The Israelites were delivered out of the wilderness and come up against the Amalekites.  Moses goes up on the hill, the Scripture tells us, and it says as long as his hands were held up (Exodus 17:11), they prevailed.  But Moses’ hands were heavy.  Don’t you think that part of what God is trying to get across to us here is if one of God’s leadership, God’s authority, is bringing about God’s purpose, wouldn’t we be better to lift his hands up than to be critical and murmur?  Not a bad idea; is it?  With what Moses was carrying, your hands can get heavy pretty quickly.  He even said, “I can’t do this,” and God gave him seventy elders.  In Exodus 19, just before Moses receives the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, they’re at the base of Mount Sinai.  Moses, verse 3, goes up and meets with God.  God tells him, go back and tell the people this, verse 4, “You’ve seen what I’ve done to the Egyptians.”  Don’t you love this?  We all like the song and everything.  How I bare you up on eagles’ wings.  God cares for us.  God is our great shield and reward; amen?  We’re safe in Him, praise God!  He’s the Chief Shepherd.  He’s the one that’s setting the course. He’s the one that will make sure that we don’t want. Hallelujah!  He’s the one that said I will bless you, and you’ll set forth a table of rejoicing in victory in the presence of your enemies.  Let’s make sure we’re keeping the hands held up of those that God has brought before us; amen?  We’ll continue in victory that way.

God’s speaking and reminding them that He bore them up on eagle’s wings.  God follows this up in verse 5 with “Now, if you will obey my voice.”  That word obey is always there on these great promises of God.  Every promise of God is conditional upon obedience.  There is a danger in this hour in the priesthood of the believer, and here we’re seeing this—that He tells them, you’re a peculiar treasure to Me.  “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).  Go back to First Peter, and I want you to see the power of this principle in First Peter, Chapter 2. 

It’s amazing the effort that is made to not be offensive in bringing people to the Rock of Offense.  I don’t get it.  Who are you going to bring them to?  If you con them to coming, then you can’t preach the Gospel to them because if you preach Jesus, He will offend them.  Jesus is the Rock of Offense, and they hated Him first, and they’re going to hate us.  Those are not the messages people want to hear.  People are not lining up around the block to come and hear that they’re going to be hated, and that all that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.  Regardless of how well you’re doing at keeping all the commandments and keeping all the rules, “All of those have I done since my youth.”  He said, “Well, you lack one thing, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come and follow Me.”  They dropped their head and walked off; amen?  That’s the message of the cross.  Your life is not your own.  You’ve been bought.  You are a love slave.  You belong to Jesus.  You have no say in your life whatsoever.  Jesus is Lord.  Hallelujah!  That doesn’t sell today. “Lord, You offended them.”  “Are you going to leave too?”  “Where can we go?  You alone have the words of eternal life.”  I want to tell you something.  That other “gospel” is no gospel.