"Water from the Rock" Exodus 17:1-7

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Preaching Ministry of the Agape Baptist Church in George, South Africa.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll enjoy to be together again this week as we

[SPEAKER_00]: worship together and hear from God's Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are in Exodus chapter 17 this morning if you want to find your place there.

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: This year I've been teaching Old Attestimate New Testament survey for the FTI students that program, for the one year program for this metric graduates.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every in this class about every other week I've been given a quiz of the material that we've covered in class.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those quizzes help me to gauge how the students are doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes, if there's a question that I see their missing, I will get the question again on another query.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just to help them to get it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But mainly, the quizzes are for the students, so that

[SPEAKER_00]: They can learn the areas and see areas where they need to study more.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can also learn what my expectations are for them and what they should be learning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately it helps them be prepared for the final exam that they will have at the end of the class.

[SPEAKER_00]: In a similar way, we've seen how the Lord has led the children of Israel into the wilderness to test them various times and ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings them into a difficult situation to test them.

[SPEAKER_00]: His purpose in the testing is to, that they would be a people who would trust the Lord for their every need in every situation and that by so doing they would be a people that would honor the Lord and to give glory that is due unto his name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we see in Psalm 15 verse 15, the Lord would say it this way, call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's God's desire for us as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just Israel that needs to be tested, needs to be proved, needs to grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also find that the Lord is continually working,

[SPEAKER_00]: in our lives so that we would be mature believers so that we also would learn to trust God so that we would grow and Godly attributes characteristics in our life so that our lives would give honor and glory unto Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: we've already seen in the wilderness journey that Israel has been on, that God is putting down into some difficult situations so that they would learn to trust Him even in the what seems like impossible situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: They, the journey of Israel are to learn that although the situation is impossible for them, it's not impossible for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the God is able, and He's demonstrated that.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you think back when they were trapped at the Red Sea and the Egyptian army is approaching or when they're at Marra and the water is better, and they can't drink it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or when they're in the wilderness of sea, and there's no bread and they're hungry.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is demonstrated to them, that He is present with them, and He is able to protect them, to provide for them, that Israel is very slow to learn these lessons.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are failing.

[SPEAKER_00]: These tests, the Lord is bringing up on them, and they are not believing God when the difficulties

[SPEAKER_00]: In chapter 17, they have reached an area called refidim, and it's not far.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're approaching Mount Sinai, it's another day, and they will be at the Mount Sinai where the Lord has been bringing them to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here the Lord is going to test them again with the most basic need of water.

[SPEAKER_00]: most pressing need in a wilderness area like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so let us read together from Exodus 17 and beginning verse one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to the commandment of the Lord, notice again, it's the Lord who has brought them into this place.

[SPEAKER_00]: and camped at referendum, but there was no water for the people to drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you test the Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: But the people thirsted there for water in the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And our children and our livestock with thirst.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with these people?

[SPEAKER_00]: They are almost ready to stone me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people taking with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horib.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the people will drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he called the name of the place Masa in Maraba because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father's, we come to your word, I pray, that you would just open the Scripture before us.

[SPEAKER_00]: May we see what you want to teach us, but more than that, I pray that our hearts would be open before you and that you would cause us to

[SPEAKER_00]: have a heart that is ready and quick to obey you and take the warning that you would give us through this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: May we be blessed and courage by the grace that you have demonstrated the person of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: We ask, can Jesus name?

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, after all that God had done,

[SPEAKER_00]: for the children of Israel, is great demonstration of His power.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would have hoped that after seeing all the all-inspiring power of God in the way in which He had worked, we would have hoped that there would have been a little faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just a glimmer of obedience and patients with their situation and realizing that God does have power and He does, He is with us, we can see the cloud, we can see the fire at night, you would have expected some faith to believe God, but instead they fall back into this old habit.

