Resistance at Rephidim

If you have your Bible, Exodus chapter 17. As we make the journey with the nation of Israel through the wilderness, Exodus chapter 17. Now, when we come to this chapter, it is not the next place that Israel settled. We know in Numbers chapter 33 that they settled in two other places before coming to re in Exodus chapter 17. But because there wasn't anything significant that happened at those two places, evidently the Spirit of God does not record for us anything that took place there. We end up in Exodus chapter 17 after the feeding of the manna in Exodus chapter 16 to understand how God provides for His people.

But understand this. In Exodus chapter 17, it's a study about life's spiritual victories. It's a study about how God provides for his people. And we're going to come to realize some very important truths in Exodus chapter 17. So let me read to you the first seven verses, and then we'll have four points we're going to cover.

It says in verse number seven, verse one of chapter 17, that all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed. by stages from the wilderness of Sin according to the command of the LORD, encamped at Bephid, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said Give us water that we may drink. 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 they grumbled against Moses, and said, Why now have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children?

And our livestock with thirst. So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? A little more, and they will stone me. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pass before the people. and take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock of Horeb, or excuse me, the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he named the place Mas, and Merib, because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?

Four things we're going to see this morning. Number one: Israel's resistance. Moses' reaction, God's requirements, and lastly, our reflection about what God did in Exodus chapter 17. The first thing I want you to notice is Israel's resistance.

We'll look at the congregation, the camp, then we're going to look at their complaint, and then we're going to look at some conditions.

First of all, the congregation. The congregation of Israel was led to this place by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God was leading the children of Israel. He was leading them every step of the way from the time they left Egypt from where they are on this day. That's important for us to grasp because what God was doing was leading them into a very trying situation in order to prove his power and to prove his presence among them. Which leads us to point number two, the camp there at Rif.

According to the commandment of the Lord, God led them, verse number one, to this specific camp. Why? Because God was going to prove him, and what God was going to do was show them that in the pathway of obedience, there is always trials. You see, we forget about that, don't we? We think that if we follow God and do what God says, everything's going to be just fine.

There's not going to be any problems. Israel was obedient to God. They were following the cloud. They were following the fire. They listened to the word of the Lord. They did what God said. And lo and behold, what God did was bring them to a place of trial, a place of testing. You see, he wants to perfect you, and he will do whatever he has to make you just like him. But note, Satan wants you to think. It's better for you to disobey God and be happy than it is to obey God and be miserable. That's Satan's lie.

That's always Satan's lie. He wants you to disobey God and get you to think that it's better to live in that realm than it is in the realm of obedience because the pathway of obedience Always filled with trials and difficulties. And yet God had a plan. And through the obedience of these people, God was going to show Himself faithful. And he was going to demonstrate once again to them his great and marvelous power. And we need to be able to understand that. But understand, number three, the condition.

They were thirsty. And God had to bring them to this place because the condition they were in physically was a great turmoil for them. I mean, you need water to drink, right? Now, most of us, we don't face this. We don't understand what happens here because, you know, when we're thirsty, what do we do? We go to the refrigerator, we get a drink. We're on the road, we stop by 7-Eleven, we stop by the a. m. p. m. we pick up a big gulp, we get whatever we want because you know what, we've got to satisfy our thirst.

We don't know what it means to really be thirsty. But these folks are in the desert. It's hot. It's dry. And now God has got them to a particular point where they are completely without water and they are extremely thirsty. And God was going to test them to see, listen, to see if they had learned any lesson up to this point. You see, sometimes God tests us again because we didn't learn the lesson from the previous test. Did you ever notice that?

And God wants to make sure that you understand exactly who He is and what He wants to do. He doesn't want them to forget Him and all that He's done for them. But He brings them to this place, Raphid, in the Sinai Peninsula. And they are extremely thirsty. Now, listen carefully. You're going to have to have your thinking caps on today to understand the implications of Exodus 17 for your life. Because, why is it this was the test? God could have given them any test He wanted to give them, right? But it happens to be a water test, it happens to be a thirst test.

Why? Why? As you recall the life of our Lord, and this will set the tone for Exodus 17, there was one time, there was one time that he specifically said that he suffered. And it wasn't when he was being beaten. He never cried out in pain. He never cried out and said, ow, that hurts. He was like a sheep being led to the slaughter. He never spoke a word. But when he was on the cross in John 19, he cried out, I what? Thirst. I thirst. And you know why he thirst, didn't you? It's because all of the wrath of God had been poured out on him at Calvary's tree.

And when you experience the wrath of God, you experience the torment of God. And you recall Luke chapter 16, when the rich man said to Abraham, Send Lazarus. That he might tip the end of his finger in water and touch the end of my tongue, because I am in great torment in this fl. You see, what Jesus did at Calvary was experience man's eternal thirst without God. And cried out, I thirst. In Exodus 17, listen, Exodus 17 records the test of being thirsty. Because what God is going to do here and what God is going to show you here goes way beyond anything you can ever imagine of the salvation of God Himself to satisfy the thirst.

