Things Get Testy (Exodus 15:22-17:7)

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Well, good morning church and go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Exodus. Chapter 15. Exodus 15. We’ll be starting in verse 22. Exodus 15:22. As you’re turning there, I think you know, I know we all know that there are certain things that you cannot learn in school. School is a great place to learn all sorts of things, just not everything that you’ll need. In fact, there are a number of professions that even require you to get some, you know, on the field training before they’ll really let you graduate or consider doing this so you student teach as part of getting a teaching education degree. We’re all really grateful. I think that people who graduate with MDS do a residency before they start their own practice. And of course, even here at Cityview, we have a pastoral residency because learning systematic theology in Greek is amazing, but there are some things you got to learn in the church in terms of how to be a pastor. Amen. Reeve, yes. Amen, okay, we need to get into the real world and practice. Isn’t this why adulting is so hard, right? Like, there’s this stuff you’ve heard about and you’ve never had to do before, you know? Okay, now I know what this means. You got to learn as you go. This is kind of the school of hard knocks approach to life. And I think what’s true vocationally is true spiritually as well. There are things that you just can’t learn by reading, that you have to learn by living, and that’s what Israel is experiencing in our passage today, the wilderness journey is sort of a spiritual school of hard knocks. The fact that they’re wandering around Sinai was not necessary for their salvation, as we saw last week, that happened by Grace, God just delivered them, but it is necessary for their sanctification, that process whereby God makes them more like him, grows them in holiness, in godliness, as I said near the end of our passage last week, he got them out of Egypt. He just hasn’t gotten Egypt out of them yet, and so the wilderness time is where he is going to root out those idols and habits from Egypt that are still clinging to them, like burrs to their robes. So to do this, God tests them. He tests them. It’s a really important word in our passage this morning. God tests them, although, as we’ll see, they also test him, and as a result, things get testy, and so they grumble, which is another really important word for our passage today, this idea of grumbling or complaining. So testing and grumbling. There’s one more key word in our passage, and that is knowing all of this is happening so that they can know who God is and learn to trust him, instead of testing him or complaining about him. So that’s what we’re going to see. Three scenes, very similar scenes, although very different lengths, three different tests, three different places, and that’ll be our outline here. So test number one at Marah, chapter 15, verses 22 to the end of the chapter. Verse 27 they read it for us. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the desert of Shur for three days. They traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. That is why the place is called Marah. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What are we to drink? And Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood, he threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. There, the Lord issued a ruling, an instruction for them, and put them to the test. He said, If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. Then they came to elim, where there were 12 springs and 70 palm trees, and they camped there near the water. So you got to put yourself in this scene to understand what’s going on here, or if you were here last week, you know what? Just have lives. We’ve done the plagues. And then they just crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. They saw their enemies utterly vanquished. So they’re in no danger any longer. They are free at last, and so they come out, as we saw at the end of last week, singing and dancing. The tambourines are playing, and you wonder how long this went on, the singing and the dancing as they’re walking through the desert. How many hours? And as the hours first and then the days tick by, well, the songs begin to fade. You might hear some other noises, like kids crying. And it could get worse by day two of no water, most likely, the elderly are fainting along the way, like they are facing dire straits. Three days without water means your supplies are probably exhausted. You are facing imminent death at that point. So it’s really easy to be hard on the Israelites, for they’re complaining here, but if you were worried about your family that they’re about to perish, but you’d probably be testy too. And then you hear shouting a big group of people. So the shouting is, you know, it’s up near the front and stuff, and everyone’s going, wait, what? And so everybody surges forward, like, what happens? And sure enough, can it be, you know, like, yes, water, they found it at last, and so your your panic turns to relief and even jubilation, and then to an enraged despair, because the water isn’t drinkable. It’s