[SPEAKER_00]: of grumbling and complaining, but here at referendum it seems even worse from them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of getting better in their ability to believe God, it seems that they have doubled down on their attitude and they're quarreling and we're told here that they contended with Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that word translated their contingent or called is the first introduced to us by Abraham.

[SPEAKER_00]: You remember the situation with Abraham with his nephew lot when he tells a lot that they need to separate from one another Because they've gotten their herds and their people have gotten so many that Abraham says we need to separate so there will be no strife between our herdsmen

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that became an issue, a strife.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the same word we see here of the quarreled.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like arguing and to the point of ready to fight over something.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also a word that's used of accusing someone.

[SPEAKER_00]: like even in a legal case where someone is taken to court over an issue, you're making an accusation against them and you're bringing this to law.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse seven we're told that this place was called Maraba and that that that word means to coral and so that is that is the

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't the first time that the people had accused Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, each of these tests that we've seen in this wilderness journey, they've, it's become a habit of accusing Moses and Aaron, and verbally attacking them.

[SPEAKER_00]: but it seems to be intensified here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice in verse four again, Moses cries out to the Lord and says, what shall I do with this people?

[SPEAKER_00]: They're almost ready to stone me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't believe that Moses is exaggerating there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that they are so intensified in their anger, then they're arguing and complaining

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses, you remember, had previously warned the people about this grumbling that it wasn't just grumbling against him, and Aaron, it was grumbling against the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see also, as you follow the history of Israel and the wilderness wanderings, there's

[SPEAKER_00]: this contending or quarreling.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's Kades Barnaia.

[SPEAKER_00]: That name is to some of you, or probably familiar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kades Barnaia is that area just south of what came to be known the land of Canaan.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it becomes prominent in the Wilderness Wandering.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a, there's an Oasis place there that Kadesh Barnea in the Wilderness of Zen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're told, there's a couple of places that that area is referred to as Maraba Kadesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: The proper name is Katie Sparnia, but the name Marabas attached to Katie's because of this same problem of this grumbling and contending with Moses and ultimately with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: You remember Katie Spartanillo's word that the people did not listen to the two spies, Josh and Caleb, who came back with a good report of the land and says, we can go in because God is powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's fightful.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the ten spies said, no, there's giants and it's too hard and we can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the people listened to the 10 spies and did not believe God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They refused to go into the land and you remember the judgment that came upon them because they were unwilling to believe God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They said that we come out here to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our children died in the wilderness and God judged them with the very thing that they said what happened, they would all die.

[SPEAKER_00]: That generation, 20 and older would all die in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And only their children would go into the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see that this Maraba became a place of or a name that was identified with the children of Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're complaining and they're grumbling and quarreling and contention.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's also another name.

[SPEAKER_00]: are another, a name that's given to refer to him, the what happened there at refer to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we go back to your passage in Exodus 17, we see it in verse 7 again, it's also given the name Masa.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Masa, name Masa just means testing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've seen that the Lord is testing Israel to prove them, to help them, to grow and learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this testing is refers to Israel in the fact that they test the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's said in this way that they put the Lord to the test.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice verse 2, we see it there, therefore the people quarrel with Moses and said, give us water to drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you test the Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: So we need to think about the question, what does it mean to test the Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you're parents, and if you can remember back when your children were young, no doubt you said something like you're testing my patients, or you're just asking for trouble, you know, so we can relate to this idea of being tested, having your patients tested.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happened there at Reffedem and also at Catech Barnilla.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the Psalm 95 or 7 to 10 recounts the Lord's opinion of their testing him through their grumbling and their contention.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to see, in Hebrews chapter 3, how the writer there uses the quote in Psalm.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: He quotes Psalm 95 or 7 to 10 to warn his own generation.

[SPEAKER_00]: and write as he writes to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to show you that I want to take the time to go through that passage just briefly.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can see because we want to understand what the Lord means by this that they tested me and why it made him so angry.

