Text: Exodus 17:7 And he [Moses] called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (ESV)

The Third Sunday in Lent, Series A

Intro. Our text for today tells us that if you want to put the Lord to the test, just ask one simple question, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

The people of God were thirsting in the wilderness shortly after God had brought them out of Egypt. Although he had done so many miracles to free them from their slavery, including parting the Red Sea so that they could escape from the Egyptian army, they still lost faith in the wilderness and were convinced that God had abandoned him.

Exodus 17:3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (ESV)

So as we read, they cried out to Moses for help. God told him to take his staff and strike the rock. Moses struck the rock and water flowed out. Problem solved. Yes, you heard that right. God brought water from a rock.

This event is referred to many, many times in the Bible.

There is Psalm 96 which starts with those beautiful words that are incorporated into the Venite in the order of Matins:

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

[2] Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

[3] For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

[4] In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.

[5] The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

[7] For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Then there is a huge shift in the psalm:

Today, if you hear his voice, [8] do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, [9] when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

This passage is also referred to in Hebrews 3:7-9: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test.”

Additional references to this story in Deuteronomy 8, Psalms 78, 81, 105, 114, and Isaiah 43 and 48.

Psalm 81:7

In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah (ESV)

Deuteronomy 8:15 

“who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,”

Psalm 78:15–16 

He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. [16] He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. 

Psalm 78:20

He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?” 

Psalm 105:41

He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.

Psalm 114:8

who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

Isaiah 43:20

The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,

Isaiah 48:21

They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.

I Corinthians 10:4

[4] and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (ESV)

Professor David Adams from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis says this story almost becomes, “A prototype for all the times the people of God doubt God.”

But God had not abandoned them; he was testing them. And what better way to test people than with searing thirst in the wilderness.

God never abandons us but he does test us. We should never confuse the two. He tests us so that he can draw us even closer to himself. But so often, during times of testing, we think that God has abandoned us. We put him to the test by asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Jesus anticipated that his disciples would wonder if he was with them, since, after his death and resurrection he would no longer be with them in person. So he instituted the Sacrament of the Altar to assure us that he is always with us. To partake of the sacrament, in which we receive the true body and blood of Jesus,and then to doubt if God is with us is a real shame. God is always with us.

As Paul points out in Romans 5, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And so if we have peace with God through Christ there is no reason for God not to be with us.

Jesus is the rock that was struck on the cross causing his blood to flow out, the very blood that does not satisfy our physical thirst but satisfies our spiritual thirst by  cleansing us from all sin.

This is what we are singing about when we sing the hymn, “Rock of Ages.”

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.

Let the water and the blood, from thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power.”

Moses was told: “And you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” The rock was struck and life-giving water flowed out. Jesus was struck down on the cross and life-giving blood and water flowed out. The blood of Jesus, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.

And as Professor Adams maintains it was a dry rock, a wilderness rock. That’s what makes this such a miracle; water flowed from a totally dry rock. Just as life-giving water flowed from a thoroughly dry rock so the life-giving blood of our salvation flows from a completely dead Jesus.

John tells us about this in detail:

John 19:31–35 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. [32] So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. [33] But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. [34] But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. [35] He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. (ESV)

The blood that saves us came from a completely dead Jesus. Jesus truly had to die in order to pay for our sins.

And because we have peace with God through Jesus, Jesus gives that very memorable statement, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The Lord is always with us individually but even more so when we are gathered together in his name.

According to Matthew, the very last words of Jesus to his disciples were, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

That is why, as Paul says in today’s epistle reading from Romans 5 we can rejoice even in our sufferings. Sufferings do not mean that God has abandoned us. Sufferings mean that God is working in our lives to bring us endurance, character and hope.

Conclusion. If you really want to put the Lord to the test just ask, “Is the Lord with us or not?” God is always with us and one of the signs that he is with us is that he tests us to bring us even closer to him.