From 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. The 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?” But
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?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do
with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The 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. I 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.
He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and
tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
***
I have heard the argument of
the Israelites more times then I can count. I have heard it in hospital rooms,
on couches over coffee, around campfires, and in cars with the engine idling as
the conversation continues outside my passenger’s front porch light. I have
heard it in tears. I have heard it in abstinent anger. I have heard it
flippantly, desperately, and innately as, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf,’ these
stories of consequence we have heard from our childhood. We blame God, Moses,
and a crying boy when we have found ourselves out in the wilderness suffering
with need. This argument that God both creates our suffering and our thriving
gives God a power I don’t think God has. The power for evil.
The Israelites have been
journeying in the Wilderness of Sin. It was called such because it was seen as
a wilderness of idols and other gods, and I too see it as a fitting name,
because the Israelites make God too simple, too consequential, too
human for the great love God provides. They believe God is mad and therefore
they have no water. They believe because they have no water, God is absent.
They believe God is absent and therefore they are angry. I believe they are in
the desert, and that is why they have no water. I believe that just as the
desert is barren, so too life can be. I have heard the same argument in
hospital rooms, ““If God wanted my Dad to be better, my Dad would be and
therefore there is no God.” No, your dad is sick because people get sick, even
terminally ill, and illness is part of life, just as the desert is part of the
world.
I have heard the same
argument on couches over coffee, “They are poor because they have sinned. God
provides for those who follow God’s will.” No, people are poor for many
reasons, racism, sexism, injustice, economic opportunity, skills and gifts, and
people are rich for the same. I have heard the argument around campfires, “God
is a just God and therefore my pain in this relationship has been caused by my
sin.” No, relationships are hard, and as long as you believe you deserve the
pain the cause, you will continue to be in it, just as as long as you walk in
the desert you will have times of thirst. I have heard the argument in cars
with the engine idling as the conversation continues outside my passenger’s
front porch light, “God took my child.” No, God did make some plan for your
child to die so very young, death happens because life is fragile and passes
away, just as water in the desert is fragile and lifts away.” The argument that
God is responsible for our thirsting in the desert is one easily heard, but it
is too easy, an idol in the wilderness of sin.
In the same way, we explain
away our blessings, “My dad was made well because God created a miracle.” “God
has blessed us with these riches and these relationships.” “God has given us a
child.” “God has provided water in the desert.” If God provides these things,
it stands to reason that God can just as easily take them away, and I do not
believe this is how it happens. I know there are desert springs and bubble up
from rocks, just as medical miracles we don’t understand, and economics which
favor some over others. These cause and effect descriptions of God are idols.
So where does that leave us? It leave us in a world with both deserts and
springs but with a God who goes out in front of us and stands there as we
thirst and our thirst is quenched.
Expand: Why God sent elders
to witness: “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with
you. I 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….
We have a God who stands
beside us in hospital rooms no matter the outcome. We have a God who cares for
both the poor and the rich. We have a God who is with us in the best times of
our relationships and the worst. We have a God who is with us even after a
child passes away. We have a God who is with us in life’s frailty
and inexplicability. We have a God who can not be easily explain by cause
and effect…We have a God who is with us no matter if water will come out of the
rock or not.
