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Numbers 20 | In the Wilderness

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Listen to this week’s sermon, In the Wilderness preached by Pastor Eric Stites from Numbers 20.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Nadia Chong:

Please join me in this prayer of illumination. God of mercy, the covenant promises in your eternal word do not change. Holy Spirit, enable us to respond to your gracious promises with faithful and obedient hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, Would that we have perished when our brothers perished before the Lord? Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them, and give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, and he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as the holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy. This is God's word.

Pastor Eric Stites:

But um, no, I'm co-founder of Crosstown Ministries. Many of you know that, but uh again and again, there are always numerous new people here at New City as we continue to grow, though we preach on numbers. Um and uh so uh but one of the kingdom partners of New City, and so always want to take this opportunity to um say thank you because uh without New City there would be no crosstown ministries. And so uh thank you, thank you for your support as a kingdom partner, thank you for bringing snacks. Um thank you for those of you who've who volunteer, who come read with our students, all the things. Um as time goes on, we just want to continue to grow relationship uh here at New City. And so uh I just wanted to say uh thank you from the bottom of my heart uh for that. So um Numbers 20. Um when I read this passage, uh the question that comes to my mind first is um is the wilderness necessary? Uh we've been in this uh book, obviously, for the past uh several weeks, and uh you're in this wilderness and it just continues to go on and on, it seems like. And so is it necessary? And and if so, why? Um when you read this passage, uh there's a whole lot of tragedy, really. There's uh a lot of struggle, and and maybe you might even think, man, it's a little bit unfair uh the judgment that uh God has uh for Moses. So you might be sitting here and you feel a little bit like Moses. Um he's a leader, uh he's a he's a leader of God's uh people, but maybe you're a leader. Uh maybe you're a leader in a business, maybe you're uh a leader um in your uh home, maybe you're a leader at school. Um I don't know. But the reality is, like uh Moses, he he gets so much right. He led God's people out of Egypt. When they rebel, he's pleading with God to uh to on their behalf to have grace on them, and he's patient through most of their complaining and grumbling, and then he messes up this one time here, and boom, um God gives him a consequence, and it's a serious one. He's been wandering with the people since they left Egypt to enter the promised land, and now sorry, Moses, um you don't get to go in. So maybe that feels like you. Um I was on the phone with a friend this week when we were talking about the fact that leadership is this endless series of decisions that we make, and we might make 95% of those decisions right. And we get 5% wrong, maybe. And guess what everyone remembers? The ones we got wrong, right? Um, and that it causes a weariness. Um, maybe as a leader, you get angry from getting almost everything right, um, but that almost feels like you got nothing right. And being tired and being angry, as we can see from Moses, uh, is a dangerous combination. Um, you might be sitting here and you feel like the rest of the people who are with Moses sitting under his horrible leadership. Um been in the wilderness for 40 years. Um, you've got lots of uncertainty. You've been waiting to enter uh this promised land. You're always feeling like you're in need. There's always obstacle after obstacle after after obstacle, and it just doesn't ever feel like you're gonna get there. And so you grow cynical. Um maybe that's you. Um Chuck DeGroat wrote a book called Leaving Um Egypt. Um, and in this book, um, he describes the danger of forming an identity from your wilderness wandering. Um, he says that this can often happen happen around what we call trauma bonding. Um, it's a buzzword, right? But instead, what he said is that uh instead of the wilderness being a place along the way to a final destination, it just becomes the destination where we just complain about everything going on around us. And our identity is formed of this is just the way it's gonna be, forever and ever. And in that, there's this kind of somewhat veiled, halfway rebellious spirit toward God because he hasn't given you what you wanted, hasn't gotten you out of the circumstance, and so then we just distract ourselves with food and drink and social media and and all the things. And of course, the sad reality is that your wilderness becomes Egypt. So you traded one form of bondage for another, all while calling it freedom. So why the wilderness? Why the wilderness? Uh my wife and I went to California um this past summer to celebrate uh our 15-year anniversary. Um, thank you. Um we uh we flew into San Francisco and slowly made our way down the Pacific Coast Highway, eventually ending up in wine country. Now I'm not much of a wine drinker uh myself. I don't like appreciate the taste um the way that um others might be able to. However, um while we were here, uh I decided I'm gonna become an expert. Um I want to learn everything I possibly can. Um and and when you're there and you're driving, I mean, just everywhere you go, um, there's uh vineyard after uh vineyard, and they look a little bit um like this. Uh there's a picture that I took. Um my wife and I actually stayed on uh a vineyard, which was really cool. And so this was our view um just looking out. And so uh we would go to different