Exodus 17:1-7
We have been thinking about the children of Israel and their experiences in the wilderness. We know that ‘all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition’ (1 Cor 10:11). In this passage in Exodus, when we read about the way they behaved, speaking against God and Moses. We can hardly believe that these are the people of God. It seems so soon after His servants had ‘shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham’ (Psa 105:27), so soon after they had crossed the Red Sea. These experiences should have taught them to be dependent on an all-sufficient God who had brought them out of slavery and was able to take them into the land. And yet, we need to challenge ourselves as to how much we murmur about our circumstances, and our lack of faith when the journey seems tough.
So, in verse 1 we note that ‘there was no water for the people to drink’ and their response was to strive with Moses and to murmur against him. Note that Moses links their responses to him with their attitude towards the Lord (verse 2). The people are questioning the Divine purposes and plan. How like us sometimes. Reading the words of Moses to the Lord in verse 4 indicates how serious the situation had become: ‘they be almost ready to stone me.’ The people seemed desperate, physical deprivation had made them angry and they were blaming Moses and the Lord for the situation.
Psalm 105:41 summarises the Divine response, ‘He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran dry places like a river’. In verses 5-6 of our passage, Moses was instructed to proceed to the area known as Horeb, which means “the desolate place”. The Lord Himself stood before him upon the rock (verse 6) and water flowed from the rock. This is the Lord’s provision in a place of desperation and desolation. There is material provision for the people of God to quench their thirst and sustain them. However, in the New Testament, we learn of the spiritual significance – that they ‘did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.’ (1 Cor10:4). It was real water, but as William McDonald helpfully points out, “it is called spiritual drink in the sense that it was typical of spiritual refreshment and miraculously provided”. How wonderful to understand that Christ Himself is the source of the provision and the provision itself. This ‘living water’ is a picture of the Holy Spirit as the Lord Jesus explains clearly in John 7:37-39. How amazing that the Lord Jesus explains the pictures and types in the Old Testament, which is then further expanded by the writers of the Epistles. Incredible too, to glimpse all Divine persons in our passage.
The chorus says, ‘Jesus is a Rock in a weary land’ and so He is; but the picture here is a Rock struck by a rod, the rod of Divine judgement. What a privilege is ours that through His death, we have come into blessings including the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are looking back to the completed work of Christ, whereas these people were living under law ‘having a shadow of good things to come’ (Heb 10:1). And so let us be encouraged as we consider Him. Psalm 105:43 reminds us that ‘he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness’ and let us be marked by joy and gladness as we wait for His return.
Paul