CHAPTER 17

(1491 B.C.)

WATER

¹And all the congregation of the Children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the Commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. (It might seem strange that God, Who professed to love Israel, should lead them into a desert, both foodless and waterless. But love led them there that they might learn the desperate unbelief of their own hearts, and the unfailing faithfulness of Gods heart.)

²Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? wherefore do you tempt the Lord? (Only in a desert could God reveal what He can be to those who trust Him; for only there was Israel dependent upon Him for everything. Without God nothing; with God everything. When we criticize Gods man, we are in essence criticizing God. The questions of the wilderness are: What? Where? How? Faith has a brief but comprehensive answer to all three, namely, God!)

³And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? (First of all, they tempted the Lord, which is a want of Faith, and now they murmur, which proved to be one of their greatest sins, because murmuring always exhibits unbelief.)

⁴And Moses cried unto the LORD saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. (One of the most prominent traits of the character of Moses is that, at the occurrence of a difficulty, he always carried it straight to God [Ex. 15:25; 24:15; 32:30; 33:8; Num. 11:2, 11; 12:11; 14:13-19].)

⁵And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with you of the Elders of Israel; and your rod, wherewith you smote the river, take in your hand, and go.

⁶Behold, I will stand before you there upon the Rock in Horeb; and you shall smite the Rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the Elders of Israel. (This is one of the most beautiful Types found in the entirety of Scripture. The Rock was a Type of Christ [I Cor. 10:1-4]. The Rock being smitten typified the Cross [Isa. 53:4]. The water coming out of the Rock was a Type of the Holy Spirit [Jn. 7:37-39]. However, the water, i.e., the Holy Spirit, was not available until the Rock [Christ] was smitten [crucified Jn. 14:16-20]. In fact, Christ, the Cross, our Faith, and the Holy Spirit constitute the basis of Christianity [Gal., Chpt. 5].)

⁷And he called the name of the place Massah (contention), and Meribah (strife), because of the chiding of the Children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? (This proclaims the fact that the smitten Rock, which gushed forth with a river of water, was not brought about because of the Righteousness and Holiness of the people, but strictly because of the Grace of God; however, for the Believer to stay on a wrong path of unbelief will ultimately bring total destruction [Rom. 8:12].)

AMALEK

⁸Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. (The reception of the Holy Spirit, of which the water was a Type, immediately causes war. Its the war between the flesh and the Holy Spirit [Gal. 5:17].)

⁹And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the Rod of God in my hand. (Up to this point God had fought for them. Then, Israel was to stand still and see His Salvation [14:13-14]; but the command now is to go out and fight. There is an immense difference between Justification and Sanctification. The one is Christ fighting for us; the other, the Holy Spirit fighting in us. The entrance of the new nature is the beginning of warfare with the old.)

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (Amalek pictures the old carnal nature. He was the grandson of Esau, who before and after birth tried to murder Jacob, and who preferred the mess of pottage to the birthright. This carnal nature wars against the Spirit; it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be [Rom. 8:7]. Hur means light the emblem of Divine Holiness, and so points to the Holy Spirit. Joshua was a Type of Christ.)

¹¹And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (The hands upheld signified total dependence on the Lord. When the Believer is totally depending on the Lord, and what He did for us at the Cross, the victory of Christ belongs to us; otherwise, it doesnt!)

¹²But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. (The Stone, as well, is symbolic of Christ. Moses exhaustion portrays the fact that our own efforts soon result in spiritual burn-out. But once we are in Gods glorious way [sitting on the Stone], the victory is ours. Aaron was a Type of Christ as our Great High Priest, and Hur, whose name means light, speaks to us of the Holy Spirit. This is the help afforded the Child of God. But unfortunately, most Christians are trying to hold up their hands [trusting in God] by their own personal strength, which is doomed to failure.)

¹³And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. (The sword here is a Type of the Word of God [Eph. 6:17]. The Word of God holds the answer to every single problem which pertains to Life and Godliness [II. Pet. 1:3-4].)

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in the Book (this Verse presents the birth of the Bible as a written Book; the command was Write this in the Book, not in a book), and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven. (It is remarkable that the first mention of the Bible should be in connection with the hostility of the natural man [Amalek] to the spiritual man [Israel].)

¹⁵And Moses built an Altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi (the Lord my Banner; the Altar, of course, is a Type of Calvary; Christ is our Banner only through the Cross):

¹⁶For he said, Because the LORD has sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. (Amalek was to dwell in the land, but not to reign in it. Romans 6:12 says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. The command would be unmeaning if the sin nature were not existing in the Christian. The sin nature dwells in a Believer, but dwells and reigns in an unbeliever.)