Exodus Chronicles: Part 9
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: We must learn new responses in our times of trial to see Jesus break through as the Lord - our banner of victory.
Learned Responses
Keep Those Hands Up
To the Lord Our Banner
Learned Responses
We must learn new responses to God during our times of trial.
Exodus 17:1-7
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
God moves us into his promises by stages.
God always has a plan.
The Israelites were camped by the commandment of the Lord where there was no water for the people to drink, but again, God had a plan.
Familiar challenges are part of your walk with God (Remember the Israelites in Exodus 15:22-26 at Marah).
God uses the challenges to bring out what is in our hearts, that we might see clearly and be conformed to the image of Christ.
*The wilderness is ultimately about our character development, not God’s faithfulness.
God gives you similar challenges over and over so that you grow in your RESPONSES - learning how to trust the Lord (think of Jesus feeding the 5000 and then the 4000).
Every place where God commands you to camp, he has a plan for miraculous provision to show both his sovereignty and care for you.
Despite this, like the Israelites, our tendency is to quarrel and complain.
God is kind to instruct us during those times as grumbling children on the path to maturity.
Yet this grace must never be taken for granted.
Leadership always needs to be ready to set the pace in seeking the Lord for a solution in times of trial, passing on before the people as an example.
Moses taking in his hand the staff with which he struck the Nile communicated that the same faithfulness that God showed his people before would be the same power and faithfulness that he would show them again - this time in new territory on their way to the promise.
The lesson that we need to learn is that testing the Lord is not good.
The presumption and audacity of people who casually talk about being angry with God and speaking ill words against him needs to stop.
To see the supernatural power and provision of God, we must walk in a humble fear of the Lord.
Massah and Meribah were so named to mark the Israelites immaturity and the Lord’s faithfulness in the midst of it.
*Where does the Lord need to mature you in the midst of your responses to life’s challenges?
Keep Those Hands Up
God’s breakthroughs come on the heels of prayer and praise.
The right response to our challenges should be prayer and praise.
Exodus 15 begins with a beautiful picture of how we should all respond in gratitude and thankfulness when it is clear that the Lord has delivered us.
Over the course of time, the further we get from the actual moment of deliverance, the greater the temptation is to allow our gratitude to dull and our thankfulness to wane.
Thankfulness is a muscle to be developed.
What God is showing us in Rephidim is that which comes to steal our thankfulness and joy.
Exodus 17:8-13
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
The Hebrew root word for Amal had the meaning of: trouble, wearisome labor and toil.
Just as of blotted out the Egyptian chariots, so he intended to blot out the Amalekite threat from the Israelites, which means there is no enemy, no challenge - past, present or FUTURE - that the Lord is not willing and able to give his people victory through.
Here is the key: As long as Moses' hands were raised, the Israelites were winning.
Whenever they were lowered, the Amalekites were winning.
There is a direct correlation to prayer and praise here.
1 Timothy 2:8
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;
It starts with the men!
Aaron and Hur show us the need for community in the fight - STOP SKIPPING CHURCH!
*There are fallacies to the idea of simply relying on a remote church experience.
Stop fooling yourself - deception is spoken of over and over again in the Bible.
The act of inconveniencing yourself to get out of bed and come to physically fellowship with other believers is good practice for the DAILY EXPECTATION TO DENY YOURSELF, PICK UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW CHRIST if you are to be a disciple (Luke 9:23,24).
It is the same with the regular practice of tithing when I give my FIRST AND BEST 10% to God remembering that all of life depends on him and is to be stewarded for him.
These are outward practices for inward character development.
Luke 9:23-24
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Everyone wants to shoot like Steph Curry, but few want to put in the work to be like him.
People say they want to please Christ, but few want to fulfill acts of righteousness to be like him (think of Christ’s baptism).
You are not living under God’s banner when you are picking and choosing what you will obey, and therefore should not expect victory.
*We win in every area when we do what God says, Christ’s way.
To the Lord Our Banner
When we learn to come to Christ and his church through our trials, we see clearly that Jesus is forever lifted up over every circumstance as our banner of victory.
Exodus 17:14-16
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
In Christ’s glory, you will find your victory.
John 12:27-33
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
God blotted the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.
Christ would achieve the ultimate victory for all who would turn to him by forever blotting out the guilt of our sins by paying for our forgiveness through his sacrificial death at the cross.
Though we were once objects of God’s wrath, we have peace with God and victory over sin as we look to Christ, our banner lifted up, now resurrected from the dead, that we might have eternal life through his finished work.
*In this and every situation, we learn that the victories of Christ are not temporary, but eternal.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher