Kosin, Fred: Studies In Exodus-2004-2005-26 ~ Ex 17:1-7

That hymn has beautiful words, and I dare say that most of us would be challenged to make a choice between Jesus and worldwide fame, thrones and dominions. And perhaps it's one of those hymns that it's easier to sing than it is to live, because we make that choice in much smaller areas every day of our life. Thank you again for coming and for being with us this morning and for the opportunity of sharing the word of God together. I'd like you to pray for the missionaries that serve in Turkey. We had one of our opportunities, as you know, one of our delights in serving the Lord as we do, and even serving on the ship, is that it gives us the opportunity of using the ship, uh, as a means of getting to the mission field. We don't often have the, uh, opportunity of taking a cruise. I guess we've never had a cruise except in the sense of a being on, um, a mission ship. And so the mission ship helps us to go to countries where we know that missionaries serve. And one of the first things that we've done when we get to Turkey, even before we went to Turkey, we, uh, contacted missionaries that we know are in a missionary prayer handbook. They're not listed under Turkey in the book, but they're listed into other areas, and we found that there were several missionaries, and you might pray for them. It's not easy serving in Turkey. They have to have some kind of a, well, I guess you'd call a front organization. Um, Eric Weiger and his family, they sell olive oil, and if you'd like olive oil, you can order some from him, container load at a time. Uh, maybe you don't want that much, but he's in an export-import business, and that gives him a valid reason to be in the country. And it also gives him an opportunity to work and serve at the same time, which is a good testimony for, uh, Turkish believers. In many countries of the world, believers think when they come to Christ and believe the gospel, one of the first things they should do is, uh, quit their job and serve the Lord. And that's not always the case. And so Eric's, one of Eric's desire is that he would, uh, present a picture to them of what it means to serve the Lord and at the same time, uh, carry on a vocation that is, produces gainful employment. So you can pray for Eric and for their ministry in, uh, Antalya. In the same, uh, in the same city is Dennis McGee. He and his wife, I think they have somewhat of a travel agency, or at least connected with one, and they have served. They're commended, both of those couples are commended from California and are in the other areas. We had a delightful time with them, and you might be encouraging them by praying for them, and let them them know, if you would like, to write them and let them know that we encourage you to pray for them. In Istanbul, we had the opportunity of being with, uh, George Bristow and his family. We're in their home, and we thank the Lord for their ministry. They continue to try to plant, uh, local churches in Istanbul, and, uh, they are serving the Lord in a, best we could understand, a very acceptable time. We had a lovely, uh, Lord's Day with them, the Lord's Supper. Um, the new international director of the, of Operation Mobilization was the speaker for the day, and, uh, Peter Maiden, who is an elder from an assembly in Carlisle, uh, gave a good message. Roger Malstead is also, and his wife, uh, Yvonne, are both back in Turkey. They served in Turkey for many, many years, uh, dating back, I think, to the late or mid to late sixties. They then moved to, um, to England and served the Turks or trying to reach the Turks, and now have moved back. One of, uh, Roger's ministries is to translate and publish Christian literature, and one of the areas that he's been particularly concerned about was to get Bill McDonald's books into the language of the Turkish people and make it, uh, available. So it was a delight to, uh, see on the ship, uh, some of Bill McDonald's books for sale, and to go into a Christian bookstore and find a number of Bill McDonald's books for sale. So we thank the Lord for these various ministries. But Turkey is not an easy place. When you think of seventy million people and three thousand believers, it's an amazing, uh, difference between what we have in our country and so few who really know the Lord, and each one of them in their own way suffer for their faith and experience persecution as they seek to live for the Lord. Many of them lose their jobs, their, uh, family turns against them, and though there is an openness in Turkey for, uh, for religion, it isn't the same, it isn't, uh, truly open as it is in other countries. So you might, uh, give yourselves to prayer for those who serve as missionaries. You'll find their names in the Missionary Prayer Handbook. A new one should be coming out very shortly, and, uh, you'll be able to follow them. It doesn't give their address, but I can tell you that those four are in Turkey and are seeking to serve the Lord in a very sensitive area with the gospel. Let's turn to Exodus chapter seventeen, and we'd like to read two texts, one from Exodus chapter seventeen and another one from Numbers chapter twenty. Exodus chapter seventeen and Numbers chapter twenty. The reason we're reading two texts is because they describe a similar experience in the life of the believe- in the life of the children of Israel. One is at the beginning of their journey from Egypt to Canaan, and the other one is at the end of their journey from Egypt to Canaan. And if we listen carefully to the reading, you'll understand why I am reading these two texts together. Exodus chapter seventeen verse one. