Water from the Rock

Introduction

Today in New York City, there is a 9/11 Memorial and museum. Most itineraries to New York include a visit to this memorial to pay respects to those who lost their lives. People remember the horrendous actions that took place, but they also remember the bravery, sacrifice, and selflessness of so many who gave their lives to help others.

The earth is full of memorials and hallowed places where powerful things have happened, for good and for evil.

Meribah, aka, Masah is a place that the Israelites were admonished to remember what they had done and what God had done.

Moses in Deuteronomy admonished Israel for what they had done.

English Standard Version (Psalm 95:8-9)

do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,9 when your fathers put me to the testand put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

The Rock that was struck was more than simply a rock. It was God’s salvation. 1 Corinthians 10:4 tells us that the rock was Jesus. Jesus grants us salvation through his death, burial, and resurrection.

CIT: Jesus was the rock that was struck for our salvation.

Explanation

English Standard Version Chapter 17

17 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.”

Explanation:

1. The Israelites are still complaining.

2. The people of Israel were fighting with Moses and telling Moses to “give them water to drink.”

3. Moses, “You are quarrelling with me, and you are testing the Lord.”

Application:

They were not asking or waiting for God’s provision. They were DEMANDING it.

We don’t get to demand anything from God. Not a single thing.

Everything that we have from God is a gift.

They are denying God’s protection.

Do you every assume the worse of God? This is what was happening.

The Christian should be an optimist. We don’t base our optimism in ourselves or our situations. We base them in Christ.

They were doubting God’s motives.

We often doubt God’s motives. “Does God really have my best at heart?”

I don’t think we struggle as much with whether God’s motives are good or not. We really struggle with whether God’s motives for our lives will line up with our motives for our lives.

Few of us think that God is against us.

Most of us worry about what God will bring to us if He is for us.

English Standard Version Chapter 17

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?”

Explanation:

1. God told Moses to gather elders and get your staff, and go strike the rock at Horeb that was before him. (Don’t strike the elders - strike the rock)

2. Moses struck the rock and water came flowing from it to give life to the Israelites.

3. The place was named Masah (“testing”) and Meribah (“quarrelling”), to mark the attitudes of the people and what God had done there.

4. “Is the Lord among us or not?”

a. This is one of the most revealing statements entire Exodus account.

b. G. K. Chesterson:

i. G. K. Chesterson was a brilliant, famous British philosopher and theologian around the time of WWI.

ii. An interviewer once asked him, “What would you do if you turned around and asked Jesus was standing behind you?”

iii. G. K. Chesterson turned around and looked behind him, turned back to the interviewer and said, “He is.”

Application:

Notice the longsuffering of God. He is patient with grumblers. He is understanding with sinners.

I have been preaching Exodus for 8 months, give or take, and I’m a little tired of it myself.

God is gracious and longsuffering with them.

The Isrealites placed God on trial, yet God was the one who was placing Israel on trial.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

10 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.

“For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”

For the Israelites (Charles Hodge):

a. They were consistently supplied with water.

b. The source of the physical supply was Christ.

i. Jewish folklore attempts to explain how the Israelites had water in many ways. Some rabbis even stated that the rock rolled with them wherever they went. They miss the point.

ii. Christ was the rock the would follow the Israelites. They had water wherever they went, because Christ went with them.

c. The source of their spiritual supply was Christ.

For you and me:

a. Let’s compare Christ and the rock.

i. Both were struck. The rock was struck with the rod of Moses. Christ was struck with whips of the Romans and ultimately the wrath of God.

b. Both provided salvation.

c. Both provided vitality and nourishment.

d. Both were struck for stubborn and selfish people.

e. Both completed the work that they were intended to complete.

Christian: Christ was bruised for your sins. His death brought you new life, forgiveness, and grace.

Invitation

Come to Christ and know the joy that he brings.

Come to Christ and experience his forgiveness.