Study

The Mercy of Exhortation

Jackie Hill Perry

6 Days

What You Have vs. Who You're With

Day 3

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And 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 Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 17:5-6

Summary

As we look back on our text from yesterday, we notice how God provided an unlikely solution to the Israelite's thirst, bringing water out of a rock.

Here, we see God will not only offer what you need not to be thirsty, but He may be creative with the solution. God, the creator of the universe, can satisfy your needs in more ways than you could ever imagine.

Take a moment and ask yourself: has discouragement limited your awe and wonder when it comes to God?

God can't use me because of my ________.

My mental health. My past. My location. My trial. Fill in the blank for what might apply to you.

When it comes to our neediness, nothing is too hard for God. Had the Israelites reflected on where they had been and how God had provided, they might have remembered who they were with far outweighed what they wished they had.

Matthew 28:19-20 says: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

When God commissions His people, He promises His presence. We see this with Jacob in Genesis 28, Moses in Exodus 3, Joshua in Joshua 1, and our lives. He commissions, and He cares.

There is a confidence that comes with trusting that God is with us. This kind of confidence produces the power needed not just for effective ministry but also for durable ministry. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we need the strength to go where God has called us and to last there.

He is with you, always, to the end of the age.

What's Next?

God commissions, and He cares. Write down where you feel like God has commissioned you, and think of how He has cared for you in that place. Spend some time today thanking God for His care of you.

Scripture References

7So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

8do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion,

during the time of testing in the wilderness,

9where your ancestors tested and tried me,

though for forty years they saw what I did.

10That is why I was angry with that generation;

I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,

and they have not known my ways.’

11So I declared on oath in my anger,

‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

12See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

14We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

7for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,

8“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,

1The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the

Lord

commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

2So 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?”

3But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4Then Moses cried out to the

Lord

, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5The

Lord

answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

6I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the

Lord

saying, “Is the

Lord

among us or not?”

13Jesus answered,

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

14We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

15As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion.”

16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?

18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?

19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the

Lord

commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

2So 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?”

3But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Jackie Hill Perry

Jackie Hill Perry is an author, bible teacher, poet, and hip-hop artist. Since becoming a Christian, she has been compelled to use her speaking and teaching gifts to share the light of the gospel of God as authentically as she can. She is the author of Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been and Holier Than Thou. At home, she is a wife to Preston and Mommy to Eden, Autumn, Sage, and August.