bitter, probably filled with minerals that have leached in from the rocks around it, so it’s undrinkable, and this is too much for them. We are a lot like goldfish, aren’t we? You know what? Goldfish are famous for very short memories, 10 seconds. I believe that’s why they’re always so excited to see you. They’ve never met you before. So spiritually, we’re like goldfish. So they had forgotten just how bitter their years of slavery in Egypt were and so here, these bitter waters are worse than anything they’ve ever encountered before, as far as they can tell. So we understand their fear, we understand their panic, we understand their frustration, but what should we do with it? That’s the question, and the answer is not what Israel did. As we read, The people grumbled, that’s not good. This is ingratitude and immaturity and worst of all, a lack of faith, because these people had every reason to trust God, because we got to put ourselves in the scene again here, right? I mean, you’re thinking to yourself, like, okay, sure, God did all these wonders, you know, the plagues and the Red Sea and all that kind of stuff, but that was days ago. Like, what’s he done for me lately? Goldfish memories, like I said, here’s the way Psalm 106, puts it, but they soon forgot that word, soon is doing a lot of heavy lifting, isn’t it like they forgot what they could probably still see on the horizon. They soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold in the desert. They gave into their craving. In the wilderness, they put God to the test. This means we should be really careful here, because complaining and grumbling is all too common. Even in the church, complaining and grumbling is one of those, what Jerry bridges calls a respectable sin in his book, by that title, respectable sin, meaning it’s a sin but no one really cares about it. Of course, everybody’s going to complain. No one’s ever going to stop complaining. Let’s not kid ourselves, especially in our culture, because we inhabit a culture of instant gratification, right? I want what I want when I want it, and we practice a therapeutic religion, meaning religion is there to make me happy, and so if I’m not happy because of my life circumstances, well, that’s God’s fault. That’s the whole reason I serve Him is so that he can make me happy, not sure that is actually serving him, but so we complain. We complain at work because we have a difficult boss and annoying colleagues and not enough pay for the other two. We complain at church we don’t like some of the songs that we have to sing here, or some of the decisions that leadership makes. We complain at home about our spouse, about our kids, and the kids complaining about the parents. Of course, we complain about little things like traffic and we complain about big things like health, diagnoses, relational disappointments, and, of course, death, all that complaining and it all stems from the same evil root,
the attitude that says I would be happy if I would be happy if, if only my circumstances would. Change, and since my happiness is what really matters, you know, I have a right to complain. God takes a different view, though God, and it’s not that God is unconcerned about our happiness. God is the source of our happiness, in fact, but God is more concerned, at least in the here and now, with our holiness than our happiness. And you know what this looks like, then, if you’ve ever parented children, or even just been a child who’s been parented or seen parents with kids, kids complain a lot, don’t they? Kids complain about their parents a lot. You know? Why do I have to do chores? I’m the only one in my whole class who has to do chores, and I’m the only one in my class who didn’t get a smartphone, whatever it is, and we complain as kids because we don’t trust our parents. They seem capricious and cruel. But parents, for the most part, parents are sinners. I get that, but parents for the most part, want what’s truly best, even if you are the only kid in your class who does chores, which I doubt highly, we’ll talk to some of the other parents in a moment, you know. But even if you were the only one doing chores, even still, you’re going to do them, you know? Why? Because you got to learn responsibility. You got to you got to learn how to adult so that you’re not one of these confused 30 year olds wandering around trying to figure it out now, and no, you’re not going to get a phone. Why? Because we care too much about your mental health. Mental health to give you a smartphone and social media, and you lack the self control at this point for it, so I love you too much to do what you want. In other words, so it is with God and us. He is working towards our holiness. So what happens when Moses cries out to God verse 25 and that’s key, by the way, because Moses talks to God about the issue, the Israelites talk to Moses about the issue. That’s never a good sign, right? You know, you’re in sinful complaining when you’re talking to other people about God instead of talking to God directly. When Moses cries out and does what Israel should have done, God immediately addresses the problem, and he makes the bitter sweet. Now we’re probably sitting here wondering why didn’t