Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
Revealed - Session 3 - Hannah Silverberg
A single name can steady a shaken heart. In this session, we journey through Exodus 17 to explore Jehovah Nisi—“The Lord is my banner”—and discover why that ancient name still reshapes how we face exhaustion, conflict, and the long work of becoming a people set apart. The story begins with thirst and quarreling, moves through water flowing from the rock, and climaxes on a hillside where Moses prays, Joshua fights, and Aaron and Hur hold up weary hands. Out of that moment of dependence and unity, God reveals a lasting truth: victory grows where intercession, action, and shared strength meet.
We unpack what a banner represented for Israel—identity, allegiance, and a rallying point—and how the Lord Himself becomes that covering for His people. In the wilderness, each tribe gathered beneath its banner; today, believers rally under the cross of Christ, marked not by symbols of war but by sacrificial love. Under God’s flag, we don’t just survive—we unite, serve, and stand together. The battle with Amalek also points us forward to a greater hill, where Jesus stretched out His arms and turned the tide against sin and death. That cross-shaped banner remains our signal of hope, calling us to pray as if outcomes depend on God, to work as if our obedience matters, and to lean on one another when our strength falters.
Throughout the teaching, we look closely at what it means to live “under the banner.” We examine the balance between prayer and action—how to lead with intercession without neglecting responsibility, how to fight faithfully without pride, and how to be the friend who quietly supports others when their arms are tired. We see how the Lord forms His people through shared battles, transforming individual weakness into communal strength.
The session closes by widening the lens to Isaiah 11, where the nations rally to a righteous King and lasting peace remakes the world. From Moses’s hillside to Calvary’s hill to the coming Kingdom, the story of Jehovah Nisi reminds us that God’s presence is our banner, His love our covering, and His victory our inheritance.
If you’re in a season of uncertainty, weary from battle, or longing to remember who you are and whose you are, this teaching is a call to lift your eyes to the Lord who leads you. Stand under His banner, find strength in His people, and take heart—He has not only claimed the battlefield but secured the victory.
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Today we're gonna be learning about Jehovahese. And when my dad asks me, Do you want to talk about Jehovanese? I said, I don't even know what that means. But I'm kind of hoping y'all don't know really what that means either, because then it's an easier place for me to start. So we're gonna be looking in Exodus 17 for our story today. This is the only time in the Bible that the name Jehovanese is used. So we're gonna be in here a lot. Um, and just to give y'all some quick context of where we're at. So the Israelites are in the desert. They are in the beginning of their wandering. So they are being led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. And manna has just come from heaven. And but what they do not have in the desert is water, which is a significant problem, obviously, but it's also specifically for the Israelites because they are also shepherds and they don't have anything for their flocks, which is their livelihood as well. And so the people start to get restless and afraid. And the first thing that they do out of that is they start quarreling. They start quarreling with Moses, saying, Give us water to drink. And Moses says, Why are you so mad at me? Ask God about it. And what am I supposed to do? He says, Why do you test the Lord? Moses like, Have you not seen all the things that the Lord has done? How are we not more on the same page in real in relying on the Lord at this point? But the people thirsted there for the water, and the people grumbled again against Moses and said, Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? And so Moses cries out to the Lord. Which this is one of the things that Moses does the best in scripture is Moses takes all of his problems, he takes it from the people, and he goes straight to the Lord with them. So he takes this problem to the Lord, the Lord tells him exactly what to do, to go out and to strike a rock with his rod, and that the Lord would provide the water. And so the Moses goes all about this, and they name the place of the rock Masa and Meribah, which means fighting and quarreling, because they tested the Lord by ask by saying, Is the Lord among us or not? I think we've all been there, right? We've all had a moment in our lives where we've said, Is the Lord really among me? Is the Lord really for me or not? And so, right out of that question, that's the big question that the Israelites are asking in this time frame. And so then we go in, the Israelites are there, and what happens is Amalek comes and attacks the Israelites. And we see in Deuteronomy, when he talks about it, um, Amalek comes from behind without being provoked and attacks them from behind with while they are faint and weary. Now the Israelites have not fought together because God took care of the Egyptian army. And so this people has been in captivity and in slavery for 400 years, and then the Lord has fought every battle for them, and then they are attacked from behind. And the Lord does not take kindly to that. So, verse 8 says, Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim, and 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. So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and her went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 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. