Is The LORD Really With Us

The Stories We Repeat

How many of you have a person or persons in your life who are the type of people who will repeat stories? How many of you are those people? You’ll be sitting in a restaurant with friends as they tear off into a story you’ve heard about a hundred times, and you’ll be telling the story in your head to yourself as they go along. Now, some of the details have changed because people are notoriously terrible as eye-witnesses, and we have a tendency to remember things in a way that fit or benefit us at the moment, but the core of the story, you know and you know well, because they always tell it. Why do people tell the same stories? I’ll let you in on a secret- people tell the same stories over and over again because those select stories are the ones that are most important to that person. Whether they tie their own identity into making people laugh and know that one story will always crack people up, or they repeatedly talk of an incredibly meaningful moment, you can learn a lot about a person simply by paying attention both to the stories they repeat and paying attention to why they repeat them.

Some of you were here on Wednesday nights several months ago for a series we did about stories- the nature and importance of story, the role stories play in scripture, and the role stories play in our lives, the power that they carry. For those of you who were able to be here for those classes, the next few minutes will sound somewhat familiar, but I want to catch everyone else up because it plays a role in today’s sermon. Whenever we sit and read the narrative portions of scripture, it is important that we pay attention to the different stories that are told and pay attention to the “why” behind that story’s telling. The stories that we read here in Exodus weren’t written down until well after the time. They were oral traditions long before they were text. We also need to realize that there are loads of events, stories, that happened that aren’t written down. There’s no way the book of Exodus represents every single thing that happened along the way. That’s not enough chapters for too long a time. The stories that are preserved through the years are the stories that are important to the people for specific reasons. They stories we read aren’t retellings of events for the purpose of unbiased details- they make specific points for specific reasons. It is especially important that we begin to see those points repeated - when different stories keep coming back to the same point- that is a giant clue to us today, now thousands of years removed from the stories themselves, of what was most important to them to be said, and in this case, most important to them to be said about God. Its one of the reasons that the vast majority of sermons based on the narrative stories in scripture come back to similar points. The book of Exodus definitely follows this pattern, with so many stories talking about God providing for God’s people in order to fulfill God’s promises irregardless of humanity’s ability to “earn” or “deserve” God’s favor.

Today’s text is, save for the detail of it being water instead of food, nearly identical to last week’s text. The people’s response to trails, their reaction against Moses, Moses conversation with God, and God’s response all fall along a very similar chart. There are, obviously, some differences in the details, and yet the overall point stays very much the same. I understand that I’m working backwards here- giving you all of the sermon’s points before we actually do the sermon, but I promise I’m doing this on purpose. I hope that by acknowledging the similarities up front and stating that this repetition is on purpose, we get to the “why” of these stories and their repetition. In some ways you can take last week and this week and see it as a 2 parter. Last week we took the point- the “what” of the narrative. This week we take the “why.” So let’s dive into the text.

Common English Bible Chapter 17

The whole Israelite community broke camp and set out from the Sin desert to continue their journey, as the LORD commanded. They set up their camp at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people argued with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses said to them, “Why are you arguing with me? Why are you testing the LORD?”

3 But the people were very thirsty for water there, and they complained to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What should I do with this people? They are getting ready to stone me.”

5 The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of Israel’s elders with you. Take in your hand the shepherd’s rod that you used to strike the Nile River, and go. 6 I’ll be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Hit the rock. Water will come out of it, and the people will be able to drink.” Moses did so while Israel’s elders watched. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites argued with and tested the LORD, asking, “Is the LORD really with us or not?”

Is God With Us

I want to start at the end of this passage and work backwards. Any time you see a question fall at the end of a story in the Old Testament, you can go ahead and reread that passage as an answer to that question. So what question is being asked here? “Is the LORD really with us?” Now, lets expand beyond the book of Exodus to the life of the people of Israel over the years. How often do they face trials that would cause them to ask a question like this? Every drought, every time the neighboring nations infringed, every time natural disaster, every foreign invasion, every time something went wrong on a national level. Now, in and among those stories are also the stories of the individuals, some we know and many, many more that we have no record of. Every family tragedy, wayward child, failed crop or business, is another opportunity to ask that question. This question is much more than a near-death-in-the-desert-and-wistfully-remembering-egypt type question. This is a question for everyday life. Is the LORD really with us?

And if you think about the desperation that exists in this text, its not a surprising question. They’re in the middle of the desert, there’s no water available, and there’s a large group of people in desperate need. And while you’d want a leader that will keep his cool in the face of such desperation, Moses isn’t exactly holding it together. Moses cries out to God. And that word that is translated “cries out” is a word that is used in desperation. Moses isn’t mildly annoyed at their fear, confidently trusting God himself. Moses is afraid for his life. Even those closest to God face trials in which fear takes control. We read this story with distance. Its easy to harp on them for not trusting a God who has freed them from Egypt, brought them across the sea, provided food from seemingly nowhere, leading them via cloud and fire. We read with hindsight, but they lived in near-death thirst.

Is God with us? This is a question about presence. God responds to their desperation by being visibly present. Notice that God provides, but where in the food shortage God basically makes food appear on the ground, here God requires the involvement of Moses and some of the elders. They have to travel ahead, going on to Horeb, another name for Mt. Sinai, the place where they are headed. Those who go ahead will see God and be able to report that God alone is the source of the water.

And then we also have to recognize the importance of Mt. Sinai to the people of Israel. What happens at Sinai? God gives the law to Moses. And yet here, before they ever reach the mountain they are told that from that mountain God has given them life. Don’t let that image be lost on you. The entire people of Israel are about to see God’s presence in a very real and very powerful way. And their fear is about to change. They will no longer be afraid that God isn’t with them. Instead, they will be afraid of the fact that God is, too afraid to be close to the mountain, afraid that no one could survive where Moses has gone, afraid that God is too powerful to be close to. And yet God provides then too.

Is the LORD really with us? This story is important to the people of Israel. This story is important because its a story they tell in the temple and in the local worship places when the Assyrians are closing in. They tell in when Pharaoh Neco moves up the coast from Egypt looking to rule the entire region. They tell in when the Babylonians lay seige to Jerusalem. They tell it as captives in foreign nations. They tell it as they rebuild the walls and the temple. They tell it even when the prophets have told them it is their own fear and failure that has lead them to this point. They tell this story of God providing in spite of their own failure because they recognize they are a fearful and flawed community and this story reminds them that God is faithful anyway- that God is working on their behalf even when the circumstances seem to say otherwise, that God will provide even when it seems impossible. They tell this story because it is a reminder that God is very much with them.

That’s a pretty good reason to tell a story, and this is a great story to tell in answer to that question. Is God with us? Yes, no matter what the circumstances might say. Even when our chains once again look enticing. Even when we are too afraid to notice God’s presence. Even when we are too forgetful to remember the history of God hearing our cries. Even when we are certain that it is impossible.

Its a story we need to remember for exactly the same reasons the generations before us have remembered it. The situation isn’t the point of the story. Loss of a loved one, tragic consequences of poor actions, terrible situation because of our own sin- whatever the situation, God provides, though if you’ll notice in the text its never in an expected way, and sometimes we have to be involved in the solution.

So what life-trails do you need this story for? Who around you could use this reminder? The reason these stories with the same basic point get repeated in the middle of this book is because their conclusion, that God is very much with them, no matter what, is something that the people of Israel use to define themselves as a people. We are community loved by God no matter what. I am a person loved by God, no matter what. What a great way to define yourself. Lets keep that story alive. Let that be the story we tell others- of a God who is working to meet their needs in the best of moments and the worst.