Miles de Libros Cristianos Gratis. Accede a nuestra Biblioteca Virtual

Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 17:1

Para un estudio avanzado de: “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 17:1” utilice nuestra app.

And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and [there was] no water for the people to drink.

1a. the congregation ] see on Exo 12:3.

journeys ] better, as marg., stages; lit. pluckings up, i.e. (see on Exo 12:37) breakings up of camp. The same expression, Gen 13:3, Num 10:12; Num 33:2. The stations between the wilderness of Sin and Rephidim, at which the Israelites thus halted, were, according to Num 33:12-14 (P), Dophah and Alush (both unidentified). ‘Journey’ (from journe) is probably used here in its old sense of a day’s travel.

according to the commandment (Heb. mouth) of Jehovah ] A frequent expression in P: Num 3:16; Num 3:19; Num 3:51; Num 4:37; Num 4:41, &c.

Rephidim ] Probably in the upper part of the broad and long Wdy Feiran, the ‘finest valley in the Peninsula’ (Burckh.). As was mentioned on Exo 16:1, W. Feiran could be reached from the plain el-Markh, either from the middle of the plain up the Sei Sidreh on the E., or, 7 miles beyond the end of the plain, from the mouth of W. Feiran itself: the two routes converge at a point about 16 miles from the mouth of W. Feiran. The W. Feiran leads up Eastwards into the heart of the Peninsula. At about 30 miles from its mouth (see the Map), the traveller sees, 3 miles on his right, between W. ‘Ajeleh and W. ‘Aleyat, the lofty peaks of J. Serbl; continuing up W. Feiran, he reaches, after 30, 37, or 41 miles, according to the route taken (see p. 182), J. Ms. At the junction of W. ‘Aleyat with W. Feiran are ruins of the ancient episcopal town of Pharan, and of the churches and monasteries connected with it. For about 4 miles above these ruins there extends the oasis of W. Feiran, watered by a never-failing stream, in which the date palm is largely cultivated: Burckhardt (p. 602) says that the gardens and date plantations, nearly every one irrigated by its own well, extended uninterruptedly along the whole of the 4 miles: cucumbers, melons, gourds, also, as well as acacias, tamarisks, and other trees grew there (cf. Palmer, Desert of the Ex., pp. 154, 158, who describes this as the most fertile part of the Peninsula). The name Rephidim has not been preserved: but it is placed by Eusebius ( Onom. 145. 25) near Pharan, and identified with it by Cosmas Indicopleustes, c. 535 40 a.d. (Rob. i. 126; Ordn. Surv. p. 199); and Antoninus ( Itin. 40), writing c. 570 a.d., states that a chapel was shewn there, the altar in which was supposed to stand upon the stones which supported Moses’ hands. This identification of Rephidim has been accepted by Lepsius, Ebers, and the members of the Ordnance Survey party (except the Rev. F. W. Holland), the Israelite encampment, it is supposed, having been, not as far up the valley as the oasis itself (in which water would hardly have been needed, v. 1b), but 3 or 4 miles below it, and the Amalekites having come down the valley to prevent the Israelites from gaining possession of the oasis (Major Palmer, Sinai, 2 pp. 207 f., 86). A hill, on the N. edge of the Wdy, about 720 feet high, called Jebel el-Tauneh (the ‘Mount of the Windmill’), covered with remains of chapels, cells, and tombs, has been suggested as the spot from which Moses viewed the battle ( Ordn. Surv. p. 212; Prof. Palmer, Desert of the Ex. p. 162, with view, and map opposite p. 165; Major Palmer, Sinai, p. 138). (The Rev. F. W. Holland and Canon Cook ( Speaker’s Comm. pp. 138 40) placed Rephidim some 27 miles beyond Feiran, at the narrow defile el-Waiyeh; and Keil placed it even beyond el-Waiyeh, at the point where W. Sheikh enters the plain er-Rah, just N. of J. Ms.) Dillm. describes the different views that have been taken about the situation of Rephidim; but wisely makes no attempt to decide between them.

1b 7. Water given to the people from the rock in Horeb.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

According to their journeys – The Israelites rested at two stations before they reached Rephidim, namely, Dophkah and Alush Num 33:12-14. Dophkah was in the Wady Sih, a days journey from the Wady Nasb. The wilderness of Sin Exo 16:1 properly speaking ends here, the sandstone ceases, and is replaced by the porphyry and granite which belong to the central formation of the Sinaitic group. Alush may have been near the entrance to the Wady Sheikh.

Rephidim – (Variously placed at Feiran at the base of Mount Serbal, or at the pass of El Watiyeh.)

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Exo 17:1-3

Give us water, that we may drink.

Rephidim: ancient and modern

How far have we travelled from Rephidim? This is mere than a question in geography: it is a profound inquiry in morals. How far have we advanced morally, spiritually, and in all the higher ranges and Diviner outlooks of our being? Here we seem to be still at Rephidim. Geographers say they cannot find out the exact locality. Verily, there need be no difficulty about the exact locality–it is just where we are. Why be so emphatic about our being at Rephidim?

I. Because the people at Rephidim were tormented by a continual consciousness of necessity. How far have we got from necessity? Not one inch. Necessity has followed us all the time. We must advance from the lower to the higher. We have it before us as a certain and indisputable fact that for the support of the body we need external help: we need the whole ministry of kind and gracious nature. What wonder if in the education, and culture, and strengthening of the soul we need all heaven, with its infinite Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Were we pressed to affirm that necessity it would be in strict consonance with all the other wants that follow and devour our wasting life.

