On their journey to the promised land, the Israelites’ thirst makes them testy and quarrelsome, nervous about the present and future. They cry out against Moses and God and begin to remember Egypt longingly despite their position there as slaves.
The people forget how recently God brought them safely through the waters of the sea and fed them with manna and quail. They need water and they want it now. They question God’s continuing presence with them. The names Massah and Meribah mean the quarrel or test, the place where the people asked, “Is God in our midst or not?”
Israelites quarrel.
In their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” So Moses cried out to God, “What shall I do with these people? A little more and they will stone me!”
God answered Moses, “Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.
This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested God, saying, “Is God in our midst or not?”
Exodus 17.3-7
- How do you answer this ancient question? Is God in our midst?