Massah, Meribah, and the Gospel

Bibles with you open them to Exodus seventeen Exodus chapter seventeen. As we continue our journey through the desert here in the book of Exodus, and as you turn, recall to mind the fact that we are looking in this section of Exodus, especially thirteen through nineteen, at the relationship that is developing between God and his newly delivered people. And as we look at the relationship between God and this people whom He has delivered, one of the things that we're recognizing is that there is not as stark a contrast between Israel and us as we have been led to believe. We understand theologically that the Church, according to Galatian six, is the Israel of God. Understand that God has one people, not two. We understand that God has always had one people. We understand that God has one means of deliverance, not too. God saves us by grace through faith. God saved Israel by grace through faith. No one has ever been, nor will anyone ever be saved by the law. Israel was saved by grace. Israel is still saved by grace. We are the people of God only through that salvation by grace. But as God is delivering Israel out of Egypt. We recognize that this is a picture of God's deliverance of his people from their sin. The New Testament carries on this idea that it is a picture of God's deliverance of us from our sin. And we've seen in all of these chapters these similar experiences that Israel has as it relates to their salvation and when we compare it to our own, and this section is no different. In fact, this is more acutely connected to our salvation in Christ. As it is this section Exodus seventeen one through seven that brings Paul, in One Corinthians chapter ten, to make the most explicit connection between Christ and the Old Testament in perhaps all of his writing. As you remember, we've said that all of Scripture is about God's redemption and the person and work of Christ, that in all of Scripture we see God's saving work in Christ, and that here in Exodus it is no different. And in First Corinthians chapter ten, Paul, looking back at the incident that we're going to read about and the water coming from the rock, said that rock was Christ, as clear as day, the rock was Christ. But how so. That's the question that we have to answer. Let's begin by reading the text and then asking another question. Exodus seventeen, beginning of verse one, all the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Refidine. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people gathered together and had a prayer meeting, and they prayed to the God who had delivered them time and time again, to ask if he might no. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. It's the first of three statements by the people that are very important. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water. And the people grumbled against Moses and said they'd gone from quarreling to grumbling. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst. So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. 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 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, and he called the name of the place Masa and Marabah. Because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, here's their third statement, is the Lord among us or not? Where is God? That's the question where is God? There's only two points to the sermon this morning. The first is the people and how they raise the question, and the second is God and how He answers the question. But the question is important nonetheless, where is God? Or it may be asked reflectively, where was God? As we look back on our circumstance like this, Perhaps the most difficult question for Christians to answer is this question of theodicy. People ask us to. Explain why an omnipotent and omnib benevolent God will allow evil and suffering, and we simply do not know where to be in someone's child dies and they look at you and say, okay, Christian, tell me where was God? Someone loses their job and their home and their livelihood, and they look and they say, okay, Bible thumper, where was God? Someone goes to the doctor and comes back having received a terrible report, and they want to know. Where is God? Where is God in. All of this? Well, there are three main dodges that we give, not answers, but dodges that we give when people ask us this question. Dodge number one is the two wills argument. We try to serve as God's pr agent and get him out of this difficulty. And one of the things we do is he said, well, you know, God actually has two wills. God does have his sovereign will, but he also has his permissive will, and in his permissive will, he allows things that he doesn't necessarily want to happen, but because of the freedom of man, he has to allow. See that it's his permissive will. Dodge number two is God's powerful enemy. We might not go to the whole permissive will thing, but then we go to the powerful enemy thing. Well, you know, the only one doing things, and when those good things happened to you, that that's God doing those good things. But when those bad things happened to you, that's the devil who does those things. The third dodge is God's dependence on our faith to do his work. Well, you know, if you had just believed enough, that wouldn't have happened. Well, you know if you had not, if you had just not spoken those words, because you know, the power of life and death is in the tongue. That's a Bible verse, right, So you were going around saying words like that scared me to death and da da da da dah, and you were speaking death into existence. And so it wasn't that God allowed this to happen. It was just one time too many you said, that makes me sick. So you went to the doctor and guess what, You're sick. You laugh. But this is a prominent theological understanding in our day. See, these answers all fail at at least three points. First, they fail to align with the message of the Bible. The Bible knows nothing of the two wills of God. The Bible knows only of a sovereign God who has decreed all things, whatsoever come to pass. There