Hi all,
This is the story of God’s long memory; His ability to keep His promises. If you feel the Lord has given you promises about a loved one, but you don’t see it coming to pass yet, this will encourage you. If you are wondering if something promised to you will ever happen, this will encourage you.
The time is roughly 1,400 BC
Exodus 17 tells us Israel had just emerged from the parting of the Sea as a brand new nation, only to arrive at Rephidim which means in Hebrew: ‘Resting place’. One problem: They had no water.
The Lord told Moses that He would stand on a rock, and instructed Moses to hit the rock one time with his staff, and it would give water. The symbolism is beautiful. The rock and the Lord standing on it is a type of Christ Jesus. The striking of the Rock 1 time with the staff (Word of God/prophecy) was a type of the cross, resulting in water (the Holy Spirit) being poured out from the Rock. The water quenched the thirst of the people.
Later, in Numbers 20: 8, Moses would come upon another situation like this, and the Lord told him this time to merely speak to the rock and it would bring forth water. The first example required the Rock to be struck as a type of Jesus on the cross, but salvation is believing in the heart, then confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.
That’s why this 2nd time he was just supposed to speak to the rock to bring water. Because he got caught in the strife of the congregation he hit the rock as he did at the first, in a severe violation of what he knew of the Lord, His plan of salvation, and was in fact rather an insult in the face of the Lord. That sin caused the Lord to judge him, forbidding him from entering the Promised Land. The more you know, the more slim the grace in some things.
Immediately after Moses hit the rock and water came out
Israel was attacked by their cousins the Amalekites, in Exodus 17:8. Genesis 36:12 tells us Amalek was the illegitimate son of Esau’s son, and it was his descendants that attacked their cousins the newly formed Israel. It was an ambush we are told.
It is here in Exodus 17: 10-15 the battle between the cousins was so long and hard that it raged all day. We are also told as long as Moses kept his hands raised Israel prevailed, but when he got tired and let his hands down, Amalek started to win.
The solution was for Aaron and Hur to have Moses sit on a rock, and they held his hands up. Again we have foreshadowing of salvation: Moses means ‘drawn out’ as he was drawn out of the river to answer a higher call, seating himself in rest on the Rock.
Furthermore, Aaron means ‘strength’ or ‘exalted’ or ‘strong’ and the root of Hur (harar) means a source of heat or to burn. The derivative means ‘hole or cavern’, as where one would build a fire to warm the place, the source of fire.
So we have the one drawn out seated upon the rock of his salvation, exalted on the one hand as he burns with zeal for the Lord with the other, wining the battle! It is here we see a redemptive name given the Lord, Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord my victory banner.
As a result of Amalek’s ambush verses 14-16 tells us the Lord promises Moses He would be at war with Amalek through all generations until they are completely wiped out.
Flash forward 400 years to about 1,000 BC
King Saul reigns, and once he becomes established the Lord tells him to go to war with Amalek in I Samuel 15: 1-3 telling him: “I remember what Amalek did to Israel, lying in wait along the way when he (Israel) came out of Egypt…therefore go to war and destroy the sinners the Amalekites (v18) all of them and all they have…”
But Saul spared the life of king Agag of the Amalekites and his family, and the best of the animals. Though Agag was later executed that day, it is clear some of his family survived. How do we know this?
Fast forward again, 600 years to about 480 BC
We are now roughly 1,000 years after Moses, 600 years after king Saul, and we find a certain man named Haman who hates Jewish people. You know the story; Haman plots against the Jewish people, laying a trap, not realizing the queen is Jewish. Through her boldness, risking her own life, the plot is revealed and Haman is executed on the gallows he had prepared for Esther’s uncle Mordecai.
We may wonder why the book of Esther is in our Bible. It is the only book of the Bible not to mention God, and it doesn’t feature the birth of any notable people in the lineage of Jesus. I submit one of the reasons the Lord made sure to have it in our Bible is to show the Lord’s long memory and faithfulness.
Haman is identified 5 times in Esther as ‘Haman the Agagite’. (3:1, 10; 8: 3, 5; 9:24) Agag you will recall, was the king that Saul had spared some 600 years earlier. His surviving family kept the name alive, all the way to the book of Esther, still bound by that hatred for cousin Israel.
Haman the Agagite was of the same hatred held by Amalek against Israel so long ago in the original ambush. It was the Lord’s poetic justice that Haman had also laid a trap, an ambush for the Jewish people, and once again the Lord prevailed. The feast of Purim celebrates this, the Lord’s final victory over the Amalekites.
Our lesson?
Many of us have received promises of the Lord concerning everything from our own lives, to the eternal destinies of loved ones. We sometimes get anxious or worried when we see circumstances contrary to the promise.
The circumstance are not an indicator about the progress of the Lord’s word to you. Hebrews 11:13 lists several people of great faith, concluding: “These all died in faith not having received the promises…”
Whether you live or die has no bearing on the promises of God coming to pass. You’re already in eternity, so if you have a promise or call on your life and it isn’t going to happen in this age, give it 200 or 500 years. His Word will come to pass.
He will do what He promised you, so rest in that. Just stop trying to figure it out, and rest. Come to the end of yourself, and rest. Quit. Stay in His peace. Go back to the original promise and find that peace again. Let Him handle it.
He will do it! He has a long memory and is not a man that He would lie.
Another situation next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
