Three days later, after the water problem of the Red Sea,
now there is no water. We can't survive
long without water so the lack thereof here is a real problem. That dilemma is doubled when they find water
but it is bitter. Their grumbling against
Moses is actually legitimate, he isn't a good leader if he can't find potable
water. The Lord, however, gives a
faith-based solution, throwing a log into the water to make it sweet. That is a log with some magical properties if
it can sweeten a water supply large enough to provide for this multitude! It becomes an occasion for a further promise
to the people. If they will obey his
commands and statutes they will not suffer the diseases of the Egyptians, He
will be their healer as He has healed this water. The next occasion for grumbling was lack of
food and here they begin "remembering" how good they had it in
Egypt. When we are tested as we follow
Him there is always a tendency to look back to that place from which we were
delivered and romanticize it isn’t there?
The Lord announces His provision to come it is as a command and as a
test of obedience. How will He provide?
Jesus, too, makes a commandment and a promise contingent on
obedience to the commandment. The commandment
is to abide in Him as a branch abides in a vine but how can this be done? It must initially mean something like abide
in my teaching, don't forget it but more than that, obey it. They don't yet understand about the
indwelling of the Spirit, so they don't have the full picture. There are two contingent promises based on
abiding. The first is, "If you
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
done for you." Who wouldn't want
that? The second promise is, "If
you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my
Father's commandments and abide in his love." Clearly active obedience is the key to
abiding.
Peter's words here are full of Scripture, quoting God's
charge to His people in Exodus and applying that charge, to be a holy
priesthood, a royal nation, to the church.
He also quotes from the Psalms concerning living stones and finally from
Hosea concerning the work of God in transforming them from those who were not a
people to being His people and those who had not received mercy to those who
had received mercy. What they received
became a responsibility to proclaim the excellencies of the One who called them
out of darkness into marvelous light. The
responsibility to make Him known is now given to the church because it has the
fuller revelation of God in Jesus. That doesn't
mean we have replaced Israel in His heart, it means that we are grafted in, the
revelation in Jesus is the completion of the revelation given to the Jews in the
law and the prophets. Receiving revelation
and enjoying the promises of God are always contingent on obedience.
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