is nothing that God wants that he doesn't get our God is enthroned in the heavens. He does whatever pleases him. God is not running for God. Amen. The idea of God's powerful enemy, that doesn't line up with the scriptures either. And here I defer to a greater mind than my own, as I quote that great reformer and theologian Martin Luther, who said, even the devil is God's devil, Amen, and he is on a short leash. There is nothing that befalls me, because the devil wanted. Even job, even job, and all the things that happened to job. Those things happen only after the accuser came and got permission for those things to happen. So that doesn't line up with scripture. And the idea of God being dependent upon our faith to accomplish his will, that doesn't line up with scripture. That's ridiculous. Everything that you have you have because it comes from God. Not only do you not have have. Faith enough to get out of bed in the morning, you don't have sense enough to do it. You don't even have sense enough to know what you ought to have faith to believe? For Amen, how many of us would have sense enough to have believed God for the difficulties that God used to shape us and strengthen us. How many of us you don't understand that you weren't strengthened by that because you came to God and you said, God, I'm believing you for some difficulties to come into my life to make me stronger so that I can believe you for more things. Hallo, yah, no, no, and no. And yet that's exactly what God did, and it's exactly what God does. You walk through a valley, you come out of the valley on the other side, faith is strengthen and in the next thing, you know, you run into somebody who's walking through the same valley that you just walk through, and you are able to comfort them with the comfort that you have received. That is not because you had faith enough. That's because God's not stupid. He knows what he's doing and you don't. Romans chapter eight. I love it the spirit intercedes for us. Why because we don't even know what to pray for? How can we argue that these things are happening to us because of our faith or our lack of faith when we don't even know what to pray for. God is not dependent upon you and praise God that he's not. Amen. Secondly, these answers fall short because they fail to satisfy the skeptic. The skeptic knows better. Something bad happens and they come to you and they say where was God? And you go, well, you know, God has these two wills and you just kind of ran up against. The wrong one. Oh great, that's the answer I was looking for. Where do I sign up for this Christianity stuff? Job lost, bankrupt, everything gone? Well, you know, God really does love you and he really wanted to keep that stuff. You know, secure for you. But the devil, you know, he's kind of mean, and every once in a while he just really, how are you going to get to heaven? If God can't keep the devil from messing up your pocketbook? How's he going to keep the devil from keeping you out of heaven? Amen? Somebody child dies? Well, you know, if you had just believed a little more, you know, if when you were on your knees beside that hospital bed praying, if you had just upped the faith a notch or two, then that how dare you? How dare you? These answers not only don't satisfy the skeptic. They don't satisfy the believer, and they don't give believers real hope. These answers also expose a deep dark secret. And that deep dark secret is this we too question God when faced with frowning providences. This is why we can identify with Israel in Exodus seventeen. And this is also why we need to heed the psalmist warning in Psalm ninety five. We're addressing this very issue. The Psalmist says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Mahrabah, as on the day at Masa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof though they had seen my work. The Psalmist is referring to this scene right here in Exodus seventeen. So let's look at these two points, shall we. First, the people's sin reveals the question. The people's sin reveals the question. They're asking the question Where's God? Because here we are and we're about to die of thirst? Where is God? First, the people presumed upon God the first place where we see their sin. Look at verse two. Therefore, the people quarrel with Moses and said, give us water to drink. Do you hear the arrogance in that we're thirsty? Give us water to drink. They're quarreling, they're not even begging. It would have been one thing if the people came and begged Moses, Oh, Moses, please, would you please give us water to drink. We're going to die of thirst. No, the people come and they're quarreling with Moses. They're pointing their finger at Moses, and they're saying, you brought us to this place, give us water. There is a lack of humility here. Treating God as though he owes us anything more than judgment is a complete and utter lack of humility. Demanding anything from God or from the servant of God as though it is owed to us is a complete and utter lack of humility. And this is one of my main problems with the whole Word of Faith movement. My main problem with it is that it is power religion, and basically, here's what it says. Faith is a force. Words are the containers of this force, and if we learn how to use our words, we. Can create our own reality. In the world outside the church and now increasingly inside the church. It is the law of attraction. You heard this, you watch in the Oprah. It's the law of attraction. You think about things and you speak those things, and you bring those things to yourself. In other words, you become God and you manipulate reality. This is a pagan ideology and it has wormed its way into different strains of Christianity. But at bottom, here's what it is. You have the power, the authority, and the ability to stand flat footed before God and say give me water. I'm thirsty. It's the height of arrogance and it is so much of what plagues us today. Oh maybe not in the active sense, but in the passive sense. What I mean by that, well, on the one side, you stand before God, or you stand before God's servant and you say, give us water, and there's the arrogance in that. On the other side, you don't stand and demand the water. But when you don't have the water, you accuse God. You're still assuming that he owed it to you. You just didn't demand it, you assumed it. But in both cases you're presuming upon God. And it's sin, flat out sin. Notice the absence of prayer and calling upon God. We came to this place and there's no water. God has brought us to this place and there's no water. Where's the water? What are we going to do? Well? God has provided everything else for us. Let's get on our knees and let's pray that God will send us water. There is no prayer here. After the people presume upon God, they advance to accusing God. Look at verse three. 