Exodus 17: The Rock (and a lament for Emily)

The Sunday service centers on the passing of Emily Yasson who moved on to be with the Lord a few days ago. The second part of the message is the conclusion of an excursion into Exodus to look at the antetypes and symbols that point to the coming of Jesus.

Next Week: New Testament church life contextualized.

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Exodus – Water from the Rock – October 5, 2008

I. Moses was called “friend of God.” (Exodus 33.8-11).

A.    His relationship was a type of Christ’s relationship with His Father.

B.    God’s intention for His people is intimacy.

1.     They properly feared; they did not trust His mercy (Deuteronomy 5.23-29).

2.     “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets…” (Numbers 11.29).

3.     “I will put my law within them…they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31.33).

C.    A foreshadowing of the relationship the people are to have.

1.      John 15.15: No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

2.      In John 16.26-27, ” In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

3.     In John 17 Jesus said, “they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us…”

4.     Abba! Father! (Romans 8.15).

II. Looking at this section from New Testament vantage point (1 Corinthians 10.4).

A.    The wilderness experience is for our education.

1.     The rock is a type of Christ, which makes the lesson of Numbers more significant.

2.     Picture of Jesus on the rock of Calvary waiting to be struck.

B.    Forty years later. Numbers 20.8-11.

1.     This is a parallel event to Exodus 17 with a different instruction.

2.     Moses is told to “speak to the rock.”

C.    If the rock is a type of Christ then…

1.     Christ poured out life at the cross-he was struck down.

2.     Christ pours out life by request thereafter-ask and it shall be given.

D.    Moses disobeyed and God responds decisively.

1.     Was God being picky?

2.     God teaches by obedience.

3.     God can teach via consequences for disobedience.

4.     Learning by comparison or by contrast.

(a)  We can learn from good parents.

(b)  We can learn to avoid the mistakes of bad ones.

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