Broadcasting from the west side of Big Brother City in the heart of Gridlock County, where preaching with impact is like plowing pavement. As people continue to place their hope in unsatisfying things, this is the Frederick Faith Debate. Sponsored by Putman Plumbing and Heating, how can we make you smile? Our show's online at wfmd.com, keyword faith. You can listen to podcasts, like this show will be available to podcasts within the next couple of days and all, just about all the previous shows we've done. There's actually two years worth of shows that are missing probably forever. I apologize for that. Uh, but you can find all sorts of other cool things on our webpage, uh, links to, uh, news items and religious traditions and the faith debate blog which is really a blog a video you watch all the videos there and you can check out the videos on WFMD's Facebook page as well as they populate. You can catch those like day of but you know how Facebook works. If you don't catch it the day of, good luck scrolling through all the stuff in the feed to try to find it. So if you've missed a video or you want to make sure you've seen them all, go to the faith debate page at WFMD.com. Again, keyword faith takes you right there. Merry Christmas! A few days early, but this will be my last opportunity, this program anyway, my last opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas before the actual day of Christmas arrives. So, there you go. We do not have a panel because, well, it's Christmas, it's the holidays, and getting a panel together with the religious leaders during this time of the year can be a little bit of a challenge, so we're not even, you know, we're not even trying, you know what I'm saying? So we'll give you this instead. The Impeachment of God, a sermon message that I had opportunity to preach not too long ago, based on Exodus chapter 17, verses 1 through 7. The Impeachment of God, a very famous passage about the water from the rock and all that. So I think you're going to enjoy this. And I think it's not exactly Christmassy, but it's about Jesus from the Old Testament. So that's pretty Christmassy. Hope you enjoy. And I'll be back on the flip side of this to to put a wrap on this show and wish you a Merry Christmas one more time. You don't want to miss that, I'm sure. So admit it. We're all grumblers. If employed, we grumble about our low pay, our poor working conditions, our idiotic co-workers. If unemployed, we grumble about the stagnant economy, corporate greed, the injury that forced us onto disability. We grumble that our husbands leave dirty socks randomly scattered throughout the house. We grumble that our wives save us so much money every time there's a sale. We grumble that our kids don't listen, that our parents won't listen. Our friends are all too eager to listen and then share what we've... Let's face it. We grumble against God. We might rightly grumble against the selfish injustice of the world, but we also grumble against God. There's a story in the Bible about God's people grumbling against Him and what this says about us. It also tells us of God's response to this grumbling and what it says about Him. Exodus 17 contains one of my most favorite stories about Jesus. That's right, yes, about Jesus. We're most definitely going to have a densely packed Bible message today, so you most definitely want to pop open your Bible and turn to Exodus chapter 17. If you're using a Pew Bible, that'll be on page 52. By the way, we'll also spend time in John chapter 6 and Hebrews chapter 3 today. And in your Pew Bibles, those will be found on pages 754 and 847. 17, 1 through 7 says, The 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. 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 did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? And Moses cried out to the Lord, What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. The 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. I 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, and 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? Let's pray. We ask that you would unclutter our minds, open our hearts to receive the truth of your word. Speak to us here, Lord, today. Help us to know more about who you are and who we are in relation to you and to live out a life that is becoming of someone claiming the name Christian. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So to begin, I'm going to hit you with a pretty heavy theological thought. Maybe this is just for the Jace groupies in the room. I don't know. I thought that it might help us actually to better appreciate more fully how Christ is the main character in Exodus generally and in this passage of Exodus specifically. You might think that the only place that we can find Gospels are in the New Testament. But I would say that in studying Exodus, we'll find that there are Gospels even in the Old Testament. Let me clarify by defining my terms. In talking about the Gospel genre, I am talking about any book in the Bible that centers on the divine covenant and also focuses on the career and teaching of the covenant mediator. And that is exactly the situation we have with Moses in Exodus, and that's exactly the situation we have with Christ in the Gospels. And capturing this connection between Exodus and the covenant mediator there and the Gospels and the covenant mediator there is a key to understanding what we are being taught here, what the meaning is of Exodus chapter 17 verses 1 through 7. There are many reasons that are given to us for making this sort of a connection. We can think about all the shared ideas from Exodus to the Gospels that theologians might reference as type-anti-type distinctions. In Exodus, the covenant mediator is Moses. In the Gospels, the covenant mediator is Christ. In Exodus, the mediating representative teaches his people the law. In the Gospels, the mediator teaches the people the true meaning of the law. You ever notice all the foreshadowing of Christ that takes place in Exodus when you compare it