Exodus 17 · The Lantern

Water from the Rock

And all the congregation of the sons of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sin, by their stages, at the mouth of the LORD; and they camped at Rephidim — and there was no water for the people to drink.

And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water, and let us drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”

And the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why is it that you brought us up from Egypt — to kill me and my sons and my livestock with thirst?”

And Moses cried out to the LORD: “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me.”

And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass over before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff, with which you struck the Nile, and go.

Look, I will be standing before you there, on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, before the eyes of the elders of Israel.

And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah — because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD in our midst, or not?”

The Defeat of the Amalekites

And Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.

And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the staff of God in my hand.”

And Joshua did as Moses had said to him, to fight against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

And it happened, when Moses raised his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he rested his hand, Amalek prevailed.

For in this way, when the eyes are lifted up through thought and contemplation and the hands are lifted up in deeds which lift up and exalt the soul, as Moses lifted up his hands, one may consequently say, "The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice." In this way the Amalekites and all the unseen enemies will be worsted, and the Israelite reasonings in us will preva…

Moses, foreseeing the hardness of that people, on the Sabbath raised up his hands, therefore, and thus figuratively fastened himself to a cross. And in the battle they were sought for by the foreigners on the Sabbath-day, that they might be taken captive, and, as if by the very strictness of the law, might be fashioned to the avoidance of its teaching.

For my own warfare, however, I am at a loss what course to pursue, what alliance, what word of wisdom, what grace to devise, with what panoply to arm myself against the wiles of the wicked one. What Moses did is to conquer him by stretching out his hands upon the mount, in order that the cross, thus typified and prefigured, may prevail.

And Moses’ hands were heavy. And they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on this side and one on that. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

For it was not because Moses so prayed that the people were stronger, but because, while one who bore the name of Jesus (Joshua) was in the forefront of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross. For who of you knows not that the prayer of one who accompanies it with lamentation and tears, with the body prostrate, or with bended knees, propitiates God most of all?

See how the type was "given by Moses," but the "Truth came by Jesus Christ." Again, when the Amalekites warred in Mount Sinai, the hands of Moses were supported, being stayed up by Aaron and Hur standing on either side of him; but when Christ came, He of Himself stretched forth His Hands upon the Cross. Hast thou observed how the type "was given," but "the Truth came"?

When Moses sat on the stone, it prefigured the law resting on the church. But this law had heavy hands, because it did not deal mercifully with those who were sinners but treated them with extreme harshness. "Aaron" means "mountain of strength," and "Hur" means "fire." Who is meant by "mountain of strength"?

And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a remembrance in the book, and set it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.”

And Moses built an altar, and he called its name The LORD Is My Banner.

And he said, “Because a hand is against the throne of the LORD, the LORD has war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Exodus17

Water from the Rock

The Defeat of the Amalekites