Septuagesima 2020

Exodus 17:1-7

February 9, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

It had been just a short time since the beginning of the Exodus.  God had led His people out of slavery in Egypt, through the parted waters of the Red Sea, and into the desert. It didn’t take long, however, for the grumbling the start. According to God’s command, they come to Rephidim and camp there. This was their last stop before going to Mt. Sinai, where God would deliver to them the 10 Commandments and reaffirm His covenant with them. Like siblings in the back seat of a car during a 40 year road trip, they start to bicker and complain as soon as they leave their driveway, “Are we there yet?! She touched me. He smells. I’m hungry.” And so God answers. He didn’t start the trip unprepared, and so He gives His children a snack along the way, manna from heaven each morning, quail each evening. 

But it wasn’t enough for them that they never had to bake a loaf of bread nor hunt for their food the next 40 years.  This time, they are thirsty. Once more God provides for His people, this time through the physical need of water.  Once more, when need arise, the Israelites don’t wait for it to be met and don’t even assume it can be. Rather, they attack God and put Him on trial by attacking Moses, to put him on trial.. Israel is dissatisfied with Moses’ leadership and demands that he provides water to drink. They go after the messenger, Moses, because they don’t like where God is leading them. The protest is really against God Himself. And so God Himself must provide the solution, and it is God who does so provide. Moses is instructed to move in front of the people, not away from them, but out where they can see him. He is to take some of the elders of Israel, the wise and trustworthy leaders, as well as the staff with which he struck the Nile, and go. He should strike the Rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people shall drink.

They test the Lord, not by their thirst, but by questioning the Lord’s presence. God had shown them plainly and consistently that He is present with them. But they had not yet learned to live by faith, trusting in His promises that He would care for them and deliver them. The scandal of this question is their release and freedom, their rescue at the sea, the guidance through and sustenance in the wilderness, and the very presence at Rephidim.  And so Moses names the place “Testing” and “Dissatisfaction.” Since the dissatisfied people put God to the test by their complaining, and complaining which posed the most unbelievable, “Is the Lord among us or not?” 

People of God, how little you have changed. You beg and complain that you don’t have all that you want. Like whiney little children, you are prone to backbite and bicker over little things on your journey through life.  Despite evidence to the contrary, all too often you act as if God were not real, as if you could rely on gods of your own creation or even upon yourselves to keep you safe and provide for you. You are the Lord’s people, you are not your own. This is the Lord’s Church, not yours. It is the Lord’s school and daycare, not yours.  It’s the Lord’s checking account, car, house, not yours. This is the same problem as with the laborers in the vineyard who had been working all day. They thought that God owed them something more. They thought they deserved greater. But is God not allowed to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him? Repent over your quarrelling, your dissatisfaction, and from the times you have put the Lord your God to the test.

Israel doubted what should have been undoubtable, despite all the evidence to the contrary. They grumbled instead of turning to God, their Rock, for help. God in His graciousness does not deal with them according to their complaints, but He miraculous provides for His people by supplying water where there was none, and from the most unlikely of spots, a rock. Their thirst was real, but even more real was the presence of God in their midst.  St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, from our Epistle, about this very passage, “they all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” He doesn’t say that Christ is signified by, but that Christ Himself actually is, the Spiritual Rock. They were served by Jesus as He delivered them out of their slavery.

Moses struck the rock with His staff, and out came water to quench their thirst.  Christ, the Rock of our salvation was stricken for you. This is how Jesus can say in John 4:13ff, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” “From them water flowed from the rock, for you Blood flowed from Christ; water satisfied them for a time, the Blood satisfies you for eternity” (Ambrose NPNF2 10:323). Take heed lest you fall into disbelief like so many of the Israelites of old. And drink deeply of Christ. Be filled with His grace. 

Jesus has promised that where His name is, there He is present.  The Lord is present today, His name has been placed upon you in the water of baptism. His blood is shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins and delivered to you in His holy Supper. The Lord, your Rock, your Fortress, your Deliverer comes to you in His Word and Sacraments to forgive your sins and create a Church faithful to Him, by grace inviting you to be workers in His vineyard and granting you a reward. It is the denarius of eternal life, the crown of victory, won by Jesus Himself and given to you freely by grace alone.