Introduction: Read Exodus17v1to7.

We have seen pictures on our television screens this week of thousands of people driven from their homes by ISIS fanatics taking some sort of refuge in a mountainous desert. After only a few days without water their plight is perilous with children dieing of dehydration. The U.S.A. and Britain have been flying out and dropping containers full of water to alleviate the desperate situation.

This should help us to understand the plight of the Israelites in the wilderness. They were refugees; there were thousands of them and they had been wandering about the desert for 6 months. Apart from Moses none of them had lived in such conditions before.

It is easy to condemn the Israelites for fickleness and faithlessness but I am not convinced that many of us would have reacted any differently from them.

I will deal with the passage by looking at the main players in the drama:

(1) The Israelites.

(a) Where they were.

The Sinai desert was a very difficult environment to survive in. The landscape was stark and bare. It was a land of temperature extremes: chilly at night and searing hot during the day. There was a shortage of grazing for the Israelite's flocks. Without water first animals, then children and finally adults would die of thirst. Every day was an ordeal.

Christians can experience desert conditions in:

• The home. It is harrowing to be brought up in a loveless environment.

• The place of work. There is often little spiritual refreshment to be had in the work arena. The pressure and intensity of work can leave a person wrung dry and exhausted.

• The church. There are some churches where the worship is far from stimulating or encouraging. It is almost as if every effort is made to make it as tedious and dry as possible.

(b) What they wanted.

The Israelites were not lusting after trivialities. They thirsted for water without which neither they nor their livestock would survive. The continual worry over water was destructive of their sense of well being and peace of mind.

Christians have unsatisfied longings. It is important to distinguish between those which we might justifiably expect God to satisfy and those which we might not. Some of our longings are unworthy. James and John wanted recognition and prestige but Jesus was not prepared to grant them their request. The disciples argued about who was the greatest. Jesus taught them that the first would be last and the last first. Modern Christians crave excitement, variety and novelty - especially in their worship. Others desire an easier time - a Christian life free from responsibility and worry.

I think we are justified in wanting what Jesus, himself, desired:

• Jesus wanted men and women to accept what he could give. He wept over Jerusalem because he would have gathered them together and protected them like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wing.

  It is very sad when a person cannot do work in the church - work for which they are well qualified - for lack of acceptance.

• Jesus longed for his three disciples, James, John and Peter, to watch with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. But they failed him.

  No Christian should feel lonely in a church fellowship. Every Christian is justified in expecting prayer support in time of trouble. No brother or sister should suffer unaided.

• Jesus was pleased by Mary's expression of love when she poured expensive perfume over his feet and then wiped them with the hair of her head. I think we all need to know occasionally that we are loved.

Any Christian who lacks acceptance, support and loving fellowship is in the desert with the Israelites of old.

(c) Whom they blamed.

The Israelites got very aggressive with Moses. They complained of him and grumbled at him. They said to him: "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" v3. Things got so bad that the people were ready to stone Moses.

The Israelites made Moses the scapegoat. They took out their fear and frustration on him which was most unfair because it was the LORD who was leading them from place to place. See verse 1.

When Christians are dissatisfied, particularly when their thirst for excitement, variety, novelty and entertainment remains unquenched, there is a tendency to look for someone to blame.

This happened to me as a school teacher. Sometimes a Geography teacher has to tackle a part of the syllabus that is difficult, demanding and tedious. Lapse rates, for example, are crucial for understanding the weather but not many of my pupils found the topic gripping. During these drier periods some pupils got restless and were inclined to blame the teacher for their boredom.

So it is in churches. When a Christian finds the going tough there is a temptation to blame the leadership. If the pastor does not live up to expectations, if he can't warm up the tepid believer, he may well be abandoned for someone leading another church who promises more by way of excitement.

(d) Whom they doubted.

The children of Israel grumbled at Moses and threatened to kill him but the one whom they doubted was God. Moses said: "Why do you put the LORD to the test?" v2. They tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" v7.

