Exo. 17:8-13 records the first military confrontation that the Israelites experienced after leaving Egypt. The Amalekites were a desert people descended from Esau (Gen. 36:12-16). Their eventual doom was declared after Joshua defeated them (Exo. 17:14-16). From Esau to Esther they were enemies of Israel and often attempted to destroy them (Deut. 25:17-19; Num. 14:45; 24:20; Esther 8:3). The most famous anti-Semite in the Bible, Haman, was called the “Agagite,” indicating that he was descended from Agag, the king of the Amalekites (cf. Esther 8:5 with 1Sam. 15:8). Like all haters of God’s people throughout history, Haman failed because by attacking His people he had incited the Lord Himself.
In my message on Amalek in Sojourners, I drew the parallel between Moses’ raising his hands during the Amalekites’ defeat (Exo.17:11-12) and the truth that Jesus helps us during our spiritual battles today by interceding with the Father on our behalf (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; 1John 2:1-2). In today’s evangelical circles, it is not popular hermeneutically to draw such spiritual meanings from texts such as these in the OT. I choose to follow the old exegetes, however, who carefully saw Jesus in these texts while still avoiding excessive typologies. Listen to the great Matthew Henry on this passage: “It was a great encouragement to the people to see Joshua before them in the field of battle, and Moses above them on the hill. Christ is both to us; our Joshua, the Captain of our salvation, who fights our battles; and our Moses, who ever lives, making intercession above, that our faith fail not.”
One of my preaching heroes, Charles Spurgeon, also saw Jesus in this passage and carefully developed his exposition by drawing on the parallel between Moses and the Greater Moses who intercedes and helps us in our spiritual battles today. “Cannot your faith’s eye see him now, on top of the hill, with the rod of God in his hand, with all power given to him in heaven and in earth, pleading with authority before the great throne of Jehovah.”
If the OT scriptures were given to us for teaching and reproof and instruction in righteousness (2Tim. 3:16) and if Jesus said that we should search the OT Scriptures because they testify of Him (John 5:39), and if the OT was written for our instruction and encouragement to give us hope (Rom. 15:4), how else should we approach a text like this if we can’t see Jesus in it?
Sadly, sometimes evangelical hermeneutics suffers from a bad case of rationalism by taking these passages from us, claiming some sort of literal interpretation as the reason. Augustine taught that the interpretation that leads to greater love of the Savior should not be discounted too quickly. Yes, we can go too far in seeing types where they aren’t, but there is a greater danger in taking the Bible out of Christians’ hands and hearts by the same rationalism that we decry among the liberals dead efforts at higher criticism. So we may possibly on occasion go a bit too far in seeing Jesus in the OT, but who has been hurt by hearing more about Jesus - his beauty, his love, his salvation, his work for us, and his glory? It is far worse if we who claim to be hermeneutically conservative starve the saints with “orthodox” but spiritually dead sermons.