Greetings friend, welcome back to the course!
In His Word and by His Spirit, God has taught us to wash at the cross, walk by His Spirit, and war against the flesh. Today, I will show you a biblical illustration of all three of these truths to bolster our confidence in applying them.
In Exodus 17, we find the Israelites complaining, sinning against God in their thankless murmuring. They have had to go a time without water, they are thirsty, complaining against Moses, and threatening to stone him.
Moses prays to the Lord and asks for help, and God gives Him the solution:
“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” (Exodus 17:5-6 NLT).
Question 1. What was the solution to the sin of the Israelites in complaining against Moses and God?
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The sin of the Israelites was that of murmuring and complaining, grumbling about each other and their circumstances. They had not learned the truth that James declares in James 5:9 NLT, “Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!”
As James says, their grumbling would lead to judgment; in fact, the Judge was at the door, about ready to judge them. They should have feared for their very lives, for their sin was about to bring punishment!
But wait, what is the Judge doing? It seems as though He has found a rock to be struck in place of the Israelites. Watch as Moses hits the rock. The Israelites were doing the grumbling, but it was the rock who took the punishment. The rock received the rod; the rock was struck instead of the Israelites.
And apparently, the rock was struck with such force that it split open: Isaiah 48:21 NLT says that God “divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink.” The Hebrew word translated as “divided” means it was (1), cleaved (2), broken open, (3) dashed to pieces.
Question 2. According to Exodus 17:6 NLT, what happened to the rock when it was struck, broke open, and dashed to pieces?
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