places, and you know, they pour out all these uh tastings, samples of different wines, a few of the white, a few of the red, um, and then they explain it all to you. And so there were some things that surprised me about this whole process of making uh wine. The first thing is when you look out there um at that picture, even in my mind, when I thought of wine, I thought of green, luscious, uh everything around is well watered and all this type of stuff. And instead, I found out I was in a desert. I had no idea. The only green was the vineyard, was the vines uh of grapes. That was the only thing green. When you look at the ground, um, dry, rocky um soil. And so what I found out is that winemakers will intentionally make their grapes struggle. This is what they called it. Intentionally producing stressful situations on the grape uh produces higher quality fruit with deeper, more complex flavors, which ultimately leads, of course, to far superior and might I add, far more expensive uh wine. So instead of irrigating the vineyard and you know, all the things I thought in my head of this perfectly watered uh garden, um, and instead they actually decide not to water it. Um they'll they'll just wait for rain. If it comes, great, if it doesn't, uh they assume that the struggle is good. The survival mechanism uh forces the energy directly to the grape itself. And so it produces this better flavor, color, and aroma. And so the saying is true. The struggle of the vine makes better wine. Why the wilderness? Because God ordained it that way. Um, through our struggles, I don't understand. Um I wish there was a different way, I wish there was an easier way to make that better wine. But for whatever reason, it's through our struggle that he gives us the opportunity to sink our roots into something. And the question of numbers is will Israel sink their roots deep into him? Or will they sink their roots deep into their circumstances? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 about the wilderness. He says, These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for us for our instruction. So let's let their wilderness example instruct our wilderness experience so that we can put our roots down deep into the truth of who God is. Let's allow the struggle of the vine to make the best wine. So, first, um, our first point is that the Lord's people complain, and that there is an allure of accusation. The Lord's people complain, who are these people? Well, um, as we enter into the story in this verse, at the beginning, we're in the fortieth year of the wandering through the desert. Mike Allen, a couple weeks ago here preached on Numbers 13 and 14, and this was the first generation that had uh all but died out at this point. But the reason that was the case is because it was a consequence for their disobedience. They were walking about into, they were about to walk into the promised land, twelve spies are sent out to check out this land, they all return. Ten of them say, hey, it's a really cool land, but also followed with a bunch of really big people and were scared. And so instead of going into the land, um uh they decide it's too much for them. And their disob the consequence for their unbelief was, hey, you get to wander. You get to wander in this desert. And so here we have the second generation about to enter in again to the promised land, and we find out that they deal with many of the same um issues. And so what's going on? Um, there's no water. And not just like a little bit of a problem. Um, there's none. There's no water to drink, it says, there's none for their livestock, there's none to grow food. This is a truly um desperate situation. Once again, not the first time this has happened. So when you go back to Exodus 14, right after Israel had been uh uh uh brought out of Egypt, there was no water, the people cry out to Moses, and God brings water in a similar way to how he does here. But we'll come back to that in a moment. What I want to talk about right now is what I would call the anatomy of complaint. Um, the anatomy of a complaint. You see, it all starts with a real need, the real thing. We don't have water, Moses. Um, but before they go to Moses, what happens? Clearly they spoke to each other because they got to the point where they assembled together. So I don't know, we don't know from scripture exactly what happened, but clearly there's some people who are getting together and say, hey, we got to go to Moses and tell them we need something. Some agitators in the midst, some leaders among them that had the ability to speak and get everyone together. And then Scripture says they assembled all of them together. This isn't just a little group of people, it's a lot of people. They assemble together, and it says clearly they set themselves in opposition to Moses and to Aaron, and it says they quarreled with Moses. And so they start working their way backward through their story. In verse 3, um, it says, Man, I wish we just died when our brothers had died. Do they even really know what they're talking about? So weighty statement to say that they wished they had died when their brothers had died. They continue to go backwards. Why did you even bring us into this wilderness, Moses? Then they go on and say, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? Did you forget? This is the second generation. So these weren't even the ones who were in Egypt. They don't even know what it was to be in that type of bondage, and yet they take on the words of their previous generation as if they were their own. And so, um, why does this happen? Because they were the audience of their parents. So I want to take a few things away from this in the anatomy of a complaint. The first thing of this is never underestimate the power of our words, especially to those who are listening, especially to those who are under our care. And especially