Exodus: What To Do When You Face a Battle

This sermon explores the paradox of the "wilderness"—a place of danger, but also where God reveals Himself. The Israelites face their first external battle against the Amalekites. This story teaches us that God uses trials to forge our faith, and that victory requires our active participation and ultimate reliance on Him.

Scripture References

• Exodus 17:8-16: The Amalekites attack. Moses holds up the staff of God, supported by Aaron and Hur. Moses builds an altar named Jehovah Nissi (The Lord is my Banner).
• Exodus 13:17-18: God leads Israel the long way so they wouldn't face a war they weren't ready for.
• Deuteronomy 25:17-19: The Amalekites cowardly attacked the weak and weary.
• 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: "We do not wage war as the world does."

Key Points

1. The Wilderness is Paradoxical The wilderness brings lack and uncertainty, but it is also where God reveals Himself. If you are in a season with no familiar markers, you are in the wilderness.
2. God Trusts You With the Battle God didn't lead Israel the short way out of Egypt because they weren't ready for war. But by Exodus 17, He allows them to fight. If you are facing a battle, frame it this way: God trusts you with this fight. He intends to forge something in you through it.
3. You Are in a War While our biggest battles are often internal, we also face external opposition. The enemy attacks when we are weary and vulnerable. We must fight with spiritual weapons.
4. Take Hold of Something Physical Moses held up the staff of God—a physical reminder of God's past faithfulness. When you cannot see the future, take hold of something tangible that reminds you of God's faithfulness (a journal, a photo, or Communion).
5. Take Hold of Someone Moses grew tired and could not win alone. Aaron and Hur held his hands up. You need "war buddies"—people who won't just talk about the problem, but will pray the solution. This shouldn't just be your spouse, as they are often fighting the exact same battle.

Conclusion

The name Joshua means "The Lord is Salvation"—the same name as Jesus. Exodus 17 is prophetic. Just as Moses stretched out his arms with the rod of God's judgment to defeat the enemy, Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross, taking God's justice upon Himself to defeat our ultimate enemy.

Calls to Action

1. Shift Your Perspective: Stop asking "Why me?" and declare, "God trusts me with this battle."
2. Find a Physical Reminder: Identify an object or practice that anchors you to God's past faithfulness.
3. Get a War Buddy: Ask someone to "hold up your arms" in prayer.

Transcript

Hey, we're going to do something today. If you have, if you brought a Bible. Or maybe if you have a purse or some sort of mercy, would you just go ahead and hold it straight out in front of you as I read the text today?

Straight out. Can't bend your elbow. Just hold it straight out. Don't. I can't start reading until everyone's doing it. And I see people who aren't doing it. Scott Chandler, what's going on back there?

Keep holding it. Don't drop it. The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites. It refused him. And Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out and fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and her 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. When Moses, his hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and her 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. And then the Lord said to Moses, write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner, he said, because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, and the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites.

From generation to generation.

Is it burning? You can put your arm down, grab a seat.

We've been studying Exodus, which is the second book in your Bible. It is the second easiest book to find in your Bible. If you can find Genesis, you're ready for the next level. The next level of your discipleship is to find Exodus, which is right past, Genesis. And it tells the story of the Israelite people, the Hebrew people, and they come to Egypt because of a famine.

They come to Egypt for protection. But that place of protection becomes a stronghold, and they end up enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. I feel that 400 years we've been a nation for a little over 250 years. Is that right? Not the math guy here. 400 years of slavery. And then the God of the Hebrews reveals himself to Moses and says, I'm going to lead an exodus through you, a way out, a road out.

That's what the word means. You're going to get out of here. You're going to be set free from Egypt. They're promised a land of their own. But before they get to the land of their own, they journey through the wilderness for decades before entering the Promised Land. And so because of this, this, story and the wilderness in particular, is the perfect metaphor for our lives.

We, too, have been rescued. We've been delivered by Jesus, but we aren't delivered right into the Promised Land. One day we will be with Jesus in eternity. Forever. But in this life, decades of journeying through a wilderness, right? This is our lives. So just a reminder of what the wilderness is. And then we're going to talk about the opposition that the people of God faced in the wilderness.

The wilderness is paradoxical. What I mean is that when you read about the wilderness in Scripture, on one hand it's presented as this place of danger, this place of exposure, this place of uncertainty, this place where the people of God are subjected to the elements. There's temptation in the desert. There's difficulty in the desert, there's trials. There is lack.