to the four Gospels? Both the Israelites and Christ, they had to head to Egypt for survival. only to then return to the promised land. Israel spends 40 years in the wilderness. Christ spends 40 days in the wilderness. In the Old Testament, God reveals His law on the mountain, while Christ reveals the true meaning of the law in His sermon on the mount. In Exodus, there is prominence on the Sinai narratives and the career of Moses, the covenant mediator. And in the Gospels, there is prominence on the passion narratives and the career of Jesus, the covenant mediator. In the New Testament Gospels, the covenant mediator is also the covenant maker. And when the covenant sanctions are handed out for violating that covenant, it is the covenant maker who absorbs the punishment. In Exodus 17, 1 through 7, the covenant mediator, Moses, is not the covenant maker. And yet, careful study will unveil that even in the Old Testament, the one true covenant maker is present, and he absorbs the punishment when the people violate the sanctions of the covenant. Are you following? It's a lot of theology all at once, but hang in there just a moment longer. It's going to be mostly downhill sledding from here. That was the hard part, I think. I've given you this introductory setup so that as we continue, the true meaning of Exodus 17 might explode into your mind in a way that it never has before. And that is exciting for me, hopefully for you as well. When we read Exodus 17, 1 through What do we find? What's going on? What's happening? Exodus 17, 1 through 7, as we read it, we can see that there is an overlap of two trials that's taking place here. These seven verses tell the story of the chosen ones of the Lord turning against God and God rescuing them from such folly. If you thumb back a page or two in your Bible, you will see that the people have been put to the test by God for several chapters. That's the context here. They've been put to the test and the response to the test proves that they're guilty. They turn against, they turn against their saving God. To the one who brought them out of bondage. Their response is to bring charges against him. And in doing so, they unwittingly bring charges against themselves. In this passage, court is called into session, but not by the one we might expect. In this passage, a guilty verdict is rendered, but not against the one who was initially thought to be on trial. And punishment is executed, but not upon the guilty party. This is an astounding portion of scripture. It connects directly with the good news of the New Testament in a dramatic fashion. It illustrates the very center of redemptive history. No kidding. Hopefully you can see it. Throughout history, even those who are called God's people have shamefully grumbled against him and his covenant mediator representatives. As will be retaught today, God's response is to execute justice while at the same time lavishing love upon the grumblers. He does this not only by interceding through covenant mediator representatives such as Moses, but he does this by even acting as the covenant mediator himself. The grumbling theme within Exodus is clear immediately from the context of the mindset of the people. As they were freely traveling from slavery to the promised land, they carried with them an attitude problem. Can you relate? They were unhappy with being thirsty, and so they blamed God. They blamed God not just for being thirsty, but for even bringing Him out of the slavery in Egypt and into the wilderness to begin with. Chapters 15 and 16 of Exodus indicate the people had been carrying around this sort of grumbling spirit for some time. And it reaches its head in Exodus 17. In fact, the people appear to have been grumbling almost immediately following their rescue from Egypt. Right on the heels of the victory songs of Moses and Miriam, you can find the songs in Exodus chapter 15, and just three verses after Miriam's victory song, just three verses later, the people are said to be grumbling. In verse 25 of chapter 15, we're told the people are being tested by God. Yet they're also being provided for. They're given purified water to drink. The miraculous provision of God continues into the very next scene, which comprises the whole of chapter 16, the very famous, well-known story of God providing manna for food. And God sends this man up for food, believe it or not, as a continued testing of His people. See verse 5 of chapter 16 if you want to see what I'm talking about. As they are tested, the people continue their grumbling through large swaths of the narrative. Look at chapter 16. See verses 2, 7, 8, 9, 11. In chapters 15 and 16, God is leading his people. He is providing for them. And he's testing them. Would the people remain faithful and continue to place their hope and trust in God? Or would they turn against God? In chapter 17, the people respond to this period of being tested by God with their own test of God. By grumbling again against God, the people show that they have failed God's test. This sort of grumbling against God is a protest against God. Their act of filing a protest against God is proof that they have failed God's testing. And they are deserving of standing trial to face judgment. The people are bringing charges against God. But in doing so, they are bringing charges against themselves. So God convenes a courtroom scene. He delivers judgment. He convenes the elders. He assembles the people as witnesses, as Moses brings the staff of judgment. These are all the stuff of a courtroom. And it's God who calls all of this together. The elders and everything else needed for a fair trial They were not already convened. Moses is afraid he's going to be stoned to death. Yet, where is the evidence of a fair trial? Was Moses about to become the victim of a hastily gathered and unlawful trial, like Jesus would later be? The words grumbling and testing lie at the center of understanding this portion of scripture. And we know without question this is so because of the names Moses gives the place at