I had a friend once say to me "I'm a sucker for good allegory." I would agree with my friend in that it is so great when you can peel back the layers of a text and find meaning behind the meaning. Why does God do that? Some folks would say "Just tell me what to do, God! Don't beat around the burning bush about it." (Sorry, couldn't resist) But the truth of the matter is, the farther we go in life, the deeper God wants us to get and quite honestly (and I think Jack Nicholson would agree) we can't always handle certain truths until we get older. As we look at the continuing saga of the Israelites in the desert, we can point to the basic truth that we can learn, young or old. God provides even when we don't always deserve it. Yet, there is more here to consider when we peel back the onion that God reveals to us layer by layer.
Just like eating turkey makes you sleepy, it's quite possible that a constant diet of manna and quail may cause short term memory loss, because once again we see the Israelites complaining to Moses about him leading them into the middle of nowhere without having life sustaining resources, but this time it's not food but a lack of water that worries them. (By the way, we're still without NBC - see previous blog)
I sense by Moses' reaction to the Israelites that he is getting really weary of being in middle management. The following might be a little more edgy translation of the latter part of Exodus 17:2 where Moses responds to the people. "I'm tired of you complaining to me. Doesn't this scenario seem at all familiar to you people? Do you forget what God did for you last time? Do you realize who your messing with here? You're on the verge of wearing me out, but more importantly you're wearing God out too."
Well, as we have seen before, Moses takes the people's complaint up the stairs to the big guy who has the big office overseeing the entire plant. He's done this before and "The Boss" has been pretty understanding but Moses has become in fear of his life this time. "I'm not sure I wanna do this anymore, God. They're gonna kill me if we don't get them some water."
Well, God once again in his abundant mercy provides water for the Israelites. But notice what God does here. He tells Moses to take some of the factory foremen (a.k.a. the Elders of Israel) with him. The hope is maybe if they get a first hand glance at how this works they will stop doubting and start trusting. And so they went and Moses, in front of many witnesses, struck the rock with his staff and out of it flowed water to quench a nation's thirst. But again the irony is thick here because Moses names the place "Testing and Quarreling." If that isn't a jab in the ribs of the Israelites, I don't know what is. God again puts an everyday reminder of His provision in front of the Israelites.
Imagine a morning in the typical Israelite household after that. The man of the tent is having his morning breakfast of Arabica Wilderness Blend coffee and freshly picked, fire grilled Manna with scrambled quail eggs. His wife comes up to him and says "Honey, can I borrow the camel? I need to go up to Testing and Quarreling Place to refill the canteens and water barrels." Every time they would mention having to get water they would be reminded of their fragile faith and God's unfailing provision.
Depending on where you and your children are in faith, knowing God provides may be what you need to here right now, but there are deeper layers here. As I have gone through Exodus and refamiliarized myself with these passages, I am blown away by the connections between the Exodus experience and the experience of knowing Jesus Christ. The Exodus experience is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and who he is. Paul said as much about this passage in I Corinthians 10:4b. "For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ." (NASB) In John 4:14 Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well "but whoever drinks of the water I will give him shall never thirst; but the water I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." Jesus is our daily bread (Manna), our rock of salvation, our living water. Jesus not only came to Earth, fully man and fully God, lived a perfect life, died and the cross for our sins and was resurrected to give us new life and life eternal. He was there in the beginning. (See Genesis 1 and John 1:1) He was there in the wilderness with the Israelites. He was there with Paul on the road to Damascus. He is here with us in our everyday mundane things like bread and water. The more we can weave this truth into our lives, the lives of our children and all those we come into contact with, the greater and richer our lives will be.
Rob Bell says "Everything Is Spiritual." Peel back the layers of anyone's life, Christian or not, and I believe you will find that to be true. Whether we realize it or not, whether we are comfortable with it or not, Jesus makes himself at home in everything we think, say and do. We choose what kind of host or hostess we are to his presence and his reality.
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