Lenten Devotion: From Hard Hearts to Living Water

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT: Exodus 17:1–7; Psalm 95; Romans 1:16–32; John 4:5–42

The question I have struggled with is this: why didn’t the nation of Israel trust God after He miraculously freed them from bondage with signs and wonders? God proved His character over and over again by signs and wonders, yet the nation grumbled, complained, and eventually put God to the test. They put God to the test so much that God was going to obliterate them, if it were not for the intercession of Moses on their behalf.

Let’s look at testing and trusting. We see a pattern in Scripture that God tests to see what is in the hearts of His servants. The testing reveals our true character. Will I grumble and complain and shake my fist at God when life situations and circumstances do not go my way? The testing goes deep within my being. I am laid bare and made vulnerable. What is the testing supposed to accomplish? It is a test of obedience and loyalty. Will I obey? Will I remain loyal to my LORD when my life is anything but perfect? What will be my response?

Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines trust as: Confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person. Do I rely, then, on the proven character of God in all my life situations? How has God proven Himself in my past? Has He ever failed me or forsaken me? Can faith and trust be considered synonymous, or is there a meaningful distinction?

We have the confidence that God can and will do what He says in His word. But do I believe it to be so? Can I rely on it? Perhaps this illustration will help. Faith recognizes that a chair is designed to support the person that sits in it. Trust is when I sit down on it and it supports me. While faith centers on believing God’s truths, trust leans upon those truths in real-life situations.

I searched the internet for why people lack trust in God. Interestingly, the number one answer was fear — fear of failure, perhaps, or fear of not measuring up to our own ideals about what God wants from us. What does God really think of us? Unfortunately, our identity is skewed by what people in our childhood thought of us, and that self-identity flows into our adulthood. These skewed perceptions do not reflect how God truly sees us. How does God see us? We are His. We are His sons and His daughters. We are saved, sanctified, cherished, and loved unconditionally.

Our Old Testament reading in Exodus points to the epic failure of a nation to trust in the character of God. God was persistent in His pursuit of their hearts. He desperately wanted them to trust Him, yet they failed. God desired for them to worship Him, which we find in our Psalm reading:

Psalm 95:1–11 (ESV)

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

The nation hardened their hearts. A hard heart is one that is stubborn and obstinate and quarrelsome. In the Romans passage we see a heart that is hardened and also a carnal one. We see the wrath of God revealed.

Romans 1:18–20 (ESV)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

This passage reflects my original question. Why didn’t the nation of Israel trust God after all the signs and wonders? The question can even be asked today of people who are following their own path and not the path towards eternal life. God’s eternal and divine power has been clearly manifested since the beginning, and yet individuals and nations are blind and without excuse. In Romans, the author goes on to say that they KNEW God (emphasis mine), for He has revealed Himself through general revelation (nature) and special revelation (God’s written Word), yet they still did not have faith to believe and trust in Him. Therefore God gave them up. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

Jesus encounters the woman at the well in our Gospel reading. She is drawing water in the heat of the noonday sun. Why? To avoid encountering the other women who draw water in the cooler parts of the day. Why? Because she has a reputation. She has a past. She is a broken soul. Yet Our Lord sought her out and conversed with her at Jacob’s well. He saw in her potential to do His work, despite her brokenness and loneliness. She called Him a prophet when He revealed her past. The conversation was on two different planes. He was talking of spiritual matters and she was thinking of tangible matters — water. Jesus offered her living water and revealed that He was the Messiah. She believed and abandoned her water jug to tell everyone about Jesus. The Samaritans came to Jesus, and He and His disciples stayed in that city for two days, and many believed.

So there is hope after all. Jesus encounters a woman who is spiritually bankrupt like the Israelites, yet she trusted and believed, and as a result many came to know Jesus personally as Savior. She was the first female Gentile Evangelist.

Where does that leave us this day? Will you totally trust Jesus with your life? This trust goes beyond salvation into the realm of sanctification. Are you kicking against the goads? Are you being stubborn and obstinate and demanding your own way rather than the way of the cross? Will you trust His Word? Will you trust the character of God? What do you fear? Do you desire to be autonomous and not submit to God?

Perhaps the more relevant question is not why the Israelites failed to obey God, but why we ourselves do not please God in all aspects of our lives. Nevertheless, we have a challenge as individual believers to examine ourselves during this season of Lent and to see if our hearts are far away from Jesus, if we are idolatrous in any way. The Bible tells us we are not to be conformed to this world; that we are to be living sacrifices; that we need to be transformed by a renewing of our minds to be able to discern what is the will of God. The Holy Spirit within us can accomplish this transformation. Yet a battle rages within us. We want autonomy, yet we want to please God. Which inclination will you obey?

Hebrews 2:17–3:13 (NAS95)

17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. 1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. 7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, 8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, 9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED ME BY TESTING ME, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. 10 THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; 11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’” 12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

As a church, we need to be alert to those around us who are suffering and in need. We need to encourage a brother or sister who is struggling in their faith, struggling physically or financially. The Collect for this Third Sunday in Lent is appropriate:

Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they rest in you: Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants, and purify our disordered affections, that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Pray before you read Scripture:

a. Ask Him to cleanse your heart.

b. Ask Him to remove any preconceived ideas.

c. Ask the Holy Spirit to be your teacher.

d. Ask Him to help you accurately observe what the passage of Scripture is saying.

e. Ask Him to help you understand what it meant to the people it was written to.

f. Ask Him how He wants you to apply the passage to your life.

How to apply Scripture:

a. What was already part of my thinking?

b. What is new to me?

c. What requires a change in my thinking?

d. What can be applied to my behavior?

e. What action can I take to obey now?