Testing after Triumph

REFLECTION: Matthew 4:4

SERMON: Exodus 15:22-17:7

BENEDICTION: 1 Peter 5:10-11

INTRODUCTION

From my reading this week:

A man from Philadelphia was ordained to the pastoral ministry. It was a remarkable occasion because only four years earlier he had almost dropped out of the church altogether. The man had dedicated his life to serving God. At the time he was working for the church, attending seminary, and preparing for the ministry. Then his newborn daughter was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. As far as the man was concerned, this kind of suffering had never been part of the bargain. The deal was that he would serve God, and God would bless him. When God did not bless him, he was no longer willing to serve. It was not until he turned his bitterness over to God, trusting God to be faithful even in suffering, that he was restored to joy.

TRANSITION

The last time we were in Exodus together, we were rejoicing with the Israelites in Chapter 15 as they had crossed the Red Sea (Thanksgiving 2020).

God’s people have just sung about God’s deliverance from their enemies - God’s enemies. But after three days’ journey into the wilderness, they move toward a different set of trials. They are worried about a lack of food and water.

This morning, we’ll encounter 3 scenes that each involve testing. The clear parallels to Christ will hopefully leap off the pages to you as we progress.

The first two scenes we see God testing his people to see whether they will trust and obey him during their pilgrimage.

In the third scene at Rephidim (water)— God’s people test God, questioning whether the God who provided at Marah and Elim and in the wilderness could provide

WE ARE ABOUT TO ENTER WILDERNESS UNIVERSITY - What Spurgeon referred to as the “Oxford and Cambridge for God’s students.”

The people of God are being led by the God of all Creation. And God is leading them INTO THE WILDERNESS.

Going through the wilderness was not necessry for their salvation - they had already been delivered.

it WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR THEIR SANCTIFICATION.

Clement of Rome writes that God did this, “ that He might root out the evils which had clung to them by a long-continued familiarity with the customs of the Egyptians.

SCENE 1: Bitter Water

(Exodus 15:22-27)

The people get through singing the Lord’s praise…they turn to Moses and say, “hey, we’re thirsty!”

Our most basic physical need is water, so the lack of water troubled the Israelites. They were in a desert and thought they had found water, only to discover it was undrinkable.

The Israelites respond to this need and fear by GRUMBLING against Moses (v. 24).

Exodus 15:24 ESV

24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

Make no mistake, Complaining and grumbling are signs of ungratefulness, self-centeredness, immaturity, and insecurity.

Is your first reaction to trouble faith-filled prayer? or is it grumbling and anxiety?

Anxiety has been referred to as FUNCTIONAL ATHEISM - when you worry, you do not believe GOD!

Moses takes the issue right to the LORD and the LORD directs him.

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Moses takes a log and throws it into water.

The water becomes sweet instead of bitter...

THIS IS A MIRACLE

I’ve said this before in our time in Exodus, especially - I’m amazed at how much effort has been put into trying to explain away these miracles.

What is amazing here is NOT JUST that God DID a miracle, but that HE WAS WILLING TO DO IT FOR COMPLAINERS!

But that’s Grace isn’t it? God’s grace is sweet!

BITTER WATER MADE SWEET WATER...

It’s like looking at Calvary.

Seeing the spotless Lamb of God - the sweet and perfect embodiment of God’s amazing grace on display for humanity - pierced and crucified for the sins of the whole world.

We see the sweet LOVE of God on display in Christ’s life.

We see the sweet GRACE of God on display on the cross.

AT THE SAME TIME, we see the BITTERNESS of our SINS that put Him before the Sanhedrin,

the bitterness our Rebellion that nailed Him to 2 beams of wood

the bitterness of our guilt and despair that convicted Him of crimes he didn’t commit

He bore our BITTER sins on the cross that we might taste His Sweet Amazing Grace on this sids of the resurrection

God gives them a statute as a micro-covenant

Exodus 15:26 ESV

26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

These requirements were not the basis of their salvation…they were to teach them to LIVE FOR GOD’S GLORY. They were for their SANCTIFICATION!

BITTER MADE SWEET INDEED!

They leave Marah and head for Elim.

Elim was a place of abundance. Usually it is identified with Wadi Gharandel, a lush oasis in northern Sinai about 7 miles south of Marah.

SCENE 2: Bread from Heaven

(Exodus 16:1-36)

About one month later, God’s people headed south and east, deeper into the wilderness: the Desert of Sin between Elim and Sinai. Soon the Israelites were tired and hungry, and once again they started to complain

Exodus 16:2–3 ESV

2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

WOW - WHINING IS ISRAEL’S BESETTING SIN!

We often fail in the same way.

Our need for provision is the testing of our faith. But when the time of testing comes, rather than waiting for God in quiet confidence, we get anxious and angry.

Yet it’s important for us to realize that our COMPLAINING is rarely caused by our actual circumstances - it’s really revealing the inward condition of our hearts.

Really the Israelites were not running out of food. This is what they said, of course—“We’re starving out here!”—but it simply wasn’t true. In the next chapter they talk about needing water for their livestock (Exod. 17:3).

Obviously they still had the flocks and herds that they had brought out of Egypt. They could drink milk and make cheese; if necessary, they could even eat meat. So they were not starving.

Also, the word “grumbling” hardly does the Israelites justice. The Hebrew word was “not designed to express a disgruntled complaint. Quite the contrary, it describe[d] an open rebellion.

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Israel’s Protest

Remember that the great question in Exodus concerned Israel’s worship: Whom would they serve—God or Pharaoh? God wanted his people to serve him alone, but now the Israelites were saying, “We would rather serve Pharaoh.” Patrick Henry’s famous words were, “Give me liberty or give me death!” The Israelites said exactly the opposite: “Give us bondage or give us death!” Their complaining went far beyond griping about their menu. They were rebelling against God’s plan for their salvation.