Of every single man who puts their faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. And so this physical suffering was specifically designed. He was going to use this test in their lives to show us how our God meets our every thirst. So, not only did they suffer physically, they also suffered spiritually. Because, how did they respond? Well, they began to complain. They began to quarrel once again. It's almost like a summer rerun on TV, isn't it? Same old thing you saw earlier in the fall. But the problem is, spiritually, they were deficient because they weren't learning the lessons that God had brought to them before.

Why is it when we face a difficulty we think that God's abandoned us? That's a spiritual problem on our part, right? Because God was always there, He led them to that place. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. You see, the same shepherd that leads us beside the quiet streams also leads us into the valley of the shadow of death. We forget about that, but that's what God does. Because God is molding you and making you into a man and to a woman that honors and glorifies His name.

That leads us to number four: their complaint. Their complaint. And it revealed how Israel failed to learn the lessons the Lord wanted to teach them. And their complaint became so enormous that Moses says, they're going to stone me. They're going to kill me. Now listen, remember, Moses had a double test. Israel only had a single test. See, whenever you're the leader, you always get the double test. Whenever you're not the leader, you only get the single test. God was still making Moses into the man he wanted Moses to be.

So we move now from Israel's resistance to Moses' reaction. Two ways. You see it in his concern and in his cry. He's concerned. List to what he says. Verse number 2: The people quarreled, quarreled with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel? With me. Why do you test the Lord? Wow. Now think about this one. His concern is that they were testing God. Whenever you quarrel, whenever you murmur, you test God. And do you know the Bible says you cannot do that?

Did you know that? Listen to what Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse number 16 says. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massaw. Well, that's Exodus 17. It's doubting him. But how many times do we test our God? This is a monumental lesson for all of us to grasp. Because boy, when we find ourselves in a trial, we like to really test our God, don't we? Where are you, God? How come you're not providing for my need? You provided for their need. How come not mine? But Israel began to test God.

That was Moses' concern. You guys, you can't do this. Do you remember the plagues? Do you remember the Red Sea? See? And whenever we begin to doubt God, we forget that it was God who demonstrated his love toward us, and that while we are yet sinners, he died for us. In the midst of our animosity toward him, in the midst of our rebellion against him, he demonstrated his love toward us. He's already shown us his faithfulness, his character, his nature. There's no reason whatsoever we ever have to test him.

None. As if God is not sovereign and not in control. How do we know that? Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 45. I was going to say this to the end, but the end might come quicker than I thought, so I better share it now.

Amen. I don't know if that's an amen because you want to finish quickly or what. I'm going take it as a good amen. Isaiah chapter 45, verse number 9. Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker. Woe to you who at any time quarrels with him. An earthen vessel among the vessels of earth. Will the clay say to the potter, What are you doing? Or the thing you are making say, He has no hands. Paul would refer to this in Romans, wouldn't he? The same verse. Because God is the Creator. And we've got to be careful of that.

That was Moses' concern. And so, what does Moses do? He cries out to God, right? Well, what else is he going to do? He's the leader. What else are you going to do? You cry out to God. You pour your heart out to God. That's what Israel should have been doing. They should have been point their heart out to God. Oh Lord God, be merciful unto us. Oh Lord God, we trust you. We have seen what you have done in the past, and because of that, we're going to trust you right now, even though there is absolutely no water in the midst of this desert.

We know, Lord, that you can do anything, and we're going to trust you to provide for us. And so, Lord, it's all yours. Do whatever you want to do. That's not what they did. But he cried out to his God in order for his God to provide for his people. Point number three: God's requirements.

And listen, this is where it gets really, really good. I always notice four things. Number one, the rulers.

Number two, the rod. Number three, the rock. And number four, its results. Okay? The Bible says that God said to Moses, Pass before the people and take with you some of the rulers or elders of Israel.

Now, why is he going to take the rulers of Israel? Well, because there needs to be an eyewitness to the account about what God's just about to do. And the Bible says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, everything will be confirmed.

And God says, take the elders, take the rulers, and take with you. The staff, the rod. This is important. It's the rod of God. The rod represents, listen, the presence and power of God. And I want you to go to a specific rock. That's important. And then God says this: Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb.

Listen, God is com down to the rock. That is important to understand the significance of the symbol of the story. I'm coming down to the rock. And Moses, I want you to take the rod and I want you to strike the rock. Meaning that when you strike the rock, who do you strike? God. Now listen carefully. The rock, the rock, is Jesus Christ our Lord. How do you know that? 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Here it is. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, ignorant brethren, 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 were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. The rock was Christ. And therefore, you have God striking God. Yeah. Now, why? Because God was going to pour out His abundant grace. On Israel. But in order for that to happen, their judgment on sin had to take place first.

You see, God was going to lavish them with water until judgment was taken care of of the sin of their complaining and moaning and groaning. Now listen, the Bible says in Isaiah 53, Surely our griefs, verse 4, he himself bore.

