Exodus 17:1-7

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee?
We'll jump into God's Word. Let's pray. God, you are amazing and magnificent. You are the one who created heavens and earth. You are the one who gave us this day, a day to worship you, a day to love you, a day to learn from you. And so Father, we pray that you would please help us this morning. Help us to understand your word.
We need your spirit to apply to our hearts, to open our eyes, to open our ears. that we may see, hear, and believe in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so we continue on in the book of Exodus, and we're at chapter 17, shorter passage this morning, Exodus chapter 17. The first seven verses, here we go. Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim.
But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people contended with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. So Moses said to them, Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, What shall I do with this people?
They're almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod, which you struck the river and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb and you shall strike the rock. The water will come out of it and the people may drink. And so Moses did in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he called the name of the place Masa and Meribah because of the contention of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?
Well, We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Well, what is this passage about? They're going in, they leave the wilderness of sin, traveling towards Mount Horeb, that's Mount Sinai, they're this different name, same mountain, they're going.
And as they're traveling along the way, once again, they're without water. And they're really frustrated about this. They go and they contend with Moses, right? They're going to go fight with him. Therefore, the people contended with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink again. Kind of like what they had said in Chapter 16 about food. And Moses is like, dude, I can't give you this stuff. What am I supposed to do? Why are you fighting with me? And Moses does what he'll normally do.
Go to the Lord. Go to God in prayer. And he tells the Lord this about this, right? He says to them. What shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me. Right, they're complaining so much that they're saying, why don't you just kill us in Egypt, Moses? It's clear that. Even though they've gone through the Red Sea, even though they've been eating the manna, I'm not sure they still there's a number of them who still believe Actually hold that the Lord is actually their God The Lord says I got a plan Here's the plan you go you take some elders you go out to the rock And you take that rod the rod that you struck the waters with at the Red Sea when he held out your rod and And when you strike the rock water is going to come out of the rock So... Moses believes God, right?
This is not a normal everyday occurrence. Normally, in the desert, you want to go get water, you better go find an oasis, or you better start digging really, really deep to find a well. And you may not find it. Here the Lord tells him to do something abnormal.
He says, go strike a rock with a rod. And Moses has faith. Moses believes God. And he does it. And it happens. And he names the place Massa and Meribah. Temptation and contention. They'll remember every time they come upon this stream later on or this pool later on. Remember that this is the place where they were tempted. Or where they were contending with the Lord.
What's the best verse to summarize this section? Well, I think in my Bible, I would probably underline verses 5 and 6. Maybe I would underline that, but you can let me know. What would you underline differently? Well, when we come to see calling, that's where I actually want to extend things a little bit, right? If you were to come to the men's Bible study at our church, I almost always ask, not just ABC, but ABCDE, right?
And the E part is extend, right? Where else in the Bible does this talk about this? We find in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 that this passage is actually talked about by the Lord again. It's the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 who gives us more insight into what's going on in this whole passage. There's only four verses, so I'm going to read those four verses to you. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud. All passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. See, God gave them this water. He gave them this rock and this rock. meant to be a sign of God's grace, His provision for them, that He would save them, that He would care for them. This rock was a type of Christ is what the Apostle Paul is getting at. That they would be cared for, refreshed, sustained, loved by God. It would be His provision to them in a supernatural way. This is why Jesus is pointing out to himself like we talked about yesterday in chapter 16. He is the bread from heaven. He's also now the rock.
In chapter 17, it is Jesus Christ who we desperately need. It is Jesus Christ that's our only hope in life and death. the only Redeemer of God's elect, the one who sustains our souls. So what does Chapter 17 of the Book of Exodus call us to? It calls us to believe in God's love for us. And how is God's love for us shown? And that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. God saved us. He gave us Jesus Christ. He has loved us to the very end. And he will always love us. If we believe.
Not everybody there did. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness, even though they saw these signs and wonders. So many people think that if I just see the miracles, then I'll believe. It's not true. Many people saw this miracle and didn't believe. Many people saw the miracles of Jesus Christ, explained them away, rationalized them away, or just hardened their hearts and didn't believe.
The call for us today is will you believe? Will you believe the truth of what is written in these pages? Will you drink of that spiritual rock of Jesus Christ? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. And we pray, Lord, that you'd please. Teach us to follow in your ways. Teach us to love you. Teach us to believe in you. Teach us. Lord. That you are. Our God. Able and ready to help. the only Redeemer of your elect. In Jesus' name, Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.