Winning over the flesh with Prayer and the Word of God over the Stone
(Isreal vs Amalekites at Rephidm)
Exodus 17:1 Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the LORD?”... 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. 6 I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it...” And Moses did so ...
8 Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a STONE and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Introduction v1-7
v1 Our daily life is like the wilderness where we battle against sin.
v2 They tempted Christ (1 Cor 10:9).
v3 In the wilderness of life we are subject to thirst for the Spirit and hunger for the Word of God. Jesus is the Bread of Life and the True Manna (John 6:35) and the source of Living Water (John 4:10 & 7:37). He is the rock that is the source of the water
1 Cor 10:4 all drink the same spiritual drink of that spiritual Rock that followed them: Christ.

Amalek = Flesh v8-9
The Amalekite represent the flesh. Amalek was the grandson of Esau (Gen 36:12). Esay was into profane fornication (Ex 26:34 & 28:8) and foolish to lose his birth right for food (Heb 12:16 / Ex 25:30). He yielded to the flesh and thus his fruits the Amelekites represent the flesh. When we have the greates spiritual thirst the flesh tries to counter attack us, expecially when we grumble instead of being gratefull to God for His mercies. Here Moses calls the rod as the rod of God eventhough God refer to it as his rod in v6. We must also pray by giving all Glory to God and not our own efforts.

Spiritual battle tops over the battle of human efforts v10-11
Moses praying on the top of the mountian above the human efforts of Joshua and his men below on the ground refers to the fact that we do have to put in human efforts to counter battle against the flesh, but our human effort must be topped by spiritual prayer. So the spiritual leaders were on top of the mountian praying for the victory of the battle.

Going weary and team effort v12
Below Joshua and his men were fighting the physical fight face to face with the enemy. Before they could get tired, Moses hands felt heave. This shows that he prayed fervently lifting his hands to the Lord. Sometimes we lose vigor and fire in our prayer. But we must continue to pray fervently.
1 Tim 2:8 I desire all pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath & doubting.
Jam 5:16b The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
(Luke 22:44 – Jesus Prayed fervently, He sweated drops of blood)
When we pray alone sometimes team prayer effort helps. Aaron and Hur joined hands with Moses and they prayed in one accord (Act 1:14a) together as a team and ensured the hands were raised. They watched the battle as they prayed (Matt 26:41) without ceasing (1 Thes 5:17)

Sword v13
Israelites victory over the Amalekites denotes the triumph of prayer over the flesh. The sword we can use to fight agianst the flesh is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1) and with his (s)word we can win the battle. Jesus himself says that he comes with the (s)word (Ref Mat 10:34)
Heb 4:12 The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Support on the Stone
We already saw that the rock which was the source of water was Jesus (1 Cor 10:4). Let us look at other references to the stone:-
The Stone "made without hands" in the dream interpreted by Daniel is the chief coner stone.
Daniel 2:34. Thou sawest a stone cut out "without hands", which smote the image to pieces...

Mat 7:24 Jesus talks about the rock that we must build our house upon
Mat 21:42 Jesus "The stone which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner". 44 who shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whom it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Rom 9:33 I lay in Zion a stone & rock of offence: and who believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.
(Eph 2:20/1 Pet 2:6&7 / Is 8:14/28:16)

Jesus is the rock and the stone. When we build our prayer foundation on Jesus and build our house on Him we shall stay strong amidst storms in our life and win the battles in the wilderness.
Act 4:11 Jesus Christ is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Ps 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation;

CONCLUSION:- When we are in the wilderness of sin, during our peak thirst, the enemy will attack us. More than our human effort, our watchfull fervent non-ceasing team prayers in one accord with hands lifted up with the support of the Word of God and the foundation of Christ, can help us win the battle. Jesus is not only our Rock, but also the Bread of Life, Source of Living Water and our strong foundation.