In our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, sm of God and afflicted. Who was stricken by God? Jesus Christ the Messiah at Calvary. What was happening here in Exodus 17? Is a picture of what Jesus Christ would do for the people of the world. He would be stricken by his Father in heaven in order that man might experience the true Satisfaction that only Christ Himself can provide. Therefore, the rock became a substitute. For Israel, in order that they might understand how their sins would be taken care of before God would lavish His grace upon them.

Listen carefully. In Numbers 20, there's an incident where God tells Moses to speak to the rock. And Moses decides not to speak to the rock. Instead, he decides to strike. The rock. And God is infuriated with Moses, and he says, That's it, no promised land. S, wait a minute. All he did was lose his cool for a second.

Was it because he just struck the rock and spoke the rock? Instead of speaking to the rock, was it because he disobeyed God that he didn't go into the promised land? The answer: no. You know why Moses couldn't go into the promised land? Because the symbol of the rock being smitten can only be smitten one time. One time. Romans 6, verse number 10. Hebrews 9, 26 and 28. Jesus Christ died once for all. Do you understand the implications of that? Here it is. The reason Moses couldn't enter the promised land is because Moses Becomes a symbol of all those who will not trust the finished work of Christ at Calvary for their redemption.

That somehow there is something that is added to that sacrifice. That the one time that Christ Had been stricken at Calvary is not sufficient enough to save me. There must be something else I can do to get in. And because there's only one sacrifice, if at any time you decide that there's another way to get to heaven, if at any time you decide, you know what, that sacrifice really didn't pay for my sins. So, I better go to some holding tank after I die, so therefore I can give a good payment for my sins in order to get into heaven.

The answer to that is, you'll never get there. Like Moses never got there. D mean Moses wasn a believer. Moses was a believer. But he becomes a symbol of those who will not trust the finished work of Christ at Calvary. That one time that rock was smitten. For Christ suffered once for all, just once. And it's that sacrifice and only that sacrifice on Calvary's tree that provides entrance into the eternal kingdom of our God. That's it. And now you know why Moses couldn go into promised land. Because there was a symbol in Exodus 17 of the rock being Christ.

Being stricken by the rod of God, God striking God in order for Israel to experience the blessing of God because their sin had to be judged. And Moses, upon striking the rock in Numbers 20, would violate that symbol, and therefore God said, no promised land for you. But what about the results? You know, you think about this story, you think you hit the rock, and whoop, whoop, whoop, the water comes bubbling out of there, you know, and everybody just comes up and just gets a little drink of water like a drinking fountain.

That's not what happened. He struck the walk, and the waters, according to Psalm 105, just gushed out all over the place. This ran all over the place. And the people were just, you know, engulfed in water. They had so much water to drink. When you come to John chapter 7, verse number 37, you're on the eighth day, you're on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booze, the time they remember their wilderness wanderings. It says, Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, when he cried out, he yelled out.

He yelled at the top of his lungs. If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. And he who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet. gl. Once again, Jesus now is reaffirming that what took place in Exodus 17 was the very fact that he was the living water that would flow out. From the rock. They would have died.

Life comes through the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord. That's it. There is no other way. And the results, look at the graciousness of the results.

Oh, the graciousness of its results. Israel didn't deserve anything, their attitude was terrible. And once again, just like Exodus 16, instead of God saying, that's it, you're done, it's over, he says, you know what, Moses? This is what you need to do. Take the rod, take some rulers, go to the rock, strike the rock, and let me show you what I'm all about.

The graciousness of our God. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Not only the graciousness of God, but the giftedness of God, along with the greatness of it. Can you imagine two million Jews instant satisfied with water? I mean, if you had to stand in line to get your water, you're going to be dead before you get there. And then the fourth result is centered around the gladness in it. You think they were glad because they got something to drink?

You bet. But before we close, some reflections. Let me give you just two things. One deals with the testing of our Redeemer, and the other deals with the testimony at Raphidim. First of all, the testing Of our Redeemer.

We learn in this story how wrong it is to test God, how wrong it is to put God in a situation that we will not believe who He is and what He does. That's so wrong. So we learn from the testing of our Redeemer that that's not something we're supposed to be doing. And if you've done that, or maybe you're in the process of doing that right now, you need to go to God and say, Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for my error, because it really is arrogance, isn't it? Number two, the testimony at Raphidim: Do not res the Lord, do not resist the lessons.

That he wants to teach you, and do not resist the love that he's already shown you. Instead, you need to receive the rock. And then you need to rest on that rock. If you haven't received the rock of salvation, you need to do that today. For He is the rock of your salvation. So don't think for a moment that Moses didn't put two and two together and understand that the rock is a salvation because over in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse number 15 Moses laments that Israel forsook and forsook God and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation.

Moses knew. That rock is our surety. That rock is everything that we need, because the rock's immovable. We're tossed to and fro, but we need to rest on that rock. We need to wrap ourselves around that rock and hold on to that rock because that's the anchor for our soul. That's what we need. And that's what Exodus 17 teaches us. Trust in your God. Believe in your God. Live for your God. Don't reject the rock. Don't resist the rock. Instead, receive the rock. Rest on the rock. And rejoice in the rock of your salvation.

Let's pray.