Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13
Theme: Obedience Leads to Rewards
Title: Please Don’t Hit Me – The Rock
In this sermon we see the importance of obedience that would have helped enable the Children of Israel to be ready for a new experience with God in the Promise Land. It can also teach us some good lessons.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our strange story this morning is actually the continuation of another strange story that took place 38 years earlier with Moses and Aaron at the same location.
We can read about that story in Exodus 17:1-7.
+The Children of Israel had been gone from Egypt for a few months and were making their way to Mt. Sinai.
+The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY had already provided His People manna from heaven for bread and quail for meat.
They were encamped at a place called Rephidim. It was about 15-20 miles north of Mt. Sinai.
The people were once again grumbling with God. This time it was not about bread or meat but about water. They couldn’t find any water and just knew that they would die. That God had led them out to the desert to die.
And so, as you read the story in Ex. 17:1-7 the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron to go to a certain rock – the rock at Horeb and strike the rock with the staff that had been used during the Plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea and immediately water would flow out of the rock.
The Bible tells us that Moses did just that and sure enough water began to flow out of the rock and the people were saved.
However, Moses was most unhappy with all this God testing and quarreling and as a result, he renamed the place with two names – Massah (which means testing) and Meribah (which means quarreling).
It was Moses’ intention that by renaming the place an important milestone would be firmly established. Each time the people of God would come by this place and hear the two names that they would be more determined than ever to honor God, obey God and understand that God loves them.
That story is a rather strange story in its own right. Not very many times in history have we had stories about someone getting water from a rock by hitting it with a wooden staff. Even a staff that was as famous as Moses’ staff.
Now, let’s fast forward to our strange story this morning.
Almost 40 years have passed.
Moses is almost 120 years old.
A lot of things had happened over the past 40 years.
+God had given His People the 10 Commandments and His Covenant of Holiness.
+The adult generation that had walked out of Egypt 40 years earlier were almost gone. Only a few remained like Joshua, Caleb and Moses.
+The people of Israel were now a new generation. A generation that had grown up listening to Moses, learning how to be God’s People; learning how to follow God, obey God and worship God.
+Long gone were the days of the Golden Calf incident, the 12 spies debacle and even the sad days of Balaam and his donkey.
The Israelites were right on the cusp of entering into the Promise Land. Their 40 years of wandering around the desert was just about over.
Numbers 20 tells us that they found themselves back in the same area where their parents and grandparents had complained and quarreled with God over water some 38 years earlier. And just like their ancestors, they were now complaining about the lack of water. I guess some things just never change.
It is right here where the story gets a little strange. Even more strange than it was some 38 years ago when Moses was told by God to hit the stone with his staff.
We see:
+God once again ask Moses to do something to make the water flow.
But this time, he is not to use his staff. He is not to use the same staff that has over the last 40 years been used to bring about some plagues, win some battles and even provide water.
This time the LORD plainly tells Moses to take the staff with him, but it will not be used. Or rather it should not be used.
Instead, Moses was to speak to the rock. He was to tell the rock to bring forth water for the People of God.
The Hebrew word here is Debar – it plainly means to talk to or to speak to someone or something.
It’s the word used to describe how God communicated with Noah, with Abraham and with a host of other people throughout the Old Testament.
It wasn’t a new word or a difficult word to understand.
Moses, take the staff. Let the people see it. Lay it down and don’t pick it up and use it like you did before. Instead, speak to the rock. Tell the rock to bring forth water.
But Moses didn’t obey. He didn’t speak to the rock.
Instead, he got angry and picked up his staff and hit the rock not one time, but two times and water did come out of it.
That still must have been something to see.
To see the same rock give out water just like it did 38 years ago. To feel like you have been here before only it was your mother and father or your grandmother and grandfather that saw the first bit of water come out of that rock.
You could go on and share the story for generations of how Moses struck the rock and water came out not once but twice.
However, as we read, this story did not end well like the first story.
+God is not happy.
+And as a result, neither Aaron nor Moses will be allowed to go into the Holy Land with the Children of Israel. Instead, they both will die on the Egyptian side of the Promise Land.
Now, hold on a minute.
The staff is the same.
The rock is the same.
The water is the same.
So, what was so wrong about Moses choosing not to talk to the rock?
After all, who talks to rocks in the first place?
Why does it matter that they just struck the rock instead of talking to it?
I mean, when old people (Moses and Aaron are both around 120) start talking to things, it might cause people to think that they are crazy. It’s sort of crazy to hit a rock as well but then that had already been done once so it’s not so crazy to see them do it again.
So, why did God get upset?
Hitting should be as good as speaking = right?
Well, no – actually it’s not.
Let’s look at what this story is to teach us.
I. Obeying God is fully obeying God.
We are saved by grace. We know that. The Bible tells us that.
“8 God’s grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn’t come from anything you do. It is God’s gift. 9 It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
However, we live by obedience and we receive God’s anointings and blessing through our acts of obedience.
“If you love me, keep my commands. – John 14:15
“Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” – John 14:23
When God says for us to do something, He means for us to do it. He doesn’t just do something to give us busy work.
