470 PREPARATIONS FOR THE (EXERC. XIX.
wonder that they made use of a word that had obtained amongst them from some of the nations with whom they had been conver- sant, differing little in sound from that of their own of the same sig- nification, and afterwards admitted into common use amongst them. From this occasional interrogation did the food provided for them take its name of “man,” called in the New Testament “ manna:” such occasional imposition of names to persons and things being at all times frequent and usual; as in the chapter foregoing, the place was called Marah, from the bitterness of the water, that they cried out of upon their first tasting it; and in the next, Massah and Meribah, from their temptations and provocations. That which alone we have to observe concerning this dispensation of God towards them is, that they had this eminent renewed pledge of the bread of life, the food of their souls, the Lord Christ, given unto them before they were intrusted with the law; which by making their only glory, and be- taking themselves unto, without the healing tree and heavenly manna, is become their snare and ruin. See John vi. 31, 32, 48, 49, 51; Rev. ii. 17.
27. A third signal preparation for the law, on the like occasion, and to the same purpose with the former, is repeated Exod. xvii. 1-7: “ And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the command- ment of the Lorp, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lorp? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our eattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lorp, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lorp said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of ~ the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted. the Lorp, saying, Is the LoRD among us, or not?” Marching up farther into the wilderness, and coming to Rephidim, their fourth station from the Red Sea, meeting with no waters to their satisfaction, they fell into a high murmuring against the Lord, and mutiny against Moses their leader. And this iniquity, the Jewish doctors suppose, was aggravated, because they were in no absolute necessity for water,
SECT. 27, 28.] GIVING OF THE LAW. 471
the dew which fell from the manna running in some streams. Hereon God leads Moses to the rock of Horeb, where himself ap- peared in the cloud which he had prepared for the place of giving the law, commanding him to take his rod in his hand to smite the rock; whereon waters flowed out. for the relief of this sinful, murmur- ing people. And the Holy Ghost hath put sundry marks upon this dispensation of God towards them:—
First upon the sin of the people, whence he gave a double name
to the place where they sinned, for a memorial to all generations. ‘He called it Massah and Meribah; which words our apostle renders by qeipacuss and rapurimpaouss, Heb. iii, 8,—“ temptation” and “provoking contention.” And it is often mentioned again, both on the part of the people, either to reproach and burden them with their sin, as Deut. ix. 22, “And at Massah ye provoked the Lorp to wrath;” or to warn them of the like miscarriage, chap. vi. 16, “Ye shall not tempt the Lorp your God, as ye tempted him in Massah;” as also Ps. xcv. 8 ;—and on the part of Moses, as to the signal trial that God had there of his faith and obedience, in that great difficulty which he conflicted withal ; as also of those of the tribe of Levi, who, in a preparation unto their ensuing dedica- tion unto God, clave unto him in his straits, Deut. xxxili. 8, “And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy One, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah.” The mercy likewise that ensued, in giving them water from the rock, is most frequently celebrated, Deut. viii. 15; Ps. Ixxviii. 15, 16, ev. 41; Neh. ix. 15. Now, all this was done to bring them to attend and inquire dili- gently into the kernel, the pearl of this mercy, whose outward shell was so undeservedly free and so deservedly precious: for in this rock of Horeb lay hid a,“ spiritual Rock,” as our apostle tells us, 1 Cor. x. 4, even Christ, the Son of God; who, being smitten with the rod of Moses, or the stroke and curse of the law administered by him, gave out waters of life freely unto all that thirst and come unto him.