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Zin after their journeyings according to the commandment of the Lord and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people did chide with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst. And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, Moses, go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Masah and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel, because they tempted the Lord, saying, listen carefully, is the Lord among us or not? Again, the root of the question and the root of murmuring are in those words. Is the Lord among us or not? Numbers chapter twenty and verse one. Remember, as we read Numbers chapter twenty, we are uh thirty eight, almost forty years later. You know that during those forty years, the one generation died, and so we have a whole new generation of Israelites. They were children when they came out of the land of Egypt, and now they are at the end of thirty eight to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Listen and compare in your mind. And the Lord speak unto, sorry, the wrong chapter, chapter twenty. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the wilderness of Zin or Sin in the first month, the same place, almost the same month. And the people abode in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there, and there was no water for the congregation, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron. And the people chode with Moses and spake, saying, Would God we had died when our brethren died before the Lord? And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so that thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him, and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of the rock? And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod, he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them. We pray together. Our loving God and Father, we come to thank you as we read your word. We again stand in astonishment at the similarities of the hearts of Israel and our own hearts. We look at your response, and we see your amazement. In amazement, we see your grace and your goodness, your loving kindness, your long suffering. We see your patience with them and with us, but we see a severe judgment. We are reminded that we have put ourselves under your authority by coming to know Jesus Christ as our Savior, to be born again and to enjoy the salvation that you have provided. And we come again this morning to have our ears filled with your truth, to have our hearts stirred by what you have said to Israel and what you're saying to us this morning. And we thank you again for meeting with us. We thank you for speaking to us, and may we have the courage to admit that your description of Israel is your description of us as well. We thank you for blessing your word, this living book that we hold in our hands, which is so precious to us. We thank you, and we wait expectantly to hear from your word through your Holy Spirit, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Israel lacked bread in chapter sixteen and lacked water in chapter seventeen. When you turn to the Gospel of John, in John chapter six, the Lord Jesus is the bread of life, and in chapter seven, he is the water of life. The similarities are interesting, aren't they? Because the Lord Jesus is the source of supply. He is the bread of life, and in John chapter six, after he fed the five thousand, he says to the people, I am the bread of life. And manna is a symbol to us, is a metaphor, is a picture to us, is a type for us of the Lord Jesus come down out of heaven in his humility, in his humbleness, in his condescension, in order that he might be the food of God's people. But that's not enough. As we reminded ourselves last week, if you eat manna, you will die. That's what the Lord Jesus says in John chapter six. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead, or at least the children of Israel said that. And so the Lord Jesus said, yes, if you eat manna and nothing but manna, if you are occupied and concerned and taken up with the Lord Jesus in his condescension and his life here on earth, you will die. Because manna lacks life. Manna is not life-giving. Plant manna and you get nothing, because it doesn't have life in it, but it represents to us the Lord Jesus in his condescension, in his life here on earth, and that life does not give life. That life is a good example, but that life doesn't have the capacity to impart the power to live according to that example. It's instructive to us as we read these two chapters, one at the beginning of the movement of the children of Israel, the other at the end, that we have almost exactly the same situation. Why is it? Because God wants to teach both generations the same lesson. One is great joy. What a thrill to be there with the children of Israel recently come out of Egypt, and for Moses to strike the rock and for the water to pour out, and Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter ten that that rock was Christ, and the rock that troubled them was Christ. It is a beautiful chapter, isn't it? And as beautiful as this chapter is, chapter twenty of the Book of Numbers is just as sad. It is one of the saddest chapters in the parallel that we have from Egypt to Canaan, as Moses in disobedience and rejection of God's authority and his instruction