The Israelites continue to complain to Moses.
“Why did you take us from Egypt just so we could die of thirst?!” They asked Moses, who kept explaining to them that they were not just complaining about him, but about God. It’s was God’s plan they were following. So shut up and do it already. It sounds very frustrating. He performed yet another miracle from the Lord, striking a rock which then poured out water for them.
The Amalekites came out while Moses and his people were at Rephidim and they had to fight. As long as Moses held up his arms, they had the upper hand, but whenever he dropped them, the Amalekites would start to win. Moses got tired after a while and needed some guys to help him hold his arms up until the end, but they did and the Israelites fighting under Joshua won the day. God told Moses that He would be at war with the Amalekites from now on and wipe them from the face of the Earth.
I saw the latest Narnia movie in the theatre a little while ago and I know that it’s all supposed to be Christian Allegory, but I really don’t like the Character of Aslan and I think this passage has made me finally realize why. In these stories from the Bible, I’m just starting to get into the parts where there’s a proper Israelite army and they can fight real battles. As long as they do what God says though, they always win, completely. Often they win without losing a single man or win even when they’re outnumbered five hundred to one or something ridiculous like that. God has them completely covered. On the other hand, when there are idols and deceitfulness and sin in the ranks, they’re on their own. It’s either one or the other, God’s either on your side or he’s not, and He’ll let you know if you ask. Aslan meanwhile, likes to play these games where you don’t know if he’s around or not. If you ask him what you’re supposed to be doing he gives vague, fortune cookie answers.
My wife says that the Chronicles of Narnia are supposed to be about Jesus, not the God of the Old Testament, but even when Jesus was around, he was sometimes not super-clear, but you could tell if you were on his good side or not at least. That kind of mystic ineffable quality makes good supporting characters, but it seems like more the territory of the holy ghost than the father or son. Also, Jesus, while alive, was decidedly not interested in leading great epic battles. So Aslan is backing armies and running the world like in the Old Testament, but refusing to give straight answers like the holy ghost. If Aslan were running the battle with the Amalekites, Moses would have found his staff no longer worked until he walked out into the desert by himself to find God and listened to a monologue about faith first.
Moses’s father in law, Jethro, comes out and visits him. He was a Midianite priest, but now he says that the power of the Lord is undeniable and worships the God of the Israelites in stead. Destroying the Egyptian Army and wiping the Amalikites from the face of the Earth makes for pretty powerful evangelism I guess. After that conversation, he gives Moses some advice on how to properly lead people. Moses had been making judgments and mediating for all of the Israelites and it was spreading him pretty thin. Jethro told him to split the people up into administrative groups to handle their own disputes. Moses is now the Israelite Supreme Court. Only the most difficult of problems reach him.
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