“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4)
Prop: Water Fountain and small stones
“Are we there yet?”
Every parent knows that mantra.
It’s summertime. We’re looking forward to that vacation in the mountains, or at the beach, or at some other destination where we hope to relax, take it easy, see some sights, sleep well, eat well, have a great time. So, we plan our route, we pack the car, we generate excitement among the family, grab blankets and pillows, and we’re off on our grand road trip. Except an hour into the 5-hour drive, the clan starts to get restless. Every five minutes you hear….
“Are we there yet?” “I’m bored.” “I’m hungry.” “Can’t we just go home?”
And your beautiful dreams of an awesome vacation start to take on the look and feel of one of those Chevy Chase vacation movies.
It was the same for Moses in our scripture today. He’s leading them on a grand “road trip” to the Promised Land. But to get there, they have to go through the desert. It’s desolate and boring, hot and filled with scorpions and snakes, and they’re tired of the “camping” trip experience!
“It’s taking too long,” they complain. “We’re tired.” “We’re thirsty.” “Why don’t we just go back home? At least we could have a good meal and get a good night’s rest.” “Why are you making us go?”
And Moses brings his hands to his ears and shouts out to God, “These people are driving me crazy!”
Now, tell the truth---You’ve never, ever said that?!?
Not only are people kvetching about the trip, but now Moses himself is grousing and moaning about the people. What a feedback loop God has to listen to. No wonder God decides to step in.
We learn later in the story, it’s not really the water they are worried about, although the Israelites are famous for their conflicted relationship with water. What they are really worried about is whether or not God really planned this trip! Does this destination really exist? Is God just along for the ride?
Moses tells us the people were “testing” the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
That’s the real source of their carping and whining: massah and meribah! Massah means to Test. Meribah means to Quarrel. The people are testing and quarreling, wanting more physical comforts. But the massah amd meribah people yammered about more than just water. They doubted as well: “Moses, are you sure you know what you’re doing? Are you sure God told you to do this? Or is this a bunch of malarkey, and are we merely coming out here to starve to death or die from thirst and heat stroke? Why are you doing this to us? Is this really the Lord’s idea? I don’t see any sign of God out here!”
“Is the Lord among us or not?”
“What if you’re the only one who sees God?! What if it’s your word against the baking sand?!”
And the Lord heard their prayers…..
Yes, that’s what I said. The Lord heard their prayers…even carping, whining prayers, even massah, meribah prayers. And God answered them, not merely by giving them something cool and wet to drink, but by proving that the Lord IS truly among us, even if sometimes, we cannot see Him.
God told Moses to strike the Rock at Horeb. Lo and behold –Living Waters sprung out of the earth, just like at the foundation of creation! But they saw so much more than a flowing fountain of water. They saw that God was with them! In all of their loneliness, and doubt, and weariness of the red earth and the scorching sun, of the never-ending desert of their arduous journey to a place they could not yet see ---thank God, the Lord was still with them!
The Lord of Life,
who created the world from the waters of The Deep,
who brings forth Living Water from the depths of the sin-sick soul,
who restores people into relationship with Him through the waters of baptism,
who bathes us in the living waters of holy and abundant grace,
who quenches the thirst of our despair and makes water to spring from the deserts (Is 41:18; 43: 19, Ps 107:35; 46:4),
this Lord is with us. Hallelujah!
From out of the desert of their despair, and their struggle, and their contention, and their loss of hope, God led them beside “cool waters,” ….and restored and re-storied their souls (Ps. 23).
Sometimes, it’s hard to wait. It’s not the easiest to be patient for what we imagine to be God’s promise, God’s blessings, our prayers answered, our grief and burdens relieved. It’s awfully hard to be patient when we can’t see the end of the journey. When we are stuck in a time of hardship, it’s awfully hard to see God in the midst of our despair, isn’t it?
At one time or another, all of us have asked the very same thing:
“Is God really among us?”
“Is God really listening to me?”
“Is God going to answer my prayers?”
“Is God really the God of Moses?”
Jesus encounters the same issue when he stops at Jacob’s Well in the vicinity of Sychar (formerly Shechem) as he passes through Samaria. He speaks with a woman who is dipping into the underground spring waters (called living waters) of the historic well. She draws out the physical water with Jesus by her side. And yet, she doesn’t realize the true Living Water of God, the Messiah Jesus, is speaking with her right at that very moment. Until Jesus reveals Himself to her. And her “thirst” for change, for God’s promise, God’s redemption, God’s hope is immediately quenched. Her prayers for Messiah have been answered. God has been revealed.
Her life had become a “desert” of pain. She felt alone, shunned by her people. To be left out of married life is to be left out of life. She was discarded by several husbands most likely due to her barrenness. We also learn that she spent her time, waiting and hoping for Messiah to come. Then her life would change. Then her world would change. She spent her days thirsting for the love, the acceptance, the comfort, and the nourishment of God’s presence in her life, God’s redemption for her soul, God’s grace in her circumstance. And when she realized that Jesus was the Messiah, the One come to restore the people, even the people of Samaria, even those who were outcast, even her –she leapt with excitement, and she became one of Jesus’ first witnesses to His identity and His mission.
All of us at one time or another comes to a barren place, a desert place of the soul where nothing seems to be going right, where God seems to be silent. Our faith starts to shrivel up and dry in the heat of our contention.