he just do that to begin with? I mean, the God who created water out of nothing and who is about to miraculously provide drinkable water, why did he let them go three days without water, and then bring them to a place that only has bitter water. These are questions we need to ask. John Calvin gives us the answer, I believe. He writes that God wished by them bitter to make prominent the bitterness lurking in their hearts. He tested them, in other words, right? He brought them through this so that they could grow in godliness. This is the School of Hard spiritual knocks. He’s teaching them to trust, to examine themselves, to get Egypt out of their hearts. Now, how does God make the bitter sweet here? Who knows the word that’s used for piece of wood. Is a big piece of wood. It could be a log. It could actually be a tree. It’s the word for tree. And so maybe this is a giant log. You know, it’s porous. It’s got some filtration properties to it, or something. Or maybe this is just miraculous. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is, look at what just happened. You remember the first plague God took drinking water and made it undrinkable, and then the first act in the wilderness is for God to take the undrinkable and make it drinkable. It’s like he’s reversing the curse. He’s showing the blessing of obedience. And in case we miss that, there’s kind of the curse follows disobedience, the blessing follows obedience. That’s exactly where he goes next, right? He establishes a like a mini covenant with them, starting in that second half of verse 25 and it says he does it specifically to test them so he’s getting them ready for the covenant at Sinai, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks. Even the covenant at Sinai is reminding us that obedience is the proper response to salvation. Obedience is displaying trust in the God who saves by grace alone by living according to His will. In other words, we show our faith through our deeds, as James says, And so God puts the choice before them, and it’s a choice that’s before us also, do we complain, or do we trust and obey? And God says there will be consequences. Either way, trust and obedience leads to blessing, and disobedience leads to cursing. So if, like Pharaoh, they harden their hearts to God’s good words, they will inevitably suffer they’ll suffer natural consequences for terrible decisions. They will suffer a father’s loving discipline. They will ultimately suffer judgment. If it comes to that, but hopefully it won’t, because, again, they have every reason to trust, because God keeps showing them who he is and why he’s so worthy of trust. Even here, what does it say in verse 26 I am the Lord who heals you. This is part of my character. I am a healing sort of God. Remember our big theme in Exodus? You want to know what Exodus is all about? It’s about this. It’s about knowing God. Well, once you know, why wouldn’t you trust trust in a God who heals? Trust in a God who provides, as we see, and it’s actually interesting too. Did you notice that he provides in extraordinary ways, like at Marah, and then in ordinary ways like at Elim, either way. So he’s got to do the miraculous here, to fix the water in the one spot, and the next one, he goes, I’m just gonna lead you to a place that’s got enough springs underground that they’re actually trees growing. And for trees, you know, they don’t grow in the desert, except around springs, right? So we know there’s springs here in this place. And here’s the good news for us, we’ve got the same God, don’t we? The God who’s revealed here is the God that we worship even today. In fact, we have even greater reason to trust than the Egyptians did, because he brought us out of not just Egypt, but out of sin and death in what is the truer Exodus. So how will we respond? Take a moment check your heart even now. Do you say you believe? Do you say you trust? Okay, what do your words like you’re complaining, you’re grumbling, and what do your deeds, like disobedience or obedience, prove about your faith? That’s test number one. Test number two. We’re in the desert of sin, no relation whatsoever to the English word sin. Okay, just be really clear about that. But here we are in sin. We read just, you know, I’m gonna read portions of chapter 16 because it’s very long, and hopefully you read it in advance. That’s why we’ve always got the Make it yours section there in your bulletin, in the pulse and on the bookmarks. I’m gonna read some excerpts that will give us all the big ideas from this chapter. Still, I’m gonna skip some of the Sabbath stuff specifically. Why? Partly because we covered the Sabbath in depth when we did our series on the 10 Commandments a little while ago. And then we’ll also come back to some Sabbath regulations later in Exodus. So let me read. I’ll jump around a bit, but starting in verse one, chapter 16, verse one, the whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the desert of sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt in the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Then the Lord said to Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you and people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites in the evening, you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. In the morning, you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we that you should grumble against us? Drop down to verse 11. At this point, the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread, then you will know that I am the Lord your God. That evening, quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, what is it? They did not know what it was. Moses said to them, it is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded. Everyone is to gather as much as they need take an Omer for each person you have in your tent. The Israelites did as they were told, some gathered much, some little, and when they measured it by the Omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little, everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Then drop all the way to verse 31
the people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, This is what the Lord has commanded, take an Omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt. So Moses said to Aaron, take a jar and put an Omer of manna in it, then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come. As the Lord commanded, Moses, Aaron put the manna with the Tablets of the Covenant law so that it might be preserved. The Israelites ate manna 40 years until they came to a land that was settled. They ate manna until they reached the border. Order of Canaan, so this time it’s food, not water, but it’s the same grumbling. It’s the same untrusting ungrateful spirit underneath which you can see in this kind of grotesque irony, that they are actually complaining against God for delivering them out of slavery. Like if they’re upset about the Exodus, it would have been better, they say, to die of old age and slavery than to die of starvation in the desert. And for some reason, the Lord our provider, still promises to provide for them and to provide daily bread, what they will need each day. Why? Because daily bread is meant to increase trust. Of course, this is what’s hard, right? Most of us when it comes to finances, the issue isn’t whether or not we’re going to have enough for that day. The issue is that we don’t have enough to plan for a good chunk of time in the future. Our approach to money is thoroughly unbiblical in all sorts of ways, but this is one of the big ones. So much of what we teach is financial responsibility is spiritual irresponsibility, because we want to have enough in the bank that we don’t actually have to trust God any longer. There’s a reason we pray for our daily bread to show that we trust God. And in this way, then the Sabbath functions like a test, and that’s what he says, I’m going to give the Sabbath just to see, do they actually trust me or not, because the Sabbath tests us by asking us, you know, on what do we really depend for our provision? Because if you trust God for your provision, you will be able to rest, and if you don’t, you won’t. And you can see that in an agrarian society, especially, or in a society like this one, where you’re wandering the desert, you want to make sure you’ve gathered enough food. You want to make sure you’ve done enough work that the harvest actually comes in. But even today, how tempting it is to get to some of those emails on Sunday, because it’s up to me. This all depends on me, and so that’s what’s being tested in these Sabbath regulations. So let’s remember our three words, and we’ve already seen the grumbling, we’ve already seen the test, and then we get to that word no, because God arranges circumstances like this same question we looked at before, if he knew he was going to provide manna, why wait? Manna, why wait until they start complaining? Why not just start sending Manna earlier? Why? Because he wants them to know that He is God and then to see His glory. Grumbling. Hear me, hear me. On this grumbling and complaining always, always, that’s absolute language, right? Grumbling and complaining always betrays a deficient knowledge of God’s character, because if you know who he is, you will trust meaning, in some ways, Israel is still in Egypt. This, this, this key verse, right when he said, then they’re going to know, they’re going to see my glory when God’s talking to them the way he talked to Pharaoh. So they’re more like Pharaoh than they would care to admit. Again, he got them out of Egypt. He hasn’t gotten Egypt out of them. So I think the lesson here is don’t begrudge God Your Holiness, like don’t begrudge God the work that he is doing in your life. Then in verse 12, God provides, he provides meat, quail and then manna. Now, is this miraculous provision, or is this ordinary provision? The quail is easy enough to make sense of, because quail migrate across Sinai, and so they’re flying all day long, and they land exhausted. They cover the ground, and you can literally just pick them up because they’re so tired. So this explains why quail show up occasionally in the Exodus wilderness narrative. But manna? What is manna? Now, interestingly, there is something like manna on Sinai. In fact, even today, the Bedouin tribes that live there call it manna. So it is this sugary excretion that insects create, excrete after eating