Law & Grace - Whacking & watering (striking the rock to bring water)

Good morning. Just before we step into the passage, I just wanted to speak a little bit about these parenting seminars. One, just to clarify, those are two seminars of the same content. So it's a matter of picking a date that works for you. We offered two with the idea that it would be convenient, hopefully, for one family or another to pick one date or the other, and also to keep the size small. So anyway, feel free to choose one. Let me know which of these dates you'll be coming, and child care will be provided.

One other thing, if you have something particular you're interested in getting out of the seminar, it would be helpful to me if you would let me know that ahead of time. Whatever the particular thing that's drawing your interest, I'd be glad to hear it. Meanwhile, back at the Sinai Ranch, OK?

This is the second account, actually, of bringing water from a rock. As we were kind of pacing our way through the Exodus account, we passed over the first one. This is actually the second one, Exodus 17, 1 through 7. Right after the people leave Egypt is one of those places where they're thirsty, they're on their way down to Mount Sinai, and as they get close, the Lord miraculously provides water in somewhat similar fashion to what you see in this account. Almost 40 years later, in Numbers 21 through 13, just before the people of Israel enter the Promised Land, this similar, not identical, but similar water out of the rock incident takes place here. So both of these took place, one at the beginning of the Exodus period, another towards the end. And just to kind of follow it geographically, as they leave Egypt and their place on the east side of the Nile Delta, the land of Goshen, they go towards the Sinai Desert, crossing the, and actually through the sea, down along the Sinai Peninsula on the east side. And so Mount Sinai is near the southern end of that peninsula. This first water from the rock event takes place just before they get to Mount Sinai, which we had been covering the last couple of weeks. The second event takes place at a place called Kadesh Barnea, and it is as Randy read for us here.

This account won't directly address what we have been addressing, and that is law and grace. However, there are some tremendous spiritual principles to be drawn from this, and so I just couldn't pass it up. And these are key events in the life of Moses. We're going to see it makes a radical difference in the rest of the life of Moses and for all of Israel. And since it is one that's recorded there with enough detail, we can see what's going on spiritually. And so I think it's very helpful. The first thing that happens in the passage is Miriam, who is Moses and Aaron's sister, died there at Kadesh. It's a dry place. It's a place with not a lot of vegetation. What you see there is a lone tree in that vicinity. And believe me, it is lonely. There's not a lot of company for that tree. Here is the family tree from Sarah and Abraham to Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. Here's Sarah and Abraham at the top of this family tree chart, and here's Miriam, Aaron, and Moses.

As it turns out, Miriam is actually seven years older than Moses, and Aaron three years older. And so this is basically Aaron and Moses' older sister, Miriam, who dies first off. She had been the one who led the musical celebration when the Israelites crossed through the sea and the Lord rescued and delivered the people of Israel and eliminated the enemy of the Egyptians who were following. Miriam had also, unfortunately, joined Aaron in complaining against Moses. So this is, you can imagine, sort of a sibling rivalry at a large scale. Here's the older sister and the older brother ganging up on Moses and complaining.

That's in Numbers chapter 12. Well, so now Miriam would die before seeing the Promised Land. And why is that? Though she had been one of those that celebrated their delivery after crossing the sea, Miriam was among those who died in unbelief. There was a very small few who would be allowed after this period of refusal to go into the promised land to actually continue on. And Miriam was among those who died in unbelief before going into the promised land.

Now there is a poetic pattern. You see it on page one of your handout here. In Exodus 2-5, the people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Imagine that. When they come to Moses, it's one of two things. Moses, we're going to die! Oh no! Or the other extreme is, Moses, we're going to die, I hope! So that's the way it comes across, the way they come across to them. And then notice two very similar questions.

