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The Amalekites 

A Sermon by Rev. Jong-Ui Lee

“So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Ex. 17:10, 11).

How much do we care about our inner peace? Perhaps many of us work hard to retain tranquility and cheerfulness despite whimsical ups and downs. It’s needless to say our emotional stability is beneficial to having a healthy body and mind. It seems beneficial to our spiritual health, too. While we are happy and full of energy, our immune system is high in function, and we are much more efficient in defending affections and thoughts from the attacks from hell. We seem to take in less distress from outside while we are healthy and on a rising curve. On the contrary while we are low in our spirit we become vulnerable and weak. The Israelites severely suffered from bitter foes that attacked them whenever they were weary during their journey. The Amalekites craftily chose to attack them, especially, the weak and young. The Amalekites are our spiritual enemies we need to identify and fight.

The Israelites had to face many enemies during their journey; obviously none of the nations willingly give up their land and property to them. They had to fight the native peoples in the land to make their way. Among those many hostile nations the Amalek was the worst enemy from their setting out on the journey to settling in Canaan. Although the Amalek was the bitter enemy, actually the Amalkeites were not far from the Israelites in their blood relationship. The forefather of these people was Amalek who was one of the sons of Eliphaz and a grandson of Esau (Gen.36:12). The Amalekites were a nomadic-desert tribe in the Sinai Peninsula and in the Negev, the southern part of present-day Israel. But they roamed widely throughout the territory, later settled by the force of the Israelites.

These descendants of Esau were condemned by Joehovah. We are told that from the mouth of Jehovah comes the strong resolution that He has declared unending hostility toward the Amalekites. Jehvovah commanded Moses to write His resolution for a memorial in the Book. Moses said, “Because the Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex.17:16). His solemn declaration against the Amalekties shows that they were very evil and wicked.

Their nature is well known from their crafty war strategy, which was described in Deuteronomy. It reads, “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, ‘how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not hear God” (Deut.25:17, 18). Samuel also suggested in his accusation to Saul for sparing the Amalekite king, Agag that Amalek had in the past murdered pregnant women (1Sam.15:32-33). Perhaps Samuels’s words were the notion that referred to the passage of Deuteronomy.

The Amalekites were very sneaky. They didn’t fight in a conventional battle way. They waited in ambush until their preys become exhausted; then attacked only those who were weak stragglers, women and children, from behind. Because of their sneaky war strategy they became an unending annoyance to the Israelites who had to encamp in open wilderness and to continue on their journey on foot. The difficulty in dealing with them and the annoyance from them refer to the spiritual nature of what is meant by the Amalek. The Lord’s stern warning against them had to do more with their spiritual representation rather than their historical relationship with the Israelties. The Amalekites represent the falsity from interior
evil (AC 8593).

There are a few different kinds of falsities. In the Heavenly Doctrines for the New Church, falsity is categorized into three different ones according to its origin. Falsity arises from three different sources; the first comes from the teaching of the church; the second from the illusions of the senses; and the third from the life of evil desires (AC 4729). Which kind of falsity, do you think, is worst? Falsity arising from a life of evil is worst because it springs from a person’s wicked will itself, and it clings and is not rooted out except by means of a new life received from the Lord.

We can assume that the falsity from interior evil, which is represented by Amalek, is far worse than other kinds of falsities and even the falsity from evil. We may wonder what an interior evil is. It is the evil that lies inwardly concealed with a person, hidden in one’s will and then one’s thought. However, interior evil doesn’t manifest itself in the external aspect of life such as in one’s actions, speech, and face like other kinds. This evil is hidden deeply in a person; and it appears only under the guise of goodness and charity. Perhaps even one doesn’t aware of the existence of this evil until it shows its genuine face, or one is easily deceived by sheer goodness on the surface of this evil.

One of peculiar things of those evil genii who infuse this horrible interior evil is that they master various methods and arts to hide and hoard the evil under the semblance of what is honorable and just, and under the semblance of the love of the neighbor. Yet still they devise nothing else within themselves than how they can inflict evil. They color over the evil itself that it may not seem like evil. Their greatest delight in their life is to meditate on such things, and to attempt them in concealment.

This is the nature of the interior evil, and they who are in the life of this evil are called “evil genii” in the spiritual world. These evil genii, represented by Amalek, are those who are equipped with such shrewdness and wickedness and attack us. We read in Aracan Coelestia, “They who are in this evil do not attack the truths of faith, but the goods of faith; for they act by means of depraved affections, whereby they pervert good thoughts, and this in a manner almost incomprehensible. Because they are of such a nature, their hells are completely separated from the hells of evil spirits…These infernal genii never attack a man openly, nor when he is capable of vigorous resistance; but when it appears that a man is falling so as to yield, they are then suddenly at hand, and push him on to a complete fall” (AC 8593:2).