from the tamarisk tree. And it sounds a lot like manna. Looks like manna kind of shows up overnight and then dissolves in the sun or is attacked by worms. The only problem with that is we are talking continuous provision for an entire nation with no malnutrition for 40 years. And by the way, that insect only makes that stuff from May to July. So like clearly, even if he’s using nature and natural processes like the miraculous is undoubtedly here. Our Creator God is using creation to sustain his people and to provide what is sufficient for each day, daily bread. And again, this is the standard biblically speaking daily bread. Here’s the way agar prays in Proverbs, Chapter 30. It does not sound like how we pray about finances. Always. He prays, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Because otherwise, right? If I got too much, I’m gonna disown God. I don’t need God. I got a healthy bank account, or if I got too little, I’ll dishonor God, because I’m gonna take matters in my own hands, and I’m a steal, and so bring dishonor to his name like this is not how we roll as a culture daily bread, and yet, Scripture holds this up time and time again as the standard for living and for giving. Kyle has already pointed out that Paul quotes our passage in Second Corinthians eight, right? We’re supposed to gather what we need, and so the quote, the one who gathered much did not gather too much, the one who gathered little did not gather too little, so that those who have plenty can supply what is lacking for those who are in want. There is, in other words, an acceptable range when it comes to our living standard. There is much and little there is. It’s right there in the text, but there’s not too much and too little. You can see how this might be a challenge for some of us, because how we steward what God has given us is very much a test of our trust and obedience, and those are key words, by the way, even that word steward like you don’t steward your own stuff, you steward somebody else’s stuff, and we are called to be stewards because it’s all God’s anyway. So how we steward what God gives is very much a test of our trust and obedience, and I think it behooves us to examine our standard of living. Have you gathered too much? Are you hoarding wealth? I didn’t read verse 20, but you see what happens when you hoard the maggots come. They eat it right? Like it’s not good, it’s corruptive and corrupting. We’re only to keep what we need, I mean, like, take the too much standard and apply it to your life. Do you have too much square footage in your house? Do you have too much luxury in your car? Do you have too much self indulgence in your vacations and on down the line, much and little, not too much and not too little. And by the way, in Second Corinthians eight, it’s not talking about the local church. Paul is talking to a group of people in Corinth, about a group of people who are starving in Jerusalem. So when we look at much and little. We have to have a global perspective, and that’s going to sting for those of us who live in and near Elmhurst, isn’t it? Then we get this little appendix in verses 31 to 35
this is talking about after the tabernacle, after Sinai, because we’ve got the tablets of the law already. They’re to keep one portion never goes bad, right? And maggots never get to this one. The Lord preserves it, but they’re to keep one portion sacred. Why? So they remember, because they got memories like goldfish. So they remember, so they can look back and go right. The Lord sustained us. Of course, we can trust him from generation to generation, especially since we learn here what we already suspected, which is that they ate it for 40 years. They ate it until they reached the Promised Land, until they cross the Jordan in Joshua chapter five, and we read this. It says, The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped. The day after they ate this food from the land, there was no longer any Manna for the Israelites. But that year, they ate the produce of Canaan. Mind you, it’s not that God stopped. Providing. It’s just that God changed how he provided for Israel at this point. So we saw in the last section, obedience is the proper response to salvation. In this section, we learn that it’s faith that makes that obedience possible. We see what God does. We know who he is, and then we trust him and so we can live like George Muir. He probably heard these stories. He was famous for the orphanages he ran in Bristol and England. He faced starvation too, and not just for himself or for his family, but for all of the orphans under his care. But he didn’t complain. He called out to God in faith, and saw God’s provision time and time again, some incredible stories of what were certainly miraculous provision, even though sometimes it looked kind of ordinary, like trucks breaking down in front of the orphanage, you know, filled with food that was about to spoil. And they’re like, maybe you guys should just take the food, I guess. And he’s like, great, because we ran out, like, 20 minutes ago, and like, that’s how provision happens. Is there any reason we can’t live like that? Is your god smaller than George Mueller’s god? Is he any less able to provide? Of course not remember that and trust and then act accordingly. And then our third test, messah and Mary ba chapter 17, verses one to seven, 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. 