February 18th

Overcoming Overwhelming Obstacles

Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Exodus 17:1

Stop. You can’t go this way; you’ll have to go around. You hear your GPS say, Recalculating, but it’s not coming up with answers.

Life’s full of obstacles. In fact, maybe you’re facing one right now. But how do we respond to obstacles? Well, the Bible has a lot to say about this that will help us, starting with a story about Israel in which we will see four ways to respond to obstacles.

As our verse for today tells us, the children of Israel were just coming out of Egypt and they camped at a place called Rephidim, which means, Resting place. The problem was, they had no water and they started to complain. In fact, they complained so much that Moses said to the Lord, They are ready to stone me!

Now, rocks are mentioned a lot in this story, and this is the first time. This stone means, a rock thrown with the intent to kill. You can see that might be an obstacle to Moses. I’m trying to lead these people, but they want to kill me. God responded, telling Moses to walk by faith, Go, take your staff, hit a rock, and I will make water come out of it.

In God’s answer, we find another rock. This rock means a cliff, a wall of rock, and we know from First Corinthians that this rock was Christ. So God is saying, When you face rocks that are obstacles aimed at your head, head for the Rock and He will be your fortress.

In fact, it’s really interesting, there is another time when God instructs Moses to get water from a rock, but this time He tells Moses to speak to it. And because we know this rock was a picture of Christ, we know why. It’s because Christ Jesus was struck once on our behalf and does not need struck again. Now we need to simply trust what He’s done for us.

It really comes down to that when we face obstacles. Walk by faith. Trust the Rock. Let Him be our Deliverer and Protector. Follow Him wherever He leads us and believe that He will lead us from this place of testing, where we prove our faithfulness, into our Promised Land.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for being my Rock! I choose to run to You for help against all the obstacles that I face.

Amen