the conclusion of the passage. Masa and Meribah mean test and strife. At the root of the word Meribah, the word for strife is the word Riv. And this carries with it the meaning of dispute, complaint, lawsuit. The lawsuit idea behind this word pops up all throughout the Old Testament. Now, consider how often in the Old Testament, The meaning of what happened in a particular place is forever remembered by the naming of that place in memorial. And that is exactly what happens here. The setting of Exodus 17 verses 1 through 7 is memorialized in just such a way, driving home the point that all people should remember this was the place where God's people tested him. And where God tested his people. And their sinful response was to strive against him with a lawsuit. God was looking to see if the people would follow him, even if it meant hardship. You might say he was helping the people to see if they would follow God, even if it meant hardship. As a means of strengthening their own faith. And the people did not want to follow in this way that had hardship. They challenged his leadership. They even seemed to reject his leadership and questioned his very existence among them. In a sense, one might say the people were impeaching God. But God would not be removed from office. Ironically, he had every right to remove this mob of people from being his people, but he did not. Earlier this morning we read a portion of John's Gospel account, because there is a direct connection between Exodus and the Gospel of John. It seems that John is a huge fan of Exodus. And at the opening of John chapter 6, and again if you want to be able to kind of reference along, you'll find that on page 754 of the Pew Bible. At the beginning of chapter 6, Jesus miraculously feeds a crowd of 5,000. And then he later tells the people that he is the true manna, the true bread of heaven, the true bread of life. Now, we'll be partaking in the Lord's Supper later on this morning. And during that time, we should remember what's being said right here, right now. Jesus is the true manna, the true bread from heaven. the true bread of life. The point that Christ is the sustenance that people need is amplified in John chapter 6 by three dramatic I am statements from Jesus. You can see those in John chapter 6 verse 35, 41, and 51. And then astonishingly, we are told that Christ's disciples were grumbling about this among themselves. In this grumbling, the disciples did not go so far as to publicly level charges against God as the Israelites did in Exodus 17. Yet the disciples did have difficulty processing this hard teaching. And so Jesus asked if they wanted to abandon his leadership. When God's method of teaching seems most difficult, when it's hard, are you tempted to abandon His leadership? Sometimes, maybe. Sometimes, if there have been times like this for us if we're honest, or we can at least acknowledge that it could be true of us if our most prominent fears were to become our circumstances. God's ways are higher than our ways. We know this. And so to what do you cling when God shows his love for you by allowing you to be taught through loss and struggle? It is so very hard. to learn and follow for people like us when our job is ripped from us, when our home is burned to the ground with our beloved pet still inside. When our child's life has been snuffed out in an accident, we were the ones driving. when our bodies are attacked from the inside and we beat back that cancer but it comes back with a vengeance when our lover is taken from us suddenly with the interrupted beating of their loving heart when a lifelong struggle will not be lifted from you no matter how long, how hard you pray. These are all teachable moments, devastating, But teachable moments. Hard. Teachable. Moments. And of course there are difficult concepts and ideas that we struggle to understand, to apply, to accept as true. How do you know it's true? How do you go on to follow? How do you overcome the doubt? The disciples of Jesus faced these very same questions, including the question of testing. Do you want to abandon God and the leadership of Christ our King? And the disciples said, no. because they were reminded that by His Word, He provides eternal life. And God's Spirit opened their eyes to the truth of that Word. The Israelites in the desert were living through a time of hard teaching, testing, and they began doubting God's provision. So God reminded them, with a sort of object lesson, that He is the provider of eternal life. Sparing their lives by accepting upon Himself their punishment. These ancient people, even in the midst of God's provision, forgot that God provides. Sounds like me and you, doesn't it? So the need to remember was re-taught, and is still today here being re-taught over and over again. And yet, the people of God continue to forget, and quickly. In Judges chapter 2, just one generation after Joshua, who was the successor to Moses, It is clear the nation of Israel has already fallen away from remembering God. And that's going to be the end of part one of the Impeachment of God, Exodus 17, one through seven. The other half will be next week on the other side of Christmas. Again, wish you all the best. Be safe. Make smart choices. Try to have a bright spirit, not just this week, but every week all throughout the year. Thanks to our sponsor, Putman Plumbing and Heating. How can we make you smile? Again, my name's Troy Skinner. This is the Faith Debate, the Frederick Faith Debate on Frederick's News Radio, 930 WFMD. Find us online at wfmd.com keyword faith, and you can find the videos for this show there, but you can also find them on the WFMD Facebook page as well. Whichever is your preference or find them both. And again, if you want to find the podcast, easiest way to do that is go to the Faith Evade page and you'll find the audio vault section there, and you can listen to the podcast there. My partner in crime, Jonathan Schweitzer. Again, I'm Troy Skinner. I wish you all the best. Thanks so much for listening. God bless.