. Tells us how that happens. Let me read it for you. Verse number eight. Then Am came and fought against Israel at Raphidim. So Moses said to Joshua, Choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek. Tom I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and her. Went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up that Israel prevailed. And when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses's hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and her supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek his people with the edge of the sword. Then the LORD said to Moses, Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and named it The LORD is my banner.

And he said, The LORD has sworn, the LORD will have war against Amalek from generation to generation. To gener, there are three things I want you to see in these few verses in Exodus 17. One begins with the attack. By Amalek and the Amalekites. The second is the ministry of Moses.

And the third is the Commemoration of the conflict in Exodus chapter 17. But I want you to remember something. And that is this: how verse 8 begins. Because when you look at the attack of the Amalekites, we must first of all look at the moment of the attack.

Then the men who did the attacking, and then to understand, thirdly, the method. By which they attacked the Israelites. Let's begin first of all with the moment.

The text says, then Amal. We'll stop right there. Then. Well, when is the then? What is the moment at which the Amalekites attacked the Israelites? The then de with the moment of bless. On the heels of blessing come the battles. The trials will always foll the triumphs. At the moment they murmured. And God graced them and blessed them. Then came the great trial of battle upon them. Now, to understand this, you must understand the symbolism of Exodus 17. So, if you were with us last week, you know that the rock that was struck is Christ.

How do we know that? 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 4. We know that the rod that was used to strike the rock was a symbol of God Almighty, His power, His divine authority. So, God striking God was a symbol of Calvary. We also realize that the water that gushed out of the rock, according to John:, is the Spirit of God. To understand that is to understand verses 8 and following. To understand the Christian life. And to understand what God is doing in our lives by giving us the Spirit of God as a result of the sacrifice of God on Calvary's tree is to understand life's greatest war.

The war is summed up in the book of Galatians, 5th chapter, 17th, verse. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. And right after we see the blessing of God, right after we see the work of God, and we praise Him and thank Him for His provision and what He's done, the very next moment the battle comes. It's there. And that's what Exodus 17 teaches us. And maybe you're not facing a battle today.

Thank God that you're not. But be prepared, it's going to come. Just like it did with the Israelites, they're always going to come, and you need to be ready, you need to be on your toes, you need to be on guard. To understand that battle, look with me at the men who attacked them. It says, then Amalek will stop right there. Two words, two points. Amalek. Who's Am? He's the grandson of Esau. He's a grandson of Esau. Who is Esau? Hebrews 12. Verse 14 tells us that Esau was an immoral and godless man.

Why? Because Esau, as the book of Genesis teaches us, despised his birthright. He didn't want the birthright. In fact, Esau is representative of the flesh. And that's how we know that what happens in Exodus chapter 17 is a symbol of the battle that we face every single day as a flesh. Wages war against the spirit. And so, to understand the battle, you need to understand the moment in which it happened. You need to understand the men who would attack the Israelites because they're representative of the flesh that wage war against the spirit.

We need to understand that. But this third thing I want you to see is the method in which they used. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 25.

Deuteronomy chapter 25. Verse number 17. Moses says this: Remember that Amalek did to you, or what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt. How he met you along the way and attacked among you all what? The stragglers at your rear. When you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God. He did not fear God. How is it that Amalek attacked Israel? How is it that the Amalekites and their method portray to us how we ourselves are attacked? Note, first of all, that it says that they came and attacked at the rear.

They came and attacked the stragglers. They came and attacked at the place of Israel's, listen, greatest vulnerability. They didn attack at Israel's strength. They didn't attack Israel from the front. No, they snuck in from behind because they wanted to get at Israel at the place or the point of vulnerability, the place they would least suspect. Someone to attack them. It is not the way it is that the way it is with you and me that Satan attacks us at our place of vulnerability, the place where we are weakest.

The place where we have fallen behind. It says it attacked the stragglers. You know, if you're a part of a group and you keep straggling behind. You're ultimately going to get left behind, right? You got to keep up with everybody else. Now, you think about that in terms of your situation in the church. Are you keeping up with the flow of the church? Are you keeping up with the people in the church? Are you straggling behind? Because you see, when you straggle behind, you begin to fall behind. Better yet, if you follow from behind, you begin to fall behind.

