YouTube video sermon

Exodus 17:1-7

Well, let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Exodus 17. As I mentioned in this weekend’s email, we’ve finally entered the vacation season and folks will be taking trips to the beach and the mountains and burning up the roadways. And I thought about our study in Exodus and, just like our families hitting the highways, the Israelites are on the desert road in the wilderness.

Two weeks ago, we left Marah (the place of bitter waters) and we traveled on the desert road to (Eleem) Elim – that oasis in the desert where there were 12 pools of water and 70 palm trees (one pool for each of the tribes of Israel, and one palm tree for each of the 70 elders). Then, last week, we checked out of hotel (Eleem) Elim and traveled down the road to the wilderness of (Seen) Sin. It’s not sin. It’s a transliteration of the Hebrew name Siyn. There’s no connection with what we mean by “sin.” And on the way we ran out of bread; and God, in His great mercy and grace, provided manna from heaven and quail at night.

Today, we leave the wilderness of (Seen) Sin and travel passed Dophkah and Alush – neither of which are mentioned here, but they are referenced on the roadmap in Numbers 33:12-13 – and we come to our final resting spot of Rephidim. Feels just like a real modern-day road trip, doesn’t it. And I can hear the entire congregation (like little children in the backseat), “Pastor, are we there yet?” “No, we have 23 more chapters to go.” (You get a break next week. My friend, Da’rryl Hall will be preaching in my absence.) But today, we’re going to read Exodus 17:1-7, so follow along with me:

1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of (Seen) 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?”

(A brief prayer) “Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us. And what we are not, make us. For we pray this in the name of You Son, Jesus. Amen.”

As with any road trip, particularly with young children, you’re thinking about those landmarks, those points of interest along the way that kind of break of the trip into smaller, more manageable sections. For example, if you leave from Greer (on I-85) headed towards Charlotte, what’s one of the first landmarks that you’re looking for? (Gaffney Peach, right?) If you’re related to my family, then you stop at the exit just prior to the peach, because that’s where the Gaffney Outlet Marketplace (a.k.a. the Yellow Buildings) is located.

On the same stretch of interstate (I-85), if you’re leaving Greenville headed towards Atlanta what’s one of those landmarks that you’re looking for? (Chateau Elan Winery, right?) Cause, if you’re like me, you’re needing a glass (or two) by that point.  Once again, if you’re related to my family then you stop a few exits earlier at the Tanger Outlets in Commerce, GA. Have I ever told you that I don’t like to stop when I’m on a road trip. It’s a race, folks. And all those cars we just passed the last few hours are going to leapfrog over us and we’re going to have to pass them again. Anyway, I digress.

That’s what we’re going to do today. I’m breaking these seven verses down into four (4) landmarks, four points of interest, if you will, and the first is…

A Waterless Camp

“All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of (Seen) Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink” (Exodus 17:1).

We’ve seen this before, and here it is again. God led His people to a campsite with no water. This was His plan. He led them there. You can see that in middle of verse 1. They moved “by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim.” God is commanding the movements of Israel. Do you remember the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night? We were introduced to God’s miraculous presence back in Exodus 13, when the Israelites are leaving Egypt and we’re told that it was God who led them. Moses is the human agent, but God is literally leading them by way of the pillar of cloud and fire. And so it is that God leads them to this place where there’s no water to drink.

If you’re a Christian, this is your life. The Apostle Paul puts it like this, “[God] works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). James, the half-brother of Jesus says, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15). Job had an interesting take on this. He said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). And the psalmist writes, “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases” (Psalm 115:3).

There are several of you who are encamped at Rephidim right now – a place where there’s no water. And as far you can see, it’s wilderness in every direction. At least that’s what it looks like. And yet, this text says you’re not there by accident. Proverbs 20:24 says, “The LORD directs our steps…” (NLT). And one of the purposes of these seven verses, and this sermon, is to help us see and feel why that’s Good News. So, the main point of landmark number one is that God has led His people to a campsite with no water. And that brings us to the second point of interest…

An Angry Protest

“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?’ 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?” (Exodus 17:2–3)

Again, it’s the same song, second verse. Right? Israel didn’t trust that God’s providence was good. Rather, they accused Moses, which is the equivalent of accusing God, and they accused him of harmful and evil purposes. I mentioned this last week, but it bears repeating. We need to be careful when we grumble and complain against God. And let’s be honest, we do grumble against the Lord. (By the way, what’s the Hebrew word for grumble? Luwn/loon.) We need to be oh so careful, because we come close to blasphemy.

