Last Sunday, for our prayers of intercession, I prayed on our
behalf for the girls and boys before the Lord and the young people
and the exams that they're undertaking currently at this time.
So it'll be no surprise to any of us that that with exam season
and sorry, don't want to send chills down anyone's back at that
thought.
But after exam season will always come reports.
And so as much as teachers now have to mark reports, they also mark
exams.
They have to write reports.
And reports will demonstrate what has been taught over the year.
The exams will gauge what has been understood, but the reports
will reflect the teacher's feeling or thinking based on those
results and other things about how our young people and our children
have spent the past year in school.
And maybe you remember your school reports, maybe you remember
what they were like.
And for those sitting GCSEs and A levels, I can't quite remember
if you get a report, but basically your results are your report.
You've either done well or maybe not as well as you hoped, but
for everybody else, which is the vast majority of children and
young people at school, you get a report and it'll tell you.
And for some of you, you'll run home with that report happy.
For others, you might make sure it's stuffed down the bottom
of your bag, not to be discovered until August.
But either way, the school report will come home and it will
say something of what your year at school has been like.
There will be praise where praise can be given, but there will
also be the comment of must try harder, I think, and as a teacher
who had to write a report, although in my day all you had to
put in was a number and the computer generated it for you, there
wasn't one for that until I created one.
And so in my reports there would have been for a few Pupils
must try harder, because needing to try harder is one of those
phrases that suggest there is an ability there to that's not been
used to its full potential, that if only the pupil would try
a little bit harder, then they would achieve.
And so teaching staff recognize that the pupil has the
ability if only they would apply themselves a little more to
the subject.
A teacher will only put this comment on the page if they truly
believe that the student can achieve higher grades in that subject.
Earlier this or well towards the end of last year, earlier in
this academic year, I had the privilege of returning to my old
high school and speaking at parents night or prize giving, and
I saw the headmaster lift out a ledger as I got up to speak, and
in that ledger he had all of my grades and my attendance, which
I questioned.
I had full attendance, he said I didn't.
So we had a wee bit of a scuffle on the stage, but it was
okay.
But I'm glad he didn't read out because there would have been
quite a few subjects that would have tried harder.
PE being one of them.
Could try harder.
Technology had no hope whatsoever, and I didn't even get
a could try harder.
Just said, all the best for next year, but you know what it's
like.
There's subjects that you're naturally good at, but in honesty,
there are subjects.
Or if we move it on now to the majority of us here this morning,
in life, we must or could try harder.
Well, young people, whatever way your reports come back at the
end of June, there may be one or two places for improvement.
But don't worry, there's always next year and all the best.
But over the past weeks, we have been looking at a people whose
report card has said must try harder, because that's what we've
seen for the children of Israel.
They're now free from Egypt.
They're on their way to the promised Land, although it's going
to take them a lot longer than they think.
But written across their report card of how they've handled
themselves so far is that they must try harder.
Now, I'm not suggesting that their existence in the wilderness
can be achieved by their own effort.
It's only by their trust in God to provide that they can look
to.
And that's what has been lacking, their ability to understand
who God is.
That as he is the God who has brought them out of Egypt, so he'll
be the God who will keep them.
And let's remind ourselves, God has provided for them.
But yet they've continued to grumble against Moses and quarreled
over their access to water.
Remember, at Marah and Elam, the Lord provided miraculously and
abundantly for them when they found the water too bitter to drink.
As they moved into the desert of sin, they grumbled for the lack
of food, and the Lord provided manna and quail.
And at Rephidim, they quarreled with Moses over the lack
of drinking water.
And the Lord provided water miraculously from the rock.
Each of these had been a test to see if Israel would truly know
the Lord and know him as their provider.
And initially they have failed in each test.
And so that's why they must try harder if they are truly to be
his people.
And so, as we come now to the second half of chapter 17.
We see again, an opportunity for the people to trust in the Lord
to keep them and to keep them from harm as the Amalekites come
and attack them.
Now, geographically, the Amalekites are associated with the
Negev in the south of Canaan and Edom, which is just east of the
Negev.
If you look at that map, you're looking at where it says the
wilderness of Zin, and that's heading down south really, from where
Canaan is.
And so they're not in their territory, but the Amalekites are
coming to where the children of Israel are.
And so here in the Negev, both of these places are east of Israel's
current encampment.
And relationally.
And this is important to know, the Amalekites come from Esau's descendants,
and that's told us there in Genesis 36.
