THE CHRISTIAN’S BATTLES
Exodus 17:8-15
D. The Steps to Sinai
2. The Marauders
The Church, and we ask individual Christian,s fight a war on two fronts, Satan attacks from the inside. That is what we have seen in the journey to Sinai thus far. But as he did with Pharaoh’s army, he also attacks from the outside. Trying to reach our goals Satan will always show up to stop us,
The three month trip from Egypt to Sinai was about over. In their tenth and final encampment (Nu. 33:5-14), they were almost in sight of their goal - Mt. Sinai.
Then it happened, as it always does in the Christian life Satan, who had not stopped them with internal conflict attacked from without. He used the Amalekites, wild desert warriors, descended from Esau (Gen. 36:12),
From their hiding places in the desert and the mountains they attacked from the rear to kill the tired people, who were exhausted and lagging behind. They killed everyone. (Dt. 25:18).
Why they did this we don’t know. Maybe they liked to kill and steal. Maybe they were protecting their watering holes. What we do know is they are an example, a type, of the battles we Christians face in the wilderness journey of life and the battle plan we are to follow for victory.
Amalek, descended from Esau (Gen. 36:12), the man who lived for his appetites and pleasures (Gen. 27). One good thing about the devil is that he is persistent, he never gives up. Thus the Amalekites lived on as Israel’s constant enemy in Canaan (Jud. 3:13; 1 Sam. 15:8) as a picture of the world’s hostility to us.
I. THE BATTLE WE FACE
1. The War (2 Tim. 2:3; Mt. 10:34).
When people become Christians we are sometimes too prone to tell them to sit down and enjoy the peace and blessings of God. The Bible, however, tells them also to stand up and fight the battles of God.
Paul told Timothy, “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3). Jesus told His disciples, “Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the earth, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Mt. 10:34).
Sometimes, like Jesus, we are ON THE ATTACK, as when He stood nose to nose with the Pharisees and exposed their hypocrisy (Mt. 23). The church is to fight drugs, abortion, gambling, prejudice, alcohol and all evils that plague our world.
Sometimes, as here, we are UNDER ATTACK as when Satan enticed Jesus to sin (Lk. 4) and when the temple guard came and arrested Him in the garden (Mt. 26:47).
2. The Warriors (1 Pet. 5:8; Rom. 12:2; Gal. 5:13-17).
Amalek wanted Israel to go back to Egypt, to leave the will of God, to disobey, to sin. Our three Amaleks- Satan’s unholy trinity - the devil, the world and our own sinful nature, wants the same.
Satan and his world launch their attack on out sinful nature in two ways. They use pain they try to DRIVE US from the will and ways of God. That’s what happened to Job. Satan, through his wife, who also suffered and who said, “Curse God and die!” (Job 1-2). They also use pleasures to DRAW US. That is what happened to David (2 Sam. 11)
1) The Devil (Lk. 22:31; 1 Pet. 5:8)
The Christian faces three enemies, a trinity of evil. First and foremost we face the devil. This is the powerful, personal spirit of evil who can get men like Hitler to do what he did and find so many “ordinary” people to follow him.
When we see the awful depths of evil with its acts of senseless, unbelievable, unnecessary cruelty it is easy to believe in some powerful voice that suggests such things and gets people to do them. We see this in the crowd around the cross who mocked Jesus as he was dying.
This week we saw where two “ordinary” teenage boys from “nice” homes tortured and killed two ten year old boys for no reason, for the “fun” of it.
God’s people are not immune. We cannot do wrong as a way of life (1 Jn. 3:1-10) but Satan is so powerful that he can get us to do horrible things. That is why David took another man’s wife when he could have had one hundred beautiful women brought to his harem. That’s why Jimmy Sw
When Peter denied knowing Jesus with cursing Jesus, who predicted it told him, “Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon that your faith may not fail.” (Lk. 22:31).
That’s why Peter later warned First Century Christians, “Be self-controlled. Be on guard (like soldiers). Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).
2) The World (Acts 4:18-20; Rom. 17:2)
Satan, like God is invisible. He is a spirit at work in us and in the world of people around us. Satan used the world and its power, with the prospect of death to frighten Peter and DRIVE him into denying Jesus. It did it again to try and stop him from preaching the gospel (Acts 4:18-20).
The world’s people used the power of pleasure to DRAW Demas from God’s will and ways. When he left the mission field Paul said, “he was in love with this present world.”.
3) The Flesh (Gal. 5:13-17)
Our two enemies need our help to do their work. And they get it from the third enemy, the evil nature withing what Paul calls the flesh (KJV) or sinful nature (NIV) Our bodies are not evil. Paul tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord (Rom. 12:1ff).
When God saves us we are both new creations (2 Cor. 5:17) and strange creations. God leaves our old, unredeemed nature alive and well within us. It wants to do the will of Satan while our new, redeemed nature, wants to do the will of God.
The old nature listens to Satan and the new to the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul wrote, “Do not. . .indulge the sinful nature. . .live by the Spirit and you will not satisfy the desires of the sinful nature. . . They are in conflict with each other” (Gal. 5:13, 16, 17).
Illustration: Charles Spurgeon had a college for young preachers. On one occasion a young man, highly gifted, preached a masterful sermon on the Christian’s armor, listed in Ephesians six.
He put it on, with great oratory, piece by piece until he was fully dressed from head to toe. He paused, looked at the congregation, including Spurgeon, drew his imaginary sword and said, “Now! Where is the enemy?” And he paused again for effect.
Spurgeon leaned forward from the front row, cupped his hands over his mouth and whispered, “He’s inside the armor!” We all know the truth of this. We are like the little girl. Her little brother cried to their mother, “Susy kicked me, pulled my hair and spit on me.” The mother said, “Susy, why did you listen to the devil and do all this?” Susy said, “The devil told me to kick him and pull his hair but spitting on him was my idea.”
