Exodus 17:1-16

God delights in doing the extraordinary.  We get excited when the extraordinary happens, but if we are honest with ourselves we would really just rather have things calm and predictable.  God wants to test our faith and demonstrate that we must learn to depend upon Him.  Trials in our lives seem to be the most effective way for us to learn to lean upon the Lord.  When we face difficult circumstances we can either choose to doubt the Lord and complain or we can depend on the Lord and humbly pray to Him.  We would be wise to learn the latter because if we do not we are most certainly setting ourselves up for more difficult days ahead.

GOD USED THE TEST OF WATER: Once again the children of Israel are thirsty, and once again they complain to Moses.  They accuse God of bringing them to the wilderness out of Egypt for the sole purpose of killing them.  This same attitude keeps coming up over and over again.  I believe that it is for this exact reason that problems keep coming up over and over again.  God has been patiently trying to teach them a lesson.  That is simply to trust Him and know that He is able to do the extraordinary.  Instead of complaining to Moses and doubting God’s goodness they should be encouraging one another by remembering the amazing victories of the past.  They should be waiting patiently for the Lord to provide.  Since they have yet to learn this lesson it keeps getting re taught over and over again.  How often we face the exact same thing.  We become anxious over the circumstances of our lives and instead of casting our cares on Him and knowing that He will take care of us we worry and complain.  God wants us to learn to rejoice in all circumstances and until we do we are far more likely to face circumstances in which it is difficult for us to rejoice.  This is how God works to build character in our lives.

GOD USES THE TEST OF WAR: For the first time the children of Israel face war.  Moses instructs Joshua and the people go out into battle.  This must have been a very unique sight.  Slaves were going to war against a trained group of warriors.  Once again God has another plan and He chooses to use this war to demonstrate His power and establish Moses and the unquestioned leader of the people.  As long as Moses held up his arms, the children of Israel prevailed in the battle.  When Moses got tired and let his arms drop; Israel would begin to be defeated.  This was a clear illustration of God’s authority being exercised through Moses.  Israel had to fight, but their victory was only possible because of God’s obvious intervention through the prayers of Moses.  If we equate Moses holding up the rod with prayer, we should certainly be convinced of our necessity of prayer on a day to day basis in our lives.  The victory depended on Moses holding up his hands, his helpers who helped support the weight and then men who were on the battlefield.  All of us have a part to play and we should seek to serve in any way we can in order to further the kingdom of God.

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