093 - Water and War!

You pick up your Bible and one is there more here than meets the is there something here for me. I mean it's just words printed on paper right it may look like just print on the page but it's more than Inc. join us for the next half hour, as we explore God's word together as we learn how to explore it on our as we ask God to meet us there in its pages welcome to more than the I am absolutely loving the story just stories like ancient stories relevant to our history. So can we learn from I think we can learn from what happened thousands of years ago, look at that today on more than Inc. morning and welcome horses that are done table and Dorothy and I'm Jim and I have half a cup of coffee. Good for you today were arrogant worry next. 17 last week talked about in the desert receiving manna and and the grumbling that brought that about the purpose of manna being to test what was in their heart would walk in God's ways or not, God had a purpose in all and he continued to feed them for 40 years and he gives them the Sabbath rest right on that day.

They don't have to go out and gather what a wonderful life as they made the day before so they can rest and it's only been a matter of weeks. A couple months since they were slaves in Egypt and so the idea of setting aside an entire day for rest is pretty significant to radical sound like their continuing on their journey into the wilderness across this desert land push and furthermore promised that is right or silent you select to start reading, let's do it.

Should I get I get to read and oh boy. Okay, really, if you're following this were in chapter 17 of Exodus to all the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages. According to the commandment of the Lord and camped at roughly the but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said give us water to drink and Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me. Why do you test the Lord but the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses said why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with first century. Yeah. So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people there almost ready to stone me and the Lord said to Moses pass on before the people taking with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go behold, I will stand before you on the rock at Horeb and you will strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place. Massa and Mirabal because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying is the Lord among us are not close when you know it's such a concise little story. It is, but is another grumbling story well is quarreling, quarreling, grumbling, grumbling, grumbling, as we said last week, this repetitious idea of grumbling against Moses when he says hey it's not about me.

Your quarrel is with God right but you must be fair when you don't have water it becomes your number one priority.

Okay water yeah and so another in a place where there is no water and and remember God never does in capricious leaders) and teaching behind it than he does. He brings them to a place that has no water in the sense wonders how are they gonna respond where they can look for resources and so that's that's we are here and referencing okay and if you think about what we seen from water so far in Exodus.

In this wilderness journey, the first water.

He brought them to wise them better on drinkable water had to be transformed and then he takes them to the oasis at a lien where there are 12 spring everybody and now there are a little ways out from there and suddenly they are not carrying much anymore. They've drank it all up and they start grumbling again out of it again. We probably need to to mentioned though that this territory is not foreign to Moses know he still wrote that their traveling people do not, but he used to pastor sheep in this area, so he knows where they are. So yeah that that's exactly right so so here we are faced with this problem and so work where you go when you come up short in life. I mean, what do you appeal to having how do you figure out how to fix the situation, and it's interesting that that in verse two they don't come to Moses say Moses prayed… Let's pretty got asked for it. They say to Moses, give us water give us water they still think all these things come from Moses and Aaron don't they come from God. There appealing to the wrong place and then Moses said why do you quarrel with me.

You know you're actually testing the Lord is what you're doing right and last time we talked about the fact that this testing of the Lord is this whole idea is easy with this or is he not with rice and in the grumbling and quarreling reveals your heart doesn't really believe he's with you many times does he have to provide what you need before you will quit grumbling interest at this point they have all the receiving manna every day right and they still are coming the day that they did this grumbling. They were eating the writing manager that morning right so we look at it and got it.

But you know how where there us when you're faced with the desperate need and what is a desperate need. You know you you suddenly count your resources and see what's on your side in this particular case, they didn't count the fact the Cubs on their side that's that's the real sin of this entire thing. Moses why did you bring us out of Egypt was his idea. Yeah, I went and again it's this idea that will die out here when God told him from the very beginning. You will not die right I'm going through. Yeah, I feel so it strikes me that this is a great example what Paul called about the optional walking by faith or by sight. When you walk by sight what you're doing is you're assessing where you're at in your assessing the resources you're assessing your needs and your see if they match among a live tomorrow based on the resources I have my command-and-control that's living by sight and if the threat seemed to be much bigger than any possible source of resources.

