Exodus 17:1-7 (NRSV)
Read Exodus 17:1-7 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 17From 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. Verse 2The 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?" Verse 3But 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?" Verse 4So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." Verse 5The 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. Verse 6I 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. Verse 7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"
Devotion
Why have a story about the people's griping in a Lenten devotional? Perhaps because, as my colleague Terry Fretheim used to say, "Forty years is a long time to be in the sandbox!" Maybe because their position between deliverance from slavery at the Red Sea and entrance into the Promised Land approximates that of the Church between our deliverance at the cross and resurrection of Jesus and our awaiting the promised land of our heavenly home. In both cases God's perceived absence is a common occurrence. Yet, our text shows us that God was with the people in their plight, actively providing them with the water they so desperately needed. Might we say that God uses those times of supposed absence to show us how truly present God actually is?
Prayer
Ever present God, help us trust that you are always with us, no matter what. Amen.