Title: Living water is found in Christ!
Text: Exodus 17:1-7
Facebook live: Living water is found in Christ!
17 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 Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
When I was 13 or 14 a friend of my mother’s asked if I wanted to earn a little money. Her husband was replacing their driveway and he needed a helper. So, I walked a few blocks over for two days and helped break concrete and put the pieces in a truck. It was hard work. I was tired and worn out and I drank a ton of water, and at the end of two days the man told me that he was paying me a dollar an hour and he gave me 18 dollars.
Well, there was not a lot of grace in that pay day, so I remember a bit of grumbling on my part!
Grumbling on the part of the children of Israel was a common thing as well!
Our midweek Bible study is traveling through the book of Exodus.
It is a fascinating book with many struggles and successes as God leads the children of Israel out of Egypt to the promised land that he has promised to give them.
We have recently passed this point on the journey so it seemed good to pivot from the Gospel reading for today and focus on the Old Testament reading.
The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea with God’s miraculous protection on dry ground in Chapter 14. Pharoah’s army was drowned when the waters returned.
The children of Israel sang Moses song in Chapter 15 proclaiming:
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a man of war;
the Lord is his name.
In Chapter 16 the Lord rained down bread from heaven to sustain the children of Israel on their journey and continued to do this for the next 40 years!
In today’s reading, the people of Israel move on from the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai we’re told and find no water.
Much like m, in the wilderness of youth and the breaking of concrete in the heat of the day - I grumbled – and so do they.
“Give us water to drink.”
And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
I’m sure, I went home and complained to my mom about the work she got me to do, and the low pay that I received for it.
What had my mother had got me into!
You and I are not so far away from the children of Israel in our gratitude to the Lord, I fear.
The Lord’s provision for we and they continue but our victories can be forgotten or blurred by the sin that blinds and causes us only to remember that which we don’t have.
It’s hot, they’re thirsty, “Give us water to drink!”
Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
The eighteen dollars I received in 1967 would be equivalent to One hundred and eighty dollars, or ten dollars an hour in today’s money. I would say that wasn’t so bad for a 12-year-old grumbling about work!
“Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
Their argument is not with Moses but with the Lord.
They blame God for all they don’t have in the here and now.
They forget all that the Lord has done for them and continues to do.
And we in much the same way see not all that we have but only all that we want and need.
5 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.
The staff which the Lord had used, through Moses, to show his power before Pharoah.
The staff that turned into a serpent.
The staff that turned the water of the Nile into blood.
The staff that turned Egypt’s rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they became blood.
The staff that caused the Plague of frogs.
The staff that caused the dust of the earth to become gnats.
The staff that Moses lifted so that thunder and hail might rain down upon the earth.
The staff that summoned the locusts
The staff in Moses hand that the Lord used to divide the waters of the Red Sea, so that the children of Israel might cross over on dry ground.
The staff which God used to perform miracles, proving Moses was sent by God and is speaking for God.
The staff of Moses given by God was:
Symbol of Authority
Demonstration of Deliverance
6 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.”
Another blessing, and miracle and gift of God given to the children of Israel.
And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
This Witness of Miracles reminded the people that the same God who saved them from Egypt would also provide for their needs in the wilderness going forward.
We too witness the Lord’s work in our lives connecting the past and the present for our wellbeing and peace. Think about the times of trial in your life and the times of blessing. We have a faithful God!
Water for 600,000 that came out of Egypt would be no small amount of water that would pour forth from the Rock at Horeb.
Many believe that the 50-foot-tall rock in Saudi Arabia split down the middle is this rock. Water erosion at the base of the rock gives validity to this claim. The placing of Mount Sinai near this rock at Horeb also gives support to the work of God here. We make no Idol of this rock but that the Lord for the faithfulness of his word,
The Apostle Paul calls attention for us another way:
10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 1 Cor. 10:1-5
In much the same way the woman at the well in our gospel reading today has the same problem as those at the rock of Horeb in the wilderness.
She like they want their thirst quenched.
She sees the old problem and looks not to a solution but only at the problem, telling Jesus …
11 … “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with
The immediate need is for a drink. The well and bucket fill that need.
Jesus though, looks to filling her greater need saying:
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of 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.”
Dear friends, even thousands of gallons of water will only quench our earthly thirst for a time before you and I get thirsty again.
But Jesus gives us living water through faith in him and that takes away our sins and brings us to relationship with our loving God and eternal life in his finished work.
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
This Messiah that she is expecting and is waiting for is right here with her!
This living Christ is right here for you!
This living Christ forgives your sin and cleanses you from all unrighteousness.
This living Christ calls you to himself and by faith in him you are forgiven.
The living Christ, Jesus, who quenches our eternal thirst is the one, who by the Holy Spirit’s work in us, brings us to believe and trust in him.
Our spiritual thirst is never to return because in Christ we have been brought into his family by faith and daily we live in him.
The wilderness of sin has been overcome by faith in the Rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ!
And by faith we live assured in an eternity with him!
So, friends, this Living water is found only in Christ!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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