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Scripture: Nehemiah
9:15
15 “You
provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger,
You
brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst,
And
You told them to enter in order to possess
The
land which You swore to give them.
A. The Miraculous Make-up of
Water
“You brought forth water
. . .”
1. It was a
Divine Provision
Genesis
1:2,6,8-10; “ . . . the Spirit of God was
moving over the surface of the waters
6Then God said, “Let
there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the
waters from the waters.” 8God called the expanse
heaven. 9Then God said, “Let the
waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land
appear”; and it was so. 10God called the dry land
earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it
was good.
 2. It is a Unique Provision
H2O As the diagram to the right shows,
there is one atom of oxygen bound to two atoms of hydrogen. The hydrogen
atoms are "attached" to one side of the oxygen atom, resulting
in a water molecule having a positive charge on the side where the
hydrogen atoms are and a negative charge on the other side, where the
oxygen atom is. Since opposite electrical charges attract, water molecules
tend to attract each other, making water kind of "sticky."
They tend to clump
 together
(left). This is why water drops are, in fact, drops! We are happy water is
sticky, especially when we spill it! Water is called the "universal solvent" because it dissolves more
substances than any other liquid. This means that wherever water goes,
either through the ground or through our bodies, it takes along valuable
chemicals, minerals, and nutrients. Think
of what you need to survive, really just survive. Food? Water? Air? TV?
Mazda—zoom- zoom-zoom? No, Water is of major importance to all living things; in some organisms, up to 90
percent of their body weight comes from water. Up to 60 percent of the
human body is water, the brain is composed of 70 percent water, and the
lungs are nearly 90 percent water. About 83 percent of our blood is water,
which helps digest our food, transport waste, and control body
temperature. Each day humans must replace 2.4 liters of water, some
through drinking and the rest taken by the body from the foods eaten.
You see, water is no accident of nature; it is a Unique Provision
by God.
B. The Miraculous Flow of
Water
“You brought forth water
from a rock, . . .”
1. Their
Trust Questioned
Exodus
17:1b,2, & 7; (They) 1bcamped 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.”
“Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our
children and our livestock with thirst?” 7He named the place Massah
(testing) and Meribah (quarreling)
because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the
LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
2. Their
Thirst Quenched
Exodus
17:4b & 6; 4b“What shall I do to this
people? A little more and they will stone me.” 6“Behold, 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.” How
gracious; God satisfied their need & set aside their deed.
C. The
Magnificent Symbolism of the Water
& Eternal
Life: John 4:14 “Everyone who drinks of
this water will thirst again; 14but whoever drinks of the
water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will
give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal
life.” The woman at the
well could not comprehend of the well of which Jesus spoke.
& The Holy
Spirit; John 7:37-39; “ . . . If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to Me and drink. 38“He who believes in Me, as
the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water.’” 39But this He spoke of the
Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was
not yet given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified. He alone
can quench the thirsty soul and the rivers of living water continue to
flow from the flood-gates of Pentecost!
Acts
1:4,5; 4Gathering them together,
He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father
had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5for John baptized with
water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from
now.”
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