II. THE BATTLE PLAN WE FOLLOW
This is our war so we should not be surprised when Amalek attacks.Satan has plans and strategies (Eph. 6) The battle plan here, killing the old and the young who lagged behind meant he attacked at the WEAKEST point.
He is so strong, however, that he attacked David at his STRONGEST point – his love for his fellow soldiers. If you told him before he did it that he would commit adultery with a fellow soldier’s wife and then have her husband killed, he would have killed you for suggesting such a thing. He did the same thing with Peter. He used fear to attack the bravest of the Apostles.
1. We Fight from our Closets
Victory in our battles to live lives that please God and helps others comes first and foremost from faith in God that expresses itself in prayer. The Bible says “faith is the victory that overcomes the world” and when Paul finished describing the pieces of our armor in warfare with the strategies of Satan he said “Above all things- pray.” (1 John X / Eph. 6)
Joshua was sent to fight the enemy but he lost the battles. Moses went up on a hill to lift his arms in prayer and as long as they were up Israel won. When Moses could not hold them up any longer Aaron and Hurr came to help him. This was an act of faith.
Charles Simeon says the success of the Israelites here depended not upon the bravery of the soldiers or the skill of their commander, but on the holding up of the hands of Moses far away from the field of battle. We have here the secret of victory, the power of prayer and the help of friends.
Israel learned here what we must learn - effort is not enough. The real victory is not found on the battlefield but in the closet, where we pray for God to bless our efforts.
Spurgeon says we do not read that JOSHUA grew tired in the fighting, but that MOSES grew tired lifting up of the rod - praying. The more spiritual a duty is, he says, the more Satan hinders and wearies us.
He said, self, (another name for the sinful nature), with its pride, loves the battlefield where everyone watches to see how strong we are. Self hates the closet where we tell God how weak and wicked we are.
A Sunday School teacher can work hard, prepare a masterful lesson and get many compliments. But for that lesson to truly change lives, that teacher must spend time praying for God’s blessings. Maybe that’s why we have so many powerless classes and pulpits. We work hard but don’t pray hard.
2. We Fight For God’s Causes (17:15)
At the site of this first victory, Moses built an altar and named it “Jehova Nissi” “The Lord is my Banner” (17:15). The banner, or flag, made an army identifiable.
These were God’s people, in God’s army, fighting God’s battles. Too much of our so called fighting, service and effort is really for ourselves. We show off our piety with our witnessing, church attendance and attacks on the ways of the world.
The list is endless. The question is - do we do what we do for ourselves or for the Lord? The Bible say, “Whatever you do….” )X)
3. We Fight Beside Our Comrades
1) People in our World
God did not allow Moses to fight alone. He did not lift up his rod for God to make the earth swallow up the Amalekites. God wanted to show how his church’s victory and his mighty miracles would come through ordinary men and women who are willing to pray and fight.
Moses was not alone. For the first time we see Joshua, the friend, co-worker, and successor of Moses. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight and Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hands.” (17:9).
And when Moses went up the hill, he did not go alone. He took his brother Aaron and a man named Hur, who like Joshua, is seen here for the first time.
When Moses’ arms grew tired they stepped in. They gave Moses a rock to sit on and each one held up an arm until the battle was won. (17:12-13).
God does not ask us to fight alone. That’s why we have the church. The first thing after conversion - coming into Christ, is baptism - coming into the church. The people there are our brothers and sisters, our friends, partners and fellow soldiers.
We need people around us as examples, encouragers and instructors. We find this in the church. Jesus had the Twelve, Peter had James and John. Paul had Barnabas and Timothy. We here today have each other.
The first words in the prayer Jesus gave us to pray are “Our Father”. When you are told you have leukemia; when your teenager turns to drugs; when your husband tells you he loves somebody else, etc. you are not alone.
When you lift your tears and troubles to heaven and say, “Our Father” you know that all across this world are Christians like you who are praying the same prayer and facing the same battle. Paul says these wilderness scenes are “example” and warning for us, and he also says out temptation and trials are “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:6)
2) People in the Word of God
(17:14-15; Lk. 22:32; Heb. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:6).
Wearing God’s armor our sword is the word of God (Eph. 6). We have a lot of “firsts” here - the first battle waged by the church; the first mention of Joshua and of Hur and the first time the Bible mentions the Bible. Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt, was told,
“Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (17:14).
Paul said the story of the wilderness gives us examples and warnings (1Cor. 10). We find this from Genesis to Malachi, and now from Matthew to Revelation.
You are depressed over God not helping you and seemingly asking too much of you and feel you are all alone in this. Then in your Bible reading you find Jeremiah, feeling the same way, telling God he is like a branch with no water (Ch. 12-21). You want to question God but feel it is wrong and you find Job bombarding heaven with questions on top of questions.
. You struggle against so much evil within that you know you doubt your salvation. Then in your Bible reading you find Paul in Romans seven saying, “I do the thing I hate. . . Who will deliver me?”
You bury your child; your heart is broken and you feel like shaking your fist at God. Then in your Bible reading you come upon Mrs. Job. She left her babies in a cemetery and wanted to curse God, but we never read that she did (Job. 1-2).
One man, whose wife died young, leaving him with two small children to raise, was consumed with bitterness, asking God “Why me?” One day he read in the paper of a Pastor, whose wife and child were killed driving to church one Sunday morning.
The Pastor, in tears, told the reporter how he hoped God would help him carry on as Pastor. The man put the paper down and the quiet voice of God the Holy Spirit put three word in his heart, “Why not me?” These simple words instantly conquered his bitterness. The truth set him free.
