יְהוָה נִסִּי - Yahweh Nissi… The Lord is my Banner! Exodus 17:8-16

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon July 12, 2009

Let me start off by drawing your attention to the words of apostle Peter from 1 Peter 5:6-9. Here he speaks about the spiritual reality, namely the hostile existence of the devil and how we as Christians ought to respond in the light of it. He says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”

There are times when this seems much more of obvious reality than other times. Whether you acknowledge it, or refuse to believe it, or forget to remember it, the spiritual battle is reality. The great problem for so many Christians and non-believers alike today is that they are oblivious to the reality of the spiritual battle. Christians are oblivious to God’s call upon them to resist the enemy, to stand firm in the faith! They think that apostle Paul’s call in Ephesians 6 to put on the armor of God, to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, to be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints, is a call for some extraordinarily spiritual Christians. No, to put on armor of God, to pray always, to pray for all the saints, to pray for each other are not just for the select few super Christians. These are mandate to all for all of us in the light of the spiritual reality.

My prayer today is that God would shake us out of spiritual malaise, laziness, naivety, naked vulnerability, that he would awaken us to desperation, urgency and dependence on him. So, it is fitting that I speak to you today about God’s name by Moses, Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner!” Before delving into understanding what it means to k now God as Yahweh Nissi, I want you to first consider where this name is found in the Bible and see the spiritual reality.

1. How do you know when you are vulnerable to attack?

Last week, I talked to you about how Yahweh tests us, not because we he doesn’t know us, but to reveal to us our true character, the condition of our hearts. Only after three days since they witnessed God’s deliverance from Egypt, when they arrived at a place called Desert of Shur, they began to grumble against Moses and God because they could not find drinkable water, but only bitter, pungent water. It says in Exodus 15:25, this was no accident, but God’s design to test them to reveal them their own character, their hearts. God turned the bitter water to drinkable and quenched their thirst.

And, in Exodus 16, traveling further south of Sinai Peninsula, we see the Israelites again grumbling. There they complained, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exodus 16:3). Again, by raining down bread from heaven and giving them specific instructions as to how they were gather manna for themselves, it says in Exodus 16:4, “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.”

And, in Exodus 17:1-7, what you find is further south of Sinai Peninsula at Rephidim, we see the Israelites blatantly quarreling with Moses and demanding water since they found absolutely no water this time at Rephidim. Moses questioned them, “Why do you put the LORD to the test?” (Exodus 17:2). Instead of trusting God Yahweh Yireh to provide for them as he rained them the bread from heaven, as turned the bitter water to drinkable, instead they digressed and became cynical and skeptical questioning if the LORD was even among them (Exodus 17:7), if the LORD even cared.

In the midst trials and difficulties, their true character was revealed. And, it wasn’t pretty. This is the nature of the spiritual battle. The presence and the power of God was abundantly clear and unmistakably demonstrated, yet, here they were doubting if God was even among them and rejecting him. Forgetting who God was, what he had done, and what he promise, they digressed further becoming discontent, complaining and grumbling and distrusting God’s presence and ultimately rejecting God.

Now enter Exodus 17:8, in the state of forgetting, becoming discontent, complaining, grumbling, and rejecting God, we read, “The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.” The Amalekites who lived in the desert, south of Canaan around Kadesh were the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, Easu’s eldest boy (Genesis 36:12). In other words, the Amalekites were the cousins of the Israelites. If the Amalekites believed God’s plan to bless all nations through Abraham including Amalek as he said in Genesis 12:3, there should have been no reason for them to feel threatened by the Israelites. But, instead of believing in the promise made to Abraham, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. It is instructive to read Deuteronomy 25:17-19 which explains how they went about attacking the Israelites. It shows that they went after the Israelites who were lagging behind, meaning those who were vulnerable. Numbers 24:20 tells us that they were first among the nations to attack Israel.

