Exodus 17: 1-7: “And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?”
The Lord provided for Israel but they had to keep moving as the desert wasn’t able to support all those people in the long term. This didn’t mean that the Lord was not able to support them where they were, He was just asking them to keep trusting Him as they moved into the unknown rather than just trusting Him in the same way every day. It didn’t take long before they were thirsty again because there didn’t seem to be any water. They were just like we are today and didn’t remember what the Lord had done for them in the recent past, they just complained instead. In this circumstance they were so angry that they were ready to execute Moses for delivering them from slavery. However, the Lord was in complete control and He was ready with the best solution to their problem. He told Moses to take his rod and go to the rock in Horeb. This was the same rod that Moses had pointed towards the water and the Lord had parted the sea so that they could walk through it on dry land and escape the, otherwise, invincible Egyptian army. The Lord promised that all Moses had to do was hit the rock with the rod and there would be enough water for all those people and their animals. The place was called after their grumbling and the fact that they tested the Lord.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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