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this as a memorial and a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord is my banner, Jehovah Nisi, saying, A hand upon the throne of the Lord, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. So we looking back in the story, we see Moses deciding to send Joshua. He's not the one who's saying, I'm gonna lead this charge. Right? He picks Joshua, he sends him out, and he goes up onto this hill really to intercede. And as he holds up his hands, holding up his hand is the Israelite posture of prayer. So he's holding up his hands, and Moses is learning how to lead with prayer and how to let someone else lead in the thick of battle. That's hard. I think it's a lot easier for us to go and want to be the ones in the thick of it. And instead, sometimes it's best to say, you know what, I'm gonna stand back and I'm gonna do what I am called to and I'm going to intercede and trust that the Lord will be the one to tip the scale in my favor. And on the other hand, Joshua and the other men, they don't have this bird's eye view of what's happening. They don't know that there's this magical rod that's being held up that is making them win the battle. They're a little busy right now. And so sometimes when we're in the thick of it, we can't see the Lord turning this, tipping the scale in our favor. You know, we have to be faithful with what's before us. Joshua still had to fight, even though prayer turned the tide of the battle. So Moses and the Israelites as a whole are learning how they need one another. Each of them has a part to play in this story. We are not called to bear the full weight of intercession or of battle alone. And so, in this picture of Moses holding up his hands, we can see a picture of Jesus. Because Jesus also was a man on a hillside with his arms stretched wide, with a man on his right and a man on his left. And as he as he took the pain of sin and he won the battle for us. Amalek in this story is a picture of true evil, a lack of fearing the Lord, and of sneaky unrighteousness. Eventually, the failure to root him out completely is what costs King Saul his throne. But the Lord is faithful to his promises, and one day he will utterly blot out the memory of the evil one from under heaven. Verse 15 says, Moses built an altar and called the name of it the Lord is my banner, saying a hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. A banner is not something that is given out freely. A banner is something that is victorious. Banners are for winners. And so this is something, a banner is a flag. We think about a banner, we can think about a flag. It is something you fight under, it is something that identifies who you are in a people group. A banner is our identity. So the Lord banners our identity. Throughout the Israelites' time in the wilderness, family banners were used to keep order. We see this in Numbers 2. When the Israelites set up camp, each tribe will be assigned to its own area. The tribal divisions will camp beneath their family banners on all four sides of the tabernacle, but at some distance from it. The Lord is proving himself to be the thing and the person that connects this group of people. He is teaching them who they are. They haven't had an identity as a people outside of being slaves for a long time. And so they need to figure out what does it mean? Is the Lord really among us? Is the Lord really for us? Is he going to be who he says he is? And who is this God? Like you said, these names of God, these are the first few things. These are the things that the Lord is choosing to reveal to this people. And that matters to us today. Because the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So our banner is an identifying piece. When I know whose banner I'm under, I know who I am. Because I know who I'm serving and I know what that banner stands for, what that standard of righteousness is. In the Song of Songs, it says that his banner over us is love. And in the same way, as we operate under the Lord our banner, believers are to be known by our love for one another. Our banner is who we are, it's our identity. The Lord, our banner, is our covering. Not only does it give us allegiance, it gave the Israelites allegiance and buy-in individually. In Psalm 60, David refers to a banner as a rallying point in the face of attack. It's a place for people to come together, to serve together. So it gives them, it unified them as a people. I think about the opening ceremonies at the Olympics. You know, when they walk in, they all have their outfits and they have their flag, and it's like, this is who I am, this is who I'm fighting for, this is who I'm serving under, this is who I'm here to be proud of and to represent. And that's what these people are learning is okay, we are together. We're not gonna, we're learning not to grumble against each other, we're learning not to quarrel with Moses, but to truly walk under the identity and the safety of the Lord. The Lord, our banner, is our covering. To be covered by the Lord is to be protected. Hidden in the shadow of his wing, he is answering their question. He is among them. He's not just beating the battle for them and letting them sit aside. There is something important that we learn when we work shoulder to shoulder, not just see face to face. He's inviting them to partner with him. He's saying, We're gonna fight together, but I'm I'm gonna hold up. I'm gonna hold you up, I'm gonna fly over you. I'm going to be the one that tips the scale. The Lord is also showing them that they don't need to trust in Moses. He isn't on the battlefield. They trust in the Lord. Perhaps we've all had a time when we've come out from the Lord's covering and tried to take the world on on our own. It's not how we're meant to live because we're not safe alone. When we lose, we