when those words uh tend to speak of the negative things. They'll be heard, they'll be understood, and they might even be believed. Even if those who you are speaking to haven't been through what you've been through. And so much so that we could be informing what someone believes about who God is, his very character. This is what was happening for Israel. Second generation was just a product of the first. So never underestimate the power of your words. The second thing would be never underestimate the power of how sin is passed down. Now, we all believe this because of Adam. We know good theology. Adam falls, we're all born with sin, all that type of stuff. Yes, I'm talking about that, but I'm talking about something more than that. I'm talking about the specific sin, the specific nature of the sin that you might be passed down. The second generation is rebelling in the exact same way the first generation was, taking on their words almost identically. And where did they get that from? From their parents. You see, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, we're all a product of where we came from. Product of parents, a product of school, a product of church, or the lack thereof. And so listen, um, one of the most godly things that we can do is to raise our own self-awareness of where we came from. Uh, my father was an alcoholic, um, passed away six years ago. And so you better believe I must take that seriously. Not because I think I'm it's not even about the alcohol part. Maybe that's true. I just told you a whole story about going to wine country. Maybe I need to be careful. Um but that's not what I mean. What I mean is, what does that produce? What does that teach me about how to be a father? What does that teach me about how to be a husband? It didn't teach me much, but it did teach me some negative things. So I could either say, it doesn't matter. Or I could say, Let me blame the one who came before me, or I could raise my own self-awareness and say, What is this doing? And so to this day, still walking through, not as a victim of it, um, but seeking the healing from wounds from the only one who can heal those wounds. So never underestimate the power of past down sin. And finally, never underestimate the temptation to go back to Egypt. This is why Chuck DeGroat wrote an entire book on this. What I mean is we have the powerful ability in our mind to rewrite our narratives so that our past in light of our present somehow seems different. Israel was able to say that being in the in Israel in bondage and slavery for 400 years was better than being free in the wilderness. They were able to rewrite that narrative and then speak it freely to their kids, so much so that they believed it, not even having been there. Manna's raining down from heaven, feeding them. They have the presence of God with in cloud and fire, and yet they still said it was better back then. Sometimes our freedom doesn't look like how we want it to look. And so we look back on the bondage as if those were the good old days. So never underestimate. Never underestimate the power of your words and the power of sin to pass down and the power of the temptation to go back to Egypt. So, the anatomy of a complaint. Right after we complain, there's the allure of accusation. Right on the heels of complaining about something, once we've done that, we can get to the place where we get to accuse someone for what we're going through. So, why why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness? They cry out. Why have you made us come up out of Egypt? Who are they talking to? Moses and Aaron. What? Moses and Aaron didn't do this. Moses didn't cause this. The Lord led them into the wilderness. And that's because Israel cried out to them from bondage and said, Will you come free us? And he does it. Before this, they were in Egypt making bricks without straw under backbreaking tyranny. And then they have the audacity to say, Why did you, Moses, make us come up out of Egypt? Why are and then to add on to that, why are they walking around for these 40 years? Is that Moses' fault? No, it was them. It was their own sin. It was their own disbelief in what God was saying about going into the promised land. They believed the ten spies rather than God himself saying, This is the promised land. It is so tempting to accuse those in leadership. So why is complaining and accusation, why is this take root so easily? Because at its heart is contempt. Contempt is this fierce refusal to face your own brokenness and instead to turn and point the finger and blame someone else. We're just doing what's been done since the fall. Adam messes up, and when God comes to him and says, What did you do? He looks at his wife and says, It was her fault. And then what does she do? She looks at the serpent and says, Um, it was his fault. This is what we do to cover ourselves. And Israel was no different, right? It's their sin, but it's Moses' fault. And the same is true of us today. Behind all the complaining, behind the accusation, there's often a shame-filled person unwilling to take the covering off. But the invitation from the Lord in Scripture is always take the cover off. Bring the shame to him and to receive grace. Have your head lifted up and be redignified as being made in the image of God. You see, we need to hear all of this as a truly uh loving warning. Because the reality is, uh, in verse 13, uh Numbers lets us know that indeed Israel wasn't just quarreling with Moses and Aaron. It says they were quarreling with the Lord Himself. And so the issue is not between Moses and the people, but truly with all of God's people and with the Lord Himself. So why the wilderness? Why the wilderness? Chuck DeGroat says the wilderness is a necessary place where we are stripped of our arrogance, our self-righteousness, and our hypocrisy. It is the furnace of transformation. In other