Then you lay awake at night thinking wrong right and that's that's walking by sight, but by faith-walking by faith is the whole process of of counting on the resources of the promises of God to bring you through in terms we cannot see which we cannot as God sees that that's why it's not sight its faith to consent to you and in fact the writer of Hebrews is the assurance of things you can't you can't see.

So here what God is doing in a really practical sense is he's developing their faith. He's giving them an understanding based on God's documented faithfulness to meet their meat needs.

He's building in them a faith that next time I need comes up. They say what we just need to turn the Lord is been faithful in the past to be faithful in the future.

Later on, God will demand of them huge things and and it will show some growth but God will have to remind them listen. The God they got you out so there's the documented thing so I will point out just quickly is the fact that this kind of faith. This kind of faith we act on the invisible is not unfounded, is now founded on a track record of God, so God's track record. He brought us out of Egypt. God's track record. He purified the bitter water track record. You know he brought us food every morning. God has a track record and based on that track record you can have faith in God's future faithfulness to us that that's just a really important point is a lot of people misconceived faith and think his wife is just well I am faith right right. I just hope it happens. Still, faith is not blind eye never requires blind faith. He gives us enough evidence to stand on to project an expectation that he will do what he's told us he would do what always has to write little say, faith is really a bridge between what God has done and what we can expect them to do in the future. That's it. That's it. That's just based on the concrete reality of his character and that's was teaching right here I'm he's building up is eventually can do that and yet still do not quite there. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst, there's some real fun or so happy I blame somebody to get a blank right. The motivation must be you hate us you want to kill us to look right in the desert, God tells Moses to do now because we read it before but look specifically at the Lord says to Moses in verse five Before the People Right. Let Them See You Doing and Take with You Some of the Elders of Israel and Taking Your Hand the Staff That You Struck the Nile, and Go. Now Think about That He Said Specifically, Not Just Your Staff. The Staff with Which You Struck the Nile What Happened When He Struck the Nile, the Water Turned to Blood and Became on Drinkable Someone Was a Source of Life Became a Source of Death yet for That Right so There Hearsay Working to Die so Got to Take Your Staff Your Symbol of Authority That the Identified Connection with God Right and Then the Lord Says in Verse Six Behold, I Will Stand before You There at Horeb Now Whole Red Was Shows at First.

In Exodus 31 so Again This Is Familiar Territory to Moses This Is around What Is Identified As the Mount of God in Exodus 31 Exactly I Will Stand before You There in the Rocket Horeb, and You Shall Strike the Rock and Water Shall Come Out Of It and People Will Drink so He Struck the Nile in Egypt and the Water Turned to Blood and Everything in It.Undercut Here. He's Going to Strike the Rock and the Water Will Come out and People Will Drink Life and the Connection with Niles. Also One of Scope As You Think about the Fact That What God Can Do. He Can Actually Change the Mighty Naomi. That's A Lot Of Water Means a Huge Amount Water and Here He's Saying and I Can Provide a Huge, Huge Event, the Waters Will Could You Remember Were Talking about 2 Million People in the Desert and to Get Enough Water to 2 Million People Plus All the Animals.

That's like a River Water. It's A Lot Of What It Says Rock.

This Is Not Just Some You Know Granite Stone Sitting on the Ground.

It's the Picture Is Massive, Monolithic Rock Right Right When Psalmist Uses the Term Rock for like a Mountain Rag Yeah and They Know That You Don't Get Water from God's Doing a Very Deliberate Contrast Thing Right Here. He Doesn't Say Smack the Sand and Spring Will Come out. He Says Smack a Rock and You. You've Never Seen This before. I Was Very Clear.

This Is a Supernatural Thing Exactly God's Doing This for for Contrast.

