Author: Unknown | 12/11/2016 1:02:32 AM
Jehovah-Nissi
"The Lord our Banner"
(Exodus 17:8-16)
Once again I would remind you that the study of the names of God is important because God has given us many names by which He may be called in order to reveal Himself to us more fully. Actually, our greatest need (i.e. the greatest need of the soul) is to know God in an increasingly more intimate way. Remember, the Lord Jesus indicated that the knowledge of God is the essence of eternal life (John 17:3).
I would also remind you that the first time God reveals Himself by giving a name by which he may be called is often in connection with a particular historical event which lends significance to that name! That is the case with the name we are examining in this study, Jehovah-Nissi.
THE HISTORICAL EVENT
This event occurred only a few weeks after Israel left Marah, the place where God turned the bitter water sweet. This was also the place where God revealed Himself as Jehovah-Rophe, the Lord our healer.
The Children of Israel had gone from Marah to Elim, the place of refreshing and rest (Ex. 15:27). From there, they traveled to the Wilderness of Sin (Ex. 16). Here we are told they murmured against Moses, because there was no food. We are told that they looked back and longed for the fleshpots of Egypt. Here, Jehovah appeared in a cloud of glory and began to feed them with the wilderness manna.
Then they came to Rephidim, where we are told there was no water (Ex. 17). Once again the children of Israel began to doubt God! They forgot the great deliverance out of Egypt - all the plagues, the blood on the door posts,-and the parting of the Sea. They had forgotten March's waters and the manna that came down from heaven. We are told that they questioned God's goodness and even His presence (Ex. 17:7).
And there, from the rock in Horeb (which Paul tells us was Christ [1 Cor. 10:4]), Jehovah caused waters to spring forth to satisfy the peoples' thirst.
It was here, at this point, that the experience came in which God revealed Himself to His people as Jehovah-Nissi! Here, Israel learned that there are even worse enemies than hunger and thirst. Then came Amalekites, and fought with Israel in Rephidim (Ex. 17:8).
WHO ARE THE AMALEKITES? WHAT DO THEY REPRESENT?
We are told in Genesis 36:12 that Amalek was a grandson of Esau who despised spiritual things. (He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew! [Gen. 25]). The Amalekites became the persistent enemies of Israel, a thorn in the flesh, a constant menace to their spiritual and national life.
Therefore, it seems that the Amalekites represent the forces of this world order which stand opposed to Jehovah in all ages. In Exodus 17:16 we read, ...Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation,
In John 16:33, Jesus told his disciples: In this world you will have trouble. In John 15:18 and 19 He says to them: If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, that is why it hates you.
One of the most clear teachings concerning the Christian's relationship to the world is found in 1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
We are told in 1 John 5:19, 2 Cor. 4:4 and Rev. 11:15 that there is a sense in which ... the whole world is under control of the evil one and that he is presently a usurper sitting upon the throne of the kingdoms of this world. The Psalmist said, Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His anointed ones (Psalm 2:1-2). In Matthew 4:8-9 the devil actually tempts Jesus with the kingdoms of this world. How could he do this if there were not some sense in which he is in control of them?
The Apostle Paul says very clearly in Eph. 6:12, ...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
It is very significant that the Amalekites are the first enemy with which redeemed Israel is confronted. Israel had just been baptized in the cloud and in the Sea (1 Cor. 10:4-6). They had partaken of that spiritual meat (represented by the manna) and drunk of that spiritual rock at Horeb (which represents Christ).
Immediately, when a person becomes a Christian and has been baptized into Christ, he is confronted by the "old man" of his flesh and by the world (actually "the flesh" is "the world" that is within us all). Galatians 5:17 (NKJV) says ...the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another.
The Apostle Paul describes the inward struggle in Romans 7:23 ...1 see another law at work in the members of my body, waging a war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
Therefore, the Amalekites seem to represent the world without and the world within which wars against the children of God.
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MOSES' HAND RISING AND FALLING?
In the account of the battle between the Amalekites and the children of God in Exodus 17, we are told that as long as Moses held up his hand with the rod in it, the Israelites succeeded in the battle; but, whenever his hand was lowered, the Amalekites succeeded. What was the significance of this?
The "rod" was a symbol and a pledge of God's presence and power. This rod in Moses' hand was the wonder working rod which brought the terrible plagues on Egypt; opened a path through the Red Sea and it was the rod with which Moses smote the rock in Horeb.
Nathan Stone, in his book on the names of God, says, ...a banner, in ancient times, was not necessarily a flag such as we use nowadays. Often it was a bare pole with a bright shinning ornament which glittered in the sun. The word here (i.e. in Exodus 17:15) for banner means to glisten. It was translated ...pole, ensign, standard... It was a signal for God's people to rally around Him. The same idea is found in Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3:14, where He told Nicodemus, "... as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
Therefore, the meaning of the raised banner was that victory depends upon God alone! The moment we begin to go forth in our own strength, we will fail! The Lord Jesus taught His disciples this truth in John 15:5, 1 am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Samson learned this lesson when his hair was cut (Judges 16:20). This verse says that after his hair had been cut while he was sleeping, "He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I will go out as before and shake myself But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
The same thing happened to the children of Israel when they battled against the Amalekites on another occasion in Numbers 14:41-45. We are told in verse 43 that they had turned away from the Lord and He, therefore, declared He would not be with them. The result was that they were defeated by the enemy.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR US?
In John 16:33, Jesus told his disciples, ...In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. In Romans 8:17 we are told that we share in all that is His, including His victory over the world. That is why the Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:4, ...everyone born of God overcomes the world. Romans 8:31 says... If God is for us, who can be against us? Verse 37 in the same chapter says, ...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
I Cor. 15:57 says, ...Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And, 2 Cor. 2:14 says, ...thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ...
It is essential to notice that in all these verses which promise victory, it is always through the Lord Jesus Christ!
He is our banner!
We must daily go forth against the world, the flesh, and the devil consciously depending upon Him for the victory (Prov. 3:5-6). When we fail to do so, we will be defeated! Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our banner!