II. Because at Rephidim help was found in unexpected places and given in unexpected ways: Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. We are always helped by unexpected people, in unexpected ways, and at unexpected places. God would appear to delight in baffling the ingenuity that would forecast the future with too exclusive a minuteness. God will not allow us to trifle with His prerogatives. He will find water where we should find none. Why be so emphatic about still being at Rephidim?

III. Because peevish tempers were corrected by great duties in that ancient locality. Israel fell into fretfulness, and whining, and dissatisfaction, and rebellion. What did God do? He sent Amalek upon Israel. That is the function of war among the nations. It is no use reasoning with peevishness. It is time wasted to try to expostulate with any man who is in a whining mood of soul, displeased because of his bread, discontented because of the scarcity of water, making no allowance for the undulations of life–reasoning, remonstrance, expostulation would be lost. What must be done? An enemy must be raised up to smite him with the sword. Then he will come into a new mood of mind, forget his littleness, and, springing forward to a realization of his true power, he will lose in service the discontent which he contracted in unbelief. What we want to-day is persecution. We do not want eloquence, criticism–new learning, some new invention in theological confectionery that shall tempt appetites that have been sated; we want war–persecution–the enemy at the gate. Then we should begin to forgive one another, to pray for one another, to come more closely together at the altar and more near in that consent of soul which is blessed with insight into spiritual mysteries. We have lost in losing the enemy. The sting of Smithfield fire would correct our theology a good deal; the old gibbet would take the fretfulness out of our tone; the great earthquake rocking our cities would make us forget our animosities and unite us in bolder intercession. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Refreshing thoughts for the hot season

I was told by a gentleman who walked over one of the battle-fields on a hot summer night, after a day of carnage, that the cry of the wounded was absolutely unbearable, and after giving all supply that he could, he put his fingers to his ears, for the cry all over the plain was from hundreds of dying men, Water! Water! For Gods sake, give us water. Coming home from the store on a hot summer day, in the eventide, every muscle of your body exhausted with fatigue, what do you first ask for? A cup of water–fresh, clear, sparkling water. This Bible is all agleam with fountains, and rivers, and seas. The prophet sees the millennium, and cries, Streams in the desert. David thinks of the deep joy of the righteous, and calls it A river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. While the New Testament holds forth ten thousand chalices filled with living water for a thirsty world.

I. Water is typical of the Gospel, because of its brightness. The fountain breaks forth from the side of the hill, flashing with gold, and silver, and beryl, and chrysolite; and as you see it, you almost clap your hands with gladness. But there is no brightness in it compared with this living fountain of the Gospel; for in each falling drop I see the glory of heaven.

II. Water typifies the Gospel by its refreshment. How different you feel after you get a glass of cool water, or after you have plunged into a bath! On a hot summer day there is nothing that so soon brings you back from a bad temper or a disturbed spirit, and puts you into a happy frame of mind and body, as cold water. Blessed be God for water. I love to hear it fall in the shower and dash in the cascade, and to see it rush from the ice pitcher into the clear glass. Hand round this nectar of the hills and drink, all of you, to the praise of Him who brewed it among the mountains. Thank God for water. But there is a better refreshment even than that. There was a time when you were hounded by convictions. Sinai thundered. The wrath of God cried, Fly. Justice cried, Fly. Your own fears cried, Fly. Mercy said, Come, come! and you plunged like a hart into the water brooks, and out of that flood your soul came up cool, and clean, and radiant; and you looked round and said, Come, and hear ye all that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul.

III. Water typifies the Gospel because of its abundance. When we pour the water from the pitcher into the glass we have to be careful, or the glass will overflow, and we stop when the water has come to the rim. But when God, in summer, pours out His showers, He keeps pouring on and pouring on until the grass blades cry, Enough! and the flowers, Enough! and the trees, Enough! but God keeps pouring on and pouring on, until the fields are soaked, and the rivers overflow, and the cisterns are all filled and the great reservoirs are supplied, and there is water to turn the wheel, water to slake the thirst of the city, water to cleanse the air, water to wash the hemisphere. Abundance! And so with this glorious gospel. Enough for one, enough for all. Just after the battle of Antietam, with some of the other members of the Christian Commission, I went down to help look after the wounded, and on the afternoon of a very hot day I came to a pump of water. I saw a soldier, with musket, guarding the pump. I said, Why do you not fill my cup? He replied, Water is scarce. Here is a great army, and we do not know where to get water after this is gone; and I have orders to give no more than that. What a poor supply for a thirsty man on a hot day I But, glory be to God! that in this gospel fountain there is water enough for all the armies of the earth, and for all the armies of heaven. You cannot drink it dry.

IV. Water typifies the Gospel in the fact that it is perennial. In this hot summer weather some of the fountains have dried up; but stand you on the bank of the Amazon, or of the St. Lawrence, or of the Mississippi, or of the Ohio, and see if it runs dry. No; they have been flowing on for thousands of years, and they will probably flow on for thousands of years more. The trees of the forest have cast their leaves for ages into the bosom of these waters, and the birds of heaven have dipped their wings in the wave. And so it is with this gospel. It is a perennial gospel. On earth we only see a portion of that great River of Life; but after a while the river will rise, and it will join the tides of the celestial river that flows hard by the throne of God. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Want of water a terrible experience

