God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, He had brought them safely through the Red Sea and had destroyed the Egyptians who were pursuing them. Now they were on their way to Mount Sinai: this and our previous study on Prayers in Scripture are out of chronological order.
Already, in this chapter 17 of Exodus we get some insight into the character of this people whom Moses was leading towards the Promised Land, They were constantly complaining. In this chapter we read of how they were without water and were ready almost to stone Moses. We can understand the despair of this great crowd of people in a desert and without water. Their need was real enough, but their anger and rebellion was wrong. God had provided for them thus far; they should have known that he would continue to provide for them. They should have turned to the Lord in prayer rather than turning to Moses in anger. This day of rebellion was long to be remembered in the history of Israel (see Psalm 95:6-8).
In his mercy God provided for them by giving them water from a rock. Here was living proof that the Lord was among them.
But no sooner was this crisis past than the children of Israel were facing another one. We read that the Amalekites came out to fight against the Israelites at Rephidim, The Amalekites were a nomadic people who lived in the desert. They probably viewed the Israelites as a threat, robbing them of some of the scarce resources of the desert. They were descendants of Esau. Maybe they were also jealous of the Israelites as those to whom the Lord had made the promise of the land of Canaan. Maybe, like Esau, they felt that they had been cheated of the Lord's blessings and were now about to be robbed of the little that they did possess in the desert. Whatever their motives, they decided to attack the Israelites.
God intended, through this threat, to teach the Israelites a lesson concerning prayer. They should have learnt that the correct response to trouble is not despair and complaint but prayer.
Moses' response to the threat is twofold. On the one hand he begins to make practical preparations to oppose the Amalekites. Moses appoints Joshua as the captain over the makeshift army of Israelites and tells him to go out and fight. On the other hand, Moses turns to prayer.
Here is the first important lesson that we learn from Moses. When facing trials and problems we are not to choose between prayer and practical action, we are to give ourselves to both. We are not to forget prayer, as if we can sort out our problems without the help of God. Neither are we to neglect practical action, as if God's answers to our prayers could never involve us in doing anything. Prayer and practical action must go hand in hand.
We read that while Joshua fought the Amalekites, Moses climbed to the top of a hill with Aaron and Hur. As long as Moses lifted up his hands the Israelites were winning, but the minute his hands began to drop the Amalekites began to get the upper hand, To help Moses keep his hands raised Aaron and Hur sat Moses on a stone and, standing one either side of him, they helped to support his raised arms. What does all of this mean?
The first thing that we need to note is that raised hands were a common attitude for prayer in Bible times. Look at Exodus 9:29, Psalm 141:2 and compare 1 Timothy 2:8. In verse 16 of this chapter Moses explains what it was that he was doing there on the hilltop when he says, "Hands were raised up to the throne of the Lord." Moses was praying to God for his help in the battle. His actions are rightly understood by William Cowper who, in his poem 'What various hindrances we meet in coming to the mercy-seat', writes,
While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel's side:
But when through weariness they failed,
That moment Amelek prevailed.
But there is even more for us to learn here. Moses was not empty-handed on the hill. In verse 9 he says to Joshua, "Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." Moses was not only lifting up his hands to God in prayer, he was also stretching out the staff of God towards the people of God. Now this staff was the symbol of God's power. To take just one example, in Exodus 14:16 we read how God had commanded Moses to stretch out this staff towards the Red Sea and the waters had rolled back to let Israel across. Later, in 14:26, Moses had stretched out his hand again (no-doubt, with the staff in it again), and the waters had rolled back and the Egyptians had been destroyed. This staff was the symbol of God's power. While that staff was stretched out towards the people of God they were winning the battle: when Moses' arms grew tired and the staff dropped they began to lose ground.
Here is one of the Bible's most powerful pictures of prayer. God intended it to be precisely that, a powerful picture. All of the children of Israel could see Moses on the hilltop and could see what he was doing. They could see that when his arms were raised they did well in the battle and that when his arms dropped they began to fail. God was causing the battle to go that way precisely to teach Israel an important lesson concerning the nature and power of prayer.
Through this incident we learn something wonderful concerning intercessory prayer – praying for God to answer a need. We learn from this picture that intercessory prayer is this: it is laying hold of God's throne, of God's power, and it is extending the power of God towards a situation of need. It was as if Moses himself were the channel of God's power as his hands were at one and the same time stretched out to God and out towards the people of God.
