Drink שָׁתָה

We are moving into chapter seventeen of Exodus with our word for today. שָׁתָה drink, to drink together, to take in liquids. It is used 217 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used of alcohol. 2 Samuel 11:13 At David’s invitation, he ate וַיֵּ֖שְׁתְּ and drank with him, and David וַֽיְשַׁכְּרֵ֑הוּ made him drunk. Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and וּֽשֲׁתֵ֥ה drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Our word is used of water. Genesis 24:14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a וְאֶשְׁתֶּ֔ה drink,’ and she says, שְׁתֵ֔ה ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Sometimes water becomes contaminated in some way so that it is not safe for consumption. Exodus 7:21, 24 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not לִשְׁתּ֥וֹת drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt… And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not לִשְׁתּ֑וֹת drink the water of the river. Exodus 15:23-24 When they came to Marah, they could not לִשְׁתֹּ֥ת drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah,) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to נִּשְׁתֶּֽה drink?”

This is the sense our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 17:1-2, 6 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people לִשְׁתֹּ֥ת to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to וְנִשְׁתֶּ֑ה drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”…Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will וְשָׁתָ֣ה drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Our word is used in the sense of experiencing God’s judgment against from sin. Job 21:20 Let their own eyes see their destruction; let them יִשְׁתֶּֽה drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty. Isaiah 51:17 Awake, awake! Rise up, Jerusalem, you who have שָׁתִ֛ית drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have שָׁתִ֖ית drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger. The idea of this figure of speech is just as one experiences the effects of the alcohol when it is drunk so one experiences the effects or consequences of God’s wrath when sinning against him.

In the New Testament Jesus takes this concept of drinking and applies it to himself in both ways it is used in the Old Testament. When he makes reference to the cup in his prayer at Gethsemane he is using the alcohol metaphor of experiencing God’s judgment. Luke 22:41-42 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” At the cross Jesus drinks the cup that God makes him drink that is he experiences the punishment for our sins instead of us getting what we deserved. The other way Jesus uses the idea of drinking is identifying himself as the living water of life. I’ll close with the good news that because Jesus has died in our place and taken our wrath we are not only forgiven but have this living water inside of us when we are in Christ. John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.