ULDAH MINISTRY

No,60　　Oct. 2000

　　【 THOSE WHO FEAR GOD 】

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the lsraelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side and one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekites army with the sword. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. He said "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."
EXODUS 17:8-16.

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
DEU 25:17-19.

I suspect that most of you would be rather familiar with the first passage from Exodus but the latter passage, taken from Deuteronomy gives a fuller account of the Amalekites' relentless and inhuman dealings with the unsuspecting, defenceless Israel. As the Israelites proceeded out of Egypt, the Amalekites attacked them from behind, where the infirm, the aged, the weak, the nursing mothers, the weary, the worn out and the sick were lagging behind. Such brutal, inhuman ways of aggression highlight their lack of fear of God, because the "fear of God" in the biblical sense should have affected their conduct.
Nahum Sanna quotes, "'Fear of God' acts as the ultimate restraint upon perfidy and inhumanity, particularly in situations in which self-interest might tempt one to exploit the weak and the disadvantaged, and where the threat of legal sanctions does not exist." This principle could be applied to every situation in our lives, to judge our own attitudes towards others as a God fearing Christian.
Amalek was a son of Eliphaz, the first born son of Esau, Jacob's brother. No sooner had he heard of the departure of Israel from Egypt, than he set out to wage war against Israel, to annihilate them, and some time later, to fight with them at Rephidim. "The legends of the Jews" gives interesting insight into this event. It tells of how God Himself turned Amalek against Israel, as a punishment of Israel's insufficient faith in God. Despite having witnessed God's intervention in the wilderness time and time again, - such as envelope of cloud for protection, water out of the rocks, manna for bread and quails for flesh - Israel still remained doubtful, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" In reply to this, God answers them as a father would to a son. The following is a paraphrased excerpt from "The legends of the Jews" which illustrates this point.
A man bore his son on his shoulders to cross the river. Whenever the child saw something desirable, he asked the father to buy it for him. The father fulfilled the child's wish. After the son had received everything he desired from the father, he called out to a passing stranger, "Tell me, have you seen my father by any chance?" At this, the father became indignant and said to his son; "O, you fool! All that you desired, did I not provide for you, and now you dare to ask the man 'have you seen my father?'" Thereupon the father threw the child off his shoulders and a dog came and bit him. (The dog is interpreted to be Amalek in this case).

In response to Amalek's attack, Moses, instead of setting out to battle himself, instructed Joshua to select men and to go out and fight. He had good reasons for this decision. Moses knew that only a descendant of Jacob, but not those who had taken part in the unbrotherly act of selling Joseph into slavery, could stand up in battle against the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, since the battle would not be won without God's aid and favour. Accordingly, the Ephraimite, Joshua, whose ancestor was Joseph, the God fearing man who had cared for his father and brothers generously and kindly, was chosen to conquer Amalek. The hostility between Israel and Amalek did not stop here it was to continue long after these events.
According to the genealogies of Esau recorded in Genesis 36 Amalek was born of a concubine and was excluded from the 12 Esau/Edomite tribal confederations, perhaps implying his low status. The fact that Timna, Amalek's mother, was a Horite, one of the aboriginal inhabitants of Mt. Seir, gives additional proof that Amalek was not originally a legitimate Edomite. Indeed, after the Edomite tribes conquered the area of Mt. Seir, the Amalekites were forced out of their land and they started a nomadic lifestyle around the region. Therefore, the sudden appearance of the Israelites in this region must have posed a major threat to them. All of these factors would have contributed to Amalek's decision to attack the unwelcome intruder, Israel.
So, Moses went up to the top of the hill, from which he could survey the entire battle scene, and held up his hands. In the semitic language, the phrase 'to raise the hands' is often used as a synonym of 'to pray', so Moses may have done it as an expression of prayer. The figure of Moses with hands lifted high probably served to raise the spirits and the morale of the Israelite army. It may even have acted as a banner-like signal for the whole nation to follow his faith in God. In other words, if Moses' upheld hands signified the presence and support of God in the battle for the Israelites, the opposite effect might have overwhelmed the Israelite camp when his hands flogged. Eventually, Moses needed assistance to keep his hands raised steadfastly on either side. This could be interpreted as Moses requiring spiritual support, ie prayers, as well as the physical support. God, in response to Moses' prayer, gave him 2 appropriate helpers, Aaron and Hur (traditionally thought to be the son of Caleb and the grandfather of Bezalel of the tribe of Judah, the master craftsman who built the Tabernacle in the wilderness), to win over the battle.
In summary, as long as the Israelites put their trust in the Lord and subjected themselves to Him, encouraged by the figure of Moses on the hill and as long as Moses continued to pray in faith, supported by Aaron and Hur, Israel had the upper hand in battle. In this way, God gave them victory over the Amalekites.
This battle can also be seen as a spiritual battle between 2 beliefs; faith in the true God versus faith in man-made gods, ie paganism. Where the true God and His standards were upheld, there was victory. Where there was no fear of God, there was defeat. If people, even God fearing people, are vulnerable to being tempted, deceived and prevented from seeking the true God because of the existence of Amalek-a representation of paganism and idolatry-, then the only resolution would be the complete extermination of it. This will, no doubt, take place in the end. However, so long as these spiritual battles continue in this world, the story seems to point out that all God fearing Christians need to pray, not alone, but with each other, in order to win over the spiritual and physical battles we face. We are reminded of the fact that we need to keep an eye on each other, just as the Bible teaches; everyone is his brother's keeper.