Remember what the Israelites said last week? “It would have been better for us to die in Egypt, rather than come out here to the desert and die of hunger” (Exodus 16:3, paraphrased). Basically, God, it would’ve been better had You not saved us, had You not redeemed us, had You not rescued us from our miserable existence. And when we complain, sometimes we come oh so close to suggesting that it would’ve been better had Jesus never died for our sins.

Whatever is happening here (or not happening here) is not happening fast enough, and so they demand water. “Give us water to drink!” And Moses basically says, “Hey, your quarrel is out of place. It’s not a quarrel with me. When you raise your voice at me, you’re actually trying God’s patience.” Look at verse 2, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” (Exodus 17:2).

Then in verse 3, we hear the heart of the indictment. Now, notice what they don’t ask. They don’t ask, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt?” That’s not the question. No, they ask, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” They aren’t questioning God’s timing. They’re questioning God’s goodness. They aren’t saying that God is incompetent to give them water. They aren’t saying that He’s unable. No. They’re saying He doesn’t intend to. Their view is that God’s purposes aren’t saving – they’re murderous. Again, close to blasphemy.

When Moses says, in verse 2, “Why do you test the LORD?” there’s a warning in those words. Don’t try God’s patience. It runs out for people who don’t trust Him, people who despise His ways. We know how the story of this generation ends. “None of the men who have seen My glory and My signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put Me to the test [a.k.a. tried my patience] these ten times and have not obeyed My voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised Me shall see it” (Numbers 14:22–23).

We may not understand all the reasons why God chooses a waterless encampment for us. But story after story after story in the Bible, including this one, is God’s roar from heaven: “Just trust me. Please, trust me.” They didn’t. That brings us to point of interest number three…

A Life-Giving Presence

Look back at verses 4-6, “So Moses cried to the LORD, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ 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. 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.”

Like last week, this is where I have difficulty wrapping my head around God’s mercy and grace and love. He doesn’t smite them. He doesn’t blind them. He doesn’t cause anything evil to happen to them. Rather, God’s life-giving presence toward absolutely undeserving people goes on. His patience has not run out. Not yet.

What’s God’s answer to Moses’s question? His answer is, “I’m going to give them water to drink.” But to make it as amazing as possible, He describes four ways that this miracle of life-giving grace comes about.

First, the miracle will be public. “Pass on before the people” (Exodus 17:5). They indicted us in public. We’ll be vindicated in public, “before the people.”

Second, it will be well attested by the elders. “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel” (Exodus 17:5). This will become part of what they know and teach and how they judge the people.

Third, this miracle will be seen as a continuation of the miracles of the ten plagues in Egypt. “. . . and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go” (Exodus 17:5). Moses only struck the Nile once with his staff. Back in chapter 7, “In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood” (Exodus 7:20). In other words, “I’m going to use this staff that turned water into blood, but today I’m going to turn a rock into a water fountain.” Same staff. Same power. Same God. Same grace. True then. And true today in our waterless wilderness.

Lastly, this miracle of life-giving grace will come about by the Lord’s presence. This is best of all. This is the most wonderful. “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” (Exodus 17:6).

God says “My presence IS your life. You think you need water? What you need is ME.” He could’ve said, “I’m done with this rebellious people” and withdrawn His presence. But He didn’t. He might have said, “I’m done. I’m not putting up with this any longer. I’m going to the top of mount Horeb and I’m going to unleash my lightning bolt, and strike this rock and bring water up from the depths of the earth like I did in Noah’s day.” But He didn’t do that either. Rather, He said, “When you strike the rock, I will be standing on the rock.”

Why would He do that? Because what you and I need more than water is the presence of God. That’s what the psalmist says, “The steadfast love of the LORD is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). At the end of the day, what’s been the point of God choosing the people of Israel, making a covenant with her, leading her down to Egypt, bringing her out by a mighty hand, and taking her out into the wilderness? Here’s the way God says it in Exodus 19:4-5, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples” (Exodus 19:4-5).

You think you need water, but in reality, what you need is Me. So, the main point at this pitstop is that God’s life-giving presence toward undeserving people goes on. His patience has not run out. That leads us to the final point of interest…

A Memorial of Failure

Verse 7, “And [Moses] 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?’” (Exodus 17:7).

The story doesn’t have a happy ending. There’s no repentance. There’s no awakened faith. There’s not even any water, just a promise of water. “The people will drink” (Exodus 17:6). No doubt the water came. After all, God keeps His word. But Moses means for the story to end on a note of Israel’s failure.

Moses doesn’t name the place “Grace abounding,” or “Water from the Rock,” or “God is faithful.” He names it Massah and Meribah. Massah means “testing.” Meribah means “quarreling.” Then he makes the meaning explicit: “. . . because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD” (Exodus 17:7).

