#165 Rock Exodus 17

The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:1-7 NIV

Massah, because they tempted God, and Meribah because they quarreled. Who is more patient than God? Has He not demonstrated both His desire and ability to help them? I use to say that God was not for me, because of pain, suffering, and all the injustices I saw in this world. So much I tried His patience, it was almost to my own demise. There was justice here, but I refused to call it such. The word tells us that the whole world is under this judgement, that justice is being served most naturally as sin's wages. We do not logically make that connection to sin, and choose rather to go after God for being just. If we feel that God is not listening or responding, at the speed or in the way that we would like, then we say He does not exist, and then we seek to take out our anger on the messenger. It is good news he brings to a dying world, but we would rather cling to the very cause of what we complain about. There is a Rock, in the midst of all of this though, and the water that issues forth can quench the deepest of thirsts. It can cleanse a man's soul and open his eyes. 

For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, "I love You, O LORD, my strength." 2The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.…Psalm 18:1&2

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Revelation 21:6