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? 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? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. 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, 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, and he called the place massah and Mary ba because the Israelites quarreled, because they tested the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? So they find themselves in similar circumstances. Yet again, they are not maturing in God. They actually seem to be regressing spiritually in some ways, which is why you test things. Actually have a friend whose job is an engineer. His job is to test component parts repeatedly to see if they’ll stand up to the test of time. So like, you know, door hinges for your car, and he’ll just slam car doors like a million times or whatever, and it’s he says it’s really fun job, because he works lots of different things. The only time it’s not fun is when he has to go back to the manufacturer and say it failed the test. Like you could slam this door 1000 times and then that was it. The hinge broke. You need this to go like a million times, so try harder. Well, that’s what’s happening here, right? The Lord is kind of slamming the car door of Israel, and they’re breaking in the process. Notice, God is still leading them, right? They’re traveling from place to place, as the Lord commanded. So he’s still leading he’s not unaware of where they are. He’s very much in control of the situation. And again, is there any reason not to trust him? Well, yeah, they’re difficult circumstances. That’s it. That’s what they keep going back to you every time they face a hard thing, they go, Well, we’re probably not trustworthy today. I say that it’s not just that they’re not making progress, but that they’re actually regressing, because there’s a strong term that’s used here for quarreled when verse two, They quarreled with Moses. It’s a legal term. This is a legal accusation. This is when God is in the dock, as CS Lewis said, and we’re judging him. I think of Elie Wiesel, the author who endured the horrors of the Holocaust. And he wrote afterwards, as he’s walking away, and his faith in God has gone up in smoke, and he says, I was the accuser. God the accused. He’s not judging me. I’m judging him. And he fell short of my standard. And that’s exactly how Israel feels here, which kind of changes the questions and how we hear the questions. In fact, it changes the questions enough that Moses says here that they’re testing God like they’ve put God on probation, and they’re withholding trust until he proves himself, the God who has, by the way, proved himself already and still he needs to prove himself. Again, we’ve got this in us, don’t we? Like I can remember this important part of my testimony. Actually, I grew up in church, but not as a Christian. I remember a certain point. I was probably in middle school at the time, and circumstances were rough for me, and I’d had enough, and so I told, God, I’m done with you. Like you got until tomorrow morning to fix this, or I’m out, and as like a show of force, so he would know I meant business, I took the Bible that my church had given me for confirmation was on my desk, and I put it in the bottom drawer under a bunch of other books That’ll teach him right. Here I am, by the way, just goes to show you something, which is that our God is so patient with his petulant children, but so what are they doing here, like me, in that moment, like the Pharisees demanding Jesus perform a sign, never mind the miracle that he just did in front of them. It all stems from this stubborn unbelief. These questions are not coming from trust. They’re coming from distrust, and that, by the way, is the difference between grumbling and what we talked about not too long ago, which is biblical lament. Lament is real. We just did this series, and we even talked about it. We talked about what biblical lament looks like. Anyone remember what the second word is no no memory like goldfish. I told you guys. All right, thank you. Complaint. Complaint. In biblical lament, we bring our complaint to God. So what is the difference between this sort of sinful grumbling and biblical lament that brings complaint? It is a question of trust in biblical comment. We bring our questions, we bring our confusion, we bring our complaint, because we trust God, because we know he’s the one who needs to hear this from us. It is the anguish cry of the Father in Mark chapter nine. I believe, help my unbelief. I can’t see it right now. I can’t see you right now. I don’t know what you’re doing. Would you show me? Because I know you. I know who you are. That’s lament. This is selfish petulance manifesting in doubt and sinful demands. You got one chance or I’m out. And you can see that, by the way, in verse seven, just showing us how these places got their names. But did you catch that question in the end, they’re testing the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not?
