JEHOVAH NISSI:
GOD’S BANNER OF LOVE
Even when we
reside in personal spaces of rebellion and disobedience to God, He shows up
with amazing grace that
breathes freedom, transformation and life into our future. God’s
grace is prevenient, i.e. it
is operative (while we are yet sinners) to form, forge and foster our faith.
(Romans 5:8) Moreover, God’s grace is sufficient,
i.e. it is more than enough to free us forever from the power, penalty and practice
of sin and to pave our pathway into His eternal presence. (II Corinthians 12:9)
Such was the
case of God’s intervention with the children of Israel. After
passing more than four centuries in Egyptian bondage, they were extricated by
the power of ten miraculous plagues, dispatched from Heaven for deliverance and
liberation. They avoided mass genocide at the Red Sea when the
armies of Egypt were in hot pursuit. And in a divine transaction of
restitution for generations of labor, they exchanged the worthless shackles of
slavery for enormous wealth as they exited Egypt. Yet, they found it
extremely difficult to trust their Awesome
God to sustain them through the precarious Sinai Peninsula wilderness.
(Exodus 17)
They
murmured. They complained. They doubted. They
dishonored God and His chosen leader, Moses.
At Rephidim, the
Israelites experienced a serious scarcity of water. God revealed an
ingenious solution to their pressing problem, utilizing a rock and a
rod. Nevertheless, as is typical when anyone succumbs to fear and
rebellion against God, the enemy appeared. The Amalekites sought to
destroy the Israelites at their moment of greatest physical and spiritual
weakness, and, without divine intervention, they would surely have succeeded.
Moses enlisted
Joshua to assemble an army. They fought while Moses stood on the
hilltop, empowered by the rod of God. While Moses stretched forth
his hands, the Israelites experienced military success. When his
arms grew tired and dropped, the Amalekites prevailed. Wisdom provided
a solution. A stone was put in place; Moses sat on it; Aaron and Hur
held up his arms; and, the Israelites gained the victory.
Afterwards, God
instructed Moses to record the events of that day and to pass on its lessons to
Joshua and the people, who through the power of God would “utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” (Exodus 17:14) Years
later, in Moses’ final directive to Joshua, he charged him to totally
annihilate this enemy of Israel, who had attacked God’s people in such dire
circumstances.
Therefore it
shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies round
about, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to
possess it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven; you shalt not forget it.
At the site of
their historic victory, Moses erected an altar to the Lord and named it
“Jehovah Nissi…because the Lord has sworn that [HE] will have war against
Amalek from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:15-16) Thereafter,
“Jehovah Nissi” was revered by the
Israelites as the title or name for God which means “The Lord Our Banner.”
My friends, I
stand in awe of God’s grace. Grace is totally unmerited, yet
constantly motivated by the merciful and matchless love of God. For
example, whenever I think of King Solomon, I picture him as a brilliant sinner. That is to
say, while his wisdom far surpassed his peers, his sins did
also. Yet, in the final analysis, Solomon had a crystal-clear vision
of the grace of God. In his own words, “He [GOD] brought me to the
banqueting house [in spite of my condition], and his banner over me was love. Undoubtedly, Solomon
remembered that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was, is, and always shall
be “Jehovah Nissi,” The Lord Our Banner. What a
mighty, majestic and marvelous God we serve!
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