All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:1-7 ESV).
Our reading today is a type of Jesus and His death on the cross. Just as the Lord provided for Israel in their wilderness journey, so also did He provide for every believer in the Cross of Christ. That’s very good news for us when life feels like a wilderness. Life can feel barren, empty, and dry. In those times God may seem far away. Israel went through that experience. They literally were in a wilderness, and there was no water to drink. It seemed as if God had abandoned them. They grumbled against Moses and blamed God for their desperate situation. They wanted God to prove that he still loved them.
Have you ever found yourself feeling the same thing?
God proved his love to Israel in an amazing, gracious way. God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff. This was the same staff that Moses had used to deliver God’s judgment of plagues on Egypt (cf. Exodus 7-10). God put himself at the rock as well, and the result was water for the people to drink.
At the cross of Jesus, something similar happened. Jesus put himself willingly on the cross for our sake so that we could receive the water of life (see John 4:14; 7:37-39). Paul put it this way: “[Israel] drank from the spiritual rock . . . and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). When life feels like a wilderness, we can look at the Cross and see the life-giving love of our Savior, Jesus.