About 1858, while a number of routes from the proposed, now completed, Pacific railway were being surveyed, E. T. Scovill, of Cleveland, was in charge of a corps of engineers in Nevada. On one occasion they were obliged to leave their base of supplies for a trip of six days. On the fourth days journey their water gave out, and the sufferings of men and beasts were terrible. The heat appeared to rise from the sand like vapour and dance a death dance before the sufferers eyes. Not a breath of air stirred. The sun was like a great round furnace, The horses struggled on, their noses hung nearly to the ground, and their eyes bulged out of their heads like knots on a tree. Two of the men became delirious and were bound in the waggons. Near night a gulch was reached and all plunged into it expecting to find water. It was dry! The situation was desperate, when Mr. Scovill, taking in the situation at a glance, directed some to go up the gulch and some down and the one who found water to shout. Some found wet gravel and sand and with their hands dug a hole into which trickled water. It was brackish and warm, but it was water. Nothing ever tasted sweeter. They were saved. Next morning by digging a deep hole in the creek bed a good supply of water was obtained. As they were about to move away the next morning the thought struck Mr. Scovill that some other poor creature might come along the trail, strike the gulch, find a dry instead of a wet camp, and despair. So he took an empty flour-barrel and scrawled upon it: Water 1,000 feet up the gulch, E. T. Scovill, chief of engineers. This he stuck in the sand by the side of the trail. Now the scene of the story shifts to South America. Mr. Scovill sat in the Llama Club, Lima. He had gone to Peru to help Henry Meigs build those wonderful railways in the mountains. Here, to a company of Americans and English, he told the story of his journey across the plains. There was one man in the party who was evidently excited. As Mr. Scovill reached the end of the story, and told how he had put up the sign that water could be found a thousand feet up the gulch, the nervous stranger, a man of giant frame, leaped from his seat and took Scovill in his arms as if the latter had been a child. Then you are the man, are you? he exclaimed; you are the man who saved my life. I went across the desert a few days after you. I–my companions and I–suffered as you suffered. On the way we killed our horses and drank their blood. When we finally reached the gulch we had just strength enough left to enable us to crawl down into the dry creek bed. There we lay down to die, when one of us happened to see your blessed guide board. A thousand feet up the gulch we found water. If we hadnt I should not be here to-night to take the hand of the man who saved our lives.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XVII

The Israelites journey from the wilderness of Sin to

Rephidim, 1,

where they murmur for lack of water, 2, 3.

Moses asks counsel of God, 4,

who commands him to take his rod and smite the rock, 5,

and promises that water should proceed from it for the people to

drink, 6.

The place is called Massah and Meribah, 7.

The Amalekites attack Israel in Rephidim, 8.

Joshua is commanded to fight with them, 9.

Moses, Aaron, and Hur go to the top of a hill, and while Moses

holds up his hands, the Israelites prevail; when he lets them down,

Amalek prevails, 10, 11.

Moses, being weary, sits down, and Aaron and Hur hold up his

hands, 12.

The Amalekites are totally routed, 13,

and the event commanded to be recorded, 14.

Moses builds an altar, and calls it JEHOVAH-NISSI, 15.

Amalek is threatened with continual wars, 16.

NOTES ON CHAP. XVII

Verse 1. Pitched in Rephidim] In Nu 33:12-14 it is said, that when the Israelites came from Sin they encamped in Dophkah, and next in Alush, after which they came to Rephidim. Here, therefore, two stations are omitted, probably because nothing of moment took place at either. See Clarke on Nu 33:12; and “Nu 33:13“.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

After their journeys; by divers stations, recorded Num 33:12,13, &c., but here omitted, because there was nothing extraordinary happened in them.

According to the commandment of the Lord, expressed either by word of mouth, or by the motion or rest of the cloudy pillar, Exo 13:21.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. the children of Israel journeyedfrom the wilderness of SinIn the succinct annals of this book,those places only are selected for particular notice by the inspiredhistorian, which were scenes memorable for their happy or painfulinterest in the history of the Israelites. A more detailed itineraryis given in the later books of Moses, and we find that here twostations are omitted (Nu33:1-56).

according to the commandmentof the Lord, c.not given in oracular response, nor a vision ofthe night, but indicated by the movement of the cloudy pillar. Thesame phraseology occurs elsewhere (Num 9:18Num 9:19).

pitched in Rephidimnowbelieved, on good grounds, to be Wady Feiran, which is exactly aday’s march from Mount Sinai, and at the entrance of the Horebdistrict. It is a long circuitous defile about forty feet in breadth,with perpendicular granite rocks on both sides. The wilderness of Sinthrough which they approached to this valley is very barren, has anextremely dry and thirsty aspect, little or no water, scarcely even adwarfish shrub to be seen, and the only shelter to the pantingpilgrims is under the shadow of the great overhanging cliffs.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin,…. Where they had stayed some time, at least a week, as it should seem, from the gathering the manna there six days, and resting on the seventh:

after their journeys: first from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah, and from Dophkah to Alusb, and from Alush to Rephidim, as appears from

Nu 33:12 their two stations at Dophkah and Alush are here omitted, nothing very remarkable or of any moment happening at either place:

according to the commandment; or “mouth of the Lord” d, who, either with an articulate voice out of the cloud, ordered when they should march, and where they should encamp; or else this was signified by the motion or rest of the pillar of cloud or fire, which always went before them, in which the Lord was:

and pitched in Rephidim; which was a place on the western side of Mount Sinai: according to Bunting e, Dophkah was twelve miles from the wilderness of Sin, and Alush twelve miles from Dophkah, and Rephidim eight miles from Alush: and Jerom says f, according to the propriety of the Syriac language, it signifies a remission of hands: and to which the Targum of Jonathan seems to have respect, adding,

“the place where their hands ceased from the precepts of the law, wherefore the fountains were dried up;”

and it follows:

and there was no water for the people to drink; being a sandy desert place.