God intended that his people should learn through this incident something of the power of prayer. That is why he required Moses to record this incident (verse 14). But it does not seem to be a lesson that was remembered by them for very long,
There are at least three very important lessons for us from this chapter of Scripture. The first and most obvious lesson concerns the power of prayer. Have we really understood the lesson which God was here teaching his people? Prayer is powerful for in prayer God enables us to lay hold upon his throne, to have access to the power behind the universe and to extend his power to situations of need. Do we believe it? If we have really understood anything of the power of prayer this ought to mean the end of our despair and our complaints. To quote again the words of Cowper's poem:
While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel's side;
But when through weariness they failed,
That moment Amelek prevailed.
Have you no words? ah! think again,
Words flow apace when you complain,
And fill your fellow-creature's ear
With the sad tale of all your care.
Were half the breath thus vainly spent
To heaven in supplication sent,
Your cheerful song would oftener be,
Hear what the Lord has done for me!
If we truly believed in the power of prayer we would complain less and pray more.
The second lesson is this: as Christians we are engaged in a warfare, a warfare which is to be accompanied by prayer. I believe that there are at least three important fronts to the Christian's warfare. Firstly there is the battle that we have to fight with our own hearts. Our hearts are the place where a battle is going on as to who will have dominion in our lives, Christ by his Spirit, or ourselves and our flesh. We are aware of the battle and we are conscious that at one moment one 'side' seems to have the upper hand while at another moment the other 'side’ seems to prevail. Even the great apostle Paul can speak of the way in which he had to wrestle with his own heart, (see 1 Corinthians 9:24-27). The New Testament is full of exhortations to the Christian to 'run the race set before us' or to 'fight the good fight' or to 'work out your salvation in fear and trembling' We are engaged in a battle, and we are surely aware that one of the places where the battle is most real and most fierce is in our own hearts. We must use all practical means at our disposal for the fighting of this battle. But we need also to realise that we will only grow in likeness to Christ, only make some progress in the battle with the flesh, when lay hold of the throne of God in prayer and seek for his power to be evident in our lives.
The second front in the Christian warfare is the local church! Here again we have in the New Testament a clear picture of what we ought to be. The church is to be a fellowship of Christian men and women living with Christ as their Lord and Head. We should be those who love him and who live in obedience to him. We should be those who love one another and encourage one another in the Christian life. We should be a living visual aid for the unbeliever, the love of God made visible. Yet we know that we are not yet perfect and that pride and jealousy and self-seeking and party spirit can so easily spoil the fellowship of the church. As a result we fail to encourage one another as we should and our witness to others is robbed of power. Here also we need to be engaged in a battle to wrestle with and overcome everything in our fellowship which prevents us being what we should be. We need to fight using every practical weapon, loving one another, encouraging one another, forgiving one another etc. But most of all we need to pray. We need to realise afresh the power of prayer and to lay hold upon the throne of God and extend the power of God towards the people of God.
The third front in our warfare is the battle for the extension of the Kingdom. There is a great battle going on in the world, the battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God. Satan holds so many people captive, bound in the chains of sin yet blind to their own captivity. It is through the preaching of the Gospel that we wage war on the kingdom of darkness. As we tell others of Christ, God is pleased to use our testimony and, by his Spirit, to bring men and women out of darkness into light. We need to be active in this battle using every practical means, personal testimony, tracts, evangelistic services etc. But we need also to realise that success in this war cannot be expected without prayer. We need to lay hold upon the throne of God and plead with him for victory in this warfare. Without Moses on the hill Joshua would not have succeeded in battle no matter how well trained the troops and how fiercely they fought. But the victory was given to a disorganised and makeshift army in response to prayer. Prayer is the most powerful weapon in the Christian's arsenal for it lays hold upon the power of God.
The third great lesson that we learn from this passage is that we need to persist in prayer and not get tired. Victory in the battles which we are engaged in is not the matter of a moment. Israel's battle lasted a whole day and Moses needed help and encouragement to continue in prayer. Our battles last a lifetime and we need to persist in prayer and not lose heart. We need to learn above all to encourage one another in prayer, to hold up one another's arms as it were.
May God teach us afresh something of the power of prayer from this passage so that we may be encouraged to lay hold upon his throne. May God then teach us something more of the power of prayer as we see his kingdom gaining ground in our lives and in our community in response to our prayer.
Peter Misselbrook