September 18 2011    Reading:  Exodus 17.1-7

Theme: Water from the Rock

Crisis - the word is once again in the headlines and on the news........

The economic crisis which centres round the European economy.. and particularly round Greece....... which owes the banks 227 billion euros.

The word crisis is being used a lot these days.........

Finance ministers and central bankers from around the world in Washington have been discussing their concerns - they are worried, they say, that the world economy might be infected by Greece’s debt crisis. Chancellor George Osborne said “There are now only six weeks left to resolve this crisis,” Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot said “There is a high possibility that Greece might go bankrupt - and a real crisis will begin”

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos thinks there might still be a way out of their financial crisis.

Many wonder what the Greek people will do in this crisis

will they agree to pay back the money they owe ?

can they afford the repayments they will have to make ?

will they follow their leaders and do what their government asks ?

Others look back and ask questions about all the steps that led up to this crisis and how these might be avoided in the future............

A crisis and all these questions

If we look at Exodus 17, we also read about a crisis, a crisis for the people of Israel

more severe than a financial crisis..........

for not only is this crisis of life and death,

it is also a spiritual crisis, a breakdown of trust..............

If we look at Exodus 17, we discover the steps that led up to that crisis for the people of Israel.

We are told that the Israelite community set out through the desert, travelling from place to place as the Lord guided and commanded them.

After journeying through the desert..... the people arrive at a place called

Rephidim - the exact location can no longer be found, but it was somewhere in the Sinai desert. They arrive to find that there is no water......... perhaps the spring at the oasis has dried up....

Though of course, like desert peoples the Israelites will have water with them...... carried in water containers..... the crisis has to do with the next stage of their journey.....

how will they find water for the next stage of their journey........ they cannot go back, there’s not enough water for that, they cannot go forward. And as a people of the desert they know that you can survive without food, but not without water. This is the crisis, it seems and its a matter of life and death......... a quarrel breaks out with Moses.

But during that quarrel, Moses says a rather strange thing.......

He asks the leaders of the people - why do you quarrel with me ? but then he says - why do you put the Lord to the test ?

Here is the key to the whole crisis. This is what makes the crisis in the desert a spiritual crisis........ Because, you see, the people of Israel are being guided by the Lord, protected by the Lord - He watches over them. So that each watering hole, each green oasis, every shaded pool that offers rest, each place of quietness and safety they come to on their journey, they are brought to by the Lord. So - it is the Lord who has brought them to Rephidim, and He has not brought them there to die in the desert. Quite the opposite, He has brought them there on the way to the Land He has promised and if He has brought them that place, all their needs will be supplied. For their thirst, He will provide abundant water to drink. There will be, though the people may not see it at the moment........ clear, cool water for them.

But when the people complain bitterly as they do,

when, in panic, they start quarrelling, with Moses........

their trust in the living God, has broken down......... and that’s a spiritual crisis.........

their trust in the living God, who provides all they need,

has broken down.

Moses, seems on the edge of despair...........and turns to the living God..... and it’s worth noting that in this crisis in the desert, Moses’ trust in the living God hasn’t moved or shifted.... Moses turns to Him in prayer......... then the Lord commands Moses to bring some of the elders to a rock at Horeb. Walk, says the Lord, take with you the elders, take your staff that opened the river waters in the Nile........ I will be there at the rock, strike it, and water will pour out for the people to drink......... Moses did so, and the people drank...... they filled their water vessels, all drank, men, women and children......., cool water flowed in abundance............

The place where this all happened was forever remembered among Israel’s people.........

as Meribah and Massah......... quarrel, and test........ because, says Exodus they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

There are three points we can make here........

and they apply to any crisis we find ourselves in, small or great..........

And the first point is this...... that part and parcel of any personal crisis we find ourselves in will be, as it was with Israel of old......... our own unbelief. Our own lack of trust in the living God....... the fact is that this is what the human heart is like, your heart and mine.

