Full Sermon Strike the Rock! based on Exodus 17:1-7

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. Not enough water. When we do not get enough water, we have troubles. If we do not drink enough water, we became dehydrated. If we do not drink enough water, we get very thirsty. Water is very important for us. Without water we do not live long.

We all need water. A lot of water.

Tonight, we continue to look at Bible lessons from the Book of Exodus. We will look at Exodus 17:1-7 and we will think about the questions who, what, where, how, why, and when.

II. Who does Exodus 17 tell us about? The Israelites. They lived in Egypt for around 400 years. They became slaves of the Egyptians. They cried out to God for help.

Who else does Exodus 17 tell us about? The Israelites and Moses. When Moses was a small infant, his mother put him in a basket and floated him in the Nile River rather than drown him in the water as the King of Egypt had wanted. Moses was taken out of the basket and adopted by the daughter of the King of Egypt. Moses was raised with the best education of the Egyptians. Moses was the one who later delivered the people of Israel out of their slavery. At the Red Sea Moses raised his staff and the waters parted. The people of Israel walked through on dry ground. The Egyptian army and chariots and horses ended up drowning in the Red Sea when the waters overwhelmed them as they tried to chase down the people of Israel.

III. What was the problem now? Exodus 17:1 tells us, “There was no water for the people to drink.” By this time the Israelites had been in the desert wilderness for about a month. All they saw was rocks, sand, and dirt. Nothing but rocks, sand, and dirt. They were not in a good mood.

We know what life is like with no water, too. We know what a spiritual thirst can be like. We sometimes wonder if God really cares about us. We sometimes wonder about the reason behind our illness or pain. We sometimes wonder about the goodness of God.

The people of Israel quarreled with Moses. They complained to Moses about their lack of water. In Exodus 17:4 Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

IV. What do we do when we are overcome with thirst? Like the Israelites, we want to throw rocks at other people. [Do you remember the scene in Forest Gump? When Jennie begins throwing rocks at her childhood home? When Jennie runs out of rocks and falls down on the ground? What does Forest Gump say? “Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks!” Forest Gump is wrong! Forest Gump is dead wrong! We thirst so much for love, that, when we don’t get it, we begin throwing rocks. Verbal missals. Nuclear words. Silent stares. Angry texts. There are always enough rocks! And this breaks God’s heart.] (Illustration from Dr. Reed Lessing)

V. Where did this incident in Exodus 17 take place? Exodus 17:1 states that the Israelites camped at Rephidim. No one knows where Rephidim was. Bible scholars do not know. Archaeologists do not know. All people can say is that Rephidim was somewhere near Mount Horeb, another name for Mount Sinai.

But we all have our place like Rephidim. That place where life seems to be too much to bear. That place where friends are few and far between. That place where we are tempted to throw in the towel. That place where we are almost burnt out with all our problems. Rephidim.

VI. At Rephidim. At Rephidim we cry with Psalm 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God!” (NIV 84) At Rephidim we echo the anguish of Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (NIV 84)

VII. Why? Why do we become so thirsty? Five words. It might have been. The people of Israel wondered why Moses had brought them out of Egypt. To kill them with thirst? In other words, they were saying to Moses, “It might have been different if we stayed in Egypt.” It might have been so much better. It might have been.

[These words were made famous in 1856 when John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem he called Maud Muller. It’s a poem about a young woman named Maud Muller who one day meets a young man. After their encounter, each of them ponders what it would be like to marry the other. But the moment passes and both Maud and the man end up in sad marriages. And both anguish over what was lost on that day so long ago. At the end of the poem Whittier writes, “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’”] (Illustration from Dr. Reed Lessing)

VIII. How? How do we get water? We need a staff. The staff of Moses was what the people of Israel needed. The staff of Moses that could change into a snake and back into a staff. The staff of Moses that was raised at the Red Sea and the waters parted. Exodus 17:5-6 tells us, “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. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.” 1 Corinthians 10:4 states, “(They) all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” The apostle Paul connected the rock to Jesus Christ. How?

IX. Another staff. Matthew 27:29-30 refers to another staff, “They put a staff in his (Jesus’) right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.” (NIV 84)

John 19:34 gives us another detail about Jesus, “One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” (NIV 84) There is that word again: water.

One of the last words of Jesus from the cross was, “I thirst.” The same Jesus on the cross was in a sense the Rock that was struck for the people to live. From Jesus on the cross flows living water.

X. Soul-quenching words. Isaiah describes God’s soul-quenching love with these words, “The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.” (Isaiah 35:7) Ezekiel sees it as a river teaming with life, “Where the river flows everything will live.” (Ezekiel 47:9) Joel writes, “All the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house.” (Joel 3:18) (All from NIV 84)

The questions again are: Who?Israel and Moses. What? There is no water! Where? Rephidim. Why?It might have been. How? Jesus, the Rock of Ages. What question are we missing?

XI. When? We’re missing when. When does this water flow? When does this water come to you and me? When does this water quench your longing, aching heart? Remember that Jesus loves you so very, very, very much that His living, life-giving, forgiving, soul-renewing water flows from the cross for you and for me. When?

Right now! Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.