Bible Commentaries
Exodus 17

Verses 1-27

XI

FROM THE RED SEA TO SINAI (Continued)

Exodus 17-18

Our present chapter is a continuation of the last theme, "From the Red Sea to Sinai," and this part of the theme is covered by Exodus 17-18. The chapter will be given catechetically.

1. What was the double sin of Israel at Rephidim?

Ans. – The chiding of Moses and the tempting of God.

2. What was the occasion of this sin?

Ans. – No water for the people to drink.

3. In what words did they chide Moses?

Ans. – "Give us water that we may drink . . . Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" This chiding of Moses is further repeated in their being ready to stone him.

4. How did they tempt God?

Ans. – By saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" That certainly ought not to have been a debatable matter. They should have remembered the indications of God’s presence with them when they were in Goshen, and the mighty work that he did in their deliverance, and how he was with them at the Red Sea and in the pillar of cloud and of fire. His presence was visible to them at all times. In their perplexities he had communed with them through Moses, and had just sweetened the water at Marah.

5. How was the want supplied?

Ans. – Jehovah commanded Moses to take with him the elders of the people and the rod, the staff, and go to the rock in Horeb and smite it, and water would gush out of it. At the striking of that rock by Moses, the fountain was unsealed. The first time I saw Kickapoo Spring in Texas, I was reminded of the smiting of the rock. That spring cornes out of the rock just about on a level with your face as you stand in front of it, and the volume of water is about one yard thick, just gushing out, and trout are playing in it fifteen steps from where it gushes from the rock. An old Indian tradition is that in days long past a number of the Indians’ were there starving and that there came a thunderbolt which smote the rock and unsealed that fountain of water.

6. What names were given to these places? What of their derivation and meaning?

Ans. – The names given were Massah and Meribah. They I are derived from verbs. Massah is the noun of the verb which j means "to tempt, or prove." Massah, then, means temptation, trial or a proving, from Exodus 17:7: "And he called the name of I the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, I saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?" In Exodus 17:2 the verb "to: chide" has for its noun Meribah, and the meaning is suggested by the verb "to chide." Meribah then means a chid-. ing. "Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink" (Exodus 17:2).

7. How does Moses later refer to this sin?

Ans. – Deuteronomy 6:16: "Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." There on the borders of the Promised Land about thirty-nine years after this event, Moses gave them this law.

8. How does our Lord apply these words of Moses?

Ans. – We learn in Matthew 4 and Luke 5 that when Jesus was tempted of Satan in the wilderness, he cut him off by this saying: "It is written, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God," quoting Moses.

9. What does Paul say of this event at Rephidim, and what does he mean by the rock "following them"? And how do the rabbis explain that "following"?

Ans. – Paul says that the fathers did all eat the same spiritual meat (referring to the manna), and did drink the same spiritual drink, i.e., the water from the smitten rock, and he is "That rock was Christ." Now, the rabbis claim one of two alternate things: (1) That when the Israelites moved away from there that rock moved with them, carrying its fountain of waters, which is foolishness; or (2) that while the rock remained where it was, yet the water followed that company trough their march; that stream which started to flow at Horeb followed them wherever they went, and that, too, is foolishness, for a good deal of the time they went uphill, and that being so, there would be no necessity later on to get water from another rock, as we learn in Numbers. What, then, does Paul mean in this: "And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was the Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:2-4). The meaning is that Christ in his pre-incarnate state accompanied them all through their wanderings.

10. Contrast this water from the rock with a later occasion, as given in Numbers 20, and expound the difference.

Ans. – In the occasion at Horeb God commands Moses to smite the rock. In the occasion at Kadesh God commands Moses to speak to the rock, not to smite it, but to speak to it. But Moses, instead of speaking to it as he had been commanded, smote it twice in anger. The benefits coming from Christ originated in his being smitten, and he was smitten once for all. He has to die but once; the sacrifice was never to be repeated, but after he died we get the benefits which flow from Christ by petition; by speaking to him. We do not have to crucify him afresh every time we need anything from him. He was to be crucified but one time. But all through our lives we may speak to the smitten rock and get what we need. That is the most striking point of contrast.