Verse 7 is connected to verses 2-3 where Moses said, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” (Exodus 17:2). And that’s where the story ends – almost. Moses has one final indictment at the end of verse 7. He means for us to see the greatest failure in the light of the greatest gift. So, verse 7 ends, “They tested the LORD by saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not’” (Exodus 17:7). Just one verse earlier, God had said, “I will stand before you on the rock” (Exodus 17:6). But the people said, “We don’t even know if He’s here or if He intends to kill us.”

So, we step back and ask ourselves, “What’s Moses’s aim? What’s God’s aim in telling us this story?” The way Moses tells the story, failure is at the front and the back. The story begins and ends with Israel quarreling with Moses and testing God. It begins and ends with unbelief. They don’t trust God. They harden their hearts against Him. “God brought us into this waterless encampment and He doesn’t intend to be here for us.” And the trumpet blast of this text, echoing throughout the Bible (and today) is don’t be like that.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put Me to the test and put Me to the proof, though they had seen My work” (Psalm 95:7–9).

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put Me to the test and saw My works for forty years’” (Hebrews 3:7–9).

“[They] all ate the same spiritual food [manna], and all drank the same spiritual drink. . . . Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. . . . We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did. . . . Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. . . . Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:3–12).

Time and time and time again, the failure of Israel to trust God in the wilderness reverberates through the whole Bible. And the message is this; when God brings you into a waterless encampment, and you see wilderness stretching in every direction with no way out, don’t be like Israel! Trust God. With tears in your eyes and hands on your head in confusion, trust Him. He brought you into the wilderness. He can bring you out. He led you to Rephidim where there is no water. There’s only a dry rock. But He will take His stand on the rock and be your life.

There once lived a peasant in Crete who deeply loved his life. He enjoyed tilling the soil, feeling the warm sun on his naked back as he worked the fields, and feeling the soil under his feet. He loved the planting, the harvesting, and the very smell of nature. He loved his wife and his family and his friends, and he enjoyed being with them: eating together, drinking wine, talking, and making love. And he loved especially Crete, his, beautiful island! The earth, the sky, the sea, it was his! This was his home.

One day he sensed that death was near. What he feared was not what lay beyond, for he knew God’s goodness and had lived a good life. No, he feared leaving Crete, his wife, his children, his friends, his home, and his land. Thus, as he prepared to die, he grasped in his right hand a few grains of soil from his beloved Crete, and he told his loved ones to bury him with it.

He died, awoke, and found himself at heaven’s gates, the soil still in his hand, and heaven’s gate firmly barred against him. Eventually St. Peter emerged through the gates and spoke to him: ‘You’ve trusted Christ Jesus. You’ve lived faithfully and obediently, and we’ve a place for you inside, but you cannot enter unless you drop that handful of soil. You cannot enter as you are now!’ The man was reluctant to drop the soil and protested: ‘Why? Why must I let go of this soil? Indeed, I cannot! Whatever is inside those gates I have no knowledge of. But this soil, I know . . . it’s my life, it’s my work, it’s my wife and kids, it’s what I know and love, it’s Crete! Why should I let it go for something I know nothing about?’

Peter answered: ‘When you get to heaven you will know why. It’s too difficult to explain. I am asking you to trust, trust that God can give you something better than a few grains of soil.’ But the man refused. In the end, silent and seemingly defeated, Peter left him, closing the large gates behind.

Several minutes later, the gates opened a second time and this time, from them, emerged a young child. She did not try to coax the man into letting go of the soil in his hand. She simply took his hand and, as she did, it opened, and the soil of Crete spilled to the ground. She then led him through the gates. A shock awaited him as he entered heaven; for there, before him, lay all of Crete!

And so, it is for those who are in Christ. When we can’t understand why God had brought us to a waterless camp in the middle of the desert, when we’re encamped at Rephidim and we long to return to former days, when those of us despair of our sinful selves and know that God owes us nothing. So, it is for us. Every undeserved blessing, we will ever receive is owing to the death of Christ. “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Not just He can give us all things, but He will. He will. He will give us everything we need to do His will, and glorify His name, and make it to our heavenly home.

“Our gracious heavenly Father, You have led some of us to this exact spot – a waterless encampment. It may be the death of a loved one, it may be the ending of a marriage, it may be a terminal diagnosis, it may be a financial hardship like none we’ve ever experienced before. Lord, the scenarios are limitless, and yet, here we are: no water. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we ask that You help us to trust You even when it feels as though we’re dying – for what we need isn’t water, it isn’t more money in the bank, it isn’t a spouse, it isn’t perfect health, it’s YOU. You are life. You are truth. You are love. You are the Rock from which comes our salvation – Jesus Christ. It’s in His name that we pray. Amen.”