Do you remember that one part in Lord of the Rings? I think it was the first one where Bilbo has the ring, and Gandalf is starting to be like, I think maybe you've had that thing a little too long. How about you hand over the weird ring? And then Bilbo gets all defensive. He's like, Yeah, it's my ring. I want the ring. I'm not quoting this exactly. The writing was a touch better. And then Gandalf gets all fiery and angry and real big, and he's like, I'm not trying to rob you. I'm trying to help you. And his eyebrows go up in the middle, so you know he's friendly again. All in that one moment, you've got like the terror of the power that is hidden there within this gentle Gandalf character. And then right back to the gentleness. And you really, really believe him that he has Bilbo's best interests at heart, but you know, Bilbo's a little hobbit. He doesn't know what he's doing. His view of things is very small, and Gandalf is very ancient, and he understands things about the world and beyond the world that Bilbo couldn't possibly understand. And so he explains this thing, and then finally Bilbo unloads the ring and he feels better about things. And that's kind of the situation that we run into in the passage that Jesus is hearkening back toward in Matthew chapter 4, when he's having this showdown with the devil. And we've been on this forever, so you probably know what we're talking about, but I'm still going to hit it again anyway. The first temptation is the one about being real hungry. And the devil says, Hey, if you're the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. And then Jesus says, It is written, man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, comes from early in the book of Deuteronomy. And the devil's like, let's try something else. And it's a time warp or brain warp or teleport or whatever, up to the holy city, and Adam stand on the highest point of the temple. He says, If you're the son of God, throw yourself down, for it's written, he'll command his angels concerning you, and they'll lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. And you remember that's Psalm 91. And then Jesus says, it is also written, Don't put the Lord your God to the test. And that is a reference once again back to Deuteronomy. So we worked on everything else here, and we've been working our way up to Jesus' response. So we got to go to Deuteronomy, which I marked in advance this time so there wouldn't be so much page fumbling. And that is a reference to verse 16. Oh, and what do you know? It sounds just the same as what Jesus says. Do not test the Lord your God. Oh, and then it goes on and says, as you did at Massah. Oh, what's that? Oh, my Bible has little notes over here, and it tells me that I better go to Exodus chapter 17. Okay. So we go over here to Exodus chapter 17 and try to remember what the heck was going on here. It's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. This is that whole leaving Egypt stuff here in Exodus. Oh yeah, and this is really early in the game in Exodus 17. So if you turn back just one page, listen. One lousy, skinny little see-through page, you see that on the immediate previous page is dominated by this great big long poem, this batch of prose, which for me at least is arranged a little differently in the Bible. And we're getting all of this stuff that Moses and the Israelites are singing. This is at the end of Prince of Egypt, when they're all coming up out of the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army's destroyed back there, and they're da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I don't remember exactly how the song goes. Singing is not exactly my strong suit. And Miriam and everybody's celebrating, there's the tambourine. And as we get to the end of chapter 15, or the end of the whole celebration segment, says, When Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. Then Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang to them, Sing to the Lord, for he's highly exalted. The horse and the rider, he is hurled into the sea. And this is like a bonus song or verse or reprise or something at the end of all of this other awesome stuff that Moses is saying about the glory and power of the Lord. I'll sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The Lord is my strength, he's my salvation, he's unleashed his burning anger. There's just all this language about this incredible God. Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? And the narrator says, but then they forgot. Verse 22, like literally, the very next thing that happens is they go for a short hike. Admittedly, it's a few days, but compared to everything they've been through, it's a short hike from the Red Sea and they went into the desert of Shore. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. Oh, okay, I get it. That would be tough. I assume they took some water with them at least. And it says, when they came to Merah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. That's why this place is called Merah. I guess that must mean bitter. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What are we to drink? Now, I know we've covered this a lot. It's very difficult to put ourselves in the shoes of the people at the time of the Exodus, because come on, you and I have never seen anything like that. I understand there's some expressions of Christianity where people believe that they see more miraculous stuff. I've never seen anything from that or really any tradition that I find to be enormously compelling, like so compelling that be like, oh, that's an inarguable miracle, like a giant body of water parting in half at exactly the right time. Therefore, I have to believe in your version of God and stuff. I haven't seen it. I understand that some of you are probably listening to this and you're like, I have, I've seen crazy stuff. Awesome. I hope someday to encounter the same kind of thing. In the meantime, I'm over here not having seen even a little tiny miracle, but these guys have just seen an unbelievable miracle. And once again, we're reminded, as we were when we were talking about the first temptation, just how quickly those basic elemental human needs mess with our perspective on things. And so kind of the crazy thing that we're reading here in Exodus 15 is that they just saw God manipulate water in a pretty dramatic way. He seems to be master of all of the elements, and he uses his water elemental powers to summon the tsunami spell or whatever, and moves a whole gigantic lake or sea. And then their next question is like, what are we gonna drink? Because it's not clearly in God's wheelhouse to do anything with the water element. And then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. Awesome! So what do you know? God is providing still, he's still on this, he didn't bring you out here to die. There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them, and he said, If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. Then they came to Elim, and where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the waters. So crisis averted, stuff works out. It's almost as though the Spirit of God led them out in the desert to be tested, and they immediately failed the test of