[SPEAKER_00]: that over this period of 40 years, they tested the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't want to be guilty of doing the same thing in our Christian life, and then as believers, and at least people who claim to be believers, as we'll see the writers of Hebrews, he has questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has concerns that some who claim to be believers are not genuine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he has a number of warnings, and this is one of them, where he warns don't be like Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking at Hebrews chapter 3, beginning in verse 7, he says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, it's not interesting.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: The Psalmist is writing, but he says, the Holy Spirit says, as he gets ready to quote from Psalm 95.

[SPEAKER_00]: And because the Holy Spirit of God inspired Scripture, all Scripture is given by inspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: as breathed out by God so that we could take any portion of the Scripture and say the Holy Spirit says, just as we could say Paul wrote this or said that, behind the author of the Scripture is the Holy Spirit moving and directing to write as he would have.

[SPEAKER_00]: speaking of God's voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is directly quoted from Psalm 95.

[SPEAKER_00]: He continues, therefore, I was pervoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have not known my ways as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my wrist.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's the quote that he gives.

[SPEAKER_00]: from Psalms, 95, and he is going to warn based on that what happened in what the Lord said in beginning in verse 12, he says, take care brothers, let's there be any of you, let's there be in any of you, an evil, unbelieving heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today.

[SPEAKER_00]: That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he continues for, we have come to share in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: The words, we're genuine believers.

[SPEAKER_00]: We belong to Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, if indeed, we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's the perseverance of the saints.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you've heard that phrase or not before, but genuine saints, genuine believers, persevere to the end ultimately, because of the work that God has done in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't mean they persevere perfectly or without failure, without fault, or without times of doubt, but ultimately they persevere, not because they are such strong people of faith, but because God is strong, and God is able, and God is gracious to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's put the Spirit of God within us as a seal of that which He has done and will complete in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he warns again, he quotes again from verse 7 of Psalm 95 today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, as we think about Israel, we see their danger, we see the history, we know what happened with him, but we need to see our own danger.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we allow our hearts to become hardened,

[SPEAKER_00]: against God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We allow ourselves to grumble and complain and contend and ultimately become rebellious against the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we must take warning that we would respond to the Lord and faith and believing and to repent from our sin and the hardness of our hearts and to

[SPEAKER_00]: that would turn us away from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see from this passage this warning in verse 12 to 15 of Hebrews 3, there's three things that the author says here that would identify a heart or a person that tests the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Israel tests the Lord, he mourns of these three areas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think about the grace of God that has been demonstrated to Israel and the grace of God that most of us have experienced ourselves in the goodness of God to not believe God is evil?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, it's an evil and unbelieving heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a heart that becomes hardened when you go down that path of doubt and this content.

[SPEAKER_00]: your heart can become hardened in that, and then that leads ultimately to a rebellious heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: heart that rebells against God's Word, and so we must take warning, and as I've said, what made the actions of Israel even more evil was because of the greatness of the demonstration of God's presence with Him and God's power and His love and compassion for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice what

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is after the first incident at Catech Barney a word they refuse to go into the promised land and they rebuild.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at that time, they're acting much the same way as they are at Catech.

[SPEAKER_00]: But now it's

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about a year later, and they've been at Sinai, and God has revealed Himself to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's given them the law, and they've been for about just under a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're at Sinai, and so God expects more.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's requiring more from them than He did earlier at Rephodim.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Numbers 14 verse 22 to 23, this is what the Lord says, surely all the men who have seen my glory in my signs, which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness yet have put me to the test these 10 times.

Numbers 14:22–23

[SPEAKER_00]: And so through that journey coming out of Egypt, he's saying there's 10 times that they have put me to the test.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there may have been more times that we're not aware of, but he's listed here or said there's 10 times.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be just a way of saying many times, but as I went back and looked, I can actually count 10 significant times

[SPEAKER_00]: in that time period of about a year when they came out of Egypt until they get up to Katie Sparnie and ready to go into the promised land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, they have put me to test these ten times and have not listened to my voice.

