JEHOVAH-NISSI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 8, 1902

THE above term is a compound from the adorable name of our covenant-keeping God, and a word meaning signal, flagstaff, token, banner, ensign.

The occasion of its use was the great victory of Israel over the Amalekites through the manifest help of God. The Amalekites sprang from the fruit of the adulterous union between Esau’s son and a concubine named Timna. The mother of Eliphaz was a Hittite. In the whole people there seems to have been instilled a fierce hatred against God. So great was this enmity that Inspiration speaks of the Amalekites as “a hand against the throne of the Lord.” Ex. 17:16, margin. The descendants of Esau ought to have shown hospitality to the descendants of Jacob, Esau’s brother; but the “hand against the throne of the Lord” was against the Lord’s people; and what is the puny opposition of earth to the moving, yet unmovable, throne of the universe? And therefore when the hand of utter perverseness and hatred was turned against His people, God fought for them, and with the faithful co-operation of His servants, won a glorious triumph.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua; that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it JEHOVAH-NISSI.” Ex. 17:14, 15. The expression means “Jehovah my banner,” margin.

It was a visible token that the most vindictive of Israel’s enemies, “the first of the nations” (Num. 24:20), should forever perish before the trusting people of God.

So the record comes to us as a blessed assurance. Man’s strongest, greatest foe is sin, personified in Satan, vindictive, revengeful, implacable, deceitful, destructive. But God gives victory over sin to every soul who will co-operate with Him. Let the man (or woman) who has conflict with the enemy, take the Word of God as Moses took “the rod of God,” and plead with Him. Let him persist in pleading. Let him persevere in his intercessions. Let him “continue instant in prayer,” whether at work or otherwise. In the strength of God he shall conquer the greatest of foes. And each victory that he wins will be a divine token that God will give continual victory. Over every battlefield he may raise aloft the ensign of “Jehovah-nissi,” the Lord my banner. Let him call others to that ensign. Tell them that victory lies only, but surely, under its streaming glory in the breezes of salvation. And thus it is that God has “given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” Ps. 60:4.

It is the banner of glorious victory—a victory that demands fullest co-operation on the part of the victors. For while the Lord declared of that hand against His throne, “I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” and that “his latter end shall be that he perish forever” (Ex. 17:16; Num. 24:20), yet God commanded His people, “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget.” Deut. 25:19.

So God charges His people: “Wash you; make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.” There must be no compromise with sin. We are to co-operate with Him, and he will give the victory; for is it not written: “He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea;” and, “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Micah 7:19; Phil. 2:13. Every victory shall be a victory of God and us. On every field will float the token of that victory, “Jehovah-nissi,” the banner of eternal triumph.

Is He Jehovah-nissi to you, reader? If not, why not?