As in 1 Peter 5:6-9 which tells us that the devil our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, here we see the Amalekites prowling to devour the weak and the vulnerable. Here is how you know if you are nagging behind, if you are weak and vulnerable to attack? You know it when complaining and grumbling defines your heart instead of thankful gratitude; you know it when you feel numb to the presence and the work of God, when you forget God. You lag behind if your character is in shamble, if your heart is divided when God tests you.

2. What do you do when you are attacked, when your character and heart fails?

When the Amalekites came and attack those who were lagging behind, those who were weak and vulnerable, we see two responses. On the ground, Moses charged Joshua to lead the way to fight the Amalekites. And, Moses went on top of the hill and stood there with the staff of God in his hands and he held it up high. Joshua going out with the chosen men to fight the Amalekites is s no brainer. But, what’s with Moses going up to the top of the hill and holding up his hands and how it determined the outcome of the battle?

“The staff of God [Elohim]” symbolized the Yahweh’s powerful presences. A staff in Moses’ hand, which God turned into a snake and back to a staff (Exodus 4:2-4), which Moses struck the water of Nile and turned it to blood (Exodus 7:16-17) and a staff of Aaron which Yahweh turned into a snake and when challenged by the Egyptians who turned their staffs into snakes, the staff of Aaron swallowed up theirs, there on the top of the hill, the staff of God represented the power and the presence of Yahweh.

Exodus 9:22-23 when Yahweh told Moses to stretch out his hand toward the sky so that hail would fall all over Egypt, Moses responded by stretching out his staff toward the sky; Exodus 10:12-13 when Yahweh told Moses to stretch out his hand over Egypt so that locust would swarm over the land, Moses responded by stretching out his staff over Egypt; Exodus 14:16 when Yahweh told Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hand over the seas to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on the cry ground, Moses again obeyed. Moses’ held up hands along with the staff of God was the symbol of the power of Yahweh and the conductor of his power upon the fighting men of Israel. It presented Yahweh as the Banner over them, their lead in the battle.

And, here is the key phrase from Exodus 17:11, “As long as”! “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” “As long as” speaks to long journey of perseverance, faithfulness and obedience.

As long as Moses had his hands held up high, the fighting men on the ground was winning. The outcome of the battle was sorely dependant on whether Moses’ hands were held up high or lower, not on the strength of the sword of the fighting men.

Moses’ staff, his hands raised up symbolized the Banner, Yahweh’s abiding and powerful presence that energized the fighting men on the ground and enabled them to overcome the enemy that prowled like a lion to devour.

Moses knew this. So, we see in Exodus 17:12, Moses trying really hard to keep the Banner up high, to bless Joshua and his fighting men on the ground with the power and the presence of Yahweh, but Moses couldn’t overcome the physical fatigue and his arm muscles cramping with burning pain.

This is when Aaron and Hur stepped in. Exodus 17:12, they got a stone and put it under Moses so he could sit on it. And, “Aaron and Hur held his hands up- one on one side, one on the other- so that his hands remained steady till sunset.” Exodus 17:13 says that because Moses’ hands were held up high steady until sunset, “Joshua overcame the Amalekites army with the sword.”

As the phrase, “As long as” speaks to remaining faithful and persevering, “remained steady” in verse 12 speaks to faithfulness, steadfastness and patience under severe trials.[1] As long as, they remained steady by raising up the Banner of Yahweh high, as long as they let the fighting troop know who was in charge of the battle and who was fighting for them, as long as the Israelites rallied around the Banner of Yahweh, they were victorious.

So, we see Moses in Exodus 17:15 making this confession, Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner.” As Walter Kaiser says, “There was no such thing as a “holy war” in the OT, but there were “wars of Yahweh.””[2] Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner,” means the battle belongs to the LORD; not only is he in charge, it is he who fights the battle and determines the outcome. And those who rally to the Banner, Yahweh, fight his battle. So, the Banner of Yahweh defines their identity and orients them to who they are, and gives them courage, hope, strength and the ultimately victory.[3]

So, what do you do when you are attack? What do you do when you notice the noise of grumbles, complaining, and distrusting in your heart? What do you do when you see your character failing? You declare, Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner,” and you look to him and you rally around him, you recognize that you are fighting the LORD’s battle, and he is fighting for you.