[SPEAKER_00]: They shunned by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned me see it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see also Moses recounting the second generation that would go into the Promised Land.

[SPEAKER_00]: He recounts to them the sin of how, and he includes them, the younger generation is a part of this rebellion.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the provoking of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice Deuteronomy 9 of our 7, remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Moses is warning them, remember and do not forget how you provoke the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place and this place is they're getting ready to go into the Promised Land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And from that time that whole 40 years you have been rebellious against the Lord, which is a real statement of God's grace, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's warning them, he's recounting to them that this fleshly tendency they have

[SPEAKER_00]: in their hearts to be hardened, to be rebellious, to be unbelieving.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you go back to our text in Exodus chapter 17, you can see three ways there that Israel tested the Lord.

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Just in those seven verses, we can see how that why Moses would say they tested the Lord or they test the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, in verse 2, they question his provision and they demand the water to drink

[SPEAKER_00]: That would be bad enough if they hadn't seen all that God had done, but this comes on the heels of just a short time before God turns water, sweet that was bitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: fall before their feet, as food, God has demonstrated His power and in this fact that He is able to take care of them, to protect them from the Egyptian army.

[SPEAKER_00]: They question that, you know, he's able to protect them, and his purpose with him in verse 3 says, why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children in our livestock with thirst, making accusations ultimately against God?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then thirdly, they questioned his presence with him in verse 7.

[SPEAKER_00]: They say, is the Lord among us or not?

[SPEAKER_00]: What a question.

[SPEAKER_00]: How could you ask?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could you ask is the Lord among us or not?

[SPEAKER_00]: God is demonstrated His presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even as they're speaking, the cloud of God's presence is visible unto them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so to put God to the test is to doubt Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: to doubt him, to doubt his presence, his provision and his purpose in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: One pastor Stephen Cole writes, and I've quoted him because I can't really say it any better.

[SPEAKER_00]: In spite of His many mercies, when problems arise, unbelief challenges God by asking is the Lord among us or not.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, unbelief ask, if God is really here and cares about me, how can He allow this to happen?

[SPEAKER_00]: So unbelief doubts God's sovereignty doubts His power, His wisdom, and His love.

[SPEAKER_00]: He continues, it removes God from his rightful place as judge and puts him on trial.

[SPEAKER_00]: While I judge him questioning his ways of dealing with me, it stems from the pride of thinking that I know better than God what would be best for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the warning, beyond guard against grumbling against the Lord, Paul will sum it up forth this way in Philippians chapter 2, there's 14 and 15.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, do all things without grumbling or disputing?

[SPEAKER_00]: He says do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, and that's what God wants us to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants us to be lights in a dark world, and by going through difficult trials and difficult situations

[SPEAKER_00]: And trusting Him, it calls us our testimony about what we believe about God to shine as lights in the darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is the admonition for us that we would be people who trust God.

[SPEAKER_00]: and that we by our actions, by our attitudes, by our words, do not put the Lord to the test.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to go back to our passage in verse four and five and see where the Lord provides water from the rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see again the amazing, long suffering patients of the Lord with this people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a thought here that we need to keep reminding ourselves, for we would be, if they were not for the amazing grace of God in our life, are we that different from Israel?

[SPEAKER_00]: We should never think though that the patience of God means in difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: because they have spurned God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have disbelief God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've complained and they've murmured and so far God has been extremely gracious to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He hasn't rang down fire upon them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He hasn't killed them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's provided their needs.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's given warning through Moses, but he's continually been reigning down his grace upon them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we must be careful in the abundance of God's grace to never to think that God is indifferent to our sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that God will not bring judgment upon our sin, or that He does not see, because God doesn't judge immediately, we may think, well, maybe God didn't see or hear, or even know our thoughts,