After the 10 plagues in Egypt, after the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, after they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, after, by the way, he’s already provided water and food in the desert, is God with us? The only unbelievable part of this story is not the miracles. The only unbelievable part of the story is that they’re still asking this question. Except it’s all too believable, because it’s there in our hearts also. And so God proves himself to unworthy sinners, yet again, the Lord who heals, the Lord who provides, the Lord who is there and the Lord who saves and we see this. And this really strange, Theophany. A Theophany means an appearance of God, so a time when, when God shows up. It’s interesting. We’re actually at the same spot. I don’t know if it’s the exact same spot, but they’re in the same region as the burning bush, which is one of the more famous theophanies in Scripture. So right there where the burning bush happened, we get another one. God says to Moses, take the staff. Remember, this is the staff of God. So it’s tying the story back to all those Exodus events. This is the one he raised to split the Red Sea all that kind of stuff. So it’s the same God, same leader, same instrument, even all these reasons to trust take that staff God says to Moses and strike the rock. Now why? It is true that every now and again you get like a porous limestone, and if you strike it with a rock, you’ll actually crack the rock and water will come out. But I doubt it, because we’re in Horeb, which is a desolate wasteland, and there’s like a couple 100,000 people here. There’s not that much water. So we got miraculous provision once again. But this miraculous provision points to an even greater an even more miraculous provision, because what exactly is struck. Look at verse six. I will stand there before you by the rock. It reads more literally as I will stand there on. On the rock. I will stand there on the rock. Now, how is God standing on the rock? Did the pillar of cloud go right above it? Is he invisible? And he’s going to trust me, I’m standing there. Maybe I don’t know, but what we do know, given what Paul says later, the God who is standing there on this rock is the second member of the Trinity. This is Jesus before He comes in the flesh. God the Son. We know this because here’s First Corinthians 10, verse four, for they drank, speaking of the wilderness generation, they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Christ is the rock who was struck by Moses’s staff. So don’t miss what happened. That means God submits to his own rod of judgment. The blow falls not on deserving sinners, but on their worthy Savior. I mean this whole story, they’ve been demanding that God prove himself right, demanding his provision, denying His protection, doubting his presence, and in one blow, God has met all their objections. Is God present? Yeah, he’s right there. He’s standing on the rock. Is God protecting them? Yes, not just from the elements, from starvation and thirst, but from his wrath, from his just anger at their unceasing sin. Is God providing Yeah, because the rock splits and water gushes forth. But all of this points to Jesus. This whole story prepares us to meet our Savior. Is Jesus present? Yeah, because the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Is the Lord among us or not? Yeah, he’s among us. He came to dwell with us, and then Jesus is there protecting us again from God’s wrath, because the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, by the blows that fell on him, we are healed because he’s the Lord who heals. Is he providing? Yes, because Christ Himself is our bread and our water. Robert read part of this passage for us, but let me give you the context in John chapter six. So they asked him, these are the Pharisees who’ve just seen the feeding of the 5000 and they say, What sign then will you give? That was it. But all right, whatever. What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, always give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I mean, think about it. Jesus dies in the desert. In fact, he even says, from the cross, I thirst. Jesus dies in the desert so that we can live in the garden, fully satisfied in him and in this Jesus is not just our substitute, but our example as well. He walks Israel’s path and succeeds where they fail. This is Matthew chapter four. Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. He’s there for 40 days, like the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness. And Satan says, you’re probably hungry, right? I’ve seen this story before, why don’t you turn these stones into bread? And he says, No, you can’t live on bread alone. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Why don’t you jump off the temple and see if God keeps His promises? No, you’re not supposed to test the Lord your God. Tell you what? Why don’t you skip the trial, skip the school of hard knocks and go straight to glory. All you got to do is worship me. No, it’s written. You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Jesus trusts so Jesus obeys, which is the whole reason he can be our substitute. All Our Questions. Jesus has given us the only answer we’ll ever need. We grumble because we want God to act on our terms in our time, when instead we can trust that He will provide all we need because he already has in Christ. So there’s your big idea. By the way, it’s a real short trust. Don’t test trust. Don’t test see God’s glory in His provision daily and eternally. Trust God for your daily needs, knowing that it might not look the way you want, by the way, but you can still trust him, and then trust God’s Son for your deepest needs, and let that produce in you grateful generosity and joyful obedience is what more can he do to prove himself to you than he has already done. See it, know him, believe trust, obey trust. Don’t test let’s pray, Father, we know all that you have done for us. We see your provision for every need that we have, and we see your deepest and dearest provision for our deepest needs. Salvation because of our sin, we see it in your Son, Jesus, sent for our sakes, God, you have proven yourself. There can be no doubt there so only help us to trust we believe, help our unbelief, and then help us to live like we believe and trust in your provision we pray for Christ’s sake, Amen.