words, it's the struggle of the vine that makes the best wine. So will you let it be that? Will you let the wilderness be what God has caused it to be? Will you allow the things in you to be exposed? Will you take responsibility for the brokenness and the invitation to grow deep roots within him? So, first, the Lord's people, we love to complain. And there's an allure of accusation. But let's turn now to the second big uh person in the story, which is Moses and Aaron themselves. Um, the Lord's leaders respond. And they want revenge for the rebellious. Revenge for the rebellious. How did Moses and Aaron respond to the complaining and accusation? Well, they have an incredible response in verse 6. It says they simply turned from the face of the congregation back to the tent of meeting where God is, where they fell on their faces before the face of the Lord. Wow. I'm telling you what, I've been in leadership in different ways in a lot of different environments, and I don't respond like that. Right? When we're faced with these types of things, uh, what do we do? Let them have it. We would have tried to straighten the truth out, defend ourselves uh from the accusations, put them in their place, let them know you're really hard to lead. Don't you know that? Um we would have reminded them that, hey, you've been in this position before, remember? And remember, look how the Lord provided? On and on and on. That would have been uh my response. But instead, Moses and Aaron, they take it all in, they walk away, and they fall on their face before the Lord. That is leadership. Our culture today, um, in our world today, we are on a quest for what great leadership is. Just look at look at what's going on around us, right? Um, how divided we are in different ways. We want great uh leadership. And so we ask, is it is it wielding the largest sword to beat down the opponents? Is it confronting opposition to their face, belittling people, talking about how much bigger and better we are? Is it being the loudest in the room, having the best strategic plan, having the most charismatic personality? Um I'm not saying it's none of those things, but I know it doesn't start there. I know it starts with falling on our face before the Lord. Um, it's from this posture that uh we learn what we're supposed to do. Um, because it's in this posture that we have to listen. And sometimes we might speak, sometimes we might remain silent, sometimes we might be called to act, sometimes we might be called to wait patiently, sometimes we might be called to slow down, sometimes we might be called to move quickly. But great leadership is an ambassadorship. It's a representation we're leading as a representative of not ourselves, uh, but of God. Otherwise, you're leading as a representative of yourself, competing with God's glory, um, causing idolatry. So to have others give their worship to us rather than to God. But there's something in our world today, in our culture, and we love to make an idol of leadership. We're looking for somebody to make a way, to show us where to go. Um we're looking for someone to venerate. Let's clear from this story. If we can't venerate Moses, we should be very careful. Moses won't have any of it. Uh I'm sorry, God won't have any of it. The Lord won't have any of it because he is indeed the Lord. So, Moses and Aaron, they go and meet with the Lord and they get their direction from him. It says this, take the staff, this is the Lord speaking, assemble the people and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So, what does Moses do? He starts off so well. He takes the staff, he assembles the people in front of the rock, and he takes a deep breath, and he starts to speak, and you're hoping for the best. And what comes out? Hear now, you rebels. Hear now, you rebels. Shall we bring forth water from this rock? Moses, man, finally had enough. Can you blame him? I love the humanity of the Bible. It doesn't hold back. The accumulation of enduring so much from this people finally overflows in this angry outburst to the people. You've been rebelling for years. Remember the generation before you? They all had to pass away out here because of the same thing. You want water? Here you go. And so in anger, he reaches up his hand, it says, Um, with a staff in his hand, and he strikes the rock one time, bang. That wasn't enough. Strikes the rock a second time, bang. And water, it says, gushes out. And so you can almost feel the tension in Moses that he's been holding on to for so long. Um we have to wonder like, what does Moses walk away with? Does he does he feel relieved? Finally let him have it. Finally let go. Been holding that in for a long time. I don't know. I don't know exactly what was going on. But whatever we are thinking, it's all quickly washed away with the Lord's words back to Moses in verse 12. Because you did not believe in me to hold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. What? He's done so much right, so much right for so long. Um how is this fair? So, what did he do wrong? Well, two things mainly. The Lord's command was to go in front of the rock and speak to the rock, but instead he spoke to the people and let them have it. The second thing was is he never said to strike the rock. Right? All he said was to speak to the rock. And the and the Lord interprets um what that means, which is that you didn't believe in me. So from our human eyes, this just doesn't seem uh fair. But in that moment of human frailty, of honesty, you could even argue it's justifiable frustration, he speaks. But the Lord let him know it's wrong. It was sin. And not only that, it was public sin because uh because of how he was leading uh God's people astray, and the Lord gives them a tragic consequence. Um it's wrong because Moses wanted revenge for the rebellion he didn't trust. And so then we move on in the story, and you don't hear from Moses. We