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From: Exodus 17:3-7

The Water from the Rock

[3] But the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Mo-
ses, and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children
and our cattle with thirst?” [4] So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with
this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” [5] And the LORD said to Mo-
ses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel;
and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile, and go. [6] Behold,
I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock,
and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so, in
the sight of the elders of Israel. [7] And he called the name of the place Massah
and Meribah, because of the faultfinding of the children of Israel, and because
they put the Lord to the proof by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

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Commentary:

17:1-7. The severity of desert life (notably hunger and thirst) leads God to help
the Israelites in various ways, all of them full of theological implications. The mi-
racle of the manna, which was preceded by that of the water which Moses made
drinkable (15:22-25), is followed by a new work of wonder to do with water: Mo-
ses causes water to flow from a rock. This happened at Rephidim, probably what
is now Wadi Refayid, some 13 km (8 miles) from Djebel Mfisa.

The sons of Israel’s faith in God and in Moses has been strengthening little by lit-
tle; but they often doubt whether God is there at all (v. 7). They begin to murmur
and to seek proofs of his presence: have they been brought out of Egypt to die,
or to attain salvation? The water which Moses causes to come out of the rock is
a further sign to bolster their faith. This episode names two places — Meribah,
which in popular etymology means “contention”, “dispute”, “lawsuit”, and Mas-
sah, which is “proof’, “test”, “temptation”. Many biblical passages recall this sin
( cf. Deut 6: 16; 9:22-24; 33:8; Ps 95:8-9), even adding that Moses himself lacked
faith and struck the rock twice (cf. Num 20:1-13; Deut: 32:51; Ps 106:32). Lack of
trust in the goodness and power of God means tempting God and it is a grave sin
against faith — even more so in the case of Moses, who had experienced God’s
special love and who ought to have given good example. When man meets some
contradiction or some difficulty he cannot immediately solve, his faith may waver
but he should never doubt, because “if deliberately cultivated, doubt can lead to
spiritual blindness” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 2008).

There is a rabbinical tradition which says that the rock stayed with the Israelites
throughout their sojourn in the desert; St Paul refers to this legend when he says
“the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4). On the basis of biblical references to the won-
drous nature of waters (cf. Ps 78:15-16; 105:4; Wis 11:4-14) the Fathers said this
episode prefigures the wonderful effects of Baptism: “See the mystery: ‘Moses’ is
the Prophet; the rod is the word of God; the priest touches the rock with the word
of God, and water flows, and the people of God drink” (St Ambrose, “De Sacra-
mentis”, 8, 5, 1, 3).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.