God’s Living Water

God’s Living Water Exodus 17:1-7 Introduction • Third of 5 impossible circumstances: Bitter Water, No Food, No Water, Military Crisis, and Civil Chaos.. • Rephidim is in the southwest tip of the Sinai Peninsula and the Israelites arrive there in mid-June: • Average June rain fall of 0.04 days, totaling 0.00mm • Average high 91-92; Average humidity 68-70% (Heat Index of 111) • 12 hours of full sunshine every day A Quarreling People (17:1-3a) • Moses is back in territory familiar to him; he likely had some local knowledge and expected to find water in Rephidim. • The text emphasizes the lack – “And nothing of water …” • “Quarrel” is a step above grumbling – it’s a complaint with a threat (in this case, stoning) • Grumbling – they revisit the now tired refrain, “Did you bring us here to kill us?” Why do you test the LORD? (17:2) • Under inspiration, Moses is making an interpretation of Israelite motivation. • What does it mean to test the Lord? 1. The commentator Douglas Stuart defines it as a cynical manipulation of God (I think this is the best definition). 2. Jesus defines Satan’s temptation to throw himself from the Temple’s pinnacle as a sinful testing of God (Matthew 4:7). 3. Peter defines the lies of Ananias and Saphira as a test of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:9) 4. Modern Examples: “The Lord hasn’t stopped me …”; “Unless the Lord shows me clearly by tonight …”; Taking the Lord’s Table in obvious and unconfessed sin. God’s Purposeful Provision (17:4-7) • Moses cries out – it’s a desperate plea born of imminent danger/injustice (Genesis 4:10; Exodus 5:15). • God Responds: 1. Moses and selected elders lead the people on a short journey to a dead end (unsure how far, but not more than an hour or two walk). 2. Their walk terminates at a steep mountain face, a place called Horeb: it’s sharp, grey, dry, and treeless – it looks like a piece of chalk that goes 7500ft into the air. 3. There, God creates water seemingly from nothing when Moses strikes the rock. The Main Question: Why? • Horeb became their miraculous watering hole for the foreseeable future. • Horeb has already played an important role in our Exodus journey – see 3:1-2. • Horeb will continue to play an important role – see Exodus 3:12 • Horeb/Meribah/Massah lies at the foot of Mount Sinai. The miraculous, flowing water, was to symbolize the miraculous, life-giving flow of His word as He delivered to the people through Moses A Bible Conclusion – John 4 • Jesus is talking to a woman at a well at the base of a mountain where she believes God word was delivered. • She’s wrong about that, and Jesus says as much, but He has a bigger point to make. • He gives living water that will become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). • This woman had a need (love) and tested the Lord with her adultery; Jesus met her need with Himself.