Exodus 17:1-16 - The Lord is Our Hope in the Wilderness

The Word Read

Please remain standing for the reading of the Holy Scripture. Hear the Word of the Lord from:

Exodus 17:6–7 ESV

6 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. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Behold, brothers and sisters, this is the Word of the Lord. Please be seated.

Exordium

Beloved in Christ,

I invite you to open Holy Scripture to Exodus 17.

In our previous passage, the people of Israel complained and grumbled against the Lord in the wilderness of Sin. Numbers 33:10-14 gives us the journey from Elim to Rephidim:

Numbers 33:10–14 ESV

10 And they set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea. 11 And they set out from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin. 12 And they set out from the wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. 13 And they set out from Dophkah and camped at Alush. 14 And they set out from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

The people of Israel find themselves in the same situation they were in at Marah. There is no water for them to drink. How will they respond this time? Will they trust the Lord, or will they complain all over again?

In the complexity of life, we find ourselves in the wilderness at times. How many of us can attest to this reality? I’d even venture an educated guess that some of you sit in Rephidim this morning. There is no water for your heart. There is no nourishment, and you feel utterly abandoned. A heart so dry that you’d give anything for an ounce of water. We cry out to Christ, “Do you still care for me? Do you still love me? Do you see me at all? Please, I just need a drop of water and I’ll be satisfied.” In essence, we know Christ loves us biblically and theologically, but we want to know experientially that He is with us as we sit in our own Rephidim.

My thesis for these verses is that the Lord providentially, sovereignly, and intentionally brings His people to Rephidim to show them His powerful presence.

Exodus 17:1-7 - Testing the Lord at Rephidim

Exodus 17:1–7 ESV

1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 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. 6 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. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

The people of Israel began to travel through the wilderness of Sin in stages. How did they do this? By the commandment of the Lord, or by the mouth of the Lord. This is significant. The Lord’s presence is with them. They travel through the wilderness by His Word. 

Furthermore, they come to Rephidim by His command. This is vital to understanding what is occurring in this passage. The people do not just happen to go to Rephidim, where there is no water. The Lord intentionally brings them to this place. Millions of people and countless livestock are without water. This begs the question: Why does God bring His people to a place where there is no water? 

This question gets to the heart of the wilderness in these passages. The wilderness is a place where God intentionally brings His people so that He can reveal His presence and power to them. For the people of Israel, the wilderness revealed that their hearts were full of unbelief. The author of Hebrews speaks these incredibly sobering words about this generation in Hebrews 3:7-12:

Hebrews 3:7–12 ESV

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Did you hear those words? This generation that sits encamped at Rephidim always went astray in their heart. They had unbelieving hearts, which is what led to their complaining and provoked the Lord to anger. We saw this complaining begin in the wilderness last week in Exodus 15:22-16:36. Today, we see their complaining against Moses and the Lord heightens. Despite the Lord caring for their daily needs, they have hearts that ALWAYS wander from the Lord. 

Without water, what do these people do? They quarrel. The word for quarrel here is not the same as grumbling that we looked at last week. This word has the sense of contending with someone, finding fault with someone, and in the most extreme case, it can mean taking a case to court against another person. The quarreling here is a much greater sense of complaining than in the previous two passages. Yet once again, Moses discerns that their quarreling is not just against him. They are also testing the Lord.

In a cosmic flipping of the script, it is now Israel who puts the Lord to the test. Remember in Exodus 15:25-36 when the Lord gives a statute and a rule to the people to test them. Now it is the people of Israel who will test the Lord. The Lord’s test was for their good. Follow Me, dwell with Me, and I will not send any of the plagues that I gave to Egypt on you. However, Israel’s testing is rooted in their disbelief, and they seek to manipulate the Lord. 

The crux of their testing is an accusation against Moses, as well as against God. “You’ve brought us out here to kill us, our children, and our livestock. We will die by thirst.” Moses clearly understands this is a serious accusation. He runs directly to the Lord and asks, “What am I to do? The people are going to stone me!” Even Moses’ heart grows faint during this situation. 

The Lord’s instructions are clear: “Take some elders and travel to Horeb, or Mount Sinai. I will stand before you on a rock. You shall strike that rock and water shall pour out of it, and there the people will drink.” Moses does this. The elders accompany him to Mount Sinai and witness the miracle. They are witnesses to the Lord’s supernatural provision. Then, Moses calls this place Massah (testing) and Meribah (dissatisfaction). Why does Moses give these locations these names? It is because the people said, “The Lord is not with us.” 

Once again, we see the loving, tender care of Yahweh for His people. They have put him to the test through manipulation. “Provide water for us or else we will die. Show us that You will take care of us once again.” The Lord doesn’t have to respond to their sinful ways. Yet, He provides for them because He is keeping His covenant with them. 