11. What other great event occurred at Rephidim?

Ans. – At that point the Israelites were attacked by Amalekites.

12. Who were the Amalekites? Their position among the nations?

Ans. – We learn in Genesis that one of the descendants of Esau, the elder brother of Jacob, was Amaiek; and hence many commentators make the Amalekites kinsmen of the Israelites, the descendants of Esau. I am not at all inclined to accept that. The only thing in the world to support it is that Esau did have a son named Amalek, and that is all there is. But in the Bible references the Amalekites are not reckoned as descendants of Shem. They are reckoned with the Amorites; Jebusites, Hittites, and Philistines, occupying the Holy Land and those neighboring to it. So I would say that the Amalekites were a tribe descended from Ham, and occupied territory assigned to them. Their principal territory at this time was in the Arabian Desert, extending all the way from Sinai to the borders of the Holy Land. We get at their position among the nations by certain words of Balaam, the prophet, who, under the inspiration of God, spoke a word against the Amalekites, calling them "the chief of the nations" (Numbers 24:20.)

13. Who commanded Israel’s forces in this battle? How ò many times before this is he named? Was his name Joshua! at the time of the battle? If not, what was his name, and: when and why did he get the name Joshua?

Ans. – Joshua commanded Israel’s forces in this battle. His name does not appear in the record before this incident. His name was not Joshua at the time of this battle. It was Hoshea which was later changed to Joshua by Moses when he sent the spies to view the land.

This shows that Exodus up this point, at least, was written after the incident of sending out the spies. Moses here calls him Joshua because by the time of the writing of this record he was known by this name. Just as I say, "When was Abraham born? When did he enter Haran and the Promised Land?" Now, his name was not Abraham but Abram when he entered Haran. I am speaking of it later and mean to say that his name was Abram then.

14. Explain Exodus 17:11-12 of this chapter: "And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But 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."

Ans. – The principal thought is that while in the line of duty, Joshua with the armed members of Israel should fight his best, but there is praying to be done; fight and pray, like "watch and pray." So the lifting up of the hands of Moses signifies the intercession to the God of battles that victory might be with the Israelites; that is the signification of it. The lifting up of the hands in the Psalms refers to the praying of the people at the time of the evening sacrifice. Now, while Joshua fought, Moses prayed. Moses had a part to do in that battle, and if his intercession stopped, then the Amalekites would get the victory, which means that if he pitched untried Israel against warlike Amalek and left God out, Amalek would win the fight, but one plus God is a majority always. Intercession keeps God on the side of Israel; and while Moses prays, the inferior Israelites will triumph over the superior Amalekites.

15. What is the thought and application of "Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands"? Illustrate.

Ans. – It suggests the thought of there being something for everybody to do. Joshua must fight and Moses must continue his pleading; he is the great intercessor of his people, a mediator; and if weakness at last overcomes him, and his hands have to drop, that suggests something for somebody else to do. "I cannot fight like Joshua; I cannot plead like Moses; but I can stand by Moses and hold up his hands; I can keep the posture of supplication continually." You have heard of the man who wanted to go down into a mire and rescue some perishing people, and there were a great many who were competent to do that. One of them volunteered, saying, "I’ll go down if you will hold the rope." He had to be let down; and our foreign missionaries use that and say, "We will go to the heathen alone if you people at home will hold the rope. Don’t you quit praying for us. Don’t quit contributing; don’t let us get out of your mind." There is something for everybody to do. You cannot do Joshua’s part, nor Moses’ part, but perhaps you can do the part of Aaron and Hur. You can hold up somebody’s hands. I heard a pastor once make this remark: "You have been unfaithful to me since I became pastor of this church." The man said, "No man living has ever heard me say a word against you, and you cannot prove that I did." "No, I cannot prove that." And the man continued, "I have always paid my part of your salary promptly; you cannot deny that." "No." "Then why do you say I have been unfaithful to you?" The pastor replied: "You have not held up my hands. As a deacon of this church you had something more to do than simply to refrain from criticizing the pastor. You are an officer of the church, and the office of a deacon was instituted as a help to the pastor; you don’t stay up my hands."

