Lesson #20

• The people complain again to Moses for their lack.
• The parallel to the Christian life:
• Often new believers in Christ will complain that their lives are not changing fast enough. They have just come to Christ from messed up lives, and now they want God to straighten everything out in their lives in one day.
• Notice what the Israelites said in verse 7, “Is the LORD among us, or not?
• We can understand the impatience of new believers in Christ, but God wants to teach them something first.
• God’s message to them is patience. As the new believer learns to wait on God, He will put everything in proper order.
• What does the water symbolize? How do we know?
• The water represents eternal life. We know it because the Bible tells us.
• Read Joh 4:14
• The rock in Horeb:
• Remember that Horeb was the location of the burning bush where Moses first met God.
• Remember that Mt. Horeb is the same location as Mt. Sinai.
• Of what is the rock a symbol? How do we know?
• The rock is a symbol of Jesus Christ. We know because the Bible tells us.
• Read 1Cor 10:1-4
• This passage specifically tells us that the rock from which Moses obtained water was Jesus Christ.
• Notice that it tells us that the Rock followed them through the wilderness. How could a rock follow them?
• It was Christ who was with them, the rock was simply a physical symbol.
• Moses struck the rock.
• When Moses struck the Rock, water came out for the people to drink
• There is an important significance to the stricking of the rock that we do not see in the book of Exodus.
• Read Num 20:2-13

• What did God tell Moses to do? God told Moses to speak to the rock.
• In Exo 17 God told Moses to strike the rock one time with the rod he had used to part the Red Sea.
• What did Moses do in Num 20? He struck the rock 2 times. (Num 20:11)
• Why did Moses rebel against God’s command in Num 20?
• He took his eyes off God and put them on the people.
• A Principle for Leadership

: Never take your eyes off of God and become pleasers of men. It will put your ministry on a wrong foundation. (Gal 1:10)

• When the believer takes his eyes off God and God’s plan for his life, the surrounding human circumstances will discourage and overwhelm him.
• Why did this one incident of disobedience prevent Moses from entering the promised land?
• Many people think it is an extremely harsh punishment after all his years of faithful service to God. You can imagine Moses’ disappointment because this was his one goal and purpose for his life starting back in Egypt. Moses paid dearly for his one sin of disobedience.
• To understand this punishment we need to see it from God’s perspective and not from Moses’ perspective.
• God’s perspective and the eternal plan:.
• God’s plan was that the promises of God are obtained by faith and not by the works of the law. Moses represents law and not grace.
• From the beginning of Genesis (Gen 3:15), God’s plan was to bring redemption to man from Adam’s sin which had been passed down to all generations. He would bring this redemption by providing a Savior, Jesus Christ, who would die on the cross and fulfill the prophecy in Gen 3:15. However, because there is a deceptive adversary, Satan, and because of man’s limited spiritual knowledge, how would man recognize this Redeemer when He came? God solved this problem in a very unique way. He provided “descriptive incidents” through Israel’s history. Therefore, by these incidents, those spiritually minded Jews who desired to know God, would recognize Jesus when He came. We call these incidents “types” or “prefigures” of Jesus Christ. There are hundreds of them through the Old Testament beginning in Genesis. We have already seen many in Exodus.
• The prefigure or type in Num 20 and Exo 17:
• The Rock that Moses struck to obtain water in Exo 17 was a prefigure of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It tells us that the water of eternal life would only become available if Jesus was struck by crucifixion. (Joh 3:15-17) Jesus had to die once for our sins.

• What is the message of the water from the Rock?
• Exo 17 and Num 20 together tell us that Jesus was to die only once and then never to be struck again. (Heb 9:28), and that His death on the cross would give us the water of eternal life.
• When Moses struck the Rock twice in Num 20, he confused God’s prefigure about His eternal plan of only one crucifixion. The Rock had already been struck in Exo 17. Moses only had to speak to the Rock in the book of Numbers.
• What is the significance of speaking to the Rock?
• When we identify ourselves with Jesus Christ and His crucifixion at the time we are born again, we recognize the one crucifixion where He was struck. After that we need only pray and speak to Him about what we need. He does not need to be crucified every time we have a need or every time we take communion.