[SPEAKER_00]: sermon, I saw several times where the reference is made to something that Israel was saying to Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the passage, because God's speaking says, and I heard them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, God

[SPEAKER_00]: of rebellion of the children of Israel, and he's, and although the people had put the Lord to the test with the rebellion and their disobedient hearts, he supplies their need again and again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here at Reffedem, he does it in such a, a most unusual way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice

[SPEAKER_00]: and to go ahead of the people, and he tells him to take his staff with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's interesting, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Take your staff with you, and he specifically notes there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the staff that he used to strike the Nile River.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I imagine Moses is thinking, Lord, what are you going to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this staff that God had,

[SPEAKER_00]: that Moses had, God had used to bring judgments, to bring the plagues upon the children of Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And chapter 15, God had also warned them that in a sense of a promise, he said, if you listen and obey, then I will bring upon you the plagues that I brought upon the Egyptians.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this staff had been an instrument of judgment upon the Egyptians.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the tune of Israel certainly deserved to be judged as well, didn't they?

[SPEAKER_00]: If they got what they deserved, if they got their justice, they would have also been judged there at Rephadium.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were rebellious.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had unbelieving hearthearts, just like the Egyptians and Pharaoh had.

[SPEAKER_00]: But notice verse six, let me see the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horab, and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink, and Moses did so in the side of the elders of Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is an amazing thing, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a very strange thing that God has Moses do.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a whole about this, you could imagine God telling Moses to strike the ground and maybe some underground spring would open up and water could flow.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we wouldn't have imagined striking a rock would we to get water?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is doing something here that's more than just supplying physical water for the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is giving here an early analogy for shadowing of how God is going to provide spiritual water for His people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice in verse 6 again that the Lord has identified himself with the rock at Horab.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's identified himself there by his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says to Moses, I will stand before you there on the rock, in other words, the rock that he was to strike.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you may remember towards the end of the four years in the wilderness a similar situation occurred in Numbers chapter 20.

Numbers 20 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord, again, is identified with the rock that is in that place, and it's symbolic for His presence and His provision for the people again at that time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this time is different because the Lord tells Moses to speak to the rock, to get water for the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses is frustrated, you don't often see this frustration with Moses, but he's had it with this bunch of grumblers and complainers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in his frustration at the people's complaining, he disobeyed God, and he strikes the rock as he had done before, and the Lord provides the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, as he's about to strike the rock, he calls the people, you rebels, and indeed they were rebels against God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in his own disobedience, he joins them in their sin of disobedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Moses is not also not allowed to go into the promised land.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because by his action, this time striking the rock, when he was told to speak to the rock, he has dishonored the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he hasn't glorified the Lord as holy for the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's held to a greater accountability.

[SPEAKER_00]: as the leader and a representative for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is close to the time in the end of Moses' life, and just not long after that, Moses writes this song in Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's in that song, it's the first reference to the Lord as a rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you thought about that before, but several times in the Scripture, we see this reference in the Psalms.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see this reference as the Lord is a rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there was the first time, and do you run me 32 versus 33 and 4 Moses writes for, I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribed greatness to our God, the rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: His work is perfect for all his ways, our justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we may think, you know, that was seemed a little unfair to Moses, because he struck the rock and said, as speaking to the rock, he doesn't get to go into the promise land.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gets to see it, but not go into the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: But notice, Moses calls him the rock and he says, his ways are justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then a couple other places in that same song he refers to God as a rock in verse 15.