16. What was the memorial of this battle? What is its object?

Ans. – It is expressed in these words: "And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." The memorial was a sentence from God to be put into the book, the book of the Pentateuch. Moses would keep on writing; here he would put in some, then again he would put some in the book which was to be the Bible of this people, and of all God’s people until the end of time. God said, "Write." "Write what?" "I will blot out the name of Amalek from the whole earth." That is the memorial. The object of the memorial was this: To rehearse it to Joshua. You tell Joshua what you have written "So now, Joshua, you are to succeed Moses; after awhile you are to command the armies of Israel. You are never to forget that the sentence is in the Holy Book: ’Amalek must be blotted out.’" Like the voice of old Cato every time he would make a speech in the Roman senate: Carthago delenda est, i.e., "Carthage must be destroyed." Rome was not safe unless Carthage perished. Now you rehearse this to Joshua, and let Joshua’s successors see it in this book; and their successors said, "Amalek must be destroyed."

17. What is the meaning of Jehovah-nissi? Illustrate.

Ans. – Moses built an altar there and he called it "Jehovahnissi" – "Jehovah is my banner." Nissi means banner. I once heard my father preach a sermon on "Jehovah-nissi." I was a little fellow, and I remember that he wanted us to get the true meaning of that title: "Jehovah our Banner." How is the flag an ensign? "In order to get the thought," he said, "go back to Moses praying." As long as the hands of Moses were upheld the Israelites prevailed. What does that posture of Moses with outstretched hands look like? What does it make? A cross. The Lord is our banner; banners have something on them, like the English battle flag. Now you are to think of a banner with a cross inscribed on it.

Constantine reminds you of this, who, when he first became a Christian, declared he was led to conversion by something he had seen in a great battle with his enemy; that while the battle was at its hottest, and the Roman army seemed about to be defeated, he saw in the clouds a banner on which was written the words, over an inscribed cross. In hoc siano vince, "by this sign conquer." Constantine always claimed that saw that flag in the air.

The first time that I ever heard of it was my father’s telling this incident n his sermon. Now he say, “This posture [with his hands down] would not be a banner; this posture [arms and hands outstretched, horizontal with shoulders] is & banner. As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed but if Moses let down his hands, Amalek prevailed. Therefore who did that whipping? It was not Joshua and it was nod Israel. When did the whipping take place? When Moses has his hands outstretched. That must have been Jehovah-nissi Jehovah Our Banner. In this banner we conquer." Anyhow I tell it to you for whatever value you are disposed to attach thereto.

18. Explain the first clause of Exodus 17:16.

Ans. – This is the last verse of the chapter. "Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi; and he said, Jehovah hath sworn; Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation," or the marginal reference, "Because there is a hand against the throne of Jehovah" – (Hebrew) – "A hand is lifted up upon the throne of Jah." Because the’; Lord hath sworn. The difficulty of explaining that is this? The text of the Hebrew does not hold that out well. The’ real meaning makes sense. The Hebrew expresses the idea of putting a hand on the throne. "A hand is lifted upon the throne of Jah." Now God would not swear by his throne; as we are told in the New Testament. Men swear by a greater; and because God could not swear by a greater than himself, he took an oath himself, by all his authority. That is why the King James Version is a bad rendering of the Hebrew. But somebody’s hand is reaching up to that throne. Whose and what is it? Amalek. What is Amalek trying to reach? The throne of Jehovah, working against the march of God’s people. That makes sense. Because he hath put his hand on the throne of Jehovah, Jehovah hath sworn that he will have with him from generation to generation. That is certainly a fine sense.

19. When and where do the Amalekites next fight Israel?

Ans. – Numbers 23. After the people have gotten to Kadesh-barnea, and the spies had returned, the people refused to go up. Moses then announced their doom. That was never to be recalled. So far as that generation was concerned, they were doomed; they had rebelled and murmured and now when God bad brought them to the very border of the land, they refused to go in. He now announces the doom on this generation, and this made such an impression on the people that they said, "We will go up." Moses says, "You cannot go up because the Lord won’t let you." "We will go up anyhow," said they, in their presumption. They went up, and met Amalek drawn up in battle array. The same people that had fought them just before they had gotten to Sinai now fights them on the other border just before they go to enter the Holy Land; as God was not with them, and nobody interceded with outstretched hands, Amalek prevailed and Israel was defeated. That is the next battle.

