be no doubt that he is the Rock of God, inviting the thirsty to drink, as he did in the desert. Horeb must be in his mind:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. (John 7:37)
Finally, there is one more note that needs examination. When the line finally dies down and everyone has had a chance to drink their fill, Moses names the place. Rephidim and Horeb are names that already existed; but the naming that Moses does has to do with the events that presently had unfolded in that place. He does not name it once, but twice. There are two great moments of consequence that occur: a quarreling on Israel’s part amongst themselves, and a testing of the Lord.
Quarreling children of God and a testing of the Lord often go hand in hand. One can imagine that if some group of professing believers have given themselves over to infighting, it would be quite natural for them to have also given themselves over to doubting the sovereignty of God. At the core of all murmuring is unbelief. We complain because we assume there must have been a mistake. We argue because we assume we’ve been wronged. We keep murmuring and arguing because we assume God must not have heard us. The only other option in the rebellious and unbelieving mind is that he has heard us and does not care. And this is where we find the people of Israel. Thousands of years later, we will find them there again:
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35–41)
Imagine for a moment that we are watching a film of these two events on a split screen. On one side are the thirsty Israelites complaining to Moses that he could care less that they are dying. On the other side are the Israelites complaining to Jesus that he could care less that they are dying. In both instances, the word of God had been issued, that he would take them to the place to which they were journeying:
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, ‘I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’” (Exod 3:16–17)
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” (Mark 4:35)
Both sets of accusations against God rest entirely on one or both of the two options: God is not there, or God does not care. The reality, of course, is that murmuring is unbelief. The word of God is sure, and in both cases the word of God had been delivered. The illusion that God was asleep, or aloof, or sinister is just that—an illusion. Jesus is not sleeping because he couldn’t care less, but because he is convinced that God cares intimately; therefore he can sleep. The disciples wanted the peace of Rome, not the peace of Christ. They wanted escape from the storm, not perseverance through it. They wanted the fragile vessel kept out of harm’s way, which is to say that they did not want God to receive glory for doing what would otherwise be impossible. Murmuring is unbelief. Christ was asleep because he knew God cared, and that God was sovereign. When Israel thirsted, Christ had not withheld water from them because he is a scoundrel; rather, he withheld water to teach them to trust him. The suffering was for the perfecting of faith, but they would have none of it.
Look. We are told that the Rock is Christ. God is before his people. He is struck per his own ordination, and the people of God drink freely from his riven side. And all this in response, not to their worship of him, but their quarreling and rebellion. There is no charge that can be brought against God, other than that of him being merciful and gracious.
Glorious things of Thee are Spoken
(John Newton, 1779)
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God.
God, whose word cannot be broken,
formed thee for his own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
what can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
thou may’st smile at all thy foes.
See, the streams of living waters,
springing from eternal love,
well supply thy sons and daughters
and all fear of want remove.
Who can faint while such a river
ever flows their thirst to assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the giver,
never fails from age to age.
4. Augustine, The Anti-Pelagian Writings, 175.
5. Law, The Gospel in Exodus, 98.
6. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 107.
Chapter 5
But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. (Exod 17:12–13)
There is something addictive about the work of ancestry recovery. Rarely is the myriad of narratives that was woven together to make us who we are talked about in detail. One are two generations back is often the limit of our capacity to name our ancestors. Imagine if it you were to find out that a notable person had been discovered in your ancestry. Imagine if it were someone you’d never heard of, but someone with a story that others have remembered. It is the most natural thing in the world to begin to read about this person, even to hunt down photographs and crane one’s neck at different angles in front of the mirror to see if we can find the resemblance.
Moses is an ancestor of all true believers. God used him to preach about himself to those who are able to hear the sermon. In this Exodus passage, Moses is positioned by God into a crucible of sorts. It is in this strange posture that God will proclaim down the corridor of time the message that, in order to experience the victory of God, we must live in dependency on God.
Immediately after the event at the Rock of Horeb, the Scriptures take us to a battle between the Amalekites and the Israelites. The battle takes place in Rephidim, the region in which Israel was already camped, where God brought water from the rock.
Remembering how God had used his staff to repeatedly broker great outcomes, Moses tells