The Israelites had witnessed the plagues; they had been delivered from slavery; they escaped Pharaoh through the Red Sea; God provided sweet water at Marah and quails and manna for food - BUT still they doubted the LORD. At each successive trial of their faith the Israelites lacked confidence in God's commitment to them.

Christians can surely say with Paul: He (God) who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Rms8v31. We can look back over our lives and see God's providential leading, protection and provision. Yet when a new problem arises we doubt God. We wonder whether God really cares for us or not.

Sometimes the situation Christians find themselves is, indeed, very bleak. Today Christians are being displaced in their thousands from parts of Iraq by militant Muslims. Some, like the ancient Israelites, are in desert conditions without water. It is hard in such circumstances not to doubt. Most of us might complain if our plight was equally desperate.

However, I think the Israelites did make a serious mistake grumbling at Moses when they could have prayed to the LORD for help. It is always far, far, better to pray than to complain.

(2) God's response. It was characterised by:

(a) Sufferance.

Moses was fed up with the grumbling Israelites not for the first or last time. He does upbraid them. In fact he quarrels with them. However God responds to the faithless and fickle Israelites without reproach.

There are some things I find it very difficult to bear:

• Lack of faith in my ability. When I set out to make safe all the tombstones in our chapel graveyard there were those who didn't think I knew what I was doing. I wrote one or two sharp letters!

  Some of my pupils questioned whether I was qualified to teach Geography. Had I passed G.C.S.E.???

• Ingratitude.

• Unjustified criticism. I am apt to hotly justify myself when I feel that I have been unfairly judged. I have had a few altercations with my brother over my umpiring decisions at cricket. He says I am too quick to give members of my own side out. I tell him, "If they are out - they are out!"

Those of us who are mature in the faith need to remember God's lack of rancour and bear with the mistakes and misjudgements of new believers who are babes in Christ.

(b) Solidarity.

God appreciated that Moses had born the brunt of the Israelite's frustration and fear even though he was not responsible for the route taken in the wilderness. The Hebrew community travelled from place to place as the LORD directed. Moses was a convenient whipping boy.

So, God supports the leadership of Moses his servant. Water is provided through the instrumentality of Moses. It was his staff that was the means of bringing water from the rock.

Later, God stood up for Moses when he was criticised by Aaron and Miriam - his own brother and sister. God told them that Moses was his friend with whom he spoke face to face.

Jesus spoke up for Mary when her loving act of pouring out the precious perfume over his feet was criticised by Judas and others.

Through the centuries God has vindicated his servants. Many, for one reason or another, criticise missionary endeavour - but God has honoured the seed sown in the 19th and early 20th century by missionaries and brought fields white unto harvest in many parts of Africa, South America and Asia in recent years.

(c) Sufficiency.

God said to Moses: "I will stand there before you by the rock of Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink." v6. God provided sufficient for the Israelites needs.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray: "Give us each day our daily bread." This means we can ask God daily to supply our essential needs. Jesus also taught us that it is wrong to be over anxious and fretful about our essential needs. He reasoned that if God clothed the poppy in all its finery and fed the birds of the air he would provide for his children.

This is sometimes hard for Christians to hold on to, but Jesus can be trusted. Let us sing with Frances Havergal:

I am trusting Thee to guide me,
Thou alone shalt lead;
Every day and hour supplying
All my need.

I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus;
Never let me fall;
I am trusting Thee forever
And for all.

Paul wrote these words to the Corinthians: For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1Cor10v1to4.

There is no doubt that Christ, smitten for us, is able to satisfy many thirsts - the thirst for God's forgiveness, acceptance, approval and adoption. Jesus is the answer to man's restlessness, emptiness, discontent and dissatisfaction. At the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus stood up and said: "If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow within him." Jn7v37.

Jesus said much the same to the woman of Samaria - which reminds me of a chorus I used to sing as a lad in Sunday school:

Jesus gave her water that was not in the well;
Jesus gave her water that was not in the well;
She went away singing,
She came back bringing
Others for the water that was not in the well.

Jesus still gives water that is not in the well;
Jesus still gives water that is not in the well;
To all who come believing,
And his Word receiving,
He'll give the Heavenly water that is not in the well.