The people of Israel had been through quite an ordeal. They had been wandering in the desert after their liberation from slavery. They were tired, they were cranky, and they were thirsty. They could not and would not understand why God and Moses would be doing this to them. All they could focus on at that moment was their own need. Out of their need arises this conflict—this argument. They wanted water and they wanted it right then. In a way, it reminds me of those dreaded family trips in the car. You know the ones I’m talking about…packed into the family station wagon or minivan driving the interminable distance to the vacation destination. Crammed into the vehicle with all the luggage, blankets, pillows, and whatever-else-you-might-need. You get an hour or two down the road and then it begins… are we there yet? I need to go potty. I’m thirsty… are we there yet? Huh? Huh? (continue). Now, imagine this on a larger scale…thousands of people all hollerin at Moses…Yo! Moses! Are we there yet? We’re thirsty! Huh Moses? Are we there yet?? (Hey. Don’t make me pull this exile over!) This is the kind of situation both Moses and the Israelites found themselves in. We have a bunch of whiney thirsty Israelites, a tired and self-conscious Leader, and the God that put the whole thing in motion. Herein lies four questions: What do they want, how do they ask for it, how do they expect to get it, and how does God respond?
What do the people want? Ok, of course they want water, but what else are they seeking? What do they want from Moses, and what do they want from God? They are looking to Moses for Leadership…they want him to be the strong leader who led them out of Egypt. They want someone they can trust in this journey. They want to know if their journey’s end is going to be better than their journey’s beginning. They also want assurance. They want to know that God is indeed still with them and still watching out for them. They want to know that they are loved and cared for and won’t be left to die of thirst in the wilderness. And they want hope. They want to know that this is going to be worth the journey and at the end of it all they really will get what they have been promised. They want God and Moses to give them a sign that everything is going to be ok. Yes, they want water, but they want so much more than that.
How do they ask for what they want? Are they gentle and polite? Do they pray? Heck no! They throw a fit right there in the middle of the desert. This story might better be entitled “Whiners in the Wilderness.” But Moooooooooooooooses. We want water. But Mooooooooooooooses we want to be there. But Mooooooooooooses. Moses was afraid that they were going to stone him! He was terrified he might actually be killed by the very people he had worked so hard to liberate. So in the middle of the Israelites throwin their temper tantrum, Moses turns to God for help. Asking God, “What am I going to do with these people?” And God responded, telling him to strike a rock with his staff and water would be provided. Even when the people were at their worst, God still prepared Moses to provide them with what they needed.
But how did the people expect to get what they had asked for? Now, do you really think the people expected Moses to walk up to a rock, tap it with his staff, and then water would come pouring out? You’ve gotta be kidding. These were the people who had witnessed the plagues…they had seen the red sea part before their very eyes, they had seen manna fall from heaven and quail descend for dinner. No, these folks were looking for something big and showy. They were looking for a full fledged broadway production with costumes and lights! What they got was a sock-puppet show. They were looking for huge rivers of water or downpours from the sky, and what they were given was water from a rock. I can only IMAGINE their joy Gee, Moses…thanks for the water. We’re sooo impressed by you and this God of yours. But, here’s the thing. God DID provide. GOD DID PROVIDE! God gave them exactly what they needed and had begged for. God just didn’t give it the way the people expected it to come. Despite the method of delivery, God did provide!
Ok, so God did provide. But that was then and this is now. That was whiners in the wilderness and this is 2023 and we’re not actually trudging through the desert dying of thirst. That’s fair. But I’ll ask you the same questions. What do you want from God? How do you ask for it? How do you expect to get it? and How does God respond?
What do we want from God? I think we want the same kinds of things the Israelites did. While we may not be thirsting for actual water, we do thirst for things. We want comfort in the midst of loneliness and heartache. We want hope when it seems there is not hope to be found. We want assurance that we are doing ok, that the journey we are on is going to lead us somewhere promising. And we want leadership that we can trust. We want to know that our leaders listen to us and have our best interests at heart. We want happiness and fulfillment, and all those “good” things. We want to know that God is there in the midst of our struggles and that God is there when we are truly thirsting.
How do we ask for it? Well, sometimes we pray deep and earnest prayers. But most of the time we too demand, whine, and complain. GOD THIS ISN’T FAIR!!! Oh we are so good at complaining about everything we don’t have and that God hasn’t done. God likes so and so better than me because he has a better life than I do… God loves this person more than that person—just look at how happy they are. We bargain…. Please God if you do this for me then I’ll be good or I’ll do this for you. We are like the Israelites, we want what we think we deserve from God and we want it the way we want it, and we want it NOW!
How do we expect to get it? Well, we expect to get it exactly how we want it. We expect God to play God’s part and give us exactly what we want, in exactly the way we want it. I think we honestly expect to be able to pray, “Dear God send me a horse” and then POOF find a horse standing in the road. We want God to be like the genie in the lamp and grant us our “wishes” rather than truly respond to our prayers and needs. We want God to jump out of the lamp and say "POOF, whaddaya need," "POOF, whaddaya need," "POOF, whaddaya need?" We have an idea in our heads of what God should do, and if what happens doesn’t live up to that ideal, then we discount God’s love, God’s interest and God’s work in our lives.
There is a story that has circulated for years:
One year there was a terrible flood in the countryside. The whole countryside was in danger.
Most of the people escaped. One old man, however, refused to go with them. He sat on the roof of his house and waited for the water to go down.
"I shall stay here," he said. "God will save me."
The rain continued. Soon the water reached the roof of the man's house.
Two men rowed a boat up to the man's house, trying to save him.
"Come with us," they said. "Or you'll drown."
The old man shook his head. "No," he said. "God will save me."
Soon the water covered the roof of the old man's house.
A helicopter arrived and the pilot lowered a rope.
"Climb up," he shouted to the old man. "Or you'll drown.'
But the old man refused to leave his house. "God will save me," he cried.
The next day the old man drowned in the rising waters.
He went to heaven.
God was waiting at the door, and the old man was very angry with him.
"I believed in you," the old man shouted. "I told everybody you would save me. And what happened?"
"I did try to help you. What about the boat I sent?" God replied. "And the helicopter?"
This brings me to what I think is the key question…
How does God respond to us? How do we get what we have asked for? The Israelites needed water and expected rain and rivers and floods, instead, they got water from a rock. The man in the story needed to be rescued and expected God to just flit down with angels and pluck him off the roof, instead, there were boats and helicopters. Scripture tells us again and again that God will provide for the needs of God’s people, and yet we are bold enough to think we get to choose how those provisions will look. We are quick to assume that what we want is what we need---that what we THINK we should have is what we actually NEED. And we are ohh so hasty to assume that a prayer answered God’s way instead of our way is an unanswered prayer. You see…we are too busy looking for MIRACLES and SIGNS that we fail to see God at work providing. We expect God to heal the sick miraculously, and yet we don’t notice God’s work through the doctors and nurses. We expect God to make our children’s lives happy and perfect, and yet we don’t notice their teachers and babysitters. We expect God to swoop in and fix our lives, and yet we don’t see the friend who offers a helping hand. What we expect are rivers and floods, and we fail to see the trickle of water from the rock.
This is our challenge. We must find a way to see the trickle from the rock even though we long to see the rivers and floods. We must teach ourselves how to see God working in small ways when what we want is a Fireworks display. We must learn to see God in other people reaching out to us rather than expecting God to swoop down and save us. If we truly begin looking, then we will see that God is a lot more active in our lives and in our world than we give God credit for.
Amen.