Water From the Rock

Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1–7 NKJV

Then all the congregation of the children of 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. 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?” And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!” And the Lord said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Yogi Berra was a famous baseball player known for his humorous liners. One of these was: “It’s deja vu all over again.” This applies well to the history of Israel and their journeys in the wilderness. In today’s passage, we see the thirsty Israelites complaining to Moses and accusing the LORD, that He only brought them out of Egypt to destroy them, this time by thirst. In last week’s passage from Exodus 16:2-15, we heard this same accusation, but this time it was perishing from hunger.

The first murmuring about water occurs in Exodus 15. They had just celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh’s army. Just three days later, they were again complaining against Moses and the LORD. The LORD directed Moses to a tree to sweeten the bitter waters. Later on, they “discovered” palm trees and ten wells of water at Elim (Exodus 15:27). Both the sweetening of the bitter water and the discovery of the wells came from the hand of the LORD. Although some might claim that there was an additive of some sort from the wood which effectively neutralized the water, it was by the LORD’s hand. The same is true for the wells. They needed a lot of water, and the LORD provided ten wells. In last week’s message, (Mah-Na? What is this Stuff?), we saw that God provided quail for them to eat in the evening. Some could ascribe this to good luck rather than the LORD’s direct provision. But the provision of the bread which rained down from heaven had no “natural” explanation. We can see that the LORD provides directly as well as by other means. But, either way, it is the LORD who is to receive the glory.

Today, Moses is directed to strike a specific rock, from which enough water would gush out to provide for thousands of Israelites and their cattle. There is no “natural” explanation” for this miracle. I know that today we can extract oil from shale. I don’t know, but there might be some rocks from which water could be extracted. But when we realize the scale of the need as well as the available technology 3500 years ago, there is no way to explain this, except by the hand of God Himself.

The long and the short of it is this: Israel was not to trust in human means, whether it was deliverance and provision by the hands of others or to trust in their own ingenuity and self-reliance. Moses might claim as a shepherd who knew the area well, that he could have found water there for his family and his small flocks. But this is nothing compared to the need. They did not have time to “frack” water-bearing rock, if this even exists. There was no “divining rod” to discover underground water. There was no En-Gedi, a natural oasis at the edge of the Dead Sea. Moses was to strike a rock, from which abundant water would gush out.

I can remember as a child attending the Flemington, NJ county fair, There was a faucet that was suspended over a barrel from which water gushed. It was real water. I was puzzled how this could be, seeing that there did not seem to be anything attached to the faucet to provide water. However, my dad put his hand over the faucet, and voila!, there was a pipe there. It was well disguised. It ran up from the barrel into the faucet opening. As it was in the middle of the stream of water coming down, it could not be seen as it was a clear pipe. This answered the other dilemma which was that no matter how much water flowed into the barrel, it never overflowed.

The water from the rock, just like the bread from heaven were true miracles from the LORD. Of course, no miracle is a miracle to God who holds sovereign power over the universe and establishes its order. But, to us they are miracles which no human means are able to provide, including science and technology. It is, again, not to say that God does not use people, governments, church, human, or other “natural means” to deliver us from some particular trouble. But God is not limited to these means. But we must also be warned that “miracles” can be faked as well. We have seen the tricks of well-known televangelists who set up their “miracles” in advance. But God still can perform “miracles” today according to His will as needed. He is Sovereign. He chooses if and how to meet our perceived needs. We should not to trust in signs and miracles. Neither should we trust in human means. We are to trust solely in the LORD and leave it up to Him once we have borne our petitions to Him.

We already discussed last week about how the Israelites failed to trust the LORD and chose to complain and accuse His motives for delivering them from Egypt which was blasphemy against the character of the LORD. If anything, there is an escalation in this passage, to the point that Moses and Aaron feared for their lives. But the LORD showed His mercy and longsuffering once again. He simply directed Moses to strike the rock, and abundant water flowed out. Israel was again delivered. And Moses called the place Massah and Meribah because of the contention and the fact that Israel complained and impugned the character of the LORD. We, too, need to be reminded of our failures to trust in the LORD. But this is meant to teach us next time to trust in the LORD, that it is His will to save us and not to kill. Israel was slow to learn. Soon they would provoke the LORD to wrath again and again, such as the making of the golden calf and the unbelief of the ten spies. So we must understand that there is a limit to provocations. The good news is that the LORD is full of mercy and slow to anger.

Just as in last week’s message, this incident serves as a type of deliverance which is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John brings out this connection. Last week, we were reminded of Jesus’ association of Himself to be the true bread which came down from heaven. This week we see the association of Jesus with the water which came from the rock in John 7:37-39:

John 7:37–39 NKJV

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus says these words at the Feast of Tabernacles which was the annual commemoration of the wilderness experience of Israel. They stayed for a week in booths, and three things were remembered in particular. The first was the manna which came from heaven. The second was the water which came from the rock. The third was the pillar of flame which guided them on their journey by night and the pillar of cloud which guided them by day, which Jesus relates to Himself when He says “I AM the Light of the World. When we look at the previously cited verse, the association of the Scripture is made more clear when we take the Greek pronoun “autou” as a referring to the rock. The Scripture cited should be understood as: “Out of the belly of the rock shall come rivers of living water.”

If one examines the parallel structure which is common in Hebrew, John 7:37 should read: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come, and let him drink who believes in me.” It has commonly been understood here that the believer is the source of the river of living waters (the Holy Spirit). However, when it is understood as the belly of the rock rather than as the NKJV says “out of his heart” (referring to the believer), then we come to what Jesus is saying here, He is that rock, the rock that we smitten to save us, out of which flowed His blood, the true drink which satisfies thirst eternally. As Jesus says to the woman at the well in John 4:13-14:

John 4:13–14 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Paul describes the water from the rock this way in 1 Corinthians 10:4:

1 Corinthians 10:4 NKJV

and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

We also read from John 15:26-27

John 15:26–27 NKJV

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

So we see that the Triune God is guiding us to a better land than that of Canaan to which the fist Joshua (Jesus) led them. This makes the comparison to the first Canaan as a land flowing with milk and honey pale in comparison. We, too, are in the wilderness, being discipled that we might enter into the Promised Land. We need to learn not to complain but to trust in the LORD and His leadership. We will enter soon enough. Let us remain patient. There will be difficulties set before us. But the One who has delivered us from the bondage of sin is also the one who shepherds us and leads us to our true destiny. He will provide what we truly need. Amen.