From a completely different angle, this story can also be taken as an example of bringing out the real meaning of the word, 'faith'. I would like to explore the Hebraic understanding of 'faith' as being the biblical view and this would no doubt challenge the widespread Christian understanding that faith is primarily an act of the mind or a matter of proposition.
According to Marvin Wilson's linguistic exegesis, the Hebrew verb 'AMAN' used for 'believe' or 'have faith' is sometimes translated 'support', 'confirm' or 'make lasting'. Both 'EMUNAH' (translated 'faithfulness' and 'trust'), which conveys the idea of 'firmness', 'steadfastness', 'stability', 'reliability' and 'support' and 'EMET' (truth), stem from the single verb 'AMAN'. The former is used in Exodus 17:12, "his hands remained EMUNAH till sunset". The passage conveys a tone of steadfast occurrences. On one hand, 'EMUNAH' is often associated with God's words and His merciful attributes and points to His unwavering faithfulness. On the other hand, as far as human beings are concerned, the term often refers to those who have the capacity to remain faithful in any circumstance, as seen in Habakkuk 2:4, "See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright - but the righteous will live by his faith". In context, the Israelites in Habakkuk's day, when wickedness, oppression and strife were rampant in Judah, were about to face hardships, ie the Babylonian invasion. In order to survive the impending 'day of calamity', people were to display an unshakeable reliance on God alone, believing in His truth and justice. The verb 'EMET', is one of the attributes of God and is often used in the Scripture. King Hezekiah, at the point of death, pleaded with the Lord for healing, saying "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." (Isaiah 38:3, line added) From the passage, it can be said that those who fear God would naturally walk in EMET and their conduct towards others would be expected to be true and just ('MISHPAT EMET'), as expressed in Zechariah 7:9, "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another." Furthermore, 'AMEN', frequently used at the end of Jews' and Christians' prayers, found 30 times in the Massoretic text and 119 times in the NT, is also derived from 'AMAN'. It means 'this is worthy of trust' and thus, 'I affirm it as being true, may the Lord bring it to pass.'
To sum up, the Hebraic, and accordingly biblical, model of faith is exactly what James, Jesus' half-brother taught. "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed', but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder." (James 2:14-19 lines added) Marvin Wilson puts it; 'The person of faith did more than believe in his heart or develop an attitude of trust. He stepped out into life to act on that belief. His mental assurances and convictions were transformed into action. …Indeed, the Hebrew could serve God through work….. The person of faith was one who was so committed to God that, like Abraham, he ventured into the unknown with the full expectation that God would meet him there. Thus, in the biblical sense, to have faith was to move out in life and know God would be waiting. It was "the call to step boldly into tomorrow, to embrace the new-with confidence that every new day would prove to be a meeting place with the holy and eternal God. The opposite of faith was to cling desperately to yesterday, fearing that if one ever left it, one would leave God." (Our Father Abraham, Marvin R Wilson).
With this in mind, as God fearing Christians, we can rise above any worldly fears such as ageing that entangle non-Christians and at times, even Christians, and live positively, lifting our eyes up to the Lord with an assured hope of our future! What this sin-plagued, corrupt world needs badly is this biblical faith, which is supposed to be reflected in the conducts of the God-fearing. Only when each Christian, lead by the Holy Spirit, starts to act out this biblical faith and starts to address the deep-seated but often the most ignored problems of this world- spiritual blindness, inhumanity, injustice, self-centredness and immorality- as Jesus did, and convicted those Palestinian people of their sins, would the society be transformed into a likeness of the forth-coming Kingdom of God.
Amidst all world religions endeavouring to change people's actions and outward appearances in vain, the world will come to know that only genuine faith in God can change their inmost beings from within and that only this God given faith can change the world.

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This month a money gift has been sent to FREDERIC to cover his travelling expense to "the project 2000 CE and beyond", an international Christian conference in Israel as one of the ten Burundian representatives in December. Pray for his successful participation in the gatherings, concerning effective ways of spreading the gospel. Also pray for a way to be opened before him so that he can return to Burundi to preach the gospel, now that he has got his own passport.
Mr. SASAKI returned to Japan on 26th this month. Pray for his future so that he will be given a desirable post to minister to others with the Word through his profession as an oral surgeon.

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