Water from the Rock [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series called Moses, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I wanna make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It'll be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, we encourage you to go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You see, when you become a parent and you have a child, there's a mysterious thing that happens. You are formed into a covenantal relationship with your child. You can't explain it.

It just happens. It's all of a sudden, this is my child, I am this child's father, and therefore my life is committed to the wellbeing of this child. And so even when the child is frustrating you, when you are in covenantal love relationship, you provide, but you provide because you remember the depth of your love for your child because this is my child. In other words, why did God provide water in the desert? Was it because the people had whined and complained?

Absolutely not. The reason that he provided for them, the psalmist says, is because he remembered Abraham and he remembered how he made a covenant. And he said that you're gonna be the father of a nation and you're gonna be given a land and I'm gonna always be your father and this is gonna be my people. And this was what was in the heart of God when he was moved with long suffering on their behalf.

And instead that day of judging them, he blessed them with water. Now, this word quarrel is very important and the events that take place are very important to understanding the meaning of this text and why Paul says that Christ was this rock. The word quarrel can be used in the Hebrew as a word that means more literally accusation like a legal accusation. So what the people were doing when they were quarreling against Moses is that they were actually accusing him.

See their language? They said, you have brought us out here to die. So he was being accused of manslaughter. He was being accused of improper leadership that was leading to their death. And so they were in a sense forming a legal accusation. The reason that you can be sure that this is what's going on is because Moses says to God, they're about ready to stone me.

Well, stoning someone was the punishment that was meted out for anyone convicted of a capital offense. And so they were in a sense gonna try Moses and stone Moses and kill him. And so it comes that the Lord gives instructions to Moses that make it even more clear. He first says, take some elders with you. The elders were the governing authority. The elders were in cases in which there was an accusation. They were the ones to hear the accusation. They were the Supreme Court justices. They were the ones who would hear it in a trial. So the image here again is judicial.

It is of a trial that's getting ready to take place. An accusation has been made. The elders are gonna move forward like they are the jury. There's gonna be a trial. There's gonna be a judgment. And as you're reading the story, what you're thinking here is the judgment is gonna come, but it's gonna come against these people who are so faithless. Who is the judgment gonna come against?

Who is on trial here? And it becomes further clear when the Lord says to Moses, take the staff with which you struck the Nile. Now he gives this very specific information, but you don't want you to take any staff. I want you to take the staff, the symbolic staff that you had in your hand when you struck the Nile and that water became blood. And when you did that judgment came upon Egypt. That staff was the mark of the ultimate judgment of God. That staff that came down upon that water would also be lifted up so that the people would be set free and the Egyptian army would be judged and swallowed up by the sea. It was the staff of judgment. It was the ultimate powerful sovereign justice of God and his staff, Moses' staff was the one that was to be used to go and strike this rock. And so you can imagine the scene now, you've got an accusation, you've got the jurors, the elders, you've got the judgment symbol and you're waiting for the people to be judged as you look at this and who's gonna be struck down.

But then here comes the big surprise. The Lord says, I will stand before you at the rock of Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai, I will go and I'll be there at that rock.

Maybe by the pillar of cloud, we don't know how the Lord was manifest, but this word for stand can mean stand as in stand still and subservient like one would be as a verdict is given. It starts becoming apparent that the Lord is gonna stand there at the rock and that the blow of judgment is not gonna come down on the people. It's not gonna come down on Moses.

It's gonna come down on the rock. Bring the blow of judgment upon the rock. The people should be struck down for all of their faithlessness and murmuring, but instead the Lord says, I'm gonna go before you and I'm gonna stand right there and I'm gonna envelop that rock and then you're gonna strike that rock.

