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A Sermon by Dr. Bob Griffin, Teaching Elder at Sovereign Grace Church
I. UNDERSTANDING THE NARRATIVE
A. GRUMBLING
>>1. QUANDRY
Ex 17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin [Zen] by stages, according to the commandment of YHWH, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. (Num 33:8-14)
>>2. QUIBBLE
Ex 17:2-3 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and demanded, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test YHWH?” 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?”
>>3. QUESTION
Ex 17:4 So Moses cried to YHWH, “What shall I do with this people? They’re almost ready to stone me.”
B. GRACE
>>1. QUALIFICATION
Ex 17:5 And YHWH said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
>>2. QUOTATION
Ex 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did this, in plain sight of the Israeli elders.
>>3. QUARREL
Ex 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested YHWH by saying, “Is YHWH among us or not?” (Deut 6:16; 9:22; 33:8; Psalm 95)
II. APPLYING THE LESSONS
A. EPITAPH OF HARDNESS
>>1. MAN’S POSITION (Ps 81:7; 106:15, 24b-25; 78:57; Deut 8:16; Mt 4:5-7; Dan 3:17-18)
>>2. MAN’S PERFIDY (Ps 106:14; 78:56; Ex 15:26)
B. EVIDENCE OF GRACE
>>1. GOD’S PROVISION (Ps 105:41-42; 81:16; Deut 32:3-4a; I Cor 10:3-4)
>>2. GOD’S PRESENCE (Mt 1:23; Deut 8:15; Ps 119:67-68, 71; Heb 13:5; Mt 28:19-20; Rom 8:26)