So the people who are coming to attack the children of Israel
are actually the Israelites, distant cousins.
And that might suggest that they should interact well as family.
But as we know, Jacob and Esau had their great divisions.
And so instead of coming with a.
A sense of a family and forgiveness and working together,
the Amalekites come to make war.
And this will be the first time since leaving Egypt that the
Israelites will have to engage in battle.
And so with this, then the stakes are extremely high.
Because whatever happens here, now, in this wilderness of sin, or
just as they head out of Rephidim, will foreshadow, positively
or negatively, one what will happen when the Israelites have to
fight in the promised land.
And verse nine tells us of the action Moses takes in preparing for
battle.
Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight
the Amalekites.
Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God
in my hands.
Now, this is the first mention that we have in Scripture of Joshua.
And later passages will tell us that this is a young man and he
is Moses helper.
But here in this passage, we see that he is young and is evidently
courageous because he is appointed to lead the battle against
the Amalekites.
And so, while Joshua leads the troops to battle, Moses will go to
a hill overlooking the battle and take with him the staff with
which he has performed miracles on the Lord's behalf.
Joshua and the Israelites are to fight, but with Moses on the hill.
And as we'll discover, with outstretched arms, we now see a spiritual
dimension, because even though Joshua and the Israelites will be
in place on the battleground, Moses overseeing things from the
mountain.
The Lord will in some way fight for them, just as he did with
the Egyptians.
On the next day, Joshua leads the Israelite army into battle, while
Moses goes to the hilltop and he takes with him Aaron and hur.
And verses 10 and 11 tell us so Joshua fought the Amalekites as
Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of
the hill.
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning.
But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
Just as verse 9 was the first mention of Joshua, so here verse
10 is the first mention of Hur.
And later in Exodus, we'll be told that he is one of Israel's top
leaders and belongs to Judah's tribe, well alongside Aaron's.
His role is crucial because whenever Moses, we're told, lifts
his hands with the staff, Israel succeeds in battle.
But whenever he grows tired and lowers his hands, then Amalek
prevails over the Israelites.
And I think we all know what it's like to have weary and tired
arms, either in our daily work or doing jobs around the house.
To extend your arms, to bear weight on them, or to carry something
can only be sustained for a short period of time.
So Moses, like any of us, grows weary.
And when he does, right beside him, Aaron and Hur are there to support
him.
And they do this by holding up his arms just as a little aside.
Here it is a beautiful picture of what the family of God is to be
like.
Because we will see as we move through Exodus, and I hope we will
know as we go through the rest of the Old Testament and into the
New Testament and particularly into the Acts of the Apostles that
we looked at just a few years ago.
The Christian life was never one to be on your own.
It was never one to be endured as an individual.
The Christian life is to be done in community, as God will form
his community around him in Sinai and around the Ten Commandments,
as that community will move into the promised land and populate
it, as Christ will gather around him 72 and 12, and particularly
the three who are closest to him.
And as there is the one anothers or the togethers in the
Acts of the Apostles, we are told throughout Scripture of what
it means to trust in the Lord, that yes, our individual salvation
must be ours, but it doesn't mean we live as individuals when
it comes to God's people.
And here we have a beautiful picture of when we go to do a work
or as we simply live as God's people.
There are those who are around to support us and to help us to move
a stone, to hold up arms, so that indeed, together we play vital
roles in this great ministry that God calls us each to as his
children.
And so we see with Moses and Aaron and Hur, and even with Joshua
down below, a team at work of one mind, of service for the Lord.
And look at the practical things they do, because Moses and
her knowing that, sorry, Aaron and her knowing that Moses is getting
tired, they move a stone in place so that he can sit on it as
he gets tired.
And with this, then they're able to ensure that Moses hands are
always kept up.
And with this, Joshua and the Israelites defeat Amalek.
And it's simply recorded for us in verse 13.
So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
This is actually a very succinct retelling of what this battle
was like.
And when you think about this approach to battle with a modern
view, then some might consider this as some sort of primitive magic
or indeed superstition of everything that was at play here.
But there's so much more to this than simply the leader of the
people standing on top of a hill with his arms outstretched as
the rest of the people fought.
Because remember that when they came out of Egypt, they were
ready to fight.
They were ready for battle.
Well, at least practically, they were in verse 18 of chapter
13.
So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red
Sea.
The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.
So they were armed for it.
