Bible Lesson: Miracles Of The Old
Testament: Water From The Rock.
Occasion: Miraculous Water
Supplied For The Israelites.
Location: Horeb and Meribah.
Bible Text:
Exodus 17:1-7 NLT
Numbers 20:1-13 NLT
Exodus 17:1-7 NLT
1 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.
2 So once more the people complained
against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded.“Quiet!”
Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you
testing the Lord?”
3 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?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord,
“What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!”
5 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.
6 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.
7 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?”
Numbers 20:1-13 NLT
1 In the first month of the year, the
whole community of Israel arrived in the wilderness of Zin and camped
at Kadesh. While they were there, Miriam died and was buried.
2 There was no water for the people to
drink at that place, so they rebelled against Moses and Aaron.
3 The people blamed Moses and said, “If
only we had died in the Lord’s presence with our brothers!
4 Why have you brought the congregation
of the Lord’s people into this wilderness to die, along with all
our livestock?
5 Why did you make us leave Egypt and
bring us here to this terrible place? This land has no grain, no
figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!”
6 Moses and Aaron turned away from the
people and went to the entrance of the Tabernacle, where they fell
face down on the ground. Then the glorious presence of the Lord
appeared to them,
7 and the Lord said to Moses,
8 “You and Aaron must take the staff
and assemble the entire community. As the people watch, speak to The
Rock over there, and it will pour out its water. You will provide
enough water from The Rock to satisfy the whole community and
their livestock.”
9 So Moses did as he was told. He took
the staff from the place where it was kept before the Lord.
10 Then he and Aaron summoned the
people to come and gather at The Rock. “Listen, you
rebels!” he shouted. “Must we bring you water from this rock?”
11 Then Moses raised his hand and
struck The
Rock twice with the staff,
and water gushed out. So the entire community and their livestock
drank their fill.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and
Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me enough to demonstrate My
holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the
land I am giving them!”
13 This place was known as the waters
of Meribah (which means “arguing”) because there the people of
Israel argued with the Lord, and there He demonstrated His holiness
among them.
No, these two events, though looking
identical, are not the same. They are separated by some 38
years.
A generation of people who refused to
believe that their God, could and would take care of them, fell one
by one in the desert, and their children, then had taken their place
(Numbers 20).
But though a different generation, yet
the heart of man, had not, changed!
Psalm 95:6,8,9-11 NLT
6 Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker,
7 for He is our God. We are the
people He watches over, the flock under His care.
If only you would listen to His
voice today!
8 The Lord says, “Don’t
harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah
(Exodus
17) in the wilderness.
9 For there your ancestors tested
and tried My patience, even though they saw everything I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with
them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from
Me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’
11 So in My anger I took
an oath: ‘They will never enter My place of rest.’”
Psalm 106:32,33 NLT
32 At Meribah (Exodus 17), too,
they angered the Lord, causing Moses serious trouble.
33 They made Moses angry, and he
spoke foolishly.
I Corinthians 10:1-6 NLT
1 I don’t want you to forget, dear
brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago.
All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all
of them walked through the sea on dry ground.
2 In the cloud and in the sea, all
of them were baptized as followers of Moses.
3 All of them ate the same spiritual
food,
4 and all of them drank the same
spiritual water. For they drank from The Spiritual
Rock that traveled with them, and that Rock
was Christ.
5 Yet God was not pleased with
most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 These
things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil
things as they did,
Hebrews 4:6-11 NLT
6 So God’s rest is there for
people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to
enter because they disobeyed God.
7 So God set another time for
entering His rest, and that time is today...
“Today when you hear His voice,
don’t harden your hearts.”
9 So there is a special rest still
waiting for the people of God.
10 For all who have entered into
God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after
creating the world.
11 So let us do our best to enter
that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we
will fall.
Unbelief:
John 3:18,36 KJV
18 He that
believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 8:24 KJV
I said therefore unto you, that ye
shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall
die in your sins.
John 12:37 KJV
But though He had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him:
Hebrews 3:12 KJV
Take heed, brethren, lest there be
in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living
God.
I John 5:10 KJV
He that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him
a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.
Why has Moses been
banished from entering the promised land of Canaan?
Because of his
words and actions.
Numbers 20:9-11
NLT
9 So Moses did as he was told. He
took the staff from the place where it was kept before the Lord.
10 Then he and Aaron summoned the
people to come and gather at The Rock. “Listen, you
rebels!” he shouted. “Must we bring you water from this Rock?”
11 Then Moses raised his hand and
struck The Rock
twice with the staff, and water gushed out. So the entire
community and their livestock drank their fill.
“Must we bring you water from this Rock?”
The Miracle water from The Rock, was not any work (miracle) of
Moses, it was a miracle of God!
“Then Moses raised his hand and struck The Rock
twice...”
Moses was not told to strike The
Rock, more than once!
Moses did it in his anger.
The Rock, was a
“type-of-Christ,”
that is a pre-figuring of God's Son.
And He would not be struck
twice, He would be
struck “once and only once!”
I Corinthians 10:4 KJV
And all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from
The Spiritual Rock that traveled with them,
and that Rock was Christ.
Romans 6:10 KJV
For
in that He died, He died unto sin once:
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Hebrews 7:27 KJV
Who
needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice,
first for His own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did
once, when He
offered up Himself.
Hebrews 9:11,12,26-28 KJV
11
But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this building;
12
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He
entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
26
For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the
world: but now once
in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself.
27
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment:
28
So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Hebrews 10:10 KJV
By
the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for
all.
Should we hold communion to once
again sacrifice the Son of God?
The Word of God, plainly says for
one and all...
I Peter 3:18 KJV
For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
John 19:34 KJV (Calvary)
But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came
there out blood and water.
Moses was wrong, seriously wrong,
Jesus, the ROCK (Sorry Peter- a piece of the Rock, would not be born
for many centuries!), would not be struck twice!
NOT TO BE
STRUCK TWICE!
The wrong actions of Moses cost
him, he would not be able to enter the promised land.
Now lastly, what may be said of
God's people who fall pray to grumbling and complaining, and
questioning God?
Murmuring:
I Corinthians 10:9-10 KJV
9
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were
destroyed of serpents.
10
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed
of the destroyer.
Philippians 2:14 KJV
Do
all things without murmurings and disputings:
Jude 14-16 KJV
14
Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied
about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with
countless thousands of His holy ones
15
to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every
person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the
insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
16
These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy
their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter
others to get what they want.
Think you have the right to murmur
and complain to God?
John 6:43 KJV
Jesus
therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
Dear friend, we may choose to live
a life in praise and worship, calling humbly upon the name of our
Great and Wonderful God, or we may choose to live a life of grumbling
and complaining, questioning God, and questioning even if He exists.
Let us choose to be the people of
God, living our lives in faith and adoration, we shall not be sorry,
when our Lord appears.