How many times have we come to Rephidim in our lives? A barren wasteland where we see no earthly good. Rephidim comes in many forms: death, disease, trials, afflictions, and tests. We groan and complain because Rephidim is not what we wanted. “God, take me out of this empty wilderness!” And just like the people of Israel, the complaining and grumbling go up to the Lord. He hears, and He knows.

In these moments, we must reflect deeply on the truth in this passage - the Lord brings us to these places to show us His powerful presence. If you sit in the middle of the wilderness today, it is not by accident. The Lord is still very much in control. He has not left the throne, nor has His eye left your life. He powerfully proclaims, “I am with you AND I brought you here.” 

There are many, many ways God brings us into the wilderness. However, I do believe, as we see in this passage, the reason God brings us into the wilderness is to show us areas of our lives that are not entirely submissive to Him. The bright, glorious, beaming, and brilliant light of God’s holiness shines into the deep, dark crevices of our hearts. In these times, we are forced to look at those crevices for all their sinfulness. We come face to face with the reality that we have not trusted the Lord as we ought. With almost a divine magnifying glass, the Lord’s holiness is intensified into a specific part of our wayward hearts, revealing a pridefulness that trusts in ourselves, not in Him. 

How many of us have begged the Lord as we wander the wilderness, “God, why am I here? Why have you led me to this place?” I believe the answer is found in Deuteronomy 8:2:

Deuteronomy 8:2 ESV

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

I cannot count the number of times the Lord has brought me to Rephidim, showing me His powerful presence and revealing a sin that has taken deep root in my heart. At a certain point in my life, the Lord led me to Rephidim. He was showing me the pride and arrogance that sat in my heart. In the Lord’s providence, I ran into a friend whom I had not seen for about a year. We chatted for 20 minutes about life in general. Here’s how he ended the conversation: “Brad, you are a lot less arrogant than you used to be.” He said that, and we parted ways. I don’t think a compliment has angered me more in my entire life. The pride welled in my heart, and I wanted to say, “I wasn’t that arrogant. I think we know plenty of other people who are more prideful than me!” I reflected on his comment while I drove home. I prayed and thanked the Lord for the wilderness He had me in at that moment, not because I enjoyed it, but because He was showing me how I had trusted in myself and not in Him. 

Each of us is somewhere in the Rephidim process. We are: 1) Heading into Rephidim, 2) We are there, and have no clue why, 3) We are there and the Lord has shown us why we are there, and we now must consciously respond to His leading, or 4) We are heading out of Rephidim. The Lord leads and brings us into these spaces so that we might know He is with us and He is sovereign. 

And just like the Israelites in this passage, there is an answer for our hearts in Rephidim - the water from the rock. Paul, writing about the Exodus generation in 1 Corinthians, writes this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-5:

1 Corinthians 10:1–5 ESV

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

The people of Israel, as they traveled here in the wilderness, experienced the pre-incarnate Christ Jesus. He cared for them. He followed them. He nourished them. Yet, they continually returned to their idols and continued to complain. Though they experienced the supernatural and miraculous presence of Christ, most of them disqualified themselves from entering the Promised Land. The humbling in the wilderness revealed hearts that were full of unbelief. What did that last verse say? “With most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” I can’t imagine a more terrifying sentence for us today. 

I think there are two important truths for us to apply today based on these first seven verses. First, we must readily acknowledge it is the Lord who brings us to Rephidim so that we can be humbled and made to see Christ. These wilderness times reveal the true nature of our hearts, and cause us to run back to the spiritual Rock that is Christ Jesus.

Secondly, I want to go back and read from that passage in Hebrews 3. Hear the words of Scripture in Hebrews 3:12-14:

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

The undergirding purpose of the author’s writing is DO NOT BE LIKE THE ISRAELITES. Here is the takeaway for us today: “Exhort one another every day.” In Rephidim, do you know what we need more than anything? Exhortation. “Brother, sister, I know the wilderness is harsh. I can see it on your face, and I can hear your weary heart as you speak. Yet, do not give up on Christ. Run to Him. Run to Him right now. I don’t want your heart to become hardened. Let Christ be your all in all.” Do you know someone who sits in Rephidim right now? Will you encourage them to run to Christ? They don’t need a lecture, and they certainly don’t need your prideful wisdom. They need a gracious brother or sister to remind them of the goodness of Christ. They need to be reminded, as Hosea 2:14 states, “God has brought you into the wilderness so that He might speak tenderly to you.”

