JEHOVAH-TSURI
Gen. 49:24
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: REAL DISCIPLESHIP?
1. I heard of a man who was waxing eloquent to his wife of how much he loved her. “I would climb the highest mountain or swim the deepest sea for you! I would even die for you!”
2. “That won’t be necessary,” she responded, unimpressed, “just pick up that towel and help me with these dishes.” He answered, holding up his hand, “That’s asking too much!”
3. Few of us will be required to pay the ultimate price of discipleship. All of us should be willing to do so, but God usually requires us to show it in simple acts of sacrificial kindness.
B. THESIS
1. How often have I been helped by repeating the benediction of Ps. 19:14 (KJV); “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
2. It came to mean even more when I discovered that “my strength” is literally “my Rock,” as in the NIV.
3. Tonight we’re continuing our series on the hyphenated covenant names of God. Tonight is “Jehovah-Tsuri.”
I. MEANINGS OF TSUR
A. A REFUGE
1. The Hebrew Tsur means more than a piece of rock. It is rather a great solid rock or a mighty rock cliff.
2. In the limestone country of Palestine, it would mean caves where a refuge could be found, just as David did when he fled from King Saul.
3. Then David realized that the Lord was his real rock, and he sang, “The Lord is my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge” 2 Sam. 22:2-3; Ps. 94:22.
B. SHADE FROM THE HEAT
1. On the edge of the desert a great rock might be the only place where one might find shade from the heat of the day.
2. Such a rock might also be a landmark to help a person find his way. God is our shade and He shields us from the burning heat of life’s situations.
C. SOURCE OF A MIGHTY STREAM OF WATER
1. Even more important, God made a great rock in Horeb the source of a mighty stream of water when Moses, in faith, obeyed God’s command and struck the rock (Ex. 17:6).
2. Israel never forgot this. Asaph wrote, “When he (God) struck the rock, water gushed out and streams flowed abundantly” Ps. 78:20, thus emphasizing that God, not Moses, was the real Giver of the water.
3. “He opened the rock and water gushed out; like a river it flowed in the desert” (Ps. 105:41). God Himself was their source. No wonder the Apostle Paul could say, “That Rock was Christ” 1 Cor. 10:4, for Christ mediates the blessings of God to His people.
II. GOD’S ROCK-LIKE CHARACTERISTICS
A. SOLID, DEPENDABLE, PERMANENT, & TRUSTWORTHY
1. Moses sang, “I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock; His ways are perfect and all his works are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He” Deut. 32:3-4.
2. God gives us STABILITY. “For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way,” 2 Sam. 22:32, 37.
B. CONNECTED WITH SALVATION, THEIR SAVIOR
1. Most often, however, when the ancient Israelites thought of God as their Rock, they connected it with salvation. David sang, “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!” (2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 18:46).
2. Whenever Israel eagerly turned to God, “They remembered that God was their Rock, that God most High was their Redeemer” (Ps. 78:35).
3. Because David recognized God’s faithful love was with him, he would call out to God, “You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior” (Ps. 89:26). Thus the Psalmist called out, “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation” (Ps. 95:1).
4. They could have confidence in God as their Rock. None of their heathen neighbors could say of their false gods what the Israelites could say of the True God: “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him” (Ps. 92:15).
5. Moses warned that if the people turned to false gods, the Lord would say, “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in…? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter! See now that I myself am He! There is no God beside Me” Deut. 32:37-39.
6. Hannah the mother of Samuel recognized, “There is no one holy like the Lord, there is no one besides you, there is no rock like our God” 1 Sam. 2:2.
David sang, “For who is God besides the Lord? An who is the Rock except our God?” 2 Sam. 22:32; Ps. 18:31. And “He alone is my Rock and my salvation, He is my fortress, I will never be shaken…My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty Rock and my refuge” Ps. 62:2,7.
In view of all these wonderful, encouraging passages, whether we are successful or in despair, no matter what our condition or where we are, we need to join with David and say, “From the ends of the Earth I call to You I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the Rock that is higher than I” Ps. 61:2-3.
