The Rock

DEVOTION

EXODUS

THE ROCK

Ex 17:1-7

17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" 4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5 The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

NIV

Once again we find the people quarreling with Moses about water. First it was about the water they did have being bitter, then about no food, now no water. But Moses wasn’t going to put up with them coming to him. He told them they were quarreling with God and by now they should know God will supply their needs. The people did not even get the truth, they increased in their quarreling against Moses to the point of becoming an angry mob ready to stone him. They were looking to a man rather then to God for their provision. Moses went to God and God instruction him what to do in order to give them water. It was another miracle, water coming forth from a rock. Isn’t they just like God, strike the rock.

Deut 32:4

4 He is the Rock , his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.

NIV

Isa 26:4

4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

NIV

What he not showing Israel that he was the Rock, the provider of water? Was he not leading them to Jesus, who proclaimed he was the spring of living water? We know the story of the woman at the well, who Jesus asked her to give him a drink of water.

John 4:9-14

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water ."  11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water ? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 

NIV

There is no question God was making a statement to the people that he was the Rock and Jesus was the water coming from the Rock. The Old Testament is full of these pictures of truth about God and his provisions for his creation, both in the physical and in the spiritual, in the moment in time and in the eternal. Why do we ever doubt God? The people were doubting God, they were looking to Moses, not God. They were still getting the manna in the morning, the quail in the evening, yet they could not trust God for water. We could be like them, if we are not careful. We need to always look to God, always trust his provisions. Sometimes we could get sidetracked by our physical situation in life. When it appears we have less then we need in some area of our life, do we grumble against God or do we trust him? He has already done so much for us, in and through us that we should know by now that he will always be with us, that he will never forsake us, that he will always provide a way for us. First and foremost he sent Jesus to save us, to set us free. But he continues to guide our footsteps, and provide us with what we need to live where he leads us. The problem some people might have is they are not following his leading and they went someplace of their own choosing and expect him to provide even in their disobedience. That sounds a little harsh, but throughout the Old Testament this is the story. As long as they followed where he was leading them, he provided. Yet even when they refused to cross the Jordan, he led them into the desert for forty years. They followed, he provided, even their shoes did not wear out. We need to be following the LORD, where he leads us. That implies to where we live, where we work, where we play, where we attend church, basically every aspect of our lives. We cannot just accept Jesus, then go about living according to our own plans. Let us always look to the ROCK of our salvation.