God also determined to have war with Amalek from generation to generation. In many places in the Old Testament we see that God’s people fought against Amalek. We see this in Judges 3:13-15; 5:14; 6:3; 7:12-14; 1 Samuel 15:2-9, 32-33; 27:8; 30:1-17; 2 Samuel 8:12; 1 Chronicles 4:42-43. We see the war with Amalek even in the book of Esther (3:1-6; 9:7-10), where we are told that Haman was an Agagite, a descendant of Agag, the king of Amalek who was cut in pieces by Samuel (1 Sam. 15:33). Although Agag was slain, certain of his descendants survived. Haman was a late descendant of Agag. God hates the flesh signified by Haman. According to the book of Esther, the flesh works in a hidden way to undermine God’s people and even to kill them. Today Haman, the flesh, tries to work in the church. Haman’s plot to annihilate the children of Israel was eventually exposed and thwarted. Esther was exercised to deal with Haman, the hidden flesh. Through her help, Haman was put to death. Thus we see that the book of Esther is a story of God’s war with Amalek, the continuation of the warfare with Amalek from generation to generation.
We come now to the important matter of how to fight against Amalek. In the first place, we fight by praying with the interceding Christ (Exo. 17:11). Moses lifting up his hand on the mountaintop typifies the interceding Christ in the heavens. We are told in 17:12 that when Moses’ hands were heavy, “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.” What is the significance of this? We have pointed out that Moses here is a type of Christ interceding for us in the heavens. But we cannot say that Christ’s hands are heavy, can we? Surely Christ does not need anyone to stay up His hands. There is no Aaron or Hur in the heavens helping Christ with His intercession. It seems, then, that the type is not altogether fitting. However, since the Bible was inspired by God, there must be something here related to our spiritual experience.
If we consider these verses in the light of our experience, we shall understand that to deal with the flesh we not only need Christ’s intercession for us in the heavens, but we ourselves also need to pray. Some Christian teachers emphasize the objective work of Christ in the heavens. They point out that Christ is in the heavens now interceding for us. Others devote a great deal of attention to the importance of fasting and praying. If one is troubled by the flesh in a certain aspect, they would advise him to fast and pray. For our experience we need both the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. As we have pointed out, Moses praying on the mountaintop typifies Christ interceding for us in the heavens. But the fact that Moses needed Aaron and Hur to stay up his hands signifies our need to pray. While Christ is praying in the heavens, we must pray here on earth. When we pray, we are one with Moses on the mountaintop. But when we put the flesh to death, we are one with Joshua fighting in the valley.
Although the interceding Christ does not need anyone to support His hands, we need our praying hands to be stayed up. It is easy for them to become heavy. We know that to deal with the flesh we need to pray. But often our hands become heavy. Thus, we need the help of Aaron and Hur.
Aaron, the high priest, signifies the priesthood, and Hur, who was of the tribe of Judah, signifies the kingship. The grandson of Hur, Bezaleel, was given the ability to work on the fixtures for the tabernacle (31:2-5). As we shall see when we consider the later chapters of Exodus, the tabernacle, God’s building, was constructed by the priesthood and the kingship. Our prayer needs to be sustained by the priesthood and the kingship. Sometimes our praying hands become heavy not because we lack the desire to pray, but because we are lacking in incentive and encouragement. This means that we may be in need of Aaron and Hur, in need of the priesthood and the kingship.
The priesthood is related to the Holy of Holies. In our experience, the Holy of Holies is always related to our spirit. Hence, to be heavy in prayer indicates a problem or shortage in our spirit. For some reason, our spirit is not keen, active, or positive with the Lord. This causes our prayer to become heavy. Our experience confirms this. At such times of heaviness, we should not deal with our prayer by trying to pray more. Instead, we should deal with our spirit. In our spirit there is the shortage of the priesthood. We need Aaron, the high priest, to strengthen our spirit.
Another reason for heaviness in prayer is rebellion against the kingship. If you say that you are not rebellious, then I would inquire about the matter of disobedience. Can you say that you are never disobedient toward the Lord? For example, a sister may sense a restraining of the Lord keeping her from going to a department store, but she may disobey this restraint and go anyway. In the course of a single day we may disobey the Lord many times. We go against the authority, the kingship, within us. Therefore, due to the shortage of the kingship, we easily become heavy in prayer.
