"Is God really with us...or not?"

Let’s do this together today. Grab your Bible and read Exodus 17:1-7.

The Israelites are in the desert, and they are thirsty. 

They still are picking up pints of the manna each morning, they are still having quail flown in from God in the evening, but they don’t have water. And water is important. So they complain. Against Moses. It’s always easier when there is someone to blame, after all. And so Moses brought their complaints once again into perspective and told them that they are really complaining against God, that they are testing God.

And what's astonishing is that God doesn't seem to mind in the least. God seems to welcome the challenge. Thomas doubts that Jesus is risen, and Jesus doesn't say, “Be Gone You Doubter!”  He says, “Look, touch, see for yourself, test it out.” We get this idea that matters of faith can't be proven, that the brain and faith are opposite realms, that science and faith can’t coincide. No wonder that kind of spirituality is irrelevant to the real world! God welcomes a sifting of the evidence; God loves hard questions. God revealed his self to Israel and to the world in the person of Jesus. Emmanual means “God with us”. And Jesus answered plenty of questions.

Ironically, that’s the question of the day in verse 7 “Is God really with us or not?”

Now here's the wrinkle in this story and in our lives that really matters. The Israelites are simply trying to survive. Survival is no small thing; and, in fact, we find ourselves far more intrigued by survival than we care to admit. The movie 127 Hours is about the story of Aron Ralston, who winds up cutting off his own arm in order to escape a canyon in Utah where he is hopelessly trapped. The book Unbroken tells the incredible story of Louis Zamperini, who survived a crash in the Pacific, weeks on a raft battling sharks and Japanese planes, and then months of torture in a prison camp. But we are wired to want more than mere survival.

Not many people want to just survive, we want to thirve.

And so survival is underrated--until you think you might not survive.  The doctor says, "It's malignant; there's a 30% chance of survival" or "You have six months to three years to live." Or if you have ever had a near death experience that in reality lasted a few seconds but at the time seemed like everything was going in slow motion, where people say their entire life flashed before their eyes because they thought this was the end; they weren’t going to survive. Or perhaps it is when you feel so down or broke or alone that you just don’t know how you’re going to survive another day. Now when that happens, your full time business is survival, and you want nothing more than one more time to stick your feet in the ocean or tuck your son into bed or tell that person, “I love you”.

And in the midst of that trying to survive, the question will come up, “is God really with us or not?”

We often don’t ask that question when we are thriving, but it is when we are fighting to survive, trying to make it another day, wondering why this has happened, that the questions come.

And God does not shrink from your questions. I believe he embraces them, he answers them, and then in some way he provides for us day after day after day after day, just like he always has.

“Is God really with us or not?” God was with them in a cloud by day. God was with them in a pillar of fire by night. God was with them during the plagues on Egypt and God was with them when they were liberated from captivity. God was with them when they stood at the Red Sea. God was with them when they were hangry, and he fed them. God was with them when they were thirsty and he gave them living water to drink.

The people of Israel found fault with Moses, with God, and probably, somewhere deep inside, with themselves. God's response? It's all grace, it's all mercy. They survive to live another day to try to grasp the unfathomable, the presence of God that isn't a flashing light or a winning lottery ticket, but the mysterious presence of God noticed in the silence, in manna from heaven, in water from a rock, and in bread and wine at the table.

And that water that the Israelites were thirsting for, it was right there under the rock the whole time, just below the surface of what they could see. The problem was they were only focused on their problem (no water) and they couldn’t see God’s solution (providing in a new and unexpected way).

God’s grace, God’s love, God’s provision was right there, waiting to be set loose.

But the people couldn’t get to it on their own, this was a source of life that only God can give.

               So today, perhaps you are wondering the same thing: “Is God really with me or not?”

               The answer is yes, He is.