Israel in Training
Israel in Training
Image by Luc Mahler from Pixabay
Joshua
Then the Amalekites came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses told Joshua, “Choose some men for us to go fight against the Amalekites. Tomorrow, I’ll stand on top of the hill holding the staff of God.”
Image by Luc Mahler from Pixabay
After providing the Israelites with food and water, Yahweh began preparing them for self-rule. To live as a free nation, they had to learn to defend and govern themselves. Yahweh created humanity to rule the earth, so he expects his people to wield appropriate authority.1 The time had come for the Israelites to act on their faith.
The Amalekites came against the Israelites unprovoked. None of the former slaves had military experience, but Moses knew the people would have to fight. So he commanded Joshua to assemble an army to defend the camp. Joshua, introduced here for the first time, served as Moses’s assistant.2 In his youth, he was no warrior. Yet Moses entrusted command of the army to him. Moses would play a different role.
Trusting God isn’t a passive act. It requires obedient action in situations where we can’t succeed on our own. The untrained rabble of Israelites had no chance of defeating the battle-tested Amalekites by their own strength. They could win only by trusting in the strength of their God.
Battling the Amalekites
Joshua did just as Moses said by fighting against the Amalekites. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of the hill. As long as Moses kept his arm raised, the Israelites proved stronger. But whenever he rested his arm, the Amalekites proved stronger.
When Moses’s arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur took a stone and set it under Moses for him to sit on. Then they supported his arms, one on each side, so his arms remained steady until sunset. So Joshua routed Amalek and its people.
Image by CCXpistiavos from Pixabay
Joshua obeyed Moses, chose an army, and went out to fight against the Amalekites. Moses kept his end by climbing to the top of a hill overlooking the battlefield. His brother, Aaron, went with him, as well as another Israelite leader named Hur. When Moses held the staff of God over the battle, the Israelites would dominate. But when his arms grew tired and sank, the Amalekites would dominate.
Though elsewhere in Scripture raised hands indicate a posture of prayer, that’s not the meaning here. Moses lowering his arms wouldn’t make his prayers ineffective. Throughout the Exodus narrative, the staff symbolizes Yahweh’s authority.3 When Moses held up the staff, Yahweh fought in favor of the Israelites. When the staff fell, the battle took its natural course in favor of the stronger army, the Amalekites. The Israelites couldn’t defeat their enemies in their own strength. Victory comes when we call on Yahweh’s authority to control the battle.
At eighty years old, Moses couldn’t hold out for the whole battle. He needed his friends, and Aaron and Hur rose to the occasion. When Moses couldn’t stand any longer, they found a large stone for him to sit on and then stood at his side holding his arms up. They remained there until the battle ended at sunset. Because of the faithfulness of these three men and the obedience of Joshua, the Israelites routed the Amalekites.