The Names of God Lesson 5 - Fairhaven Baptist Church

The Names of God

Lesson 5

Jehovah Nissi

Text: Exodus 17:8-16

Intro: Tonight we are going to follow Israel further into the desert journey toward the promised land. A couple things I want to notice here is first this is the first real battle they engage in. Up until now, the nation was defended by God. It was God and Him alone that destroyed the Egyptian army. But now it is time for the nation to pick up arms and engage in battle. Second, I want to pose this thought: In Chapter 13:17 it reads “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Least preadventure the people repent when they see war, and are returned to Egypt;”

What changed? Why then did God send them to avoid war, but now, God allows them to be in the mist of it? Not only does the word record that now they will be in war, but vs.16 tells us the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. And I believe this was a message to the nation they would also experience it?

So let us get into tonight’s lesson.

Background,
1. The Nation journeys toward the promised land,
  1. Recap of the last few days,
    1. it has most likely only been a couple month or around that when we get to this point.
      - I tried to do the time line, and we have a 3 day journey form the Red sea,
      - then It tells us 15 days into the second month they left Elim.
    2. A lot can change in a couple of months,
    3. Left the only life they had ever known, Saw their enemies/ possibly their former masters, and perhaps even their friends killed int eh red sea, They saw bitter water turned into sweet, Manna form Heaven, a rock hit and pour out water in the desert.
  2. They had seen the power of God,
    1. God had been their to protect and to provide for them,
    2. Exodus 14:13&14 “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. ”
  3. Now We start to see others rise up in the congregation,
    1. Up until this point, who all have we meet?
      - Of course Moses, Miriam (when she lead the women in worship), the only other people we have seen has been the enemies, Pharaoh, The bible mentions the Philistines,
    2. Now we are introduced to:
      - Joshua Vs.10
      - Aaron Vs.10 (Yes, we have meat Aaron before they left Egypt, but after they left, Aaron was mostly silent,
      - Hur, Vs.10
      - And we also meet a New Enemy, Amalek
    3. almost as if there is gong to be a change in the way things are done,
      - and indeed there are, before this chapter, God was doing all the work,
      - and now it is going to become the responsibility of others to step up and fill positions
2. Look at the Present (Exodus 17:8-16)
  1. Then Came Amalek…. and fought with Israel,
    1. the name comes from a foreign origin, but we do know this was a descendant of Esau,
    2. We also know the spelling of the word,
      - Ayin- To see, or experience,
      - Mem- water or Chaos
      - Lamed- Control or Toward
      - Qof- Horizon,
        
        if we put the letters together: Experiencing Chaos coming Toward us on the Horizon,
    3. and this was going be be more the norm than the exception for the nation from here out,
      - I preached Sunday, that one simple fact is, we are never far from the next battle,
      - With Amalek coming Chaos was coming.
  2. This time God doesn’t say “stand and watch”.
    1. so a question I think is important to ask here, is between vs.8&9 was that all Moses, or was Moses following the leadership of God?
      - It never says God told him to do this, but it is an odd thing for him to do if it wasn’t directive from God. I choose to believe Moses was still following the leadership of God.
    2. So Moses called Joshua, Jehovah saves, incidentally anyone know what Joshua would be in the New Testament?
      - Moses was going to serve his part, and He called Joshua to serve in his roll,
    3. Joshua in turn called men out to serve in their rolls,.
      - Choose some men to fight with,
    4. So Joshua and his men went to wage war with Amalek,
    5. Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of a hill,
  3. Everyone had a job to do,
    1. As Joshua and the men fought,
    2. Moses held his hands up,
      - and As I said Sunday, when Moses dropped his hands, Israel was killed, and when he held them up Israel killed their enemies
      - But as Moses got tired,
    3. Aaron and Hur step in to assist Moses.
      - They did this until dark and Joshua “discomfited” Amalek,
        
        overthrew Amalek,
      - Together, the victory was won.
  4. Moses built an Altar, and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi:
    1. This was not an altar that they would take with them, but it would be left as a testimonial of what was done there,
    2. How God once again gave the victory to the Nation of Israel,
Meaning,
1. Jehovah Nissi,
  1. God is My Banner,
    1. Jehovah, the proper name of God
    2. a Banner,
      - a flag, a sail, a signal on top of a pole as a sign or token.
      - Simply a manner is something that is raised above a group, usually a battle group in order to signify who they are, or who they are fighting for.
      - For instance, the king of England may fly his banner over his army, but does this mean that he is the one there fighting?
      - What about the banner of America, the star spangled banner, it flies over our troops, but is the whole of America there? No.
      - but they represent America, or the King of England, or who ever the manner happens to represent,
        
