The Rock - Exodus Part 16 Series

INTRODUCTION

• Exodus 15 - God reveals Himself as a healer…Exodus 16 God reveals Himself as a provider, Exodus 17 reveals Him as our banner or cover

• The longer we walk with God the more He will refine us…if we let Him

• God’s goal is to build us and refine us and circumstances will do that

• And He will use all we go through if we trust Him…Romans 8:28…but if we don’t!

• When it gets redundant or repetitive…things start to get hard

• They complained about water at the beginning of their journey and they were complaining about it 40 years later at the end…Numbers 20:1-13

• These people are struggling with the same things we have hassles with…food, water, clothes, battles

• They failed this test once already (bitterness of the waters of Marah)…

• They are thirsting both physically and spiritually (like us)

• And they are not trusting

• They have conflicts…battles…like us…that is life

Exodus 17:5-6, “Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” 5Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pass before the people…and take in your hand your 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 will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

I. The Struggles Of Life

• What is God doing here?

• Allowing conflicts to come on His people?

• This is life isn’t it…He uses the school of life to build people

• To reveal Himself

• And for leaders when people aren’t happy, neither are you!

• They called the place…Massah and Meribah…to test and to quarrel or contend

• There is the water issue and the Amalekite issue

• But more than that there is the issue of how to live…in the daily struggles

• The biggest issue here is a heart issue

• The picture is clear…live on two levels

• One in God and one on earth…make sure they meet!

II. Getting Your Water From The Rock

• This whole story is for us…

I Corinthians 10:1-6, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3and all ate the same spiritual food; 4and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. 6Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”

• Drinking from the rock!!!

• The rock that has what we need…

• The rock was Jesus!!!

• Jesus was struck for us and living water flowed out

• Verse 6…hit the rock… “I will stand before you there”

• I will stand before you…hit me with the staff…huge picture here for you and me

• This is a picture of Jesus…and us…

Isaiah 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”

• He was struck for you and me…

• Jesus is certainly the rock…and living water flows from His life to ours

III. God Is Always Doing New Things

• Don’t make a formula out of a moment of ministry

• Don’t get stuck in a spiritual rut, you can never exhaust God

• Don’t go back looking for what God did once

• Remember the manna principle?

• Lamentations 3, “God’s mercies are new every morning…go to Him new every morning…”

• What you got yesterday was for yesterday…what He has for today is for today…

• Numbers 20:8-12…a story like this one…people are thirsty and God comes to meet their need

• But interestingly enough…God adds a twist…

• For Moses it was a great loss…did God do what he did before? Nooooo

• Speak to the rock…and he struck it…

• “Must we bring water from the rock” - Moses never brought the water…God did

• This kept Moses from leading Israel across the Jordan to the Promised Land…

• Moses misrepresented God…moved with anger…not grace…God moves with grace…

• Moses defiled the image of Jesus…he struck the rock twice

• Jesus gave His life and it was a one-time event…died once for all

I Peter 3:18, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.”