The story of Moses pulling water from the rock is one of the most well-known stories during the wilderness wanderings.
It’s also hugely confusing for most of us, self included. The reason why is that Moses doesn’t get water from a rock on one occasion, but two. In both situations, he hits the rock…but only once is he commanded to hit the rock. The other time he’s told to speak to the rock, but he hits it instead (presumably out of anger).
And if the similarity in events wasn’t confusing enough, the two places have almost exactly the same names. One place is called Massah and Meribah (Exodus 17:1-7), while the other is just called Meribah (Numbers 20:1-12). If that doesn’t trip you up at least once, you’re a better person than I.
The names are important, though. Like other places in Scripture (and in today’s world), locations are named after events, people, or something else. In this case, “Massah” means testing, and “Meribah” means contention. In Exodus 17, the people at Israel were guilty of both: They tested God, and they fought with Him (Exodus 17:2).
It’s understandable that people need water to drink. There is zero issue with the need. The problem in Exodus 17 was the manner in which they asked it. Instead of simply asking God for water, they demanded it from Moses to the point that Moses feared for his own life.
The people also tested God by saying that Moses drug them out to the wilderness to die (Exodus 17:3-4). That obviously wasn’t true; several miracles in Exodus prove otherwise. Their argument was that while God may have had a hand in the previous part of the Exodus, it seemed like now He was gone. That’s why they asked, “Is the Lord among us, or not?”
I find this part of Scripture to be extremely relatable. Humans are known for their short attention span, and if God isn’t visible for a moment, we begin to question His existence.
But He’s always visible, isn’t He? For the Israelites, they had the manna, the pillar of fire, the recent events with the Red Sea. Surely, they didn’t doubt God’s existence, did they? Especially when He was so obviously still there?
For us, we have creation and the evidence of the Scriptures. We have testimony from eyewitnesses. We have all the things we need to remember God’s everlasting presence. Far be it from any of us to utter what these people said in Exodus 17, to question whether God is there or if He cares.
He’s always there, and He always cares. Always.
