The God who brings forth water from Rocks ( Lessons from Exodus 17)

Exodus 17 is an interesting chapter that speaks volumes to me about God’s leading of His children and moreso God’s miraculous ways of meeting the needs of His children. Furthermore, I perceive this chapter foreshadows the walk of many christians with God.

God’s saving Grace & Leading:

This chapter starts by telling us about how the community of the Israelites had come out from the desert of sin and were being guided step by step from place to place by God. This for me, is a pointer to the grace of God who saved His lost children out of the dry land of sin and was graciously leading them into the land of plenty. Furthermore, God is still in the business of saving as many lost souls and leading them through deserts into lands of abundance. Many christians may also be able to relate to this as many of us have been saved from deserted lands of sin and we are being led by the Holy spirit into God’s perfect will for our lives. – Exodus 17:1

Grumbling in the face of Rock Situations :

So these children of God got to a temporary stop at Rephidim to probably spend some nights before proceeding with their journey.- Exodus 17:1. As they got to this camping ground, they realized that instead of water they were surrounded with just rocks. That was all they saw in that moment and thus began to grumble at Moses as well as fight with him. I do not understand how they could quickly forget all the miraculous signs they had seen God do in the past. For example they saw God part a humongous red sea into two equal halves for them to walk through while their enemies drowned in the same red sea- Exodus 14:21. But I must say that it is easier to read the story than be a lead actor in the scenes of these kinds of stories. There is just something about facing difficult situations that just somehow makes us forget how good God has been to us and also trust Him to take us further than He has brought us.

My friend Jadesola who studied this chapter with me the other day said something that really has stayed with me since. She said the fact that God brought the Israelites from slavery and through those deserts meant that He’d never leave them and He would take them further than that desert. But the Israelites thought that God had probably forsaken them but God never did and He fulfilled all His promises that He made to them.

The Beauty of Having Godly Leaders:

The chapter tells us how these people grumbled and quarrelled with Moses who was their leader at that time. I don’t know why I have a mental picture of the men and women grabbing on Moses cloak calling him names and just blaming him for their predicament. I find it amazing and beautiful that Moses channeled all his frustrations about these people to God.

He could have decided to go talk about them in anger to his brothers or other elders in the camp which probably wouldn’t have solved the problem.

Making our Petitions Known to God:

Therefore, he took it to God in prayer just as he felt in his heart. He said to God, “what will I do with these people?!, they are almost ready to stone me”.

Ah! Only if we all could be like Moses, taking everything to God in prayer instead of gossipping or grumbling. Only if we had Godly leaders who sought God for guidance and directions!

God of the Miraculous:

And it was in the place of prayer from a place of genuity and concern that God gave him direction. God told Him to go out with the staff in his hands, along with elders to the front of the people and then strike the rock at Horeb. And as he did so, water sprung forth from the rock!

Only the living God, the one true God could cause good water, fit to drink to spring forth from rocks. And only Him be praised and adored!

Another Rock Like Situation:

Perhaps it was just as the Israelites were done celebrating God’s wondrous miracle of bringing water from the rock for them, they had to encounter an opposition from the enemy. They were attacked by the Amalekites at the same spot where they were camping at Rephidim- Verse 8

I do not think I may be the only one who experiences similar events; just when I am just trying to take a rest from some rock situation I just came out from, then the devil just strikes with something else. The Christian race isn’t for the faint at heart,we continuously need to keep pressing on in faith, prayer and walk with God.

And may He continue to help us in Jesus name.

The Place of Exercising Our Authority As Christians:

As the Amalekites closed in on God’s children, Moses took initiative and acted quickly to secure their victory over the enemy. He told Joshua who was one of the great soldiers to select other men to go to battle with the Amalekites(the enemy). But while Joshua went to battle with his men, Moses went up to the hill with Aaron and Hur while he had the staff of God in His hands. The bible tells us that as long as he had the staff up on the hill, the Israelites won the battle. I believe the staff in Moses’ hand is symbolic to the authority given to us over the enemy through Jesus Christ and therefore the more we exercise this authority, the more we stay victorious.verse 10-14

Exercising our authority can mean rebuking the enemy with the word of God; for example when confronted by the enemy, we can say in authority, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper & every tongue raised against me in judgment shall I condemn for this is the heritage of the servant of the Lord”- Isaiah 54:17

Let Us Surround Ourselves with Godly Support:

As the Israelite soldiers were to Joshua, so were Aaron and Hur to Moses.No matter how strong physically, spiritually or otherwise that we may me, we would always need support systems. Support systems as mentors, friends, family that help us, push us, support us when the going gets tough. The bible tells us that as Moses’ got tired and his hands started to drop, the Israelites began to lose. But thank God he had his support system who devised a means to support him as the battle went on against the Amalekites. verse 12

The same may apply to us as Christians, the moment we start to dwindle just a little bit in our faith walk with God, we may become vulnerable and thus susceptible to attacks from the the enemy. I believe this is why God says to us to choose one side, either to stay on fire for Him or be cold, lukewarmness is just not acceptable.- Revelation 3:16

Therefore, I encourage you to get you a great support system, pray about it if you need to. God will lead them to you or you to them n Jesus name.

The Place of Pressing On in the Place of Prayer:

The bible tells us that Moses held the staff up on the hill until sunset, I am imagining he held it up for at least twelve hours or I may be wrong. But it is evident that he was in that position for a good number of hours and so was Joshua fighting the battle for so long a time.

whew! Many of us tend to pray for a thing once and then forget about it or perhaps engage in spiritual warfare and then give up halfway through. But apparently there is a place for persistent praying until we see our desired outcome.

Sigh! I know it isn’t easy dears but I pray that we are strengthened in the place of prayer and that we are able to pray earnestly without ceasing in Jesus name.

The Place of Thanksgiving to the Lord:

And just as they got their victory over the enemy, Moses was swift in raising an altar of worship to the most high God who gave them victory. This should be our lifestyle, to give thanks to God for all the victories He gives to us no matter how small.

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