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. Now they're accusing God. By the way, this is not the first time that the people accused God and Moses like this. Chapter fourteen, verse eleven. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Chapter fourteen, verse twelve. Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Chapter sixteen, verses two and three, and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Those wicked, wicked Israelites. How dare they accuse God over and over and over again. How dare they watch God deliver them time and time again, and then not only presume upon God as though God owes them, but then turn around and accuse God as though his not giving them what he owed them was somehow sin on God's part, as though God himself has been unrighteous in his dealing with his people. How dare they to which the Israelites, if they could communicate with us right now, would respond, takes one to no one, because this is exactly what we do. Everything that we have comes from the hand of God. Everything. What do you have that you have not received? Everything? God has provided everything, our health, our strength, our life, our breath, everything. And yet, mark my words, the next time something befalls you and the next time something befalls me that we know is beyond our control. Did you notice how I said that, Because everything's beyond our control, there are some things that just remind us. Amen, you think that going to work and providing for your family is within your control, and you say, God, you take care of the other stuff, and I'll take care of this stuff, until one day you're down in your back and you can't get out of the bed. Now, all of a sudden, you realize that every other day it was God who gave you the strength to go and make wealth. That's why I say, one of those things comes that reminds us that things are out of our control. And then all of a sudden, we don't say these exact same words, but in so many words, we say, have you brought us all the way out of here to kill us? Well? Why didn't you kill us before? When we were a young cup and we were struggling. Why didn't you just kill us then? Because we were a young couple and we were struggling, but it was just the two of us, and it didn't take a whole lot for just the two of us. When we were a young couple and we were struggling. You could have just killed us then, God, but no, you let us become more than a young couple who are struggling. You let us become a family. And then you let us become a successful family. And we weren't just be bopping around in little apartments that we couldn't even get away from each other. And now we have a house and we have a yard, and we have. Children and responsibilities and we're talking about retirement and all this other stuff. You let us get all the way to. This phase of life, and now you let the difficulty come. You didn't want to kill us when we were just a young couple who didn't have two nickels to rub together. You wanted to bring us all the way to this level of prosperity. Now you want us to die and be buried in the backyard. You don't use those words, but that's what you say. That's what your heart says. Amen, Oh oh oh. You let us raise our children. And now all of a sudden, it wasn't enough that when there were children, we sat there in front of the crib so that we could watch the chest go up and down and make sure that they were still breathing. Oh no, no, no, Now you let them grow up and they leave. And here we were thinking that when they leave that all of our worrying is going. To be over. And we worry so much when they're grown that we wish we could go stand by the bed and watch their chests go up and down. And we accuse God. The accusation ignores God's provision up to this point. But you know what else the accusation does. The accusation assumes that God ought to run the universe with me at the center of it. This is the key, folks, This is the key to the where was God? Mentality. See if my assumption is that God is God and I exist for God's glory, then I say to God, you do with me what you will in order to bring glory to yourself. And all of a sudden the bad report comes. And my assumption is that this is happening because God, in his infinite wisdom knows that this circumstance in my life is what will maximize his glory. And so my prayer is, God, when you give me grace to endure this circumstance so that I might maximize your glass through my life. See that's a God's centered view of our circumstances. Here's a MEAs interview. You exist to bring me glory and comfort, and you are not doing your job well right now, that's the sin at the heart of it. We see ourselves enthroned at the center of the universe, and we believe that everything God does is only done rightly when our needs, our wants, our desire, and our comfort are the end result. This is what's wrong with us. We do not have a high enough view of God, and we have far too high a view of self. And so we presume upon God, and we accuse God, and then we doubt God. Looking for seven and he called the name of the play of the place Massah and Merabah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord. Among us or not you see here Moses? Or is he not? And this was neither the first nor the last time that the people would doubt God. But there are theological flaws here in this question as