Isaiah 11:10 reads, “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious…” The Root of Jesse is a Messianic phrase that points to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, he stands as the Banner for the peoples, for the nations to rally to him and there they will find rest, security, and hope.

Another passage, namely Numbers 21 also foreshadows the Messiah as the Banner. It’s an account of the Israelites en route to the Promised Land. Along the way, they grew impatient… they spoke against God and against Moses and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food [manna]!” Yahweh responded by sending venomous snakes that bit and killed many of the Israelites. People came to Moses and confessed their sin against Yahweh and against Moses and pleaded for Yahweh to take away the snakes. To this Yahweh told Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” Here, the word, “pole” is the same Hebrew word, “nes” used for “banner” in other places.

Jesus quoted this account in talking to Nicodemus to speak of his death on the cross, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). It was grotesque to look upon the bronze serpent but utterly necessary to live and to the Jews the crucifixion was a sign of curse, repugnant to behold, but again utterly necessary for eternal life. So, the Banner of the snake raised up is a picture of Jesus Christ cursed, who became sin for us as He hung on that awful tree.[4]

What do you do when you are attacked? You declare Yahweh Nissis, “The LORD is my Banner.” You rally to Jesus Christ and behold the cross where he died, you rally to Jesus Christ who died and was raised from the dead. He is your Banner over you!

Application

• Pray… Practically speaking, what was Moses doing while he had his hands lifted up high with the help from Aaron and Hur until sunset? Philip Graham Ryken thinks that while Joshua fought with sword, Moses fought with prayer[5] And, I quote, “In our prayer we acknowledge our absolute dependence on God to conquer the enemies of our faith.”[6] What do you do when you are under attack, when you notice the noises of grumbling, complaining, and distrusting in your heart? You declare Yahweh Nissis, “The LORD is my Banner,” and turn to Jesus in prayer.
• Understand and remember the battle belongs to Yahweh… Exodus 17:14, we see Yahweh’s command to write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it…” Joshua was on the ground with sword fighting the Amalekites and didn’t have grasp on what took place on the top of the hill. Understanding it is God’s battle you fight, understanding God is in charge of the battle, of you, and actively remembering this fact Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner” … this is the key to be victorious and not become a victim to the enemy that prowls to destroy.
• Confess you have no strength apart from God’s strength… Confess you have no strength apart from strength in the Lord as it says in Ephesians 6:10-11. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
• Rally around the Banner of the cross… Remember that your rally point is the Banner of the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 says, “When You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” It is there at the cross, you know the power of death, the power of the enemy, the power of the sinful flesh was nailed to the cross, there at the cross, you know the resurrection followed. And, when you rally around the cross and behold the Banner of Christ, you will be able to sing victoriously as in Revelation 19:2, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servant.” And, Revelation 19:6, the roar of a great multitude in heaven will be heard, “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.”

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[1] Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. “Exodus Note 17:12” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 410. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

[2] Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. “4. The war with Amalek (17:8-16)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 409. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

[3] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus, Crossway, 2005, p. 466.

[4] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), Nu 21:7-9.

[5] Phlip Graham Ryken, Exodus, Crossway, 2005, p. 462.

[6] Ibid., p. 463.

In the desert, “find rest in God alone.” (Psalm 62:1)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon August 3, 2008

Upon returning from a week of family trip to Maranatha conference, I learned that some of you engaged in an honest discussion on the spiritual condition of our church. What began as a discussion on how we are doing with prayer as a church, it turned into deep sharing of each of your personal dry spiritual condition. Although I wasn’t there with you guys who were engaged in this discussion, I would tell you that I too have been going through a dry spiritual season for the last few months.