d “super ore”, Montanus, “ad os”, Vatablus. e Travels, p. 82. f Epist. ad Fabiolam de 42 mansion. tom. 3. fol. 15. B.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Want of Water at Rephidim. – Exo 17:1. On leaving the desert of Sin, the Israelites came , “according to their journeys,” i.e., in several marches performed with encampings and departures, to Rephidim, at Horeb, where they found no water. According to Num 33:12-14, they encamped twice between the desert of Sin and Rephidim, viz., at Dofkah and Alush. The situation of Rephidim may be determined with tolerable certainty, partly from Exo 17:6 as compared with Exo 18:5, which shows that it is to be sought for at Horeb, and partly from the fact, that the Israelites reached the desert of Sinai, after leaving Rephidim, in a single day’s march (Exo 19:2). As the only way from Debbet er Ramleh to Horeb or Sinai, through which a whole nation could pass, lies through the large valley of es-Sheikh, Rephidim must be sought for at the point where this valley opens into the broad plain of er Rahah; and not in the defile with Moses’ seat ( Jokad Seidna Musa) in it, which is a day’s journey from the foot of Sinai, or five hours from the point at which the Sheikh valley opens into the plain or er Rahah, or the plain of Szueir or Suweiri,

(Note: Burckhardt, p. 799 ; v. Raumer, Zug der Israeliten, p. 29; Robinson ‘s Palestine, pp. 178, 179; De Laborde, comment., p. 78; Tischendorf, Reise i. p. 244.)

because this plain is so far from Sinai, that the Israelites could not possibly have travelled thence to the desert of Sinai in a single day; nor yet at the fountain of Abu Suweirah, which is three hours to the north of Sinai ( Strauss, p. 131), for the Sheikh valley, which is only a quarter of a mile broad at this spot, and enclosed on both sides by tall cliffs (Robinson, i. 215), would not afford the requisite space for a whole nation; and the well found here, which though small is never dry (Robinson, i. 216), neither tallies with the want of water at Rephidim, nor stands “upon the rock at (in) Horeb,” so that it could be taken to be the spring opened by Moses. The distance from Wady Nasb (in the desert of Sin) to the point at which the upper Sinai road reaches the Wady es Sheikh is about 15 hours (Robinson, vol. iii. app.), and the distance thence to the plain of er Rahah through the Sheikh valley, which runs in a large semicircle to Horeb, 10 hours more ( Burckhardt, pp. 797ff.), whereas the straight road across el Oerf, Wady Solaf, and Nukb Hawy to the convent of Sinai is only seven hours and a half (Robinson, vol. iii. appendix). The whole distance from Wady Nasb to the opening of the Sheikh valley into the plain of er Rahah, viz., 25 hours in all, the Israelites might have accomplished in three days, answering to the three stations, Dofkah, Alush, and Rephidim. A trace of Dofkah seems to have been retained in el Tabbacha, which Seetzen found in the narrow rocky valley of Wady Gn, i.e., Kineh, after his visit to Wady Mukatteb, on proceeding an hour and a half farther in a north-westerly(?) direction, and where he saw some Egyptian antiquities. Knobel supposes the station Alush to have been in the Wady Oesch or Osh (Robinson, i. 125; Burckhardt, p. 792), where sweet water may be met with at a little distance off. But apart from the improbability of Alush being identical with Osh, even if al were the Arabic article, the distance is against it, as it is at least twelve camel-hours from Horeb through the Sheikh valley. Alush is rather to be sought for at the entrance to the Sheikh valley; for in no other case could the Israelites have reached Rephidim in one day.

Exo 17:2-6

As there was no water to drink in Rephidim, the people murmured against Moses, for having brought them out of Egypt to perish with thirst in the wilderness. This murmuring Moses called “tempting God,” i.e., unbelieving doubt in the gracious presence of the Lord to help them (Exo 17:7). In this the people manifested not only their ingratitude to Jehovah, who had hitherto interposed so gloriously and miraculously in every time of distress or need, but their distrust in the guidance of Jehovah and the divine mission of Moses, and such impatience of unbelief as threatened to break out into open rebellion against Moses. “ Yet a little, ” he said to God (i.e., a very little more), “ and they stone me; ” and the divine long-suffering and grace interposed in this case also, and provided for the want without punishing their murmuring. Moses was to pass on before the people, and, taking some of the elders with him, and his staff with which he smote the Nile, to go to the rock at Horeb, and smite upon the rock with the staff, at the place where God should stand before him, and water would come out of the rock. The elders were to be eye-witnesses of the miracle, that they might bear their testimony to it before the unbelieving people, “ ne dicere possint, jam ab antiquis temporibus fontes ibi fuisse ” ( Rashi). Jehovah’s standing before Moses upon the rock, signified the gracious assistance of God. frequently denotes the attitude of a servant when standing before his master, to receive and execute his commands. Thus Jehovah condescended to come to the help of Moses, and assist His people with His almighty power. His gracious presence caused water to flow out of the hard dry rock, though not till Moses struck it with his staff, that the people might acknowledge him afresh as the possessor of supernatural and miraculous powers. The precise spot at which the water was smitten out of the rock cannot be determined; for there is no reason whatever for fixing upon the summit of the present Horeb, Ras el Sufsafeh, from which you can take in the whole of the plain of er Rahah (Robinson, i. p. 154).

Exo 17:7

From this behaviour of the unbelieving nation the place received the names Massah and Meribah, “temptation and murmuring,” that this sin of the people might never be forgotten (cf. Deu 6:16; Psa 78:20; Psa 95:8; Psa 105:41).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Israelites Murmur for Water.

B. C. 1491.

1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? 3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. 5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water 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 chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

Here is, I. The strait that the children of Israel were in for want of water; once before the were in the like distress, and now, a second time, v. 1. They journeyed according to the commandment of the Lord, led by the pillar of cloud and fire, and yet they came to a place where there was no water for them to drink. Note, We may be in the way of our duty, and yet may meet with troubles, which Providence brings us into for the trial of our faith, and that God may be glorified in our relief.