You name it, they face it in the wilderness on one hand. On the other hand, the wilderness is presented as God's country, the place where God reveals himself. It was in the wilderness that Moses walks up on a burning bush and God reveals Himself as Yahweh. And again today, it's in the wilderness, in a war that God reveals himself is Yahweh Nissi, the Lord is my banner.

So it's this place of difficulty, but also this place of revelation, this place of encountering God, of knowing who he is and what he does. And many of you understand this paradox because many of us have enough perspective to look back on very, very difficult and trying times in our lives and say these words, I wouldn't trade it.

Because God revealed himself to me. There I was out of work, and he revealed to me something that I'd said my whole life God provides and God we trust in God. We trust. And then I lost my job. And I had an opportunity to put my money where my mouth was. And I learned something. There. The wilderness is unfamiliar territory.

There are no markers. The sign that someone is in a wilderness season is that I meet with them as a pastor, and they feel like they've walked off their map, and they're saying things like, I've never been here before. There's nothing familiar. There's nothing actually that appeals to my senses here. I feel lost and like I'm walking loose.

If that's you, you're probably in a wilderness season. No familiar markers when you're in the wilderness. It's full of trials and tests, and trials and tests serve a purpose in our lives. We don't love them, but they're an important thing because you can't trust anything that's not been tested. And tests reveal and tests expose, right? Today, as we read, the people of God are being tested by war, tested by opposition, tested if they'll trust God in this circumstance.

Right. And when you face opposition, when you face an enemy, it's revealing how many of you coaches know that the first time you actually face an opponent, that's when you know what kind of team you've got. How many of you teachers know that everything can be cruising along smoothly, and then you take a test and you're like, oh my goodness, we're not there as a soccer coach this year.

We set these beautiful drills and then we would introduce opponents and it would all break down. Everything would be working so wonderfully. And then you introduce defenders and all of a sudden these drills break down. We understand this. We understand that it's really important that everything that we trust in be tested. It's just a tough pill to swallow.

Sometimes your faith of greater worth than gold will be tested by trials in this life. It just will. This is really interesting because when the people of God leave Egypt, listen to this. This happens earlier in Exodus when Pharaoh let the people go. God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter.

So they don't take the shortest route. For God said, if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. This will be too much for them to handle. They won't be able to walk according to their faith. They don't have enough faith for this war. So I'm going to take them around. They're going to go the long way.

They led them by the desert road towards the Red sea. They weren't ready for an opponent. They weren't ready for for battle teachers and coaches. You know, when there's a good stretch for your team and you know when they're going to be demoralized, just crushed and give up on math altogether, you know, so we know how to put something out there that's a healthy stretch for our students or a healthy stretch for our teams.

This battle was more than they could bear at that moment. So God leads them around and not through. And here's how I want you to frame this. This is kind of wild, but it changes a lot. If I can get you to do this thing, shift. If you're going through a battle right now, God's trusting you with that.

He thinks you can bear it. Well, he's he's wrong. Well, he's not usually wrong.

Why don't you? If you're here and you're in some sort of war, there's a battle going on internally or externally. Why don't you turn to your neighbor and say, God must really trust me? Because I'm in the fight of my life. He didn't lead me around. He wants to take me through. No. Go ahead. That's not like a I really mean that.

If you're warring, I want you to consider framing the war in this way. God trusts me, and he doesn't intend to break me. He intends to make me in this battle a couple things this passage wants us to know, and a couple of things that this, story, this passage will encourage us to do. These will be reminders, but reminders that we often need.

The first simple message from this story is that you are in a battle. You're at war.

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites from wrath. Edem, Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I'll stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. Up to this point, the people of God are only facing internal issues. Leadership issues. Where are we going?

How do we get there? A lot of complaining because of a lack of food or a lack of water. How will we make our way through the desert as a group of 2 million people? Now they're facing opposition externally, now they're facing opposition from the outside. And this in my life feels like the kiss of death. Have you ever experienced this where you're wrestling with something, maybe internally, maybe within yourself or maybe within your family, and then you start to face opposition externally and you're fighting on both of those fronts?

Well, this is usually the way it works. We will face opposition internally and externally, and the people of God up to this point have only had internal issues. And I want to say something to us as a church because by far the bigger issue are their internal issues. And I want to say something to us as a church, because we're tempted to think that your biggest issue is I.

Or your biggest issue is government or a political party.

Your biggest issue is Islam. Your biggest issue is a redefining of what the family is. That's our biggest issue, the biggest challenge we face. The Bible's really clear. The biggest challenge for the people of God is the people of God. That's your biggest issue. I've had more trouble with me than anybody else. And when you frame it that way, it's kind of helpful.

