Leaving the Wilderness of Sin, and passing
Dophkah, and Alush (Numb.xxxiii.12-14), the people, now miraculously fed by
manna, come to Rephidim.
“And there was no water for the people to
drink” (Exod. xvii. 1).
Surely we shall here find a story of faith
and patience, of lessons learned, of experience that led to hope, and hope that
made not ashamed! Alas, no! Israel who had seen the waters of the Red Sea
form a wall on either side of them at the command of God, who had experienced
the sweetening of the waters of Marah, who had been led to the twelve wells at
Elim, who had received a daily promise of manna, failed at the first test.
Have not we also failed in similar
circumstances? Have there not been
occasions in the past when we have passed through some trial in which after
serious misgivings and unbelief the hand of the Lord has been revealed, and
have we not at some later period been brought face to face with a situation
almost identical, and have we not as surely failed to rise to the test of faith
as did Israel of old? The repeated
trials of our pilgrimage are so many indications of failure. Abraham was never tested twice in the matter
of the offering of Isaac, for he responded to the test, but after his sojourn
in Egypt we find him returning to the spot between Bethel and Hai:--
“Unto the place of the altar which he had
made there at the first” (Gen. xii. 8
& xiii. 4).
Under the pressure of famine he had
failed. The second time however he
overcame, for immediately after his return to Bethel and Hai the conflict arose
which resulted in Lot choosing Sodom, and Abraham receiving confirmation of the
promise of the land and the seed (Gen. xiii. 5-18).
At Rephidim Israel failed to remember the
wondrous works of God:--
“Wherefore the people did chide with
Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink” (Exod. xvii. 2).
So great was their murmuring and so
threatening their attitude that they not only tempted God, but were at the
point of stoning their leader. The Lord
commanded Moses to:--
“Go on before the people, and take with
thee of the elders of Israel; and the
rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thy hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon
the rock of 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” (Exod.xvii.5,6).
The word “smite” occurs in Exod. iii. 20
of the smiting of Egypt, and in
xii.12 of the smiting of the
firstborn. In
Zech. xiii. 7 it is used
prophetically of the offering of Christ, “smite the shepherd”; and again in
Isa. liii. 4, “smitten of
God”. We learn from I Cor. x. 3, 4 that the smitten rock was typical of the
Lord:--
“And did all eat the same spiritual meat,
and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed, and THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST.”
Some interpret this passage to mean that
the water which flowed that day from the smitten rock actually followed the
wanderings of the Israelites from that onward. Deuteronomy ix. 21 speaks of a brook that descended out of the mount,
while Psa. lxxviii. 15, 16 says:--
“He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and
gave them drink as out of great depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down
like rivers.”
Wall
in his Critical Notes suggests that this river thus formed descended from
Horeb to the sea, and that for the remaining 39 years of Israel’s wanderings
they kept near to its channel until in the last year of their pilgrimage they
came to Ezion-gaber (Numb. xxxiii. 36), a part of the Red Sea on the Arabian
side. It was not until after this that
we once more read of Israel’s need of water.
Others, seeing that there is no word for “them” in the original of I Cor. x. 4,
read the passage as though it means:--
“They drank of the spiritual rock which
followed the sending of the spiritual bread from heaven.”
Yet others, seeing the word “spiritual”
before the word “rock”, teach that we are not to understand this statement of
the literal water, but of Christ, Who accompanied the children of Israel on all
the journeyings, providing for all their needs all the time. Our own belief embraces the first and the
third interpretation.
There was literally a river formed by the
cleaving of the rocks, which made a provision for the whole period of Israel’s
pilgrimage.
This literal provision in turn is typical of
that spiritual rock, Christ, Who has promised never to leave nor forsake His
people.
The names given to this place, Massah and
Meribah, perpetuate Israel’s tempting of
God and their striving with
Moses. The “tempting” of the Lord is
contained in the challenge:
“Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exod.
xvii. 7).
Do we not trace the same spirit at work as
led the Lord Jesus to say:--
“Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will
not believe?” (John.iv.48).
In the case in point (John iv. 48) the
nobleman did believe the bare word of the Lord, without signs and wonders, but
with the generality it was not so. The
fame of the Lord had gone throughout the length and breadth of the land; the leper had been cleansed, the
demon-possessed had been delivered, the dead had been raised (Matthew
iv.-xi.). Yet after all these evidences
the Scribes and Pharisees said:--
“Master, we would SEE A SIGN from Thee!” (Matt. xii. 38).
Israel too in the wilderness had signs in
abundance, yet with the pillar of cloud before their eyes, and the table spread
in the wilderness, they rose up and said.
“Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exod.
xvii. 7).
What a blessed contrast is seen in the
case of the prophet Habakkuk. To him the
word had come:--
“The vision is yet for an appointed time .
. . . . wait for it . . . . . the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. ii. 3,
4).
We see how this man “lived by his faith”
by the closing verses of chapter iii.:
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines; the
labour of the olive shall fail; and the
fields shall yield no meat; the flock
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I
will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. iii. 17,
18).
Here is a contrast with Israel in the
wilderness. The one tempted the Lord in
the presence of want, the other trusted Him.
For ourselves we would seek the higher lesson. Not merely to trust the Lord because we know
that in spite of appearances He will supply, but to trust Him, as Job did,
saying “though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”. To trust Him as the three Hebrew youths did
when they told Nebuchadnezzar that even if the Lord did not deliver them from
the burning fiery furnace, yet would they trust and obey. To accustom oneself to look for signs may be an evidence of unbelief. To the church the word comes:--
“We walk by faith, not by
sight” (II Cor. v. 7).
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