Thursday, October 8, 2026 · Week of Pentecost 19
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 for 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?”
Notes
No, you're not crazy. We've read this story before. At Marah the people complained about water (15:22–27). In the wilderness of Sin they complained about food (16:1–16). Now at Rephidim it's water again, three murmuring stories in a row, arranged A-B-A, all built on the same verb, lun, "complain." Verse 2 adds a harder word, riv, "quarrel," which can mean a shouting match or a lawsuit. The place gets a name for each charge: Massah, from nasah, "test," and Meribah, from riv. This round is also the ugliest of the three. Moses thinks they're about to stone him. And the Hebrew of verse 3 slips into the singular: "to kill me and my children and my livestock."
Moses answers, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" He said much the same thing yesterday: "Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord" (16:8). There's a way in which the leadership of Moses and the leadership of God are the same thing; murmuring against one is murmuring against the other. I want to be careful with that, because plenty of pastors have used it to turn criticism of themselves into rebellion against God.
Moses never wanted the job. At the bush he asked, "Who am I?" (3:11) and begged God to send someone else (4:13). Verse 4 gives us that same Moses, who worried at the bush, "But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me" (4:1). Now he throws it back at God: "They are almost ready to stone me. See? I told you so."
God sends Moses back through his own story: "Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile." At the Nile, the staff came down "in the sight of Pharaoh and of his officials," and the water turned to blood (7:20). Here it comes down "in the sight of the elders of Israel," and water comes out of a rock. Like yesterday's rain, a weapon God used against Egypt becomes provision for Israel. Then God adds, "I will be standing there in front of you." Moses goes in front of the people, and God goes in front of Moses. So when the people ask, "Is the Lord among us or not?" the reader already knows. God was standing on the rock Moses struck. Paul goes a step further: "the rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4).
Moses doesn't go to the rock alone, either. God tells him to take some of the elders, who had been part of the plan since the bush (3:18). As my old mentor used to say, "There are no self-sent, self-appointed, self-anointed leaders." Contrary to how we might picture it, most leadership in the Bible is plural: Moses, Aaron, Miriam, the elders, Joshua, Jethro. In tomorrow's reading, Moses can't even keep his own arms up without Aaron and Hur.
Questions for reflection
Moses tells the people that quarreling with him is testing God. When is that true of a leader, and when does it become a way to silence people?
The people ask, "Is the Lord among us or not?" while their children are thirsty. When have you asked that question, and what did you need from the people around you?
