Study

The Mercy of Exhortation

Jackie Hill Perry

6 Days

Power in His Presence

Day 5

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All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?

Exodus 17:1-3

Summary

Israel's expression of unbelief wasn't just subtle; it was insidious. Their accusations reached from the nearness of God to His personality. They began to believe God delivered them from the hand of slavery to kill them; He delivered them only to torture them in turn.

In our own lives, we can adopt the same model of thinking. We can let a circumstance God has allowed us to endure to deceive us into thinking the worst about God.

The deception began in the garden. In Genesis 3, the serpent deceived Eve, leading her to believe God was holding back goodness from her despite His restriction being her protection.

We see this again in Matthew 4 when Satan tempted Jesus for 40 days and nights in the wilderness. The devil tried with Jesus what he succeeded at with Eve; he wanted Jesus to distrust God's care of Him.

And again, we see the disciples fall into the same trap in Mark 4. Battered by winds and waves, they awoke a sleeping Jesus and berated Him, asking if even He cared for them.

The situations vary, but the lie remains: God does not care for you. If Satan can convince us that God is contrary to His perfect character, then what else will we believe is true?

In reality, the opposite is true. Interwoven into the Gospel story is an abundance of care. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

God sent His son to earth because He cared. He cares for us in His infinite goodness and mercy, but He didn't just come to earth to care for our souls. Jesus cares for our daily worries. Our overwhelming anxiety. The fear that keeps us up at night. He cares for our families, the school we choose, the friends we have, and the place we work.

1 Peter 5:7 says, "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."

He cares about your cares.

Through discouragement, satan will tempt us to doubt and believe that the God who died for us doesn't care about us. That is not the truth. If God is with you, so is His power. He loves us with everlasting love. He cares for our cares, and He is compassionate and merciful towards us all of our days.

What's Next?

If you are in a place to do so, say it out loud: God is with me. If you're not, write it down in all capital letters on the closest piece of paper you can find: God is with me.

How does that promise change your posture to what you face today?

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.