Pharaoh and Amalek represent two different influences: Pharaoh represents the hindrance to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; Amalek represents the hindrance to their walk with God through the wilderness. Pharaoh used the things of Egypt to keep Israel from serving the Lord; he, therefore, prefigures Satan, who uses “this present evil world” against the people of God. Amalek, on the other hand, stands before us as the type of the flesh. He was the grandson of Esau, who preferred a mess of pottage to the birthright (Gen. 36:12). He was the first who opposed Israel, after their baptism “in the cloud and in the sea.” These facts serve to fix his character with great distinctness…Amalek is a type of the flesh.
Until they met Amalek, they had nothing to do. They did not break the power of Egypt nor snap asunder the chains of its thralldom. They did not divide the sea or submerge Pharaoh’s hosts beneath its waves. They did not bring down bread from heaven, or draw forth water out of the flinty rock. They neither had done, nor could they do, any of these things. All the previous conflict had been between Jehovah and the enemy. They had but to “stand still” and gaze upon the mighty triumphs of Jehovah’s outstretched arm and enjoy the fruits of victory. The Lord had fought for them; but now He fights in or by them.
Thus is it also with the Church of God. The victories on which her eternal peace and blessedness are founded were gained, single-handed, by Christ for her. He was alone on the cross, alone in the tomb. The Church had to stand aside, for how could she be there? How could she vanquish Satan, endure the wrath of God, or rob death of its sting? Impossible. These things lay far beyond the reach of sinners, but not beyond the reach of Him who came to save them, and who alone was able to bear on His shoulder the ponderous weight of all their sins, and roll the burden away for ever, by His infinite sacrifice, so that God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from God the Father, in virtue of the perfect atonement of God the Son, can take up His abode in each member individually (as seen in the water from the rock, ed.).
Now it is when the Holy Ghost thus takes up His abode in us, consequent on Christ’s death and resurrection, that our conflict begins. Christ has fought for us; the Holy Ghost fights in us. The very fact of our enjoying this first rich spoil of victory puts us into direct conflict with the foe. But the comfort is that we are victors before we enter the field of conflict at all. The believer approaches the battle singing, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
We do not, therefore, fight uncertainly as those that beat the air, while we seek to keep under the body and bring it into subjection (1 Cor. 9:26, 27). “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). The grace in which we stand renders the flesh utterly void of power to lord it over us (see Rom. 6). If the law is “the strength of sin,” grace is the weakening of it. The former gives sin power over us; the latter gives us power over sin.
We have here two distinct things, namely, conflict and intercession. Christ is on high for us, while the Holy Ghost carries on the mighty struggle in us. The two things go together. It is as we enter, by faith, into the prevalency of Christ’s intercession on our behalf that we make headway against our evil nature.
Some seek to overlook the fact of the Christian’s conflict with the flesh. They look on regeneration as a total change or renewal of the old nature. On this principle it would necessarily follow that the believer has nothing to struggle with. If my nature is renewed, what have I to contend with? Nothing. There is nothing within, inasmuch as my old nature is made new; and nothing without can affect me, inasmuch as there is no response from within. The world has no charms for one whose flesh is entirely changed; and Satan has nothing by or on which to act.
All who maintain such a theory seem to forget the place which Amalek occupies in the history of the people of God. Had Israel conceived the idea that, when Pharaoh’s hosts were gone, their conflict was at an end, they would have been sadly put about when Amalek came upon them. The fact is, their conflict only then began. Thus it is with the believer, for “all these things happened unto Israel for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition” (1 Cor. 10:11). But there could be no “type,” no “ensample,” no “admonition” in “these things,” for one whose old nature is made new. Indeed, such an one can have but little need of any of those gracious provisions which God has made in His kingdom for those who are the subjects thereof.
We are distinctly taught in the Word that the believer carries about with him that which answers to Amalek, that is, “the flesh,” “the old man,” “the carnal mind” (Rom. 6:6; Rom. 8:7; Gal. 5:17). Now, if the Christian, on perceiving the stirrings of his evil nature, begins to doubt his being a Christian, he will not only render himself exceedingly unhappy, but also deprive himself of his vantage ground against the enemy. The flesh exists in the believer and will be there to the end of the chapter. The Holy Ghost fully recognises it as existing, as we may easily see, from various parts of the New Testament. In Romans 6 we read, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies.” Such a precept would be entirely uncalled for if the flesh were not existing in the believer. It would be out of character to tell us not to let sin reign, if it were not actually dwelling in us. There is a great difference between dwelling and reigning. It dwells in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever.
However, though it dwells in us, we have, thank God, a principle of power over it. “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The grace which, by the blood of the cross, has put away sin, insures us the victory, and gives us present power over its indwelling principle.
We have died to sin, and hence it has no claim over us. “He that has died is justified from sin.” “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified together, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6). “And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” All was victory; and Jehovah’s banner floated over the triumphant host, bearing the sweet and heart-sustaining inscription, “Jehovah-nissi” (the Lord my banner). The assurance of victory should be as complete as the sense of forgiveness, seeing both alike are founded on the great fact that Jesus died and rose again. It is in the power of this that the believer enjoys a purged conscience and subdues indwelling sin. The death of Christ having answered all the claims of God in reference to our sins, His resurrection becomes the spring of power in all the details of conflict afterwards. He died for us, and now He lives in us. The former gives us peace, the latter gives us power.
It is edifying to note the contrast between Moses on the hill and Christ on the throne. The hands of our great Intercessor can never hang down. His intercession never fluctuates. “He ever lives to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7). His intercession is never-ceasing and all-prevailing. Having taken His place on high, in the power of divine righteousness, He acts for us, according to what He is, and according to the infinite perfectness of what He has done. His hands can never hang down, nor can He need any one to hold them up.…
We may further remark that Moses had the rod of God with him on the hill — the rod with which he had smitten the rock. This rod was the expression or symbol of the power of God, which is seen alike in atonement and intercession. When the work of atonement was accomplished, Christ took His seat in heaven, and sent down the Holy Ghost to take up His abode in the Church; so that there is an inseparable connection between the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit. There is the application of the power of God in each.