Drip Watchers

June 23, 2019                  NOTES NOT EDITED

Drip Watchers

Exodus 17:1-7

SIS:  We can save ourselves a lot of anxiety and bring glory to God if we learn to patiently trust Him even when the way is hard.

Some things just take time.  Like the dripping of pitch.  Pitch is a sticky, tar-like substance that looks like a solid but is actually a liquid.  The Guiness Book of World Records has identified the “longest running experiment in history.”  Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Australia wanted to demonstrate for his students that some substances appear to be solids, but are actually liquids.  To prove his point, Dr. Parnell established the “Pitch Drip Experiment” in 1927 and it has been going on continuously since that time—over 92 years.  The Bible speaks of “pitch” as the substance Noah used to keep the ark from leaking.  Dr. Parnell placed some pitch in a sealed funnel over a beaker. A glass dome covers the experiment.  He let it sit for a few weeks and then broke the end off the funnel.  The experiment was up and running—but not running very fast.  Eight years later, the first drop of pitch fell into the beaker.  The eighth drop fell on November 28, 2000—73 years later.  The experiment demonstrates that pitch is 230 billion times more viscous (drippy) than water.  The experiment—still continuing today—has been passed down to its third professor.  Not only does the experiment teach us the incredible viscosity (thickness) of pitch, but it also demonstrates the need for incredible patience in science.  Some things just take time.  This is true also of “faith.”  We must develop patience to faithfully trust God to work in our lives—according to His timetable, not ours.  One of the major keys to victory in the Christian life is developing the virtue of “patience.”  We must become, “Drip Watchers.”

SIS:  We can save ourselves a lot of anxiety and bring glory to God if we learn to patiently trust Him even when the way is hard.

Let’s read about becoming “Drip Watchers” in Exodus 17:1-7

This passage of Scripture shows us three important “components” of overcoming crises in our lives and becoming victorious followers of Christ.  One component is understanding the Character of Man.  Another component is contrasting man’s character with the Character of God, and finally learning the steps to overcoming a Crisis of Faith.

1.  The Character of Man Examined

Three important “negative” characteristics of man are show up in this text.  Natural, fleshy man is “impatient, impertinent, and impulsive.”

A.  Carnal man is IMPATIENT (1-3)

The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.  ² So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.”

“Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?”  ³ But the people thirsted there for water, and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

The Bible defines “impatience” as having a tendency to be easily irritated or provoked into grumbling and complaining.

At the first sign of discomfort or difficulty, the Israelites started “complaining and grumbling”—a character flaw they displayed often.  Anytime things got a little tough, even after seeing God move marvelously with 10 great miracles to deliver them from Egypt, the Israelites complained. They murmured, or grumbled under their breath. No matter how many times God met their needs, they could not seem to simply be patient and wait for Him to move.

Just a short time before this incident (chapter 15), God sweetened some bitter waters so they could drink.  At this time the Word says, “The people grumbled to Moses” (15:24).  Just after this incident the people got hungry (chapter 16).  The Word says, “The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (16:2).  God provided a heavenly meal called, “manna” (“what is it”), every morning, and a miraculous meal of quail every evening. And, God kept providing their every need for 40 years as they wandered in the Wilderness. 

The Israelites reflect the fallen nature of all of us.  Our tendency when faced with difficulty is to “grumble and complain.”  We are impatient.

B.  Natural man is also IMPERTINENT (v7).

⁷ He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

The dictionary defines “impertinence” as  being rude; uncivil; contemptuous.  The Bible in verse 7 defines impertinence as “testing the Lord by complaining.”  It is simply “rude” and “uncivil” to complain about the way God takes care of us.  The Hebrew word here for complain, or complaining, is “rib” (sometimes, rūb). This word is associated with the filing of a lawsuit—that is, suing somebody.  To complain is actually to “sue God for the way He cares for you.”  That is worse than rude or uncivil, that is blasphemous. 

It is human nature (fleshly man’s nature) to blame God for just about any tragedy or difficulty that happens.  You might here people complain, “Where was God” when a human tragedy happens, such as the terrorist attack on 9-11.  Natural man does not understand the character of God or we would never raise such rude, uncivil, and biblically ignorant complaints against Him.  Natural man is impertinent. 

C.  Natural man is IMPULSIVE (4)

⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!”

