Exodus 17:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the need the Israelites faced because they had no water. This was not the first time they had been in such trouble, and now they faced it again (Exodus 17:1). They traveled under the Lord’s command, led by the pillar of cloud and fire, and still came to a place with no water to drink. We should note this: we may be walking in the path of duty and still run into hardship. God may bring us into such trials to test our faith and to show his glory when he helps us.

We also see their discontent and distrust in this hardship. Exodus 17:3 says they thirsted there for water. If there was no water, of course they were thirsty. But the point is stronger than that. Their craving had become wild and impatient, and their thirst made them loud and angry. Even strong natural wants need to be held in check by religion and reason.

Here was the language of their uncontrolled desire. First, they demanded that Moses provide for them (Exodus 17:2). “Give us water to drink,” they said, as if he owed it to them, while also doubting that he could do it. Because they had already been given bread, they insisted they should also be given water. For people who live by faith and prayer, one blessing can be a reason to ask for another. But ungrateful and unbelieving people should fear that abusing past blessings may cost them future ones. Scripture says they should not expect to receive anything (James 1:7), yet they are still quick to demand everything.

Second, they accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them, as if he had delivered them only to destroy them (Exodus 17:3). That was a cruel and unfair charge. Many people who have done real good, and meant only good, have had their best work twisted by ungrateful people. Their anger rose so high that they were almost ready to stone Moses (Exodus 17:4). He had shown them many good works, so why would they stone him? (John 10:32). Unchecked anger, stirred up by frustrated desires, can drive people into absurd and even violent behavior.

Third, they began to doubt whether God was with them at all: “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7). They were really questioning whether the God who had revealed himself to them in Egypt was still present. They were doubting his presence, his rule over the world, and his promise to care for them. This was a serious act of tempting God. It was more than general unbelief. It was distrust after they had already seen so many proofs of his power and goodness.

In effect, they were saying that Moses was a fraud, Aaron was a deceiver, and the pillar of cloud and fire was a trick on their senses. They were treating the long chain of miracles that had rescued, fed, and guided them as if it were all a lie. And if the Lord was not among them, then the promise of Canaan meant nothing. It is a great offense to question God’s presence, his care, or his promise, especially for God’s own people, who are bound to trust him.

When Moses was attacked like this, he responded wisely. First, he rebuked the complainers, but he did it gently (Exodus 17:2). “Why do you quarrel with me?” he asked. It was good that he was a man of unusual meekness, or their noisy behavior might have made him lose his temper. It is foolish to answer anger with anger, because that only makes things worse. Soft words turn away wrath. Moses also showed them that their complaints against him were really against God: “You are tempting the Lord.” In other words, by distrusting God’s power, they were testing his patience and stirring up his anger.

Second, Moses took the matter to God (Exodus 17:4). He cried out to the Lord. Like a faithful servant, he laid the whole case before his Master. When people judge us unfairly and argue with us, it is a great comfort to bring the matter to God in prayer and leave it with him. If people will not listen to us, God will. And if their behavior unsettles our spirit, God’s comfort can calm it. Moses asked God to show him what to do, because he was completely at a loss. He could not provide water or quiet the crowd by himself. Only God could do that. He also pleaded for his own safety, since they were nearly ready to stone him.

Then God appeared graciously to help them (Exodus 17:5-6). He told Moses to go on ahead of the people and stand firm in his place, even though they were talking about stoning him. Moses was to take his rod with him. God could have used that rod to bring judgment on the people for their distrust and grumbling, but instead he used it to bring them water. What patience and mercy God shows toward sinful people who provoke him! He keeps giving good gifts to those who sin against him, sustains those who fight against him, and reaches out with kindness to those who oppose him.

In that, God teaches us to do good to an enemy, and even to give drink to one who thirsts (Romans 12:20; Matthew 5:44, Matthew 5:45). If God was so generous to those who tempted him, will he fail those who trust him? If God had simply shown Moses a spring in the wilderness, as he later did for Hagar, that would have been a great mercy (Genesis 21:19). But he did more, so that he could show both his power and his pity. He gave them water from a rock.

God told Moses where to go, and he told him to take some of the elders of Israel with him as witnesses. That way they could see the miracle for themselves and also tell others that God was truly among them. He promised to meet Moses there in the cloud of glory, to strengthen him for the task. Moses obeyed, struck the rock, and water came out in great abundance. It flowed through the camp in streams and rivers (Psalm 78:15, Psalm 78:16), and it followed them through the wilderness. Scripture even calls it a fountain of waters (Psalm 114:8). In this way God showed his care for his people, his power in bringing water from a rock, and the honor he gave Moses by making the water flow when Moses struck the rock.

This good water that came out of the rock is called honey and oil (Deuteronomy 32:13), because the people’s thirst made it seem doubly sweet. It came when they were in extreme need, so it was to them like honey and oil. It is likely that the people dug channels to carry the water and pools to hold it, much as, later on, people passing through the valley of Baca made it into a spring (Psalm 84:6; Numbers 21:18).

This should teach us to depend on God’s providence, his wise care for our needs, even in the hardest times. God can open springs for us where we least expect them, waters in the wilderness (Isaiah 43:20), because he makes a way in the wilderness (v. 19). Those who keep to God’s way in this wilderness of life can trust him to provide for them. If we follow the pillar of cloud and fire, God’s goodness and mercy will surely follow us, like the water from the rock.

It also teaches us to depend on Christ’s grace. That rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). The graces and comforts of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living water (John 7:38, John 7:39; John 4:14). These flow from Christ, who is the rock struck under the law of Moses, since he was made under the law. Nothing can supply the needs or satisfy the desires of the soul except water from this rock, this opened fountain. The pleasures of the senses are like muddy water, while spiritual delights are rock water, pure, clear, and refreshing, rivers of pleasure.

A new name was given to the place on this occasion, to keep alive the memory, not of God’s mercy in providing water, for the water that followed them was enough for that, but of their sin in complaining. It was called Massah, meaning temptation, because they tested God, and Meribah, meaning strife, because they quarreled with Moses (Exodus 17:7). So a remembrance of sin was kept, both to shame the sinners themselves, since sin leaves a stain on a person’s name, and to warn their children not to sin in the same way.