Exodus 17:1-3, 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 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?"

This event in the history of the nation of Israel is one of those by which God marks their progress. A month or so before Israel had seen the great redemption that God wrought at the Red Sea. They themselves walked through the sea on dry ground, "... which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." Then, they walked three days into the desert to a place called Marah, which means bitter. There they found water, but, as the name of the place was, so was the water. But God provided miraculously to freshen the water, and they were all able to drink.

Now they have come to this place called Rephidim. Notice that the passage tells us that they had come there by the LORD’s command. Here God was testing them. For He had supplied them water before. Would they remember His great deeds, and trust Him? The text tells us that they did chide (or complain and argue) with Moses concerning the situation. They murmured against him, and wondered about Moses’ motive in bringing them into the desert. They even accused him of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them. Whether they were saying this because they believed it to be true, or were just being sarcastic, they were showing where they stood with Moses. In spite of the great deliverance they received, they were now essentially asking the question, "What have you done for us lately?"

In thus attacking Moses they were showing their real attitude toward God. Notice the end of verse 7, "... they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?" Their complaining was really against God, not Moses. It was Him with whom they were chiding, it was Him that they were challenging concerning His care for them. Notice their words against God, "Is the LORD among us, or not?" This is particularly biting because, after all, He had delivered them mightily from the hands of the Egyptians, and He had already once supplied them with water. Not only that, but before this particular incident He had started the daily supply of manna which He would supply for forty years in the desert to sustain them. Is the LORD among us, or not? What kind of a question was that?

Referring to this very incident in the book of Hebrews, and by way of warning to us, the writer says, "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest." The problem that generation had was that they did not trust God. Their lack of trust was not due to uncertainty as to His ability, but was because of a self-centeredness that demanded that their needs be met. The things of God were not significant to them. They wanted only to be fed and to drink. Unlike these, Jesus was in the desert for forty days, during which He had nothing to eat. When the enemy came to Him and told Him to make bread out of stones, which He was well able to do, He deferred His needs, determined to eat only as it was supplied by His Father.

It is interesting to note the names of the places. The name Rephidim means "rests" or "stays" or "resting places", Massah means "temptation", and Meribah means "strife" or "contention." At the beginning they had come to the place of rest. At the end the name had been changed to temptation and strife. No longer was this place a place of rest.

As believers in the LORD Jesus Christ, the place of testing to which God brings us can either become a place of rest in Him, or a place of contention with Him. If we stand in the testing, looking to Him for His resolution of the matter, without challenging Him concerning the reality of His care for us, we find in the end that the place of testing remains a place of rest. We see Him work, we perceive His mighty grace toward us, and we can testify as to His care. In other words, we rest in His faithfulness. But, if we get to the place of testing, and bristle against it, striving with God concerning the reality of His care for us, we are left with only a remembrance of the hardness of the place. We fail to see His mighty hand, we consider it to be a place of contention.

In His faithfulness, God sends us to other hard places. As we grow in Him we begin to look for His hand, we begin to see Him work. Which is not to say that He has not worked before, only that we begin to see it. And those places of testing become places of rest.

Let us not be like Israel of old, asking, "Is the LORD with us, or not?" Rather, let us follow the advice of Eli to Samuel, and say, "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth", trusting Him no matter the situation. We will see wonders!

"How can we expect to meet (God) face to face till we have faces?"

HJK