In our life various false ideas from hell flow into our minds and lead us astray. These falsities attack and destroy our truth and faith, but the falsity from interior evil is far worse; at first it attacks our goodness and heavenly affections. By corrupting our love and affection it contaminates our thought and ideas. This is our spiritual enemy lurking in ambush when we are exhausted and discouraged. We may want to dispel or overcome them at one stroke or in our own strength, but it is very difficult to do that because this evil is hard to catch. We need to deal with this falsity with a more systematic method.

The crafty nation was fought by Moses, Aaron, Hur, Joshua and his men in help of the Lord. Moses told Joshua, “choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand” (Ex.17:9). Joshua is our field commander in this kind of battle. He represents “fighting truth.” While we are attacked by such dreadful persuasion, we may array all the teachings of the Word that seem relevant to the issue at the time or in view. However, we cannot defeat those hellish influences only with reading and remembering the teachings of the Word. Our victory requires much more than that.

The progress of war led by Joshua against the Amalekites was totally depending on neither Joshua and his men’s morale nor their war capabilities. It, indeed, depended on where Moses’ hands were. What did those three people, Moses, Aaron, and Hur do on the top of the hill while Joshua was fighting on the ground? Moses went up the hill and lifted his hands toward the Lord. Aaron and Hur went up with Moses and helped to hold up Moses’ hands in the air. We read, “And so it was, when Moses help us his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Ex.17:11). This is a picture of the immediate attempt we should make when we are under the attack from the Amalekite.

Moses’ lifting his hands toward heaven symbolically means the faith looked toward the Lord (AC 8604). In the Word Moses represents truth received immediately from the Lord; Aaron as a Moses’ spokesman represents the truth derived from the Word, in other words, the interpretation of the Word and doctrines of the church; and Hur as a leader of the people represents more accommodated and applied teachings such as our own understanding and other’s (AC 8600).

Moses’ hands became heavy and couldn’t be lifted up all day long. They could be held up by the assistance from Aaron and Hur. In the same way, the Lord’s immediate truth from the Word cannot be maintained within us unless we support it with our understanding, actual experience, and application to our life. We need to remember that while Moses’ hands were high, the Israelites prevailed, but when he let down his hands, the Amalekite prevailed. When we fail to look up to the Lord, we end up giving in to the falsity, and the falsity conquers us.

We are going on our spiritual journey. We left from Egypt where we were slaves to evils and are heading for the Promised Land to be free from the bondage. This journey hasn’t been easy so far; and the truth is that it won’t be easy either. We are wanderers in the wilderness. We are in short of necessities of our life; we are surrounded by many strong enemies. These enemies won’t let us advance our journey and will try to stop us. Among these enemies there is one kind, which is very crafty and dangerous.

We can hardly notice the existence of this kind evil within us because it does neither appear nor look like evil. It is difficult to locate this evil because it strives by every method and skill to hide it away, to conceal it under an outward show of being honorable and charitable (AC 8593). It doesn’t attack us while we are spiritually healthy and ready to resist. It rushes into us while we are in the midst of sadness, anxiety, and depression from our own finite conditions, the attacks of other enemies, or daily chores. It comes when we need just one more blow or a push to fall to give in. At that moment it is suddenly at hand, hits the most vulnerable spot by using crafty arts, and gives us the last shove so that we fall completely (AC 8593:2).

Have you ever experienced those moments? We are beaten by a horrible evil; before recovering from pain and suffering, thus we were exhausting and low in spirit, another unendurable strike crashes into us. It seems impossible to resist the attack because that specific inclination, idea, or way of doing used to be useful and even looked like good. Behaving and thinking that way wasn’t a problem at all before in another situation, but it shows up suddenly itself in the opposite nature and extremely worsens our current difficult situation. It seems hopeless to fight back such overwhelming temptation because it is much more than double hits. However, our loving God says that we must overcome it, and we can do it.

First we need to gather our fighting truths, which are meant by Joshua and his men, against these evil attacks on the one hand. On the other hand we need to raise the hands of Moses with help of Aaron and Hur. What is the most challenging part in this battle? It is Moses’ weary hands. Moses’ hands became heavy and weary, and Israel lost. “Raising one’s hands” symbolically means to lift up our faith towards to the Lord. It is very hard to maintain our confidence in the Lord because it not part of human nature. We often fall into the idea that we’re going to lose our battle and even don’t try; we often doubt His help and presence; or we believe we can handle from our own power. At this time our hands become heavily and slowly coming down, then our enemies prevail over us.

Our mind shouldn’t loose its close contact with the Lord; we should sense His strong presence at this critical time. In order to put up our hands firmly we’d better be assisted from the teachings from the Threefold Word, our individual understanding of those teachings, and our successful past applications and victories. When our faltering faith is firmly assisted by these, we can endure and finally win over the foe. Actually we don’t do it, but the Lord does in our invitation and admission of Him. He fights against our Amalekite. He promises us, “I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Ex.17:14). Amen.

Lessons: Exodus 17:8-16; Deuteronomy 25:11-19; AC 8593:2