Page 13 - TORCH Magazine #30 - Spring 2026

and that the promises given to the Jewish
people have been annulled. While the New
Covenant fulfils the Mosaic Covenant, it does
not replace the covenant God made with
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants.
As we covered earlier in this series, the
Abrahamic Covenant includes the Land
of Israel, given to the Jewish people as an
eternal inheritance.
Jeremiah 31:35-36 affirms that as long as
the sun, moon, and stars endure, Israel will
never cease from being a nation before God:
his hands dropped, Amalek gained ground.
Aaron and Hur supported Moses’ hands
until sunset, ensuring Israel’s victory. This
account reminds us that Israel’s survival
has always involved a spiritual battle. As the
Apostle Paul later penned, “For we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this age.”
We see a similar spiritual awareness
from David as he faced the Amalekites just
before he became King of Israel. After the
Amalekites raided the Israelite camps at
“Thus says the Lord,
Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for
a light by night,
Who disturbs the sea,
And its waves roar
(The Lord of hosts is His name):
‘If those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.’”
Ziklag and captured the women and children,
the Bible says that David “strengthened
himself in the Lord,” and he sought the
Lord for guidance before responding. God
instructed David to pursue and overtake the
enemy and rescue the hostages. Amazingly,
this took place near Kibbutz Be’eri and Kfar
Aza, two locations where Hamas carried out
the October 7th terror attacks against the
Jewish people, taking many captive.
Haman also descended from Amalek. He
plotted a genocide of all the Jews in Persia,
The Spirit of Amalek – Ancient Examples
but was prevented through similar spiritual
intercession. Before Esther approached the
king, she called upon all of Israel to hold a
Since God established His covenant with
Abraham, promising to make him a great
nation, this spirit that seeks to ‘replace’ or
‘remove’ Israel has been active throughout
history. One way Scripture identifies this
opposition is through the spirit of Amalek.
Amalek was the grandson of Esau. Even
though Jacob, who the Lord renamed Israel,
and his brother Esau reconciled, avoiding a
conflict between the two, Amalek retained a
jealous spirit and became Israel’s arch enemy.
The Amalekites became the first people
to attack Israel after the Exodus, as they
journeyed toward the Promised Land.
Significantly, the spirit of Amalek appears at
other crucial turning points in Israel’s history,
repeatedly attempting to hinder God’s
purposes for His people.
One such moment occurred at Rephidim.
Moses instructed Joshua to lead Israel’s
army while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up
the hill to pray. Their intercession played a
decisive role in Israel’s victory over Amalek.
Exodus 17:11–12 records that when Moses
held up his hands, Israel prevailed, but when
three-day fast. Like Moses on the hill and
David before liberating the hostages, Esther
knew that this battle was spiritual and
therefore required a spiritual response.
The spirit of Amalek can be seen
consistently in these examples. Esau was
about to attack the Israelites as Jacob
prepared to enter his inheritance. Amalek
attacked Israel at Rephidim just before God
gave the Law at Mt Sinai. The Amalekites
attacked David just before his kingship.
Haman planned to massacre all Jews in
Persia, but their deliverance paved the way
for their return from exile.
In more recent history, the attempted
annihilation of Jews during the Holocaust
was followed, only three years later, by the
rebirth of the State of Israel. Immediately
after Israel declared independence,
surrounding Arab armies attempted to
destroy the newly reborn nation. Once
again, we see opposition arising at pivotal
moments in Israel’s restoration, and a jealous
spirit trying to prevent God’s purposes from
unfolding.
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