Exodus 17

Since "everyone who wishes to live devoutly in Christ suffers persecution" and is assailed by enemies, he who walks the road of this life ought always to be armed and always to stand within the camp. Therefore it is also related concerning the people of God: "the whole synagogue of the sons of Israel set out" it says "from the desert of Sin according to their camps, by the word of the Lord". There is, then, one synagogue of the Lord, but this is divided into four camps. For four camps are described as positioned around the tabernacle of the Lord, as is related in the book of Numbers. And you too, therefore, if you are always watchful and always armed and know that you serve as a soldier in the camps of the Lord, observe that commandment which says that "no one serving as a soldier for God entangles himself in worldly affairs, that he may please Him to whom he has proved himself", because, if you so serve as a soldier that you are free from worldly matters and always keep watch in the camps of the Lord, it will also be said of you that by the word of the Lord you go out "from the desert of Sin" and come "to Rephidim"; for Sin is interpreted as temptation, but Rephidim as soundness of judgment. He who comes well out of temptation, and whom temptation renders approved, this man comes to soundness of judgment; for on the day of judgment he will be sound, and soundness will be with him who was not wounded in temptation, as it is also written in the Apocalypse: "but to him who conquers, I will give of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God". He comes, then, to soundness of judgment, who well "orders his words in judgment".

What then does Scripture mention in what follows? "In their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses." Perhaps this word that he said may seem superfluous, that the people thirsted for water. For since he said, "In their thirst," what need was there to add "for water"? Thus indeed the ancient translation has it. Why did he add this, except because they thirsted for water when they should have thirsted for justice? "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice"; and again, "thirst is my soul for the living God." Many people are thirsty, both the just and sinners; the former thirst after justice, the latter after dissipation. The just are thirsty for God; sinners for gold. For this reason the people thirsted after water when they should have thirsted after justice.

But what is it that follows? "The people thirsted" it says "for water, and they murmured against Moses". It might perhaps seem to be said superfluously, that he said that "the people thirsted for water"; for it would have sufficed to say that "they thirsted"; what need was there to add: "they thirsted for water"? The addition is not superfluous; for there are diverse thirsts, and each one has his own thirst. Those who are blessed, according to the word of the Lord, "thirst for righteousness"; and others no less say: "my soul has thirsted for you, O God". But those who are sinners suffer "not a thirst for water nor a hunger for bread, but a thirst for hearing the word of God". For this reason, therefore, here too he adds that "the people thirsted for water", who ought to have thirsted for God, who ought to have "thirsted for righteousness".

When [Moses] was being stoned by the people, he made intercession for them. Even more so he wished to be blotted out of God's book sooner than that the flock committed to him should perish. He sought to imitate the Shepherd who would, he knew, carry on his shoulders even the wandering sheep.

But since God is truly the "instructor of infants" and the "teacher of the foolish", He corrects faults and amends errors, and He says to Moses that he should take the rod and, striking the rock, bring forth waters for them. For He wishes them now to drink "from the rock", He wishes them to advance and to come to the inner mysteries. For "they murmured against Moses", and therefore the Lord commands that Moses show them a rock from which they may drink. If there is anyone who, reading Moses, murmurs against him, and the law which is written according to the letter displeases him, because in many things it does not seem to preserve consistency, Moses shows him the rock, which is Christ, and leads him to it, that he may drink from there and refresh his thirst. But this rock, unless it be struck, will not give waters; but when struck it brings forth fountains. For Christ, when struck and driven to the cross, brought forth the fountains of the New Testament; and therefore it was said of Him that "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered". It was necessary, then, that He be struck; for unless He had been struck and "water and blood had come forth from His side", we should all suffer "a thirst for the word of God". This, then, is what the Apostle also interpreted, that "they all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed; and the rock was Christ". Observe, however, what God said in this place to Moses: "go before the people, and take with you the elders, that is, the presbyters of the people". Not Moses alone leads the people to the waters of the rock, but also the elders of the people with him. For not the law alone announces Christ, but also the prophets and the patriarchs and all the "elders".

The people of the fathers thirsted, Moses touched the rock, and water flowed out of the rock. Did not grace work a result contrary to nature, so that the rock poured forth water, which by nature it did not contain?

