SERMON XVII.

THE BATTLE WITH AMALEK.

"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."-Exodus xvii. 12.

In considering the separate stages of this divine history, we have ever borne in mind that it is the divinely arranged programme of the stages through which the soul prepares for heaven.

In the letter it is the account of how the Israelites exchanged their slavery for freedom in their God-given land. In its spirit it is the history of how every man exchanges the slavery of sin for the liberty of truth and heaven. Hence, this divine account has a double charm, and a double worth.

In relation to the literal sense, it is of importance that we should understand it truly, and that we should be clearly convinced of its divine and veracious character, in order that it may be the base of the still more important spiritual history of our mental progress. It will then tell of the assaults we shall have to sustain, and of the victories we may hope to achieve.

And, in considering the subject in this light, you will remember, that in our discourse in relation to the gift of Manna, we endeavoured to point out the futility of some objections that had been urged against the divine history, under the supposition that the Wilderness through which the Israelites had to pass was an entirely uninhabitable desert, with food neither for man nor beast. We endeavoured to point out from the Sacred Scripture that it was a Wilderness containing parts most inhospitable, but where generally there was an abundance of pasture. There was a divine gift of food for man. The pastures of the Wilderness were enough for the cattle. The portion of the divine

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history before us tells us there was a great, powerful, and warlike nation there, which implies that ordinarily there were food, water, and fuel in the Wilderness even for a considerable population.

The Israelites had passed more than two months on their journey forward. They had arrived at a region where there were mines-copper mines, which we know from Egyptian history had been worked for hundreds of years by that people. Probably, they employed the inhabitants of the district, the Amalekites. Hence, the name of the district, "Rephidim," which is the Hebrew word for beds, and here meant the beds of copper, the strata out of which that metal was dug throughout that district. The rocks thereabout are covered with inscriptions to the present day, written in hieroglyphics. The Israelites coming up this dreary pass distressed for water, and weary, were confronted by the allies of their taskmasters.

The Amalekites, the friends of the Egyptians, in their pay, engaged by them in the production of copper out of these beds, and enraged at what they had heard of the disasters which had occurred in Egypt, would stand ready to give Israel battle; and as the divine history informs us, to crush, if possible, this crowd of fugitives.

In this way then we find that although a superficial notice of the divine scriptures may lead us to doubts and difficulties in connection with the letter, yet Lord Bacon's aphorism is verified, "He who by a little learning is led to doubt, but who will give himself to a thorough research into the matters of divine truth comes round to full belief again."

In studying the spiritual history which we do by penetrating through the letter, we will ask you first to adore that just and providential care which always tempers its proceedings to the strength of every one. When a person has begun to cast off the fetters of sin, when he has determined to live for heaven, when he will no longer be a bond-slave to error, and to evil, but will burst asunder the fetters that would hold him down to wrong and misery, although he seems to himself to make a great change, a tremendous change, yet the alteration can only be gradual.

We are not strong enough to fight at first against the subtler sins of the heart and soul, and therefore, for a time, the Lord takes care that we should have no enemies that would give us fierce battle, or that would be too strong for our spiritual efforts. It was to represent this that Israel proceeded without opposition

from the Red Sea to this comparatively advanced post in the Wilderness. They had accomplished about 120 miles. They had been journeying and resting for about two months, and as far as distance was concerned they might have been more than half way to the land of Canaan at this period, but they would have had to pass through the land of the Philistines, a fierce, obstinate, skilful and valiant people. They were unprepared, feeble in spirit, untrained, and must have turned back and died.

Precisely so is it with every soul that enters upon its spiritual pilgrimage. We have resolved to live for ever in goodness, a pure, a holy Christian life. We feel as if we were already made for heaven. There is much joy and pleasure; we seem to have made an immense change, and feel as if all that is essential to our happiness had already been done. Our small progress seems a great progress to us; though but little in the sight of God, to us it seems all in all. The time comes, however, for severer conflict. We have been maintained and strengthened in goodness. We have been fed a few times with the heavenly manna; the dew of divine truth has come over the soul. When all this has comforted and cheered us, and caused us to know that we are making sure progress, that we are not uncared for, but are children of the King of Kings, that God our Father is our Saviour, our friend that "sticketh closer than a brother"--when we have thus been strengthened and confirmed, we are permitted to come into spiritual struggles of a deeper nature. In other words, Amalek stands in the way.