human need. It's almost as though this is a direct parallel passage to Jesus being led out into the desert and facing an immediate test to his human needs. And not after three days, they only made it three. Jesus is after 40 days, and he is passing the test with flying colors. But you see what happened there? It was like a little miniature covenant that we all forget. Or no, maybe you're smarter than me, and you probably are, and you remembered it, and you're like, why don't we even listen to this? But to me, like this was, I just honestly forgot until I was working on this today. It's like, oh yeah, there was this little micro covenant with smaller stakes than the Davidic covenant, which is like the redemption of all things, or the Mosaic covenant, which is like the deal that God made with the the Hebrew people. I'm your God, you're my people, or the Abrahamic covenant, which is the one where I'm gonna make a people out of the clear blue sky, and they're gonna be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and we're gonna see them blessed, and they're gonna be a blessing to the nations, and God's gonna bless the nations through them. This is like a little one with lower stakes, right? It's like it's not like you know, episode nine of Star Wars where the planets are gonna get destroyed if you don't stop the evil emperor, and everything is all coming down to this. It's more like uh the Mandalorian. Like, you know, it's a little baby Yoda, and we're gonna try to not see him get killed or experimented on, because look, he's cute. Small stakes. So, you know, do what God said, and you won't get these weird diseases. Okay. Well, then what happens in chapter 16 is they aren't really into that. They still don't really trust him. And again, I get it. I've never been homeless and wandering in a desert and having to trust in a supernatural being I've never physically seen with my own eyes for my next day's meal, but that's when we get into chapter 16 and the stuff about the manna and the provision, and we've already had one water incident, and then we get to chapter 17, which is what Jesus' quote from Deuteronomy 6 uh is referencing. And this is the story about the whole uh, yeah, the this whole Mara place that we hear being, or Masa place that we hear being talked about. It says, uh, the whole Israelite community, chapter 17, set out from the desert of sin, seen, I don't know, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at uh Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. And Moses replied, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? People were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses, and they said, Why'd you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? So then Moses cried out to the Lord, What am I to do with these people? They're almost ready to stone me. The Lord answered Moses, Walk on ahead of the people, take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take with you in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go, and I'll stand there before you by the rock at Horeb, strike the rock, and water will come out, uh will come out of it for the people to drink. So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the place Masa. And presumably everybody drank and they were happy and it was great. Isn't this weird? Did you I mean, and maybe you remembered I didn't, but that's that's three references or three moments where people are complaining about water stuff, and they don't really trust God, but they kind of think maybe God could fix it. This is going gripe to Moses about something. And so that third time around, and maybe there's some in between that I forgot, but that third time around, finally, he's like, I've just I've had enough of this stupid water thing and the stupid water miracles. I'm just gonna whack this rock a couple of times. And that ultimately ends up being Moses' failing of the test and failing to trust God. So what we really see is this little micro covenant made at the end of Exodus chapter 15. Trust God and obey his commands, do the stuff that he wants you to do, and you'll get through this thing unscathed. You know, you won't you won't get any of these diseases or suffer any of this stuff. And really, all of the Exodus, as I think about it, is kind of in dialogue with that thing. That sets up the story arc of all of it. And when they're at their best, they are obeying God and doing so cheerfully, and stuff's working out great. And when they're at their worst, they're griping about their physical needs and not being very trusting or obedient, and in a lot of ways, frankly, are being rude and demanding of God and acting as though he somehow answers to them. And throughout all of this, the tone of God seems to be like Gandalf's toward Bilbo's. I'm not trying to take you out to the desert to starve you. I'm not trying to rob you. I'm trying to help you, I'm trying to teach you how to be in relationship with your God and how to understand my rhythms and how to trust, because all the nations are going to be blessed through you. But that feels like it's not totally getting traction in the Old Testament, and that's why the Old Testament is kind of a tragedy. So, all the way back to Matthew chapter four, when Jesus said, It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. The attentive audience member from the original audience would not have heard that as just like a pleasant little truism. Oh, yes, yes, don't put God to the test. It's like, don't push your parents too far. They wouldn't have heard, oh, yep, that's uh that's kind of a little parable there. Don't bother God too much. He doesn't like that. Don't be rude to him. No, they would have heard the entire story of the Exodus. They would have heard this little micro covenant that was made. They would have remembered people particularly griping about water and not trusting God and not obeying God. And this simple little thing, it's just a drink in the desert. This simple little thing proves to be a metaphor for Israel's unfaithfulness, the Hebrews' unfaithfulness, and for God's faithfulness, and for frankly, their inability to pass the test of obeying a God who just manifested in the most dramatic and obvious way ever and wants to establish them as a people through whom he's going to be a blessing to all the world. Jesus passes the test in the desert. He understands that what Satan is doing is manipulating Scripture to flip it around to put God to the test with that same gripey, whiny, disbelieving spirit that happened out in the desert, even though I find it to be completely understandable, and I probably would have participated if I'm to be fair. Jesus passes the test. His approach is different. Jesus is taking a longer view than his immediate needs. And again, he looks like exactly the guy to accomplish the very enormous, weighty, dramatic stuff that would have to be accomplished by whoever is going to be this king that sits on the throne of David and resolves all of this stuff in the ways that are promised in the Old Testament. That was a lot, and we're still not done with the second test. So we'll get back to this next time around. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. We'll catch you soon.