In Exodus 15 we see the song of praise the children of Israel sang after Pharaoh and his armies were swallowed by the Red Sea; in Exodus 17 we see a picture showing the continual war with Amalek. Exodus 17 is after Exodus 15, and the war in Exodus 17 is after the victory in Exodus 15.
We cannot engage in war with Amalek (which typifies the flesh) unless we first realize that Christ has destroyed Satan on the cross, and He is the Victorious one. In the spiritual warfare we do not fight “for victory” but from victory.
As the children of Israel were travelling toward the good land for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, Amalek came to attack them; when they were most wearied and tired in the wilderness, Amalek and his people came to attack them. Moses asked Joshua to get men and go fight with Amalek, while he went up on the hill and prayed.
When Moses was lifting up his hands, Israel prevailed, but when his hands were down, Amalek prevailed. Aaron and Hur therefore sat Moses on a rock and each of them supported his hands up until Joshua defeated Amalek (Exo. 17:8-16).
After the victory of the children of Israel over Amalek, God promised that He will utterly blot the memory of Amalek from under heaven (Exo. 17:14), and later throughout the history of Israel there were continual wars with Amalek.
Out of nowhere, this people called Amalek came to fight against the people of Israel as they were on their way to fulfill God’s goal. Amalek is a type of the flesh, who is warlike (likes to fight and always attacks us), destructive, and very disturbing.
Our old man has been crucified with Christ; Christ terminated our old man on the cross more than 2000 years ago (Rom. 6:6); however, the living out of the old man, the expression of the old man, is still with us. We need to be enlightened to realize and see what the flesh is so that we may abhor it, repudiate it, and live one spirit with the Lord in unceasing prayer.
The flesh as the totality of our fallen human being is with us all the time, ready to attack us; no matter how much we grow in our spiritual life, we will never get rid of the flesh until our body is transfigured. Oh Lord Jesus!
The Flesh is the Leading Enemy in Frustrating us from Going on with the Lord
When we speak of what the flesh is it is easy to be subjective, trying to “sense our flesh” and then manufacture some ethical and religious prayers about desiring to improve our situation and be better Christians. But we need to exercise our spirit to see a vision and have a realization of what the flesh is, and we will know that God has a way to enable us to engage in this continual war for our whole life!
Because Amalek came to damage, hinder, and stop the people of Israel from fulfilling God’s goal, God declared war on Amalek for all generations. Because the flesh is here to attack us, hinder us, and stop us from fulfilling God’s goal, God declares war on the flesh.
However, if we see a vision of the flesh – realizing what the flesh is in God’s eyes, we will not be obsessed with the flesh, it will not occupy us or replace our enjoyment of Christ, but we will realize that this war will continue until our body is transfigured and glorified.
Amalek signifies the flesh, the leading enemy in frustrating us from going on with the Lord. The name “Amalek” means “warlike”; this indicates that the flesh is warlike – it likes to fight, argue, and doesn’t want to keep peace.
The flesh is very destructive: it destroys our family life, marriage life, and even the church life; the flesh seeks to destroy everything positive. Also, the flesh is very disturbing, to the point that we all can exclaim one with the Apostle Paul, Wretched man that I am – who will deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24)
When we are most weary, exhausted, and tired, the flesh is there to attack us, disturb us, and even destroy us, so that we may not accomplish God’s purpose. The flesh is the leading enemy in frustrating us from our going on with the Lord.
God determined to have war with Amalek from generation to generation, and we see in many places in the Old Testament how there was war between Israel and Amalek (see udges 3:13-15; 5:14; 6:3; 7:12-14; 1 Samuel 15:2-9, 32-33; 27:8; 30:1-17; 2 Samuel 8:12; 1 Chronicles 4:42-43). In the book of Esther, Naaman is a type of the flesh, showing us how, in a hidden way, the flesh works to undermine God’s people and even to kill them.
God hates the flesh and wants to exterminate it (Exo. 17:16; Gal. 5:17); if the flesh is not terminated, we have no on to go on with the Lord or grow in life. May the Lord expose what the flesh is, how much He hates the flesh, and how we need to deal with the flesh so that we may go on with Him for the fulfillment of His purpose!