It's a It's a Really Great Way to Do It and You Shall Strike the Rock and Water Shall Come Out Of It and People Will Drink How to Make the Connection Not Just so You Know It's Helpful When Reading These Old Testament Narratives to Look and See. Is There Commentary on It in the New Testament Jesus Talk about It or Does Paul Talk about It or Is It Somewhere Else and When the Gospel so They Would Find Paul in First Corinthians 10 Making a Lengthy Statement. He's Not Taking Away from the Experience of the People in the Desert but He's Saying but Here's What It Meant Here Is for Us, so He Says It First Dance 10 I Want You to Be Unaware, Brethren, That Our Fathers Were All under the Cloud, Right, and They All Passes See Residency and They Were All Baptized into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea, Silly, Silent, Not Literal Baptism Assignment Being Plunged into Moses Right in That Experience Immersed in Verse Three and They All Ate the Same Spiritual Food Man on the Breath of God, First Floor and They All Drank the Same Spiritual Drink Not Listen to This. They Were Drinking from a Spiritual Rock Which Followed Them and the Rock Was Christ.

Stop Trying to Think about That. Now If I If I Take That Seriously. Then When I Go Back and Read This Story. Exodus God Is Is with These Real People in Real Place and Time. Having a Real Experience Giving Us a Picture of the Rock of Crime Being Stricken for the Rider to Blow out and That People Will Drink and Have Life. Yeah. So Paul Says Now. Nevertheless, As Most of Them God Was Not Well Pleased, and He Goes on to Talk about Their Grumbling When You Bad Example and He Says Now in Verse 11. These Things Happen to Them As an Example and They Were Written for Our Instruction.

Verse 12 Therefore Let Him Who Thinks He Stands Take Heed Lest He Fall Right Pay Attention Because What Happened to Them so That We Won't Do What They Did Respond the Way They Dance. It Was Already so Jump down and Go Back and Read after You've Read Is Printing Stand and Just Start First Corinthians 10 Paul's Example Paul's Unpacking of This Exodus Account yet This Is Not an Obscure Account for for for Paul. This Is a Central Picture of Christ Himself. It Made Me Think to about Jesus in John Seven Pieces of Many Others, Let Them Come to Me and Drink Right. So When Paul Says That Jesus Is That Rock from Which the Flows Water. It Is Jesus Is the Same Thing Come to Me. You Can Drink Now Here in Exodus, God Specifically Tells Moses That Take Your Staff and Smack the Rock Strike It Right, but Later on Numbers Will Tell Us There Was a Second. Somewhere in This Same Region Where God Says to Moses the People Grumbling and Now Take Your Staff in Your Hand but to the Raspy Don't Strike and Moses Is so Angry He Disregards God's Instructions and He Does Strike the Rock and Has Some Lifelong Implement Last Location so We'll Get to That Later… Is a Just Take Note of the Fact That He Reached Hold to Strike It Right Is a Picture of Jesus Christ. The Rock Beings Stricken for Us Right for the Living Water to Flow at.

But That Second Event Where Moses Is Just Asked to Speak to the Rock Got Tough and Speak Set Me Thinking of John for What Jesus Says to the Woman at the Well Now If You Knew Who Was Him Giving You Living Water Out Of His Heart Will Flow Rivers of Living Exactly Yes in the Water. The Water Imagery Here Is Practical and Realistic, but in a Spiritual Sense Is Also Practical and Realistic and Comes Only from Jesus Come to Me and Drink What You Make of This Message and Mirabal Titling of the Place.

Well, You Know, We Often Name the Place According What Happened There Said the Meanings of Those Two Words Are Helpful Right Massive Means to Test Our There Was a Test Mirabal to Coral. He Tells Us Right in the past.

Teresa Translates Forces and Kids.

We Don't Know Because of the Quarreling to Go Higher Bond Because of the Lord. Testing Muscle, so That's Testing and Quarreling and That's What Moses Name the Place Is Fascinating That Moses Doesn't Name It God Did Water the Right Water from Iraqi Cities Is Working. Remember This Place Is Where You Guys Did Poorly and and Then He Puts a Cap on It and That Last Phrase Right There Is Fascinating Not Just Testing a Quarreling, but but You Tested Lord by Saying Is the Lord among Us Not Right. And There's the Hard Prove Yourself the Heart of the Issue Is the Lord among Us or Not, Which I Find Fascinating Based on the Fact That They Got This Pillar of Cloud during the Day and at Night You Fire and Still There Doubting the Fact That God Is with Us When They Come up with No Water and They Have No Presumption Accustomed Bright It's Still Just Astonishing That's Given Us This Picture of Living Water Flowing Out Of Hard Rock Right Which Is What He Does and Us When He Strikes Our Stony Hearts.

