Let us turn again tonight to
the book of Exodus, and this evening, chapter 17. Exodus chapter
17. Look at the first seven verses
in this chapter tonight. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord. and
pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to
drink. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. Moses
said unto them, why chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt
the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou has brought us
up out of Egypt? kill us and our children and
our cattle with thirst. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders
of Israel. and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest
the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand
before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite
the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people
may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of that
place Massa and Meribah because of the chatting of the children
of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying, is the Lord
among us or not? We know from the New Testament
that the water that flowed out of this rock was a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the grace that he gives to his people. We know this from Paul's words
in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 4 where he said, did all drink
the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Think about
that. The rock that followed them and
that rock was Christ. That doesn't mean that this rock
was literally the Lord Jesus Christ, but it does tell us that
the rock that we read about here out of which flowed the water
was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, a picture of him, of
how the water of life flows to us through the Lord Jesus Christ
or from the Lord Jesus Christ. I have three things for us to
see in these verses tonight. First, let's notice how Moses
charged the Israelites with tempting the Lord. If you notice in verse
two at the end where he said, why chide ye with me? Wherefore
do you tempt the Lord? He charged the nation of Israel
with tempting the Lord. Now, most often, I think, when
we use the word tempting, we think of tempting to sin, to
evil. We know that's not the meaning
here, of course. In James chapter one and verse
13, the apostle tells us, let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted. And here's
the key word. God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man. God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man. But the scriptures do teach us
and do declare that God did tempt Abraham. If you look back in
Genesis chapter 22, I think most of us are familiar with this,
this passage of scripture, but here in Genesis chapter 22, we
are told that God tempted Abraham, but he did not tempt him to evil.
Now, as the apostle says, let no man say when he is tempted,
I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempteth he any man, any man with evil. But here in Genesis
chapter 22 and verse 1, and it came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham. What do we understand then by
tempting the Lord and the Lord tempting Abraham? And when James
said, count it all joy, count it all joy when you fall into
diver's temptation. Well, certainly he's not talking
about temptations to sin, temptations to evil. In fact, we're taught
to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one. So how do we understand this
word tempt? It means tried. God tried Abraham's
faith. when God told him to offer up
his son, Isaac, he tried his faith. And your faith, if you
have faith tonight that is given to you from God to trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, It will be tried as you go through this
world. It's going to be tried. And that's
good. That's good. You don't want to
end up on your deathbed just about to leave this world and
not know that your faith is true faith, that it's God-given faith. It's faith that works by love. It's faith which is a good gift
from God. You want to know that. And the
way that you find that out, of course, is by your faith being
tried. Just like, how would we have
known that Abraham had such great faith without that trial, without
that testing? We wouldn't. But the Lord was
tried here. Moses accused the children of
Israel of trying the Lord. Moses said, why chide you with
me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? Well, they certainly was trying
our Lord's patience by their murmuring and their complaining.
They tried his goodness, they tried his patience. The last
time we looked at this in chapter 16, we saw that when they came
to the wilderness and they had no food, they murmured. And God
supplied their food. He supplied the manna. And now,
the next place where they stopped, they had stopped at two places
between where he gave the manna and here, where we read about
the rock being smitten. You read, I think it's in Numbers
31, but in one chapter in Numbers, every place they stopped is listed
along the 40 years as they travel through and wandered, really,
in the wilderness. But nothing special happened
at those other two places, so they're not mentioned. But now
when they come to this place, the Rephidim, there was no water. And once again, and water is
essential, there's no question about that, but once again, the
first thing they do is murmur. And they chided Moses, he said. They chided Moses. And they tried
him. They tried God, tried the Lord. They tried the Lord in these
three ways. And this is very important here. They tried the Lord first of
all concerning his providence. Now, they came to this place
where there was no water, but they didn't just accidentally
come here. They didn't move. The camp did not move lest that
pillar rise up, and then they moved. Then the bugle was sounded,
the horn was sounded to move, but only God was directing them. So it's God's providence that
has brought them here to this place. They journeyed, they moved
only at God's direction. And so first of all, they tried,
they questioned God's providence. And second, they questioned his
provision. They were eating. Now think about
this. They were eating manna at this
time. They'd been eating it for over
a week. We know that because they'd passed
over a Sabbath. You remember that when God had
told them, you gather enough on Friday for Friday and Saturday,
don't go out on Saturday. And what happened? Some of them
went out, tried to get, there was no manna. So we know they'd
already been eating manna for a week. They were eating manna
this day, the very day that this took place. God was providing
for them. His provision rather was sufficient
for them. And yet they questioned his provision. Where's the water? We need water. And thirdly, they questioned
his presence. Notice in that last verse, verse
seven, they ask this question, is the Lord among us or not? Those are three things. They questioned his providence,
they questioned his provision, and they questioned his presence. Now here's the lesson for you
and I. It's not just to see and point out the faults of these
Israelites. We know they had many just like
you and I do. But the lesson for us is to see
that we be careful that we not be guilty of these very same
three things. First of all, God's providence
in directing our steps as we travel through this world. In
Psalm 37 and verse 23, the psalmist said, the steps of a good man
are ordered of the Lord. Now, I looked at that today,
that verse again, and that word good, you say, well, that doesn't
mean me, you know, the steps of a good man. But the word good
has been inserted by the translators. It's not in the original text,
so it could read, The steps of a man are ordered of the Lord. And that's true of every man,
good or bad. The steps of every man are ordered
of the Lord. And also in Proverbs chapter
three and verse six, we read, for in all thy ways acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy paths. all thy ways. We shouldn't question
God's providence. Our Lord Jesus said, for even
the very hairs of your head are all numbered. That's amazing,
isn't it? You know, we've heard that, we've
read that so often we kind of lose the truth of it. We need to stop and remember.
