By Robert Sanders, a sophomore sport management major from Merrillville, Indiana
Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 (NRSV)
What is your Rock? The essence of this question stems from the inner struggle of learning what you put your trust in. Going through the test and trials of this life, it’s easy to get wrapped up in circumstances. It’s easy to exalt shaky situations over the God who’s able to deliver us from any situation.
In Exodus 17, the children of Israel fell into the same kind of trap a lot of us fall into today. They were in the middle of an unknown place, suffering from hunger and extreme thirst. They didn’t know where their next meal was going to come from and there was a lot of uncertainty on how they were going to get out of where they were.
In American society the majority aren’t starving physically or in dire need of water but we do fall into slumps of uncertainty regarding our career, family and our health. In areas of uncertainty, doubt begins to creep in and we begin to lose our foundation. The faith we once had gets undermined and chipped from as we stray further and further from the security we once had. At this very moment is when it’s imperative we lean on the Rock of our Salvation. The person who knows the end from the beginning and has our best interest at heart.
The children of Israel received a miracle from a spring of water in physical rock; which renewed their faith. Now we are shown a figurative rock through our faith in Christ. The faith we have gets renewed when we acknowledge and are grateful for the past accomplishments, we know, were only possible through Divine intervention. At the beginning I asked “What is your rock?” But the better question is “Who is your rock?”
Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 (NRSV)
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”