II. Their discontent and distrust in this strait. It is said (v. 3), They thirsted there for water. If they had no water to drink, they must needs thirst; but this intimates, not only that they wanted water and felt the inconvenience of that want, but that their passion sharpened their appetites and they were violent and impatient in their desire; their thirst made them outrageous. Natural desires, and those that are most craving, have need to be kept under the check and control of religion and reason. See what was the language of this inordinate desire. 1. They challenged Moses to supply them (v. 2): Give us water, that we may drink, demanding it as a debt, and strongly suspecting that he was not able to discharge it. Because they were supplied with bread, they insist upon it that they must be supplied with water too; and indeed to those that by faith and prayer live a life of dependence upon God one favour is an earnest of another, and may be humbly pleaded; but the unthankful and unbelieving have reason to think that the abuse of former favours is the forfeiture of further favours: Let not them think that they shall receive any thing (Jam. i. 7), yet they are ready to demand every thing. 2. They quarrelled with him for bringing them out of Egypt, as if, instead of delivering them, he designed to murder them, than which nothing could be more base and invidious, v. 3. Many that have not only designed well, but done well, for their generation, have had their best services thus misconstrued, and their patience thereby tried, by unthinking unthankful people. To such a degree their malice against Moses rose that they were almost ready to stone him, v. 4. Many good works he had shown them; and for which of these would they stone him? John x. 32. Ungoverned passions, provoked by the crossing of unbridled appetites, sometimes make men guilty of the greatest absurdities, and act like madmen, that cast firebrands, arrows, and death, among their best friends. 3. They began to question whether God were with them or not: They tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not? v. 7. Is Jehovah among us by that name by which he made himself known to us in Egypt?” They question his essential presence–whether there was a God or not; his common providence–whether that God governed the world; and his special promise–whether he would be as good as his word to them. This is called their tempting God, which signifies, not only a distrust of God in general, but a distrust of him after they had received such proofs of his power and goodness, for the confirmation of his promise. They do, in effect, suppose that Moses was an impostor, Aaron a deceiver, the pillar of cloud and fire a mere sham and illusion, which imposed upon their senses, that long series of miracles which had rescued them, served them, and fed them, a chain of cheats, and the promise of Canaan a banter upon them; it was all so, if the Lord was not among them. Note, It is a great provocation to God for us to question his presence, providence, or promise, especially for his Israel to do it, who are so peculiarly bound to trust him.

III. The course that Moses took, when he was thus set upon, and insulted. 1. He reproved the murmurers (v. 2): Why chide you with me? Observe how mildly he answered them; it was well that he was a man of extraordinary meekness, else their tumultuous conduct would have made him lose the possession of himself: it is folly to answer passion with passion, for that makes bad worse; but soft answers turn away wrath. He showed them whom their murmurings reflected upon, and that the reproaches they cast on him fell on God himself: You tempt the Lord; that is, “By distrusting his power, you try his patience, and so provoke his wrath.” 2. He made his complaint to God (v. 4): Moses cried unto the Lord. This servant came, and showed his Lord all these things, Luke xiv. 21. When men unjustly censure us and quarrel with us, it will be a great relief to us to go to God, and by prayer lay the case before him and leave it with him: if men will not hear us, God will; if their bad conduct towards us ruffle our spirits, God’s consolations will compose them. Moses begs of God to direct him what he should do, for he was utterly at a loss; he could not of himself either supply their want or pacify their tumult; God only could do it. He pleads his own peril: “They are almost ready to stone me; Lord, if thou hast any regard to the life of thy poor servant, interpose now.”

IV. God’s gracious appearance for their relief, Exo 17:5; Exo 17:6. He orders Moses to go on before the people, and venture himself in his post, though they spoke of stoning him. He must take his rod with him, not (as God might justly have ordered) to summon some plague or other to chastise them for their distrust and murmuring, but to fetch water for their supply. O the wonderful patience and forbearance of God towards provoking sinners! He loads those with benefits that make him to serve with their sins, maintains those that are at war with him, and reaches out the hand of his bounty to those that lift up the heel against him. Thus he teaches us, if our enemy hunger, to feed him, and if he thirst, as Israel did now, to give him drink,Rom 12:20; Mat 5:44; Mat 5:45. Will he fail those that trust him, when he was so liberal even to those that tempted him? If God had only shown Moses a fountain of water in the wilderness, as he did Hagar not far hence (Gen. xxi. 19), that would have been a great favour; but that he might show his power as well as his pity, and make it a miracle of mercy, he gave them water out of a rock. He directed Moses whither to go, and appointed him to take some of the elders of Israel with him, to be witnesses of what was done, that they might themselves be satisfied, and might satisfy others, of the certainty of God’s presence with them. He promised to meet him there in the cloud of glory (to encourage him), and ordered him to smite the rock; Moses obeyed, and immediately water came out of the rock in great abundance, which ran throughout the camp in streams and rivers (Psa 78:15; Psa 78:16), and followed them wherever they went in that wilderness: it is called a fountain of waters, Ps. cxiv. 8. God showed the care he took of his people in giving them water when they wanted it; he showed his power in fetching the water out of a rock; and he put an honour upon Moses in appointing the water to flow out upon his smiting the rock. This fair water, that came out of the rock, is called honey and oil (Deut. xxxii. 13), because the people’s thirst made it doubly pleasant; coming when they were in extreme want, it was like honey and oil to them. It is probable that the people digged canals for the conveyance of it, and pools for the reception of it, in like manner as, long afterwards, passing through the valley of Baca, they made it a well, Psa 84:6; Num 21:18. Let this direct us to live in a dependence, 1. Upon God’s providence, even in the greatest straits and difficulties. God can open fountains for our supply where we least expect them, waters in the wilderness (Isa. xliii. 20), because he makes a way in the wilderness, v. 19. Those who, in this wilderness, keep to God’s way, may trust him to provide for them. While we follow the pillar of cloud and fire, surely goodness and mercy shall follow us, like the water out of the rock. 2. Upon Christ’s grace: That rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x. 4. The graces and comforts of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living water,Joh 7:38; Joh 7:39; Joh 4:14. These flow from Christ, who is the rock smitten by the law of Moses, for he was made under the law. Nothing will supply the needs, and satisfy the desires, of a soul, but water out of this rock, this fountain opened. The pleasures of sense are puddle-water; spiritual delights are rock-water, so pure, so clear, so refreshing–rivers of pleasure.