• The importance of the message of the Rock
• The symbol of the Rock is very important in both the Old and New Testaments in that it is mentioned so frequently. Here are a few:

• Why did God not provide water for the people before the situation became desperate?
• The people were constantly turning to Moses when they should have turned to God.
• Remember that they crossed the Red Sea on Moses’ faith, not on their own faith.
• Therefore, God was trying to teach them faith.
• God often waits until we are desperate enough to ask Him for what we need.
• Then as we trust Him by faith, He supplies abundantly what we need.
• We see this lack-of-faith attitude by the people in the names that Moses gave to that place.
• Massah = temptation
• The people tested, tempted, and tried God’s patience.
• The Hebrew word is the same for the translated words “tested”, “tempted”, and “tried”.
• Meribah = murmuring
• The people complained instead of asking in faith.

• Who were the Amalekites?
• These people were descended from Esau. They were wilderness bandits that preyed upon the weaker stragglers of the group. They constantly dogged the heels of the Israelites and were problems for them down through history. (Deu 25:17-18)
• God finally pronounced a permanent judgment upon them in Deu 25:19 and 1Sam 15:2-3
• King Saul disobeyed God when he did not kill Amalek’s king, King Agag.
• Much later in history, King Agag’s descendant, Haman, almost had all the Jews annihilated in the book of Esther.
• Why was this battle necessary?
• This battle was a self-defense against desert robbers.
• The Israelites had to learn how to develop their army for when they entered the promised land.
• This is the first reference to Joshua. He was the army’s first commander.
• The name, Joshua, means = God saves. It is the name Jesus in the Hebrew language.
• What is the significance of this battle?
• Notice that the battle took a long time to win because the Israelites were inexperienced in warfare.
• Why did Moses have to hold up his arms for the army to succeed?
• Remember that God’s authority is exemplified in the rod.
• Therefore, the significant point is that the battle is God’s.
• Spiritually speaking, the Amalekites and all the descendants of Esau represents the flesh nature of man.
• Therefore, this battle with Amalek represents the Christian’s battle between his new spiritual nature and his old flesh nature.
• What is man’s flesh nature?
• It is the part of man’s soul that conforms him to indulge in selfish sins which lead to spiritual death and does not please God.
• Read Rom 7:5, 18
• Read Rom 8:5
• It is not long after becoming a Christian that the new believer realizes he is in a battle. This is often a surprise to new believers.
• The battle occurs because the new believer now has two natures within him. He has his new, born-again nature of the Spirit, and his old flesh nature.
• Read Gal 5:17
• The battle occurs because the believer is new, spiritually weak, unprepared, and temptations from his old nature occur easily.
• Satan uses man’s old flesh nature to defeat new believers.
• What is God’s message to the believer concerning this battle between his two natures?
• The battle is God’s battle.
• Yes, the believer participates in it, but God gives the believer every weapon to fight it. What are the weapons?
• The knowledge that Christ won the battle on the cross.
• Read Rom 8:1-10
• When the believer considers himself dead to his flesh nature, having been crucified with Christ, he will not give in to it. (Gal 2:20)
• The power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
• Prayer. (Eph 6:10-18)
• The Word of God.
• Jesus quoted the Word of God to defeat the enemy. (Mat 4:3-10)
• The name Moses gave to the place where he built an altar to thank God for the victory was Jehovah Nissi which means = the Lord, our banner.(15)
• Not only is the battle God’s but so is the victory.
• Engaging in this battle is extremely important to the Christian life.
• God stresses the importance in verses 14 and 16 because it is impossible to be a Christian and not fight this battle.
• What Christian principles does this experience teach us?
• =1= To live a successful Christian life, we need other Christians to intercede for us when we feel weak. (12)
• =2= Know that God is the victor declaring in prayer the presence and power of God. (9, 15)
• =3= Victory comes through praise. (11)
• =4= Jesus is the foundation stone of prayer. (12)
• =5= Perseverance is necessary to obtain the victory. (12)
• =6= Victory comes through the declared Word of God. (13)
• Summary:
• The message the Christian needs to remember is that he cannot fight the battle in his own strength.
• Only as the believer walks in the Spirit, will he dominate the flesh nature.
• This battle will continue from generation to generation as long as man still possesses his flesh nature.

HOMEWORK
EXODUS 18
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Exo 17
• How obedient are you to God’s guidance?

• In which specific area of your life does the Holy Spirit want your obedience today?
• What area of your life involves the greatest spiritual battle?
• What is your plan of action to win this battle?

• Preparation for Exo 18
• Read Exo 18:1-12
• What kind of relationship did Moses have with Jethro?
• What kind of relationship did Jethro have with God? How do you know?
• Read Exo 18:13-27
• What are the characteristics of a leader?
• What principles of leadership can we learn from this passage?

• Memory verse: 1Tim 3:1