People should be killed for their sin. But instead the Lord said, I am going to sin my only begotten son. God would come in the flesh and he would be identified as the rock of our salvation. And instead of the people being struck with the rod of judgment, the rod of judgment would land upon Jesus and he would be beaten and beaten and beaten and scourged and skin would be flayed and he would be nailed to a cross and he would suffocate and he would die under the judgment against sin. He who knew no sin went before us as our rock and he was struck with the rod that should have struck us and all of this took place so that your sin could be cast as far as the east is from the west and so that God could do what he's always wanted to do and that is to pour out his Holy Spirit. He has always wanted to fulfill all of his covenant promises that you would be his treasured people, a holy nation and a royal priesthood and that everyone would be filled with the spirit and all would know the Lord and that there would be no distance between us and God and that you could drink deeply from this amazing fount of grace. And so Christ is the rock and Christ has been smitten for us so that from him proceeding from the son would be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the living water that comes gushing forth and by this act of justice of the rock being struck, God's mercy would be made known among the people. Instead of letting judgment fall upon the people, God said, let it fall upon me.

That's the way living water is gonna come. Wow, and that's what the story is about and once you know that, you can fast forward years ahead to Numbers chapter 20 and here the people are back and they've proven themselves to be ever more faithless and you come back to this same spot at Meribah and the people are thirsty again and they quarrel again and they complain again and Moses and Aaron, the high priest, his brother, go and get on their face before the Lord at the tent of meeting where the Shekinah glory of God comes upon them. And the Lord says to him, says, okay, here's what you do, take the rod from the tent of meeting and go and just speak to the rock and tell it to bring forth water. But instead, when he gets there, Moses is angry and you see his language and he says, so you rebels, that's his language, you want some water?

Okay, we'll get some water and he strikes the rock and he strikes the rock and the water comes out. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover The Power to Bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. Part of the reason the Lord doesn't allow Moses to go into the Promised Land is that he disobeyed. That's certainly, certainly part of it. Anybody that has been walking with God as long as Moses had should have clearly heard the Lord say, speak to the rock, don't strike the rock. Partly because maybe Moses didn't have faith that he could just speak to the rock.

All of that's going on. One elder this morning was saying, part of this to him is as you walk with the Lord, you should grow. And there might be that Moses just hadn't grown.

He's still in the old same pattern of thought. All of that is part of this, but there's something else. Let me show you a couple of distinctions between the story in Numbers 20 and the story in Exodus 17, because they're very important. There's a different word used for rock.

Isn't that interesting? In Exodus 17, the word is sur, translaterated S-U-R, and it means, well, a big rock. So some sort of big rock formation at the base of Mount Sinai. But the word that is used in Numbers 20 is the word silah, which in Hebrew means a cliff, a high lifted up rock. In Exodus 17, it was a big rock. In Numbers 20, the rock is high and lifted up. The rock is Christ. And now in Numbers 20, this picture of Christ is envisioned as lifted up, exalted, ascended.

That's interesting. And then this, we have to, to a certain degree infer this, but the more I read the text, the more plain it seems to me. Moses used the wrong staff.

Why is this important? Aaron, the high priest, had a rod that in another instance, maybe sometime we'll get a chance to look at that story, which it miraculously budded. A picture of resurrection life, a picture of God's capacity to bring life out of nothingness, all of this in Aaron's rod that budded. And because this rod budded supernaturally, it became a living symbol for them and they kept it at the ark of the covenant in the tent of meeting. So where the presence of the Lord was considered symbolically was at the ark of the covenant in the heart, the holy place in the tent of meeting. And there also was kept Aaron's rod.

Now go back in Numbers 20, you'll see what happened here was Moses and Aaron were on their faces before the Lord. And then the Lord says, take the rod and then go speak to the rock. Well, the rod that was spoken of was evidently Aaron's rod because the text says that he took the rod from the presence of the Lord.

That's in Numbers 20. He took the rod out from the presence of the Lord. That was the rod that he was taking. But when he strikes the rock, you'll see that the text says that Moses took his staff.

I think this is what happened. I think that he was told by the Lord to take the symbol of life and resurrection and go and hold it and then speak to the rock. But when he got there, Moses fell into an old pattern and he got angry and he set aside Aaron's rod and he took his staff, the same staff that had struck the Nile, the same staff that had brought judgment on Egypt, the same staff that had brought judgment on the rock in Exodus 17 and he brought that staff of judgment and he came down and he struck the rock with the rod of judgment instead of speaking to a rock with the staff of life and resurrection.