Lord Jesus, we want to go on with You. Keep us in our spirit all the time. Expose what the flesh is: expose Your enemy in us. Oh Lord, show us that the flesh is the leading enemy in frustrating us from going on with You. Lord, we love You, we seek after You, and we desire to live in our mingled spirit all the time so that we would give no ground to the flesh in anything in our being and our living!
The Flesh is the Totality of the Fallen Old Man, our Entire Fallen Being
What is the flesh? The flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being (Gen. 6:3; Rom. 7:18a; Gal. 2:16). The flesh is not something apart from us coming to visit us from time to time; the flesh is in us, it is a part of us – it is even us ourselves, the totality of the activities and expressions and goings out of our old man.
When many believers hear about “the flesh” they think it mainly refers to bad things such as jealousy, lusts, outbursts of anger, rage, enmity, etc, but the flesh is much more than these. In a sense you can say that there’s a “good flesh” composed of humility (and not only pride, fineness (and not only crudeness), love (and not only hatred), etc. Everything that is the living out of our old man, the totality of our fallen human being, is the flesh.
The Bible tells us that our old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6); two thousand years ago Christ crucified our old man on the cross. However, today in the twenty first century, we still live in our old man and express our old man.
We don’t need to deal with our old man; we need to deal with the flesh, the living out and the expression of the old man, the experience of the old man.
Certain parts of our flesh are shaped by ethics, culture, and religion, yet they are still the flesh! In Phil. 3 Paul said he has no confidence in the flesh, and then he lists the good things of his background as being the flesh. No matter how much we grow in life and go on with the Lord, the flesh cannot be changed or improved.
We need to be mindful of the fact that the flesh is always with us (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 5:16). Satan torments many seeking believers in this respect, since they love the Lord, consecrate themselves to Him, and seek Him, yet they have some failures and they even realize that there’s nothing good in them; so the enemy accuses them and attacks them because of this.
We need to be enlightened and realize that our flesh will never change; we may grow in life and enjoy the Lord daily, be sanctified in our soul and renewed in our mind, but this does not change the flesh!
Our flesh never improves; as soon as we stop praying and contacting the Lord, we are prone to live in the flesh just like the rest of the people. Our flesh is a flesh of sin due to Satan, but Christ is our sin offering, and He is making His home in our heart and growing into all the inward parts of our being!
We cannot influence, improve, or change our flesh, but we can exercise our spirit to pray unceasingly and touch the Lord all the time so that we may live by the Spirit and give no ground to the flesh to be manifested!
Lord Jesus, keep us praying unceasingly so that we may live in our mingled spirit and give no ground to the flesh. May we realize that our flesh is the living out and the expression of our old man, always being here with us to bother us, attack us, and disturb us. Lord, we take You as our sin offering; we allow You to make Your home in our heart, and we open to You in more and more things so that You may grow in us. Hallelujah, in our flesh nothing good dwells, but Christ dwells in our spirit and He’s spreading in all our inward being!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Experience of Life, ch. 9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 8 / msg 8, The Glorious Triumph of Jehovah as a Man of War and the Continual War with Amalek (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
- Further reading on this topic: recommending lesson 18 in, Basic Lessons on Service (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Thru my death with Christ, from Adam I am free, / Thru my life with Christ, new life is given me! / Minding not the flesh, old Adam cannot move, / Minding just the spirit, life divine I prove. (Hymns #593)
# Though I am blinded by self and flesh / But You, dear Lord, have chosen me / As a vessel to contain You / And express You ’til You come back. / Lord, You revealed Yourself to me, / You showed me Your purpose, / To have the church as Your body / So You can mingle all that You are. (Song on Dealing with the Flesh)
# I am crucified with Christ / And it is no longer I who liveth, / But it is Christ who lives in me; / And the life which I now live / In the flesh, I live in faith— / The faith in the Son of God / Who loved and gave Himself up for me. (Song on Gal. 2:20)
About aGodMan
Do not think that because you have been saved a long time and have had certain spiritual experiences, your flesh can no longer become prevailing. It is a fact that if our prayer ceases, our flesh will spontaneously show itself to be the same as that of unbelievers….The flesh cannot be influenced, changed, or improved, even after you have been a Christian for many decades. If your prayer ceases, your flesh will be the same today as it was before you were saved. Because the flesh does not change or improve, we need to pray without ceasing. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 548-549)