Our prayer also becomes heavy when we do not care for the building up of the tabernacle. Hur is related to the building. In fact, the direction of the book of Exodus is toward the building of the tabernacle. We have pointed out that Bezaleel, the grandson of Hur, was granted the gift by God to become skilled in working on various aspects of the tabernacle. This indicates that our prayer needs to be with a view to the building of the church. What God is doing today is toward this goal. If our prayer life does not have in view the building of the church, our prayer will not last very long. But if we have the priesthood and the kingship and care for the building up of the tabernacle, the church, our prayer life will not become heavy. Rather, it will be supported by the priesthood and the kingship, and it will have the building of the church in view. Then we shall be able to fight against the flesh, Amalek, by means of our prayer.
In our prayer we should be one with Christ in the heavens. We need to join Christ and be one with Him in His intercession. We should make His prayer our prayer, His intercession our instant prayer. Supported by the priesthood and the kingship, that is, stirred up in our spirit and subdued under God’s authority, we need to pray with Him on the throne in the heavens. Furthermore, the direction of our prayer must be toward the goal of the building of God’s house. If we have these factors—the priesthood, the kingship, and God’s building in view—I do not believe our prayer can be stopped. The picture of Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’ hands is a portrait of the union in prayer between Christ and us. When Christ intercedes, we pray. We join with Him in His intercession. This is the proper way for us to pray in dealing with the flesh.
Dealing with the flesh is not a shallow matter, for our entire fallen being is the flesh. In a sense, the flesh is just we ourselves. To deal with the flesh is much more difficult than to deal with the world or with sin. In order to deal with the totality of our fallen being, we need much prayer in union with the intercession of the heavenly Christ. To pray in this way, we must be identified with Christ and one with Him. As He prays in the heavens, we pray together with Him. If we would pray in this way, we need to be stirred in our spirit by the priesthood and subdued by the kingship. We also need to care for God’s building. Then we shall have the necessary support to sustain our prayer life.
In 17:12 we are told that Aaron and Hur took a stone and put it under Moses, and he sat on it. This indicates that our prayer life must have a solid base. When I was young, I learned to pray, but my prayer did not have a solid base. This is also true of many Christians today. They have learned to pray, but they lack a solid base for their prayer life. I do not believe that, according to the context of Exodus 17, the strong base for our prayer life is Christ directly. Instead, I believe that the stone used as the strong base refers to our realization that in ourselves we are not able to sustain a prayer life. It is the recognition of the fact that we need support. In our natural life we, like Moses, are not able to persevere in prayer. We simply cannot continue our prayer all day long. Thus, we need to realize our weakness. This realization gives us the strong base we need for our prayer life.
When you are about to pray, you need to realize that in yourself you are not able to pray. Every praying person can testify that it is not possible to have a prayer life without a strong base. We need something solid to uphold our life of prayer. Whenever you pray, tell the Lord, “Lord, I am not able to continue in prayer. I need a solid base for my prayer, and I take You as such a base.”
We are told that Moses prayed until sunset. We may have a good time of prayer early in the morning, but we usually cannot continue until noon, much less until the end of the day. Are you able to keep yourself in the spirit of prayer from early morning until noon? Probably few among us are able to do this. Moses was able to pray until sunset because he had a rock, a solid base, to sit on, and because he had Aaron and Hur supporting him. Be encouraged to tell the Lord, “Lord, I am not able to pray without ceasing. It is easy for me to lose my temper or to gossip. But I cannot pray continually. Lord, I can pray for a short time, but I can’t pray all day long.” If you say this to the Lord, you will find that you are sitting on a rock. You will then have a solid base for your prayer life.
I am burdened to share this point because I realize that one of the biggest problems we face is that of our prayer life. If we want our prayer life to be preserved, we need to take care of four matters: the solid base, the priesthood, the kingship, and the building of the tabernacle. Then our prayer life will be upheld.
Verse 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.” This indicates that whenever our prayer life becomes heavy, our flesh will prevail. We know this from our experience. Only a proper prayer life can defeat our flesh. Do not think that because you have been saved a long time and have had certain spiritual experiences, your flesh can no longer become prevailing. It is a fact that if our prayer ceases, our flesh will spontaneously show itself to be the same as that of unbelievers. No matter how rich our spiritual experience may be, this experience will not cause our flesh to improve. Our flesh will not even be influenced by it. The flesh cannot be influenced, changed, or improved, even after you have been a Christian for many decades. If your prayer ceases, your flesh will be the same today as it was before you were saved. Because the flesh does not change or improve, we need to pray without ceasing.
We have seen that genuine prayer causes us to be identified with the heavenly Christ. The experience of identification with Christ in the heavens takes place through a proper prayer life. Whenever we pray in a genuine way, we enjoy a heavenly union with Christ. This prayer, however, depends on a solid base, on the priesthood, the kingship, and the goal of God’s building.