strikes the rock twice, destroys one of the most beautiful types in the Bible, and after all those years, he is denied entrance into the land of Canaan. It is a sad commentary. And we want to look this morning at a number of things in the few moments that we have, because here is one of the cardinal lessons of the Christian life. They were there by divine appointment. They were in a place without water because God had led them there. The chapter opens by saying it was according to the commandment of the Lord. And we live in a Christian community, in a Christian society that says we shouldn't have any problems. If you're in the will of God, you don't lack bread, you don't lack water, you don't have any difficulties, you don't have distress, you don't have sickness, you don't have disease. If only you had enough faith, you wouldn't have these problems. That's not what this book teaches. And these people were in the will of God, and they were in a place where there was no bread and there was no water in chapter sixteen and again in chapter seventeen. And so they were not there by disobedience. They were not there because of failure. The object lesson is that God might tell them and teach them that they were living in a place where they could only and must totally depend upon him. He had brought them into an area of the wilderness, the wilderness of Zin, with huge rocks on either side, with a desert sun that beat down on them, and the cold at night, and the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were their protection at night and protection at day, and there was no water. But they were there by divine appointment. Now, the word rock is a great word that is used a number of times in the scripture. It's spoken of as a refuge. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. The Lord Jesus as a refuge. It's a place of refreshment because the water comes out of the rock, and you enjoy that refreshment. It's a place of rest under the shadow of the rock. Several occasions, the scripture speaks of coming near the rock, and the shadow of the rock provides a place of rest. It's a reservoir of resources necessary for life, and it's also a place where we learn in act- in numbers, a place of rejection. The circumstances surrounding these events in chapter seventeen and chapter twenty of Numbers is separated by twenty, by thirty, or thirty eight years, perhaps forty years. Those who were at the first rock, at least as adults, were probably not at the second rock. Those who, uh, saw the second rock may as little children have been there at the first rock. And so a new generation comes, and between the two you have a death of almost two million people. During those thirty eight years, almost two million people would have been buried there in the desert. And so the lesson that God wanted to teach the second generation is the same lesson he wants to teach the first generation. That is instructive for us ourselves, because our children don't normally learn from our experience. How many fathers have said to their children, if only you would learn from my mistakes, but we don't. And so we have to do the same thing. We have to go through the same problem. We experience the same trials and the same tests. And so the account of Numbers chapter twenty is a reminder to us that God brings them to almost exactly the same place in order to teach them exactly the same lessons. And what is astonishing is that the children of Israel in Numbers chapter twenty say the same thing that the children of Israel said in Exodus chapter twenty? Exodus chapter seventeen. There are a number of things that we need to look at. First of all, the rock at Masah. The children came to Rephidim, and Rephidim is a place geographically where it was very difficult to find water, and God had led them there. It's important to point out that we are there, and we are there by the will of God. It's important for us to realize that everything that happens in the life of a believer happens by God's direction or by God's permission, but this is greater than that, because they had the cloud above them that directed them, and when the cloud moved, they were to move, and the cloud moved, and they followed that cloud, and they were in the place of God's appointment and a place where there was no water. And Israel needed to learn the lesson of utter dependence upon God. We need to learn the same lesson because our feet follow in the same footprints, and we see those same sheer rock faces. We see the heat of the day and the cold of the night and the problems without water, and God wants to teach us that most of us have insulated ourselves from the miraculous, and many of us feel that we can get along without the help of God. We have organized our life, we have insured our life, we have trained ourselves, we have provided every possible means to insulate and to wall out God from our life. The children of Israel could easily have tried to do the same thing. And so now, as we hear Israel, we hear ourselves. And so they murmured. It's not hard to realize that what we say, our children will say. It's so instructive to read these two chapters together, because at the beginning of their migration, after just a month or so out of the land of Egypt, they say, why have you brought us out here to kill us and our children and our cattle? And thirty eight to forty years later, those children who heard their parents say that say exactly the same things. We were with a family not too long ago, and they were living in a