{"id":3157,"date":"2021-01-29T02:30:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T08:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=3157"},"modified":"2021-01-30T02:39:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T08:39:31","slug":"amalek-and-spiritual-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/amalek-and-spiritual-warfare\/","title":{"rendered":"Amalek and Spiritual Warfare…."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In our Torah for this week (Beshalach<\/a>) we read how “Amalek” attacked the Israelites after they had miraculously crossed over the sea into a new life of freedom (Exod. 17:8). After Israel routed the attack, God told Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. So Moses built an altar and called the name of it: Adonai Nissi (\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 \u05e0\u05e1\u05d9), \u2018the LORD is my Banner,\u2019 for a hand is upon the LORD\u2019s banner (\u05db\u05d9\u05be\u05d9\u05d3 \u05e2\u05dc\u05be\u05e0\u05e1 \u05d9\u05d4) — the LORD will war against Amalek for all generations” (Exod. 17:14-16).<\/p>\n

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Hebrew Lesson<\/strong>
\nExodus 17:16 Hebrew reading:<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/exod17-16-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>
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\nSpiritually speaking the Amalekites aligned themselves with the wicked Pharaoh of Egypt and therefore they sought to continue the war against God\u2019s people. Apparently the Amalekite clan in Canaan was founded by a grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:12,16), though Amalek is also listed as the “first among the nations,” a man who even predated the time of Abraham (Num. 24:20, Gen. 14:7).\u00a0 In Augustine’s terms, Amalek represents the “City of the World,” whereas Israel represents the “City of God.”
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\nIn Jewish tradition, Amalek represents pure evil, or those who have \u201cgiven themselves over\u201d to Sitra Achra, the side of impurity. Indeed the name Amalek (\u05e2\u05b2\u05de\u05b8\u05dc\u05b5\u05e7) begins with the letter Ayin (symbolizing the eye) and equals 240 in gematria — the same value for safek (\u05e1\u05b8\u05e4\u05b5\u05e7), meaning \u201cdoubt,\u201d and for rahm (\u05e8\u05b8\u05dd), meaning \u201chaughty.\u201d Amalek therefore represents “the evil eye of doubt,” or even “the severed eye” (i.e., when you remove Ayin from \u201cAmalek,\u201d you are left with malak (\u05de\u05b8\u05dc\u05b8\u05e7), a verb that means “to chop off” or to sever). Understood in this way, Amalek represents spiritual blindness acting arrogantly in the world, and therefore the LORD vowed perpetual warfare against Amalek: “The Hand is on God’s banner (or staff): God shall be at war with Amalek for all generations” (Exod. 17:16).
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The Torah reveals that we must “go out and fight” Amalek, which is a call to ongoing spiritual warfare in our lives (Deut. 25:17-19). When Moses raised his hands in battle against the Amalekites, the Israelites prevailed, but if he lowered them, they suffered defeat (Exod. 17:11). Eventually Moses grew weary and needed Aaron and Hur to help him hold his arms steady to ensure victory (Exod. 17:12). Note that the Hebrew word translated \u201csteady\u201d is emunah (\u05d0\u05b1\u05de\u05d5\u05bc\u05e0\u05b8\u05d4), the word for faith…\u00a0 It was Moses\u2019 steady faith in God\u2019s power that gave Israel the victory over the powers of darkness, just as we lift up our faith in God\u2019s power demonstrated at the cross gives us the victory over Satan and his schemes.
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The Targum Yonatan says, “you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens; but of the days of the King Messiah you shall not be unmindful.” The commandment to \u201cblot out\u201d Amalek ultimately will ultimately be fulfilled in the Messianic Kingdom to come, \u201cwhen the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance to possess\u201d (Deut. 25:19). At that time all memory of Amalek will be “blotted out” from under heaven just as God will \u201cwipe away\u201d all tears from our eyes…\u00a0 This is a glorious truth we should never forget, despite the condition of this world and the apparent upper hand of the \u201cAmalekites.\u201d
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Meanwhile we are engaged in spiritual warfare and must be armed for the battle. \u201cSince therefore the Messiah suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves (\u1f41\u03c0\u03bb\u1f77\u03b6\u03c9) with the same way of thinking\u201d (1 Pet. 4:1).\u00a0 Be sober and vigilant.\u00a0 Put on the whole armor of God, because we wrestle against spiritual forces of evil at work in the world today (Eph. 6:10-18).\u00a0 \u201cBe watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men (\u1f00\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u1f77\u03b6\u03c9), be strong\u201d (1 Cor. 16:13). In God\u2019s power you will \u201ctread upon the lion and cobra; the young lion and the serpent you will trample down\u201d (Psalm 91:13; Luke 10:19). May the LORD help us “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind fighting together (i.e., \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b8\u03bb\u1f73\u03c9 from \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd, \u201cwith\u201d and \u1f00\u03b8\u03bb\u1f73\u03c9, \u201ccontend,\u201d \u201cfight\u201d) for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).\u00a0 Amen. 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our Torah for this week (Beshalach) we read how “Amalek” attacked the Israelites after they had miraculously crossed over the sea into a new life of freedom (Exod. 17:8). After Israel routed the attack, God told Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3164,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions\/3164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}