Day 7
BIBLE READING: Exodus 17:17
Why does God allow suffering? Why doesn't God do the things we expect him to do? Why doesn't he act more quickly? Have you ever tried to answer questions like these, either for yourself or for someone else?
It is never easy to answer that kind of question. The Children of Israel could not understand why God had led them to a place where there was no water for them. But they had been brought there to learn another lesson in God's school.
Once more instead of learning from God, they were murmuring against him and against their leader. Murmuring dishonours God. It says that God doesn't know what he is doing. Murmuring is catching. When one person starts to do it, it soon spreads. Murmuring also wastes our energies, which could be used for God in other ways.
God is wonderfully gracious however. Instead of pouring out judgement on the people, he told Moses to hit a particular rock with his rod and water would come out. That is exactly what happened.
When Moses struck the rock, it gave life-giving water. All that the people had to do was to take and drink. God had done the rest. If they refused to drink and were still thirsty, it was their own fault and God was not to blame.
The rock was struck only once. It is interesting that the need of water is not mentioned again until near the end of the 40 years of wanderings, when a new generation needed a display of God's power and provision (see Numbers 20:1-13).
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:4 'that rock was Christ'. It is a picture of how Christ was smitten for us on Calvary once for all. From him has come the water of life and it is free for everyone to take it for themselves.
A PRAISE NOTE:
Thank God today for Jesus Christ, the wonderful water for life.
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