rather spacious home, I thought, for a short time, and the mother had said to us, but it's so small. It wasn't as big as their previous house, and within ten minutes, the little girl who was maybe, uh, seven or eight years old, I said, how do you like your house? She said, it's so small. She didn't know what that even meant. And we listen. And what we say, our children will say. They're going to absorb our attitudes. They're going to absorb our understanding. They're going to absorb our words, and we must be very careful. Some of us are surprised when we hear our children say something. Where did you learn that? That's what you say, daddy. So here is the murmuring. Fathers, mothers, they learned it from you. And we, in our conversation around the table and in the quietness of our home, we may murmur against the Lord, we may murmur against the Lord's people, we may murmur against the leaders the Lord has given us. And when those children grow up, they're going to murmur exactly the same way. The murmuring of the children of Israel was a failure to understand their past experiences. What a catalog of grace has been given to Israel already. They haven't been out of the land of Canaan hardly a few months, and all that has taken place in God redeeming them, all of those plagues which they saw one after other in the land of Canaan, we had the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that was there every day. They had the Passover lamb and the reminder that the oldest in the family had been preserved from death by the blood of the lamb. They had the presence of God and that burning fire at night that kept them warm, and the pillar of fleecy cloud that kept them cool. They had the passage to the Red Sea. How could you forget such an amazing experience with two and a half million people and a huge rock on this side and a huge rock on this side, and the Egyptians coming, and God opens the way? They forgot the power of God. They forgot that a few chapters earlier they had sung one of the most beautiful hymns found anywhere in the Old Testament as they praised God in Exodus chapter fifteen. And that very day they had gone out in the morning with their pots, and they had gathered the manna, and they murmured against Israel. Brothers and sisters, if our mind is filled with all the blessings that God has given us, it will be very hard to murmur. But if we do murmur, then we realize our children are going to murmur as well. Their past experiences, their present exasperation. Just a few days ago, the manna was promised, today it came. And God gave them flesh as well, and for forty years they had had the manna. And in Numbers chapter twenty where they complained and murmured against God, and they wanted to go back to Egypt, still on that one day they had the manna. On that one day there was the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Oh, we're so like Israel. It's so easy to remember the problems and difficulties and to forget all of the blessings that God had given. And that is one of the reasons that this chapter is so important, because the rock flows with the water when Moses strikes the rock, and all the blessings of God flowed out of that rock. That water followed them, and it's given to us in metaphorical words. In First Corinthians chapter ten, the rock that followed them. It doesn't mean that the rock was rolling down the hill. It meant that the water flowed out of the rock, and it flowed from the rock and went where they went. It was an amazing demonstration of God's provision of the resources that are found in Christ, because Christ is the rock. In Deuteronomy chapter two and verse seven, there is a commentary that says, after forty years, the Lord thy God has been with you, and you lacked nothing. Jenny and I were talking about manna this week and sort of reconnoitering and saying, what was manna like? It must have been one of the most perfect foods because Israel could have drunk water and eaten manna and have lived a healthy life in the o- in the wilderness for forty years. Yes, I'm sure it got old, like a few other things that we try and eat, but it was God-given, and the minerals that were involved in all that was necessary to live in that desert were wrapped up in that little manna. It was God's provision for them, and so it is with Christ. All that I need is in Jesus Christ, and if we're occupied and we eat regularly, feeding upon him, and drink deeply from him. We will enjoy the spiritual health that God intends for us to have in our journey from Egypt to Canaan. So their past experiences, they had forgotten those. There is their present exasperation. And then there is thirdly the promises that were explained time and again. God had said to Israel, I'm bringing you out that I might bring you in. And it doesn't seem that Israel registered that issue at all, because they said, you brought us out. Why have you brought us out? To die? Take us back. God didn't bring them out to take them back. He brought them out to take them in. And the promises are there in Exodus chapter six verse six and again in verse eight. I have brought you out that I might bring you in, and it needs to be reviewed in our mind. And the father should have told the children, God's brought us out, he will bring us in, God has brought us out, he will bring us in, but the father said, God brought us out, or Moses brought us out, but take us back. Discouragement. Discouragement is a result of dissatisfaction with the past, displeasure with the present, and distrust of the