Amalek (trouble-maker) defeated

Exodus 17: 8-16

Amalek (trouble-maker) defeated

Troubles and Conflicts are part of the journey to the Promised Land. The way of the Israelite migrants is fraught with many adversaries because Israel constitutes a political and military threat to the settled people on the way. The struggle with those who are too strong for Israel, when they are not properly organized for a battle and extremely weary because of the grueling journey through the wilderness on bare minimum resources to sustain life is very difficult. Joshua for the first time is introduced as the warrior who recruits the army, fights with the Amalekites, and defeats them.^[1]

Here we see the overlap of traditions of Moses and Joshua though they are given with different responsibilities in the Exodus-conquest-settlement model. Moses is the leader of Exodus and Joshua the leader of the conquest. The name Joshua is derived from the root Hebrew word that means “to save.” The name indicates the fact that the credit of saving the people from bondage and the guidance they experience in the wilderness journey rests with Yahweh and Moses and Joshua are human agents in the overall purpose of Yahweh for this people. Moses also acts as a mentor for Joshua finding in him the leadership qualities to lead the people at a later stage and nurturing his skills for that impending task.

Moses, though does not participate in the battle directly, plays a crucial role in the victory. Brueggemann quotes Childs to say that the crucial roles of Joshua’s leadership and Moses’ hands in the victory represent an inevitable balance between human initiatives and divine intentions; “a delicate balance which neither impaired God’s will nor destroyed man’s genuine activity.”^[2] Human endeavors are strengthened and driven to purpose when they are done within the purposes of God to bring justice and wellbeing in the lives of all.

Brueggemann puts this as, “after all the military strategy, material, and technology is assembled, battles require passion, energy, and sheer adrenalin, which are usually generated not by technicians but by public leaders who can mobilize imagination and play on the passions of the military community.”^[3] This passage is not advocating military adventures, because these people are not marching in an imperial conquest of lands. But this is an exodus journey of unarmed slaves, who had to protect their women, young ones, and the cattle from the attack of the greedy settlers. Therefore, the defensive battle is a sudden innovation for the protection of lives in its entourage. Unless this passion to survive is not instilled in the hearts of the people, their dreams of entering a land of freedom will also be buried along with their dead bodies in the wilderness.

Prayer always instills confidence in people who are out in the field taking up the struggles to bring changes in the collective life of the community. Seeing the raised hands of Moses boosts the confidence of the people who fought the Amalekites, who were the trouble-makers in their journey towards a new life of freedom and justice. The name Amalekite can be translated as the “trouble-maker.” Therefore, in interpreting this text the ‘Amalekites’ should be taken up as a figurative representation of all the hindrances that act against the people’s attempts to fulfill God’s will in their life. It should be this figurative sense that prevail when we interpret the eternal enmity of Israelites with the Amalekites that the Old Testament talks about. Deuteronomy 25: 17-19 exhorts the Israelites “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you; he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies on every hand, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget.” The war was against the trouble maker who prevented the people from progressing to their freedom and the fulfillment of God’s promises in their life. It is not an advocacy to keep a historical enmity with a particular race who are the neighbors of the Israelites. If it is so this comes in conflict with the commandment to love and care for their neighbors.

The people are called out from Egypt to be in an Exodus to proceed to a new life. The people’s resolve to remember forever the hurt, hate, rage, and fear will surely prevent them from being part of the political processes of newness.^[4] The path that the escaped slaves need to take is that of forgiveness. Forgiveness, by contrast to hatred, is the political, creative process of negotiating old wounds in ways that lead to newness. Such negotiations are impossible in a world where hurts are absolutized and institutionalized.^[5] Sometimes our religions and our ideas of a nation are inscribed with this hatred in its institutional expressions preventing a collective progression towards a new, just, and equalitarian society. Let us be wary of these dangers in our political and religious lives!

---

^[1] Brueggemann, W. (1994–2004). The Book of Exodus. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 1, p. 820). Nashville: Abingdon Press.

^[2] Brueggemann, W. (1994–2004). The Book of Exodus. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 1, p. 820). Nashville: Abingdon Press.

^[3] Brueggemann, W. (1994–2004). The Book of Exodus. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 1, p. 820). Nashville: Abingdon Press.

^[4] Brueggemann, W. (1994–2004). The Book of Exodus. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 1, p. 822). Nashville: Abingdon Press.

^[5] Brueggemann, W. (1994–2004). The Book of Exodus. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 1, p. 822). Nashville: Abingdon Press.