Draft transcript prepared from the recording and edited for readability. Audio proofreading is still pending; please refer to the recording for the spoken wording.
You're listening to Sunday Sermons at Asbury Chapel. This morning we're in the book of Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. It's the first seven verses. I'm reading from the New Living Translation this morning. If you need your pew Bible there, the page numbers are in the bulletin. But Exodus 17, starting with verse 1, hear the word of the Lord. At the Lord's command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink.
So once more the people complained against Moses. Give us water to drink, they demanded. Quiet, Moses said. Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord? But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children and our livestock, with thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me. The Lord said to Moses, Walk out in front of the people.
Take your staff, the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink. So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on. Moses named the place Massah, which means test, and Meribah, which means arguing.
Because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord here with us or not? The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
It's so appropriate when you're getting ready to preach a text like this, but the lead in is a hymn like, Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus. Because you sing that song, and some of us may have a particular affinity for that song. I think about my camp meeting experience, and just the piano, which was out of tune. It was playing in that heat, and everyone's sweating. And in that moment, you're griping, you're complaining. You don't want to be in that hot, hot place, because it's July, and it's Georgia.
And then all of a sudden, that song comes on, and it's almost like there's a spiritual cool breeze that just wafts over you in that moment. And then you kind of come to yourself, if you will, and you go, Well, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus. And you get through it.
And so to sing a song like that as we prepare, and saying those words, especially that last verse, I'm so glad I learned to trust thee, precious Jesus, Savior, friend, and I know that thou art with me, wilt be with me to the end. Those are good words. Those are strong words. They're important words. I believe they're needed words. But those weren't the words of those in Exodus 17 who were griping against Moses and not trusting the Lord in that moment.
So let's approach this text in two different ways. Let's look at the text for what it says and what it is, and then we'll kind of blow out just a little bit, and we'll situate that text in the larger story of what was happening to God's people at that time. I think it's pretty apparent what's happening. The people at the Lord's command, they listened to him. I mean, we can almost go verse by verse. That's fine with me. We look at chapter 17, verse 1.
The people follow Moses at God's command. God says we're leaving this area. It's called the wilderness of Sin. It's not the same as the Greek word for Sin. This is a Hebrew word for Sin. It's a large desertous region that Sinai was also situated within. And so they're in this place, and at the Lord's command, this is where it is that they are to be. And so they follow Moses. The whole community of Israel leaves that wilderness, and they start to focus in a little bit more on where it is that God is taking them.
And then as you look at verse 2, they begin to complain and they begin to argue against Moses. Now, the reason why this is actually probably more significant than you realize, and here's some of the fun background stuff. You read this text, and on the surface you're going, well, they're complaining because they're thirsty. They're upset with Moses. They're not trusting God. This is true. But in the Hebrew, the phrasing in these sentences is very serious. It's the same words that are used all across the board when there is a legal case against somebody.
They are saying, we have a case against you, Moses. You have wronged us, and we want restitution for it. It's them tempting. See it now? They're not simply complaining. They are arguing, striving against him. There is the presence of strife here between the community and Moses. And Moses does not. God, love him. He's so good, isn't he? He takes this moment, and he doesn't turn around and try to appeal back to the people. He looks at them and says, hey, y'all get quiet.
Why in the world are y'all complaining against me? And instead of trying to fix it here, he goes to the Lord, and he essentially says, help, I don't know what to do. And he appeals to God in this moment. And so the people are griping, and they're complaining. They're saying, you have wronged us, and we have a case against you for what you've done.
Moses looks to the Lord and says, I don't know what to do with these people. It says what? Verse 4, then Moses cried out to the Lord, what should I do with these people? And they're ready to stone me. And God takes care of it. Isn't it interesting? God really didn't have to be merciful in that moment, did he?
Right amongst all the griping and complaining and the threats, these are now threats that they're leveraging against him. This legal language that they have. And yet at the same time, Moses says, or excuse me, God says to Moses, I'm going to help. I'm going to help. See, everything that God was doing hinged on all of this as well. They could gripe, they could complain, they could say whatever it is that they wanted to say. But God was still moving his people from point A to point B.
And he was still going to do that, whether or not they were going to gripe, or whether they were going to laugh and be joyful. He was going to move them from point A to point B, whoever would go with him. And so he gets in here, and he takes care of the situation, even when he didn't have to. What's so great about the fifth verse there, the Lord says to Moses, walk out in front of the people, take your staff, the same one you struck the Nile with.
