Exodus 17:8

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.

The Amalekites were the posterity of Esau, who hated Jacob because of the birthright and blessing, and this was an effort of the hereditary enmity, a malice that ran in the blood, and perhaps was now exasperated by the working of the promise towards an accomplishment.

THERE were two great trials which the children of Israel had to endure in passing onward to the promised rest— their needs and their enemies. But I must add a third, which sprang out of these two by reason of the unbelief of their hearts. That third evil, far worse than the other two, was their sins. Probably, my Brothers and Sisters, you have found out by now that you could contentedly endure your needs, and could courageously contend with your foes if you were not weakened and hampered by your sins.

THERE were two great trials which the children of Israel had to endure in passing onward to the promised rest— their needs and their enemies. But I must add a third, which sprang out of these two by reason of the unbelief of their hearts. That third evil, far worse than the other two, was their sins. Probably, my Brothers and Sisters, you have found out by now that you could contentedly endure your needs, and could courageously contend with your foes if you were not weakened and hampered by your sins. A man's worst foes are those of his own household. As for Israel's needs, I think Israel may be congratulated in having known them. For suppose they could have brought with them enough provision from Goshen, or could have been supplied by trading purveyors? They would never have been honored to feed upon the manna which dropped from Heaven! And suppose a canal had been dug for them to flow at the edge of the whole road of their march? Or that they could have found a succession of wells hard by the spots where they pitched their tents? Then they never would have drank of that marvelous Rock whose flints gushed with water, of which the Apostle tells us that it was Christ, or an eminent type of Christ. They were gentlemen-commoners upon the bounty of Heaven—courtiers fed from the table of the King of kings! They were lifted up to eat angels' food—they were satisfied with royal dainties. In this light, they are to be congratulated for their needs, for, if they had not known hunger, nor thirst, neither had they eaten manna, nor had they drank the water from the Rock. And you, Beloved, are much in the same case.

IN trying to understand the Truth of God we are in great danger of being one-sided. One man catches at part of a Truth of God and says, "That is it and that is the whole of it." Another man lays hold of another side of the Truth of God and he says, "This is the whole of it" and, straightaway, there arises a contention between them. They are like the men who quarreled as to the material of which a certain shield was made. One of them said that it was a golden shield.