Peter Barnes: Exodus 15:22-27; 17:1-7
(10 March 2019)
SERMON NOTES: STREAMS IN THE DESERT (Exodus 15:22-27; 17:1-7)
– ‘streams in the desert’ (Isa.35:6).
1. God tests His people.
– 15:22-27. In three days Israel goes from celebrating the crossing of the Red Sea to grumbling about the lack of water in the wilderness. We are often tried and tested; it is part of life in the wilderness. Note Gen.22:1; Acts 14:22.
2. God’s people grumble.
– God can test us but we are not to test the Lord – Deut.6:16.
– 15:24; 17:1-4. In 1538 the city of Geneva exiled John Calvin; in 1750 the Northampton congregation sacked Jonathan Edwards. About 1500 B.C. the congregation of Israelites could almost stone Moses.
– John 10:30-31, for saying He was one with God. Almost the opposite for Moses.
– William Cowper: Have you no words? Ah think again,/ Words flow apace when you complain,/ And fill your fellow creature’s ear/ With the sad tale of all your care./ Were half the breath thus vainly spent,/ To heaven in supplication sent, Your cheerful song would often be –/ Hear what the Lord has done for me!
– compare Rom.1:21 and Luke 17:17-18.
3. God provides for His people.
– 15:23-24 (note Ruth 1:20); 15:26; 17:5-7. Later Moses is told to tell the rock to yield water, but he sins by striking it twice – Num.20:7-8, 10-13.
– 1 Cor.10:4; John 7:37.