"Strike the Rock"

 

            "They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, 'Give us water to drink.' Moses replied, 'Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?' "

 

          The Israelites moved through the wilderness and found a resting place at a dry campsite at Rephidim, presumably because there was no oasis within a day's journey from their last site. At Rephidim they were very close to Mt. Sinai, very close to their meeting with God and the Ten Commandments. The lack of water made them thirsty.

Thirst is a prominent pain. Once it gets to a certain level, it quickly rises to the top of our awareness. Thirst also triggers strong emotions: anxiety and a feeling of desperation. We think primarily of Jesus on the cross, whose words "I thirst" are closely connected to his words, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" In their thirst, the Israelites felt forsaken and lashed out with quarreling and grumbling.

            We do not want to be too hard on the Israelites at this point, or assume that we would have handled the situation any better than they did. Peter Enns reminds us that the wilderness was not an easy place for them to live. They had to survive in harsh surroundings, and he says "their only recourse in that barren land was to trust God completely." That is where they struggled. He concludes, "As their complaining continued, the desert became in their thinking a place of punishment rather than the place of gracious supply of food and water, the place where God would come to his people to provide for them."

            This text leads us to understand that their thirst was not just a physical problem. It connects with the attitude of their hearts, and their lack of trust, so the answer is going to be more than the provision of water. It says that they quarrel with Moses, that they demand water from him, that they put the Lord to the test, that they grumble against Moses, and finally threaten him with violence. When we look at those words, some of which give new names to that place, we realize that thirst pointed to a much deeper problem than a physical need.

            Jim Bruckner helpfully sets out the meaning of the key words in this passage:

• "Quarrel" – It is actually a legal term, and means a lawsuit. The Israelites are suing God in the wilderness. The Hebrew word is "Meribah" and that becomes the new name of Rephidim.
• "Test" – This refers to the attempt to "train" God to serve our purposes. In this case, treating God as the "water boy." The Hebrew word is "Massah" – place of testing. They said, "Is the Lord among us or not?" More literally, "Is the Lord there? Perhaps the Lord is not there."
• "Give us water to drink" This is the impossible demand thrown at Moses. They move quickly to confrontation. They did not wait upon the LORD for him to provide for their needs. They assumed that they could test God, that they had a right to judge that God was not among them. John Durham puts it this way, "They embraced their thirst and ignored and doubted the Presence of the LORD."

By naming this location Meribah and Massah, Israel learned a lesson that stayed with them a long time. For in Psalm 95 we read,

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert."

           Years ago I remember a church board meeting – not at this church – in which one of the members surprised me with some angry statements, some accusations I felt were unfair, some deep unhappiness about the way things were going, and even some veiled threats. It was a most uncomfortable meeting, and at the end of it the chair asked me to close the meeting in prayer. For once I truly did not know how to pray, and I have often thought about that experience since and tried to think of ways that I should have prayed. I finally came to see that this unhappy member was thirsty, and in his complaint was looking for the provision of God. Perhaps you have been to similar meetings at work or in your family or even in church where you have been confronted by someone who is feeling the pain of spiritual thirst. You may even have experienced thirst in that way and become angry or anxious. I know that I have.

            My son David, who often runs long distance races, tells me some things about thirst for a runner. The first is that we tend not to admit our thirst until it is too late. This applies to working outside in the heat as well. We tend to say, "I'm OK," when in fact we are not. Then when our thirst catches up to us, and our body cries out, the thirst gets expressed more forcefully than we intended. Dehydration is quite serious. So are outbursts of anger or anxiety. Thirst exposes more about us than we normally intend to reveal. So it can actually help us to see the true nature of our hearts.

            God responds to the thirst and complaining of Israel by providing water from a rock, a very unlikely place. This is not done in anger. Moses simply strikes the rock with his staff and water flows. There is no natural explanation for this. It is grace. The point is that there was water waiting for them in that dry place. They just needed to touch it. There was water in Rephidim. There was water for their physical thirst, and the word of God waiting for them so close nearby on Mt. Sinai. That is grace. God waits for us. God waits for us in our wilderness, and provides for our thirst.

          We find throughout Scripture that the Lord welcomes thirsty people and offers them drink.

Isaiah 55:1: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!"

          Jesus welcomed thirsty people:

• The Samaritan woman at the well, who had a deep relational thirst that was pushing her deeper into isolation and rejection as she tried to take care of it herself. Jesus offered her living water.
• The woman caught in adultery, whose thirst was the pain of guilt and the threat of harsh judgment. Jesus spoke forgiveness to her.
• Zacchaeus, the Tax Collector, whose thirst for money caused him to compromise his values and made him more and more isolated even as his bank account grew. Jesus brought him salvation.
•  Nicodemus, the respected temple leader whose thirst for living faith could not be met by ritual alone. Jesus led him to be born again.
• And Judas, the disciple who hid his thirst in bitterness and perhaps disappointment, and ended up refusing the water of life.

Jesus welcomed thirsty people, and gave them living water, brought to them healing and salvation and the love of God. In the text from Luke 6 that we read today, we see Jesus surrounded by thirsty people, and he healed them, and then he spoke truth to their hearts, "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied."

            We see from the experience of Israel that thirst is to be admitted, confessed and named. Grumbling and quarreling so often seem justified to us. After all, we think are right! But our grumbling is so often just a covering of our thirst. It is so much better to confess what is true, what the Holy Spirit shows us about our souls. Thirst involves waiting on the Lord, rather than demanding from the Lord, or from other people. Thirst can lead you to receive the water, the grace of God that waits for you. In the wilderness of your life, God is now present with grace.

            "Strike the Rock" – That is a call to faith. Touch the place of God's provision in your life. Believe, and receive the salvation he has for you.

            Amen.