But now is the first time that they're ready for it, but not in
their own strength.
You see, they were a people who had a lot of instruments and
weapons for battle.
But so much going on here that we need to pay attention to, because
God has already demonstrated his great power in rescuing the Israelites.
He's rescued them through the ten plagues by the crossing of the
Red Sea on dry ground and providing food and water in the wilderness.
And so their battle against the Amalekites, which is only the
first of many battles to be fought, is no less the action of
a saving God, as these people have already witnessed in what he
has already done.
And so, as Moses stands on the hill with his arms outstretched,
he is coming before the Lord in prayer.
Because throughout Scripture, outstretched hands are a common sign
for prayer.
For example, Psalm 143, 6 says, I spread out my hands to you.
So that position of prayer and what comes next, my soul Thirsts
for you.
Isn't that what prayer is?
It's coming before the Lord because our souls thirst for him.
And the description here is a soul thirsting like a parched land.
We see in Psalm 143, the Psalmist in a posture of prayer before
the Lord, raising hands as a sign of total submission for Moses,
his actions here are unmistakable because they are a sign
of dependence upon God alone to win the battle.
Moses was also holding his staff, the instrument of design,
power, and the token of God's covenant promise.
And by holding it to heaven, he was appealing to God to defend
his people, just as God had done previously.
And so the events on the hill will make clear to the Israelites
that they must depend continually on the Lord's power and
presence in their midst, because without him, they should
expect nothing but defeat.
And if we reread this passage carefully again, we will see that
its entire focus is not on Israel's fighting, but on what is
taking place with the staff of God on the hill.
The Lord is the one fighting this battle through them, just like
he said in Exodus 14:14, all you need to do is stand there.
I, the Lord, will fight for for you.
And so, with the victory won, the Lord commands Moses to record
it on a scroll so that it can be remembered, so that we can be
reading it today as part of exodus.
And verse 14 gives very specific instructions as to why this
is.
Write this on a scroll, the Lord said to Moses, 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.
Now we can understand why a victory like this is to be recorded,
but it seems a little bit odd that he wants Joshua to hear it.
After all, wasn't Joshua at the front line of the battle?
And he knows that the victory happened.
So why is this specifically being pointed out for Joshua?
Well, the Lord wants to make sure that Joshua is aware that in
response to the Amalekites actions, the Lord plans to wipe them
off the face of the Earth.
And this being told to Joshua, it means that he shouldn't attempt
to engage in peaceful relations with them, because that's
what would normally happen.
Once you subdue a people, you subsume them, you bring them in,
and you have dominion over them.
The Lord says, don't waste your time.
Make sure Joshua doesn't do this, because these people will be
wiped off the face of the earth.
And after the record of the battle is made, Moses ensures that
appropriate worship is given to God because verses 15 and 16 tell
us.
Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner,
he said, for hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.
The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation
to generation.
And so after the victory, Moses builds an altar.
And throughout the book of Genesis, we know that the Israelites
forefathers often did this, usually in response to the Lord's
making his presence known in a special way or through answering
prayer.
And so the altar serves to commemorate the event and also to
provide Israel a place to offer sacrificial worship, which
Moses presumably does here.
And he names the altar, he calls the altar the Lord is my Banner.
In the ancient Near East, a banner or a standard or a signal
was a rallying sign to which members of a people or fighting force
could flee, finding safety in the company of those gathering to
it, marching forward under it.
That practice continued throughout all of military warfare,
where even in the Middle Ages, we would see, or at least we would
have evidence of these banners coming not only to tell the enemy
that the victory ones were here, but also to tell their own
troops who to gather around and who to be with, because uniforms
were not part of what they did.
And so banners were given as a sign of where to gather.
And so to say the Lord is my banner is to say that he is his people's
leader, the one that they rally around, and that he will go
before his people as they face the foe.
And so this chapter ends clearly stating that the Lord will
have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
In other words, they will face his opposition in the coming generations
because of their stance against God's people.
And God will do this not to be a vindictive God, but to encourage
his people that he himself will wage war against their enemies.
You see, whenever Moses says, the Lord is my banner, well, he truly
is their banner.
Moses is saying, let us follow the Lord and let us do it in faith.
So as we conclude this chapter this morning, we must ask ourselves
about our end of year report card.
That's how we started.
We have held the Israelites to account for their trust in God or
their lack of it, because God himself told us that all of these
things were a test to the people.
