Exodus 17

“Oh…oh…oh…look, fellas! There he goes again. Moses has his stick up. You know what that means, boys! Fight like the dickens. Charge! And remember, when he gets tired and drops his hands, lie back and take it easy. Retreat. Run away like a bunch of lily-livered chickens.”

The Israelite engagement with the hostile Amalekite forces is a bitter, back-and-forth affair which ends in eventual victory, and leads to an enduring grudge on the part of Israel, whose people are told to “Never forget!”

Moses’ management from his hilltop vantage point, his proverbial armchair quarterback position, offers the observer of this contest an interesting contrast to be set alongside the example of Jesus, who fights by very much entering into the fray and throwing himself most decidedly into the heat of the action–he who “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate…and was made man…and was crucified…He suffered and was buried.”

And there’s Moses, up on the hill, out of harm’s way, with two guys hoisting his arms up for him while he sits on a rock.

©2020 Joel Picard