WATER FROM THE ROCK
Part 15
Exo. 17:1-7
Morning Meditation 11/16/16
Verses 1-7 say, “And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?”
We have in this passage the sad story of repeated sin. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23) and what Israel did here is not faith. They are still God’s people operating from the human viewpoint. God is going to take them through event after event to try to teach them to walk by faith. In the processes He is going to show that the flesh cannot be changed and there will be continual war against it (Gal. 5:17).
The words “And the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord . . .” means that Rephidim was in the path of God’s leading. He led them here. If where we are is where God led us, you can be sure He is there and will undertake to supply all our needs. The word “Rephidim” means "rests" or "stays" or "resting places," “It was a station of Israel in the wilderness between Egypt and Sinai.” —Strong. Isaiah 57:20 says, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” Isaiah describes the restlessness of the unsaved. But God leads an unbelieving and rebellious people to a place of rest. There are PERIODS OF REST for the people between Egypt and Canaan. Isaiah 28:12 says again, “To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear..” The ears of the flesh do not hear.
The words “and there was no water for the people to drink” set before us the environment for conflict. God sets them up for faith but they have no walking faith. Hebrews 3:18-19 says, “And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” The “rest” in this verse is speaking of the Canaan rest. Israel had enough faith to get them out of Egypt. They came out under the blood of the passover Lamb. But there is where their faith stopped. This is exactly where many stop in their Christian lives. They trust the Lord for salvation but never develop beyond that. Carnal Christians will be in heaven (of course they won’t be carnal after the Lord gets through with them/us) because WE ARE NOT SAVED OR KEPT BY THE LIFE WE LIVE after we trust the Lord for salvation. There will be those saved yet so as by fire (1 Cor. 3:15).
God led them to the place of rest but the place of rest became the place of unrest. Verse 2 says, “Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink . . .” The word “chide” and means, “to strive or to argue.” Pink says that the word chide means “that the people expostulated with Moses in an angry manner for bringing them hither, reproaching and condemning him as the cause of their trouble.” —Commentary on Exodus by Pink, p. 137. You cannot rest without water. That is like going to an empty table to eat. But they demanded of Moses what He could not provide. It would have been quite different if thay had come to Moses and said, “Moses, this is a good place of rest. We have a problem. There is no water. Since God is providing food daily for us, do you think you might ask Him if He would give us a drink?!” Had they done something like that it would mean they were growing. But they show absolutely no spiritual growth. They had learned nothing.
Notice what Moses called what they did. “Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?” They were TEMPTING the LORD. They tempted the LORD by chiding His servant. The word “tempt” means “to try or test.” They are tying his patience and questioning whether He was present. He had given the a visible sign of His presence, i.e., the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. But that wasn’t enough for Israel. It shows how quickly man becomes accustomed to signs. God wants us to walk by faith. He wants us to treat Him like He is here. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is . . .” How did God manifest His unseen presence to Israel on this occasion? Though a man who did not have to have a sign. Moses had grown beyond the need for signs. Verse 4 says, “And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” He did not start His prayer by saying, “LORD are you there? I need to talk to you. If you are there, would you speak out loud to me or show me some sign of your presence?” That is not what he said. He just began to talk to God as “seeing Him who is invisible” and it paid off.
The LORD tells Moses what to do and he does it and a miracle takes place. He told Moses to take the rod and the elders of Israel and “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” The rock is a type of Christ. 1 Cor. 10:4 says, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” The Lord is present and orders Moses, the representative of Israel, to strike the Rock that He had pointed out. Jesus is the Stone, selected by God, and the smitten Stone smitten by the LORD. Isaiah 53:4 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” The judgment of God smote Jesus in the sinner’s stead and He was wounded for our transgressions. But out of His wounds came eternal life represented by the water that flowed from this smitten Rock. Not only was the Rock smitten by the rod of God’s judgment but it was done in the sight of the elders of Israel. Jesus was smitten in the sight of the elders of Israel. Everything about this event pointed to Jesus.
I am limited by space in this meditation so that I will pass over some things. But there is one thing that I think is very important. Even though Israel went the wrong way about getting this blessing, the LORD still gave them their request. This is a beautiful picture of grace. It is easy to assume because of the ridged belief systems of denominationalism, to state that unless one embraces certain tenets of the faith, you can’t get your prayers answered. In other words, you must be right to get your prayers answered. Where is grace in that? We are saved by grace but we must earn the blessing? I do not take anything away from the importance of godly living. But no matter how godly you are you will never earn His blessing. It is grace from start to finish. It is good news for bad people. God gave water to a complaining people. There is only one answer as to why He would do such a thing. GRACE.
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
