Exodus 17:1-16

Exodus: Israel becomes a nation

The *Israelites leave Egypt

Exodus Chapter s 1 to 18

Hilda Bright and Kitty Pride

Chapter 17

Water at Horeb – verses 1-7

v1 All the *Israelites left the *desert called Sin. They travelled from one place to another place. When the *LORD ordered them, then they moved. One day they camped at the place called Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink at Rephidim. v2 So they quarrelled with Moses. ‘Give to us water to drink!’ they demanded.

‘You should not quarrel with me’, Moses said to them. ‘You are testing the *LORD when you demand this!’

v3 But the people needed water, so they continued to complain against Moses. They said, ‘You should not have brought us away from Egypt. You will make us, our children and our animals die because we are so thirsty!’

v4 Then Moses cried out to the *LORD. ‘What shall I do with these people?’ he said. ‘Soon they will be throwing stones at me. They want to kill me.’

v5 The *LORD answered Moses. ‘Walk on ahead of the people. Take some of their leaders with you. And take your stick in your hand. You used that stick to hit the River Nile. So go now. v6 Go to the rock at Horeb. I will stand there in front of you. Hit the rock with your stick. Then water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ So Moses hit the rock while *Israel’s leaders were watching him.

v7 They were testing the *LORD. They asked, ‘Is the *LORD with us or is he not with us?’ So Moses called that place Massah (which means ‘to test’). And he called it Meribah (which means ‘to argue’). He did that because the *Israelites quarrelled with him there.

Verse 1 Numbers 33:12-14 records all the places where the *Israelites travelled.

Verses 2-4 As soon as there was a problem about water, the people accused Moses. They spoke in a silly way. They said that he wanted to kill them, their families and their animals. Moses had brought them away from Egypt. They said that he wanted them to die. They were getting ready to kill Moses. They intended to throw stones at him. Then Moses referred to the *Israelites as ‘these’ people when he spoke to God about them. It seems that Moses did not want to belong to them.

Verse 6 Horeb was a name that they called the whole *desert. They also called that region Sinai. Or sometimes, they used it as another name for *Mount Sinai. It was the place where God met Moses for the first time (Exodus 3:1-2). Now God met the *Israelites there. When Moses hit the rock with his stick, God provided plenty of water for everybody. Psalms 78:15-16 mentions that event. ‘He brought streams out from a rock. He caused water to flow down like rivers.’ In Exodus 18:5, the writer calls Horeb, ‘God’s mountain’.

Verse 7 ‘Massah’ means ‘to test’. The *Israelites had forgotten how God had guided them. They had forgotten how he had fed them. So they did not believe that God cared about them now. They wanted proof that the *LORD was still with them. ‘Meribah’ means ‘to argue’ or ‘to complain’. The names of those places reminded people about what happened there.

War with the *Amalekites – verses 8-16

v8 Then the *Amalekites came and attacked the *Israelites at Rephidim. v9 So Moses spoke to Joshua. ‘Choose some of our men to go with you’, Moses told him. ‘You will go and fight the *Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on the top of the hill. I will have this stick in my hand. That stick reminds us about God’s power.’

v10 So Joshua fought against the *Amalekites, exactly as Moses had ordered. Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill with Moses. v11 And while Moses kept up his hands, the *Israelites were winning the battle. But every time that he lowered his hands, the *Amalekites began to win. v12 When Moses’ arms became tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone to him. They put the stone under Moses, and Moses sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur helped him to hold up his hands. Aaron was on one side of Moses and Hur was on the other side. So Moses’ hands remained high and firm until sunset. v13 That was how Joshua defeated the army of the *Amalekites in the battle.

v14 Then the *LORD spoke to Moses again. ‘Everyone must remember what happened here. So write about this and read it to Joshua. I want people everywhere to forget the nation of the *Amalekites.’

v15 Then Moses built an *altar to *worship God. He called it ‘The *LORD is my Flag’. v16 Moses explained to the people. ‘I raised my hands towards the *LORD’s royal seat. And the *LORD will fight against the *Amalekites for all time.’

Verse 8 The *Amalekites came from Esau’s grandson called Amalek. So they belonged to the family called the Edomites (Genesis 36:12). They lived in the *desert. They waited for any *Israelites who were slow or weak. Those *Israelites were behind everybody else, so they walked without protection. And the *Amalekites attacked them (Deuteronomy 25:17-18).

Verse 9 Joshua was Moses’ assistant (Exodus 24:13). Originally his name was Hoshea. But Moses changed his name to Joshua (Numbers 13:16). ‘Joshua’ means ‘the *LORD saves’. (Yeshua or Jesus is the same name.) Joshua was the leader of the powerful family called Ephraim (Numbers 13:8).

Verse 10 Hur may have been Caleb’s son (1 Chronicles 2:19-20). And that Hur was Bezalel’s grandfather. Bezalel was a skilful worker who helped to build God’s ‘special tent’ (Exodus 31:2). However, Caleb does not seem to be a very old man. So it may be a different man called Hur. But this verse shows that Hur was an important man. And Moses trusted Hur.

Verses 11-13 Moses raised his hands, which was a usual way to pray. But that tired Moses, so he put down his arms. Then he stopped his prayer and the *Israelites started to lose the battle. So Aaron and Hur found a seat for Moses and they supported his arms. It was clear that God was helping the *Israelites. Sometimes people have difficulty when they try to pray. That happens especially if they need to pray for a long time. So they need help from other Christians to ‘fight’ against bad things. When the battle with the *Amalekites stopped at sunset, Joshua had defeated them. ‘Defeated’ means ‘made weak’. Joshua had ‘made weak’ those people who had attacked the weakest *Israelites.

Verse 14 God told Moses to write a record about that battle with the *Amalekites. Moses must read the account to Joshua. And probably Moses read it to other people too. It is possible that the account was in the ‘Book of the *LORD’s Wars’. That book does not exist now, but Numbers 21:14 refers to it. Much later, God’s servant, Samuel, gave God’s orders to king Saul. God said that Saul must kill the *Amalekites (1 Samuel chapter 15).

Verse 15 ‘The *LORD is my flag’. In a battle, a particular soldier would hold up his army’s flag. All the soldiers would see it. That encouraged the soldiers who were fighting. Moses raised his hands and he was holding up the powerful stick. It encouraged the *Israelites. They remembered God’s power and they fought well. Moses was thanking God in front of everybody.

Verse 16 Moses raised his hands to appeal to the *LORD. He knew that the *Israelites needed help. The *Amalekites were opposing God when they attacked the *Israelites. So God would oppose the *Amalekites always.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called Israel. Israelite is another name for the Jews. Anything that has a relationship with Israel.

Israel ~ the nation of people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the name of the country that God gave to that nation.

Jew ~ a person who is from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
desert ~ a wild place where there are small bushes and not much water. It has poor soil and people cannot grow crops there. So, not many people live there.
LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has been here always.

Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the Hebrew word ‘Adonai’, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

Hebrew ~ the language that the Israelites spoke. A Hebrew is a Jewish person or an Israelite

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called Israel. Israelite is another name for the Jews. Anything that has a relationship with Israel.

Jewish ~ a word that describes a Jew or anything that belongs to the Jews.

Israel ~ the nation of people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the name of the country that God gave to that nation.

Jew ~ a person who is from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
Israel ~ the nation of people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the name of the country that God gave to that nation.
Mount ~ another name for mountain
Amalekites ~ people who come from Esau’s grandson, Amalek.
altar ~ a table on which people give gifts or *sacrifices to God or to a false god.
worship ~ when people show honour to God, or to a false god. People may sing or pray. Or they may kneel down or give a gift to God.