With the reading, review the events of previous chapters: Ch. 12-Passover. Ch. 13-Rescue from Egypt / the Pillars of Cloud and Fire. Ch. 14–Crossing the Red Sea on Dry Land. Ch. 15-Bitter water made sweet. Ch. 16-Quails / Miraculous bread from heaven.
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
It has been our privilege to celebrate the Lord’s Supper today. God has graciously given us the same gospel for our fingers and eyes and noses and mouths and stomachs that He has given in the sermon for our ears. We have been assured that as we have come to Him in faith, our sins are forgiven. So we have been richly blessed by the Lord.
There is a very real danger, though, that WE QUICKLY FORGET all we have experienced today as we go from this place to the ordinary routines of life and the pressures of home and work and study and the influences of the world, the devil, and the weakness of our human nature.
So to help us to avoid doing that we consider an instance in Scripture where the people of the Lord did exactly that – they quickly forgot God’s faithfulness and His many blessings and they grumbled.
And we do so with the words of 1 COR. 10:6 and 11 in mind. For there the Spirit of the Lord points the Lord’s people to this episode in Exodus 17, among others, and says, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did,” and “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction.”
So we want to learn both from the sin of the people of Israel and the grace of God toward them.
Before we read from our passage in Exodus, I listed the many wonderful blessings that the Lord had performed for His people. One of them, the Passover, was a SACRAMENT – it was a feast that all of Israel was to partake of that contained a physical sign that pointed to a spiritual reality. The other blessings I listed were not sacraments, as such. But we have enjoyed a sacrament today also. So it is against the Background of these Sacramental Blessing that WE BELIEVERS ARE WARNED NOT TO SIN BY TESTING THE LORD.
And we give heed to this warning as we consider, firstly, THE SIN OF ISRAEL and then secondly THE SIGN OF THE LORD.
I. So firstly we consider the Sin of Israel in vv1-4 and 7. The People of Israel travel from the Wilderness of Sin to REPHIDIM. They arrive and set up camp. But there is a problem, as we see at the end of v1, for “there was no water for the people to drink.”
A. Now, even before we look at what the sin of the people, take note of the fact that they have not arrived at this location BY ACCIDENT. OK? It is not that they have been wandering around and have decided for whatever reason to camp here. No. We are told, explicitly, that their journey has been “according to the command of the Lord.”
1. Back in ch. 13:21, we read about the PILLAR of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, by which the Lord went before the people “to lead them along the way.” So the Lord, by the Pillars, has brought them to this place. And they will face a trial here over the absence of water. So it is the Lord who has brought them to this place of trial.
2. And brothers and sisters, young people and boys and girls, there is already a very important lesson for you and me in this truth. A paraphrase of PROVERBS 16:33 talks about the roll of the dice, which we would say is about as random as you can get, right?! But listen to what the verse says, “We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall.” The God of the Bible is all-powerful; nothing happens apart from His will.
3. And this means that just as the Lord brought Israel to this place of trial, we need to know that when trials come our way it is because the Lord has brought us there.
4. Now, in the case of many of these Israelites, as we shall see, this trial is going to reveal their unbelief. But in relation to those who look to the Lord in faith, trials come to strengthen faith.
a. HEBREWS 12 teaches us that “the Lord disciplines the one He loves” and that “for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
5. Trials and hardships come to you by the design of your Father in heaven. He wants, by them, to strengthen your faith as you learn more and more to trust Him.
B. But let’s see how many of the people of Israel failed to trust God as we look closely now at their sin. To begin with, “they quarreled with Moses,” as we see in v2, demanding that he produce water. And this continues in v3 as there they grumble against Moses, accusing him of having brought them to the wilderness to die of thirst. In v7, we are told that their sin was to test the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” So let’s unpack these verses a little and break their sin down into its parts:
1. In the first place, they were IMPATIENT. For consider what has happened to them in recent days and weeks: As we have noted already, they have benefitted from a series of miraculous rescues and miraculous provisions, one after the other. But here, as soon as the tents are up, Moses! “Give us water to drink!” What an unholy impatience this is. It is terrible, isn’t it! How could they be so forgetful so quickly?
a. But of course, as we always ought to do when we encounter sin in the Bible, let us ask ourselves how we too can be guilty of this same sin? For we too can be impatient, can’t we. We receive this from the Lord and that from the Lord, time and time again. He provides in this way and then in that way, again and again and again. But then, a difficult circumstance comes along and we will not wait on the timing and provision of the Lord. We demand to know why He has done this. We scream to heaven that this is unfair. We even have the gall to tell Him how and when He should fix this problem in the way that seems most pleasing to us. And rather than endure or persevere, trusting in the Lord, we look to change the circumstances ‘so we can be happy.’ Trouble at work? Get another job. Trouble in a relationship? Get another spouse. Trouble in the church? Go to another church.
b. So one of the ways we test the Lord is by being impatient.