V. A new name was, upon this occasion, given to the place, preserving the remembrance, not of the mercy of their supply (the water that followed them was sufficient to do that), but of the sin of their murmuring–Massah, temptation, because they tempted God; Meribah, strife, because they chid with Moses, v. 7. There was thus a remembrance kept of sin, both for the disgrace of the sinners themselves (sin leaves a blot upon the name) and for warning to their seed to take heed of sinning after the similitude of their transgression.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

EXODUS CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Verses 1-3:

“After their journeys” denotes the stages of Israel’s journey from

the camp in the wilderness of Sin, to the site of Rephidim. Nu 33:12-14 lists these as three: from Sin to Dophkah; from Dophkah to Alush; from Alush to Rephidim.

“Rephidim” means “resting places.” It lies in the Wadi Feiran, in a wide, fertile plain surrounded by mountains. They had expected to find water at this site, but there was none. At that point in time, the springs in the valley were held by the Amalekites, who were descendants of Esau by his eldest son Eliphaz.

The Israelites must have been suffering from thirst. They had passed no springs on their way from the Wilderness of Sin, and their water supply was likely exhausted. They turned their wrath upon Moses, charging that he had brought them to this place to kill them with thirst.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. And all the congregation. Scarcely was the sedition of the people about the want of food set at rest when they again rebel on the subject of drink. They ought, at least, to have learnt from the manna, that as often as necessity pressed upon them, they should have humbly implored in prayer and supplication God’s help, in certain hope of relief. But such was their character, that they were hurried by despair into secret murmurings and impetuous cries. We have almost a precisely similar account in Num 20:0. (186) For the error of those who think it one and the same, is easily refuted by the circumstances of the time and place; and in Num 33:0, it is very clearly shown how great a distance there was between the one station and the other. Neither does the tradition of some of the Rabbins appear probable, that this thirst did not arise from natural appetite, because the manna was not only meat, but also served for drink. For there is no reason why we should be compelled to imagine this; and we gather from the text, that the commencement of their murmurings arose from the fact that the water now began for the first time to fail them. But it was God’s will in two ways, and at two different times, to try the minds of the Israelites, that they might more plainly show their natural intractability. If they had required bread and water at the same time, they would have been more excusable; but after they had experienced that a sweet and wholesome kind of food was bountifully given them from heaven, because that country produced no corn, it was an act of intolerable perversity immediately to murmur against God when they had no supply of drink. Moreover, a double accusation is here brought against them, for insulting God by quarrelling and chiding with Him, and also for tempting Him. Both arose from unbelief, the cause of which was ingratitude; for it was too vile of them so soon to bury in willful forgetfulness what God had so recently given them. He had brought them supplies when they were suffering from hunger; why do they not fly to Him when they are oppressed by thirst? It is plain, then, that the former favor was ill bestowed upon them, since it so directly vanished in their insensibility. Hence, too, appears their unbelief, because they neither expect nor ask anything of God; and with this, too, pride is conjoined, because they dare to proceed to chiding. Indeed this almost always happens, that those who neither depend on His providence nor rest; on His promises, provoke God to contend with them, and rush impetuously against Him; because the brutal violence of our passions hurries us on to madness, unless we are persuaded that God will in due time be our helper, and are, submissive to His will. In the beginning of the chapter Moses briefly indicates that the Israelites journeyed according to the commandment, or, as the Hebrew expresses it, “the mouth” (187) of God, as if he would praise their obedience. Whence we gather that, at the first outset, they were sufficiently disposed to their duty, until a temptation occurred, which interrupted them in the right way. By which example we are warned that, whenever we undertake anything at God’s bidding, we should carefully beware that nothing should hinder our perseverance; and that none are fitted to act rightly but those who are well prepared to endure the assaults of temptation.

(186) A brief but able reply to the arguments of those who allege these similar passages against the authenticity of the Pentateuch, will be found in Hengstenberg, (Ryland’s Translation,) vol. 2, p. 310, etc.

(187) על-פי. Literally, ” upon the mouth.” Noldius cites, however, various texts, in which it is equivalent to no more than according to, though in this instance, and in many others, he would render it “according to the command.” — Concord. Partic. Hebr. — W

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Exo. 17:1. After their journeys.]Literally, their breakings up, alluding to nomad life, and bringing vividly before the mind the pulling up of the tent-stakes and general break up of the camp, incident to the passage of a people through the desert. The places of encampment would naturally become landmarks to be counted in, remembered, and recorded. Cf. especially Numbers 33.The commandment of the Lord.] That is, through the guiding pillar of cloud and fire. Cf. C. N. on Exo. 13:21-22.

Exo. 17:2. Tempt]More exactly, put to the proof; for so the word signifies. God did put Abraham to the proofwhich was right: Israel did put God to the proofwhich was wrong. Proof in abundance had already been given that Jehovah was among His people. The want of water was a sore trial, but might itself have assured them that a supply would soon come. The daily provision of food by a miracle, added to all the foregoing tokens of Jehovahs presence, should have controlled the spirit of the people, and confined their application to earnest believing petition.

