SCRIPTURE “The Story”
bottom p56 - p57 (Ex 17:1-7)
17 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. 2 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?”
3 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?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to
do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 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. 6 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. 7 And he called the place Massah[a] and Meribah[b] because the Israelites quarreled and because
they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the
Lord endures forever. Amen.
SERMON—introduction
In chapter 4 of “The Story,” we read about how when God’s
people cry out for deliverance from slavery in Egypt, God answers by providing
Moses, who leads them into freedom.
And we read about how when God’s people cry out for
deliverance from hunger, God answers by providing manna (stuff to make bread in
the morning) in the morning and quail in the evening.
And at the very end of the chapter, we read about God’s
people crying out for deliverance from thirst, longing for a drink of water as
they follow Moses, wandering through the wilderness.
Now, this is not your ordinary kind of thirsty. This is not
the kind of thirst every kid gets before bedtime, wanting just a little sip of
water. And it’s not the kind of thirst you get from being out in the hot sun,
working in the yard. It’s not even the kind of thirst you get after running a
marathon.
For the Israelites the kind of thirst goes deeper than just
a drink of water. The Israelites are wandering in the wilderness, wondering if
and when their journey will ever end. And more than just a place, this
wilderness is becoming a state of mind--a state of being hungry and thirsty
lost and wandering and wondering if life will ever get back to the way it was.
Their physical thirst may be for water … but their spiritual
thirst is for hope and assurance.
Thirsty
In fact, they are so thirsty (for both water and hope) that
it turns into a demand, as the extreme need for something or someone so often
does.
They are so thirsty that they begin to make demands of Moses
their leader, which should come as no surprise. They say, “Give us water to
drink.” And what they mean is, “Give us water to prove you didn’t just drag us
out here to die.”
They become so demanding that a molehill becomes a mountain;
what could have been a simple and understandable plea for a drink of water
becomes a major quarrel with Moses, an argument which gets so out of control
that Moses fears being stoned by the very people he was working so hard to
save.
In the midst of all of this, Moses asks them, “Why do you quarrel with me?” And then he takes this a step further and gets a little closer to the heart of the matter. He says, “Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
Suddenly the conversation isn’t just about their thirst for
water but also their thirst for hope. They are stuck in a difficult place with
no end in sight. But rather than remember all the amazing ways God has
delivered them from evil in recent history, they forget. They forget and start
to demand things from God; they begin to test God.
Moses asks, “Why do you put the Lord to the test? Why do you
demand to see proof of God before you are willing to believe? Why can’t you
just remember all the ways God has delivered you and trust that he’s going to
do it again?”
“Why do you have to be so demanding? Why do you have to quarrel
with me? What do you put the Lord to the test?’
Demanding
If I were a betting woman, I would bet that we have each
found ourselves in the Israelites’ shoes at one point or another. In times of
stress and distress, we have probably each gotten a little demanding of others
around us.
We’ve all made demands of friends or family like, “If you
really loved me you would ...” (fill in your own blank). We’ve probably
said--either by our words or our lack of words--to someone we love, “If you
REALLY cared about me, you would …” (again, fill in your own blank).
When we don’t or can’t believe their words, we demand proof
of someone’s love or care or loyalty or dedication. We put them to the test.
And I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but that usually
doesn’t work out so well. So then we begin to feel even MORE lost in our own
version of the wilderness … and then we begin to make demands of God as well.
And we say and pray things like, “Well, God, are you here with me or not? Show
me you’re there. Prove to ME you’re there.”
Somehow we think by forcing God to make himself known to us,
it will fix everything.
But our God is not a puppet that we control by pulling
strings. Our God is not a servant, at our beck and call in difficult times.[1]
Our God cannot be controlled or manipulated by our demands, by our testing.
We know what the Israelites are going through because we’ve
been in their shoes before. Their story is our story--we’ve been lost in the
wilderness, desperately thirsty not just for water and but also for hope. And
we too have forgotten all the other times God has been good to us.
Instead, we are demanding. And we quarrel with others. And
we begin to test God.
Is the Lord among Us or Not?
God didn’t have to give the Israelites what they demanded. God
didn’t have to give in to their testing. He could have remained silent and
distant, withholding water and hope from them as punishment for their
disobedience.
He doesn’t answer them because he’s afraid if he doesn’t
give in their demand, they won’t love him anymore. He answers them NOT because
of who they are but because of who HE is.
And he is love.
And he is mercy.
And he is compassion.
So he
gives them what they demand, water pouring miraculously from a rock to quench
their physical thirst … but ALSO to quench their spiritual thirst for hope.
It’s a reassurance that he IS indeed with them, even though they forget. Because
that’s who he is.
He answers them because that’s who He’s always been, from
the beginning of time. In this place when the Israelites are asking the
question, “Is the Lord among us or not?” God answers, he shouts, “Yes, yes, a
thousand times YES! I am with you! I am ALWAYS with you. Why do you forget?”
So major is the quarrel--and so powerful the experience of
the water pouring forth from the rock--that the very ground they were standing
on is renamed, names which are written down on the pages of Scripture and
referred to in other places in the Bible. Names which help them to remember and
not forget again.
The name Massah means “they quarreled.” And the name
“Meribah” means, “they tested.” [2]
These are names which remind them of a very painful experience but also a very
valuable realization of God’s presence, as God’s love overflowed for his
rebellious people like the water poured out of the rock.
SERMON—conclusion
The question, “Is the Lord among us or not?” is never a bad
question to ask, especially when you are feeling lost and thirsty in the
wilderness, when it is hard to see or feel or hear God.
The key is how you get to the answer. If you’re going to
demand that God prove himself and his presence to you, you’ll be stuck Massah
and Meribah forever.
But if you can remember … if you can remember the stories of
God’s love and how he delivered his people when they cried out to him … if you
can remember all the times that God has delivered you or showed you mercy in
your life … then you won’t have to demand that God prove he is with you because
you will know it; you will know it in your heart and in your bones.
If you can remember just this one story when you’re lost and
wandering in the wilderness, the regular, old question, “Is the Lord among us
or not” is transformed into a rhetorical question--the kind of question to
which the answer is obvious: “Is the Lord among us or not?”
“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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