don't really know uh what he thinks, all we hear is the consequence, and the story moves on. But uh Brian Chapel, in his sermon on this same text, um, helped me to see that we do actually hear from Moses. How? Well, who wrote the book? Moses. Moses wrote the book of Numbers. So Moses is telling on himself. This is Moses' confession. He didn't do it right. And he didn't just let it be known to the people there, he let it known for generations and generations to come. So we can read Moses today and realize he didn't do it right. And so in writing the passage, he doesn't seek to protect himself, he doesn't seek to defend his actions, he doesn't share how unfair all of this was, he doesn't tell everybody I got 95% of it right and only blew it 5% of the time. Doesn't do any of that. He simply says the story like it happened, including his motivation of his heart, how he failed in this moment, and then he sees himself as being uninvited from being able to go into the promised land after all he's been through, as simply a just action on behalf of the Lord, who Moses loved with his whole heart. It doesn't change that. You see, Moses demonstrated true leadership. He started down that road of complaint and accusation, but when contempt could settle in and he could blame others for his actions, he owned it and the tragic consequences that came with it. Even though Moses didn't believe God in that moment, he knows the truth of who the Lord is. And ultimately, this is what the struggle in the wilderness was for. It was for Moses, too. So that he might sink his roots deep into the truth of who God is. The struggle of the vine produces the best wine. The same was true for Moses. So finally, we have the people complaining and the allure of accusation. We have the leaders responding. Wanting revenge for the rebellion, but finally we see the Lord's holiness is displayed. That He gives grace for the graceless. So in verse 12 again, we hear, Because you didn't believe in me, speaking to Moses, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel. And through them it says that God would show himself holy. Holiness, not something we talk about a whole lot today. Kind of scared of the word, I think, a little bit outdated. Conjures up pictures of God maybe being angry, judging from on high, giving out consequences just because, even in this story, it could feel like, man, come on, couldn't you just give Moses a little grace? But quite simply, holiness is just God being set apart. It's that God has a glory all his own that he's not going to share with anyone else. It simply means that God is God, we are not. He's the creator, and we're the creature. He speaks, we listen, or choose not to. And at the end of the day, his holiness, no matter what, will be upheld. And so for Moses and all the Israelites standing there at the precipice of the promised land, about to go in, the Lord wanted them to understand this one thing. Just one thing. That despite everything that was going on, all that Moses did, all that the people did, he wanted them to know I'm still God. And that this promised land is a beautiful place. The land flowing with milk and honey and all the things that they wanted that they didn't have right now. But he wanted them to understand this and hear this. It means nothing if you don't have me. We want God to change all the circumstances, and sometimes without him. The wilderness is so that we might be close to him. You see, we struggle with the circumstance just like Israel, see what's all around and wondering why, God, aren't you changing all of this yet? Their time wandering about in the wilderness wasn't just to make them pay for what they'd done. It wasn't to make them delay their gratification and finally be able to come to the promised land. It was so they would learn how to depend on the Lord no matter what. They were so focused on getting to the promised land, they were forgetting who made the promise. And that being with him was enough, was sufficient. So as we read this story, it can be hard to see grace. It can be hard to see grace, but it's there. It can seem like the only thing there is brokenness and judgment, but instead, what we see is that the Lord displays his holiness in a very surprising way. In verse 10, look, if you can, Moses cries out, Here now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? It says, and Moses lifted up his hand, struck the rock with a staff twice, and what? Water came out abundantly. And the congregation drank and their livestock. Grace. See, though the people are complaining, accusing, not taking responsibility for their sin, even though Moses is having his own lack of faith with this angry outburst, the Lord displays holiness with grace. He gives the people what they need, what they ask for, gives it abundantly, even though they deserve none of it. You see, sometimes we think grace is something that God gives as an answer to his holiness. He's so holy I can't get close to him, so I need grace. But what I actually want you to see here in Numbers 20 and throughout the whole book of Numbers, throughout all the Old Testament, before Christ, scripture shows us that grace is a display of God's holiness. It's a part of his holiness. It's what sets him apart that in Exodus, when Moses asks, Who are you? Show me who you are, God calls back the Lord, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression. This is who the Lord is. This is the character of God. How abundant is the grace. How abundant is the grace. Guess what? There wasn't like 20 people here. You see, sometimes when we get this little picture of water flowing out of the rock, we get the like, you know, back in the day, the old felt boards, you know, and you got like the pasture and the little sheep and the people, and there's this cute little flowing, you know, river kind of trickling out of the rock. There were 600,000 