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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter 17 Water
From The Rock (ch. 17:1 - 7)
Verse 1 tells us that Israel
followed the Lord's directions to where to go.
At this point they were obeying the Lord.
I say "at this point" because they start complaining in
verse 2. They complain that
where the Lord led them there was no water.
As usual, Moses got the brunt of the complaints since he was
their leader. The question is asked,
"why would God lead them to a place where there was no water?"
The answer is simple. Trust.
God wanted to build trust in them as He wants to build trust in
us. Trust in God cannot come
when everything is handed to us. Trust
only comes through testing. The
test at this time was "no water".
Moses' answer to The next question the
Moses asked in response was, "why do you put the Lord to the
test?" My question is,
"who is testing who in this situation?"
I see the lack of water as a test of trust from God.
Moses seems to say that In verse 3 As a result of Israel's pressure on Moses, he cries out to the Lord, asking, "what am I
to do with these people?" You
can tell that Moses is frustrated with Israel. In verses 5 through 6 God
answers Moses by telling him to go to a certain place with the elders,
take his staff, and strike a rock. Once
Moses would strike the rock, water would come out for all the people to
drink. Moses did just that,
and God provided a miracle for
those who would not trust Him. We
see God's graciousness here. I've said this before,
but many Sunday morning sermons have been too hard on Israel. They had no water to
drink. Water is vital four
our survival. I'm sure many
of us would complain as well.
In verse 7 Moses called
that place by two names, Massah and Meribah.
He called this place by these names because This question is an
interesting question. Just
because God had not provided the latest miracle, they wondered if God
was really with them. It is
clear from the account that God was with them.
Christians are the same today.
When things don't go as expected, or when things are in a bit of
a lull, we think God is not with us, when in fact He is, or, probably
is. It is clear from this
event and other Old Testament events that God is always with His people,
even in those times, when from our perspective, He doesn't seem to be
with us. The
Amalekites Defeated (ch. 17:8 - 16)
We learn in verse 8 that
the Amalekites mounted an attack against Israel. In response Moses asked
Joshua The name Joshua means
"Yahweh delivers". The
Greek equivalent that is translated into English is Jesus.
Most scholars see Joshua as a type of Jesus.
Many Bible teachers see the whole book of Joshua as being
prophetic of Jesus. Joshua
would have been born in Egypt. He was of the tribe of
Ephraim. God eventually
chose Joshua to replace Moses. He
was a religious leader, a military leader, and a political leader, just
as Jesus Himself is. Joshua led Israel
into Canaan. From verses 9 to 13 the
text states the event of this battle between Israel
and the Amalekites. Moses,
Aaron, and another man named Hur, went to the top of a hill.
Moses lifted his hand with the staff of God raised high.
As long as the staff was raised, Here we have God fighting
for Israel, something that He will do at the end of this age as well. In verse 14 God asks
Moses to write this event on a tablet of stone as a memorial.
God also wanted to make sure that Joshua heard and understood
what had happened. Joshua
was out fighting. He did not
actually see the staff of God being raised in the air by Moses.
Joshua is about to become a very important man in Israeli
history, and for that reason, God wanted Joshua to understand that He
would fight for Israel. Moses' staff has now been
used miraculously on many occasions.
In this chapter it is now called "the staff of God".
A staff in those days was used for a few reasons.
One important reason was its use among national leaders.
It was a symbol of authority.
So, when Moses raised "the staff of God", it was as if
God's authority would rule. If
the "staff of God" was lowered, then God's rule was set aside.
There is symbolism here. Israel, and Christians today, need to understand God's authority and implement
it when necessary. Jesus
stated that "all authority" was given to Him, and He was
sending His disciples out into the world as His representatives.
We don't need a staff as Moses had.
We have the staff within us in the form of the Holy Spirit, and
the commission that Jesus gave us to work with the Holy Spirit to
proclaim victory for those who will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amaleck was the grandson
of Esau. In Duet. 24:17 and
18 we see this attack and note that Amaleck did kill some Israelis.
God told Moses that He would blot Amaleck from their memories.
This was the first battle that Israel
had as a nation. The
Amalekites might well have wanted this new source of water that the Lord
provided for Israel. It is interesting that
soon after leaving Verses 15 and 16 close
this chapter. Moses built an
altar and called it "the Lord is my Banner".
This is a term of victory. It
is like waving a flag of victory over ones enemies. The reason why Moses
named this altar "the Lord if my Banner" is because hands were
raised in victory. We often raise our hands
to the Lord in worship. They
can be raised in surrender to Him, or they can be raised in a
declaration that He is the one who fights on our behalf.
We are victorious. Of
course we're not talking bout physical fighting as Christians.
There is a spiritual battle going on and when we trust in our
Lord, He will fight for us. This
point is important in the day in which Islam extremists fight for their
faith. Christians
don't fight in a physical or a material way.
Our fight is spiritual.
One thought about raised
hands to the Lord is that I believe if you don't raise your hands in
surrender to Jesus, you will
be unable to raise your hands in victory.
Without surrender, there is no victory. |