Why then have you brought the Lord's assembly into this wilderness for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us to come up from Egypt to bring us into this wretched place? Now, very clearly, the Lord said he was the one who brought them out of Egypt. It wasn't Moses doing, except as the Lord had given that assignment to Moses. But rather than seeing it as, no, the Lord wants us here, they're seeing it instead as this is a great opportunity to complain and gripe. And of course, they made a true statement at the end.

It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink. And that's the key point for our story here. There is no water to drink. There just isn't any. As you saw the picture, it's a very dry place. the place was a little dry and imagine a whole lot of the Israelites were thinking why doesn't somebody invent something like sunglasses or something for a place like this that would be a whole lot better because this place is so hot and dry and sunny now so what they did was they did a lot of faithless complaining in spite of the many miraculous events. Can you imagine?

These people, most of them alive at this point in time, they had seen all the Exodus events. Imagine they had seen the sea part and walked through it and then saw as the Lord closed up the waters over the Egyptians. I mean, that was a miraculous event. There's no denying it.

But here, They're griping and complaining. The Lord had provided manna for them every single day. Of course, now some could complain, I'm getting tired of manna. We've been having manna for every meal. We've been having manna for years and years and years, you know. This is worse than camping food.

And so now, and the Lord had miraculously brought a flock of quail to them. That's not in the accounts we've looked at, but that certainly is in the the passage there and many other miraculous events had taken place they were pushing that all aside to just look at we are hungry and we are thirsty and forget all those miracles and everything now it's time to complain so the Israelites were often either afraid to die or wish they had died while God himself had brought them out of Egypt they blame Moses for it even though God specifically had brought them out, and God had led them by this cloud and pillar of fire by night. I mean, there was no question about it. The Lord had done this, but they blame Moses.

Now it's time to gripe. It's hard to gripe at a pillar of fire, you know? It doesn't seem to work. and they were both hungry and thirsty. Imagine if you were a Jewish mother. What am I going to do? How am I going to give them matzah when there's no water? It's all dry. I can't do that.

You know, these Jewish mothers would have a horrible time. And so the kids would gripe and complain. And so there's no wonder the leaders were coming up. And telling Moses, look, this is no place for anybody. This is no place for us to get food. It's no place to get water. We are hungry and we are thirsty. And we're tired of this. We're tired of the manna, too. 38 years is enough. Now, the next thing we see.

Of course, you've heard, wherever you go, there you are. So, by the way, where am I? wherever you go on earth, you're always passing through. Get the difference? Wherever you go on earth, you're always passing through. We are indeed going to find some places and some circumstances better than others. I even dare say a lot better, right? There will be variation on how much we enjoy one situation versus another. But wherever God has you now, You will not be there forever and always. That's the way it is on this planet, isn't it? Wherever God has you now, you won't be there forever and always.

This is a place that's temporary. The earth is a getting ready kind of place. In the same way that the Israelites were traveling on from one place to the next and moving on, and they wouldn't be forever there at Kadesh Barnea, In the same way as that was true, here on this planet, no circumstance is here to stay forever. This is a place for getting ready. That's what this place is for. It's a getting ready kind of place. It's not the sort of place where you stay. It's more like a railroad station than it is a hotel, right? It's not a place to stay. We're just passing through.

What God is doing here on this planet is getting us ready for somewhere else that's really the place that counts. This is a getting ready kind of place. So we ought not to get all wrapped up in God's process of getting us ready. You say, Lord, this isn't this and this isn't that and my circumstances are like this. And Lord, why did you allow this circumstance instead of this other one? Guess what?

You're just getting ready. You're just getting ready. That's the nature of things here. It's a getting ready kind of place. We shouldn't lose sight of where we're headed. We shouldn't get so wrapped up in what is happening now that we lose sight of where we're headed. So what happens? Aaron and Moses go before the Lord. They go before the Lord in the doorway of the tent of meeting, otherwise known as the tabernacle here in the wilderness. Here is a model pitched out in the desert to give you an idea what that might have looked like.