The Bible is utterly real here, there is an unbelief in the human heart just below the surface and in a crisis, under pressure, it will come surging up to the surface.

As Psalm 78 says........ the Lord brought His people out like a flock,

He led them like sheep through the desert.........

They put Him to the test, they rebelled.........

Read Exodus and you will find, for example, that the people have just been given bread from heaven, manna........ to feed them as they cross the desert. Yet here they are a few days later. All memory of God’s goodness has vanished...... in the crisis we see their unbelief......... the ‘unvarying tendency of the human heart to distrust God’ as one old commentator calls it........

So the crisis has now got worse........ What will we drink ? Why did you bring us here ? Where is the Lord ? they say to Moses........

Well, of course, the Lord is with them, still with them....... He has never left them...........

He will lead them to a land He has promised, a place of safety, green pastures, clear waters.

But part and parcel of any personal crisis we find ourselves in will be, as it was with Israel of old......... our own unbelief.

So, you see, the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, the Lord’s prayer, is utterly real,

knowing how weak and frail we are, and can be, especially under pressure or in crisis,

He taught us to pray these words to our Father in heaven.........

Do not lead us into the time of testing........ instead deliver us from those evil times......

And, speaking of crisis, the apostle Paul reminds us..........

1 Cor: 10.13 God is faithful; he will not let you be tested beyond what you can bear. when you are tested, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Do you hear that ? In crisis, under pressure, in a time of testing along with the testing there is a way out !

when the time of testing comes, may the Lord grant us all a deeper spirit of trust,

But, second, following on from this, in any crisis - is God’s steadfast faithfulness........ Look back at the people of Israel - they quarrel with Moses, and fail the basic test of trust in the living God. But look again and see - that despite this - the Lord God leads His people to refreshing clear waters, which burst out from the rock - despite themselves.

Despite the sorry state of the people, their lack of trust and so on........

the Lord God leads His people to refreshing clear waters,

where they drink to the full the waters that flow..........

Trust, lack of trust....... there remains God’s steadfast faithfulness.

Read Exodus 17 and you will find that the trust of the people in God has collapsed, the relationship has been broken. Yet, see ! Despite their mistrust, despite their lack of faith,

God’s in His steadfast faithfulness is true ! Salvation comes from the Lord, in the crisis He steps in, repairs and restores the situation. He commands, Moses strikes the side of the rock and water, life, quite literally flows out......... Do we not see this most clearly at the Cross ? When the crisis of sin threatening humankind was at its deepest He stepped in,

at the Cross the judgment, condemnation, of sin, all that threatened us, was laid on our Saviour, the Lord Jesus. At the Cross, the living God repairs and restores the situation

in that crisis, and in any crisis small or great - we may depend on, rest all on this

God’s steadfast faithfulness

So - the Lord God leads His people to refreshing clear waters, breaking out, pouring out from the rock. Note once again, that this is despite the sorry state of the people, their lack of trust and so on........ the Lord God leads His people to those refreshing clear waters, and they drink to the full..........(repeat)

There is a word from the Lord Jesus concerning exactly this

Jesus declares that now, dry and thirsty, we can go to Him, and He will give us those living waters. For now they flow in fullness from Him.......... Listen to these marvellous, life giving words, he said to the woman at the well in Samaria.....in John 4.14 Whoever - and that means every single one here..... whoever drinks the water I give ...will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 7.37 declares this, On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood up

and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. For whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow within "

For all those who are thirsty, streams of living water will flow within.........

Jesus is here speaking of the living waters of the Spirit...........

Come to me and receive........ He says........ those streams of the living water of the Spirit which will flow within.

The word of the living God to us in Exodus is this - that in any crisis small or great - we may depend on, rest all on God’s steadfast faithfulness

and for the journey ahead, whether it is to be through green pastures,

or through the dry desert..........

We have the streams of the living water of the Spirit within us......

for the journey........ in this is all our hope and peace and joy,

yours and mine.

Water from the Rock

AMEN.