Water in the Rock
1Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. 2Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” 5Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us, or not?”
7For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,
8Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9“When your fathers tested Me,
They tried Me, though they had seen My work.
10For forty years I loathed that generation,
And said they are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not know My ways.
11Therefore I swore in My anger,
Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
7Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today if you hear His voice,
8Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
10Therefore I was angry with this generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways’;
11As I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
The Peril of Unbelief
12Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
1) What patterns signal a hardening heart?
2) How does community guard against drift?
3) What “today” response is needed?
Job Feels Insulted
1Then Job responded,
2“How long will you torment me
And crush me with words?
3These ten times you have insulted me;
You are not ashamed to wrong me.
4Even if I have truly erred,
My error lodges with me.
5If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me
And prove my disgrace to me,
6Know then that God has wronged me
And has closed His net around me.
Everything Is against Him
7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put darkness on my paths.
9He has stripped my honor from me
And removed the crown from my head.
10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11He has also kindled His anger against me
And considered me as His enemy.
12His troops come together,
And build up their way against me
And camp around my tent.
13“He has removed my brothers far from me,
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14My relatives have failed,
And my intimate friends have forgotten me.
15Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore him with my mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18Even young children despise me;
I rise up and they speak against me.
19All my associates abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has struck me.
22Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”
23“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
25As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
26Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
27Whom I myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!
28If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
29Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know there is judgment.”
PSALM 70
Prayer for Help against Persecutors.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David; for a memorial.
1O God, hasten to deliver me;
O Lord, hasten to my help!
2Let those be ashamed and humiliated
Who seek my life;
Let those be turned back and dishonored
Who delight in my hurt.
3Let those be turned back because of their shame
Who say, “Aha, aha!”
4Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified.”
5But I am afflicted and needy;
Hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay.
45The gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, 138.
46The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth, 47the sons of Keros, the sons of Sia, the sons of Padon, 48the sons of Lebana, the sons of Hagaba, the sons of Shalmai, 49the sons of Hanan, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar, 50the sons of Reaiah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekoda, 51the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah, 52the sons of Besai, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephushesim, 53the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakupha, the sons of Harhur, 54the sons of Bazlith, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha, 55the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Temah, 56the sons of Neziah, the sons of Hatipha.
57The sons of Solomon’s servants: the sons of Sotai, the sons of Sophereth, the sons of Perida, 58the sons of Jaala, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel, 59the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the sons of Amon.
60All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon’s servants were 392.
61These were they who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon and Immer; but they could not show their fathers’ houses or their descendants, whether they were of Israel: 62the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, 642. 63Of the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and was named after them. 64These searched among their ancestral registration, but it could not be located; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood. 65The governor said to them that they should not eat from the most holy things until a priest arose with Urim and Thummim.
Total of People and Gifts
66The whole assembly together was 42,360, 67besides their male and their female servants, of whom there were 7,337; and they had 245 male and female singers. 68Their horses were 736; their mules, 245; 69their camels, 435; their donkeys, 6,720.
70Some from among the heads of fathers’ households gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 basins, 530 priests’ garments. 71Some of the heads of fathers’ households gave into the treasury of the work 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,200 silver minas. 72That which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,000 silver minas and 67 priests’ garments.
73Now the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants and all Israel, lived in their cities.
And when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities.