66_That rock was Christ Ex 17:1-7 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. 2 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?” 3 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?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 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. 6 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. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes, “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.” This states the spiritual truth that Christ is our Rock who sustains us beyond our physical needs. Just as an engine depends on the right fuel to function, we are designed to depend on God for our being. Without Him, our lives falter, just like a car sputtering without petrol. The story of the Israelites in Exodus 17:1-7 is one of numerous illustrations of this truth. Fresh from witnessing God’s miraculous provision at Marah, where He turned bitter water sweet, and in the wilderness of Sin, where He rained manna from heaven, the Israelites journeyed to Rephidim. But there was no water there for them to drink. Their response to this trial reveals much about the tendency of our sinful hearts to doubt God’s faithfulness in the face of repeated evidence. This incident is echoed repeatedly in Scripture as a solemn warning, summarized in the words of Psalm 95: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness.” God’s leading does not guarantee a smooth path. The Israelites’ journey through the wilderness was not a purposeless wandering. God intentionally led them away from the land of the Philistines to evade the possibility of war, knowing they were not ready for battle. Yet, He allowed them to hunger and thirst. This was obviously