So, today, taking a little break from the study of book of Acts, I would like to talk to you about the spiritual rhythm, specifically the phase that can be characterized as desert experience. When I thought of spiritual dryness, the image that popped in my mind was that of “desert.” In desert, I imagine feeling restless caused by thirst, heat, blistering feet, growling stomach in hunger. Desert is an unpleasant place where you don’t want to end up in it. So, in desert, I imagine myself seeking for relief. I want water to quench my thirst. I want to come under shade to escape scorching sun. I want to stand on cool rock instead of blisteringly hot and sinking sand. In desert, I imagine wanting nothing more than to rest!

While I imagine this intense yearning for rest from the harsh reality of desert, I also imagine feeling like quitting! I imagine a curtain of confusion, inability to focus, will or desire strongly and clearly draping over my eyes, feeling trapped and helpless to get out of it. Once you drift into this spiritual desert, even though you really hate being caught in it, you struggle to get out, feeling trapped. And, you begin to wonder if there is any redeeming purpose behind desert experience and if there will be any way out.

In desert, deepest yearning is to rest. In Psalm 62, David speaks about finding rest. He says in verse 1, “My soul find rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” And, similarly repeats this thought in verse 5, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” In the context of the psalm, he sought rest because he was restless when he realized he couldn’t place his confidence in people. In the desert, he was disappointed by people around him.

In the desert, God’s ultimate purpose is for us to find rest in him alone. When human relationships disappoints you, fails you or you fail them, when your expectations don’t fan out the way you wanted, when you are struggling with overcoming sins, when you feel oppressed and tired, in the desert, you can find true rest in God alone! This is the answer I get from the scripture. When you are in the desert, find rest in God is your answer.

During my study, I came across a lengthy article on “desert” from New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, a dictionary with a long name, written by A. R. Pete Diamond. It filled the detail for me as to how God is really the answer for us. It opened my eyes to see that while we may be tempted to dismiss desert as unnecessary, unwanted, wasted phase in spiritual journey, it is not without meaning and purpose because in the desert, you find rest in God alone.

In the desert, God wants us to experience rest, not the kind of rest of drinking ice cold coke in an oasis comfortably reclined in a lounge chair. No, rest he wants us to experience involves being made into worshipers, being tested to be pure, being trained to be warriors.

• In the desert, God seeks to make worshipers out of us.

One of the predominant images of desert experience you see in the Old Testament comes from the story of Exodus when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt into wilderness. God brought them out of Egypt, the vest fertile riverbed of Nile into the wilderness, dry, weary and desolate land. There in the desert, God tested the Israelites.

In Egypt, the Israelites lived by the riverbed of Nile River, fertile land with abundant supply of grains, fish and animals. But, this supply of abundant food was overshadowed by the slavery; they were enslaved by the Egyptian headmasters who were harsh and ruthless. This reality of life in Egypt for the Israelites speaks to the reality of our world. The world we live in is like the riverbed of Nile where there supposed to be unlimited potential of opportunities for success if you work hard at. But, in the world the headmaster is the devil, the most selfish, egocentric, deceptive, destructive, bent on taking as many people with him into hell.

Now, Exodus into desert where God was to be the Israelites’ the only God, the only ruler, unlike in so many ways from the headmasters of Egypt, points to God’s great salvation. God brought the Israelites out of the fertile riverbed of Nile and led them into desert where their survival, their existence was intertwined by their trust in God alone. In Egypt, the promise of abundance was really an illusion because of they were in bondage. But, in the desert, although the promise of abundance wasn’t apparent in what they could see and feel from the desert, it was to be reality in God as they put their faith in him.

Christian journey is very much like this. The world promises abundance, wealth, simply great life of rest, but it comes at a cost of being enslaved to the American dream stocked in selfish individualism, often at the great cost of relational brokenness. But, Christian journey is that of the desert where life is where you get your abundance not from the worldly pursuit of happiness, but from God alone. But, what’s most important in the desert is not so much about what you can get from God, but learning to appreciate and fully trust God as the Giver of all good things.