well. First, there's the theological flaw that says, if I can't see God, then he's there. Where's the pillar of cloud, where's the pillar of fire? If I can't see him, he's not there. Second, there's that. There's that if I can't feel God, then he's not there. I don't see God, therefore God's not there. I don't feel God, therefore God's not there. We fall more in this second category than in the first. We don't we don't have the pillar of smoke and the pillar of cloud. We have the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. And and we think that I ought. To feel a certain way. And if we don't feel a certain way, then God must not be there, because if God was there, the presence of God, by the way, only exists so that I can feel a certain way. And if I'm not feeling a certain way, God must be present. Must not be present, because certainly God would not be present and me feel ashamed or guilty, or alone or confused, or any. Other such thing. Certainly, the presence of God in my life means that those human emotions that are the part of everyone else's existence are no longer a part of my own. Certainly, the presence of the Spirit of God would not merely be there so that in my sanctification I would know how to live in and through those kinds of emotions and in spite of those kinds of emotions, Oh no, He's there so that I don't have them. That's the theological flaw. That's the theological flaw. The theological flaw says, God is present in my life. Therefore I don't have to experience the value of the shadow of death. Whereas the Bible says, yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you're with me. The theological flaw says, I don't ever feel down and alone and fearful because God is present. And if I'm feeling those things, God must he must not be present. And all I need is for the presence of God to come and then those things will go away. No, you might need to feel that. You see, our psychotherapeutic culture that has a pill for everything, has us convinced that if you're depressed, you need a pill. Folks, let me tell you something. If you think about who you are and what you've done in light of who God is and what God has done, and you don't have some depression every once in a while, you're not thinking rightly about your sin and God's holiness and his righteousness. There are things that we do that ought to make us feel like we want to crawl up under the dirt. Amen, somebody. I am not worried about the Christian who comes to me and says I sin and this is on me and I just can't get it off of me. And I'm not worried about that Christian that come on me, and that Christian let's walk together. We can do some stuff, right. I'm worried about the Christian who sins against God and doesn't feel like that. That's who I'm worried about. I'm not worried about the Christian whose loved one has died and they feel like they may just want to lay. In bed today just cry. I'm worried about the one who's at the funeral saying, hey, how you doing. Oh, I'm blessed in highly favored. It's all good, really, because it's not. Death is an enemy and not a friend. We're here to celebrate a homegoing. We're not here to be known, Actually we're not. We're here to mourn a loss. It's a funeral. It's a funeral. There's the question, and it's the question that all of us raise, Where's God? Where was God? And we raise that question. We might not ask that question because we know that we're not supposed to ask that question. But when we presume upon God, when we accuse God, when we doubt God, that's the question that we're asking without asking it. Well. God's response provides the answer. Look at verses five and six. And the Lord. Said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the nile. By the way, is that the only thing that he did with the staff? No, interesting though, isn't it. He didn't say, take the staff with which you parted the waters. Just take the staff with which you struck the nile. Hold that thought, and go, behold, I will stand before you on the rock at Horreb. Underline that God says, I will stand before you on the rock at Horreb, and you shall strike the rock on which God is standing before you, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. First of all, they're these witnesses. What's this, these witnesses? Why do we need these witnesses? Again, God's answering the question. The question is where is God. He's answering the question. They're these witnesses. This message is not meant. This message is meant for the elders and for the people of Israel. God is not just providing water. God's providing an answer because there's a question being raised. This is not just about thirst. It's not just about water. If God just gives water, he doesn't deal with the real core issue. The real core issue is that these people don't know God. That's the real core issue. That's why they presume upon God. That's why they accuse God. That's why they doubt God. That's why we presume upon God. That's why we accuse God. That's why we doubt God, because we're wondering where God is. And so God brings witnesses because he doesn't just want to provide the need. He wants to answer the question. This message is also meant for their posterity, because this question doesn't go away with this generation. Therefore it must be witnessed and recorded. God doesn't do this kind of work in secret. Then there is the rod. He says, take the rod first. You got the witnesses, You got the rod take the rod. The rod is an emblem of Israel's deliverance. Bring the rod. Israel's about to be delivered again, Bring the rod. But the rod is also an emblem of God's judgment on his enemies. Bring the rod. Why because as a whipping that's about to be given out, Mos Is probably like, yeah, every last one of them. You needed to line them up, and I'll just. Wear them out every lad till my arm falls off. I guess somebody else though, Yeah, yeah, let's. Bring the rod. These people need the rod. And notice how he identifies the rod, the rod with which you struck the Nile. There's a couple of reasons here that he uses this reference. One because when he strikes the nile, what does he do? When he strikes the Nile? He takes away the water that the Egyptians will drink. Now, the rod is going to provide the water that the Israelites will drink. But why does he take away their water in judgment upon them? What ought he do to Israel? He ought to judge them because they have sinned against God. He ought to judge them. Therefore, the rod is an emblem of God's provision through substitutionary atonement. I will stand before you. Take the rod that you used to judge Egypt and to take away their water. Take that rod and go to the rock. I'm going to stand before you on the rock, and then you strike the rock or you strike me, And when you strike me, I will give them water. You judge me with the judgment stick, and I'll take the judgment they deserve, and instead of judgment, I will pour out for them. Water. This is why Paul says one Corinthians ten one through five. