Commentaria in Exodum
By this trophy Moses assigned all the praise of victory to God; for he erected the altar not only for the sake of sacrifice, but also of a trophy, and this the name given proves. Calvin, shrinking from every name of images and statues, as shadows and masks of death, and fearing lest hence we turn a weapon against him in favour of images, impudently denies that this name was given to the altar, against the express faith of Holy Scripture, which asserts that this altar was called by this name, as a trophy of victory; for names are properly imposed on trophies and titles, and this name can suit only a trophy. For not, as Calvin fears, is the name of God here communicated to the altar as though it were God himself; but the sense is, as if he said: By this altar as a trophy I testify, I signify, that God is my exaltation, who made me superior to the enemy Amalecites, and therefore I give the name to it, as to a sign, of the thing signified, and call it: “The Lord my exaltation”; as we are wont to say of the effigy of Caesar or of a King: This is Caesar, this is the King, because this image is Caesar’s, this the King’s. Like namings are met with everywhere in Scripture. So Isaac, Genesis chap. 26, verse 20, called a well from the event Calumny, and another, verse 22, called Breadth. So Gedeon, Judges chap. 6, verse 24, calls his altar “the Lord’s peace.” Similar are 1 Kings chap. 7, verse 12, 2 Kings chap. 18, verse 18.
Note here that victory in wars depends on God, and is a singular gift of God. So Judith consecrated the canopy of Holofernes, as an anathema, to God the author of victory, Judith chap. 16, verse 23. The prophet Jahaziel, having promised king Josaphat a signal victory against the Moabites, added: “It shall not be you that shall fight, but only stand with confidence, and you shall see the help of the Lord over you: fear ye not. Tomorrow you shall go out against them, and the Lord will be with you,” 2 Paralip. 20:17.
So Judas Machabeus, when his men feared, as being few, encouraging them said: “It is an easy matter for many to be shut up in the hands of a few: and there is no difference in the sight of the God of heaven to deliver with a great multitude, or with a small company: for the success of war is not in the multitude of the army, but strength cometh from heaven,” etc.
So Trajan, a general sent by the Emperor Valens against the Barbarians, when he had been defeated, and was therefore accused of cowardice by Valens, answered nobly: “I have not been conquered, O Emperor, but thou thyself hast lost the victory, who ceasest not to draw up thy line against God, and so winnest his help for the Barbarians. For attacked by thee, he joins himself to them. And yet victory follows God, and goes to those to whom God offers himself as leader. Knowest thou not what men thou hast driven out of the Churches, and to whom thou hast delivered them?” So Theodoret, book 4 History, chap. 29.
So the Emperor Theodosius, when victory over the tyrant John was announced to him in the Circensian games, crying out to the people: “Come,” he said, “let us leave this sport and go to this house of prayer, and sing songs to God the author of victory.” He said it and did it. So Nicephorus, book 14, chap. 7.
So Clothaire, king of the Franks, about to fight with his rebel son Chramnus: “Look down, O Lord,” he said, “from heaven, and judge my cause. For I suffer injuries unjustly from my son. Look, and judge justly, and pronounce that judgment which thou once gavest between Absalom and his father David.” Accordingly the battle being joined, Chramnus was taken and slain by Clothaire. So Gregory of Tours, book 4, chaps. 16 and 17.
Alfonso, king of the Aragonese, to his son Ferdinand going to war against the Florentines: “Do not, my son,” he said, “attribute so much to thy own boldness, or that of thy fellow-soldiers, as to think that any victory can be had without the help of God. For victory is prepared not by the discipline or industry of men, but by the kindness and will of God most good and great: worship God therefore, and win him to thee: and if ever thou suspect him to be angry with thee, beware of contending; and whatever shall seem to have befallen thee from him, take it in good part, and appease him with patience and penance.” So Panormitanus in his Life.
16. SAYING: BECAUSE THE HAND OF THE THRONE OF THE LORD, AND HIS WAR SHALL BE AGAINST AMALEC FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.—The Hebrew is, because the hand is upon the throne of the Lord, that is, because God stretched out his hand over his throne, that is, by the stretching out of his hand over his throne he swore, and, that is, that, there shall be war between him and the Hebrews against Amalec for ever, that is, as long as Amalec shall survive, as if to say: There shall be to the Hebrews with Amalec an irreconcilable and deadly war. Note first, that “because” is not causal but enclitic; for it answers to the Hebrew ki, which is often redundant. Whence Vatablus renders, and he said: With hand raised by the throne of God I swear. For Moses here gave a name to the altar and at the same time swore eternal war with Amalec: for these are disparate, nor is one the cause of the other. Secondly, this hand of one swearing is either that of Moses, as Vatablus will have it, or rather of God: for our version renders, “the hand of the throne of the Lord”; the Chaldee and Septuagint have the same more clearly. Thirdly, the little word is not copulative but confirmative, and designates the matter of the oath, signifying that, because. Hence the Chaldee beautifully renders: With an oath this was said from the terrible face, whose majesty is above the throne of glory, that battle be joined from the face of the Lord against the men of the house of Amalec, to consume them from the generations of the age.
The Septuagint interpret the hand upon the throne as a hidden hand, or rather, as others read, a lofty one: for they have, because the Lord fights with a hidden and lofty hand, as if the hand of God on his throne, though hidden, yet works loftily.
Thou wilt ask, why of old and even still men swear with the hand lifted to heaven? I answer: Because by this rite we call to witness God in heaven, as sitting on his throne. Secondly, because by this rite we signify that as the heavens stand and endure, so firm shall be the thing which we promise by oath. So therefore God here swears by his throne, as by a thing eternal and immutable. So teach the Hebrews.
Hence St. Augustine, book 22 Against Faustus, chap. 74, defends Moses against the calumnies of Faustus, and proves against him (and against our Anabaptists and enthusiasts) that war is lawful to the faithful, in that Moses undertook it by the will of the Lord, and it is here said that the war of the Lord shall be against Amalec for ever.
Tropologically, let us also say, as resolute soldiers of Christ: The war of the Lord shall be mine, a war without truce, against Amalec, that is, against the flesh and the world for ever: for this is the war of the Lord, which the Lord commands us, and which he himself wages through us. Think of that saying of St. Francis:
The pleasure here is slight: but afterward the punishment immense.
The labour here is slight: but afterward eternal glory.
Choose. Many are called, few chosen, a reward for all.
The Christian’s war against Amalec, that is, the flesh and the world, is eternal.