GOD MIRACULOUSLY PROVIDES AGAIN

Exodus 16:4–5 ESV

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

This is where we get MANNA (which means, “what is this”.

God responds with mercy here - not judgment. Tony Merida draws our minds to 4 aspects of God’s provision here:

1. It was supernatural.

(vv 11-15) It was bread from Heaven.

2. It was sufficient.

(v16-30) God gave enough for the day. (Some tried to keep it…it would spoil.) Give us THIS DAY - OUR DAILY BREAD.

3. It was sacred.

(vv 31-36) God told Moses to save a bit of it. Eventually it was placed in the ark of the covenant.

4. It was sanctifying.

(You actually find this Deut 8:3)

Deuteronomy 8:2–3 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. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

He fed them with quail. He fed them with manna.

God was not just filling their bellies - He was trying to shepherd their hearts!

It’s the same with us, as he provides for us.

SCENE 3: Water from the ROCK

(Exodus 17:1-7 )

Here we go again. They were in the wilderness and out of water.

For the purpose of their sanctification, God had led them AWAY from the place of provision to a place where there was nothing to drink.

Exodus 17:2–4 ESV

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.”

WOW…just Wow.

Complaining is such a serious sin…more serious than we might think.

Philippians 2:14 ESV

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing,

Over and over we read of Israel’s complaining and grumbling:

They grumbled under Pharaoh ( Exod 2:23).

They grumbled at the Red Sea ( 14:11-12).

They grumbled at Marah ( 15:23-24).

They grumbled about their leaders ( 16:2-3; 17:3-4; also Num 11).

They grumbled in the wilderness when they got nervous about food - “[in Egypt] we sat by pots of meat”? (16:3)

They’re grumbling now about water…but this time it’s different.

THEY ARE PUTTING GOD TO THE TEST HERE!

I WONDER IF YOU SEE ANY SIMILARITIES IN YOUR OWN LIFE WITH THIS PATTERN...

17:2a Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”...

- DEMAND God’s Provision! (17:2a)

We expect this of ill-behaved children who are in the process of developing manners. But we don’t tolerate it long with them.

What about us? Do you make demands on God…insisting that He works on your terms and timetable?

- QUESTION God’s Protection! (17:3)

Did you bring us out here to die?

What about us? Do you say things like, “what are you trying to do to me?” in this current trial…as if God is trying to hurt you. He loves you…He has brought you through a greater Exodus that Israel from Egypt.

- DOUBT GOD’S PRESENCE (17:7)

Are you with us or not? You said you’d never leave us, but here we are again!

What about us? Are you tempted to think that God has left you alone…that’s nonsense, it’s a lie!

None of those accusations were true for Israel…nor are they for us as children of God! We spiral into those thoughts when we FORGET or better, REFUSE TO REMEMBER who GOD IS and WHAT HE HAS DONE!

We start spiraling when we wallow in ungratefulness, self-centeredness, immaturity, and insecurity.

BUT WE MUST REMEMBER THE NATURE, DEEDS, WONDERS, WORK, AND HOLINESS OF OUR LORD!

Deuteronomy 31:8 ESV

8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Psalm 37:25 ESV

25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.

2 Corinthians 4:7–9 ESV

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Moses prays, and God provides water from the rock!

Exodus 17:5–6 ESV

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.

What did the water prove?

It proved everything about God that the Israelites were calling into question. The LORD was PROVIDING, PROTECTING, AND PRESENT with them. The water flowing from the rock proved all these things.

LESSONS FROM THESE SCENES

Our Salvation sets us free. Our Sanctification shows others His glory.

COMPLAINING is cultivated more in our hearts that by our actual circumstances.

God provides for his people, giving us whatever we truly need. And since he is our all-sufficient provider, he himself is all we need.

Christ in these scenes

We have encountered Christ throughout our study of Exodus:

We saw him in the birth of Moses—the baby in the basket who was born to be the savior.

We saw him at the burning bush, where Moses met the Great I Am.

We also saw him in all of God’s signs and wonders.

Then we saw Jesus at the Red Sea, where God’s people were baptized from death into life.

We saw Jesus in the wilderness too. The sweet desert springs refreshed us with his living water, and the manna tasted like the true bread from Heaven that gives life to the world.

BUT WE COME NOW TO THE ROCK…STRUCK, SO THAT LIFE-GIVING WATER COULD FLOW FORTH!

God did this for us in the person of his own Son.

We were thirsty - thirsty for living water that would never run dry when the poor sugary substitutes of this world robbed us from being satisfied in our deepest places. WE NEEDED WATER.

We were on shaky ground in a world of shifting sand. WE NEEDED A ROCK.

Paul beats us to the punch in his letter to the Corinthians. While he’s warning them about their idolatry, he beautifully describe these tests in 1 Corinthians 10.

The rock was Christ because like the rock:

Christ was struck with divine judgment.

This is what happened to him on the cross. Christ was bearing the curse for our sin; so God struck him with the rod of his justice.

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

The judgment that Christ received on the cross is the proof of our protection. It shows that we will not suffer eternal death for our sins. God has taken the judgment of our guilt upon himself, and now we are safe for all eternity.

The rock was also Christ because it flowed with life-giving water

John 4:14 ESV

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Paul loops us back to this test through the crosshairs of Calvary...

1 Corinthians 10:4 ESV

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

To those who thirst, come drink from the water of life.

To all who are hungry for something more…come taste and see that the Lord is good - he is the Bread of life.

HE MAKES BITTER WATER SWEET; HE IS THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN; HE’S THE WELL THAT WILL NEVER RUN DRY!

PRAYER