Power to the People--Exodus 17:1-7

"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?”

I. Introduction

There is an expected and predictable way to read this text. It goes something like this: we are in the season of Lent; Lent is a period of 40 days, a time of self-examination and confesstion. The Israelite experience in the wilderness, of which this text is an example, symbolizes our own willfulness, stubborness, arrogance and self-centeredness. Therefore, we ought to learn from the experience of the people of Israel that God is sufficient to supply our needs, that the water will come even from the rock to slake our thirst. Tie it up, put a bow on it, give it to the people. That is the expected and predictable message from this text.

And the predictable message is also the lesson that the Bible itself seems to want you to draw from it. For example, this event is referred to in the Psalms:

"8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, 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 whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

This event, then, becomes the standard account of what not to do if you are a person of faith. Don't complain; don't put God to the test; don't harden your hearts as at Meribah and Massah in the wilderness.

But, as I read the text again and again, I got a different meaning from it. I began to see the event from the perspective of the people, and I began to warm more and more to the people's interpretation of things. So, that is how I will read the text today, emphasizing three points: (1) Understanding the People's Point of View; (2) Interpreting or Reinterpreting the Story; (3) What God Learns from this Encounter.

II. Understanding the People

We have been trained not to be sympathetic to the people of Israel. Thus, we need to learn how to read again. First of all, however, in defense of the traditional interpretation, one might mention that at the end of Ex. 15 the people complained because their water was bitter, and Moses took care of that (15:25). Then, in ch. 16, the people complained because they were hungry, and God sent the gift of manna to them. So, one might argue, every need the people had was taken care of; what reason is there for them to continue complaining? But that kind of argument doesn't work--especially if you are thirsty person. That is where we begin our story in Ex. 17.

The first point to notice is that the people moved along until they had come to Rephidim, a place in the wilderness where there wasn't any water. If there is one thing about masses of people that we should understand, it is that the mass isn't responsible for going down dead ends on their journey. The leaders are. People in a herd are vulnerable people, needy people, people who require care in order to survive. So, they came to a place where there isn't any water. Then, in v. 2, they begin to complain. The word used in v. 2 is a technical one for initiating a lawsuit in Hebrew--rib. The verb and its corresponding noun each appear more than 60 times in the OT; most of the appearances are in the prophetic literature and Job. In this instance, however, the people bring a complaint against Moses. Or, more accurately, they demand water to drink. I think it is a quite reasonable request. You are in the desert, led their by people whom you trust, and there is no water. You can't long survive without this sustenance, and so you go to your leader about it. That the author uses the "code word" rib indicates that something deeper and more insistent than a humble request is in view.

Some might find fault with the people, scoring them for their lack of trust, pointing to the miracles of the preceding chapters. But we people are fickle creatures, then and now. They/We remember the last favor, but even that slowly fades from memory. Their loyalty is primarily to their children and their immediate physical needs. Only those whose table is full will complain about thirsty people complaining against their leaders.

Then, to make matters worse, Moses responds in a particularly unctuous, or self-satisfied and defensive, manner. Rather than approaching the issue as he did previously--by crying out directly to the Lord, he upbraids the people. But he doesn't only do that--he equates disagreement with him to disagreement with God. He says in the end of v. 2. "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test God?" Quarreling with Moses is testing God. It is the classic response of someone who is attacked and doesn't want to take responsibility for what he has done--to wrap oneself in a higher authority as a way of trying to deflect the good points that have been made. As if to emphasize the justness of the people's case, the author probably inadvertently drops in the word "thirst" at the beginning and end of v. 3. "Thirst" is the sandwich that surrounds everything else. Thus, what really is at stake here is that Moses has led the people into a dangerous situation, they (predictably) scream, and Moses becomes defensive. Rather than either directly taking their complaint to God or apologizing to them or telling them that this is an opportunity for them all to learn about faith, Moses equates himself with God.

So, what can you expect the people to do? Exactly what they do in v. 3. They up the ante. When they complained using the word rib in v. 2. it got them nowhere. Moses just pulled rank, which must have angered the people no end. I know it would have angered me. The people then raise their voices even louder. Why not? Moses, in fact, is asking for it. This is how to understand v. 3. Their thirst surrounds their comment--and their thirst, in fact, should mollify or mitigate their blameworthiness in complaining against Moses. They weren't heard by Moses, and so they must raise their voice. So, they make it personal:

"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?"

Note that their original request in v. 2 was a rather "impersonal" one--they just wanted water. But Moses, in his attempt to "pull rank" had taken the complaint out of the realm of the impersonal and made it personal--as if they were criticizing him. Moses did exactly what leaders aren't supposed to do--to think that everything is about them. So, since Moses thought that it was "all about Moses," the people responded in kind in v. 3. They say, as it were, 'Ok, Moses. If you want to talk about yourself, we will indulge you. Actually, it is you; you are the one responsible for our misery. You have led us out of Egypt in order to kill us. And not only us--but also our children and our cattle. You not only will wipe us out, but all traces of our heritage and name. Ok, Moses, if this is the way you want it, we will give it to you. All about Moses, indeed!'

I still need to show what God learns in this encounter--in the next essay.

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