Another word, God seeks to raise worshipers in the desert. When God first commissioned Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, he said to him in Exodus 3:12, “… When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” He was to tell the king of Egypt (v. 19), “Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.” Exodus 5:1, 3, Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh of what God said, “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.”

There in the desert, at the Mount Sinai, they were to encounter God of revelation. In the desert, they received instructions on how to relate to each other and relate to him. There in the desert, they were given instructions on how to build the tabernacle, a sanctuary where God would come down and dwell with them. From there, the desert, the Mount Sinai, there were to journey with God in the midst of them to the Promised Land.

This image of the tabernacle is so strikingly similar to John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This Word who became flesh speaks to incarnation of Jesus, God Son, coming to dwell with us by taking on human form. The word “dwelling” speaks to pitching a tent and relates back to putting up the tabernacle in the Old Testament.

It is Jesus who restores worship for Christians. For the Israelites, it was through the sacrifices of goats and lambs, but for us it is through the sacrifice of God-Man Jesus’ death that restores us to right relationship with God, where we are not the center, but where God sits in the center throne of our hearts. From the command center of our hearts, God is to permeate our lives with the way he wants us to live, which in fact affects all aspect of our human relationships. Another word, worship restores human relationships.

• In the desert, God tests us to purge evil and to purify us.

Often in the desert experience of the Israelites, you come across the image of God testing the Israelites. I don’t think God tested them because he didn’t know what they were really like for our God is all-knowing God. God tested them to reveal what they were really made out of, not for his benefit, but for the benefit of the Israelites, to wake them up. When pressure is exerted, when metal is tested in fire, what will that reveal about us?

I can be so full of myself that I can fool myself to think that I am all right with God and all right with people. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” It takes God to engineer circumstances of desert to reveal what I am made of.

Now that the Israelites witnessed the awesome demonstration by God his power over Egypt’s trust in their gods by striking them with ten plagues and parting of the red sea, you would think that the Israelites would be all about God.

But, this wasn’t the case. When God brought them to a placed called Marah where they couldn’t not drink water because it was bitter, their response was that of grumbly complaining. It says in Exodus 15:24, “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” And, it says in v. 25, “there he tested them.” When God tested them with bitter water, what was revealed was their ungrateful complaining spirit.

Exodus 16:2-3 says, “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

And, God responded to them in Exodus 16:4-5, “Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

When the pressure is on, when things that we hold are stripped away, when things aren’t going the way we want, when relationships disappoint us, when God tests us in the desert, what he allows us to see is the ugliness of our hearts. Jesus often said that it is not what goes into our mouth that defiles us, but what comes out of our hearts.

The book of Numbers is filled with the examples of God testing them, to reveal to them what they were made of in the desert.

In the desert, God is asking, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? (Numbers 14:11)

Numbers 14:22-23, you see God’s pronouncement over the people’s predicament for having rejected God, having refused to trust in him. For those, “who saw God’s glory and his miraculous signs performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times, not one of them would ever see the land God promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated God with contempt would ever see it.”

When they camped at a placed called Rephidim in Exodus 17:2, where there was no water for the people to drink, they quarreled with Moses. And, v. 3, “the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up put of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?””

The very reason God brought them out of Egypt into desert was so that they would learn to trust in him for all things, even for the very basic necessity of water and to worship God as their Provider. And, you would think for the people who saw God part the Red Sea to easily get this. But, instead of choosing to depend on God, they grumbled and demanded critically. To this attitude, Moses asked, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

Numbers 20:4-5, at the Desert of Zin, at Kedesh, the people opposed and quarreled with Moses and Aaron saying, “Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

Again in Numbers 21:5, you see the Israelites complaining, but now even worse that it before. It says, “they grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses by saying, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Do you hear that? The manna that God provided day after day, the daily substance from God through the desert journey is the very thing they called “miserable food.” By scorning the provision, they were scorning and rejecting the Giver, their God.