Remember those days in school when you knew that the teacher was just giving you busy work. They just wanted to take some time off or they had something they had to do so they just assigned the whole class to either read a chapter or do some problems quietly.
Oh, they might have said that it was important, but you really knew it was just to pass the time. It was to give them some quiet time and to get caught up. It never hurt you, but you knew deep down it was just busy work.
The same thing probably happened at your first job or around the house when your parents would do the same thing.
Sometimes it was just busy work, but I wonder if it was to test our level of obedience and patience. Would we really do the work? Would we listen and obey?
Let’s refresh ourselves with God and Moses for a bit.
God and Moses had walked together for a long time.
+They had experienced their time together at the burning bush.
+They had experienced their 40-day visits on top of Mt. Sinai.
+They had their regular discussions in the Tent of Meetings.
+They had spoken as a friend speaks to a friend.
And yet, Moses listens to God and then he does what Moses wants to do instead of what God wants him to do.
He lets his anger get the best of him and puts all the attention on Aaron and himself –
“Hear now, you rebels; shall we (Aaron and I) bring water for you out of this rock.”
That is not what God said to do or how God told him to do it.
There are a few lessons here:
+No matter how long we have walked with the LORD – absolute and complete obedience is still required and expected.
+No matter how close we are with the LORD – it is our responsibility to bring people to the LORD and not to put ourselves at the center of attention. It is not all about us. He is Lord and Savior and glory and honor are His and not ours to covet and steal.
+No matter how long we have walked with the LORD we can still be tempted to disobey God and bring dishonor to Him and hurt others.
The older we get and the longer we walk with God the more obedient we should become and the sweeter we should become.
Moses let his anger and his selfishness get in the way.
II. Secondly, we see that God wanted to do something new for His People.
Moses had the chance to do something that very few people have had the chance to do.
He was invited to do something like Ezekiel did in the Valley of the Dry Bones Vision – to speak and things miraculously happen.
God was inviting Moses into a whole new relationship – a relationship of not just doing things and being the means to miracles but speaking miracles into existence.
It’s similar to what God’s Son Jesus did when he would tell people to rise from the dead, or evil spirits to leave people or for people to stretch out their hands and be healed.
No touching, no handling – just speaking the words of creation. Speaking the words of wholeness and life.
It’s one thing to see a staff hit something and water come out of it.
It’s a whole new level up to have someone just speak and see a miracle happen.
Moses’ rebellion was not merely disobedience. Moses didn’t allow God to do a new work among His People.
This new generation had been raised in the Ten Commandments and in with the Code of Holiness.
This generation was to be a different generation. They were to be a people who would experience God in a new way.
This event here in front of this rock was to show that way. God would not only work through their actions but through their voices at well. Miracles and victory could come through their speech and their words.
Think for a moment of what happened later with Joshua and the walls of Jericho.
They didn’t push down the walls. They didn’t attack the walls.
Joshua 6 tells us that the walls fell when the people blew the trumpets and shouted on day seven. God used their breath – the blowing the trumpets and shouting of praise to God to bring down the walls.
The New Testament is full of story after story of how God used Jesus’ words and the disciples’ words to bring about healing and salvation.
“Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” – Mark 1:23-25
“So, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.” – Matthew 9:6b-8
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a evil spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the evil spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. – Acts 16:16-18
Our words are important. More often they are more powerful than our actions.
King Solomon reminds us in Proverbs 18:21 that our words can bring either life or death.
Jesus reminds us that it is through the use of our words that we can ask the Father for the things that we need in this life.
The Apostle Paul spends a great deal of time in his writings to tell church after church the power of words. Words that bring healing, words that bring grace and mercy and words that open the very windows of heaven.
Numbers chapter 20 shares a rather strange story doesn’t it.
But a story that reminds us that when God wants us to do a new work – a work that goes beyond what we have done in the past that our answer has to be Yes, Lord, Yes.
Our answer must be – “Lord do a new work in me and through me”.
What has happened in the past may happen again.
But then again, what happened in the past may happen again, but God may want to do it a new way.
We must be open to new ways.
To have our staffs ready if we need them but to put them to the side and allow the LORD to do a new work in a new way for today – to be ready to use our words to bring forth Living Water.
A couple of weeks ago we opened our service with that little song – Yes, Lord, Yes
Today, let’s close our service again with that song –
Saying Yes, Lord, Yes – to your will and to your way.
And to be the vessel and the voice that God can use today to share the Good News with a new generation.
To be the vessel and the voice today that God can use to bring people into a whole new relationship with Him.
Aaron and Moses messed up. They tried to do it through old ways when God wanted them to do something new; something to reveal God’s power a new way. God wanted the people to experience a new way to work with Him. Not just through actions but with our voices – for it is through God’s voice the world was created and it’s how did John describe Jesus – THE WORD.
It gives us something to think about today.
How does God want to work through us – through both our actions plus our words.
Our answer must always be – Yes, Lord, Yes.
Let’s pray and then close with that song this morning.
