Moses

March 1

Exodus 17:1-7

Water from a rock?

The Israelites had grumbled against the Lord in a place called the Desert of Sin. They had also disobeyed the Lord by keeping some extra manna for the next day instead of trusting God to give them fresh food every day.

Once again the people became thirsty because they had found no water. They said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here into the desert to die of thirst?”

Then Moses prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to him, “Walk on ahead with some of the leaders and take your special stick with you. I will stand in front of you on a rock at Mount Sinai. When you strike the rock with your stick, water will come out for all the people to drink.”

How can a rock give water?

If you had to squeeze a raw potato really hard, you may get a few drops of water from it; but water from a rock? That sounds impossible! But with God, nothing is impossible!

God loves doing things in unusual and unexpected ways. We don’t know how the water got into the big rock; whether God had been storing it up over a long time, like water that is stored under the ground, or if He created the water from nothing. God had done it before when He created the world, so why should it have been any harder for Him this time? Either way, Moses could have gone around striking rocks in the desert for years and not found a single drop of water. Yet God showed him exactly which rock to strike, and when he struck it, there was enough water for thousands of people and their animals.

Jesus, the Rock, gives us the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit. Everyone is invited to drink freely from Him (John 4:13-14).

Verse for today

… they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:4