We Repent Were Given the Living Gives Us Living Well Anyway so so Much Inspection Yeah so This Particular Event at Mass and Mirabal Those Two Names Come up a Couple of Times I Think Shorthand, yet Very Shorthand That a Writer Will Just Mention like Mass on Mirabal and Then They the Expectation Is That You Will Fill in the Rest of the Story Exactly so Is Naming of This Place Talking People Knew When You Say Those Two Words. This Is What Is When You When I Was Push on. We Have To Go from Water toward Gallery Discipline and the Commentary Came and Fought with Israel at Record Team so Moses Said to Joshua Choose for Us Men and Glad to Fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I Will Stand on the Top of the Hill with the Staff of God in My Hand. So Joshua Did As Moses Told Him and Fought with Amalek While Moses and Aaron and Her Went up to the Top of the Hill.

Whenever Moses Held up His Hand. Israel Prevailed Whenever He Lowered His Hand and Let Prevail. Moses Hands Grew Weary so They Took a Stone and Put It under Him and He Sat on It, but Aaron and Her Held up His Hands, One on One Side and One on the Other Side, so His Hands Were Steady until the Going down of the Sun, and Joshua Overwhelmed Amalek and His People with the Sword. Then the Lord Said to Moses Right This As a Memorial in a Book, and Recited in the Ears of Joshua That I Will Utterly Blot out the Memory of Amalek from under Heaven. And Moses Built an Altar and Called the Name of It.

The Lord Is My Banner Saying I Hand upon the Throne of the Lord, the Lord Will Have War with Amalek from Generation to Generation. Okay so When the Desert We Have Our First Very Significant Attack on an Unprovoked Attack. We Didn't Think That They Were All Alone out There but They Were There Were Nomadic People That Passed through This Area and Who Were in the Amount Kites Because They Just Come Appear Out Of Nowhere, Here, Didn't See Amalek Was from Esau Are Descendents of Remote Descendents of Esau, They Should Know That the Promise of the Promised Land, Which Went to Jacob Instead of Esau. I Should Know Generationally That These People Coming through a Really Deserving This Land so Their Actual Warning against the Promise of God Coming to Exactly so There's There's There's History Here, Which Is Actually Was a Characteristic of the People That Descended from Esau. They Became People Who Warned against Israel for Generations, Esau Was Characterized by the Writer of Hebrews As Godless and Immoral and That Those Characteristics Went Forward into the Peoples That Grew from Him.

So We Don't Have Time to Unpack That.

But I'm Studying Genesis Jobs and Lower Case I Will like This Distribute Another Historical to That Which Helps You Understand This. Deuteronomy 25 Yes Oh Yes No. Remember What Amalek Did to You on the Way As You Came Out Of Egypt. How He Attacked You on the Way When You Were Faint and I Really and Cut off Your Tail.

That's the End of the People the Stragglers.

Those Were Lagging behind You and He Did Not Fear God, so He Was Actually Nipping at the Weakest People on the Phone. It Was Horrible.

It Was Really Really Horrible. And so to Fight Them.

These Bunch of Ex-Slaves, Not Professional Soldiers. God Says I'm Going to Make a Visual Sign about the Fact That You Will Prevail in Battle.

As You Look to Me for Help and so He Designs I Do with Most Sow. Okay, so What's the Deal with Moses Sitting up Where They Can See Him Holding up, and for the Benefit of Joshua Right Will Later on Be the One Who Fights All Those Bells the Move in the Promised Land. I Think This Is Much for Josh Was for Else Soon As Moses Lifted up the Staff, Which Is the Kind of a Symbol of Appealing to God for Help As Long As He Lifted up They Prevail, and When It Comes down They Don't so Moses Has Aaron and Her Keep Those Arms up and There Is a Tremendous Picture of Looking to God Constantly without without Hesitation. Interesting That They Moses Gets Tired and so They Get Stone Arrive Just in Case He Is Daddy Resting on the Rock, Imagery, and on His Right Hand and the Left. Aaron and Her Holding up His Arms Holding up All My Goodness, I Know You Could Talk about This for Days. Imagery Is so Powerful, so That the People Would See This That Joshua Would See It. It Is Just As Fasting and I Find It Fascinating to the God Didn't Just Wipe out the Amalekites like You Did with the Egyptians in the Rent Say He's Involving Them in Hand-To-Hand Combat.