come out from the covering of the Lord, we lose who we are, and we lose our covering, and we are vulnerable for attack. A banner isn't for an individual, it's for a people. And we see that in Moses' story and how Joshua, Aaron, and her all needed the Lord and one another. The Lord, our banner, is our victory. So, like I said before, banners are for winners. My husband works at the hockey team in town, and um, they here's the thing in hockey: you either win or you don't. And in the Coliseum, there are banners hung, and the banners are not participation banners, they are for the regular seasons and the championships that the team has won. And they stay there. There are banners that are up there from 20 years ago. Because once you've won it, you've won it, and it's something that proclaims to people that we've done it before and we can do it again. And so we can trust that the Lord has defeated evil before and that he's going to do it again. When I was a child, um, my older brother and I used to play together a lot, and he always wanted to play Playmobil, which are these like little figurine guys. I'm sure there's a tougher, manlier name for them, but they had little outfits that you could click on. You can Google it later. But I really wanted to be in my room reading alone. But Jordan really wanted to play together, and so he would call me into his room and he would say, Hannah, here's what we're gonna do. This is my army, and this is your army, and our armies are going to fight. And my army is going to win. And I would say, I don't want to play. It's and you're looking at it, okay. His army, he's got the castle with all the red lion, you know, figurines, all the flags, all the banners, all the things. And he's got all his little guys lined up perfectly, and they all got their shields and they got their spears, and and my army is everyone who didn't fit into the regime, you know what I mean? So it's this tiny little pile, they're all broken and laying down. And I would say, Well, I want to play the prince and the princess. And he would say, No, I'm gonna, that's so boring. And I'm like, Well, I don't want to fight. So the conclusion we always came to was our armies are going to fight, and your army is going to win. But it's because they're coming to rescue the princess. And at the end of the story, they're going to get married and live happily ever after. And then we will play that for a while too. And so I thought about this when I was reading this story, because, like I said, Amalek really represents evil in this world. Okay. And it's he comes from behind and strikes out, just like we see in the curse in Genesis 3, of the serpent striking the heel. Okay. This is an image of evil and the Lord fighting evil. He says, that's why the Lord says he will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. And the Lord is still our banner because the battle isn't done. Maybe, like the Israelites, we don't know if he's really among us. Or maybe, like Moses, your service to the Lord is weary hands held high. Maybe like Aaron and her, you're called to uplift your brother who is struggling. And maybe like Joshua, you're deep in the fight. Maybe like Amalek, you're still an enemy to God. But because there was another man like Moses on a hill with his arms stretched wide across a piece of wood, with a man on his right and on his left, the battle was won. The Lord is our banner, our flag to fly, our family symbol, our rallying cry. Ephesians 6, 12 through 13 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Brothers and sisters, we can say to the Prince of Darkness that our armies are going to fight, and our army is going to win. And then the bride and her Christ, Jehovah Nisi, will marry and they will live happily ever after. I'm just going to read this passage of prophecy regarding Jesus from Isaiah 11 over us, and then we'll pray. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots, a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears, but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt, and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will feed them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra's den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. So, Lord Jesus, we just thank you that in the times that we have quarreled against you in the face of your provision, that you have instead proven that you are with us, that you are for us, and that you are over us. That we would walk with the confidence that you have done it before and you will do it again. That you are not a God that stands idly by, but one who is actively tipping the scales in our favor. Lord, we thank you that you are with us and for us and victorious. We ask that you would give us a new understanding of that, that you would give us boldness to step out and to fight when we need to, and also the courage to be the one that steps aside and lifts up holy hands to you. Lord, I just I thank you that you that you have won the battle, that your battle with Amalek, that your battle with evil will not be over until the day when you return, when you defeat all evil and you restore everything to exactly the way you want it to be, when you make all the wrong things right again and all the bad things untrue. We just ask that you would help us to live in the light of that reality, to hold your banner up high, that we would be proud of your name, that we would not shy away from sharing it or being outward with our faith, but that you would encourage us with boldness. We thank you that you have unified us as a people, and we just ask that you would keep that unity, that we would not turn against one another or against authority or against you, Lord, but that you would unify us as the body of Christ. We thank you, Lord, for being our banner. Forever and always the victorious king. Amen.
