Can You Hear His Voice Series

Exodus 17:2-7 [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?" (ESV)

• Their complaint about lack of water demonstrated their lack of faith in the Lord (Ex. 17:1–7; Num. 20:1–13; Ps. 81:7) (MacArthur, J. J. (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ps 95:8). Nashville: Word Pub.).

• Psalm 95:1 said that God is the rock of our salvation, this metaphor for God was especially appropriate in this psalm, which refers (vv. 8, 9) to the water that came from the rock in the wilderness (cf. Ex. 17:1–7; Num. 20:1–13; 1 Cor. 10:4) (MacArthur, J. J. (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ps 95:1). Nashville: Word Pub.).

Psalm 95:9 explains the incident in Exodus 17:2,7 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof/ tempted me. The action put God’s power and goodness to the test though they had seen God work. That is they “saw the water gush forth from the rock, when at my command Moses struck it” (Exod. 17:6).

God, being distressed by they lack of faith, explains His feelings in Psalm 95:10 that for Forty years long was I loathed/was grieved with that generation; the generation that tempted God in the wilderness. He described them as a people that a people who go astray/wander/do err in their heart. “Not only are they a people whose feet wander (Ps. 107:4), but their hearts also have wandered and gone astray from my paths.”

• Their wanderings in the desert were the outworking of straying hearts (MacArthur, J. J. (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ps 95:10). Nashville: Word Pub.).

And they have not known my ways. “My ways—the ways of God’s commandments—are unknown to them.”

Worship without obedience is mere sham. It calls down the judgments of God the Father and Jesus, who once said: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain (Matt. 15:8–9, quoting Isa. 29:13) (Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms (Pbk. ed.) (778). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.).

Please turn to Hebrews 3

In Judgment, God takes an oath in Psalm 95:11 that they are a people unto whom God swore in His wrath; (for the oath itself, see Numb. 14:21–23; and comp. Deut. 1:34, 35). That they shall not enter into my rest. The “rest” originally intended was that of Canaan, when “the Lord gave rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about” (Josh. 23:1). He swore (cf. Num 14:21–23; Deut 1:34–35) that none of this original generation of gripers, except Joshua and Caleb, would ever enter the Promised Land (KJV Bible commentary. 1997 (1107). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.).