3rd September 2025

3rd September 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 17v1-7 focus v2-4)


Message (Alan Burke)


Having wains is a constant reminder for me of what the LORD put’s up with me as his child. I have to be told 100 times and I still don’t get it, I’ve been told don’t do that and I still do that. Yet I know that he has given me his word for my best and is leading me providently throughout my life even when that far from pleasant and I’m still a thankless git who fails to trust the LORD as I should. Often I’m like the child who is taken to the dentist as they have a cavity because they haven’t listened, didn’t brush their teeth as they should and it’s their parents fault and at the dentist when the drill is going in and the pain is felt even more acutely the person to blame is not the dentist but the parent who brought me here forgetting that the reason why I was brought, the pain that I was feeling with the drill going in was for my best and the other side would be far better. 


The LORD had been providentially been leading his people, he had not left them since they departed Egypt, he was there before them leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire. Now they have come to Rephidim, there is no water and the gurning starts. Everything that they have learnt to be true of the LORD their God, everything they have seen and experienced is forgotten. Ok I’m not thirsty, I’ve a pint of lemon barley water beside me as I write this devotion with some ice in it, I do not know the kind of thirst they faced and part of me wants to say sure they just need to wind their neck in and sort themselves out but at the same time you know I’m no different and none of us are, not really. You might want to disagree with me and say that you’d never act like this and since I’m only back from holiday I’ll agree with you because I’m not looking for a fight on my first week back that can wait until next week. 


There were 2 million or so Israelites turn on Moses, they quarrelled or chided if you use a KJV, they quarrelled with Moses, demanding water to drink. This was a trial of their faith and their trust in the Lord God but rather than seeing it as thus, they turned it about and tested the Lord their God. While they were having a go at Moses their issue was ultimately with the Lord because he wasn’t living up to their expectations, he wasn’t doing all that they wanted him to do. And you know there are lots of people I’ve come across in this life who are grumpy Christians because the Lord hasn’t lived up to their expectations and others who because the Lord hasn’t lived up to their expectations have given up on their walk with the Lord. The Lord God does not promise his people an easy life, but he has promised his people that he will go with them, that he will never leave them or forsake them (Deut 31:6). 


While they should have cried out to the Lord they didn’t but Moses did. Notice his cry to the Lord how it was to the point, he was crying out in the midst of his need. How often though do we face challenges in our life and the last thing we do is to cry out to the Lord. More often than not we are like the people who grumble instead of turning to the Lord asking for his help or asking him that he would make us satisfied with his provision towards us.


Paul in Philippians 2 uses what happened here to teach the church, he taught the church that they were to; 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation… (Php 2:14–15). The word that the NIV translates as complaining is the word grumbling, also in 1 Corinthians Paul used the example of the Israelites in the wilderness to speak to the church that was plagued with dissension and grumbling (1 Cor 10:1-13). This is how believers in the church are to conduct themselves as the people of God. If you claim to be a believer and you’re good at complaining or arguing then you need to repent, get that sorted because there is supposed to be unit and humility in the lives of believers we must look to Christ Jesus and what he has done for us, the example he has set.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q64 What is required in the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honour, and performing the duties, belonging to every one in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.
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