[SPEAKER_00]: He refers to him as the rock of Israel's salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you remember that Jesus, when he is teaching, he identifies himself as the spiritual

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus identifies himself and if you're thinking Old Testament and you're thinking you've got to be thinking about the bread that came down out of heaven and the water that was given to Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Apollo, though, in his writing, in one Corinthians, makes certain this identification of the rock in the wilderness with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: In one Corinthians 10, he versus one to five.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's warning, Paul is warning the Corinthians that they would be, that they would be people of faith,

[SPEAKER_00]: And he uses the history of Israel in the wilderness to warn them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says in one Corinthians 10, verse 1, for I do not want you to be unaware brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud, and in the sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, they were immersed.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were identified with Moses and those experiences that God gave them and his miraculous provision and protection and his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they all ate the same spiritual food

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll drink the same spiritual drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's referring to that physical bread and that physical water as spiritual.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's gonna explain why he's calling it spiritual.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, for they drink from the spiritual rock that followed them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a physical rock that followed them around, but a spiritual rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, and the rock was Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's the Lord Jesus Christ was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one that was identified with the Lord, the Lord told Moses, he always says to Moses, I'll stand there upon the rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're told here very clearly that that rock was Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one that was there providing for them, the one that was giving water.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, nevertheless, with most of them, others of both Israel, they all experience this miraculous grace of God in demonstration of his power, but with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see this symbolism of the rock was identified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if that's true, then the striking of the rock

[SPEAKER_00]: must also have some significance and we see that clearly also Isaiah would prophesy of Christ and we're familiar with Isaiah 53, verse 4 he says, surely he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Isaiah 53:4

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God, inflicted.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word, smitten is the same word that was used to about striking the rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then also the prophet, Zachariah, records what the Lord said, concerning his shepherd in Zachariah 13, verse 7.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, a wake, a sword against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the Lord of hosts, strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord, when He's with this, the disciples in the upper room, He's going to warn them about what's taking place.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He quotes from Zachariah, these same words to refer to Himself as the one that is going to be stricken, the shepherd that will be struck.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see this identification with Christ as the rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so what seemed like a random and strange way to provide water for the people has a deep significance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And symbolized the Lord's provision of spiritual water for His people through the striking of the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's another question then, we need to think about, what is the spiritual water then?

[SPEAKER_00]: that Paul spoke of.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the spiritual water that the Lord provides through Christ the rock?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you note out, remember, Jesus speaking to the woman at the well and there she's all about the need for water and going to the well and Jesus says in John 4 and verse 14,

[SPEAKER_00]: But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

[SPEAKER_00]: The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus later in John chapter 7 is going to teach concerning the water.

John 7 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: in himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then John explains further, now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, Jesus had yet died and risen and returned to heaven at the right

[SPEAKER_00]: We see the coming of the Spirit of God, to end well, those who receive the Lord, those who have believed in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see that the water then from the rock illustrates the gracious supply of life, eternal life given by the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people,

[SPEAKER_00]: people of Israel who deserve to be stricken and God's grace that you receive life, because the rock was struck.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as we also who deserve to be struck, who deserve judgment

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the invitation, we see in John 7, verse 37, he says, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

John 7:37

[SPEAKER_00]: So the question is, are you thirsty?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you come to the place where you recognize that you are thirsty, that you have a need,

[SPEAKER_00]: That's to be thirsty.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that invitation, we begin with Isaiah, it goes all the way to the book of Revelation, come to the waters, come to the Lord, your thirsty, come, and so he invites to come to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is the only way in which your thirst can be quenched.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only way that you can have this life

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're to come to Him and drink in the drinking, speaks of the receiving of Christ, receiving what He has done for us through faith, repenting from our sins and dependents upon ourselves and turning to the Lord and faith and believing in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone is thirsty, let Him come and drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: So today,

[SPEAKER_00]: If you hear the voice of the Lord, do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fathers, we turn our hearts to you in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: We ask that you would speak to our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, each need, father, of each individual here today.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the believer who needs encouragement.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the warning, you know, Father, the unbeliever who needs to turn to you, I pray you'd create a thirst in their heart that they would turn from self to you in faith believing Lord, I pray that all of us would go away with a renewed realization of your grace to us, we who are guilty.

[SPEAKER_00]: have received life, have received grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I pray that we would keep that, we would remember as we're challenged to do and remember the grace of God to us in Jesus' name, amen.