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Thursday 7 July 2022

Exodus 17:12-16 - The Lord is my banner!

17:12,13

Not unnaturally, Moses’s hands grew tired. So Aaron and Hur got a stone for him to sit on, and they held up his hands. So they held up his hands until sun down, and Joshua and his men defeated the Amalekites.


17:14-16

This is the first example of Moses being told by God to write down what had happened. He was to do this and recite the book to Joshua. God was looking ahead, knowing that Joshua was the one to actually take the people into the Promised Land. Doing this would entail Joshua having to defeat various enemies. The Amalekites would be blotted out forever. Moses erected an altar calling it “The Lord is my banner”. “ Hand upon the throne of the Lord!” Apparently a small change to the wording here would render it “upon the banner”. “The Lord will have war with the Amalek from generation to generation”. Given that God has just said that He would blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, this seems a little strange at first. It seems that in 17:14 God is not promising that this would happen immediately. Indeed David had to contend with them. Instead He is assuring them of ultimate victory. There are various things that we seem to have to battle perpetually, we should not lose heart for the final and complete victory is assured.


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