2. But note in the second place that the people of Israel were PRAYERLESS. To be sure, there was no water. That was an undeniable fact. So what should they have done? Having seen so many recent examples of the Lord’s faithful and miraculous provision, what should they have done? They should have prayed. The words we should hear from the mouths of the people are Lord, please give us the water that we need. But instead they complain to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” And this is now the fourth time since they have left Egypt that they grumble like this. They are a prayerless people.
a. But again, as we examine ourselves, are we any different? Have you found yourself in the position I sometimes find myself in, which is, when a problem arises, that I try this and do that and attempt this and advise that and run over there, only, eventually, to realise that I have failed to pray. How wicked? How silly! How foolish it is to ignore the Almighty God of creation and providence by not first praying to Him before anything else.
b. Saying: When life brings you to your knees, you are in the perfect position for prayer. Good, but as we have noted, already, life doesn’t bring us to our knees – Our HF does!
c. Another part of how we test the Lord then is by being prayerless.
3. But closely related to the sin of being prayerless is that they DEMANDED OF MOSES SOMETHING THAT ONLY GOD COULD PROVIDE. They were needy; that was true. But this became the occasion for upset and anger, which they directed at Moses – You give us water to drink. And such was the anger of the people of Israel that they were ready to stone Moses, as we see in v4; he feared for his life!
a. And here too, if we honestly examine ourselves, we must confess that we also can be guilty of sinning like this:
(1). Boys and girls, you sin like this when you refuse to be happy unless you can play with the toy your brother or sister has and you pout. So Mum tells you to wipe that sour look off your face and be happy with what you have because God wants us to be content and to rejoice, always. But you refuse because you are angry.
(2). And brothers and sisters, you sin like this when you allow the behaviour of someone else or a certain circumstance to affect your joy in the Lord. You think to yourself or say to others that you cannot be happy or rejoice in the Lord because of him or her; your lack of joy is his or her fault. The Lord Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you.” You can read it, in black and white, in 2 Cor. 12:9. But you say, No it is not. I need this person to change or this circumstance to change in order to have joy in the Lord.
b. So another part of how we test the Lord is to ground our joy in anything other than our triune God.
4. Well finally, before we turn our attention to the sign of the Lord, note one more aspect of Israel’s sin. It is revealed in v3, where the people say to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of EGYPT?”
a. Now people of God, just think about their question for a moment! It is staggeringly unbelievable! Hearing it, you would think that life in Egypt must have been like living on a cruise ship – sun loungers, 24hr buffet food, entertainment, parties, etc etc. Moses! “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt?” But you and I know the reality of Egypt. They were slaves there! They had whips on their backs. Pharaoh was trying to murder their new-born children. Their life in Egypt was a miserable existence. But here they are ‘yearning for the good old days’!
b. And what makes this so much worse is THE REALITY OF THE NEW LAND AND LIFE that they were heading to. In Exodus 3:8, God told Moses that He would bring the people to Canaan. He said, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
(1). And a land flowing with milk and honey, boys and girls, would be like me telling you about a town with a MacDonalds and KFC and Toyworld on every corner!
(2). And Moses then shared this promise with the people. But all of that seems to have disappeared from their memory. Their hearts are still in Egypt. It is bizarre!
c. But once again, we must fall to our knees and confess that we sin like this also. For example, God says to us men in Proverbs 5:18-19, “Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.” And Jesus says to us in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” So He gives us a good gift now and He promises us something even more delightful in heaven. And what do we do? We look on another woman, whether it be in real life or on a screen, with lust in our hearts. And when we do this, we are just like these Israelites in that we yearning for our ‘Egypt’ – the miserable, stinking, filthy, slavery to sin that we have been brought out of – rather than fixing our eyes on Jesus; the Author and perfecter of our faith, and the good gifts He has given us, and the promise and purity and delight and satisfying pleasure of heaven and its Lord.
d. Every time we forget the blessings and the promises of the Lord and give in to the temptations of the evil one or of this world or of our weak flesh we are revealing that part of our heart also is ‘still in Egypt.’ And this too is a part of how we sin by testing the Lord.
What we have seen then is that the people of Israel sinned by tempting or testing the Lord. God had delivered them and provided for them and promised to be with them. So when this trial came, faith would have said, “The Lord is with us, and He will surely save us because He loves us. So we will wait for the provision of the Lord.” But what they said instead was, “Let the Lord help us first and then we will believe.” How wicked!
