Category: Esau

The War with Amalek! #14

Saturday, June 15, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

In Scripture, water symbolizes the Holy Spirit (and the impartation of life). For example, John chapter 7: “[37] In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [39] (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”

See also 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” The verb “drink” carries the connotation of a liquid—water. Once we believed on Christ as our personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit identified us with Him, and we received His life. Here is Israel drinking from the rock (cf. today’s Scripture). They had God’s life, His blessings because of His grace, and victory over sin—until they embraced works-religion. The poor Apostle Paul wound up in a similar trap. His Christian life started right (Romans chapter 6), then he abandoned Grace to follow Law and become conquered and miserable (chapter 7). Hope and victory come in chapter 8!

“[1] There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

If we have a clear understanding of Grace (“mind the things of the Spirit”), brethren, there will be no room for Law—or losing to Amalek! 🙂

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The War with Amalek! #13

Friday, June 14, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Here is grace living (as opposed to legalism, Law-keeping): “[11] For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, [12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; [13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; [14] Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

When we quote Romans 6:14 (“We are not under the law, but under grace”), that does not mean we believe God encourages us Christians to sin. If ever someone objects with, “Grace is a license to sin,” they either do not know what grace really teaches, or (sadly) they have seen a “grace” person regularly behave carnally. The verse says in full, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” All the Law can do is show us our sin; it cannot (!) make us righteous and it cannot (!) cause us to act righteously. The Law functions as a mirror: it reveals our shortcoming, our need for the Saviour Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:21-25).

Scripture says the Law “is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient…” (1 Timothy 1:7-11). If we have recognized our lost estate, deadness in trespasses and sins, and have come to Christ by faith alone, then we are righteous in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30,31). The Law has no purpose in the Christian’s life, for the Law has already accomplished God’s intention: it has directed the lost person to trust Christ and become a Christian. For the Christian to then place himself under the Law is to cause sin to dominate him (Romans 6:14). We overcome sin—the flesh—not by striving to make ourselves holy, but realizing we are holy (sanctified, set apart) in Christ and instruments of His works (Titus 2:14)! The victory over sin is in Grace, not Law!

Let us summarize and conclude this devotionals arc….

The War with Amalek! #12

Thursday, June 13, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Experiencing a new life in a new land, the nation Israel encounters a most ruthless enemy. Their jubilant Promised Land trip was interrupted when the Amalekites arrived. However, through the sword (the Word of God, the Scriptures) and the lifting of hands (prayer), Israel was victorious. God in His grace had given them the ability to conquer sin! In fact, between chapters 14-18, He provided for all their needs. They needed deliverance from Egypt and passage through the Red Sea. He delivered! They needed potable water. He gave drink! They needed food. He gave bread and meat! They needed water again. He gave drink! They needed military might. He gave victory! They needed Divine counsel. He gave wisdom! Grace is what God can do for sinners; sinners can do nothing for God!

Alas, Exodus chapter 19 now appears. Tragically, Israel abandons God’s grace. They now want to work for the blessings God had freely offered them! Having not learned the lessons of grace in the previous five chapters, they insist on performing in religion. Rather than appreciating the identity God gave them simply because He loved them, they want to make themselves God’s people. They honestly believe they can keep all of God’s commandments (conquer sin by their efforts). If they engage in 100 percent righteous living, then they will be His people. Israel was most reckless to enter this covenant. Yet, let us not be hard on Israel, for billions today have been equally deceived. This includes all professing Christians (mere church members) and most genuine Christians (members of the Body of Christ).

Very rarely is a pure Gospel of Grace preached. “Sinner’s prayers,” walking of aisles, confessions of sins, water baptisms, shaking preachers’ hands, and so on, all obscure a clear grace message. What God has done at Calvary for the sinner is overlooked because what the sinner can do in religion for God is stressed ad nauseum. No wonder people are confused! Am I saved or lost?! In Christ or still going to Hell?! They need to approach the Word of God rightly divided, believe it, and prayerfully apply it to life….

The War with Amalek! #11

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Dear brethren, having trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, we have passed from Adam to Christ, death to life, Hell-bound to Heaven-bound. But, why did God bother to save us? Why not let us go on to our deserved eternal damnation? Ephesians 2:10 explains: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” He desired to do a mighty work. We were—we are—His work. He worked to save us from Hell, to the intent that He would work in and through us to express His life in and through us. It is His words that “effectually work” in us who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Galatians chapter 5: “[16] This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh…. [24] And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” How do we “walk in the Spirit?” We read and believe Pauline doctrine. The indwelling Holy Spirit will take that doctrine and work in us, and we will thus walk in accordance with it.

The heart of grace living is thus: since we belong to Jesus Christ, our sin nature has been crucified with Him (Romans chapter 6), and now we believe the Holy Spirit’s words about our new identity in order to have victory over daily sins (Romans chapter 8). Sin does not have to dominate us: “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). We have now been resurrected with Christ “to walk in newness of life” (verse 4). Read Romans chapters 6 through 8: they are the key to successful Christian living. Read chapters 12 through 16: they are specific examples of grace living. Read Ephesians chapter 4, Colossians chapter 3, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Titus. Here are “the things of the Spirit” that we are to “mind,” the teachings on which we should concentrate. Like Israel, we can win the fight with “Amalek….”

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The War with Amalek! #10

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Prayer occurs when we talk (silently or audibly) to Almighty God about our life in light of His Word to us. Knowing where to go in the Bible to learn that information—Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon—is the first step to productive Christian thought and living. Due to denominational teaching and religious confusion, however, very few believers ever discover how to use the Scriptures “rightly divided” (2 Timothy 2:15). Hence, their thinking and conduct are anything and everything but Christian!

