Exodus 17:9-13

9-13. Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men Moses’s great successor, the second leader of Israel, and the type of the great Redeemer both in name and in office, now first abruptly appears before us . His name was originally Hoshea, (or Oshea,) which means Help, or Deliverance; but it was changed by Moses, (Numbers 13:16,) probably after this victory over Amalek, into Jehoshua, or Joshua, by the addition of the Memorial Name, JAH, thus making it mean, JAH (is) DELIVERANCE or SALVATION, the JEHOVAH SAVIOUR . This name is rendered Ιησους in Greek, in English JESUS, the “Name which is above every name,” before which one day “every knee shall bow.” Joshua was an Ephraimite, the son of Nun, and was now about forty years old. See note on Matthew 1:1. He was the military leader of Israel under Moses’s direction through all the desert sojourn, and now in this, his first recorded expedition, is ordered to pick a body of warriors to carry on the main battle with Amalek in the plain and valleys of Rephidim .

With the rod of God in mine hand He calls his rod “the rod of God,” for all the wonders wrought by it were revelations of God’s power, not of his . This rod he was to elevate as a standard, a symbol of God’s presence with Israel . It was the rod that had smitten the Nile, and the Red Sea, and the rock of Meribah; and the sight of it would inspire the warriors of Israel with a consciousness that Jehovah was their real leader in this their first conflict with heathen powers. The gesture was at the same time an act of prayer, as he stood on the hill, above the battle, pointing heavenward with “the rod of God.”

Aaron and Hur This Hur is said by Josephus to have been the husband of Miriam, and identical with the Hur who was the father of Uri and grandfather of the artist Bezaleel. Exodus 31:2. Moses was thus accompanied by his near kinsmen his brother and the husband of his sister as he went up into the hill to inspire Israel and plead with God.

When Moses held up his hand The hand that held the rod. It will be noticed that the word hand is used in the singular. We are not to think of him as kneeling, with both hands stretched to heaven in prayer, as the scene is generally represented in paintings. At first he stood, raising the rod first in the right hand and then in the left, until he became weary; then he sat upon the stone which Aaron and Hur put under him, Aaron on the one side helping him keep the rod raised, and Hur on the other. Had both hands been constantly elevated, and Aaron and Hur thus constantly employed in staying them up, they would soon have become as weary as he; but they relieved each other in this toil. Elevating the hands is not essential to prayer; and the Scripture nowhere represents success in prayer as dependent upon any posture or gesture: but continuance in prayer and faith was essential to success, and the elevated rod was the symbol of this continuance. Aaron and Hur not only stayed up his hands, but his heart, blending their prayer with his. When, through weariness, Moses ceased to exercise and inspire faith, the battle turned against Israel; but by the help and sympathy of his brethren he was strengthened to continue his spiritual struggle till Amalek was defeated. The leader chosen by God, whom they had just been ready to stone, and the rod, which was the symbol of Jehovah’s power, were thus shown to be essential to Israel’s success. Here also is beautifully shown the divine-human partnership in fulfilling the plans of Providence. The rod of Moses and the sword of Joshua were both essential to the victory over Amalek; the prayer upon the hill and the battle upon the plain were both necessary to Israel’s success. Joshua could not have conquered unless Moses had prayed and inspired prayer; he could not have kept up this spiritual struggle without the help of his two brethren; yet his soul would have wrestled in vain unless Joshua had fought. The battling host was victorious only while struggling both in earth and heaven.