Num 20:8, "Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink." 
    	This morning in our reading, we have this passage which highlights the basic reality of the very sustenance of our lives on this earth. We only have life because God provides the means for our survival through His grace and His mercy and His provision of all that we need, both physically and spiritually. While this passage shows the means whereby the Children of Israel received the necessary water to keep their physical bodies and their animals alive in the wilderness, it also embodies the essential truth of God’s heart for those whom He has created. 
That is why, when Moses, accompanied by Aaron, reacted with venomous anger and animosity toward the people, God rebuked them so severely in verse 12 with the prohibition from being enabled to lead the new generation into the Promised Land. Num 20:12, But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them." 
Moses and Aaron had defiled the very provision of the holiness of God by taking the matters of the rebuffing of the people’s faithlessness into their own hands. They demonstrated before the whole nation the wrath of man in direct opposition to the grace and the mercy of God. Moses was simply to speak to the rock, and rivers of water would have flowed forth. This would have been the visual demonstration that God would provide the physical sustenance of His people without any regard to their rebellion and faithlessness. He would open the wells of the means of their salvation even though there was no meritorious basis in the actions of that complaining and defiant and disloyal nation. 
Moses and Aaron were to have demonstrated that heart of the merciful and gracious Lord God Almighty, Jehovah Jirah, to those undeserving people. However they succumbed to their own anger and frustration with those complaining and stiff-necked and ungrateful nation whom they had been leading. Moses and Aaron let themselves stand in unholy judgment and resentment by chastising the people and then striking the rock in anger and resentment. Thus, the two of them had set aside the Holiness of God by showing forth the defiled wrath of humanity. That was something that would cost them dearly, as it costs everyone who so demeans and defiles the testimony of the nature and the Holiness of the Lord God Almighty.
The Psalmist, in Ps 78:14-25, if you would please turn to it, highlighted the fact that, despite the faithlessness and the complaining and the rebellion and the continual demeaning of God by those whom He had rescued from their bondage and their misery, the Lord still proved Himself merciful and gracious and patient. He still provided for their every need. The fact of the water flowing forth from the rock was a key truth for their very survival. 
Ps 78:14-25, Then He led them with the cloud by day, And all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness, And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers. Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert. And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. Then they spoke against God; They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? "Behold, He struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?" Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath, And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also mounted against Israel; Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in His salvation. Yet He commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of heaven; And He rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. 
    	Despite the grumbling and the constant unbelief of the people, God lavishly provided from His heavenly storehouses to the salvation of His Chosen Nation. They were guided by day and by night on the paths that they needed to travel and they were given the bread of angels in abundance. The key that we want to highlight is that they were saved from mortal death by the waters that gushed out of the rock. It issued forth, not in trickles, but in overflowing abundance. They were not saved by the skin of their teeth, just in the nick of time, but in the overwhelming richness of the manifested grace and mercy and love of God regardless of their utter lack of deserving any of it.
	The Prophet Isaiah poured forth the heart of God toward His Chosen people in the prophetic writing of the 35th Chapter of Isaiah. Please turn to it so that we can marvel at it together. This is the detailed depiction of how the provision of the Lord will be manifested unto those whom He will save. The descriptors present a picture of the parched desert being filled with the life-giving water in abundance. Accordingly, please recognize that there is the evident correlation and delineation of what will be in place in the spiritual reality of the salvation of God lavished upon those whom He will choose to save unto Himself for all of eternity. This is what will be in evidence for all the ages of ages as the Rock of Salvation issues forth that spiritual water of everlasting life.
	Isa 35, The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, The majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you." Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. And the scorched land will become a pool, And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes. And a highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, And the ransomed of the Lord will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away. 
    	As the waters of the salvation of God break forth, the infertile and parched land will become fruitful and refreshing. Those who are downtrodden and exhausted and scorched with the heat of oppression will be rejuvenated and healed and filled with joy and encouragement. There will be rejoicing and energy and gladness as the glory and the majesty of the Lord will flow forth. The people will celebrate and be delighted in the glory and the sovereignty of the Lord. He will refresh them with the every provision of the waters of eternal life, flowing until it covers that thirsty land with pools and streams that bring the reeds and rushes of gladness and joy and contentment in the salvation of God. 
	The Prophet Isaiah continued to reinforce this in Isa 48:17-21. He gave direct voice to the Lord in detailing the full measure of His redemption for those whom He chooses unto Himself. 
Isa 48:17-21, Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. "If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. "Your descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence." Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, "The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob." And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock, and the water gushed forth. 
	Note in all these passages the tremendous emphasis on water. Please keep in mind that water is the basis of life on this earth. Without water, all living creatures, plant and animal will wither and die. Particularly in the Middle Eastern area, water was and still is a vital and precious commodity. It is the driving force between the people and their ability to stay in a region for farming purposes and for the raising of livestock. Without the water, the regions would be deserted and worthless. It is the water that gives value to an area of land as being habitable and populated.
	The spiritual significance of this remarkable and terrific emphasis on the freely flowing water provided by the Lord to His people throughout their sojourning was explained by Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was as He taught the woman at the well as recorded in John 4:10-14. 
John 4:10-14, Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. " 
	The spiritual truth of the water of eternal life provided by Jesus to all who call upon His name is the well-spring of our salvation. Without Him as the source of our sustenance, we have nothing and will face everlasting parchedness in the fiery depths of hell. In Him, through His provision of the living water of God's redemption, we have the refreshment of life everlasting.
	The Apostle Paul, as well, gives emphasis to the experience of the Children of Israel in the wilderness as it relates to us in 1 Cor 10:1-4. Not only is the water so important, but the fact of the matter is that the rock from which that water freely flows is the very source of our salvation. 
1 Cor 10:1-4, For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 
    	It is on this basis that God was so severe with Moses and Aaron. As they struck the rock, rather than speaking to it, as per His specific instructions, they were striking at the very heart of the means of the provision of their everything. They were expressing their anger and their frustration upon the very source of their deliverance, and God would not allow that earthly touch upon the symbol of His saving grace. 
	John, in Rev 22:1+2, closes the Word of God with the truth that the water of life, everlasting life flows forth from the throne of God and of the Lamb, the Glorious Rock of our Salvation. That water flows to the tree of life. Accordingly, we enjoy the fruit of that life as well as experiencing the healing power of the leaves of that watered tree.
	Rev 22:1+2, And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 
    	John brings everything to a conclusion with the 17th verse of Rev 22. In it, the Holy Spirit and the Church, the Bride of Christ, together invite those who are thirsty to come to the Lord Jesus and to partake freely of the water of life. 
Rev 22:17, And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. 
	There is no cost for this precious and vitally life sustaining water. It is freely given as it was freely and abundantly given by God in the wanderings of His people in the desert regions. There was no cost for the people to drink. Even the disobedience of Moses and Aaron did not prevent the Lord from freely supplying that vital sustenance to the people and to their beasts. He made His grace and His mercy and His love to flow forth unto that wandering and stubborn and rebellious people then, as He does so now, to you and to me. 
Despite our wretched condition of sin and trespasses against His Holiness, He has brought forth the living waters of eternal life for us through the rock of our salvation, His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. For that living water, let us ever praise His name and drink deeply and thoroughly to the refreshing depths of our beings. So be it.
"Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is 2 Cor 3:18. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Amen.