The Lord is My Banner

 

The Lord is My Banner

 

In Exodus 17:8-16 we see the Israelites at war with the Amalekites. Moses tells Joshua to put an army together & go out & fight the Amalekites & that he will go up on top of the hill with the staff of God in his hands. Joshua obeyed & as long as Moses’ hands were held up, the Israelites would be prevailing in the battle, but when Moses lowered his hands, the Amalekites would prevail. So, a stone was brought so Moses could sit down & Hur & Aaron came beside Moses & held his arms up. The Israelites won the battle. Moses built an altar & called it the Lord Is My Banner.

 

There are two truths that God reveals to us in this passage.

 

The first truth is that God must be our banner. The title the Lord Is My Banner indicates that the Israelites saw themselves as belonging to God. A banner was a standard or flag that armies, tribes, or nations carried in their front ranks to identity who they were as they marched into battle. Moses was saying by naming the altar the Lord Is My Banner that he & the Israelites saw their identity was in God.

 

We are in a battle not with other humans or even the world. We are in a battle with Satan our enemy who wants to kill, steal, & destroy. We only overcome our enemy by believing that we are who God says we are & then living based on that truth. We know who we are through God’s word.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about identifying ourselves with God, acknowledging that we belong to Him, & trusting Him as we obey His word.

 

The second truth is that we as God’s people need each other. The church is made up of recovering sinners who are flawed, imperfect people. But the church is the body of Christ. We as the body of Christ need each other.

 

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul makes the point that we are one body made up of many members & that the eye needs the ear, & the eye & ear need the nose, & the hands need the feet, & the feet need the hands. We as the body of Christ & we need each member so that body can function as God designed His body, the church to function.

 

In Exodus 17 Joshua & the army needed Moses to keep his hands raised to win the battle. Moses was not strong enough to keep his hands raised for the whole of the battle, so Hur & Aaron came along side Moses to help him keep his hands raised. So, Moses needed Hur & Aaron to keep his hands raised so that the Israelites could win the battle.

 

We as God’s people need each other to accomplish the will of God. We cannot do it alone.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about us as God’s people realizing that we need each other & living as the body of Christ in a true community of faith.

 

If we are going to be God’s people who He will use to change our communities, our states, & our nation, then we must see ourselves as belonging to God & have our identity in Him. We also must see ourselves as the body of Christ & realize that we need each other & that we must live as a community of faith.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe