In defeating Amalek the Lord used weak men (Exo. 17:9; Rom. 7:24). In 17:9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek.” The Hebrew word for men in this verse denotes those who are weak. In the eyes of God, the children of Israel were weak men. The same is true of believers today. You may think that a certain brother is very strong; however, in the eyes of God he is actually weak. Our weakness is proved by the fact that we can be easily defeated, even by our children or grandchildren. A brother may even be defeated by an unhappy expression on his wife’s face. We should not consider ourselves strong. No, we are weak. God, however, does not use the strong to fight against Amalek. Joshua was told to choose weak men for the battle. We would choose strong ones, but God chose those who are weak. The victors over Amalek are weak men.
Apparently the battle against Amalek was fought by weak men. Actually it was fought by God Himself. This is proved by the fact that victory or defeat was decided by the lifting of Moses’ hand. Exodus 17:11 says, “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” Moses lifting up his hand on the mountaintop typifies the ascended Christ interceding in the heavens (Rom. 8:34b; Heb. 7:25). The question of victory or defeat did not depend on the fighting of the weak men. Although they had to fight, victory did not depend on them. It depended on the lifting up of Moses’ hand with the rod of God. Although it is necessary for us to fight against Amalek, we should not think that by our fighting we can be victorious. On the contrary, we are qualified only for defeat. In our fighting we must recognize the need not to fight in ourselves, but to fight by means of Moses and Joshua.
On the one hand, Moses lifted up his hand on the mountaintop; on the other hand, Joshua was fighting for the people (17:10a, 13). We have seen that manna typifies Christ and that the living water typifies the Spirit. Now we must go on to point out that Moses typifies the heavenly Christ, and Joshua, the indwelling Spirit fighting against the flesh (Gal. 5:16-17; Rom. 8:13). Many Christians realize that in typology Joshua signifies Jesus. In fact, the Greek word Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. Although Joshua typifies Jesus, in Exodus 17 Joshua typifies the Spirit. According to the picture in Exodus 17, the heavenly Christ, typified by Moses, is interceding, and the indwelling Christ, typified by Joshua, is slaying the enemy. The manna, the living water, Moses, and Joshua all typify Christ. Christ is the life supply, the living water, the One interceding in the heavens, and the indwelling One fighting against the enemy. In brief, Christ is all. The picture in Exodus is very clear concerning this.
It is no coincidence that Christ is typified in Exodus in all these ways. In His sovereign wisdom God prepared these types and arranged them in a marvelous sequence. First we have the manna and the living water; then we have Moses on the mountaintop and Joshua fighting the battle. We all must come to know Christ as the heavenly manna, the living water, the interceding Moses, and the fighting Joshua. We also need to experience Christ in the aspect of manna, living water, the interceding One, and the fighting One. As the indwelling Spirit, Christ is our present, practical Joshua fighting against the flesh and putting it to death. In this battle we need to cooperate with Him. When He fights, we should fight also. However, our fighting in itself does not count for anything. Nevertheless, Christ still desires that we fight together with Him. This is the way to defeat Amalek, the way to defeat the flesh.