        in this case God.
    3. So by saying God is my Banner,
      - it is saying, I give myself to God, His principles, I serve at the desire of Him.
      - As Christians, we serve at the pleasure of the Lord.
Application,
1. There are always going to be battles,
  1. A Pattern of the Nations Journey,
    1. lows to highs, and back to lows,
    2. Valleys to mountain tops back to valleys,
    3. Life has very few flat lands,
      - it is usually a pretty good indication that if we are not facing battles, we are not advancing, and are sitting still.
  2. One Lesson we can Learn from this, is God will always be there for us,
    1. God was always right there with the Nation,

When Egypt was charging at them, there was God,
When they ran out of water, God was there,
when they got hungry, when the enemy headed toward them, God was there.

We can rest easy knowing God will always be there for us,
- Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. ”
- However…..

God wants us to grow to the point where we can produce fruit,
1. God desires “Christian Maturity”
  1. there was a change in the way God dealt with the Nation at this point,
    - until now, it had been all on God, but now it was time for them to pick up some of the work load.
    - Why?
  2. We want our children to grow,
    - it is not that we don’t love them, but we want to see them begin to walk on their own, to feed themselves,
    - why? It is not because we are getting weaker, but we want them to become stronger.
    - God is not getting weaker, But He wants us to become stronger,
  3. God wants us to grow to the point where we are able to deal with situations,
  4. Why? This is one of life’s big questions,
    - Because He created us in His image,
    - We are not like other animals that are purely instinctual, we have the ability to reason, to think things through, to analysis, and to make choices.
    - If he had wanted us to be robots, to preform as a program was written, that is what He would have done,
    - But He created us with the ability to make decisions, and then to act on them,
  5. Furthermore it brings God pleasure when we do,
    - just as a parent is thrilled when their kid takes their first steps,
  6. For Christians, God created us to Be His Ambassadors,
    - to live under His Banner, to represent Him,
      - He chose us to be the messengers of Good News,
      - Could He have made the clouds to spell out the Gospel every day? Yes, but He chose His people, the ones under His banner to do it.
Everyone has a Place,
1. With Service in Mind,
  1. we all have an area God wants us to be,
    - In the text, we saw Moses, Aaron, Hur, Joshua, and The men of Israel,
      - each one had a specific task to do,
  2. But all of them was working toward the same goal,
    - to defeat Amalek,
  3. We see the same principle today in the Local Church,
    - We all have different callings, and areas of service, But God places us there as It Fits Him,
    - and it is all for the advancement of His kingdom.
      - Under His Banner, we serve at His pleasure,
    - some are called to preach, some are called to teach, some are called to pray,
      - but what is the desired outcome? To proclaim the gospel to the entire world,
      - to win souls for Christ, to see Lives changed because of a personal relationship with Jesus.
  4. So this brings me to another question?

Who was most responsibility for the victory over Amalek?

Who was not Needed?
1. Which of these men could have been done away with, and the outcome still been the same?
  - We obvious cannot get rid of the fighting men of Israel,
    - after all someone had to be the one on the field of battle. Or else it would have been still God doing all the work.
  - What about Joshua? Could we have gotten rid of him?
    - Without him, the fighting men, would have still been in their tents, with their families, doing their normal daily routines.
    - Someone had to call them to arms. Someone had to lead the way to battle.
  - Well, Moses then, he went to the top of a hill and just watched, right?
    - The bible is clear in Vs.11, that the victory went the way Moses held his hands.
    - If He dropped them, the army was defeated.
    - So Moses was essential to the day,
  - Aaron and Hur,
    - surly these men could have been left out,
    - but, when Moses was unable to hold his own arms up, what then.
2. The point here is that everyone is necessary.
  - And if we are not doing our duty, then that could be bad news form a lot of others.
  - I also want to point out the useless feeling of not belonging,
    - I know how I am, and I can see me being Hur, and feeling pretty useless,
      - looking down on the army and thinking, if I were 20 years younger, I could be there with them, instead of uselessly sitting on the sideline.
      - The problem was, he wasn’t useless, and was essential for the victory.
      - We cannot get into the attitude that other people have a more important job that we do,
      - and we cannot get tot the point were we think our job is the most important.
    - You take any piece of them out and the day goes very different.

So, here is the question:

Who’s Banner is hanging above us?

Is it ours? Is it the worlds? Is it a job? And Idea? Or is it God’s?

Who do we serve?