It does not surpass faith that a virgin gave birth, when we read that even a rock poured out water and that the waves of the sea were made solid in the form of a wall.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Take the staff and strike the rock, that it may produce water for the people." Behold, there is a rock, and it contains water. However, unless this rock is struck, it does not have any water at all. But when it has been struck, it produces fountains and rivers, as we read in the Gospel: "He who believes in me, from within him there shall flow rivers of living water." When Christ was struck on the cross, he brought forth the fountains of the New Testament. Therefore it was necessary for him to be pierced. If he had not been struck, so that water and blood flowed from his side, the whole world would have perished through suffering thirst for the word of God.

There is no vice which the divine law resists more [than pride]. That most proud spirit becomes an obstacle to things above and a mediator to things below. It thereby receives a greater power of domination, unless one avoids the secret snares he is laying by going along a different way. If he is openly raging through a sinful people, he is like Amalek. By his opposition he denies the passage to the land of promise. He then must be overcome by the cross of Christ, which was prefigured by the extended hands of Moses.

After this the war waged with the Amalekites is described; the people is related to have fought and conquered. Before it ate bread from heaven and drank water from the rock, the people is not related to have fought, but it is said to it: "the Lord will fight for you, and you will keep silent". There is, then, a time when the Lord fights for us and "does not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able", nor allows us, unequal in strength, to come to a contest with one "strong". So too Job at last, now made "perfect", completed that most renowned struggle of his temptation. And you too, therefore, when you have begun to eat manna, the heavenly bread of the word of God, and to drink water from the rock, and when you have approached the inner things of spiritual doctrine, expect a battle and prepare yourself for war. Since the battle is imminent, then, let us see what Moses commands: "he said" it says "to Jesus: choose for yourself men, and go out, and fight with Amalek tomorrow". Up to this place no mention has anywhere been made of the blessed name of Jesus; here for the first time the splendor of this name shone forth, here for the first time Moses called Jesus and said to him: "choose for yourself men". Moses calls Jesus, the law calls upon Christ, that He may choose for Himself "mighty men" from the people. Moses could not choose, but Jesus alone is He who can choose "mighty men", who said: "you did not choose me, but I chose you". For He Himself is the leader of the chosen, He Himself the prince of the mighty, He Himself is the one who fights with Amalek. For He Himself is the one who "enters into the house of the strong man and binds the strong man and plunders his goods".

But meanwhile let us see what the present history now unfolds: "Moses went up" it says "to the top of the hill". He does not yet go up to the top of the mountain, but "to the top of the hill". For it was reserved for him to go up to the top of the mountain then, when Jesus was to go up, and Moses with Him, and Elijah, and there be transformed into glory. Now, therefore, as one not yet glorified from the transformation of Jesus, he does not go up to the top of the mountain, but "he goes up to the top of the hill".

For my own warfare, however, I am at a loss what course to pursue, what alliance, what word of wisdom, what grace to devise, with what panoply to arm myself against the wiles of the wicked one. What Moses did is to conquer him by stretching out his hands upon the mount, in order that the cross, thus typified and prefigured, may prevail.

For in this way, when the eyes are lifted up through thought and contemplation and the hands are lifted up in deeds which lift up and exalt the soul, as Moses lifted up his hands, one may consequently say, "The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice." In this way the Amalekites and all the unseen enemies will be worsted, and the Israelite reasonings in us will prevail.