Charles Spurgeon mentioned that one time in a message. He said
he had He'd never known a mother as careful as they are about
their little babies as they, you know, watch over them and
care for them, but he'd never known any mother to ever count
the hairs of their child. That'd be pretty hard to do,
wouldn't it? It would. So, the Lord and His
providence. We shouldn't question His providence
as we go through this world. You know, what if? You know,
that's something that troubles people sometimes, isn't it? Troubles Christians. Some tragedy
or something happens and we get that, what if? What if we hadn't
done this? What if we hadn't done this?
What if we hadn't gone here? And we just destroy our comfort
by doing things like that. No? Man are ordered of the Lord. The very hairs of our head are
numbered. We shouldn't question like these
Israelites did. They questioned God's providence.
They tempted the Lord. They tried the Lord, His patience
and His goodness by questioning His providence. God had led them
to this place. He had. And secondly, not only
God's providence, but God's provision. As we travel through this world,
God has promised to meet all of our needs. I know in Philippians,
the Apostle Paul wrote to that church, the believers in that
church, and he said, but my God shall supply all your need according
to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And God, think about this,
God is not limited. You know, as parents, all of
us, and we've mentioned this before, but you want to do everything
for your children. You want to save them from every
problem, every trial, every difficulty, but you can't do it. You can't
do it. But the Lord is unlimited in
ways to provide for his children. I like this story. I want you
to turn with me, if you will, to 1 Kings. or 2 Kings, rather,
2 Kings chapter 4. This is a story that in the life
of Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 4, but we read about a widow
woman here. Now, a widow woman in Bible days,
if she didn't have a son, she sure didn't have Social Security
benefits. She sure didn't have a government
welfare program she could apply to. A son, that was her only
way of existing, to live, to have a son. If her husband passed
away, then she was dependent upon her son. But this woman
that we read about, her husband died, and she had two sons. Well, you say, well, she was
in pretty good shape then. No, no. Because of her debt. that her husband had left her
with, the creditors were coming and they were going to take her
two sons away. They would be in slavery, servitude,
the two sons. So what does she do? Well, let's
read about it. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives
of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, thy servant my
husband is dead and thou knowest She's able to tell the prophet,
she said, you know my husband. You knew what kind of a man he
was. He was a servant of God. He was a prophet. Thou knowest that my servant
did fear the Lord. And the creditor is come to take
unto him my two sons as bondmen. In other words, they're going
to be working for him till they pay off this debt, whatever it
was. And Elisha said unto her, what
shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy
house? And she said, Thine handmaid
hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Think about that as you think
about your home tonight. What all you have in your house?
What all you have in your pantry? What all you have in your bank
account or whatever. Here's a woman, she said, the
only thing I have in my house is a pot of oil, that's it. Okay,
okay, Elisha said. Then you go borrow, and this
is showing her faith. You go borrow the vessels abroad
of all thy neighbors, empty vessels. Don't be borrowing full vessels.
You borrow empty vessels, and don't you borrow just a few.
And when thou come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon
thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels. And thou
shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him and
shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels
to her, and she poured out. And as it came to pass, as she
was pouring out, the oil just kept multiplying. That's amazing,
isn't it? You see what I mean? God is unlimited
in how he can provide for his people, how he does provide for
his people. We shouldn't try the Lord by
questioning his provision. No, you wouldn't, and our Lord,
he said, if you be an evil, Speaking to the man of that, if you being
evil and your child asked of you a fish, piece of fish, you
wouldn't give him a scorpion or something like that to eat.
No, you wouldn't do that. And you're evil. Isn't that what
he's saying? How much more shall your heavenly
father, who's good, give good things to them that ask him?