This Is Something Gotchas I Want You to Be Engaged in This by the Way You're Never Going to Be Able to Credit for Giving Her the Amalekites Because of Your Great Swordsmanship Is Always Going to Be When You Tell Your Grandchildren and Their Children, Their Children, It's Going to Be It Was Because of Your Great Soldiers Because We Were Slaves Is Black Because God Did This for Us. It's Interesting That These Peoples That Grew at Esau Working to Continue to Be Trouble for Israel Right Now Important Picture to That That the Heritage Godless People, the Ones Who Did Not Inherit the Promise Indeed Rejected God Will Continue to Make Trouble for the People Who Are Walking into the Promise of God That Is That Is a Picture Spiritual Warfare of a Persistent, Nagging, Nagging at Your Heels, Which Is What the Amalekites Dead and the Other Email You My Small by 60 by Different Characteristics and Are Struggling against Israel. You Know I Forgot until I Read This.

We Just Went through Esther. Oh Yes, Haman the Bad Guy Was a Descendent of Gagging the King of the Melkite Amalekites Right and He Was He Was Trying to Annihilate Silent That's All the Jews so so and That's That's Hundreds of Years after This I'm Yeah so the Whole Amalekite Problem Goes on for a Long Time. I Think He's the End of It Is Time Yeah When Haman Is Killed. That's the End of the Line. I Think Those People. But Is It Is a Great Symbol for Us about Spiritual Warfare, and the Fact That There Is There's a Constant War Going on and It's Outlined against Us and and It's It's Deliberately It's Deliberately Set to Try and Take Us Away from Our Dependence on God.

But Here with This Symbol of Moses with His Hand and There Was a Staff with with Erin and Her on Both Sides Holding Him up We Get This Wonderful Picture That As Long As You Look to the Lord for Your Resource. Even Though You Got a Sword in Your Hand but You Look to the Lord for Your Resource. He Will Indeed Be the One Who Fights about Winds in Your Behalf, and That Is Such a Huge Issue for Joshua That the End of This in Verse 14 It Says Right. This Is a Memorial in the Book, and Recited in the Ears of Dry You Don't Want Joshua to Forget.

You Know, and That God's Going to Fight in Your Behalf. The Lord Is My Banner Is My Jehovah and They Say He's the One Who Fights for Me by the Witnesses Banner. That's What You Put up in Battle Right and Follow This Pattern Say This Is This Is Our Leader Is That Lawyer Generally Is Everywhere.

That's Right.

King Carried the Banner so You Know Where Your Son Who's Our General That's Right under the Right to Enter God Self Is That General. That's What We Got Sit on ESV Says This Interesting Thing in Verse 16, Saying Hand upon the Throne of the Lord Is That Mean I Have a Hand upon the Throne of the Lord or the Amalekites Were Trying to Land Lying on the Throne of That's How I've Always Yeah There's a Couple Different Ways to Read That. But in Many Cases the Lord Is the One Banner Is That Sentence Make Sense If the Amalekites Were Trying to Put Their Hand on Right. There Is Really and Will Have War Amalek from Generation to Generation Never Prevail. God's the One Who Is Our Banner under Wins the Battle for Us and for His He Fights for Us so Where Can I Know You Are Listening Is Three Stories to Sit Still in Them and Think about. Ask Yourself about the Main Point Is God Doing Right Character Exactly I like to I like to Think That Because This Is an Oral History That They Said on the Campfires and Told These True Stories and Said so Kids, What You Can Learn from This Is God. So These Are User Stories and Adjustment History Meant to Be Teaching Deep Understanding Character so Not Only Are They Learning It Doesn't Find More Stories Right Here on Mainstream Church Is Solely Responsible to Contact Us with Your Questions or Comments