A Place of No Water Exodus 17:1 Going on from the wilderness of Sin where manna was given, Israel journeyed to Rehidim on the way toward Sinai. The name means "resting places." They journeyed according to the commandment of the Lord. The Lord was leading them by the pillar of cloud. So, we know this was the place God wanted them. Yet Israel found no source of water there. There was no water for the people to drink. Had the Lord made a mistake? No, He has purpose in all He does. Our part is to trust and obey—to let go and let Jesus. The water had to be supplied by God. This teaches us that nothing we can do and nothing the world can supply can satisfy our thirst for God or keep our souls alive. (Read Psalm 22:29; 63:1; Isaiah 48:21; 49:10.) How is this brought about? By repentance, belief in Christ, yielding all to Him, continual Bible study, prayer, and trust. No earthly source can sustain life in the soul. God Satisfied the Thirst Exodus 17:2-6 But Israel did not trust God. They forgot the victories that the Lord had given them over other difficulties. They turned to human help, to Moses, not as a stepping stone to God, but to demand of him something he alone could not supply, Give us water. They murmured and complained and wished for Egypt. After God had been so patient and blessed them so wonderfully and miraculously, they wished to return to the bondage of Egypt. This was sin. Moses called it tempting the Lord. Moses could not supply the water, but he knew Who could help. He cried unto the Lord. The Lord gave instructions. Moses and the elders of Israel were to go on ahead to the rock in Horeb. The Lord would stand on that rock. Find Scriptures to show that this rock was a type of Christ. Moses was to smite the rock with the rod with which the Lord had helped him do other miracles. Moses obeyed. Out of the rock came water for Israel and their cattle to drink. Each of us should be alert to this aspect of faith—a seeing of what is not seen by others, a grasping of God's spiritual blessings, a grasping of His promises that makes them realities. Instead of faith, Israel had fear, blame, complaint. They had their values in the wrong order and desired to go back to the old life. Take heed, dear one, when things you left behind in the old life of sin begin to look good to you once again. These people did not see their true position before God. Their acts discredited God. Do we do this when trials come? We see God's power when He saves us. Yet we doubt His power to keep us. His power is sufficient for anything we meet. The Name Had Meaning Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah. Moses did not give a name that he chose, but a name determined by the facts. What happened there gave it the name. He called it Massah, or "temptation," because there the children of Israel tempted the Lord. He called it Meribah, or "strife" and "contention," because there they chided and complained and laid blame. What place names are we leaving behind us? How different it would have been had the actions of the Israelites been such as to give the place the name of "faith" or "trust" or "obedience" or "victory." But they failed in their opportunity, and the sad record stands as a witness to all future generations who fail to put their faith and trust fully in the Lord. The victory that day was all of the Lord's doing. Trials and hardships do come to us all through life. Usually, the devil sends trials to the newly saved for the purpose of overthrowing him, to cause him to desire to turn back to the old life. This is God's opportunity to show His power in him. This is the saved one's opportunity to grow in grace and glorify God. One says, "How can I ever live the saved life?" We gain the victory in these situations only by the grace of God. Christ the Rock From the rock in Horeb flowed material water for physical bodies, just as the manna was material food for physical bodies. It was a type of the spiritual water Christ gives to sustain life to the soul. That rock was a type of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). As the rock was smitten, so was Christ smitten on the Cross. As out of the rock came material water, so out of Christ comes living water (John 4:10-14; 19:34). As Israel must have that water or die physically, so we must have living water from Christ or die spiritually. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted ... Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer (1 Corinthians 10:9-10). JUST A THOUGHTThe world needs more open minds and fewer open mouths.
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