I'm the issue. I'm the biggest issue. My love affair with sin, my tendency to forget the Lord, my lack of obedience, my tendency to forget him when things are going good. This is by far the biggest battle that the people of God face. And that's not to say the government or these other issues aren't issues, they're just small compared to your issues.

Your hardness of heart. And when the church can come to the place where Jesus was at, where they basically said, hey, we've got you. And he's like, yeah, actually you got no strings on me. There's nothing in my life that serves as a foothold for the enemy. There's no temptation you can put my way that would cause me to stumble.

You've got nothing on me and that's where we want to come. Is the people of God. The biggest issue is our hardness of heart. Compromise in the church. And once we deal with these things, we'll be in a much better place to deal or deal with external opposition.

The Amalekites, we're we're preying on people who were weak. They knew that these slaves were not battle tested. Who were the Amalekites? Well, the Amalekites were actually related to the Israelites. Amalek was Esau, his grandson. You can read that in Genesis 36. So these are actually distant relatives. And as far as they can tell, they lived attacking other people and plundering their wealth.

That's how they got on. And this verse from Deuteronomy 25 gives us insight into who the Amalekites were and really, more importantly, the methods they employed. Deuteronomy 22 or 2517. Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt, when you were weary and worn out? So this is when the attack comes, when they're gassed.

They met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind. They had no fear of God when the Lord God, when the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land, he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget.

So they're obviously attacking the weak, the worn out, the sick, women, children. They're headed for those who are trailing behind. They've got no fear of God in their lives. There's no face me like a man. These people are attacking and plundering the weak and vulnerable. And they see this whole nation. They've been slaves. These slaves are looking for food and water.

They're not looking for a fight. They don't have a place of their own, and they attack them. It's not that the Israelites attack the Amalekites. The Amalekites attack them. And the Israelites have never fought a battle.

They've never warred. And Moses says to Joshua, hey, man, I want you to go get some men. It's time to raise up a national army. And Joshua is like, okay. And he starts going through a camp of slaves, going, when's the last time you got in a fight? They're like sixth grade, you know? Do you got anything sharp?

No, I made bricks back in Egypt. How far can you throw a brick? What do you got? And I'm sure as Joshua moves through the camp saying, guys, we're going to have to fight. I'm sure people are going, oh, can't God do it for us? He fought the Egyptians. Just do the frog thing again. The Amalekites are much smaller than the Egyptian army.

And this is so interesting to me because the battle in Egypt was an act of God sovereignty. But now it feels like the people have a responsibility. The battle still belongs to the Lord, and the Lord is still their banner. But Joshua is moving through camp saying, hey, we need to make an army. And if I were them, I would be saying, I don't know.

God did a great job last time. Why doesn't he protect us again in the same ways? And there are some battles in our lives. How many of you have a testimony of like, no, there's a battle that went on in my life where God supernaturally and suddenly dealt with the situation, and he took charge. How many of you have a story like that?

I did nothing except provide the sin in the situation for God to deal with. How many of you have had a testimony where the Lord has come to you and said, you're going to have to fight, you're going to have to do something? It's both. We'll see both these battles in our lives.

So it might be easy for us to get our heads around the fact that there is a battle. It might be easy for you to get your head around that. God is at battle, that there's forces at work in our world. But I want you to get your head around the fact that you are at war, that you have an enemy, and that enemy has set himself against you.

And here's what the fight looks like today. Because the weapons we fight with are different. You're going to have battles as the New Testament. The New Testament tells us to fight the good fight. And we say that to each other as Christians and to share in sufferings as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. But we don't fight physical battles.

Dewey Jesus told Peter, put away the sword. And Paul says that our battle is not against flesh and blood. We're not to rally our guns and our tanks and our swords in the church, but our battles are very real nonetheless. Paul says to the church, this for though we live in the world, we don't wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. This is the war we live in, and this is the war that you and I are in.

Jesus had his own wilderness experience. You can read about it in the beginning of every one of the gospels. Not true. I don't think it's in John. I don't want to get corrected. I got corrected last week.

I'm not going on record as saying it's in every gospel, but most have a majority, so Jesus has his own wilderness experience. The good news of this story is that Jesus succeeds in the wilderness and all the ways that we fail. And so he's not just a model for us of how to get through a tough time. He's our savior.

For those who have failed to get through a tough time. But what is Jesus fighting against in the wilderness? What's coming his way? The Amalekites? What's he fighting against? Satan? And what's he using? Here temptation. Lies about God's character. Lies about who he is and offering shortcuts. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey. You can have the crown without the cross.

