Water From The Rock: An Exposition Of Exodus 17:1-7

Water from the Rock

Exodus 17:1-7

Yogi Berra was a famous baseball player known for his humorous liners. One of these was: “It’s deja vu all over again.” This applies well to the history of Israel and their journeys in the wilderness. In today’s passage, we see the thirsty Israelites complaining to Moses and accusing the LORD, that He only brought them out of Egypt to destroy them, this time by thirst. In last week’s passage from Exodus 16:2-15, we heard this same accusation, but this time it was perishing from hunger.

The first murmuring about water occurs in Exodus 15. They had just celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh’s army. Just three days later, they were again complaining against Moses and the LORD. The LORD directed Moses to a tree to sweeten the bitter waters. Later on, they “discovered” palm trees and ten wells of water at Elim (Exodus 15:27). Both the sweetening of the bitter water and the discovery of the wells came from the hand of the LORD. Although some might claim that there was an additive of some sort from the wood which effectively neutralized the water, it was by the LORD’s hand. The same is true for the wells. They needed a lot of water, and the LORD provided ten wells. In last week’s message, (Mah-Na? What is this Stuff?), we saw that God provided quail for them to eat in the evening. Some could ascribe this to good luck rather than the LORD’s direct provision. But the provision of the bread which rained down from heaven had no “natural” explanation. We can see that the LORD provides directly as well as by other means. But, either way, it is the LORD who is to receive the glory.

Today, Moses is directed to strike a specific rock, from which enough water would gush out to provide for thousands of Israelites and their cattle. There is no “natural” explanation” for this miracle. I know that today we can extract oil from shale. I don’t know, but there might be some rocks from which water could be extracted. But when we realize the scale of the need as well as the available technology 3500 years ago, there is no way to explain this, except by the hand of God Himself.

The long and the short of it is this: Israel was not to trust in human means, whether it was deliverance and provision by the hands of others or to trust in their own ingenuity and self-reliance. Moses might claim as a shepherd who knew the area well, that he could have found water there for his family and his small flocks. But this is nothing compared to the need. They did not have time to “frack” water-bearing rock, if this even exists. There was no “divining rod” to discover underground water. There was no En-Gedi, a natural oasis at the edge of the Dead Sea. Moses was to strike a rock, from which abundant water would gush out.

I can remember as a child attending the Flemington, NJ county fair, There was a faucet that was suspended over a barrel from which water gushed. It was real water. I was puzzled how this could be, seeing that there did not seem to be anything attached to the faucet to provide water. However, my dad put his hand over the faucet, and voila!, there was a pipe there. It was well disguised. It ran up from the barrel into the faucet opening. As it was in the middle of the stream of water coming down, it could not be seen as it was a clear pipe. This answered the other dilemma which was that no matter how much water flowed into the barrel, it never overflowed.

The water from the rock, just like the bread from heaven were true miracles from the LORD. Of course, no miracle is a miracle to God who holds sovereign power over the universe and establishes its order. But, to us they are miracles which no human means are able to provide, including science and technology. It is, again, not to say that God does not use people, governments, church, human, or other “natural means” to deliver us from some particular trouble. But God is not limited to these means. But we must also be warned that “miracles” can be faked as well. We have seen the tricks of well-known televangelists who set up their “miracles” in advance. But God still can perform “miracles” today according to His will as needed. He is Sovereign. He chooses if and how to meet our perceived needs. We should not to trust in signs and miracles. Neither should we trust in human means. We are to trust solely in the LORD and leave it up to Him once we have borne our petitions to Him.