Really stands out. So what is all this saying? In this scene in Numbers, the Lord doesn't tell him to take the elders because there's not a trial. There's not a judgment that is coming. Instead, God was painting on the landscape of history, a portrait of Christ who is our rock. And in the first scene in Exodus, what we see symbolically is that the rod of judgment comes down and lands upon the rock instead of the people and out of that act of judgment against the rock, then the water comes forth.

But in Numbers 20, the message is clear. The rock does not need to be struck again. There is no need to smite this rock again. There is no need for Jesus to be crucified again.

Jesus is no longer just the rock to be smitten. He is the exalted one, high and lifted up. And he has gone into the heavenlies once and for all, having shed his own blood for the forgiveness of our sins and sprinkled it into the heavenly tabernacle.

And it's once and for all. There is never, ever, ever going to be a need for Jesus to be sacrificed again because the sacrifice was complete, because Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. Which means then not only does Jesus need do nothing to add to that finished work, but you and I need do nothing to add to the finished work. You don't have to strike a rock. You don't have to crucify Jesus again. You don't have to do anything.

Are you thirsty? Just speak to the rock because he has already completed and already paid the whole price. So every time that we try to get something from God by our own righteousness, every time we think that it's by my own self claims of my own pitiful nature and all my awful sin and all of this, we are dishonoring the cross of Jesus Christ because Jesus is sitting on the throne of the heavens having imputed his righteousness to you. And so Moses strikes the rock and it's like he is trying to bring judgment that has already been brought. And you don't need to strike the rock and you don't need to strike the body of Christ and you don't need to strike yourself.

You don't need to because Jesus has already paid it all. I think that's why God said, you're not going to the promised land. The promised land is about living water that has come because of grace that has already been poured out. There is for you today, beloved, an assurance that because Jesus took the rod of judgment that living water is flowing from the rock.

So what's left to do? Thirsty people, drink, drink. Get in that water, splash around in that water, be immersed in that water, be refreshed in that water, be filled with that water, drink, drink, drink deeply. I think of a Samaritan woman at the well and Jesus said to this woman whose life had been so riddled with sin, so riddled with mistake after mistake after mistake and adultery after adultery after adultery and all that has gone on in her life. And Jesus said to her, if you knew who you were talking to, you would have asked him for living water and he would have given it to you if you just speak to me and ask me, I will give you what you want. The Bible makes it so clear and so plain and so simple that sometimes we stumble over it.

We almost wish it'd be more complicated. Give me some steps, give me a rock to strike, give me something to do but instead Jesus just said, ask and you will receive, speak to me, speak to me and you will receive, drink because the rock has already been struck and the water is now flowing and that's the gospel. And today's teaching, Water from the Rock. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Would you say, Alan, that for someone who's listening right now, maybe confused, maybe not knowing why they're not at the end goal or at the victorious position, that maybe that's not the point.

Maybe right now in the here and now is the point. Yeah, well, oftentimes we find ourselves in the spot of Moses. I feel like, boy, I haven't really, I'm not being allowed into the Promised Land. But here is the amazing news of the gospel. When you accept Christ, you're already declared in the Promised Land. You're already declared blessed with every spiritual blessing.

There's not something else that has to happen. In this world, you have troubles, but you need to be assured of this. God's not withholding his grace from you. And the reason is that God doesn't need to strike you. Christ has already been struck. And that really is the point of the foreshadowing that goes on in the story of Moses striking the rock. We're later told that rock is Christ, and he has already been struck with the blows that should have come upon us. But instead, Christ died in our place, and anyone who accepts him in Christ is blessed and already given the Promised Land. It is one of those things that sometimes when you see a text or a story in the Bible and it really, really bothers you. It used to be in my life, I just, okay, I'll gloss over that, I can't figure that out. But now if something really, really bothers me, I pay special attention to it because the gospel itself is scandalous. It should really bother us that an innocent man died for people who should have died. And so we see in today one of those texts where, man, why is God not letting Moses go in? And it's exciting when you dig into this and see what's behind it all. Today's good news message is a listener supported production