You didn't got to go through the cross to get the crown. If God really loved you, he'd offer you the crown. Without the cross. Look at all this. Look at all this. I'll give you all this. This is the war that Jesus finds himself in. And what does Jesus fight with? God's word and the truth about who God is and about who he is?

And what condition is Jesus in? Yeah. Weak. Vulnerable. He's 40 days without food and Jesus is being tempted in the war. Is this the war is over? Will he trust God or not? When his circumstances are saying one thing and God's Word is saying another, will he go with his circumstances? Or will he trust in God's Word? And this is the war that we find ourselves in.

The second thing that this story wants to teach us is that God will bring the victory. Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner, he said, because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, and the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. What's interesting is, I mean, they do rally an army.

They do act courageously. But at the end of this war, they don't say, man, Joshua was a beast, and they don't say, Moses is our deliverer. And he held his hands up for a long time. No, they were engaged in a fight, but they were super clear when it was over. It was the Lord that gave them the victory.

And the Lord who is their banner? They weren't saying Aaron and her. They came in clutch there. Towards the end. Moses was really struggling. No, they don't say at the end of this, hey, maybe we've got a shot at being a nation. We just faced the Amalekites and won. No, they say the Lord's our banner. He's our guy and he's the one who grants the victory.

Jehovah nissi. The Lord is my banner. When you hear banner, you probably think of something that pops up on your computer. Maybe an advertisement on the side of our city busses, or like an accent piece, but a banner in verse 16. It's a military term. It's a signal pole around which the army can be gathered, regathered, regroup. It gives marching orders to the army.

That's what the banner was. And that's what it did. And when they raise up the staff, when they raise up the Lord is their banner. They're saying, the Lord will fight for us. We rally to him. He's going to fight for us. We advance because he'll be victorious. That's what they're saying. So this doesn't mean when they lift up the banner that says the Lord will fight for us.

This doesn't mean let go and let God. This actually requires us to put forth effort in the fight. So here's a couple things I want you to do. And then we'll respond in worship. A couple of things I believe this text encourages us to do. Take hold of something that reminds you of God's faithfulness in the fight. Take hold of something Moses said to Joshua.

Choose some of our men to go out and fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. Not a distant memory, the staff in my hands. And then this text closes in verse 14 with, then the Lord said to Moses, write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.

And Moses built an altar, and he called it, the Lord is my banner. I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. A lot of people make this passage about prayer, and I am sure that Moses was praying. I'm really confident. I know this is a posture of both praise and prayer for the Hebrew people, and I'm confident as he watches this battle go down, that this is a passage about prayer.

But understand this the staff, the rod, the one he's asked to hold up, is really about God's judgment and his justice.

Think about this, rod. Think about this staff. It's a sign of God's power. Think about how it had been used when he put his hand on it. Moses had to remember how in the past he threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and it ate up Pharaoh's snakes. That's the memory that would a flashback when he put his hand on this light saber right?

When he touched it, he remembered God turned the Nile into blood. When I struck the Nile with this staff, and then he turned it back to water. God caused water to come from a rock when the staff of God struck the rock. These are the memories that are flooding into Moses's mind when he takes up the staff to face this army.

What's something that you could take hold of that would cause you to remember the faithfulness of God? Even when you feel like you're under attack and your future is uncertain. I know a lot of us will take a verse and put it on a mirror. I know a lot of us will put something on our fridge. What's something that you can touch?

Because when there's no familiar markers in the wilderness, I think it's important that you could touch something. And it's not just an idea, but you have a photo of your family together during a season when all is well and you hold on to it. And before God you say this, this is what I'm longing for. I can't see it any longer.

I don't feel it. But this, this reminds me of your faithfulness to me. The grass gets cut and the sun comes out, and I find myself in my garage looking for my baseball mitt. And I just put it on my hand and I just walk around the house. I don't have any boys, so I just walk around the house.

We're lifelong Cubs fans. I'm a lifelong Cubs fan, and my daughter came to her Dodgers shirt a couple days ago. I was like, what are you doing? Just a I don't know. It's blue. It's brown, blue, wrong blue. But I love the smell of it. I love the feel of it. My hands little fatter in it. But I love it because so much comes to mind when I put it on my hand.

I want to encourage you to get something. Something that you can hold on to, something that you can see, something you can touch. Because wilderness seasons are really difficult. What's really wild about this passage is that the first time we have a command in Scripture to write something down. And why does Moses command that this be written down?

So the Joshua remember it. If you've got nothing to hold on to, guess what God's given us.