Now this is what is so interesting. If you were writing this story and you were trying to make an impact, would you not want to draw a correlation between this moment and the Red Sea? But it doesn't say the one that you struck the Red Sea with. It says the one that you struck the Nile with. That was intentional.
I wish we were in Bible study and we'd have a lot of interchange that was going on here, but don't holler it out. But, well, no, let's have fun with it. Let's see how many Bible scholars are in the room. When he took the staff and he struck the Nile with it, he cut off what?
The what? What happened to the water? Turned to blood. And everything inside the water what? Died. And they were not able to drink it. God said, remember when I told you to take your staff and strike the Nile? I cut off the water supply.
Now I want you to take that same staff and I want you to walk up to this rock.
And I want you to strike that rock and water's going to gush forth. In one situation, God was sending his judgment upon the Egyptians and he cut off the water supply. And even though the people are grumbling and arguing and trying to build a case against Moses, he goes over, he strikes the rock and God supplies the water. He cuts off the water supply here and he turns on the water supply there. He is Lord over every circumstance, is he not?
He can cut it off and he can turn it on. And in this moment, it didn't matter that they were going to grumble and get upset and get mad at God's guy. None of that mattered. What mattered here is that the Lord continued to be faithful and to show himself as consistent. He is Lord over stopping it and he's Lord over letting it be. And he let it be here. And it's a moment of incredible mercy. Right in the face of all of the grumbling and all the complaining, all the things that were happening.
I mean, Moses feels the pressure and he knows they could stone me. And so what does he do? He goes to the Lord. Now, here's what's funny. Where did the people go to when they got upset? We're in Bible study. Shout it out. They went to Moses.
Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go to it. Yeah, thanks for that. No. No. I can't help you. No, at the end of the day, Moses is not the one who's doing this. The Lord's doing this. The first thing that they do is they call out to him in the very beginning there. Why did you bring us out here? Give us water to drink. Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us? Our children and our livestock with thirst?
Hold on just a second. Why did you bring us out here?
All right. We'll go back to the Bible study scenario.
And if you're in Bible study, we actually did this, some of you, this week. So y'all don't get to answer. Let somebody else answer because I already did this a little bit. In the beginning of Exodus when, I say the beginning, but as Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, what is it that they said to Pharaoh? What's the famous words? It's in all the movies and cartoons and stuff. What did they say? The Lord says what?
Let my people go. That is not what he said.
Because see, the problem is, is that you're getting half the sentence.
What?
So that they may worship me. Let my people go. That they may worship me. That they may come and worship me in the wilderness is what it says. It doesn't say, hey, you're mean. Let my people go.
No.
It's Pharaoh. Let my people go that my people may come and worship me in the wilderness. Isn't it interesting that they turn and they look at Moses and they say, why did you bring us out here?
Well, I don't know if you remember or not, but I actually brought you out here to worship the Lord. I didn't bring you out here to get mad at me. I didn't bring you out here to focus on your problems. I brought you out here to focus on the God who parts waters. I brought you out here to focus on the God who can strike the river Nile completely dead from use.
And I brought you out here to show you so that you would worship the God who could also bring forth water from a rock. When we focus on our problems, our problems become our God. We spend all of our time worrying about them. We spend all our time getting upset about them. It becomes our God. We're idolatrous. You could even make the case very easy that you're adulterous in the time that you spend worrying about your problems and getting all upset about what's not going right and all the things.
At the end of the day, it's not why you're here.
You're out in this place for, it's the same reason, but it's to worship God. And when we worship God, we see his blessings. We get to experience his blessings. Y'all, water comes gushing out of rocks. When the armies that pursue you and the sea that stops you,
and then God lays his sword across the sea, splits it open, provides dry land and passage, and then takes the army with the impossible sea and drowns the army in the sea.
And he did it for a whining, grumbling, complaining people. Boy, if that doesn't tell you how merciful he is. But the real question is, is why are we out here? Are we out here to die? Are we out here to starve? No. You're out here to worship. Why are you here?
