Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/325

Rh out of the house of bondage. This rod Moses held up, (1.) To Israel, to animate them; the rod was held up as the banner to encourage the soldiers, who might look up, and say, "Yonder is the rod, and yonder the hand that used it, when, such glorious things were wrought for us." Note, It tends much to the encouragement of faith to reflect upon the great things God has done for us, and review the monuments of his favours. (2.) To God, by way ofappeal to him: "Is not the battle the Lord's? Is not he able to help, and engaged to help? Witness this rod, the voice of which, thus held up, is that, (Isa. 51. 9, 10.) Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; art not thou it that hath cut Rahab?" Moses was not only a standard-bearer, but an intercessor, pleading with God for success and victory. Note, When the host goes forth against the enemy, earnest prayers should be made to the God of hosts, for his presence with them. It is here the praying legion that proves the thundering legion. There, in Salem, in Zion where prayers were made, there, the victory was won, there brake he the arrows of the bow, Ps, 76, 2, 3.

Observe,

[1.] How Moses was tired, (v. 12.) his hands were heavy: the strongest arm will fail with being long extended; it is God only whose hand is stretched out still. We do not find that Joshua's hands were heavy in fighting, but Moses's hands were heavy in praying; the more spiritual any service is, the more apt we are to fail and flag in it; praying work, if done with due intenseness of mind and vigour of affection, will be found hard work, and though the spirit be willing, the flesh will be weak: our great Intercessor in heaven faints not, nor is he weary, though he attends continually to this very thing.

[2.] What influence the rod of Moses had upon the battle; (v. 11.) When Moses held up his hand in prayer, (so the Chaldee explains it,) Israel prevailed, but when he laid down his hand from prayer, Amalek prevailed. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses (with whom they had just now been chiding) contributed more to their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls, as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. It seems, the scale wavered for some time, before it turned on Israel's side; even the best cause must expect disappointments as an allay to its success; though the battle be the Lord's, Amalek may prevail for a time; the reason was, Moses let down his hands. Note, The church's cause is, commonly, more or less successful, according as the church's friends are more or less strong in faith, and fervent in prayer.

[3.] The care that was taken for the support of Moses. When he could not stand any longer, he sat down, not in a chair of state, but upon a stone; (v. 12.) when he could not hold up his hands, he would have them held up; Moses, the man of God, is glad of the assistance of Aaron his brother, and Hur, who, some think, was his brother-in-law, the husband of Miriam. We should not be shy, either of asking help from others, or giving help to others, for we are members one of another. Moses's hands, thus stayed, were steady till the going down of the sun; and though it was with much ado that he held out, yet his willing mind was accepted. No doubt, it was a great encouragement to the people to see Joshua before them in the field of battle, and Moses above them upon the top of the hill; Christ is both to us; our Joshua, the Captain of our salvation, who fights our battles, and our Moses, who, in the upper world, ever lives, making intercession that our faith fail not.

III. The defeat of Amalek. Victory had hovered awhile between the camp; sometimes Israel prevailed, and sometimes Amalek, but Israel carried the day, v. 13. Though Joshua fought with great disadvantages—his soldiers undisciplined, ill armed, long inured to servitude, and apt to murmur; yet by them God wrought a great salvation, and made Amalek pay dear for his insolence. Note, Weapons, formed against God's Israel, cannot prosper long, and shall be broken at last. The cause of God and his Israel will be victorious. Though God gave the victory, yet it is said, Joshua discomfited Amalek, because Joshua was a type of Christ, and of the same name, and in him it is that we are more than conquerors. It was his arm alone that spoiled principalities and powers, and routed all their force.

IV. The trophies of this victory set up.

1. Moses took care that God should have the glory of it; (v. 15. ) instead of setting up a triumphal arch, to the honour of Joshua, (though it had been a laudable policy to put marks of honour upon him,) he builds an altar to the honour of God; and we may suppose it was not an altar without sacrifice; but that which is most carefully recorded, is, the inscription upon the altar, Jehovah-nissi—The Lord is my banner; which, probably, refers to the lifting up of the rod of God as a banner in this action. The presence and power of Jehovah were the banner under which they enlisted, by which they were animated and kept together, and therefore which they erected in the day of their triumph. In the name of our God we must always lift up our banners, Ps. 10. 5. It is fit that he who does all the work should have all the praise.

2. God took care that posterity should have the comfort and benefit of it; "Write this for a memorial, not in loose papers, but in a book, write it, and then rehearse it in the ears of Judah, let him be intrusted with this memorial, to transmit it to the generations to come." Moses must now begin to keep a diary or journal of occurrences; it is the first mention of writing that we find in scripture; and perhaps the command was not given till after the writing of the law upon the tables of stone; "Write it, in perpetuam rei memoriam—that the event may be had in perpetual remembrance;" that which is written remains. (1.) Write what had been done, what Amalek had done against Israel; write in gall their bitter hatred, write in blood their cruel attempts, let them never be forgotten, nor yet what God had done for Israel in saving them from Amalek. Let ages to come know that God fights for his people, and he that teachestouches - as per 1806 London edition [sic] them, touches the apple of his eye. (2.) Write what should be done. [1.] That in process of time Amalek should be totally ruined and rooted out, (v. 14.) that he should be remembered only in history. Amalek would have cut off the name of Israel, that it might be no more in remembrance, (Ps. 83. 4. 7.) and therefore God not only disappoints him in that, but cuts off his name. Write it for the encouragement of Israel, whenever the Amalekites are an annoyance to them, that Israel will at last undoubtedly triumph in the fall of Amalek. This sentence was executed in part by Saul, (1 Sam. 15.) and completely by David; (ch. 30. 2 Sam. 1. 1.—8. 12.) after this time, we never read so much as of the name of Amalek. [2.] That in the mean time God would have a continual controversy with him; (v. 16.) Because his hand is upon the throne of the Lord, that is, against the camp of Israel, in which the Lord ruled, which was the place of his sanctuary, and is therefore called a glorious high throne from the beginning, (Jer. 17. 12.) therefore the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. This was written for direction to Israel, never to make any league with the Amalekites, but to look upon them as irreconcilable enemies, doomed to ruin. Amalek's destruction was typical of the