Exodus 17:1-8

As we wander through the wilderness of life, we come to the wilderness of Sin. We expected to find satisfaction in the natural, but it was dry and unsatisfying. We knew we must have a spiritual drink or die of thirst. We may have even complained that God had not met our need. Then along came a witness, someone who saw that the rock was struck for us, to give us the water of life. We come to the water and drink our fill, and there is more than enough. Our spiritual thirst is satisfied. Will we remember next time to look to the Lord? (Isaiah 51:1[notes1] )

Sometimes we look to the elders. They can share their water with you, but they are not the source. The rock that was smitten is the source. They are just here to point you to the rock, to remind you it is the source.

⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” Testing and Quarreling were the names that would be remembered for this experience. Centuries later the psalmist would remind them of the experience. ⁸ do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, ⁹ when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. Psalm 95:8-9 (ESV)

The author of Hebrews tells us that the application in his day was for the new believers who wanted to return to a religion of works to avoid persecution. (Hebrews 3:11-14[notes2] ) We see the same today. People quarrel with God when they say they can’t accept a God who would sacrifice His own Son. They quarrel because they can’t grasp the greatness of His love and the eternal nature of His existence. But even more, it’s because of the hardness of their heart. They want God to perform on their own terms. They want to quarrel with God and have Him fit their preconceived idea of what He should be like.

The believer can do the same. We want God to act in certain ways in our time, and we ignore what He is already doing and the way He is doing it. It is a hardening of our heart and another way to test God.  Henry Blackaby reminds us that we are to be like Jesus in watching what God is doing and joining Him, not think up a plan and ask God to join us. (John 5:19[notes3] )

At Marah God gave them a statute and a promise in response to their sin. He invited them to look to Him. Now, a short time later, the test is repeated. Now they get a warning. Don’t quarrel with or test God. As we grow, a little more is expected of us. Another test is coming on the heels of this one. God is drilling home the lessons for their good and ours as well. These things happened to them that we might not sin as they did. Paul wrote, ⁹ We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, ¹⁰ nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. ¹² Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 1Corinthians 10:9-12 (ESV)

Yes, God is among us. He is our rock. He meets our spiritual thirst. He is our covenant God who bore the judgment we deserve that we might live. Let us never doubt that and test Him. Let us not harden our heart and quarrel with His holy justice. Let us look to Him and drink freely and frequently of the water of life. (John 3:14-15[notes4] )

1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

[notes2] Hebrews 3:11-14 (ESV)

11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ “12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

[notes3] John 5:19 (ESV)

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

[notes4] John 3:14-15 (ESV)

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

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