What it teaches us is that you can bring your complaints. You can bring all of the things that you're struggling with and mad about and all that stuff. You can bring it. You can bring your worry. You can bring your fear. You can bring your doubt. Bring it all. But you better remember something. You've got to bring it. You've got to drop it. You've got to leave it. And you've got to look to him because the real reason you're out here is not just to bring your stuff.
It's to be freed from your stuff so you can worship him. Let my people go. God is saying that to your worries. Guess why? Because your worries have become your pharaoh. Haven't they? Your gripes, your complaints, all the things that you're just struggling with, they've become the pharaoh of your life. Slave driving you. And they're so used to giving themselves over to their oppression and their struggles and stuff that even after all that's happened, they get out in the wilderness and they have the opportunity to trust God.
But the first thing that they do is in their minds and in their hearts go back to the place that they were oppressed. They can't get all of that off their mind. And you want to know something that's funny? I have to read it because I like the way I wrote it and I didn't memorize it.
Take my glasses off. Where is it? In under six months. Are you ready for this? In under six months, Israel has seen ten plagues that saved them. Pillars of cloud and fire that have led them. The splitting and mending of the Red Sea. The sweetening of bad water. And the miraculous appearance of food and meat from above. They have every reason. In a moment of thirst. They have every reason to go, He's God. I'm going to trust Him.
But what do they do? Says the high-pitched frustration. What do they do? They just go groveling back to their fear and their doubt and their whining and their complaining. Because God has yet to become good enough. How much better does the greatest thing in the universe have to be before you hand over your faithlessness? Y'all, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take Him at His word.
Oh, my goodness.
You know, Jesus, yes, He flipped tables and forgave people and raised people from the dead. He also did a whole lot of preaching. And in His preaching, the most famous, we typically call one of them the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, verse 6, fits just perfectly right here. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be what? Filled. Some of y'all's translations say satisfied.
Exodus 17, that's not a satisfied people, is it? Not one bit. They're not satisfied. They're not filled. God's not enough for them. Give us water. Why did you bring us out here? I brought you out here to worship the Lord.
But you can almost hear it now, can't you? But so that you may know that He is good and merciful. That He is Lord over all circumstances. Yes, He can shut off the water supply. But so that you would know today, He will make water gush forth. Crack. Spew. When you hunger and you thirst for righteousness, you are filled. You are satisfied. But when you're not hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you are not filled. You are not satisfied. And so what becomes your diet, your fear, worry, doubt, grumbling, complaining, your distrust, mistrust?
That is the food that you eat. And you will stay hungry when you drink and eat such things. Jesus meets the woman, though, at the well, doesn't He? John chapter 4.
She has to come there every single day to draw water, doesn't she? And Jesus says, you know what? I've got some water to offer you. And you'll never thirst again. See, she was living a life that wasn't righteous. She wasn't hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for the goodness of God, for the holiness of God, for the justice of God in her life and in the lives of others. She wasn't participating in a holy community that worships God. She was living a life where she'd been cast aside and she'd been mistreated.
And so now she's forced to go to the water well at the heat of the day and be isolated from everyone else. And even when they have a conversation about worship, she criticizes Jesus. Well, you Jews tend to worship over here.
And he goes, you know, this is a day that's coming. We're not going to matter where you worship, as long as you worship in spirit and in truth. That's John 4, if you want to go read it. It's an amazing, amazing moment in history. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. They will be filled. Exodus 17 was a lot of people who were not satisfied, but they weren't hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Guess what?
They'll never be satisfied. Unless.
Unless.
Unless they hunger and they thirst for a right relationship with God. You know how that comes? Just worship.
Worship. You know what it takes to worship? It takes humility. It takes vulnerability. It takes laying your heart on the line.
It means living with your hands out like this. Saying, Lord, take what doesn't belong. And place within that which does belong. I'm open for you, Lord, to take away the things that make me grumble and complain and whine and fear and second guess and doubt. And I want to receive, Lord, your goodness. And so I'll worship you.
Hunger and thirst today. For righteousness. For that right relationship with God. And put away those things that would be cumbersome. Those things that would get in the way of loving God. They had every reason to trust God. Did they not? In under six months. You heard the list. In under six months. They'd seen God do the miraculous. And we criticize, don't we? We criticize and we go, well, I can't believe that they didn't trust God. Y'all, let me tell you something.