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed. Them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, was most of them. God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in their wilderness. Folks, this gospel, God says to you and to me, in our sin, you deserve judgment. And there is a judgment tree, and on that tree your judgment will be meted out. But instead of your judgment being meted out upon you, it will be meted out upon me. God takes in his own body the judgment that we deserve, and then from that judgment flows living water. This is why Paul says the rock was Christ. How often have we missed this? How often have I missed this? How often have you missed this? That little phrase, I'm gonna stand before you on the rock. And you strike it. Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. All we like sheep and gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way. But God, God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us. All. God made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. This is substitutionary atonement. This is the picture of God being just and the justifier. Because he pours out his wrath on a substitute, and he feeds his people, the people's needs are met. Jesus connects himself with both the bread and the water of Exodus John six thirty five. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst John seven thirty seven. On the last day of the Feast, the Great Day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And then with a woman at the well, he offers he has more than water John four ten. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that was standing before you, saying, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. I'm about a response, Okay, give me that John four thirteen or fourteen. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The rock was Christ. The rock was quiet Christ. This is a picture of God, the Sun, the pre incarnate Christ, the pre incarnate Christ, standing before the rock, being struck and pouring out water. And later on, later on, there would be another piece of wood and he would hang and he would die, and then he would be pierced in his side, and blood and water would rush forth the rock. It was Christ, Oh rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself and thee with water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin. A double cure. What is that double cure? Then it would save me from its wrath and from its power. If you are here today and you've come, you're trusting in anything other than Christ, May I say to you repent, turn from your trust in inferior things and trust in Christ and Christ alone. If you're here today and you're dealing with this where was God mentality, and you're at war with God and asking where was God when dot dot here's the answer. The answer was he was in front of the rock that was struck that provided everything that you needed. That's the answer. That's the answer. Where was God? Where was God? Where was God? Where was God? When I got that report? Where was God when my loved one died the same place he was when his son died. That's where God was, and that's where God is, and that's where God will always be. My prayer for you is that God grants you grace, that He opens your eyes, and he allows you to see that you are not at the center of the universe, but you stand under the judgment of God, and everything that you have received you received because He stood before the rock and was himself struck so that you might have your thirst quenched. But know this, there is a difference between this rock in Exodus seventeen and the Rock of Christ, because not everyone who drank the water from this rock was saved. There are many in this multitude who received the grace of God in terms of this water from the rock, who did not trust Him by faith and were cast into. Hell when and they died. But there is none, not one who comes to Christ who will in any way be cast out. Not one trust him, cling to him, believe in him. Oh young one, you who come here with your parents week in and week out, and this water flows over you. My prayer for you is that you do not end up having this water flow over you for weeks and months and years, and yet never turn from your sin and turn to Christ and trust him, so that this water might not flow over you, but that it might also flow in you. Cling to Christ, flee to him, trust in him and him alone. That you might never thirst again. Let's pray, Oh God, how we have tempted and tested you, how we have presumed upon you, how we have accused you, how we have doubted you. And in every one of those things that we are asking, is God really with us or not? Is it really here or not? Is it really real or not? And you have answered clearly in the affirmative. Not only have you answered, but you have provided grant by your grace, that we might see this provision, that we might embrace this provision. Grant by your grace, that. We might by faith be found in Christ, the Rock who pours out endless dreams of everlasting water. Lord, help us, help us to trust, help us to believe, Help us to embrace your provision in the person and work of Christ. This we pray and his name and for his sake, Amen, as