In each of these cases, God held those who complained, grumbled, mistrusted and opposed him responsible as well as providing relief. In the last case of people showing their utter contempt for their Provider by rejecting manna, God sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. To give them relief, God instructed to Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” (Numbers 21:8-9)

We see this in John 3:14, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” To be “lifted up” here refers to Jesus being crucified on the cross. Jesus crucified, lifted up on the cross, suffered and died for us… before this Jesus, in the desert our sins tested as impure, adulterous, rebellious, indifferent, apathetic wickedness can be cleansed, purified and purged, and replaced with his holiness, his righteousness.

• In the desert, God trains us into warriors.

When God seeks to make us worshipers, when God seeks to purge and purify us from impurities, and when God seeks to make us holy, righteous, he does it so that he can make warriors out of us.

If God’s testing is one sense of God revealing what we are made of, his testing is also in another sense God training us who are untrained and feeble to become disciplined warriors who can be used mightily to expand God’s kingdom.

Exodus 13:17-18 speaks to this part of God’s testing. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt there was a much shorter route than the desert road through which God could have led Israel. It was “the road through the Philistine country” much easier route. It says, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So, God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.”

God knew that fresh out of Egypt, the Israelites were in no shape to battle against the Philistines. So, he took them to the training journey, the desert journey.

It’s like the old classic martial art movies where the hero of a story is pulled back early on in a movie to work on the skills, to be battled ready. So, the hero become a disciple of a grand master and goes through rigorous training of carrying buckets of water on a tick on their shoulder, punching and kicking the bamboo sticks until their weapons are hardened, learning to wield their swords until they can slice flies in halves, or catch flies with chopsticks, perfecting their forms and mental edge.

God takes unto the desert road to train us, to have us be battle ready. In our stories, we don’t get this training by lifting weights, running miles after miles.  The spiritual training involves taking us into the desert out of the Nile riverbed, so that we can learn to depend on God for his provision, where we must meet God and know him as our Giver, Provider, Protector, and Trainer.

So, remember that as you go through the spiritual desert, although you may feel that the time is wasted, you are not growing at all or God doesn’t seem to be working in you, the truth is that God is working in your desert. God is after you to make you a worshiper, to make you pure and to train you to be effective warriors to expand his kingdom. The desert is the perfect place and time for God to work in you.

1 Samuel 4.1-7, When you put your faith not on God...

Do you remember the movie starring Harrison Ford, Raiders of the Lost Ark? It was a huge blockbuster movie only out-earned by two prior Star Wars movies. Let me play a trailer for you.

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The story takes place after 1936 featuring Harrison Ford as an archaeologist Indiana Jones. At the college where he taught he was approached by two US Army intelligence agents. He was told that the Nazis were in the quest of the Ark of the Covenant; in the movie, the Nazis supposedly believed, according to the legend, the power of the Ark to make any army in possession of it invincible.

Indian Jones found the lost Ark first, but only to be taken away by Nazis and later to be recovered by Jones. Jones was escorting the Ark to England onboard the steamer Bantu Wind only to be stopped by a Nazi U-boat. The Nazi took the Ark to a remote canyon to test its power before presenting to Hitler.

And, there is a scene where Belloq and the Nazi perform a ceremonial opening of the Ark.

This scene follows with the spirits released from the Ark and killing all the Germans by melting their faces and bodies and exploding them. And, the cover of the Ark self closing!

I am confident that none of us would watch this movie to learn the biblical facts about the Ark of the Covenant since the movie isn’t faithful to the scriptural account of the Ark of the Covenant. However, this story of Nazi trying to harvest the power of the Ark and facing devastation illustrates the story of the Israelites trying to manipulate and domesticate God for their own gain in 1 Samuel 4-7:1.

1. When you put your faith not on God, we loose the spiritual battle.

1 Samuel 4 accounts how the Ark of the Covenant was captured in the hands of the Philistines. This chapter answers this question: What happens when we put our faith not on God? The main problem was that the Israelites did not put their faith in God, but in the Ark itself. Another word, the Ark itself became an idol to them. Let see how this plays out.