And guess what? He called it a sword. And it's something that we can touch. And we can remember the faithfulness of God to generations past. That he'll be faithful to us in the wilderness. Write this down, Moses. Write this down. Joshua. Write this down. Make sure Joshua gets this because I'm going to wipe out the Amalekites. Make sure he has it.

Make sure he can hold it. Make sure he can touch it. Make sure he remembers it. Because you're going to need this testimony as you continue to warrior way forward in the wilderness. Lastly. Take hold of someone because you're going to grow weary in the fight. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and her 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. So Moses's hands grew tired. And they they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. They were there to help, and that's what we do, and that's why we're in Christian community. Right? Luke 22 Jesus says to Peter, go strengthen the brothers. Acts 18 Paul travels back to the church to strengthen the disciples. Romans one he said, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.

First Thessalonians three he said, we sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage you in the faith. This is what we do as Christians. We strengthen one another. We hold up one another's arms when we're growing weary. When we're growing weak, there's people around us that would notice that strengthen us in the battle. Just two quick things about this. Your finding of someone.

Number one, I do not think it should be your spouse. Couple of reasons why often your spouse is fighting the same battle and will grow weak at some of the same times. This person need not be your spouse. The other reason is that often your spouse is the battle.

And you need someone to come alongside of you who loves your spouse, who loves you, and who's going to stand with you and say, I know you can't offer one more prayer for that guy for that gal, I know that you're prayed out, but God is good and he's going to be faithful to you in this fight. And I love this because Moses doesn't call for help.

He's not like area. You know, we're missing no, Aaron and her, they notice it. Who's hands around you? Do you see dropping. And maybe you should go to them. Because when you're in a difficult time, it's pretty hard to ask for help. One of the biggest mistakes we make when someone's going through a hard time or grieving is saying, let me know if there's anything I can do to help because they're not going to.

And so you just insert yourself, here's a rock, sit on it. I brought it for you. I got your right hand. I got your left hand, man. We're with you in this fight. It makes all the difference in the world. The second thing I want to tell you about your war friends. Is that don't just talk about the problem.

Pray the solution. Because we can get together over and over again and just rehearse the same problems. Pray the solution for sure. Share about what's going on for sure. Talk about what you're facing. But don't just talk about what you're facing. Pray the solution. Lift your eyes to something bigger. Lift your eyes to something. I was sharing this with one of my friends because he's like, man, everything's being tested right now.

And again I said to him, God trusts you. He said, what are you talking about? I was like, well, he would have led you around this fight if he didn't trust you with this fight. He wants to forge something in you. And he was kind of like, that's a weird way to look at it. That's what we do as Christians.

We strengthen one another. Worship team. Would you guys come in church? Would you stand? Ministry team, would you guys make your way forward?

Hey, here, here's another trip. So this this passage is the first time we hear about Joshua. He features in a pretty big way in the scriptures. Joshua. And this is our first glimpse of him in this passage is the first time the Bible ever says, write it down. And in this passage is the first time we hear about Joshua.

Joshua.

And you guys may know this, but Yeshua means the Lord is salvation in Hebrew and it's Greek transliteration is the name Jesus. Jesus was Yeshua. And this text says, write this down because one day Yeshua will deal decisively with your enemy. One day a man will go up on a hill, stretch out his arms and take the rod of God's justice and judgment and deal decisively with your enemy.

He will wipe out the Amalekites. And I want to say to you, if you're here and you're like, I have no war buddy, I have no one to fight with. I mean, I fight with my wife, but I'm talking about fighting with somebody. I don't have that. I just want to say you have no greater friend than Jesus.

No one knows the fight like he does. And no one is prepared to stand with you like he has. So what? I want you to do a couple things. Come to the table, take the bread, take the cup. Remember the man who stretched out his arms and took the wrath of God on your behalf? Remember his faithfulness to you.

Take the cup, touch it, and let it remind you of God's faithfulness in a difficult time. Take the bread and eat it. Take something physical to remind you that God's doing something in the spiritual realm, and then give prayer. Please, if you leave here and you're like, yeah, I think I got this, you do not. You didn't hear my message and you're screwed.

Like if you leave here and you're like, I think this army of slaves can become soldiers. And I do have something sharp. And no, that's not it at all. If you don't leave here and go, man, I need someone to hold up my hands. I feel like I'm faltering as a mother, I. I feel like at work, I've got no vision.

And I've cast off restraint. And in your packs this week. My goodness. Go one level deeper and share the war that you're really in. The internal one and the external one, because nothing forms bonds quite like a battle.