Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Do You Expect From God? | Torah | Exodus 17:1-7

Episode Date: June 8, 2022

Are your expectations for God too low? Does God not always give you what you want? Do you find yourself complaining about your circumstances? In today's episode, Tanya shares how our grumbling might not be different from Israel's grumbling in Exodus 17:1-7. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 17:1-7 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth, and right now we're in the book of Exodus. Labor Day in Missouri is one of the hottest days of the year, and it's also the day of one of the hardest road races in the U.S., the Heart of America Marathon. My house sits on mile nine, and while the entire course is hot and hilly, our driveway perches atop about a two-mile sunny stretch of uphill blacktop. It's worth waking up at the crack of dawn to see the very first and the very last runners go by. All have different levels of frustration or enthusiasm. One year, I actually joined a friend at the driveway and ran the next few miles of the courts with her. So after a gradual decline down to the trail that extends across the state of Missouri,

the marathon takes a sharp left, and it turns up an unusually steep and long, even for here, Hill, called Easley. Easley Hill is the brute and glory of the race. Most runners walk Easley Hill because the chances are good you'll pass another person trying to run. So my friend tonight, just for the record, I was only running a portion of the race. We topped Easley Hill and all we could see for the next two or three miles was a sunny up and down stretch of highway. Now, she knew where the water stops were supposed to be, and we still had to run about two miles before the next one. So it was a welcome surprise when we crested the next hill and saw a mom and some kids

jumping up and down and offering us something cold. We wanted water. So we jogged over to the car table they'd set up along the road and the kids handed each of us a popsicle. They were so excited like they had made our day and we tried to hide our deflation. All we wanted was water, not a green jolly ranch or popsicle. Short version, we were hot and thirsty. We expected water.

We got popsicles. It wasn't what we expected. We grumbled. It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? I want to put you in the shoes of the Israelites because I think we could read another passage in the Bible about them grumbling and fumbling, and we could shake our heads and think, why? Why do you keep messing this up?

So they were traveling toward the desert region of Sinai. the sun was scorching and the sand was hot. Let's pick up in Exodus 17. The whole Israelite community set out from the desert of sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Refidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink.

Moses replied, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? But the people were thirsty for water there. and they grumbled against Moses. They said, why? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. Okay, wait, say what, Israelites? You were really thirsty back when you were in Egypt and making bricks all day. Remember when you lived as slaves? Did you forget so quickly what

it was like to be there? Do you really want to trade in your freedom to go back to Egypt? Moses hears all this and goes to God and basically says, what on earth do I do with these people? They're almost ready to stone me. They were, in essence, accusing God. The Lord who parted the water and moved with them in a fire and a cloud. The Lord who gave them manna from heaven to eat. But this wasn't what they were expecting. Why would the Lord bring them all this way, and then allow them to lose everything and die of thirst. Now, before we're too hard on them, remember, we are often just like them. We don't have a cloud and a fire to protect us by day and guide us by night, but we have the

Holy Spirit within us, and we still rebel against the Lord. I wonder if our complaints sound like accusations and challenges toward God's character. What is it within us that allows us to talk with God so flippantly? The Bible has anything but a flippant response to the way Israel grumbled. The ground they were standing on came to be called Massa and Maraba. Massa means tested and Maraba tempted. And when biblical authors refer back to this story, it's with warnings for their readers not to put God to the test and not to harden their hearts.

Psalm 95 looks back and says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Mirabah on the day at Massa in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. And Paul, he reflects back on this wilderness story with warnings against disobedience and arrogant self-certainty. See, the I am, the God of the Hebrews, the Creator and Redeemer God, gave them his very word. but they tested the relationship when they questioned whether or not he was really true to his word. Now, we can relate because trusting God takes time. And it comes and goes as we come and go between obedience and rebellion.

This is our story too. The Israelites were between the redemptive dry ground of the Red Sea and the promised land, and we live between the cross and the coming fullness of God's kingdom. Now while the challenges before us are ever changing, God's character remains steadfast. The way he responded to the Israelites at Masa and Marabaa should kind of blow our minds. Let's listen in. Verse 5. So 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 Horib, and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. Now, this is way better than what we expected. See, with the same staff he used to part the Nile, and also at Horib, the same place where God told Moses, I will always be with you.

God now uses a rock twofold, a rock to quench their thirst, and a rock which will heal their hardened hearts. Now Psalm 18 calls God our rock and our fortress and our deliverer. Psalm 78 says he made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. Psalm 95 says we should make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians that they drank from the spiritual rock and that rock is Christ. Jesus Christ is our sure foundation. who rescues us from our unbelief.

He rescues us from the sin that traps us in unbelief and sounds like grumbling against the Lord. And by God's grace, we have a well of forgiveness that never runs dry. We all suffer from a deep, deep thirst to be something other. It's because we're dissatisfied with our humanity. We know we're worked with sin. We do all kinds of things to try to clean ourselves up from the inside and the outside, but we know none of them work. Only God can fill this hole in our lives.

Now, when we sound like the Israelites, it's likely that our expectations of God are too low. We want him to give us something, and he's given us his son. Now, we can be so creative in the way we turn our desires into needs. When we start chasing desires for more time, or more freedom or more affirmation, or more stuff like they are actual needs,

We harden our hearts against God, and we start to sound like people who are grumbling against God because we truly believe our needs aren't being met. What kind of uncertainties are you facing in your life? As you contemplate those things, do you think you listen more to your anxious thoughts or God's eternal promises? We tend to expect things that are superficial and short-lived, and the Bible shows us over and over that God does things with, our eternity in mind. God is calling us into the peace that comes from trusting him and placing our

hope in his unchanging promise. Hebrews 13-8 says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. So how will you take those creative ways that you listen to your own voice over gods and turn them into ears that listen to God's promises? He will be faithful to you today. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.