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Hey everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of Dig Into God's Word. Your quick stop on
YouTube to preview the scripture readings for this upcoming Sunday.
Water. It is a foundational element for life on earth. Up to 60% of the human body is water
and in some creatures it is up to 90%. Water covers about 70% of the globe. It drives our
lives and impacts where we live and whether we live or die. We see water show up as a
theme in our readings this week.
The Old Testament reading comes from Exodus where we hear an account from the journey
of the Israelite people through the desert after coming out of Egypt. Last week we heard
Jesus reference this journey in the desert when he talked about Moses lifting up the
snake on the pole to save those people who looked at it. If you recall this story, you'll
remember that the snakes were sent after the people had been grumbling and complaining
about the lack of food and water.
This week's text tells us about one of those times that they complained about not having
water. This wasn't the first time that they had complained about something to Moses and
to God and it definitely wouldn't be the last time. Even with all of the miraculous sights
that the people have seen from God, they still fail to trust in him for all that they need.
So God tells Moses to take some of the Elders and go ahead of the people. He is to take
the staff that he used at the Red Sea and to strike a rock at Horeb to receive water.
He does so and water flows out for the people. Moses names this place Massah and Meribah.
Massah meaning to test in Hebrew and Meribah meaning to quarrel or provoke. Moses names
them because the people were testing God and quarreling with him. This all connects back
to our readings from a couple of weeks ago when we saw Jesus being tempted and he quoted
Deuteronomy 6:16 where Moses said "You should not put the Lord your God to the test". What
Jesus doesn't say is the end of that quote where Moses continues, "like you did at Massah".
Ya see, this all connects together.
This week we get some encouraging words from Paul in our Epistle reading that comes from
Romans 5. This is the capstone of Paul's argument that starts back in chapter 1 about justification
by faith. If you remember we read from chapter 4 last week where Paul talks about Abraham
being justified by his faith and not by his works.
Paul continues here saying that because we have been justified by faith, we now have
peace with God through Jesus Christ. We are no longer enemies who are at war with God
because of our sin, but rather we have peace with him and can rejoice in the hope that
we have. This is great!
Then Paul takes an interesting turn. He doesn't just end with us rejoicing in the glory of
God, but continues by saying that we rejoice in our sufferings. Wait, what? Rejoice in
suffering? That seems weird, doesn't it? We normally only rejoice in good things. We rejoice
in new births, marriages, job promotions, and other successes. We don't usually rejoice
in anything that causes us to suffer. But Paul says that we rejoice in sufferings because
suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope" and he concludes by saying that "hope does not put us to shame." We know this because
God's love has been poured, like water, into our hearts through the Holy Spirit."
And where do we see this love? How do we know it is there? Paul tells us that too in verse
8 where he says that "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us." Would you die for one of your enemies? You may die for one of your children
or a close friend, but we wouldn't die for our enemies, would we? And yet that is exactly
what Jesus did, he, in his great love, came to earth and died for his enemies in order
to bring us all back into his family.
We see Jesus demonstrating this love in our gospel reading this week from John 4. Jesus
finds himself in Samaria, a place where most Jewish people at the time didn't spend a whole
lot of time. John even points this out in verse 9 where he says "For Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans".
Jesus has been journeying and is tired so he waits by a well while his disciples go
into town to get food. While he is there a woman comes out to draw water and Jesus asks
her for a drink. She is shocked that he would even talk to her and yet this is going to
be the least shocking part of the conversation. He goes on to tell her that if she knew who
was speaking to her then she would ask for and receive living water.
She thinks he is still talking about water from the well and is confused because he has
no way of accessing the water. He continues by telling her that everyone who drinks water
from the well will be thirsty again, but those who drink the living water that he gives will
never thirst again. This sounds like a pretty good deal so she asks him to give her some
of the water so she won't be thirsty and won't have to come back to the well. She still doesn't
really understand what he's talking about. Jesus switches gears and is about to demonstrate
to her who he actually is. He tells her to bring her husband out, apparently to get some
of this water too, to which she replies that she doesn't have a husband. Jesus then points
out that she's had 5 husbands and the man she's living with now isn't her husband. She
now knows that this isn't just some random man at the well but she knows that he's at
least a prophet. After a discussion about the proper place for worship, the woman says
that she knows that an anointed one is coming to which Jesus responds that anointed one
that is to come is he, standing there before her.
Now this is where the lectionary ends the reading, with Jesus' claim about himself.
However, the lectionary sometimes includes optional verses that expand the reading
and this is one of those times where it expands to include verses 27-30 and 39-42. In 27-30
we see Jesus' disciples return and the woman leaves to go into the town to tell the people
what she's seen. "Come and see" she says. Verses 39-42 tell us that many people believed
because of what the woman told them. They invited Jesus to stay with them and after
two days they remark to the woman that "it is no longer because of what you said that
we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior
of the world."
So the people of Israel saw great signs from God and had water that temporarily allowed
them to survive in the desert and yet they continually complained when it ran out, while
the Samaritans, who were not even a part of the chosen people of Israel, tasted of the
living water poured out by Jesus and rejoiced and believed.
God's blessings on you as your study his word this week.