Exodus17:1-16
Demands in Capernaum
In Capernaum, Jesus cast out an unclean spirit from a man, he healed Simon's mother-in-law and he healed many others who were afflicted by demons and diseases. Soon "the whole city had gathered at the door" of the house at which he was staying. But early one morning, he departed to a lonely place, leaving behind all those who had expectations for him. Simon, though, hunted him down to inform him, "Everyone is looking for you." Jesus, in the face of these expectations and demands, said, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby ... " (Mark 1:21-39). What? And disappoint all these people? Jesus rose above the demands.
How was it that he could do that? The key in understanding it lies in recognizing his reason for getting away from the crowds: He went away to pray (Mark 1:35). It was his intimate relationship with the Father that allowed him to rise above the demands that people placed on him. Some days later, though, he returned to Capernaum, and another crowd gathered around the place that he was staying, and he healed a man (Mark 2:1-12). Jesus, though he rose above the demands of the people, was still able to return to the same people and serve them.
The same is true for us. We can be crushed by demands and accusations. It is only a vision of the Lord that can pull us out of the despair that we feel when people place demands on us or falsely accuse us. But as we understand who the Lord is, we rally behind him, and we can return to people, even the same people who were disparaging us.
Exodus 17 is related to the previous two sections in Exodus (15:22-27, 16:1-36) by the word "grumble" (15:24; 16:2, 7, 8, 9, 12; 17:3). The people continue to grumble because they don't think they have what they need. In Exodus 17, just as in Exodus 15:22-27, they grumble because they have no water. Whereas the text emphasized the people's grumbling in 15:22-27, it emphasizes Moses' response to the grumbling in Chapter 17. The text before us, then, has implications for how we respond when people grumble against us. In placing ourselves in the text, we place ourselves in the position of Moses.
The people quarrel with Moses (17:1-7)
The Lord continues to lead the people through the wilderness, for they journeyed "according to the command of the Lord." The Lord led them to Rephidim, which turns out not to be a happy place. First, there is no water there. Second, the Israelites come under attack there (17:8). The Lord continues his seemingly strange leading, bringing the people to difficult places. He does the same with us, bringing us to difficult places so that we might learn to trust him.
In response to the first crisis, the people quarrel and tell him, "Give us water that we may drink." This is not a request but a demand. No doubt they remember the last water crisis, when Moses threw the tree into the bitter waters and they became sweet (15:25). Although Moses was the Lord's instrument in providing water before, it was still the Lord, not Moses, who made the water drinkable. Only the Lord can do something like this. Nevertheless, the people bypass the Lord and go straight to Moses. They expect him to do what only God can do. They place enormous, even completely unrealistic expectations on Moses, who is only a man. They expect him to be God.
Have you ever felt like Moses, besieged with unrealistic expectations by people who, in so many words, demand that you meet needs that only God can meet? Have you ever felt that you needed to be God? If you've ever felt this, you know all about frustration. Our inclination in the face of expectations is to meet them. But if the expectations are unrealistic, it's impossible to meet them, and we therefore experience frustration, angst and even emotional breakdowns.
If we have failed to meet expectations and experienced the consequent frustration, we are then inclined to pull away from people - all people - because we don't want to feel the disappointment of having disappointed others. And we are then prone to interpret almost any opportunity to serve or any request as a demand that we will grudgingly attempt to meet or defiantly rebuff.
Moses, by this time, has learned to see through their grumblings to some extent. He says, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" He accurately perceives that their problem is not with him but with the Lord. Only the Lord can provide water. And by demanding that Moses provide them water, they are testing the Lord.
The people are testing the Lord in that they have written him off as untrustworthy. To them, he is a non-factor. The scriptures encourage us to come before God with our questions, laments and complaints as we seek to gain a new perspective, as we seek to understand that he is trustworthy. But that is quite a different approach from writing God off as completely untrustworthy. That is what testing the Lord is - writing him off.
In Moses' words, we see another element involved in testing the Lord. The people's demand that Moses meet their needs ultimately represents a demand that the Lord meet their needs. This is something the Lord promises to do - he promises to meet our needs. But he does not promise to meet our perceived needs in our time (usually now) on our terms. And when we demand that he do so, we're testing the Lord. He will meet our needs, not our perceived needs, in his perfect time.
The people here approach Moses with a high degree of urgency. People who expect us to meet needs that only God can meet invariably approach us while conveying urgency. If they were trusting the Lord, there would be no sense of urgency. When someone "needs" me to do something for him or her "now," I am learning to actually not respond immediately. Invariably, the situation is not nearly so urgent, and perhaps wouldn't be urgent at all if that person were trusting the Lord. Their problem is usually with the Lord, not me. In jumping to meet needs that only God can meet, I am doing that person no favors - I am robbing him or her of the opportunity to trust the Lord.
When Moses doesn't immediately meet their demands, they accuse him of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them. This goes beyond placing demands on Moses; this is disparaging his character. They actually ascribe to him evil motives. This is an excruciating experience. It's extremely painful to listen to someone accuse you of evil motives when your heart is pure. More often we won't hear such accusations directly, because people are afraid to confront us face to face, but we'll get hints of such accusations or hear of them second-hand.
Moses, who is not only deeply hurt but senses that his life is in danger, appropriately cries out to the Lord. Moses perceives that the people will shortly stone him. He is doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing, he's following the Lord and leading the people, and yet the people still want to kill him. We can be doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing and people, even God's people, may want to kill us.
In the face of such demands and accusations, Moses asks the time-honored question, "What shall I do?" The Lord responds calmly. While Moses cried out to the Lord, the Lord simply "said" things to Moses. The Lord tells Moses to do four things: pass before the people, take some elders, take the staff and go. One commandment is conspicuous by its absence. The Lord does not say, "Give up on the people." In fact, implicit within the Lord's instructions to Moses is the command, "Don't give up on the people."