20. When was the doom, pronounced by Moses, fulfilled?

Ans. – This war was going on, and God had it recorded in the Bible that Amalek was to be blotted out from the face of the earth. When fulfilled? I cite you to I Samuel 15, and if you know of anything later happening to these people, tell me about it. Saul, the first king of Israel, destroyed the Amalekites.

21. Who was the last Amalekite known to the Bible, what was his attitude toward Israel and what became of him?

Ans. – After the monarchy had perished and Daniel was dead, Esther was queen to the Xerxes who led his army into Greece. Haman, the Amalekite, a descendant of the Agagites, sought to destroy Mordecai the Jew; and he himself swung on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai; so the last we see of the Amalekites is Haman swinging. Look at this last of them. Hundreds and hundreds of years, we go back to this memorial written in the Book: "I will blot Amalek from the face of the earth," and at last the sponge is passed over the slate and that problem is wiped out.

22. What momentous meeting took place at Horeb?

Ans. – Jethro, father-in-law to Moses, having heard of his glorious success in the deliverance of the people and that he is approaching Horeb, goes to meet him with Zipporah, the wife of Moses, and his two sons. You see when Moses and Zipporah started to go to Egypt and had that little discussion about circumcising the second child, Moses sent her back., She did not go on with him. All that time she was in her father’s house. When the father hears that Moses has reached that mountain, he thought Moses had better have his wife and children, and I agree with him. How very handsomely I does he compliment Moses on his achievements; and they talk about each other’s welfare. Moses tells him all the details of the Israelites’ deliverance.

23. What valuable suggestion of Jethro was made to Moses?

Ans. – Jethro was there as a guest, and sat around the camp, noticing Moses early and late. Moses would sit there and judge cases presented. Two women would come up after a dispute and ask Moses which was right. From all over the camp of three million people, every little judicial matter was brought to This man, and great crowds would be waiting to get brought to this man, and great crowds would be waiting to get audience. Old Jethro seems to have been a man of good common sense. So he says, "This is not good; you are killing yourself and wear-ing out these people. I suggest that you appoint a number of judges to whom all these small cases shall be referred. Let them decide such. But the things – the big things – that relate to God, let them be brought to you; and in that way you will live; and you will put some of the rest of these people to work.” It was a grand thought and was adopted by Moses. It was the commencement of the judicial system in the organization of the well-known justice court for small cases. We have a county, district, and a justice court. Little cases go to the latter; and if the cases require a bigger court, they go to the county court; and still rigger affairs that relate to more than one county go to the circuit court.

24. Compare this appointing of judges relieving Moses from the details of multitudinous affairs with a similar relief in Numbers 11:1-17, brought about in exactly the same way.

Ans. – These were not to have charge of judicial matters, but tribal. So God tells Moses to appoint seventy men of the elders of Israel, saying, "I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone." These elders were to judge the tribal cases. We have a similar circumstance in Acts 6:1-6: "Now in these days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Grecian (Hellenistic) Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not fit that we should forsake the word of God and serve tables. Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will continue stedfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word."

25. Now compare this appointment of judges with the appointment of seventy elders in Numbers II and with the appointment of deacons in Acts 6; define and illustrate the economic principle governing the three transactions.

Ans. – answer to question 24. The economic principle is the division of labor. It is not worth while for a man to attend to details which anybody else can and will do. Never use a thirteen-inch cannon to shoot a humming bird. The division of labor is the answer. To illustrate: Dr. Howard, pastor of the First Church at Galveston, was one day approached by Deacon Dunklin, who said, "You are not doing well; you are doing too much, the whole thing, pastor, clerk, treasurer, and Sunday school superintendent. Now you are wearing yourself out and there are just a lot of good people in this church lying around idle who can help the pastor do some of these things; and they will be better satisfied if you give them something to do, and you will preach better sermon and do better pastoral work if you don’t have to worry over a thousand things." That illustrates the point.