Ex. 17: Drink Struck Rock, Amalekites Get Doomed

In Chapter 17, there are a couple of very interesting stories. The first is how the Israelites get fresh water from a rock, and the second is the Israelites' first big military victory.

In the middle of the Israelites' wandering, they set up camp at a place called Rephidim. Great place to set up camp, Israel, there's no water there. So what do they do? Freak out and get mad at Moses. Of course. They set their requests too low. They don't really recognize at this point that it isn't by Moses' power that they are fed or able to drink fresh water.

Again with the melodrama. Again with the pining to be back in Egypt.

And Moses, losing his cool, cries out to God, saying, "Help, these people are ready to stone me! What do I do?"

God instructs Moses to take up the same staff with which he struck the Nile back in chapter 7, bring some of the elders out to this rock at Horeb, and strike the rock. God, who will be standing there with him, will cause potable water to flow from the rock. He was probably invisible, or in His cloud. What an amazing miracle! This rock, probably fairly big since it was named "the rock at Horeb," bursts forth with a spring of water that everyone can drink. Awesome stuff. God didn't just make water come up from the ground. Moses had to hit a rock with a stick. Why is that? Couldn't God have just done the underground water thing? I wonder why God chose to go through a man. And water poured out. A lifesaving water. From the rock.

Moses called this place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested God.

God was among them.

Verse 8 begins the second half of the chapter with Israel under attack from the Amalekites (the same Amalekites who were defeated by the king of Elam in Gen. 14:7). Apparently the Amalekites were not too fond of Israel settling there in Rephidim, temporary as it may have been. So Moses goes and finds a man named Joshua to raise an army to fight them.

As Joshua and his men fight the Amalekites, Moses stands on a hill above the battle. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites would be winning. But whenever Moses lowered his hands, the Israelites would begin to lose. How completely weird. Why would it be like this? Moses raises his hands, I don't know if it was a touchdown type of pose or perhaps it was more like his arms were outstretched from his sides, like a "T." When the hands are lowered, Israel faces defeat. One can only speculate.

Anyway, as you'd expect, Moses arms get tired eventually, so Aaron and Hur (I don't know who Hur is yet, I just met him now) get a rock for him to sit on, and then hold his hands up until sunset, giving Joshua enough time to put the Amalekite army to the sword. Victory in battle comes through someone else's actions and power.

God wants this series of events remembered, so he instructs Moses to write it all down on a scroll as such, and to make sure Joshua knows about it, which may be what we are reading here. The name of Amalek will be completely blotted out from under heaven. Was this the son of Esau in Genesis 36:12? Amalekites existed before then though, too. Scary stuff though, to have God say He would blot your name out from under heaven. There's no reason to carry on at this point. And why weren't the Egyptians subject to this kind of fate? Sure, they lost their entire army, but they held the Israelites in cruel bondage for 430 years. God deals with certain people differently at His will, apparently.

Moses' altar to the LORD here is called "The LORD is my Banner." Moses said there was a precedent set here. With the hands lifted up to Him, God will be at war with the Amalekites from now on.