Then Amalek came and waged war against Israel in Rephidim. Exodus 17:8
The Hebrews find themselves in the middle of terrifying landscapes, vast terrains bereft of anything hospitable, but filled with deadly circumstances such as poisonous water, no food, or no water at all. Now they faced an even more unforgiving foe, the Amalekites. Nature can be unrelenting and cruel in its effects, but it is not evil – men are evil. Amalek is linked with Edom, a land outside of the Promised Land, just southeast of it, on the other side of the Dead Sea. This land is associated in the Hebrew mind with Esau (Gen 36:16), Jacob’s brother who swindled him out of his birthright and blessing. Rather than a blessing from his father Isaac, Esau received what might be considered a curse: he will dwell outside of fertile land, and live by his sword, always in conflict with his brother (Gen. 27:39ff.).
Though associated with Edom, the land of their origins, the Amalekites were wide-ranging desert dwellers, nomadic, seasonally migrating, raiding as they went, living off their booty. They were a brutal people shaped by their brutal environment. Every time they are mentioned in Scripture, they are attacking Israel, and indirectly, God Himself, as we find them here in our narrative. Mortal enemies, there is no hope for reconciliation; it is a matter of destroying or being destroyed, as we see later in I Samuel 15, where God ordered King Saul to destroy all of the Amalekites. Moderns, imbibing a secular interpretation of “love” extracted from its Judeo-Christian heritage, balk at such brutality, but can be every bit as brutal, and even more so, than those of these ancient times. Humans are evil in every age, and therefore the most dangerous of creatures. There can be no utopia here in this life; just reality!
At this stage of redemptive history, God expected His people to fight and learn war. Though He bypasses the well-entrenched Philistines on the way out of Egypt, He now allows His people to confront Amalek in war. Indeed, God is slaughtering the Amalekites through His Israelite solders; they prevail as long as Moses holds up his staff, but once he lowers it out of fatigue, Amalek prevails. Aaron and Hur set him on a stone, and uphold his arms; by the end of the day the Amalekites were mowed down. In the heat of battle and victory, YHWH demands that Israel write it down as a memorial, that “I will utterly wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” and He “will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16). With Egypt, YHWH was specifically warring with Pharaoh and the gods; in the end, He destroys his first-born and then his army, with the intention that Pharaoh and Egypt would “know that He was God.” With Amalek, it is all about annihilation, and He does it through the bloody hands of His Hebrew warriors.
Amalek represented pure evil to Israel. We see this in Deut. 25:17-19 where we are given the added information about this event, where Amalek attacked the vulnerable rear of Israel, cutting off those who lagged behind out of exhaustion. They had “no fear of God.” Here again God demands that they never forget and forgive, but blot out the remembrance of Amalek.
The Church was quick to see Christ in this scene. The burden of lifting his staff, forming the transept of the Cross, symbolizes prayer through Christ on the cross (so Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Maximus of Turin). Joshua is referred to for the first time in this narrative, and as the leader of the Israelites in war, symbolizes Jesus our great captain, both having the same name. Although St. Augustine uses this narrative to defend his just war theory, it certainly was perverted by Luther who equated the Jews with the Amalekites. It is best to leave politics out of this and see the Amalekites as our demonic foes with which we are in a life and death struggle. Indeed, this interpretation fills out our understanding of Exodus not only historically, but as an allegory of our Christian life.
Moses represents our deep interior spirit out of which we live our spiritual life, our core “self.” Aaron represents our will. Moses, Aaron, and Hur go up to a high hill. This is understood as an act of prayer which places us on a high vantage point. Demons are invisible and can be perceived only in prayer. The foe is powerful and stubborn, vicious and even desperate. Israel, representing our bodies and emotions that are so closely tied to our physical nature, succumbs to the enemy when Moses wearies in holding up his hand in prayer. We prevail when we engage our wills in the act of prayer, for the spirit succeeds only when the will supports it. Everyone would pray if it felt good and was easy all the time. Prayer is many things, but is fundamentally an act of war in which we must engage our wills. It is no coincidence that the two places where we have a clear window into Jesus’ prayer life are in his desert temptation at the very beginning of His ministry and in the garden at the end of His ministry. Both times He was fighting demons with all the might of his will!
Takeaway: In the historical moment, God justly directed His people to destroy their mortal enemies, the Amalekites. As for the Church, the Amalekites symbolize our demonic foes with which we are in a life and death struggle.
Questions: 1) How do you feel about YHWH directing Israel to annihilate their foes at this particular stage of redemptive history? 2) How helpful is the allegory of this passage to you as you live your life out?
Resources:
ACCS vol. III, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. P. 92
Childs, B. The Book of Exodus, pp. 314f.