But Jesus has brought you to this Supper table today where He has reminded you that you are His and He is yours. And He says this to you, “I am with you, always.” “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For … your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” “My grace is sufficient for you.” So how will you respond to His grace?
II. Well, this brings us, secondly and finally, to THE SIGN OF THE LORD, as we see it in vv5-6. After Moses cried out to the Lord, the Lord said, “‘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.”
A. And all these details are important:
1. Moses was to use the same STAFF that had been so instrumental in the miraculous plagues that came upon Egypt and the parting of the red Sea. The Lord wanted to protect and uphold the divinely given authority of Moses in the presence of the people to warn them against rebellion.
2. But to show them that it was not the staff by itself that had divine power, THE LORD STOOD OVER THIS ROCK, no doubt in the pillar, to demonstrate that what would happen now is the work of the Lord.
3. And the PEOPLE must witness this miracle of God. And the ELDERS must witness this miracle of God. There is to be no suggestion that this is some natural spring that just was perhaps just unplugged by the strike of Moses’ staff. No. This is a divine miracle. This is a creation miracle.
a. The God who spoke all things into being out of nothing does something here that we know cannot happen according to the laws of geology; He brings water out of a rock.
b. And we make this point as plainly as this because many Bible scholars will try and explain that this area is known for springs in unusual places so we need not make such a big deal about this. Uh uh! This was a creation miracle! And everything the Lord did around this miracle was to make this as plain as the nose on your face.
B. But this sign of the Lord has more attached to it than just the physical nature of the event itself. Please turn with me, now, back to 1 COR. 10:4. Sometimes, you know, with episodes of the OT, we scratch our heads a little and we wonder how this or that episode reveals He who the whole of Scripture is about – the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one of the challenges for our vicar at present as he leads us through the life of Elisha. But there is no need to scratch our heads and wonder with this episode in Exodus 17. 1 Cor. 10:4 spells out the connection with Christ in black and white! There we read this of this episode and others like it, “All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
1. Now, this is not suggesting that the rock somehow rolled along behind them so they had a permanent water source, or that a stream from this rock flowed out and followed them as they left this place and continued on with the journey as many interpret these words. A key word in this verse is the word ‘SPIRITUAL.’ The point here is that Christ followed His people in their journey and whenever they had need of water, it was He who made even the rocks in the desert to be a living source of water.
a. So, was the water they drank here REAL WATER? It most certainly was. And all the people drank this water, as we see at the beginning of v4, and had their thirst quenched. You can picture them drinking from their hands or scooping water into bowls and glugging it down – ahhhhh!
b. But what was happening SPIRITUALLY? You see, the water that flowed from this rock was a sign that Christ was with His people. The Red Sea that parted was a sign that Christ was with His people. The Manna that fell from the sky was a sign that Christ was with His people. The Pillars that moved ahead of them were signs that Christ was with His people. God multiplied sign upon sign upon sign to demonstrate that Christ was with them and that He was faithful to save and to provide.
c. But what do we read in VERSE 5? “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” So great was the unbelief of most of the people of Israel, that despite His repeated demonstrations of His presence with His people, still they refused to believe. They saw the Pillar, they saw the water come from the rock and they drank the water, but their unbelief remained. They were rebellious and untrusting before they drank and rebellious and untrusting after they drank. And this is no more and no less than a hatred of the Lord. And so, they were struck down in the wilderness.
d. But note what v5 says, “With MOST OF THEM God was not pleased.” There were a few who drank the water in faith. For them, this trial strengthened their faith. They drank from the spiritual rock, Christ, and clung to the God of their salvation.
e. So how about you, today? You have come to the table of the Lord today. You have seen the bread and wine and touched the bread and wine and tasted the bread and wine and had your fill. But this is Spiritual bread and wine that broadcasts a message – Christ is with His people to forgive their sins.
(1). Are you like most of the people of Israel, in that you have heard the preaching of Christ with your ears and have seen and/or eaten and drunk the bread and wine with your mouth, but that is where it stops? Because that is not enough. They were “overthrown in the wilderness,” and you too if you do not take hold of Christ by faith and choose instead to remain in your unbelief, will receive the just judgment of God.
(2). Or are you like the few of the people of Israel in that you have humbled yourself, confessed your sin, and rested again in the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins?
(3). 1 Corinthians 10:6 tells us that this episode at the rock took place “as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” So having feasted on Christ, are you resolved to go from this place each day to hunger and thirst after righteousness?
(a). Are you resolved to do battle with sin like impatience and prayerlessness and not being content and joyful in the Lord and yearning for your Egypt?
(4). If so, be assured that Jesus Christ is your ample salvation. Amen.