Exodus 17:1-7
1 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?"
If there is one word to describe the Israelites during their post-Egypt wilderness wandering it would be “grumbling.” In fact, the Hebrew word often translated as grumbling, murmuring, etc. occurs throughout the story of the Israelites’ time in the desert, after their exodus from Egypt, but before their entry into the Promised Land. Too often they sound like irritable children in the backseat of a station wagon on a road trip to grandma’s house: “Are we there yet? I’m hungry…I’m thirsty…I don’t want to stop here…How much longer? I wish we could have just stayed at home, because I didn’t want to go in the first place…” Of course, kids in the backseat on the way to Grandma’s house aren’t irritable towards Grandma, are they? No: they’re irritable towards the ones in the front seat, the ones steering the car and reading the map.
The Israelites weren’t much different. When they began to complain, they didn’t take it up with the One who decided the Promised Land was across the desert…they grumbled to the one in the front seat, the one at the head of the crowd, the one who led them out of Egypt, the one who led them through the Red Sea (yom suf), the one who stood up to Pharaoh and now was leading them across the wilderness.
We’ve witnessed one of these grumbling incidents this morning. Right away we’re told in verse 1: “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.” This isn’t the first time the people have camped where there was no water to drink (you can flip back a couple of chapters to read about the event at Marah in 15:22-27). Furthermore, it’s not the first time the Israelites have found themselves without a necessity in the wilderness (you can simply read chapter 16 to see how God provided the people with food, manna—bread from heaven it seemed). Yet here they are again, and rather than having learned from their experiences thus far in the wilderness and trusting that God would provide for them, in verse 2 they “quarreled with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’" “We’re thirsty!” they whined, like little children in the backseat.
Isn’t it something how they still haven’t learned that God will provide their needs? Isn’t it something that these people who’ve witnessed the power of YHWH in the face of the most powerful empire in the world are still complaining? Isn’t it something that these people who witnessed—not one, not two, but TEN plagues, ten signs from God would still whine about something as simple as water to drink? Isn’t it something that these same people who left Egyptian slavery in droves, these same people who passed through a parted sea, these same people who were eating bread that miraculously appeared on the ground every morning are still grumbling, whining, complaining, and quarreling with Moses? It’s a wonder he didn’t just sneak off one night and leave them to complain to someone else!
You would think by now these people would have their stuff together, that they’d understand that God had brought them out there, and God obviously didn’t bring them out there to die. You would think by now, with the great signs of power and wonder in Egypt still fresh on their minds, that these people would understand that everything is going to work out, that God provided for them on more than one occasion already, so there’s no reason to believe that God wouldn’t do it again. You’d think that, but…aren’t we really just like them?
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to judge them after all. I mean, think about it: how many times have you found yourself in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of trial, in the midst of something overwhelming and seemingly impossible to handle, yet here you are, on the other side alive, whole—changed perhaps—but you’re here. God has delivered you. God has provided. However, when the next challenge comes, when the next dark days arrive, there will still be that feeling, that lingering doubt that maybe you won’t get through it this time, that God might not be there for you. That fear—that doubt—well, I believe it’s actually a crucial part of a life of faith.
What if the story we’ve read this morning had gone differently? What if it went something like this? “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. So the people all said to one another, ‘Don’t sweat it. God will give us some water. That’s God’s job after all, to make sure we get everything we need.’ So the people waited, with their heads held up towards the sky with their mouths open waiting for God to rain down water for them to drink.” It’s a bit silly perhaps, but think about it this way: without a healthy dose of doubt, without that questioning in one’s soul of whether or not God will provide, one may begin to see God as little more than a sacred supply source, giving one everything one needs in order to be healthy and whole. You see, faith without doubt becomes nothing more than holy entitlement, with one believing he or she will get whatever he or she wants because God will give it to them.
God had a plan for Moses in order to provide water for the people, and God used that opportunity to once again show the people that God would provide for them their every need in the wilderness, but they would still grumble and complain to Moses, and they would still doubt. But that doubting would lead to God showing them the way, showing them God’s providence even in the desert. Perhaps that’s why Moses commemorated their quarreling and their testing of God by renaming the place twice, to commemorate when the people asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Perhaps Moses was the one who was beginning to learn. Perhaps he was beginning to understand that faith in God’s providence requires a helping of doubt to test one’s dependence upon God. Perhaps the real testing that was taking place at Rephidim was not the Israelites testing of God, but God’s testing of the people and Moses’ faith. After all, faith untested, if faith unproven.
So, is the Lord among us or not? To me, the answer to that question is not as plain as it might seem to others. You see, God is not simply some far-off energy source, driving creation while making sure the right people get everything they want. God is one who exists in relationship; God is a living, moving, loving God. To me, that means that there is more to the life of faith than a simplistic notion that God will hand over everything I need and will see me through the dark valleys of life so that I may rise to the mountaintop. To ask if the Lord is among us or not is to ask if God is actually in the dry places of the desert with us. It is to ask if God can actually experience our thirst, our pain, our loneliness. It is to ask if God can even know our doubts and our fears about the uncertainty of what lies ahead. From a cross the answer comes ringing back, “Yes! The Lord is with us!”
There upon the cross, Christ, God Incarnate cries out in his thirst, cries out in his fear that perhaps God had forsaken him—there on that cross, Christ offers himself up in an ultimate act of faith in the midst of doubt and despair. Sometime after the cross, after Christ’s resurrection, he says to those who were with him, “I am with you always…” Is the Lord with us or not? YES! Yes he is with us, because Christ has been there before us. Christ has been there in the dark valleys. Christ has been there in the dry deserts. God in Christ has been there and God will be there again with us as we go through them. We will doubt; we will worry; we will fear, but Christ will be with us regardless. And like the Israelites of so long ago, we will grow in faith and trust along this journey as the Lord goes with us. Amen.
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