The question moving forward will be if they will remain faithful
to understanding God as their great leader, as their great provider,
and their great savior.
And as we will see, their report will come back often could
try harder, even with the rallying call, to come to the Lord
and to know him as their banner of assembly and trust.
At times they will choose to ignore and reject him.
And are we any different?
Is truly the Lord our banner, the one to whom we go to and none
other?
Well, as we finish up and before we come to think about the
Lord as our banner, I just want to jump back one little bit,
and that's to talk about the place of prayer.
Because before the altar is named, the Lord is our banner, or
the Lord is my banner.
We know of that posture that Moses took as he spiritually led
his people so with outstretched arms, he cried to the
Lord.
And Moses demonstrates that to know the Lord in our lives is to
come before him in prayer.
Prayer in the first instance is to confess sin and seek Christ
as Savior.
And, you know, maybe you've wanted to become a Christian and
you've never known how.
Maybe you know about Christ, maybe even like Christ, but you're
not yet in his hands.
How do you do that?
How do you become a Christian?
Well, you come become a Christian by knowing what Christ
has done, that he is the one who has given his life for you.
And then you come to him in prayer in that same posture, knowing
that there's no one else can save you but God alone, because of
Jesus, that even though the sins of your life deserve to be punished
by you, Christ has taken on himself that punishment so that you
will not have to face it.
So maybe you know of Christ, you know about him, maybe you even
like him and the idea of him, but you've not yet entrusted your
life into his hands.
Well, the first place is prayer, acknowledging the sin and
coming before him and seeking him as your Savior and that you will
live for him.
Because that's what continues to happen.
It's not just a prayer in a moment, but it's a life of prayer.
And so as salvation begins by coming before the Lord in prayer,
prayer doesn't stop there.
We must be, as Moses was, in the posture of prayer before the
Lord every day.
Because prayer demonstrates our total reliance on the Lord, knowing
that there are things we simply cannot do.
But as our great leader, as our great provider, and as our great
Savior, he is the one to whom we turn so that we bring before him
prayers of praise and prayers of request for ourselves and for
others.
And that's what Paul writes about in 1st Thessalonians, chapter
5.
Be joyful always.
Pray continually.
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's
will for you in Christ Jesus.
Yes, please pray at home.
Pray in your car with your eyes open, of course, but pray in
your car, if you find yourself alone, be it in the workplace, and
you know that you can pray.
Prayer doesn't have to be five minutes in length.
It can be 30 seconds, it can be 90 seconds.
What we need is a posture of prayer to come before the Lord.
And trust me, as someone who's learned this way, prayer grows.
You may think, well, what do I pray for?
What do I pray?
Well, simply start and you will learn how to pray.
The first outreach team I went on to was down in Carlow where the
Reverend Stephen Johnson, who's now in Kilkeel, was the minister.
And I remember we were given one whole hour in the morning for
a quiet time.
One whole hour.
As a 17 year old, I had no idea what to do in that whole hour.
And after 10 or so years of doing that team, I loved that hour
and found myself wanting more time.
Because we learn how to pray, we learn how to talk to God.
So don't feel that your prayers are worthless or pointless
because you don't think you're doing them right.
The Lord delights because as Paul says, be joyful always.
Pray continually.
Give thanks in all situations, for this is God's will for you in
Christ Jesus.
He wants you to pray.
So pray at home, pray in the car, pray at work, but join others
to pray, pray together, pray publicly.
Come and be part of prayer meetings on a Wednesday evening when
we take time to pray at the end of our time in midweek where
we get 20 minutes to bring before the Lord those things that
are impacting us as a congregation, as individuals and
as a community and things for the world.
Join us on Sunday morning and Sunday evening.
Come and be part of that.
And it might be that you come and don't pray.
And that's okay because we all have to learn how to pray.
But look at what Moses does and look at the image that's given
here.
It is in the posture of prayer that as he leads the people, he is
supported.
Do Aaron and her pray?
We don't know, but they're there beside him as Moses does this
work.
Do not belittle the place of prayer.
And as we are commanded, as is God's will for us in Christ Jesus,
pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances and always
being joyful.
Will you look at your end of year report and will you consider
the place of prayer?
I'm not going to be a teacher and judge and punch in key number
six.
That said, you must try harder because if I did that to you, I would
have to say it to myself.
We grow in prayer, but we must begin in prayer, begin today and
get into these wonderful habits of what it means to come before
the Lord.