You can go back in your mind right now. I've said this many times. You can go back in your mind right now. It might even have been as early as this morning. Or maybe you're going to go back 50 years. Maybe you're thinking about the day that you got saved. Or you went down to the front altar and you said yes to the Lord Jesus. Maybe you were a child. But you can go back to some point pinpointing like a mile marker in your life.
And you can say, I know the goodness of the Lord and he saved me. But you hadn't been living saved. Because you haven't been trusting in him. And until you return to him and put your faith in him. And say, Lord, have your way, not my way. Until you hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God. You will not be full. And you'll never be satisfied. And one last piece.
Isn't it interesting? Or some of you may not know this. In the Old Testament, they are famous for naming stuff.
It's mile markers is what they do. I love it when I drive around. We've got property in South Carolina. And I love driving around the old, old parts of South Carolina. And you'll see mile markers. Or not mile markers. I'm sorry. You'll see historical markers and plaques and stuff. And there's times where I'll take a picture of it. I don't even know if I'll ever see it again. But it'll say, here in 1729. And you're reading it. I don't know why that voice comes when every time I read those plaques.
That is what I hear. In 1794. But, and something remarkable happened in that place. And every now and then, you know, it's like the first settlers came here. Or something happened here. Or settlers came there. And it's really neat stories. Now, sometimes you run across one that's really hard to read, right? And it's one that says, the battle of Four Forks Road, whatever. I'm making it up. It took place right here. And 300 soldiers died because, and you just sit there and you go, oh.
And then you start driving past that place. And there's something that happens inside of your mind and your heart. And they start talking together. And you go, wow, that's, that was significant. There was a lot of life that was lost here. This, these are people of great conviction. And this was not easy. And this was hard. You know, we have to name the hard places in our life too, don't we? I can sit here right now. I've got three kids. I can talk about what was going on in my head with all three children being born.
And how that's the greatest day in my life. All three of them were the greatest day of my life.
Equally the same. Anyway.
And our minds go there. But I can name the hard places too. And if I don't name the hard places, I never learn from the hard things that happened. And Moses does not shy away from calling this place that they traveled hard things. He names it. He calls it out. This is a place of testing. Where they tempted the Lord. They forced the Lord's hand. You say you're good? Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Ooh. No thanks.
He named it argument. Arguing. Where they wanted to have a legal case against him. You've wronged me. I'm the wronged. But they named it. They named it. Or Moses. For their sakes. He named it. And here's why. You've got to go back to that place. Learn from that place. And the hope of every place. Every single place that the Jews named. Was an opportunity to worship the Lord. When Jacob saw the place where angels ascended and descended. He named it Bethel.
House of God. The place where the Lord entered earth and heaven. And went to and fro. The house of God.
Well here. A little more negative.
But how important. Well this is. This is the place where. Think of it. Think of the historical marker on the side of the road now. This is the place. Where we argued with him. This is the place where we tested him. We got. We got past that place. We had to come back to this place to remember. But we got past that place. And we learned to worship him.
Because you know what he did. He did destroy the Egyptians. He did split the sea. He did sweeten the water. He did take care of our enemies.
He did bring forth water. When we were thirsty. And from that point on. We developed a new thirst. A thirst for living water. Water that God would bring.
Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Put your trust in him. I promise. Tis so sweet. Tis so sweet. If you'll just simply trust. And then out of that wonderful faith. And that wonderful trust. If you'll then just obey. Well there'll be no other way. To be happy in Jesus. Than what? Than to trust and obey. I think that's our closing song.
So as they make their way up. And as we work towards. Singing our closing song this morning. I really want you to go today. If you can.
Reread this passage. Exodus 17. But I want you to read. One through seven. This particular event. I want you to read it slow. I want you to put yourself in that place. I want you to go back in your mind. And go. When have I. When have I forced the Lord's hand? When have I tempted him. And tested him. When have I griped? When have I complained? Have I learned to worship him now? For that is why he split the seas.
That is why he brought forth the meat and the manna. That is why he brought forth water. That we may worship him. God didn't free you. For you to run around. And get all ornery and upset. And complain about everything. He freed you for love. And joy. And peace. And happiness. How are you using your freedom church? Are you using it to worship him? Are you trusting in him? Will you obey him today? Oh. Such valid questions. Go back and reread.
And remember to ask yourself. Have I learned to worship? Do I hunger? And do I thirst for him? Will you pray with me? Amen. Amen. Amen.
