Day 57 – Moses & Water from the Rock

Readings

  • Exodus 17:1-7
  • Psalm 78:12-25
  • 1 Corinthians 10:1-4

Prayer

Pray… and thank God for the many many blessings that He has given you.

Day 57 – Water from the Rock

Christ the True Rock

Today’s readings are great – not long, but clear and full of wise instruction and great truth.

 

  • Once again, as the narrative continues today in our Old Testament readings, the people that God has just rescued put Him to the test again in Exodus 17:2. By doing so they were failing God’s test of them that we read about yesterday, which was to follow his commands and to trust in Him!
  • God does, of course, provide water for the people to drink through a miracle. This is not because the people moaned at Him. God hadn’t brought the people into the desert in order to kill them all – He always would have provided the water. The people just didn’t wait patiently for it!
  • Psalm 78 is a great reminder of what God has done for the people so far. How many different things can you see in verses 12-16? What other miracles or instances of God providing can you think on top of the ones mentioned?
  • The psalm, in verses 17-25, despairs about the Israelites sin and complaining, especially in the light of all the good things God has given the people. Can you feel the sarcasm in verses 19-20 as the author of the psalm recounts the complaints of the people against God?
  • Despite God’s anger burning against his people for their continued sin, notice that God continues to provide in abundance. How relevant this is for us. God has given us so many good things we could barely count them if we tried. But how often do we grumble when something goes wrong? Or doesn’t happen as quickly as we would want it? How often do we actively sin against God – knowing at the time that it is wrong and still doing it – despite all the blessings we have been given? Do you ever stop and think that despite God hating your sin, He continues to bless you and love you?
  • If you passed over the previous questions without thinking about them, stop. Read them again and actually think about them. Is your relationship with God right? Are you treating God as God, or is your relationship with Him limited to lip-service?
  • The passage in 1 Corinthians is an eye-opener. Did you spot it? It says that the rock that Moses hit in the Exodus passage was Jesus. Why does Paul say this? Think about it – by striking the rock, water came out, and the Israelites were saved. When Christ was “struck” – that is, nailed to the cross – blood came out, and through that blood, salvation came to all who believe. Whereas Moses oversees a temporary salvation for a limited group of people, God would later oversee an eternal salvation for all through Jesus. If you can grasp this “greater saviour” concept, it will help your continued understanding.

 

 

Time and time again we’re coming across passages in the Old Testament which are pointing to Jesus. Here we don’t even have to work it out for ourselves – Paul did it for us in his letter to the Corinthians! He did it to help show the uncertain Jews who were reading his letter that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for.

 

Today’s passages weren’t long or hard to read. If you’ve just whizzed through them, spend another five minutes reading the passages again and really thinking about things. I bet you’ll spot things the second time that you might not have seen the first time.

 

Make sure too that your notes continue to be well thought through – don’t get lazy with them! Make sure you’ve printed off the images from previous days if you haven’t already.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply