Exodus 17:1-41And 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. 2Wherefore 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? 3And 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? 4And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. (Exodus 17:1‑4)
“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.”
In Numbers 33, where a more detailed account is given, we learn that after leaving the wilderness of Sin, where the manna was first given, they made two encampments en-route to Rephidim — one at Dopah and the other at Alush — so apparently some little time had elapsed. During that time they were receiving daily the promised manna, as well as every other necessity. Their path through the desert was also made plain for them by Jehovah, even as Moses told the people: He “went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.” Deuteronomy 1:3333Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. (Deuteronomy 1:33).
With these and many more evidences of God’s provision, and protection, surely their confidence should not have been shaken when at Rephidim there was no water for them. They had witnessed God’s readiness to provide and here was a test of faith to cast them upon Him again. But alas, they were only too quick to complain. “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?”
Had God chosen to do so, He could have immediately transported the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan without all the delays experienced in the vast wilderness. But then they would not have experienced His wonderful grace and the power His might so often exercised them. Nor would they have learn the lesson of their own hearts, often acting in unbelief and self-will.
“And Moses cried unto the Los!), saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” verse 4. In their sinful murmurings and unbelief, they looked upon Moses as the author of all their misery and were almost ready to kill him in their anger. The people chode with Moses; but in reality, as Moses said, “They tempted the LORD, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?” (vs. 7). Moses was their appointed leader, and the Lord’s representative. To chide with him was thus to chicle with the Lord, and to complain was to doubt, if not to deny the Lord’s presence.
How forgetful they were of the place God had given Moses in releasing them from the taskmasters of Egypt—-and bringing them in triumph across the Red Sea — crying to God for them at Marah and at the wilderness of Sin. Such is the unguarded heart in its disobedience and rebellion that the instruments of God’s mercy are often not only neglected, but deliberately despised and refused. This shows us that to murmur and complain because of the trials of the wilderness is a sin of a very solemn nature, for in reality it is doubting whether the Lord is with us. If the people believed that He was among them, every murmur would have been hushed, and they would have rested in the assurance that He would in His own time hear their cry, and supply their needs.
ML-11/02/1969