As one of my favorite hymns, “Christ is Mine Forevermore,” states:

Mine are tears in times of sorrow Darkness not yet understood Through the valley I must travel Where I see no earthly good

But mine is peace that flows from heaven And the strength in times of need I know my pain will not be wasted Christ completes his work in me

The Lord will bring us back to Rephidim, again, and again, and again, and again. He doesn’t do this because He is a sadistic God who loves to punish His children. He does this so that we might be weaned off this world, so that we might be formed into the image of Christ. Never, ever forsake Rephidim. 

Exodus 17:8-16 - Yahweh-Nissi (The Lord is My Banner)

Exodus 17:8–16 ESV

8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

The people of God now have a critical issue. They are defenseless and exhausted, and this is when the Amalekites attack them. In our passage, we are not given many details on the attack. However, Deuteronomy 25:17-19 provides us with some insight:

Deuteronomy 25:17–19 ESV

17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

The Amalekites attacked those who were lagging. Those who were helpless. Those who were faint and weary. There is no humanly possible way for the people of Israel to defend themselves. Think of their situation. They left Egypt in the middle of the night without taking much. They have been traveling for some time now without any proper weapons. They have no real military training. Thus, it is the rag-tag Israelites against a formidable foe. Logically, there is no hope for these people.

However, the story of the people of Israel coming out of Egypt is not about human intelligence or strength. It was Yahweh who struck down the Egyptians with 10 mighty signs. It was Yahweh who hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he and his army would come after the Israelites near the Red Sea. It was Yahweh who led the Israelites through the dry ground. It was Yahweh who caused the waters to come crashing down on the Egyptian army. Every battle that has been fought thus far has been by the hand of the Lord. “Is the Lord not among us?” This war will be no different. Yahweh is with them and He will fight on their behalf.

Joshua, Moses’ young assistant (Exodus 33:11), is called to choose men to battle with Amalek. Moses says he will go to the top of the mountain with the staff of God in his hand. Joshua obeys Moses, and Moses travels up the hill with Aaron and Hur. When the staff is above Moses’ head, Israel prevails. However, when Moses lowers his hand, the Amalekites have the upper hand. A stone is placed under Moses, and Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ hands. Eventually, Joshua gains the victory over Amalek. 

Moses is then instructed to write this down in a book as a memorial and to convey these words to Joshua. God will one day destroy the Amalekites as he wars with them from generation to generation. Moses then builds an altar and calls it “Yahweh-Nissi” or “The Lord is my Banner.”

There are two truths I would like to highlight from this text that I want you to consider. However, we cannot understand these without understanding the foundational truth that sits in this passage, which is that the Lord providentially, sovereignly, and intentionally brings His people to Rephidim to show them His powerful presence.

With this in mind, the first truth is that the Lord is a covenant-keeping God. Hear what the Lord said when He called Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3:

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

There is the promise in the covenant, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” Amalek was a man who dishonored the people of God, and the Lord kept His word. Amalek was defeated here, and eventually, in Hezekiah’s time, the remnant of the Amalekites were defeated (1 Chronicles 4:43). Yahweh is a covenant-keeping God. 

Since the Lord is a covenant-keeping God, we have no reason to doubt He will keep the promises made to those in Christ in the New Covenant. We have the promise that we are justified through the redemptive work in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24). We can trust that if we have confessed that Jesus is Lord and believed that God raised Him from the dead, we are saved (Romans 10:9-10). We can trust that His grace is sufficient for today, and that His power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). We can trust that one day that Christ will return, we will meet Him in the air, and that we will always be with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The second truth found in these verses is that the Lord is the one who truly fights our battles. There are many times in history when the Church is weak, frail, weary, and faint. In those moments, it is easy for the enemy to send an army against the bride of Christ. Yet, we are never alone. Christ, the great Divine Warrior, does not leave His Church on her own. He fights her battles. Christ is our banner. He is our standard. He is the one who won the war against sin and the enemy at the cross and the resurrection. He, and alone, is the Church’s hope. He sits on His glorious throne waiting until He returns to bring His bride home. 

Closing

Last night, Kristin and I ate at Uptown Tavern. We ended up discussing the realities of the Lord bringing us into different seasons of “Rephidim.” At one point, I said, “It seems if our lives are filled with the Lord taking us through Rephidim. We come out of the wilderness, and then quickly find ourselves back so that the Lord can form us into the image of Jesus.”

Rephidim was a place where the Lord showed that He providentially, sovereignly, and intentionally brought His people there to reveal His powerful presence. They were weary, faint, exhausted, and unfortunately in rebellion. Their hearts were far from Him. Wilderness has a way of revealing everyone’s hearts. Are you in the midst of the wilderness? Let the Savior mold your heart. Behold the glory of Christ by faith in this world despite the seasons of being in Rephidim. Truly, He is your only hope in the wilderness.