We can also see a background in these passages for the statement of Jesus, “On this rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!” Mt. 16:18.This Rock is the Greek, petra, a great, solid rock, a tsur.
III. PERSONAL APPLICATION
A. YOU CAN DEPEND ON GOD
1. If I can’t count on anyone else, I can count on the Lord!
2. He’s said, “I will never leave you;” “I will do what I say.” “Though your father & mother forget you, I will never forget you!” Wow! God will not forget us or let us down.
3. There’s an actor named Dwayne Johnson who before acting had the wrestling name, “the Rock.”
4. His type-cast is of a “bad guy,” a soldier, special ops; if anyone can defeat the bad guys, he can. When all the fighting is over, he will be left standing.
5. That’s how God will be; when the fighting is over, God will still be there and He will be victorious! We can depend on Him!
B. OUR REFUGE
1. God is the Person who provides a refuge for us from fears, worries, & reverses in life’s fortunes. I don’t mean a physical refuge, but a mental, emotional, & spiritual shelter from our difficulties.
2. At times He stills the storm around us. At other times He stills – not the storm around us, but the storm within us. He gives us peace in our storm, so that the storm ceases to create fear in us.
3. Perspective can make all the difference. During stock market collapses, people have jumped from windows after losing their investments.
4. But if you trust in God and know there’s an eternity of joy set before you, what is the loss of a few hundred thousand in stocks? It’s ‘chicken feed’ compared to God’s care for 10 million years!
5. “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in time of trouble!”
6. It’s interesting that the first time this name was used of God was when describing His relationship with Joseph; “But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel” Gen. 49:24.
7 Few mortals would know better than Joseph how great it was to have God as their refuge in time of trouble!
C. SOURCE OF LIVING WATER
1. As I remarked earlier, Israel forever saw God as the Rock which, when smitten, poured forth enough water to satiate 2 ½ million people and all their cattle and washing needs.
2. According to the U.S. Government, each person uses 80-100 gallons of water per day. The Rock was smitten and began pouring water in Exodus 17:6 at Rephidim, 42 days after leaving Egypt.
3. They then moved one day’s journey to Mt. Sinai. No source of water is mentioned there, so I’m convinced they kept going back to Rephidim to get water. They stayed at Mt. Sinai for 11 months and 5 days.
4. 335 day X 80 gallons X 2 ½ million people (skipping the
animals) meant that the Rock poured out 67 BILLION GALLONS OF WATER!
5. What a wonderful type of Christ, who after being ‘struck’ at the Cross, poured out the Living Water of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. John the Baptist said, “God gives Him the Spirit without limit” John 3:34.
6. That’s why Jesus is the ‘Baptizer’ with the Holy Spirit. Jesus offered us this filling; “37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 But this spoke he of the Spirit…” John 7:37-39.
7. Paul said, “That Rock was Christ” 1 Cor. 10:4. Let’s come to Him and drink!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A young artist was trying to copy Raphael's "Madonna and Child," one of the most beautiful pictures in all the world.
2. He went to Florence and gazed on it, then got his easel. Sitting down in front of it he began to copy it. As he looked at it his picture became a thing of beauty, too.
3. But suppose that, instead of only copying, the spirit of Raphael could have come upon that young man: what a difference it would have made!
4. When we come to the Lord Jesus He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us live as He would have us live, and the more the Holy Spirit controls our lives, the more like Him we grow. 5. Do come to Him now, if you have never come, and ask Him to give you His Holy Spirit. [Intermediate Young People]
B. THE CALL
1. Be careful that you don’t rely on man-made rocks. There must be only one real Rock for our lives to be built on: that Rock must be Christ.
2. Let’s make Jesus the One we depend on, our Refuge in times of trouble, and let Him fill us with the Holy Spirit of promise!
3. Prayer.
[Most of this study is a rewrite of Dr. Stanley Horton’s article “Yahweh (Jehovah) Tsuri – The Lord My Rock.”]