We are told in verse 1-3 that the Israelites fought against Philistines, only to loose four thousand of them on the battlefield. During the time of Joshua, a similar lost was suffered at the hands of Ai in Joshua 7. When the Israelites suffered the lost, Joshua 7:6 records Joshua and the elders’ response: “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the Ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads.” Joshua and the elders of his time dealt with the devastating lost by turning to God in sorrow and repentant heart. God revealed to Joshua how the lost was the direct consequence of one man, Achan’s sin against God.

But the response we see in 1 Samuel 4:3 shows no such act of humbling before God, seeking his guidance for the cause of loosing the battle. Instead, they determined, “Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” They believed in the power of the Ark just like the Nazis did in the movie as though the Ark in itself has the power to win the battle. The Ark represented Yahweh’s presence with Israel; it was the central symbol leading them to the Promised Land out of the desert; playing a crucial role in the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 3-4 and during the beginning period of conquest. The Ark was important because it was the symbol of God’s presence. But, for the Israelites, the Ark itself became the power to win the battle.

They confidently marched against the Philistines now having the Ark. The Ark was tended by the wicked, good for nothing, worthless two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. The moral of the Israelites was so high that verse 5 tells how they raised a great shout that shook the ground making the Philistines tremble in fear.

So, we expect the Israelites to win, but the outcome is even more devastating than before; they lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The two wicked sons of Eli died in the battle. Worse of all, the Philistines captured the Ark.

What happened when the Israelites put their hope, trust, their confidence not on God, but on the Ark? They were using God for their own gain, with no regard to God’s glory. They trusted not God, but the symbol of God’s presence to deliver them. God dealt with this by taking away the Ark on which they put their idolatrous faith in.

Eli having heard his sons’ death in the battlefield was so shocked when he heard the capture of the Ark, it says in verse 18, he fell backward and broke his neck. And, his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas died while giving birth to her son. She named him “ichabod” meaning no glory. When the Israelites wrongly and idolatrously trusted the Ark rather than God, they suffered the devastating lost in the battlefield, loosing their own and ultimately loosing the Ark, the symbol of God’s presence.

What does God do when you and I put our faith not on God, but on the material possessions, on the job prospects, on our brains, on the get-rich and succeed-ideals of America, and on other people? We loose the spiritual battle.

2. Why should you put your faith in God alone?

Chapter 5 and 6 answers this question; “Why should we put our faith in God alone?” Why should the Israelites, the Philistines, or anyone put their trust in God alone? Let’s see how this chapter answers this question.

The Philistines feared so much that they were ready to face the major defeat against the Israelites when they learned of the presence of the Ark. But, they were able to defeat the Israelites and even capture the much feared Ark. They put the Ark next to their idol Dagon, thinking that their idol Dagon gave them the victory over the God of Israel. Depending on what sources you consult, Dagon was either a god of grain or fish. It was an idol fashioned after human image with head and arms and hands.

Next day, they found their idol fallen on its face on the ground before the Ark. They served and worshiped the idol that they had to pick up with their hands and put it back in its place. In the following morning, they found their idol Dagon decapitated and armless, with its head and hands lying on the threshold to the temple.

The writer of 1 Samuel makes an interesting observation at this point. Verse 5 says that because of their idol’s head and hands touched the threshold, they didn’t step on the threshold. Here was their idol found prostrating before the Ark in submission to God of Israel and later found destroyed before the Ark by God of Israel. God is sovereign and powerful. The wise thing would be to turn to God of Israel. But, instead of fearing God of Israel who proved more powerful and superior to the lifeless, powerless, helpless idol Dagon, they feared upsetting their destroyed idol by stepping on the threshold. It just shows the extent of their unbelief, their unwillingness to face the reality, the truth.