The Lord is not limited. in any way in providing for his
people. And it came to pass when the
vessels were full that she said unto her son, bring me yet a
vessel. And he said unto her, there's
not a vessel more. And they all stayed. Then she
came and told the man of God, and he said, go, sell the oil,
and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. So the Israelites tried his providence,
they tried his provision, and they tried his presence. And
we must be careful not to do that as well, because he has
promised to be with us. Remember, we have this promise
in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
five. Let your conversation be without
covetousness, and be content with such things
as you have. For, here's the reason, you should
be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now, who did he say that
to? He said that first time to Jacob. He said that to Jacob. Remember, Jacob was out there
in the middle of nowhere. trying to go to sleep with a
rock for his pillow. And God told him, I will not
leave thee nor forsake thee. The scripture says there's no
prophecy that is of any private interpretation. And so this promise
that was at first originally given to Jacob, but it's to all
of God's children to claim. This is God's promise to you
and to me. And we must be careful not to
try God's God's presence, he has promised to be with us. To
his church, he said, when he was leaving this world, lo, I'm
with you always, even unto the end of the ages. We sing that
hymn, sometimes he walks with me and talks with me along life's
weary way. He's with us, isn't he? He's
always with us. Someone told me recently, they
said, Someone told him, I know where God is. I do too. He's everywhere. He's everywhere. And my wife, when she was going
for a test yesterday, she was comforted in remembering that
God is before her, behind her. And I said, yeah, and he's under
you and above you too. He's everywhere. He's always
around. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about his people. So here's the second thing. Moses
cried unto the Lord. So first of all, Moses charged
the children of Israel with tempting the Lord. But secondly, Moses
cried unto the Lord in verse four. And Moses cried unto the
Lord saying, what shall I do unto this people? They be almost
ready to stone me. It seems to me that Moses, just
reading these words, these verses here, that he immediately cried
unto the Lord. He didn't go to Aaron and talk
to Aaron about this situation. Now, Aaron may have heard it.
I'm not saying he didn't. But my point is, He didn't go
to Aaron and talk to him about his problem. He didn't go to
the elders of the nation of Israel and talk to them about this situation. No, he cried unto the Lord. And that's a lesson in itself,
isn't it? What a lesson for all of us.
The apostles and Philippians wrote to the believers, be careful,
be anxious for nothing. Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. And that's very important that
we see that with thanksgiving as we pray. I was looking at
the model prayer the other day. And I noticed that there's six
petitions there, but the first three all have to do with the
Lord. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done on earth, even
as it is in heaven. And then, give us our daily bread. Lead us not into temptation.
Deliver us from evil. But first of all, the prayer
begins by worshiping the Lord, praising the Lord, giving thanks
unto the Lord. And I feel like sometimes that
we go to the Lord in prayer and all we're doing is just give
me, give me, give me, give me, give me. Rather than first of
all, worshiping God and always giving thanks unto the Lord for
his goodness and his mercy. unto the children of men." Well,
here's the third thing. Moses witnessed God's goodness
once again. In verses five and six, the Lord
said unto Moses, after he had cried unto the Lord, the Lord
said unto Moses, go on before the people and take with thee
of the elders of Israel and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the
river, taking thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before
thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it, and the people may drink.'
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel." Moses,
once again, sees the goodness of the Lord, his goodness in
giving them bread and now giving them water. It was impossible. If there was two million people
or more or less two million people in this congregation of Israel,
there was no way that all of them could see what would take
place. And so God has him take some
of the elders with him, maybe a representative from each tribe.
so that they could see and they could witness that this water,
it comes out of the rock. It's not by some enchantment.
It's not by some black magic or anything like that, that this
water is brought out. No, this water is going to come
out when God, when Moses does what God commanded him to do.
He wanted the elders to see that, and then they could tell the
congregation, we're drinking water here today. You're drinking
water. And this water, the scripture
says, followed them over this 40 years that they were wandering
in the wilderness. They continually drank from the
rock. over the 40-year period of wandering
in the wilderness. And they were to know it came
out of a rock. When you think about a rock and
the rock being a picture of Christ, the thing that really stands
out to me about a rock is its durableness. I mean, a rock is
hard. It's durable, right? What a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a durable Savior from the
beginning when man first sinned until today and until the Lord
comes again. He's still the Savior of sinners. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. It's not unusual to think of
God as a rock. Look in the song that God gave
to Moses over here in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Yes, chapter 32. You know, before Moses was taken
out of this world, God told him, gave him a hymn, gave him a song,
Song of Moses. And he told him to teach this
to the nation of Israel. And if you look here in chapter
32, Let's read verse three and four.
Because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe you greatness
under our God. He is rock. His work is perfect. His work. It's perfect. But here, God is referred to
as a rock. Durable, strong, even so the
Lord Jesus Christ. But here's something very important
here. The water did not come out of
that rock until Moses took his rod and smoked the rock. It wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ,
the eternal son of God, coming into this world, born of a virgin,
laid in a manger. That was important. But it wasn't
that. It wasn't him living a life here,
living a life of going about doing good. But when he prayed
in the garden the night before his crucifixion, Father, if it
be possible, Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my
will, but thy will be done. Doesn't that show us? Doesn't
that witness to all time that there could be no other way?
If it be possible. If it be, it's not possible.
It was not possible that water come out of that rock if Moses
didn't smite it. And unless the Lord Jesus Christ
be crucified and shed his blood to redeem his people, no one
would be saved. He's the rock. He's the rock. The justice of God had to be
satisfied because God is just and justifier of them who believe
in Christ. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts and words to all of us here tonight. What a lesson
on God's providence and God's provision and God's presence
with us.