Amalek was an old nation, and one that had occupied very considerable portions of the Wilderness, almost from the Red Sea to the land of Canaan.

You will find as the divine history proceeds, that, at different passages relating to the various incidents of the history of Israel, sometimes Amalek is spoken of as in one place, and sometimes as in another, showing that they were an extensive nation, having settlements all the way along the portion of the Wilderness through which the Israelites had to pass, along the south of the land of Canaan, and even quite close to Jordan.

We have said that Amalek was an ancient nation. When Balaam is speaking of the circumstances that threatened Israel, he speaks of Amalek as being the chief of the nations, (Num. xxiv. 20.) You will find in the 14th chapter of the Book of Genesis, that in the struggle of Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, in which they carried off Lot, and were

afterwards pursued by Abram, it is said they were chased through the land of the Amalekites. Afterwards a portion of the family of Esau likewise took the name of Amalek, perhaps from settling in the very same district that had been occupied by the Amalekites of old.

But these people were more noticeable for their peculiar method of warfare. They came upon Israel when they thought they were in especial distress. When the people were weary and way-worn, and feeble, they assailed them with their whole force. You will find references to this habit in some other parts, but perhaps one of the most striking is that which is given in the 25th chapter of Deuteronomy, where it is said in the 17th and following verses, "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt ; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore, it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shall not forget it." In the 17th chapter of Exodus and sixteenth verse, it is said, that "the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

The subtle and insidious character of this people is likewise adverted to in some of the incidents that occur in other parts of the Israelitish history. It appears from the account of the death of Saul, which, you will recollect, is recorded as having taken place in two ways. In the last chapter of the first book of Samuel we are told that Saul called upon his armour-bearer to thrust him through. But afterwards in the first chapter of the succeeding book we are told that an Amalekite came and asked David to reward him because he had killed Saul. A knowledge of this insidious and murderous peculiarity of Amalek's mode of warfare, will assist us to harmonize both the letter and the spirit of these two accounts. It was to hang about, and when they met with the weary and wounded, when their victims were almost helpless, then to set about slaughtering them, and carrying out their malignant and fiendish purposes. Now to recollect this peculiarity is especially important, when we come to think of the principles they spiritually represent, for you are quite aware that all the outward battles of the sacred history are the symbols of the spiritual struggles of the human soul.

"Blessed," says the Psalmist, "be the Lord my Strength, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." Equally so He who spoke as never man spoke, said, "I am come not to send peace upon earth, but a sword," the sword of divine truth, which is put into the hands of every one of us, that we may do battle against self and sin in all their varied forms. The warfare of a Christian is not outward warfare, but inward warfare against selfishness and sin. We have to extirpate all those lusts and passions which degrade the fallen heart of man, and which the Lord Jesus inspires us to fight against, and promises to give us power to overcome, when He says, "I will give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy."-Luke x. 19.

The spiritual Amalek is that inward subtle selfishness which coils itself up like a snake in the human heart; that which is meant by the asp in the words of the 91st Psalm, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the asp; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet. "-v. 13. For even when a person has really begun to live the life of heaven, there is an inward selfishness, an inward faithlessness, an inward impurity and evil, which coils itself out of the way, which does not show itself openly, but remains hidden, as it were, in a secret place, and comes out when the soul is weak and weary. When we are faint and in trouble, that subtle spirit would lead us to despair and to sin. This hidden wickedness, like some malignant fiend would lead us when we are in a state of spiritual weakness to give up God, to give up heaven. This is what is meant by Amalek. This inward demon which whispers we can have no hope, no trust in God, no heavenderived faith. It is this abhorrent selfishness, and the mode to overcome it that is represented in the Divine Word before us.

The Divine Word says, "I will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." No such hidden evil is to be spared for a moment. You remember how it happened with Saul; he spared Agag the Amalekite. He was commanded to go out and destroy Amalek root and branch. Instead of doing what the Lord told him, he spared the Amalekites, and especially the king, the representative of the inward rooted evil, the very pith and backbone, as it were, of the sin; and the result was that the Amalekites destroyed him. And this is precisely the condition of all war with Amalek. At all times man must kill his inward evil, or that inward evil will kill him. There can be no half work, a man must not compromise with sin, but he must carry