Less thousands of Israelites. the glory of the Lord shown about them as the Lord spoke to them. Probably something like this. So it's like really bright. And I don't think the Lord was talking to them in little tiny voices. So they got really bright inside there and the Lord said, Moses, Aaron. So they got the idea. Making a definite point, they were to take Moses' rod to gather the people together, speak to the rock, and the water would flow. Let's see. Moses rod, gather the people, speak to the rock, water would...

That's it. That's four, right? Is that that tough? Okay, you think Moses is going to get it right with just four things to do? Okay. So, that's all it would take. Just those four things. So, in Exodus 17, Moses was, in fact, to strike the rock. once, but in Numbers 20, Moses was to speak to the rock. See the difference? One, strike the rock. The second one, speak to the rock. They're not that difficult.

Moses did take his rod, so he's off to a good start there, just as the Lord told him to do. Moses gathered the people of Israel, also exactly as the Lord told him to do. So far, so good. But Moses started to ad-lib after that, you know, shoot from the hip, improvise.

He started saying, hey, you know, let's just kind of wing it. Instead of the speaking thing, that's a little bit non-dramatic, you know, let's do a little bit of action, you know. And I got this rod, might as well do something with it, right? So he starts to come up with this ad-libbing, improvising, shooting from the hip process.

Okay, so instead of speaking to the rock, as God had said, He spoke to the people. Oh, okay. I mean, after all, it's still speaking, right? I mean, it sounds sort of close. Not so much. In anger, He spoke to the people. He was ticked. You rebels! Alright, a key thing here for believers to look at. Real simple. What am I going into railroad tracks for and trains? It's this. I could tell you a story about trains, but I shouldn't. I'll get lost. Railroad tracks are like faith in the facts. Just like the faith is like the train. Faith in the facts is like a train on the tracks. Feelings follow.

Got that? What Moses let take hold of him, was this. The people came to him, and what were they? Angry. And so instead of saying, what does the Lord say, and putting his faith in what the Lord had told him, what did he do? He said, you want anger? Let me give you some anger back. Right? You can dish it to me, I'll dish it back out.

And so he was following his feelings. not faith in the facts. All he had to do, four things. First couple he didn't do too bad because after that it went south. Okay. Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck the rock twice. You see the first time he got water out of the rock, he struck the rock once. Now he figures this is the second time, so twice, right? That makes sense, right? Okay.

Moses presented bringing water from the rock as his own act. Moses not only didn't do exactly what God had said, but he also spoke as if bringing the water from the rock was his and Aaron's accomplishment instead of God's. And by the way, this should be Numbers 20. Shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?

Got that? Shall we? God doesn't have anything to do with this. Aaron, you know, older brother, you know, me, yeah, we're the guys. We'll bring the water out of the rock. For you. You rebels. Right? Okay. I mean, a slight deviation, you know, you might think that's not too bad. But it was.

It was real bad. We've got to realize that our own best efforts just won't get the job done. I recall years ago, before Nancy and I were married. And believe me, it's hard to remember those years. But anyway, before Nancy and I were married, we went to this community college together.

And I remember in the springtime that one of the journalism majors did a survey of a number of students and asked the students, Do you think you're good enough to get into heaven? And do you think you're better than average good? What was very interesting is that 90% of the students thought they were better than average. Now you work out the math on that one. Okay. 90% of them thought they were better than average, but here's the deal. The question misled them. Nobody's good enough to get into heaven. The percentage should be zero. It's not our own efforts. It's not our own best efforts that will get us there.

It's faith in God's work through Christ. Faith that Christ died for your sins. He was buried and resurrected. Faith that Christ, the Son of God, did those things for you. That's what saves. Not being good enough. or better than average or anything of the sort. Our own best efforts won't get the job done. But even after that, even after a person is saved by faith, it's still not our own best efforts that God's looking for. God did not intend for Moses to come up and say, shall we get this water for you and leave God out of the equation. No. Our own best efforts won't get the job done.