Exo. 17:6. Stand upon the rock.]This incident, especially when conceived according to the vividness of the original, is most pleasing and satisfying to the imagination of faith. Behold Me! standing before thee there upon the rock. It is from Him who is standing upon the rock that the waters really flow. By this Divine action, of taking up such a position, the Source and Medium are in a manner identified. This is the first rock-smiting recorded; the second is narrated in Numbers

20. It is no doubt to this first, more illustrious, instance that the Apostle alludes in 1Co. 10:4. The outflow now caused appears to have been kept up for some time; and the desert of Sinai being near wherein Israel remained for about a year, this rock followed them with its welcome stream, becoming thereby typical of spiritual blessing. That rock was (i.e., represented) the Christ. An experience in the desert such as this, even if continued only for a few months, would worthily serve as a type to be carried down the ages: it is, however, to be noticed, that we do not read of the Hebrews again suffering from thirst till years have elapsed, and then it is in a locality a long way from this smitten rock in Horeb.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 17:1-7

HOREB; OR, THE NEEDFUL THINGS OF LLFE PROVIDENTIALLY SUPPLIED

The expression, after their journeys, in Exo. 17:1, would lead us to expect that there was a station or two between the wilderness of Sin and Rephidim. And on reference to Num. 33:12-14, we find that there were Dophkah and Alush. Nothing of importance occurred at these places. The Israelites were not tempted. God was not displeased. The life of man is not always eventful. It has many halting-places destitute of moral interest. But these are soon exchanged for scenes of trial. Moral character is developed better at Rephidim than at Dophkah and Alush.

I. That men are sometimes brought into great straits through lack of the ordinary things of life. And there was no water for the people to drink. Thus the Israelites lacked water. They had lacked bread only a few days previously. It is not the lot of man to be long free from trial of some kind. Trials come successively. This was the case with Job. Joseph escapes the pit and is put into the dungeon. David passes from the cave of Adullam to the wilds of Engedi. They are diversified according to the station in which our tent is fixed. Every sphere of life has something of perplexity connected with it, which tests our moral nature and brings the mercy of God near to us. We must learn both how to want and how to abound, to be sorrowful and yet always rejoicing. Thus by the varied trials of life man is made to feel that earth cannot give him abiding satisfaction, and he is led to anticipate the rest of heaven. Each sorrow in the wilderness would lead the true Israelite to long for the land of promise; and so all the vicissitudes of earth should create desires for the eternal satisfaction of heaven. The believer must not think of undisturbed repose while in the flesh. Life is a school in which sorrow is the first teacher, and in which we may learn the meaning of self. In the best gardens of earth there are graves; the garden of heaven is in eternal bloom. There the wilderness is unknown, and hunger and thirst are not experienced. The Lamb feeds them. They drink of the River of the Water of Life. But we see from this narrative, that each occasion of want on the part of Israel was signalised by a rich manifestation of the mercy of God. Their hunger was met by the manna. Their thirst was met by the streams of Horeb. The hour of mans need is often the hour of Gods richest gift and blessing. Heaven gives kindly revelations of its love to sorrowful souls. Thus we see how thoroughly man depends upon God, even for the common necessities of life. The water we drink is the gift of His hand, and will cease to flow at His command. Man may experience want even in the paths in which he is Divinely led. Sorrow should lead to repentance and not to murmuring. Have you never felt the need of spiritual water? There is a thirst of soul compared with which physical thirst is unimportant, and which needs immediate attention. David thirsted for God. Earthly things cannot appease this thirst. The life of the soul cannot be sustained without the water of the Holy Spirit. It is absolutely essential. We are dependent upon heaven for it. No human creature can supply it. It flows clear as crystal from the throne of God and the Lamb. It is beyond price, and yet is free. It is refreshing to the weary soul. Here we drink of the stream; in the life to come we shall drink at the fountain head. If we thirst after God we shall diligently seek Him in the means of grace and in private prayer.

II. That when men are brought into great straits through lack of the ordinary things of life, they often appeal to human agencies rather than to Divine. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. Thus the Israelites blamed Moses for the straits into which they were brought through lack of water. How foolish, for did not he suffer from the same calamity? nor was it in his power to create fountains. How cruel, for was not he seeking their freedom? How fickle the approbation of men, it varies with the circumstances of life. People often go to the human in trouble when they ought to go to the Divine. It is the way of the world. God must be seen through all the agencies which He sends to conduct our life to its destined place. The seen things around us, which are influencing us, are only the means which heaven appoints to bring us to rest, and therefore our thoughts must not terminate in them, but must run on to that Being who has so wisely ordered them. Men are slow to see that all the circumstances of life are related to the providence of God, rather than to the immediate agencies which appear to have caused them. And if you are seeking spiritual water to quench the thirst of your soul, do not go to the creature for it, but to the Creator. The Israelites went to Moses and asked him to satisfy their thirst; but in vain. Not even the good things of this life, which are appointed by God for the true welfare of man, can satisfy this deeper longing of the soul. Science cannot. A good name cannot. Social enjoyment cannot. God alone can quench its thirst. Hence let no human soul seek to obtain from human agencies what alone can be obtained from the Divine. If you drink of the wells of earth you will thirst again; but if of the water of the Spirit you will thirst no more.