We need to be careful about that, don't we? And Deuteronomy also tells us that it was at the point that they were faint and weary. They had just received the water that gushed out of the rock. Psalm 105 says it came out like a river. Now, you know that in Israel, water is a great commodity. You got to have water, or you can't survive. And so the Amalekites know about this great blessing that's happened to Israel. How do they know? I don't know. Maybe they were standing away someplace, they saw what happened.

And they're thinking, water, we got to have that water. How do we get that water? Well, let's attack the Israelites. Let's get them at their place of vulnerability. Let's get them when they're weak, when they're just. Getting that water, and they're just starting to get their strength back. Before they're at full strength, let's attack them. Let's get them at their weakest point. That's where Satan gets us the most, isn't it? When we are weak, when we are weary, when we're straggling behind, we're not keeping up with the flow and growth of the church.

And when we tend to sit back and do nothing, that's the attack of the Amalekites. Point number two, the ministry of Moses.

The ministry of Moses. Remember, Moses was a great man, great leader. And Moses would be prepared for the battle. If you're going to lead, you got to be prepared for the battle, right? You got to know that the battle is going to come, and you've got to be ready at a moment's notice.

And know what to do. And Moses knew what to do. The first thing I want you to notice about the ministry of Moses was his preparation of Joshua.

First time Joshua is mentioned in the Bible is right here. He'll be mentioned some 200 more times. He was born in Egypt. Born in Egypt. Was he a military man? I don't know. He would soon become one because he'd been engaged in battle, in conflict, in warfare. But Moses had begun to train this man, evidently, because he was able to look to Joshua and give him orders and tell him what to do. And Joshua was a man who'd be able to follow those or. Joshua 's name, of course, means Jehovah is salvation.

And he would become Moses' servant and be used in a mighty way. But I want you to notice something about Joshua.

He would take his sword and he would go into battle. He'd win a war. To be used of God, you must be a master swordsman. You must be. In Ephesians chapter 6, it tells us that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. To be prepared for any battle, you must be a master. Swordsman. The Bible is our sword. And unless we're master swordsmen, we're going to be defeated on the battlefield. We need to know what the Word of the Lord says. We need to know how to use the Word of the Lord. That's why you need to be in it.

You need to be under it because it's all about your life and how you fight your battles. And if you're not a master swordsman, Not only can you not fight your battle, but you can't train other people to fight the battle either. Moses was a master swordsman. And he would look for a man, a faithful man, because the book of Numbers tells us, and we'll see this in weeks ahead, that Moses had Joshua and Caleb, both of which wholly followed their God. They were committed to their God. And therefore, they could be wholly used of God.

You want to be used of God? You want to be used of God in a mighty way? You've got to be a master swordsman, and you've got to be committed to following God with your whole heart. Because that's the way Joshua and Caleb were. How about you? Do you know the word of the Lord? Do you take up the sword of the Spirit every single day? Do you understand how to use the Word of God in battle? Number two is the presence of the Lord.

The ministry of Moses centered around God's presence in his life and his dependence upon that presence. The Bible tells us these words. He says, Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. The rod of God. The staff of God. It was the same rod that would strike the rock that Moses would use to strike the rock. It was representative of the presence and power. Of Almighty God. It was a divine authority that Moses would hold in his hand, that he would learn to depend on and trust in.

Because it was the presence of God that would guide his life. And that rod, according to Exodus chapter 4, was called the rod of God. It was God's rod. And Moses knew that if he ever went to battle, he needed to understand that he cannot win without his God. It's spiritual warfare we're engaged in. It's a spiritual battle. It's fought on a spiritual plane in the realm of the supernatural. And the only one who can help you gain the victory is Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the God of this universe, who in his own right is the ultimate supernatural hero.

He's the God of the universe, who can do anything. And without his presence, we will fail. Sin will defile us. Sin will defeat us if we do not depend upon God Himself in that battle. And number three, the prayer of Moses.

Moses was a man of prayer. The Bible tells us in Exodus chapter 17. So it came about when Moses held his hand up that Israel prevailed. And when he let his hand down, Am prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy. Th they took a stone and put it under him. They sat on it, and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Now Exodus 17 does not explicitly state that Moses was praying.

So how do we know that Moses was actually praying in Exodus 17? Well, two reasons. One is because of the rod of God and his dependence upon that rod. You see, when the Bible says that we are to pray without ceasing, it speaks about living in a conscious state of the presence of God.