Let me give you a for instance here. Let me give you the for instance like this. OK. There is an Olympic challenge to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Start from San Francisco and swim over to Japan. OK. And the way it goes is the first guy to start is me.

And I get just about out to where I can start to see the whales, and I start to fade. I just don't quite do it. So they figure, well, you've got to get somebody better than that. And so they pick Brad. And Brad starts swimming, and he gets out just about to the Hawaiian Islands, and he starts to fade. And so then, no, that isn't going to do it. That isn't going to do it. We need to get somebody who really has what it takes. And so they pick Stan. And Stan gets out there, and he passes up where Vern went, and he passes up where Brad went. And then about 100 miles past that, he finally fades. Well, you get the idea.

The reality is that nobody has got quite what it takes to swim all the way across the Pacific Ocean. And the reality is, what God has in mind for us is not something we can pull off on our own. He never intended that we pull it off, just like it would never be intended that anyone swim all the way across the Pacific Ocean. It's not our own efforts that will do it.

It's the Lord's. God wants us to use us as his instruments, but not for us to do it on our own and take the credit, like Moses did. That was his problem. As he did so, he called the people of Israel rebels. That wasn't quite what the Lord told him to say. Matter of fact, he told them to speak to the rock, not to the people. Not only did he speak to the people instead of the rock, but he spoke in anger, taking the credit for the water that was going to follow.

Moses' failure would have consequences. Moses' error, after almost 40 years of leading the Israelites in wilderness, would have very severe consequences for him. Moses would not be allowed, as a result of this, to lead the Israelites into nor even to enter the promised land.

He would look from afar and look into it, and that's as close as he would get. Now, unless you think that, boy, that's somehow an ultimate devastation, I would offer something of God's grace in this. Is Moses ever going to walk in the promised land? Yes, he will. Moses will walk in the promised land when he's resurrected. He will be among those resurrected saints who will be with the Lord in the promised land, this land of Israel. So ultimately Moses would walk, but it's still a future time yet. So Moses didn't listen carefully.

Just doing something like what was done before is not what God had in mind at all. You've heard the saying, but we've always done it this way. I struck the rock once before, this is the second time, striking it twice makes sense, right? We've always done it this way. No, that's not going to cut it either.

God intended for Moses to glorify Him, to glorify God in this, not Moses and Aaron. The rock was a picture of God and of Christ Himself. Deuteronomy 32, five times, calls God the rock. Moses himself would say it. First Corinthians 10.4 is another passage. You have this on page two of your handout. It's written in a rather poetic pattern, but the last point here, and the rock was Christ. The rock represented Christ.

Striking a rock twice in anger was not respectful of Him. God wants to use us as His instruments, not for us to do it on our own and take the credit. You see, I don't believe the Lord intends to give us any humility awards and humility trophies, right? Especially ones that we put on our chest and we put on the mantle, right?

Now what's interesting here is both Moses and Aaron received the consequences. That's very interesting. Why did Aaron also receive the consequences when it was Moses who had said and done what was wrong in the way that the waters brought out from the rock? Why, that's not fair! Right? Or is it?

How many people went into the tent of meeting, the tabernacle? How many people went in there? Moses and Aaron both went in there, didn't they? They both heard what God said. There's only four items, right? They both heard that. Aaron had been there all along and knew exactly what God said he knew what God said yet he stood by quietly and said nothing he didn't say whoa whoa whoa whoa Moses hold on don't strike so fast what are you saying he didn't say that he stood by quietly even though he knew what God had said and said nothing he didn't correct Moses for his errors So they both were guilty. Moses by what he did and said wrongly. Aaron by doing and saying nothing. Moses and Aaron both erred in what they did and didn't do. God then withheld the water from the rock, so the Israelites had no water. Right? Isn't that the way it worked out? You guys didn't do it right, so I'm not giving the Israelites any water. Isn't that what happened? Not at all.

