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The Rock
Contributed by Jimmy Haile on Aug 25, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: God proved that they could trust Him
Left on a sinking ship were the captain and three sailors. The captain spoke first. Men, this business about a captain going down with his ship is nonsense. There’s a three-man life raft on board and I’m going to be on it. To see who will come with me, I will ask you each one question. The one who can’t answer will stay behind. Here’s the first question: What unsinkable ship went down when it hit an iceberg??
The first sailor answered, The Titanic, sir.?
On to the next question: How many people perished?
The second sailor said, One thousand five hundred and seventeen, sir.? (The captain thought to himself, I have to make this question harder!)
Now for the third question, and the captain turned to sailor number three. What were their names?
Rephidim-It means there was just rocks and dirt and more rocks and dirt The people are exasperated, even a child could pick a better spot to camp than Rephidim!
Contend-to debate or dispute with somebody!
They have already questioned whether God is with them!
He keeps proving that He is with them!
1-A pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night!
2-Crossing the Red sea
3-Bitter water into sweet
4-Quails in the evening and manna in the morning
Verse 3-What it boils down to is they think they have a better plan than God!
If I were God... .How many times have you heard people say that?
If I were God I would have everyone love everyone else, no war, eliminate poverty and everybody with same amount of money, same opportunities.?
Isn’t that how it was in the garden of Eden?
Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought that you had a better plan for your life? I sure have, more times than I want to mention.
No one thinks they have a better plan when they are on vacation, or holding their new born child or grandchild, or on their wedding day or their honeymoon (Right Guys!).
Of course not. I always think I have a better plan for my life when times are hard, when times are painful, and when times look bad.
Why do they think that they have a better idea?
It is simple. They are thirsty and there is no water. They have a problem and there is no answer!
God placed them there for a reason! He moved them from were water was to were water wasn’t!
God does this to us too. The question is: Why? Lets dig deeper to fmd the answers!
Even though these people have seen God provide again and again they are in pain, they are thirsty and they need an answer!
Verse 4-They are almost ready to stone me!
There solution was lets kill Moses! I believe they already had rocks in their hands!
They didn?t need a new leader, they just need to rely on God and the leader they had?
Verse 5-7-The Rock
Three things I noticed:
1-People didn’t get to see the miracle of the water coming out of the rock when Moses struck it!
2-We don’t know what the reaction of the elders or the people is!
Why, because it don’t matter what the people say or the elders say, if God said He is going to be there, then He is going to be there!
He said, He would never leave you nor forsake you, that’s the true whether you believe it or not!
That statement can benefit you if you will let it, but it’s still true even if you don’t!
3-Instead of place to remind them that God provide for them, it became a place to remind them that they had doubted Him!