Battle At Rephidim
Pastors Leslie & Adeline Chua
“As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,
but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
When Moses’ hands grew tired,
they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.
Aaron and Hur held his hands up—
one on one side, one on the other—
so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”
Barely a short while after the miraculous Red Sea crossing, Israel came under attack once again. The Israelites were camping at Rephidim when the Amalekites attacked them. Ironically, Rephidim means ‘the resting place.’ They had no rest.
This was their first war after leaving Egypt. The recently freed slaves had no battlefield experience. They had been making bricks and doing construction works for their entire lives. Neither were they equipped to fight.
Surely, no military experts would put their bets on the Israelites. It would be silly to do so. However, Israel was victorious on that day.
____________________________________________
Moses had a secret weapon.
What was it?
Prayer!
____________________________________________
It was a curious battle. The war was won in a most unusual manner. Never mind the liberated slaves had no weapons and battlefield experience. Moses had a secret weapon.
What was it? Prayer!
We should not be surprised. Only a few months before, Moses had been contending with Pharaoh and the mighty Egyptian armies. He did so without lifting a finger to fight. His victories were accomplished through prayers and prophetic declarations according to God’s specific instructions.
The Amalekites were not half as strong as the Egyptians. Moses reckoned that he could use the same secret formula of prayer and rely on the supernatural intervention of the Almighty God.
Moses had faith. He trusted God’s faithfulness. Why won’t he when you consider the signs and wonders that he had experienced?
Moses instructed Joshua to assemble a group of men to fight with the Amalekites. As for Moses, he would go up to the hill overlooking the battlefield to pray while they fight.
____________________________________________
The tide in the battlefield
were determined by Moses’ prayer posture
up on the hilltop.
It was certainly an unusual phenomenon.
____________________________________________
Moses learned a fascinating as well as an important lesson on that day. As he was praying, he noticed his prayer was effective only whenever his hands were raised. When his hands were held up, Joshua and his fighting men prevailed over their enemies. However, when his hands were lowered, the Amalekites prevailed.
The tide in the battlefield were determined by Moses’ prayer posture up on the hilltop. It was certainly an unusual phenomenon.
To keep his tired hands continually raised, Moses’ praying companions, Aaron and Hur, stood on each side of him to prop his hands up.
Two lessons can be learnt from this account in Exodus.
Victory is from God
First, we are dependent on the Lord for victory.
Israel’s battle with Amalek illustrates this truth very well. Untrained and without weapons, there was no way Israel could have overcome the Amalekites.
____________________________________________
We are dependent on the Lord for victory.
No matter how formidable your enemy is,
you will win the battle
if you are fighting on God’s side.
____________________________________________
Divine intervention saved the day and prevented a total annihilation of the Israelites. God fought on behalf of His chosen people. He gave them the victory. Moses’ prayer posture is an indisputable testimony of this fact.
This is a precious lesson. No matter how formidable your enemy is, you will win the battle if you are fighting on God’s side. It does not matter whether you have the capabilities and resources. It matters whether God is with you.
With God on your side, the normal conditions for success and victory do not apply. Natural laws are suspended. The supernatural takes over. One will put a thousand to flight when God fights for you (Joshua 23:10). It is mathematically improbable.
The bible is filled with many such examples. David defeated Goliath. Gideon’s small band of 300 men routed 135,000 Midianite troops. Sometimes, God’s people did not even have to fight as in Jehoshaphat’s stunning victory over an alliance of three nations with a frontline troop of Levites singing praise and worship to the LORD.
All these stories are meant to teach us that success and victory belong to the Lord!
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His modus operandi remains the same today just as it was in biblical times.
In the first three decades since her independence in 1948, Israel fought several wars with the neighbouring Arab countries. In each of these wars, Israel fought with a big disadvantage. The Jews were surrounded in the north, south, and east by her enemies. They were outnumbered. They had significantly fewer military assets and weaponry. The Soviet Union, which was a superpower then, was advising and supporting the Arab nations. It was a case of David versus Goliath all over again.
____________________________________________
Whether it is big scale wars
or private battles in our lives,
the fact remains the same.
Victory and success belong to the Lord!
____________________________________________
However, in each of these wars, they out manoeuvred their enemies and inflicted great damage on them. They won every battle and took large swathes of land from those countries that attack her.
Their victory was always achieved in a stunning fashion. There was no way in which they could pull off certain critical manoeuvres except by the hand of God. Israel’s leaders and soldiers recognised it was the miraculous intervention of God that gave them victory.
Whether it is big scale wars or private battles in our lives, the fact remains the same. Victory and success belong to the Lord!
Persevering Prayer is Essential for Victory
There is a second lesson. Perseverance in prayer is essential for victory.
What would happen if Moses had not persevered and if Aaron and Hur had not helped Moses to keep his arms raised to the throne of God?
____________________________________________
Perseverance in prayer is essential for victory.
Moses’ raised hands
is a picture of perseverance in prayer.
He had to persist in prayer
until the battle is won.
____________________________________________
The answer is clear. The Amalekites would have defeated the Israelites. That would be the end of the story for Israel. Fortunately, once Moses noticed the connection between the posture of his hands and the ebb and flow of the battle, he persevered despite his tiredness.
Moses’ raised hands is a picture of perseverance in prayer. He had to persist in prayer until the battle is won.
Warfare is tiring, whether it is physical or spiritual in nature. Sometimes, praying can be energy sapping when like Moses we need to push and press in until victory is achieved.
The prophet, Daniel, knew that the revelation given to him of a great war was highly significant. His instinctive response was to withdraw from his normal activities and go into a time of earnestly seeking God. He persevered in prayer and fasting for 3 weeks. See Daniel chapter 10.
As he was battling in the natural realm, spiritual warfare was taking place in the supernatural dimension. The angel, whom God had sent to deliver the understanding of the revelation to Daniel, was accosted by the prince and kings of Persia. These were fallen angelic beings that ruled over the kingdom of Persia. They tried to prevent the messenger angel from getting to Daniel.
The impasse lasted for 21 days. It was only broken when God sent Michael, the archangel, to help the messenger angel. This is the same number of days that Daniel prayed and fasted.
____________________________________________
Perseverance in prayer is absolutely necessary
if you want to experience victory and breakthrough.
____________________________________________
What would have happened if Daniel had not persevered in prayer?
We can surmise from the passage in Daniel chapter 10 that the prince and kings of Persia would have successfully blocked the messenger angel. Michael would likely not have arrived to break the impasse, and Daniel would not receive God’s message.
Can you see? Perseverance in prayer is absolutely necessary if you want to experience victory and breakthrough.
The Power of Persistence in Prayer
Jesus also taught on the power of persistence in prayer. He told a parable of a widow seeking for justice by appealing to an unrighteous judge (Luke 18:1-8). Initially, the judge refused to entertain her. But she kept pounding at his door day after day until he gave in.
____________________________________________
Persistence in prayer will be rewarded.
God responds to those
who by faith persevere in prayer.
____________________________________________
Jesus concluded the parable with these words – “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth.”(Luke 18:7-8)
Persistence in prayer will be rewarded. God responds to those who by faith persevere in prayer.
Remember the Lesson
After the victory, God instructed Moses to “write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears of it…” (Exodus 17:14)
Moses also built an altar and called it ‘The LORD is my Banner” (Yahweh Nissi) because “hands were lifted to the throne of the LORD.”(Exodus 17:15-16)
God wanted Joshua and the Israelites to learn and remember how the battle against the Amalekites was won. The account was also memorialised for the benefit of future generations of Israelites and believers of Christ.
Victory belongs to the Lord and victory is won through persevering prayer. Remember these lessons.