people that left Egypt. Most commentators would agree there's at least two million people out here in the wilderness. This wasn't a cute little trickle. This was water flowing forth in abundance to water the entire congregation, it said, and all their livestock. This wasn't a little bit. This was lavish grace, abundant grace. And so what's going on with this rock? What is this thing? It's not the first time it showed up. In Exodus 17, there's almost this identical situation. The people need water, and they cry out to Moses. He goes to the Lord, the Lord tells them to go to the rock, and that he will stand before Moses, stand in front of the rock, and that Moses can strike the rock with his staff and water will flow. That's in Exodus 17. And that's why it makes sense in our story, man. Moses is just going back to what he did before, right? But so it almost seems unfair. But here's the difference. In Exodus 17, the Lord stands before Moses on the rock and tells Moses to strike the rock. You see, commentators would agree, in essence, the Lord is saying, As you strike the rock, you're striking me. There has to be sacrifice in order to bring about the grace of water. Despite all their complaint and disobedience. And so here in Numbers 20, the Lord commands Moses simply to speak to the rock. Why? Because he has already struck the rock. It need not be struck again. Grace will flow from this place. So Moses isn't just disobeying the Lord's command, he's also telling the Lord, that first time wasn't enough. I need to strike you again and again for grace to come. First Corinthians 10, if you don't believe anything of what I'm saying, let 1 Corinthians 10, let Paul interpret the Old Testament for you. Verse 1 through 4 says this for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud. They all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was who? Christ. You see where things were a shadow of what was to come. No one could imagine what this was. Paul says, No, that rock was Christ. And so in John chapter 4, in Jesus' life, he's with the Samaritan woman at the well. He says, Sir, everyone who drinks of this water, speaking of the water in the well, will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. So the woman said, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus, the living water, the rock upon which the Israelites would get their water. We move fast forward through Jesus' life, and on the cross, Jesus cries out for the first time in the Gospels at the very end of the book of John. Guess what he says? I'm thirsty. You see, the one who suffered, who offered living water that wells up to eternal life is now thirsty. And in one final act of cruelty towards Jesus, the soldiers who were there didn't give him water. What'd they give him? Sour wine. And at that he bowed his head and it died and he died. It says a few moments later, Jesus' side was pierced, and not only did blood pour forth, but what else? Water from his side. And so in the sacrifice of Christ, in the blood that is poured out, there is also the water of life. The living waters that he spoke of to this unsuspecting Samaritan woman at a well were being poured forth to quench the world of its thirst. And so the rock that gave an abundant flow of grace-filled water in the wilderness would become the instrument of God's infinite grace by being struck on the cross. How many times? Just once. Just once. And it was enough. Bearing the sin of all of us, though we complain, though we accuse, though we go to contempt, though we want revenge for the rebellious. No, indeed, his sacrifice is enough to bear all of that sin. So this morning, I would ask you, where are you in the wilderness? Maybe you don't know this rock. Maybe you don't know Christ. And you may be wandering around in the circles of this life trying to quench your thirst with everything the world has to offer. I bet you're here this morning knowing it doesn't work. You're still thirsty. I assure you that Jesus stands ready with a holy grace just for you. Come to Him. You may be part of the Lord's people filled with complaints and accusations and all that shame-filled contempt. Take the cover off. Come to Jesus. Or you may want revenge for the rebel the rebellious, and Jesus offers you to lay aside your anger and your weariness and come to him. Because God's holiness truly is displayed in his lavish grace of living water. Our call to worship said this Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me, hear that your soul may live. This morning I would invite you to come to the rock, the one who is the living water offered to you as a well up to eternal life. Let's pray. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we come to you this morning. I want to be self-aware of all the ways that we can be just like Israel, where it's easy to look at them and say, How could they possibly complain and grumble over all that you had done for them? And yet we look at our own lives recognizing the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. We do the same. Will you give us the grace of seeing our sin and taking responsibility for it? Um, but Jesus, you have not left us without hope. Jesus, thank you that you have been struck once for all time and once for all of us, so that we might come to you with your open arms and might receive grace, might receive forgiveness, might receive life. And so, Jesus, we come to you now, lifting you up as the one who is uh worthy of all of our worship, where we are tempted to put it in other places, um, Lord, just as the people of Israel were, um, we stand now wanting to uphold your holiness in a way that they might have missed it, Lord. Help us to see that your holiness is on display in the grace that you have given us. We thank you for this now. Spirit, will you seal upon our hearts the truth of your word? It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.