Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

Testy: easily annoyed : irritable : marked by impatience or ill humor

Qereḇ קֶרֶב translated “among us” is first used of the Lord during the plagues, in

God was in the land, and the people were set apart, but they wondered if He was close with them.

How close are we talking? The same word for “among us” and “in the midst” is used in Leviticus of the ritual sacrifices, the “inward” parts, or entrails.

The next time that word is used of the Lord is in Exodus 17:1-7

Let’s look at the circumstance, and the people’s response:
…there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people _________

Let’s look again at the circumstance, and Moses’s response:
…there was no water for the people to drink… 4 So Moses _____ ___ to the Lord

Moses also had no water.

Circumstances do not have to dictate our response.

That word “cried out” is the Hebrew word ṣāʿaq צָעַק

The first three uses of ṣāʿaq צָעַק are when Abel’s blood cried out from the ground, Esau cried out “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”, and the seven-year famine in Egypt when the people cried out to Pharaoh and Joseph.

Moses practiced; when the hard times came, he cried out to God.

Massah means ________

Meribah means ________

Temptations and trials will come (massah). Will you grumble and quarrel, with strife and contention (meribah), or will you cry out?

Testing God (doubting Him and His goodness, grumbling and complaining, demanding a sign,) can make us yeasty.

Yeasty: “immature, unsettled”

These thirsty cranky people in the desert had the same attitude as their grandchildren the Pharisees, but the Pharisees took it to an extreme.

Jesus said that the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy. There is no greater hypocrisy than to build a life around a structure of religion and religious activity, but to make no room for Jesus and the work of His Spirit and His Word.

The extreme is opposing Jesus, to even fight to extinguish His work in your life and others. To resist & reject Jesus or even want Him killed, if He doesn’t meet one’s expectations or if He threatens one’s power or comfort or status quo.

The shock and cognitive dissonance of the Pharisees says “If God isn’t the way I thought He was, either I need to die to my misconceptions, or He needs to die.”