promises. Again, discouragement is the result of dissatisfaction with the past, I don't like the tests, displeasure with the present, and distrust of the promises. And when we're discouraged, when we are depressed, it's because we're dissatisfied with the past, we have displeasure with what God has put on our plate in the present, and we distrust his promises. And it brings discouragement, and it brings murmuring. Israel is in the will, in the will of God because God led them there, and there is no reason for discouragement, because the past is a panorama of God's blessing and God's provision. The present is, in fact, a test, because every blessing is a test. Just the giving of the manna was given in order to prove them, and so the blessings of God for us are blessings that prove us and test us. And the promises? Murmuring comes from rejecting the promises of God. The discouragement is a result of dissatisfaction with the past, displeasure with what God brings us in the present, and distrust of his promises. So the murmuring of Israel. Secondly, you have the miracle of the Lord. In this period of history, God does many miracles for his people. The movement of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan was one of the greatest demonstration of sustained miracles in the history of the Old Testament. It's much like the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. There are periods during the time that God deals with his people where he manifests his miracles, and the migration of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan is one of them. Israel should have become accustomed to this, just like the disciples should have been accustomed to it. When the Lord Jesus said, give them something to eat, they said, well, that's not a problem. Why, you've done many miracles before. How would you like us to handle this? What are you going to do for us? But no, they say, we don't have enough money. We don't have enough food. Tell the people to go home. And they flunked that test. But the miracle of the Lord should have been the direct result of a good memory, but it was a memory, in fact, that was generated over occupation with their difficulties than with the blessings of God. God wants us to dwell upon the blessings he given. He wants us to soak our soul in the victories that we have enjoyed. He wants us to marinate our mind filled with the truths of his word that will encourage us and help us deal with dissatisfaction in the past, deal with the displeasure that is a temptation in the present, and will help us trust rather than distrust the promises of God. How did God do it? First of all, he did it because of the need of man. You can live a month without bread, but you can hardly live a week without water. And so God had already brought them to a place where they acknowledged their need of bread, and he provided it in grace, without judgment. And now again, what does he do? God doesn't chasten Israel. He could have brought a flood out of that rock that would have swept them all away. But again, as I reminded you last week, until the law is given, God deals with the children of Israel according to grace. And even though they murmur, and even though they chide with Moses and chide with the Lord, the Lord says, not to worry, I'll deal with you in grace. And he gave them manna without, without distressing them, without criticizing them, without judging them. And now they criticize him for not having water, and he says, that's not a problem, I can give you water. And so it was the need. They were in the wilderness. They were in total dependence. Secondly, there is nearness. God always uses what is near at hand. And so it is with the rod and the rock. And it's instructive for us because, as you realize, it says here in verse five, take the rod wherewith you smote the river. When Moses smote the river, what happened? It turned to blood. When he smote the rock, it brought forth water. Why? Why was one a judgment and the other a blessing? Because in Egypt, when he took that rod and he smote the river, he was smiting one of the gods of Egypt, and it brought judgment. But when he struck the rock, he struck God, the God of Israel, and in doing so, it brought blessing. You sang that hymn this morning, Jehovah lifted up his rod, O Christ, it fell on thee. Thou wast sore stricken of thy God, there's not one stroke for me. The blood beneath that rod has flowed, thy bruising healeth me. That hymn was written because of this chapter. Jehovah lifted up his rod, O Christ, it fell on. And so he struck the rod. An unexpected place, an unexplained plan. Israel was here at Mount Horeb, where Moses had met God before, and there was a naturalness to this too, isn't there? Where does the best water come from? It comes out of the rock. And if you have a hill and you want water, you don't go down to the lowest pa- piece of that land, you go to the highest piece because that's where the best water is. Oh, but does it have to drill down to the rock? Of course you do. And the water flows up to the top of that hill, and you drill that hole, you drill that well in the top of the rock, and it's there that you get the sweetest water. If you go down in the valley, you'll get water that's distasteful, maybe sulfuric or filled with iron. But you go to the top of the rock, and God, in his natural way, brings to Israel some of the sweetest water. He's the creator. He's the one who made it and put it there. So what is the meaning to us? Where do we stand? In First Corinthians chapter ten and verse eleven, it says, now all these things happened unto them for examples, that we might learn upon whom the ends of the earth are established. Why did this happen way back in Exodus chapter seventeen? In order that we might learn the lesson, says Paul to the church at Corinth. We need to learn that lesson. What a picture. What took place those three thousand five hundred years ago when God said to Moses, Moses, take the rod, the rod that you struck the god of Egypt with, and you take that rod, and you go with the leaders of the children of Israel and the elders of Israel, and you do that, and you strike the rock, and I will stand before the rock. Can you see it in your mind's eye? This huge rock. And I can see in my mind's eye God with his extended arms, leaning against that rock, and Moses takes that rock and strikes Jehovah. He struck the Lord, because the Lord stood before the rock. And it's a reminder to us of the cross, isn't it? We've seen the cross a bunch of times already, in the Passover lamb, in the tree that was cut down in order that the bitter waters might be made sweet, and here it is again, the rod and the rock. And between the rod and the rock, God said, I will stand before you. And so when Moses struck the rock, he struck the Lord. It doesn't take a theological education to see that's exactly what happened on the cross. Why did God stand in front of the rock? Because Israel sinned. Because Israel rejected the promises of God and his providence and his care for them, and they murmured against him. Why did God stand there? Because Israel murmured. So why is it that the Lord Jesus died on the cross? He died on the cross because of your sin and mine. He hung on the cross, not for his own sin, but for our sin. And the rod of God smote the god of Egypt and brought forth judgment to Egypt, and there came out blood. And then the rod of God struck Christ and brought blessing to the believer in the purest, sweetest, most precious water. But there's no water until the rock is struck, and there is no blessing for any of us until the Lord Jesus Christ hung upon the cross. Jehovah lifted up his rod, O Christ, it fell on thee. And as we look at that picture of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, we realize that that event two thousand years ago released all the blessings of God for us. Does that rock follow us? Of course it does. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He leadeth me beside the still waters over and over again in Psalm one hundred and verse one hundred and six, one uh, hundred and five verse forty one. And how does revelation end? Come, come to the waters. Reminded again of the release of blessing. If there is no strike, there is no water. And if there is no water, there's no sa- there's no satisfaction. There is no salvation unless there's a death of Christ. And I don't care how many times you come to church or what you do at church, if you don't come to Christ and receive the gospel of the Lord Jesus who died for you, you'll never have the water of salvation. And he wants us to take out the well of salvation and dip our cup deeply and drink as much as you'd like, because it is all because of Christ. And the rock that followed them is Christ. And if you partake of Christ this morning, if you will see the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the cross for your sin and for mine, you will know that the judgment on the cross was because of God. God poured out his anger against your sin and mine upon his only beloved son. God offers that to any who will believe. Ezekiel chapter forty seven, you have a river that flows out of the throne, and it's symbolic and picturesque of this very event. That water that flows, and the farther it flows, the deeper it gets, and the more that's made available. What a revelation of Christ. The man is a picture of Christ come down from heaven to man, but there's no salvation. And so then you have to have the rock. The rock is a picture to us of Christ dying on the cross, and by his death he releases all the blessing. That rock followed them. That rock provided a water that filled them. That water provided a rock that was furnished for them. Deuteronomy chapter two and verse seven says, they lacked nothing. You and I can be satisfied with what God provides in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd rather have Jesus than anything else, than worldwide fame, to be a king, vast domain. I'd rather have Jesus. Brothers and sisters, it's a struggle. It's easy to sing, delightful to listen to, but it's a choice that we must make. So we pray together. Father, we thank you for the satisfaction that you furnish for the children of Israel. We thank you that you have given to them the joy and blessing of that beautiful, fresh, clean, pure, nourishing water, in order that they might live in the wilderness. We know that you knew that they would be there for all of those years, and they would need a daily fresh supply of water. And we acknowledge ourselves that we too need a daily fresh supply of water. We thank you that that rock follows us, and that we can partake and enjoy and be satisfied with the blessings that you provided through the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us and rose again. Thank you again for meeting with us and for reminding us of the blessings that we have because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are blessed, and we thank you for these blessings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.