People who are “impertinent” enough to “accuse God of wrong-doing” in His care for us, possess little or no personal restraint.  Natural man tends to act on “impulse.”  The dictionary defines impulsive as, acting without thinking, or forethought.  The Israelites jumped straight from being thirsty to thirsting for blood! The Israelites were prone to acting impulsively, which is a characteristic of our unbridled human nature.  Natural man tends to “shoot first and never really get around to asking any questions.”  The Bible warns us against acting impulsively (James 1:19-20),

¹⁹ My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger,  ²⁰ for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

Someone wiser than I pointed out, “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason—to be quick to hear and slow to speak.”

When we act on impulse we almost never—actually never—fulfill a righteous end.  Impulsiveness—whether in making a purchase or making an accusation—never “accomplishes God’s righteousness.”  Think about that the next time you are tempted to post a blistering comeback to someone on FaceBook.

From this passage the Character of Sinful Man is Examined.  We are impatient, impertinent, and impulsive.  Man’s sinful nature is contrasted with God’s Perfect Nature.  The most important “component” in learning to trust God is knowing His character.

2.  The Character of God Revealed

A.  God is PATIENT.  This is revealed throughout the bible.  One instance of God’s infinite patience is when the Israelites “tested” by not going in to possess the Promised Land, which is why they end up wandering in the Wilderness for forty years.  This was such a grievous sin that God was going to destroy the Israelites.  Moses went to God and begged God not to destroy them, even though they deserved it.  In Numbers 14:18 God’s infinite patience is on display:

¹⁸ The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love,  forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. 

The Bible describes God from beginning to end as being patient with His chosen people, even when we act contemptuously toward Him.  Thank God I’m not God!  If I were God, after about the third or fourth complaint, I would have wiped man from the face of the earth.

It is not humanly possible to understand the infinite patience of God.  We cannot comprehend, and even struggle just to describe it, but we can trust that God is infinitely patient because the Word tells us He is infinitely patient.  That does not mean God will not punish sin.  The verse in Numbers 14:18 continues,

¹⁸ The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love,  forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion.  But He will not leave the guilty unpunished,  bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation.  The penalties and consequences for “testing” the infinite patience of God are extreme and long-lasting.  Thankfully, God’s patience and loving-kindness is equally extreme and long-lasting.

The Bible records that Jesus cried twice.  No doubt He cried more but these two instances reveal the character of God.  The first time Jesus cried was at the death of His friend, Lazarus.  The second recorded time Jesus cried was as He approached the beloved City of God, Jerusalem.  As Jesus stood upon a hill overlooking the city the Bible records (Luke 19:41-44).

⁴¹ As He approached and saw the city, He wept  over it, ⁴² saying, “If you knew  this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden  from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come on you  when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side.  ⁴⁴ They will crush you and your children within you to the ground,  and they will not leave one stone on another  in you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

The Jews were (and still are) ignorant, and even contemptuous toward Jesus as the Messiah—the Deliverer.  For thousands of years God had protected and provided for His chosen nation, but they could not see it.  God is so patient.  The Bible calls His patience, long-suffering.  Paul said that “⁸ But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (Rom. 5:8).  God’s patience toward His children is inexhaustible and unassailable.  Even while we were contemptuous enemies languishing in our rebellion, God loved us and patiently waits for us to return to Him.

God is patient.  As His children, we must be patient.  We must be patient with God as He works out His plan for our lives, and we must be patient with others as God is working in their lives.

B.  God is also POWERFUL

Let’s go back to Exodus 17.  Verse 6 says, ⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. ⁶ I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water  will come out of it and the people will drink.”

I’m sure you have heard the expression, “You can’t get blood out of a turnip.”  This describes something that is impossible—like getting a deadbeat to pay you what they owe.  Our text might be summed up by the expression, “You can’t get water out of a rock . . . ; that is, unless you are God!”

Throughout the Bible we see God’s miraculous and infinite power revealed—with the greatest revelation of His power being the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  It is impossible to overstate God’s power.  We call it “omnipotence,” meaning supernatural, limitless power.  God performs this miracle through Moses in order to demonstrate His power to His people, because if we are going to trust Him, we have to believe He is more powerful than any obstacle or crisis we might face in life.  God could have simply sent rain and let the Israelites fill their buckets—but that would not be a clear enough demonstration of His power.  They had seen rain before.  God demonstrated His power by doing the impossible—bring water out of a rock!

In order to trust God, you must believe God is BIGGER than whatever crisis you might be facing.  God is infinitely patient and infinitely powerful.  The Bible also reveals that God is

3.  PURPOSEFUL (EX. 17:1)

The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command.

