Exodus
17:1-7 (NRSV)
17 From the wilderness of Sin the whole
congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people
quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them,
“Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water;
and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of
Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So
Moses cried out to the Lord, “What
shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The
Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead
of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your
hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will be
standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water
will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight
of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and
Meribah,because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord
among us or not?”
Exodus 17:1-7 discusses the need for water in the wilderness
of Sin. The point is the surprising and gracious provision of God. It also
shows the discontent of the people in the desert. When the people are tested,
they become testy; they rebel against Moses and the Lord. In this passage,
Moses is under attack, because of the lack of water. In the long narrative of
the journey through the wilderness, the people show continual restiveness. At
issue is whether they will believe in the abiding presence of a protecting and
caring God. They journeyed by stages, “as the Lord commanded.” Here is a time
when the people did as the Lord wanted. Accepting the provision of the Lord by
stages is a sign of trust. When the people demand water, Moses asked, “Why do
you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” They ask Moses if he brought
them out of Egypt just have them die of thirst. At issue is that the people
direct their anxiety toward Moses and the power of God. Moses cried out to the
Lord what he was to do with them. The Lord has Moses take the elders with him,
take the staff with which he struck the Nile, strike a rock at Horeb, and water
came forth. Even today, certain types of rock formations indicate that the
sandstone has trapped rainwater beneath a thin layer of stone. The Lord says,
“I will be standing there in front of you.” He called the place Massah and
Meribah. The question raised is a powerful one, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Israel went too far, in questioning the very presence and providence of God.
Their trust level and obedience level were lower than the visible water. For
many of us, too, “Seeing is believing” is stronger than “Believing is seeing.”
We complain more than we trust. In the midst of a crisis, it is hard for humans
to take the long view and understand God’s long, steady purpose. Instead, we
focus on the potential shortness of life. When we are in trouble, we can hear
the clock ticking down our lives with increasing urgency. In asking for a
sign, we also see that the Old Testament is not as hard as the New Testament in
being against attempts to know the future by diviniation. As an example, here,
the Old Testament does not condemn asking for signs as a tempting of God, but
Jesus would not validate his divine sending by meeting the request for signs in
Matthew 12:38-39, 16:1-4.
It may be justifiable to employ the
wilderness experience as metaphor, in light of later significant biblical use.
Pannenberg
will say that the historical plan that will be revealed at the end of history
in terms of its result makes itself known already as it takes it course through
things and events that point in a typological way to what is future. We see
this as Paul uses the notion of the rock from which Moses smote water to give
drink to the people of Israel relates it to the Lord’s Supper in I Corinthians
10:4.
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