Sermon Central
-
Their Rock Is Not As Our Rock
Contributed by Michael Stark on Jun 30, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: What has God done for me lately? We need to remember the distinction of God as contrasted to the varied "gods" of this dying world.
“Their rock is not as our Rock;
our enemies are by themselves.” [1]
Our world adulates success; however, the world defines success by a standard of its own making. To a far greater degree than we might ever admit, we Christians have been infected with the attitudes of this fallen world. We unconsciously bring the ideals of the world into the life of the Body, attempting to twist the Faith so that it conforms to the ideals of the world. Of course, any effort such as that is doomed to failure; it can never succeed. The reason we cannot hope to make this effort succeed is that “Their rock is not as our Rock.”
Throughout the world, people have some position that they consider to be their security. Perhaps it is an idol before which they actually bow. Paul has written, “As to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one’” [1 CORINTHIANS 8:4]. Though an idol is nothing, it represents demonic powers, and power does attract people. For this reason, Paul warned these Corinthians, “What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” [1 CORINTHIANS 10:20].
In the Song of Moses, from which we draw the verse that is the focus of this message, Moses reminded Israel of their perfidy when he wrote,
“Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;
you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
then he forsook God who made him
and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
to gods they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.”
The people did not sacrifice to idols—they sacrificed to demons!
Though an individual may never bow down to an idol, it does not mean that he doesn’t have a false hope as his rock. In our day, people trust in their wealth, labouring to accumulate a fortune. They’ll leave it all when they die. Others trust in their own strength, or in some semblance of power obtained through position. There is no question but that many people trust in pleasure. There are few things more disgusting than to see a fifty-year-old woman trying to look as though she was twenty—perhaps a sixty-year-old man who imagines that he is as strong and attractive as he was at twenty would qualify as more pitiful, but I digress. It is distressing to see a twenty-something babe hanging on the arm of her sugar daddy, a sixty-five-year-old man with thinning hair and a paunch, though he does have lots of money.
People may have any of a number of things—and even people—that qualify as their rock. However, in the day when pressure comes, and that day is inevitable, they will learn the reality of the words Moses wrote,
“Their rock is not as our Rock;
our enemies are by themselves.”
ROCK MUSIC — Most of the thirty-second chapter is a recitation of what has become known as “The Song of Moses. This song was, if you will, Moses’ Swan Song. This would be his final statement to Israel before the old man would be gathered to the LORD his God. Moses, the Great Law Giver, had been the LORD’s instrument to deliver the people from bondage. He had led them through the trackless desert to the border of the land which God had promised to give them. Moses had judged their sin when their sin had threatened to destroy them. He had pleaded with God for mercy when the people deserved judgement. He had called down food when the people were hungry and led them to water when they were consumed with thirst.
It was an incident concerning the provision of water that had served to exclude the aged servant from ever setting foot on the soil of the land that God had promised. It was another incident when the people were complaining. This time, they complained that they didn’t have water. Whenever they complained, they had a habit of accusing their leaders. Nothing has really changed in this day. Is the church plateaued? It is the fault of the Pastor. Fire him! Hire someone who will do a better job!
This time, the whining and the whinging grated on Moses. Though he interceded for the congregation, there was bitterness in his heart. God spoke to Moses, telling him, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle” [NUMBERS 20:8].