After we do approach the Bible dispensationally, we must believe those verses and apply them to life by faith. First Thessalonians 2:13: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” The challenge after believing the verses is to discern how they relate to our specific situations. Unless we believe what Pauline doctrine says about employment, marriage, parenting, and managing money wisely, God’s words through Paul will not profit us. God’s Word will “effectually work” only in those who believe it!

Romans chapter 8: “[26] Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” One role of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to take His words that we read and believe, and then, as we pray, adjust our thinking so that our words to Father God better align with His words to us. We thus pray according to God’s will (but, unless we believe the verses dispensationally, we will not know how to pray the Pauline way!!).

Therefore, prayer is how we allow the Holy Spirit to reinforce in our minds the Bible concepts He taught us when we read the Scriptures earlier….

The War with Amalek! #9

Monday, June 10, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Romans chapter 8 continues: “[5] For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. [6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. [7] Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. [8] So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Whether Christians acting like unsaved people they are not, or unsaved people behaving like the lost individuals they are, they are all “after the flesh.” Being “carnally minded,” they “mind the things of the flesh.” Sin governs their thoughts and conduct. Not thinking as God originally designed people to think, they are not acting like God designed people to act!

The Christian life functionally dies when the believer ceases to think as the Spirit of God has taught Christians to think! “For to be carnally minded is death.” However, “to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” If the believer in Jesus has the renewed mind, then eternal life will be experienced daily. He or she will live as God Himself lives, the very way He designed man to live before the Fall! But, where do we find what the Holy Spirit teaches?

First Corinthians chapter 2, “[13] Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” We find the inspired, preserved words of God in the Holy Bible: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17). Here—especially in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon—we find the sword needed to fight “the war with Amalek.”

Now, prayer, or specifically, Pauline prayer….

The War with Amalek! #8

Sunday, June 9, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Romans chapter 6 says, “[11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof…. [14] For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. [15] What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” The sinful act results only after a lengthy process of bad thinking; Paul’s dilemma in chapter 7 was the consequence of forgetting this grace doctrine.

The answer to the quandary in chapter 7 is to keep reading into chapter 8: “[1] There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

When we “walk after the Spirit,” we have victory over sin on a daily basis. However, if we “walk after the flesh,” sin will defeat us. In his own Christian life, Paul himself grew frustrated and miserable. Sin had dominion over him because he had placed himself on the religious treadmill (Romans chapter 7). Having returned to a legalistic system—assuming his performance under rules and regulations was how his Christian life operated—he overlooked God’s grace (chapter 6). He did not need religious laws to tell him how to live. The grace of God had already fully instructed him: his victory was in his identity in Christ. Yes, the sword and the lifting of hands, the Bible and prayer, will cause us to triumph over sin….

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The War with Amalek! #7

Saturday, June 8, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

East of the Red Sea, as the Jews are en route to God’s land, the Amalekites assault them. JEHOVAH God has given Israel life, and a war has broken out. Man’s sinful flesh opposes God, and God combats man’s sinful flesh. As soon as the spiritual water flows from Christ—once the believing sinner passes from death to life and receives the indwelling Holy Spirit—a bitter conflict begins.

Romans chapter 7 describes that war: “[15] For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. [16] If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. [17] Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [18] For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. [19] For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

“[20] Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [21] I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. [22] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: [23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [24] O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [25] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

The saint (here, the Apostle Paul himself) wants to do right, but sin interferes, causing him to stumble and lose the fight. If he is to be victorious, he must remember how the ancient Israelites defeated the Amalekites….

The War with Amalek! #6

Friday, June 7, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

As the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites raged, Joshua led the charge fighting with the sword (verse 13). When Moses raised his hand, Israel gained the advantage; contrariwise, when he let down his hand, Amalek began to win (verse 11). These are not trivialities but important details.

Focus on verse 12: “But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.” Is it not interesting that the Holy Spirit added this statement? Moses would grow tired and drop his hands, but Aaron and Hur came alongside him. They had him sit on a stone and they held up his hands.

Hebrews 4:12 likens the Bible to a sword: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Here is Joshua’s sword! As demonstrated in 1 Timothy 2:8, the lifting up of hands in Scripture is indicative of prayer: “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” Here are Moses’ hands held high!

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). Dear friends, Amalek is a picture of the flesh, the rebel who dislikes and opposes God (remember the Amalekite patriarch Esau/Edom?). He sits in unbelief—sin! Once new life is introduced (the water flowing from the rock), the flesh fights against God the Holy Spirit. This war is a reality for Israel and us; yet, the path to victory remains the same. God’s Word paired with prayer is the key to conquering sin….

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The War with Amalek! #5

Thursday, June 6, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Let us read to the end of Exodus chapter 17: “[8] Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. [9] And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. [10] So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. [11] And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

“[12] But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. [13] And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. [14] And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. [15] And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: [16] For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Israel is victorious over the Amalekites. Therefore, Moses most appropriately erects an altar, “Jehovahnissi” (Hebrew, “I am your banner/hero”). JEHOVAH God has caused her to triumph over her enemies! It was so critical a matter that the LORD even commanded Moses to write this account, that it be remembered forever. We have it now in the record of Exodus! Upon studying these verses, it becomes clear that two issues were critical to their success. Firstly, we saw Joshua fighting Amalek with the sword. Secondly, we saw Moses raising his hands. Herein is the key to spiritual victory, whether for ancient Israel millennia ago, or for us today, or for future Israel….