Perhaps, the Philistines didn’t get it that it was God who struck down and destroyed the lifeless, powerless, useless, and worthless idol. God made further statement about why he was to be feared and worshiped. Soon after, the people of Ashdod and its vicinity God sent a terrible outbreak of tumors. Some thinks it was a form of bubonic plague, tumors referring to the swelling of the infected lymph nodes, a disease carried by rats. Whatever the nature of the disease was, it was severe enough that they the people of the town of Ashdod didn’t want it any more. So, the Ark was passed down to the next town Gath. The same disaster struck the people in Gath as well. So, it was sent to Ekron. For seven months, this went on.

Chapter 6 shows how the Philistines dealt with this crisis. They recognized that the disaster was caused by possessing the Ark of the Lord. They realized that they were in the same predicament as the Egyptians faced at the hand of God. The Egyptians, especially Pharaoh hardened, their hearts against God facing plagues after plagues. They didn’t want to make the same mistake, so they devised a plan to send the Ark back. Two things matter to them

First, they made sure that the Ark was accompanied by the five gold tumors and five gold rats to honor to Israel’s God in order to appease him to stop the destruction (6:5). The Ark and the gold were to be put on a brand new cart pulled by two cows. The offering was to appease God so that the plague would stop. It wasn’t necessarily to remove their guilt because guilt offering would involve shedding of blood.

Second, they wanted to makes sure it was God who destroyed Dagan and brought the disease and death. They did this by choosing two cows that never been yoked before. The cows’ calves were pen up. The natural instinct would be for the cows to move towards their calves. Unnatural, supernatural thing would be for the cows to pull the cart holding the Ark and the gold offerings.

God proved to them it was indeed he who brought the disaster to them by having the cows pulled the cart all the way to Israel’s town, Beth Shemesh.

Once the Ark arrived, the Israelites of Beth Shemesh greatly rejoiced. The ark came to the field of Joshua. They sacrificed the cows using the wood of the cart. But, the joy was quickly replaced by fear and sadness when some of the Israelites irreverently treated the Ark by looking into it.

Why should you put your faith in God?

• Put your faith in God because God alone is God; there is no other gods beside our God of the Bible.
• Put your faith in God because the alternative is to face a terrible judgment; put your faith in God because he is to be feared.
• Put your faith in God because he alone can remove the guilt of your sins and forgive you by shedding of the blood. Note how the Ark arrived at the Field of Joshua in Beth Shemesh. Joshua, the Hebrew name is the same as the Greek name Jesus. It is Jesus’ sacrificial death and shedding of his blood that truly forgives us and puts us in right relationship with God.

Applications

1. What are you idols that you trust more than God?

Think about how you might be like Israelites. When they were defeated, they didn’t seek God for his help, his guidance. They didn’t care what God really thought about their situation. Worse, they put their faith not in God, but in the object of his presence, the Ark. They made the Ark their idol.

This is like the mentality that just coming to church on Sunday is really enough. Somehow, Sunday attendance is really all that matters. Outside of Sunday, it is as though God doesn’t exist in our lives. If we act as though God doesn’t exist outside of Sunday service, then we have something other than God at the center of our lives.

2. How are you like the Philistines insisting on holding on to your idols even when God reveals himself to you in judgment and salvation?

God demonstrated his power, his superiority, his sovereignty over the idol Dagon. Yet, the Philistines didn’t abandon their idol to choose, to worship, to follow God of Israel.

God demonstrated his power by judging the Philistines by sending them the terrible plague. Yet, all they wanted was to get rid of the Ark of God so that they could go on serving their decapitated, limbless, helpless, powerless, lifeless, motionless idol that couldn’t help them, save them or do anything at all.

God demonstrated his healing, his salvation through the shedding of the blood of the sacrificed animals to Philistines. It wasn’t their gold tumors or rats that ensured the end of the plague. It was the shedding of the sacrificed animals at the field of Joshua, at the field of Jesus. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that ensures our salvation, forgiveness of sins, real life.

3. How are you like the those who were killed at Beth Shemesh by showing no fear of God by acting against his will?

Job 28:28 says, “The fear of the LORD-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”