God mercifully and graciously made the water come out of the rock anyway. Because the Lord does things in our lives and may even bless people apparently, does not mean everything that they are doing is right. Got that? The Lord may follow through graciously and mercifully, even though people have done it wrong. See that? The Lord may be gracious and merciful, even though people have done it wrong.

That's a very important principle for us to look at. We can easily look at people who are doing things wrong and say, well, heavens, you know, here's this church and they teach terrible things and they keep having more people come and they seem to be doing fine. Well, guess what? Same principle. The Lord may allow things to continue and may even follow through in what looks like blessing, even though what's being done is half wrong or maybe even more.

God's mercy and His grace depend upon Him, not us. It depends on Him, not us. The law isn't the same as grace, most certainly, but this event under the law points to Christ. All these people were baptized into Moses. That's what 1 Corinthians chapter 10 makes clear. But what it also says, this rock from which the water flowed was to represent Christ. God's merciful and gracious provision of life for all of us.

Because we did everything right? No. Not because we did everything right. As a matter of fact, was there any human being in this whole event that did anything right? No. Did Moses do it right? Nope. Did Aaron do it right? Nope. Were the Israelites right in all their griping and complaining and accusing Moses and Aaron and saying, you brought us out of Egypt when God Himself said that He did? Everybody did something wrong.

And what was God's response? God was gracious and merciful. Isn't that amazing? The Rock was Christ. So, here's another question for you. Did Moses and Aaron or any of the Israelites have any idea that they were living examples? Did they? Did they realize what was happening that day? Did they realize that this rock was representative of God and even Christ himself? Did they realize that they were living examples?

Here's 1 Corinthians 10, which we've quoted. from but here in verse 11 now these things happen to them as an example and they were written for instruction upon whom the end of the ages of come we in our lives can easily be thinking that what is happening is dull and humdrum maybe even depressing we can get distressed about things we can get very saddened but look at these people did any of them realize how significant this event was.

I would dare to say no. They had no idea. I think we can take from this something of great importance and that is the Lord is doing immense things in your life. regardless of what it looks like on the surface. These Israelites were thinking, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired of manna, this place is really hot, there are no trees to get under, and I don't have any sunglasses. Right? They could have gotten very angry and disgusted. As a matter of fact, that's what they did. They had no idea that what they were living out was of huge significance. Huge spiritual significance. And I would challenge you to that same consideration. We often have no idea what spiritual significance our daily lives have.

Here they are, just glad to finally get some water. I'm not sure that they were thankful. In the things that go on in our lives, The things that distress us, the things that seem all like this is the same as it was yesterday, and the day before, and last week, and last month, and same as it'll be next month. And it's just humdrum. And I've seen a thousand red lights, hopefully not going through them.

But in our lives, is not God doing things far more significant than what it may seem on the surface? Is there far more spiritual depth in what's taking place than what we might see on the surface and what others might recognize? Have you ever wondered, what is God doing in my life? Maybe you even felt, I'm ticked off at what God's doing. The reality is He's doing amazing things. But we may not recognize it until far later. what it is he's doing.

This event is like the Passover lamb, the sacrifices under the law of Moses that would be described in Leviticus and other places, and this account here with the rock all point to Christ. Christ the rock. Like Moses was intended to do, we are to speak to Christ the Rock. As a matter of fact, let's do that now.

Lord, as we look at this passage, we don't want to do like Moses did and decide to improvise and ad-lib, but we do want to come to you and speak to you and give you thanks. Give us eyes that recognize the depth of what you are doing in our lives each day. that the things that seem dreary and humdrum or maybe even exasperating and frustrating are all things that you intend for your good and eternal purpose. And we're thankful, Lord, as we look at this example and we see how even in spite of the faithlessness and the error, you are amazingly merciful and gracious. And we pray that we would see that mercy and grace in our own lives as well. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.