67_The battle belongs to the Lord Ex 17:8-16 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation There is an old painting titled Checkmate, which depicts a young man locked in a chess game with the devil. The expression on the young man’s face conveys despair as he appears to be losing. Yet a chess master studying the painting declared, "The game is not over; the king has one more move." This story reminds us that no matter how dire the situation appears, when God is in control, He always has the final move. This truth anchors Exodus 17:8-16, where the Israelites learned firsthand that the battle belongs to the Lord. The Israelites camped at Rephidim, following the commandment of the Lord. But here they experienced necessity and vulnerability. First, there was no water. When that was solved by the water springing from the rock of Horeb, they were attacked unawares by the Amalekites. God leads us into challenging situations to teach us dependence on Him. The Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In Deuteronomy 32, Moses reflects on how God guided Israel: “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him…” (Deuteronomy 32:10-12). This vivid image of an eagle stirring its nest shows how God pushes His children out of their comfort zones to grow, but He never abandons them to their fate. Instead, He spreads His wings to catch them. At Rephidim, the Israelites faced their first battle. They had to learn to