We cry, “Is the Lord among us or not?” “Lord, are you hearing me at all?”
That’s when we need most to let the cup of our emptiness go down deep –deep, deep down into the living springs of our faith. That’s the place within our hearts where Jesus resides. That’s the place that knows and recognizes Jesus as our Living Lord. That’s the place that pulls us back into spaces of peace, assurance, and hope. For God alone is our Living water. For God alone is the wellspring of joy, of peace, of hope, and of eternal Life.
God does not penalize us for our Massah and Meribah. God doesn’t chastise us for our impatience, or our frustration, or our anger, or even our doubt. But God does give us signs of God’s everlasting and calming presence, and quenches us with the Living Waters of healing and life-giving hope. If only we can read the signs.
So go ahead. Wrestle with God. Shout at God. Some characters in the Bible were even known to curse at God when the journey of life God too hard and long. God is God. God can take all your Massah and Meribah.
But never forget this. God sends us Jesus –the greatest “sign” of all, God’s Living Water, and the rock of our salvation. Let Jesus remind you each and every day that God is near. For Jesus himself is the Promise and the Fulfillment of all Promises.
I invite you now to come forward to the spring on the altar, to take one of the stones, and to dip that stone into the waters of the fountain, and then to take that stone with you today, as a reminder that even if you cannot see Him, even if sometimes He doesn’t seem to answer right away, God is always there, always listening, always loving, always leading you onward into those places of cool water.
May your souls be quenched today with the Living Waters of Jesus’ presence. May your soul be satisfied, your doubt relieved, and your heart revived to the Living Presence of Jesus.
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
The Lord Provides Water from a Rock (Exodus 17:1-7: Massah and Meribah)
Minor Text
The Water that Springs Forth from God (Genesis 2:4-25)
Isaac Reopens the Wells His Father Had Dug (Genesis 26)
Jacob Builds an Altar that Becomes Jacob’s Well (Genesis 35:7)
Psalm 63: The Soul Thirsts for God
Psalm 42: The Lord is the Source of the Waters for Which the Soul Thirsts
Psalm 36: God is the Fountain of Life
Psalm 1: The Faithful are Planted like Trees in Water
Psalm 107: The Lord Satisfies the Thirsty
Psalm 23: He Leads Me Beside Still Waters and Restores My Soul
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Flowing Water of God (47)
Jesus at Jacob’s Well (John 4)
The Lord Provides Water from a Rock
The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. 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?”
But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”
So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Image Exegesis: The Source
Split rock –that’s the rock associated with the fountain of water at the Rock of Horeb. Where Moses touched the rock with his staff, water sprung forth from below and out through the rock, a sign of God’s presence, as well as a thirst quencher for a people parched of faith in their long desert journey toward the Promised Land.
The Source –YHWH, the rock of salvation (Psalm 95), is God who showed Himself “stronger” than the massah (testing) and meribah (contention), that is, the strength of the people’s outcry against God. But their “testing” was not so much a vicious rage as it was a litmus “test” to see if God was indeed still “among” them! They were beginning to feel very downcast and very alone.
Typically landscape in scripture houses some powerful metaphors, and it’s no different here. The desert represents the barrenness (so also with the woman at the well…who likely is barren, therefore having had many husbands discard her), the loneliness, the desolateness of a soul that feels apart from God, does not feel God’s presence.
The water then is the quencher that creates life from barrenness, fruitfulness from nothingness, hope from despair.
“Living water” is the name of an underground spring….that water which runs below the surface and which rises up within the well to be accessed. The well then is a connector (a relational conduit similar to Jacob’s ladder) which helps one access one’s source within (God…or for us, Jesus who lives within us). For Jesus is the Living Water –the true water of eternal life and hope.
When we access our “deep faith,” we delve into that well toward relationship and nourishment from our Creator –the Source of all life and the source of our peace, contentment, and joy within sorrow.
Taste and see that the Lord is good…….taste the waters of Life. In Jesus, we have a “foretaste” of what is to come in God’s eternal kingdom.
The rock/stone too is an interesting metaphor. The people want to “stone” Moses….but from out of a stone (out of their bitterness), comes the freshness of God’s soul-quenching presence. God turns their “stony” resentment, the hardness of their hearts, into “flesh” –by causing the springs to rise up from the earth (the same way as in the Creation story), so that the desert is watered (and thereby their souls are softened). For God is the Rock of Salvation –the never changing, ever present Lord (even when we may not perceive Him there).
The word massah (testing) comes from maccha or nacah. These mean to tempt, to strive, to test, to prove, to despair. The word represents all that is desperate in the desert-like soul.
The word meribah (contention) represents bitterness from the root marar bitter, the same root that gives us gall and myrrh. It means to be “strong” against (hardened) in the Hebrew sense of the word moreso than our understanding of “bitterness” as a taste.
We can however play with these imagining the “taste” of bitterness vs the “taste” of grace (in the living water). What does God’s mercy and love “taste” like?
What does grief “taste” like?
The “struggle” here reminds somewhat of Jacob’s struggle with God, and indeed, Jesus encounters the woman at Jacob’s well. To pray isn’t always easy. Sometimes, to pray is struggle. And God welcomes our struggles. God, our rock, can withstand our struggles. And will send us signs that let us know, He is always near, and always eager to fill us with the Living Waters of salvation hope.
Is the Lord with us or not?
We must answer, He is.