Just as Moses demonstrates here in the posture he presents before
the Lord.
But the second thing that we must consider is about our banner.
It might be, well, we all have banners.
It might be that our banner is politics.
We'll talk more of politics than anything else.
It might be sport.
We'll talk about sport more than anything else.
Or it might be individual things that consume us.
We'll always be chasing after money, or we'll always be chasing
after success, or a name for ourselves, or we'll always be trying
to have a better family.
And so we'll work things to make our family good, or maybe our
career.
We want to be able to progress up.
And that's what is most important to us.
You see, whatever we have as most important in our lives is that
banner.
And so take out your report card again this year.
What have you spoken most about?
What have you talked most about with others?
Because that will tell you here and now what your banner is.
We have to be very careful.
If we're talking about these things more then we are talking and
thinking about the things of the Lord.
Moses in verse 15 says that the Lord is his banner first and
foremost.
And so it should also be for us.
Every one of us has a banner.
I have a banner.
It's something that we all look to for identity security.
But if it's not Christ, then it's not truth.
I don't know if many of you will have heard of the name Dante.
Dante lived well, he was from Florence and he lived in the 1200s.
And one of his classic works is called Inferno, Dante's Inferno.
And in one of the he writes about one of the outer circles of
hell where people were chasing back and forth after a banner.
They could never reach this banner, but they never stopped chasing
it either.
Because Dante writes, I saw a banner there upon the mist, circling
and circling, that seemed to scorn all pause.
So it ran on and still behind it pressed a never ending rout of
souls, pain.
See, Dante understood something important about human nature.
People need a standard, something to look to for our identity
and our security.
Some people spend their whole lives chasing after it without ever
reaching a place of rest.
So again, what is your banner?
What is the emblem of your hope?
Where do you look to for courage in times of difficulty and
despair?
Well, again, Moses has the best answer for us.
He said, the Lord is my banner.
Whenever I am under attack, I rally to his side.
And so the Lord is to be our banner, but in a way that even Moses
could hardly have imagined.
Because the prophet Isaiah promised a day when the root of Jesse
shall stand as a signal for the peoples.
Of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall
be glorious.
And that's in Isaiah 11, verse 10.
Isaiah's promise is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
He is the root of Jesse, the Son of David and the Son of God.
Now he stands as a banner for God's people who rally to him from
every nation.
Now, the Bible doesn't say that Jesus has a banner.
It says that he is the banner.
It is by looking to Jesus that we are saved, specifically by looking
to his cross and what was accomplished there for us.
And that's why Jesus, early on in his ministry in John chapter 3
and verses 14 and 15, would say, just as Moses lifted up the
snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.
Up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
And of course, we'll come in the weeks to follow that story about
the snake being lifted up.
But it's the same image that's been presented to us here.
Jesus is the one we're to look to.
He is the man on the middle cross.
He was lifted up to die for our sins.
And so now it is by looking to the crucified and risen Christ that
we live.
Our banner is the cross of Christ where He bled and died for
our sins.
And whenever we come under attack, it is Christ and the cross
that is to give us courage for the fight.
So let me ask you this morning, is Christ truly your banner?
Is he the One you trust more than anything else?
Because he needs to be.
Otherwise, whatever you will chase, you will chase to the day
you die.
And it will never fulfill.
You see, when we know him truly as our all in all, then we
will want to come before him in prayer with arms outstretched,
knowing that we are depending on no one nor anything else for salvation
but him alone.
Who would have thought an ancient battle in the desert of sin
between two sets of cousins would challenge us to look to a banner
that is above everything else of this world?
A banner that can only fulfill that banner is Christ and His cross.
So will you come to Him?
Will you look to that banner?
Will you look to him alone so that today you can have that wonderful
assurance that you're not chasing something in vain?
But indeed, he will keep you to the end, that he will keep you
in his hands.
And I say again, for some here.
You know about Jesus.
You actually like the idea of Jesus, but as yet, you're not in
his hands.
Well, today he invites each and every one of us to know him truly.
So that indeed, with Moses, we will recite and say and declare that
the Lord is my banner.
May it be so for you this day.
Let us pray.
Our Father God, we thank you for your word that encourages us
and challenges us, but helps us to focus on whose we are to be.
And so indeed may Christ be our banner as we live for him day
by day, not chasing after things we can never catch, nor can
they ever fulfill, but rather looking only ever to Christ, the
one who will keep us.
So help us to respond well to you this day.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Sam.