"And it came to pass" it says "that when Moses raised his hands, Israel became superior". Moses indeed raises his hands, he does not stretch them out; but Jesus, who, lifted up on the cross, was to embrace the whole circle of the earth with His arms, says: "I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and that contradicts me". Moses, then, raises his hands, and when he raised his hands, Amalek was conquered. To raise the hands is to raise one's works and deeds to God, and not to have one's deeds cast down and lying on the ground, but pleasing to God and lifted up to heaven. He raises his hands, therefore, who "lays up treasure in heaven"; for "where his treasure is", there also is his eye, there also his hands. He also raises his hands who says: "the lifting up of my hands is the evening sacrifice". If, then, our deeds are lifted up and are not upon the earth, Amalek is conquered. But the Apostle also commands us "to lift up holy hands without anger and dispute", and to certain ones it was said: "lift up the drooping hands and the loosened knees, and make straight steps for your feet". If, then, the people keeps the law, Moses raises his hands and the adversary is conquered; if it does not keep the law, Amalek grows strong. Since, therefore, "for us too the struggle is against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world", if you wish to conquer, if you wish to prevail, lift up your hands and lift up your deeds, and let your conduct be not on the earth, but, as the Apostle said: "walking upon the earth, we have our conduct in heaven". And thus you will be able to overcome the people that opposes you, Amalek, so that it may be said even of you: "that with a hidden hand the Lord fought against Amalek". Lift up your hands too to God, fulfill the commandment that the Apostle gives: "pray without ceasing", and then that will come to pass which is written: "as a calf licks up the green grass in the fields, so this people will lick up the people that is upon the earth". By which, as we have received from our forebears, it is said to be indicated that the people of God fought not so much with hand and arms as with voice and tongue, that is, pouring out prayer to God it laid low its enemies. So, then, you too, if you wish to conquer your enemies, lift up your deeds, cry out to God, as the Apostle says: "being urgent in prayer and watchful in it". For this is the battle of the Christian, by which he overcomes the enemy. But I think that by this figure Moses also designates the form of two peoples, and shows that there is one people from the nations, which lifts up the hands of Moses and raises them, that is, which lifts on high the things that Moses wrote and sets their understanding in the heights, and through this conquers; and that there is another, which, since it does not lift up the hands of Moses nor raise them from the earth, nor considers anything lofty and subtle in him, is conquered by its adversaries and laid low.

Moses showed this when his hands became so heavy that Joshua the son of Nun could hardly hold them up. For that reason the people conquered when they performed works not carelessly but with full consideration and virtue—not with faltering souls nor with a wavering disposition but with the stability of a firm mind.

When Moses sat on the stone, it prefigured the law resting on the church. But this law had heavy hands, because it did not deal mercifully with those who were sinners but treated them with extreme harshness. "Aaron" means "mountain of strength," and "Hur" means "fire." Who is meant by "mountain of strength"? Our Redeemer, of whom the prophet said, "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains." And who is prefigured by "fire" but the Holy Spirit, of whom our Redeemer said, "I have come to cast fire upon the earth"? Aaron and Hur support the heavy hands of Moses and make them lighter by their support. Similarly the "Mediator between God and men," coming with the fire of the Holy Spirit, revealed that the heavy commandments of the law, which cannot be borne when taken literally, become more tolerable for us when they are understood spiritually. It is as if he made the hands of Moses light when he changed the weight of the law's commandments into the strength that comes from confession.

See how the type was "given by Moses," but the "Truth came by Jesus Christ." Again, when the Amalekites warred in Mount Sinai, the hands of Moses were supported, being stayed up by Aaron and Hur standing on either side of him; but when Christ came, He of Himself stretched forth His Hands upon the Cross. Hast thou observed how the type "was given," but "the Truth came"?

For it was not because Moses so prayed that the people were stronger, but because, while one who bore the name of Jesus (Joshua) was in the forefront of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross. For who of you knows not that the prayer of one who accompanies it with lamentation and tears, with the body prostrate, or with bended knees, propitiates God most of all? But in such a manner neither he nor any other one, while sitting on a stone, prayed. Nor even the stone symbolized Christ, as I have shown.

For it was not without design that the prophet Moses, when Hur and Aaron upheld his hands, remained in this form until evening. For indeed the Lord remained upon the tree almost until evening, and they buried Him at eventide; then on the third day He rose again.

When Moses' hands were lifted up Amalek was conquered; when they came down a little he grew strong. The sailyards of ships and the ends of the sailyards move about in the form of our cross. The very birds, too, when they are borne to the heights and fly through the air, imitate the cross with their wings outstretched. Trophies themselves are crosses, and so are adorned victories of triumphs. These we ought to have not only on our foreheads but also on our souls so that, thus armed, we may trample upon the adder and the serpent, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever.

But, to come now to Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bent, and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; except it was that there, where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech—destined as he was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil—the figure of the cross was also necessary, [that figure] through which Jesus was to win the victory?