e participate in a group reading of Scripture at YouVersion’s page.  This month, we are reading through Exodus, which is a good thing.  Big fans of reading all the TORAH at least once per year, and you cannot do that without Exodus!  Moreover, Exodus is a crucial part of our own origin story, just as it is Israel’s – for us GOYIM, maybe it’s THE crucial part.  It’s kind of hard to have Jesus as our Passover Lamb if there is no Passover, right?  Anyhoo, where were we?

 

Oh, yes.  Reading Exodus…

Yesterday, the group wrapped up the MANNA chapter (which is why we posted about MANNA earlier).  And now we are onto Chapter 17 of Exodus: water from the rock and the fight with the Amalekites.  We’ll cover the rock a little later on because there is a very cool MIDRASH to discuss.  Today, we want to comment on the end of the chapter:

Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.
Exodus 17:15 (NIV)

The Hebrew word behind “banner” is NES (נֵס), a noun used 21 times in the Hebrew Bible, from its first appearance here in Exodus, to its final one in Ezekiel:

Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail and served as YOUR BANNER; your awnings were of blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah.
Ezekiel 27:7

The word NES actually means more than “banner”, which should not surprise you given how often Hebrew words have many meanings.  It can also mean “sign”, “signal”, “standard”, “ensign”, and even “warning”.  Before talking about the best interpretation of the word, let’s talk about the verb from which it derives.

NASAS (נָסַס) only occurs twice in the Text.  It means “to be high or conspicuous”.  So you can see how “banner” and all of its usual synonyms work for NES.  After all, what is a banner?  It’s a flag or a sign, right?  Maybe you picture a traffic sign (STOP or YIELD).  Do you think of Zodiak signs?  Or highway billboards?  Perhaps you remember Bill Engval’s comedy routine (“Here’s your sign!”).  For modern readers, a sign is a signpost kind of thing.

But Jewish readers take away from NES a much richer, deeper meaning. 

To Jews, a NES is a miracle-marker, a reminder of G-d doing something big in our lives that we dare not forget.  Israel defeating the Amalekites, for instance.  This interpretation of NES is nowhere more prevalent than the Jewish Festival of Lights (or Chanukah).  Picture a Dreidel (and sing the song if you know it).  The four sides of the Dreidel are marked with four Hebrew letters which form an abbreviation for this phrase: NES GADOL HAYA SHAM, which translates as “a great MIRACLE happened there”.  NES means “miracle”.

 

Moshe built an altar and named it YHVH NISI (my NES) to remind G-d’s people of the great victory over the children of Amalek!

Let’s close by encouraging you to read Isaiah 11.  What a chapter!  But here’s the lede as it relates to our NES story:

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.
Isaiah 11:10

Yeshuah is our NES, our sign of victory.  It is to His flag that we run.  It is under His banner that we gather.  Yeshuah on the Cross.  Yeshuah in the grave.  Yeshuah raised to new life on the Third Day.   

YESHUAH is our Banner.  YESHUAH NISI.  Blessed be His Name.