Reading: Exodus 17:3-7. “Grandfather, I’m thirsty. No one has been as thirsty as I am now.” Benjamin ran to where his grandfather was cutting a piece of wood to repair a broken tool.

Benjamin’s grandfather picked him up and said, “Not thirstier than we were in the wilderness when I was a little boy. We were the thirstiest people who ever lived. Let’s get some water for you, Benjamin.”

They walked to the well, drew some water, and sat down to drink it. Benjamin drank quickly and then asked, “Grandfather, will you tell me about when you were a little boy and you were the thirstiest people who ever lived?” Benjamin looked at his grandfather with anticipation.

“Yes, I’ll tell you,” answered Grandfather. “It was a long, long time ago. The people were following Moses on the way to the Promised Land.”

Benjamin spoke up, “That’s where we live now, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right. I say that the people were following Moses, but God was leading Moses. I don’t know whether anyone but God knew where we were. My grandfather said we were lost, that we had wasted years wandering around in the wilderness. Maybe there wasn’t really a Promised Land, that Moses was leading us around in circles. My grandmother said that maybe we were lost, but as long as the Lord was with us, we were right where we were supposed to be.”

“Anyway, the people followed Moses for many years. And sometimes things just got to be too much and everybody got upset – like that time when we were thirsty. Everybody went to Moses and complained to him. They wanted to know why he brought them out of Egypt to die of thirst in the wilderness. They could remember the life back in Egypt. Me, I was born in the desert, and all I ever heard about Egypt were the stories of oppression.”

“But what about being the thirstiest people who ever lived?” Benjamin asked.

“Oh, yes. Well, we had been traveling for quite some time. Everybody was tired. It takes a long time to get very far when you travel as we did, with bundles and children and livestock. We finally set up camp at a place called Rephidim. Don’t ask me where that was, because we didn’t know where we were. We were tired and ready for a rest, but there was no water to replenish our water supply.”

“We stayed where we were, too weary to go on. We assumed that we would be able to send scouts to find water somewhere close by. But the days went by, and our supply of water dwindled, and the scouts brought no news of water. First our water was rationed, and then it ran out. Everyone was dismayed and angry. How could this have happened? That was when the people went to Moses to complain. They were really loud! My father feared that people and animals would soon begin to die of thirst.”

“Did anyone die of thirst?” Benjamin’s eyes were big.

“We lost several head of livestock, but all the people were okay. But we were the thirstiest people that ever lived. I chewed on a piece of leather just to moisten my mouth.”

Benjamin reached for the water and took another big drink. Then he asked, “How did you get water, Grandfather?”

“Well,” he said, “Moses called on the Lord. He was afraid the people were going to stone him. The Lord told him to take some of the elders out into the countryside to a particular place. My grandfather was one of those who went with Moses. Moses led the elders to a rock where the Lord was standing, and Moses struck the rock with his rod. And out of the rock came water. It was, Grandfather said, a beautiful sight. He guessed, after that, maybe Moses did know what he was doing.”

“We all got plenty of water to drink. It was the best-tasting water I’ve ever had. I can still remember the cool wetness on my tongue. Moses called the place Massah and Meribah because the people quarreled and tested the Lord.”

Benjamin said, “I think God should have called it ‘The Best-Tasting Water for the Thirstiest People Who Ever Lived.’”

Grandfather reached over and hugged Benjamin. “That’s a good idea, Grandson. Let’s go tell your grandmother.”

Source: Storyteller’s Companion to the Bible.

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The Israelites marched into the mountain range in the southern part of the Sinai peninsula and camped at Rephidim. Rephidim is located in this mountain range area a few hours away from Mount Horeb. There was no water to drink there.

The people murmured against Moses and Aaron for having brought them out of Egypt to perish in the wilderness. Moses called this murmuring “tempting God,” for it was a display of unbelieving doubt in the gracious presence of God when God had been their help in time of need. This was not only an ingratitude to God but a distrust in his guidance and the divine mission of Moses.

The murmuring was so serious that Moses felt a threat upon his life. He went before the Lord in supplication. God directed him to go to Horeb and take with him his staff and the elders to be eyewitnesses of the miracle. Horeb would have been perhaps the last place Moses would have gone for water. He might have expected that smiting the rock would have brought forth fire rather than refreshing water.

Anyway, Moses struck the rock in the sight of the elders of Israel. The water poured out of it. God satisfied the thirst of the Israelites whose hearts had become hardened and rebellious. And in view of that, Moses named the place Massah and Meribah. Massah means “temptation,” and Meribah means “strife.” These names were a continual reminder to Israel of their poor behavior.

A necessary lesson for us to learn from this scenario is that we face quite a few uncertain circumstances in our lives, but it seems we don’t realize that God is in control of every event. Even the Israelites were satisfied with the miracle water, they had disputed with Moses and put God to the test with their question, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

However, if we believe that God is leading, we have to trust that he will ultimately open all the doors and remove all the obstacles. He will clear the way before us in his own time if we walk on his pathway. If doors remain closed, God may want us either to change our course entirely, or to go as far as we can and then keep knocking gently and waiting patiently on him.

A priest was called to the home of a widow whose daughter was the apple of her eye. When the child was three years old, she became very ill, and the doctors said that she would die. The mother rebelled violently and accused God of cruelty – like the Israelites in this Sunday first reading. She demanded that the Lord spare her daughter and told him she could never trust him again if he did not do so.

Well, God granted the request, in spite of the doctors’ predictions. The child grew up and lived a normal life for thirteen years, but then joined with bad companions. Finally, the girl broke her mother’s heart when at the age of seventeen, she fell into real trouble.

The weeping mother told the priest, “My Janie is dead – a suicide. Last night she hung herself in her room!” After minutes of convulsive sobbing she concluded, “O Father, how I wish God had taken her when she was three years old.”

God does not expect us to understand the meaning of every circumstance. Proverbs 20:24 states, “Man’s steps are from the Lord; how, then, can a man understand his way?” Some of God’s ways are unfathomable, unreachable, and beyond our comprehension. While we should be alert to what he is endeavoring to do in our lives, we need not be constantly asking, “Why did this happen?” or “What is God trying to tell me by that?” We need simply to trust him.

Rev. Linh N. Nguyen