When you pray without ceasing, you are communicating with the God of the universe on a moment-by-moment basis. You are ever conscious that He is present with you, leading and guiding you every step of the way. So the presence of the rod and Moses holding it up was the conscious eff to put God on display, knowing that God was fighting the battle for them. Number two, if you go and read Psalm 28, verse number 2, Psalm 44, verse number 20, Psalm 63, 4, 134, verse number 141, 1 and 2, 143, 6.

It all speaks about lifting up Hands in prayer. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:8 that men everywhere ought to lift up holy hands unto our God. And so Moses, here he is, lifting up the rod of God, which is representative of the presence of God, the divine authority of God, the power of God, knowing that what he is doing is symbolizing to you and I the opportunity that we have every single day. To go to the throne of grace in prayer and realize the spiritual battle that we're engaged in every single day.

Let me tell you something: prayer is h work. If your prayer life comes easy, Something's wrong. Why? Do you think Satan wants you on your knees before the throne of grace? He does not. He will bring every excuse your way. He will keep you off your knees. He will keep you in bed in the morning. He will make you extra tired. He will get you extra busy. Because he knows that the fuel behind the service of ministry is the power of prayer. You got to remain on your knees and you've got to remain in the word of the Lord.

Or you will fall by the wayside. You might stand strong for the sake of the gospel. Point number three, the commemoration of the conflict.

Two things, or three things I want you to see. Number one, this is what it says in verse number 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua. Number one, you need to record it.

You got to write it down. Write it down because you've got to remember what took place. You've got to be able to refer to it. You got to be able to know how God was instrumental in the victory. You got to be able to know exactly what took place for the victory to happen. Record it. And number two, recite it.

Tell Joshua. Because Joshua can't afford to forget. Why? Because when he gets into the promised land, he's going to fight Amalek again. And God made a promise: I'm going to destroy Amalek. But that wasn't the day he was completely destroyed. And they would fight him again. And Joshua had to have that encouragement. He had to know what the word of the Lord said. Not only do you need to record it and recite it, you to remember it. You need to remember it. And how are you going to do that? Moses built an altar.

Yave Nis. The Lord is our banner. The Lord is our banner. And this is a very unique title of our God. Remember, He has one name. It manifests itself in different ways, but He has one name. And one of the ways it's manifested is Yave Nis, the Lord, our banner. You know, in the ancient days, when they went to battle, they carried flags. They weren't flags like you and I know them today. They were metal ornaments that were on the top of a pole. So they wouldn't blow in the wind, but they'd always remain steadfast and strong.

And that banner symbolized three things. You're ready? Here it goes. Number one, it symbolized their identification.

Number two, it gave them inspiration. And number three, it gave them instruction. Those three elements help us understand Yave Nis, the Lord is our banner. Why? Because what's our point of identification? Who are we loyal to? Who do we serve? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's the God we serve. And so when you were going into battle, that banner would represent your loyalties, your commitment. The country you are committed to, the group of people you are committed to, and who was Israel committed to?

The God of Israel, Yave Nisi. It's a point of identification. And our identification is wrapped up in Jesus Christ our Lord. That's where our identity lies. It lies not in what we do and the education we've received. It lies in who we are in terms of our relationship with the living God of the universe, Jesus Christ our Lord. And number two, it was also a point of inspiration.

It would inspire them, it would move them on to serve their God. He's our God. He wins the victory. With him we cannot lose. So we depend upon him. We spend time in our knees. We spend time in the word of the Lord. Why? Because he is our banner. He is our victory warrior. He is our king. He is our Lord. That inspires us to live and to fight the never-ending battle that we face every single day. And Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner. When he was able to see that the flag was still there after the battle, it inspired him to write the song.

It inspired him because his country would stand strong. When we see the Lord, our banner, before us, it inspires us to live for him. and to honor him and to glorify his name. And then number three, it was also the point of instruction because that's the banner you follow.

And God gives the direction. God gives the instruction. Where he goes, we go. And where the banner would lead the way, so too you would follow. And he is our God that gives us our direction, that gives us our instructions as to where we should go, how we should live, what our attitude should be like. And we say, Lord, we are loyal to you. You inspire us. We identify with you. We want everybody to know that we identify with the King of Kings. He is our banner. He is the one we serve. He is the one we follow.

He is the one that inspires us. He is the one that moves us. He is the one that excites us. He is the one that st St us because he is our king, he is our Lord, he is our God. And we will follow him to the end because he's our banner. And I ask you, who do you follow? Who are you loyal to? Who and what inspires you? I trust it's Yave Nisi, the Lord our Banner.