Underline the words, according to the Lord’s command.  The Israelites were not where they were, experiencing what they were experiencing, by accident, but by Divine Design.  If you are going to patiently trust God through faith, you must believe that God has a PURPOSE and plan for your life.  The Psalmist declared (139:16),  ¹⁶ Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Power, without purpose, is destructive.  Simply having the ability to do something, like bring water out of a rock, does not mean it is the “right thing to do.”  Might does not make right.  God did what He did in the way He did for a very specific purpose.  Look back at verse 7,

⁷ He named the place Massah [tested] and Meribah [complained] because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

If we are going to live victorious Christian lives, even through the hard places of life, we need to know that “God is among us!”  The circumstances of the Israelite shouted to them, “God has abandoned you. You are wandering in the desert and you will die forgotten.”  It is a very dangerous thing to listen to your circumstances, no matter how loud they are shouting—because “God’s purpose dictates where we are and where we are going, not our circumstances.”

God always has a plan.  God always operates with a purpose.  As a wise person once summed it up, “Where God guides, God provides.”  We often get into circumstances, many of our own choosing, that confuses us and challenges our faith.  We must remember, “we are never in a place or a situation that surprises God or can derail His purpose for our lives.”

We must understand that God’s plan may move slowly at times—but it always moves surely.  God’s providence may drip slowly, but it will drip surely. 

We are impatient, impertinent, and impulsive.  God is infinitely patient, infinitely powerful, and has an eternal purpose for our lives.  So, when we come to a “hard place in life, as the Israelites did at Massah and Meribah, we can save ourselves a lot of anxiety and bring glory to God if we learn to patiently trust Him even when the way is hard.

The Chinese have a unique way of writing—they draw pictures.  The word picture for the word, “crisis,” has two parts, often one placed over the other like a fraction.  The two parts to the Chinese word for crisis is, “danger over opportunity.”  At least in Chinese script, a crisis is a “dangerous opportunity.”  This is certainly true in the Bible.  The Israelites were definitely in a “crisis.”  The crisis revealed their character flaws, but it also revealed the Infinite and Pure Character of God.  If we will reject the tendency to act according to our impatience, impertinence, and impulsiveness and respond in faith to God’s infinite patience, infinite power, and eternal plan, we can have victory on the other side of any crisis.  I want to outline three essential steps to responding to a Crisis of Our Faith.  I’ll just mention these quickly.

1.  Pray

Look at Ex. 17:2:  ² So the people complained to Moses.  Then compare that to verse 4, Moses cried out to the Lord.  There’s your two options when faced with a “crisis of faith.”  The fleshly Israelites said the wrong thing to the wrong person.  The Israelites complained to Moses.  Moses, on the other hand, said the right thing to the Right Person.  Moses spoke to God about the problem.  If you ever want to have consistent victory of challenging crises, YOU MUST PRAY!

2.  Patiently Wait

Look at Ex. 17:1 once again, The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command.  If you are reading your Bible and praying regularly, and listening to God’s command, then you are right where you need to be—whether there is water in the wadi or it is dry as a bone.

Isaiah encourages us by saying, The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters never run dry. (58:11).  Isaiah said something similar in chapter 40, verse 31:  but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint (ESV).

Solomon The Wise also reminds us of the blessing of patiently waiting on the Lord to guide us, ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; ⁶ think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths (Prv. 3:5-6).

If you are in a crisis, you need to get into the Word.  God will guide you as you patiently wait, meditating and praying in the Word.  Let me put it this way, “If you are in a crisis, and not in the Word—you are in a MESS!”

3.  PICK UP A STICK (Ex. 17:5)

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. ⁶ I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.”

Everything you need to overcome a “crisis of faith,” you already possess in Christ. If you are praying and patiently waiting in God’s Word, God will show you exactly what you need to do, how to do it, and when. There’s no need to “wait” for a miracle, it is already in your possession.  The “staff,” whatever that is, is already something you possess or will soon come into possession.  You need to “pick it up and go!”  There is no true blessing that ever comes by “sitting on your backside and doing nothing.”  God did His part—He brought water out of the rock.  He expected Moses to do his part also—pick up his stick!  I will absolutely guarantee you that if you are sitting on the railroad tracks of a crisis, God doesn’t expect you to sit there and meditate on what to do next.  In a crisis, doing nothing is almost never the right direction to take.

Sometimes, victory takes a little while to drip into the beaker of our lives—but it will surely drip if we patiently trust God.  We can save ourselves a lot of anxiety and bring glory to God if we learn to patiently trust Him even when the way is hard.  God’s providence might drip painfully slow, but it drips eternally sure.  Be a Drip Watcher.