III. That when men are brought into straits through the lack of things they very much need, they often get them in the providence of God from the most unlikely sources. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. Thus we see that God did not flash immediate judgment upon these rebellious people. He is long-suffering toward the race. We must learn to be patient with those who injure us. God has regard to human need, and evil in men will not turn Him away from His promise. None need despair of His mercy. When the people chide, the minister should pray. When his perplexity is great he most needs direction from heaven; God always reveals to praying souls the best method of action in the time of trouble. To prayerful spirits He makes known the rock which shall relieve their need. Thus the thirst of Israel was quenched by water from a rock. Who would expect clear, bright, water from a flinty rock? Certainly not the most sanguine in the camp of Israel. We know not the possibilities of the things around us. The providence of God can make rocks into rivers to supply the need of His people. We often get our blessings from whence we least expect them; we get pity from the hard-hearted, money from the miserly, and harvests from barren places. Nature yields her secret treasures at the voice of heaven. Every rock in the desert is embraced in the providence of God. From whence shall come the water to satisfy the thirst of the soul? From the rivers of worldly pleasures? From the streams of human philosophy? From the wells of wealth? Nay; we point to One who was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and say that from the Rock Christ Jesus comes the spiritual water, which alone can quench the thirst of the soul. Christ is set forth under the emblem of a rock. He is strong. He withstands all enemies. He is the true foundation for moral character. He is the abiding Refuge of the soul. Thus, is not human salvation from an unlikely source? Who would have predicted that the Divine Son of God would have died to save men from sin? Yet so it is, and from the smitten Christ there flows a stream which is equal to the moral thirst of humanity. Christ was smitten. He bore the penalties of a broken law. Heaven spared Him not. He was smitten in body and in soul (Isa. 53:10). The supply of water from the rock was free. The waters which flowed forth from the rock were free to all the camp of Israel. We should not have been surprised if rebellion had limited the supply to the more worthy few; but no, the gifts of God are bestowed on the just and on the unjust. And so the mercy which is in Christ Jesus is free to all, even to the worst of sinners (Rev. 22:17). The supply of water from the rock was abundant. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused the waters to run down like rivers (Psa. 78:16). There was sufficient water to meet the thirst of the entire camp. The mercy which is in Christ Jesus is superabundant; all may freely drink and yet there will be enough and to spare. Our Heavenly Father bestows not mercy with a sparing hand. He is rich in pity. The supply of water from the rock was pure. This water was not bitter. It was not poisonous. It was sweet. It was cooling. The mercy which is in Christ Jesus is sweet and clear as crystal. It cleanses those who drink it, and makes them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. The supply of water from the rock was continuous. The water of the rock followed Israel. The mercy which is in Christ Jesus will never leave a trustful soul; but will follow it through all the wanderings of life. Our Heavenly Father is never absent from the good; goodness and mercy follow them all their days.

IV. That when men are brought into straits, the way in which they act therein will leave irreparable memorials of sin or victory. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not? (Exo. 17:7.) In the conduct of the Israelites there had been base unbelief and ingratitude. They had chided Moses. They had forgotten the sweetened waters of Marah. They thought not of the pillar of cloud. In the presence of these things, they asked, Is the Lord among us, or not? Some men will not see the clearest indications of the Divine Presence in the experiences of life. They are slow to recognise God in their time of need. Heaven is with us as truly in need as in plenty. When life is in pain, then the consolations of Divine mercy are richest. Moral conduct always leaves memorials behind it. In the olden times names were changed in token of great soul-events; Jacob was changed to Israel. Every righteous act of the soul leaves its memorial in increased vigour of manhood, in purity and beauty of character, and in the rich blessing of God. Every sinful act of soul leaves its memorial in an impoverished and ruined manhood. Thus the scenes of life which ought to be radiant with Divine mercy, are often darkened by the sin of man. Let us not leave behind in our life memorials of strife and unbelief, but of faith and good works. Such memorials are abiding; once erected, they cannot be removed; hence the need that they should be worthy. LESSONS:

1. That man is frequently called upon in this life to endure great physical need.

2. That the physical needs of life often reveal our real and inner character.

3. That the physical needs of life are no indication that God has failed us.

4. That the physical needs of life give us a great insight into the wealth and method of Divine mercy.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Exo. 17:1-2. The trials of the Church are continued and multiplied in the time of pilgrimage.

The Church must encamp where the Word of God determines.
Want and hardship may attend Gods people where He bids them pitch.
Every strait is an occasion of stirring up the wicked to sin.
Unreasonable transgressors are apt to revile the innocent ministers of God.
Gods faithful ministers may justly turn away undeserved reproofs from themselves.
Gods faithful ministers labour to show men their unreasonableness in their temptation of God.

Exo. 17:3-7. Unbelieving murmurers expostulate about judgments as if they were causeless.

Earnest prayers to Jehovah are the best means for Gods servants to use against the violent threats of men.
In the midst of threatenings God commands His servants to walk safely.
God may allow some murmurers to go and see His miracles wrought, but not all.
Murmurers fare the better and have mercies through believers who obey God.
Gods ministers are and must be exact in doing Gods commands before all men.
It is Gods pleasure to make places monuments of mens sins by His naming them.
Temptation of God and contention with His servants usually go together.
It is high tempting of God to call in question His gracious presence with His people.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON

Human Hearts! Exo. 17:1. Men may do much under the momentary influence of excitement. A coward has been known to become momentarily brave, as Sir Walter Scott evidently understood when he painted one of his characters in the Fair Maid of Perth. But the nature is not changed; for when the exciting cause ceases, then the effects vanishlike the music which dies away when the breeze ceases to touch the harp chordsor like the corpse of Edgar Allan Poes romance, which ceased to move when the electric battery was removed. So with Israel; great was their Red Sea triumph-song; but there was no change of heart. They had been like those sand toys which we buy for our children. You turn the box upside down, and then the little acrobat revolves and revolves till the sand is all run down, when he hangs motionless; or like that singular case in the now defunct Oxford Street Pantheon, which contained a bird drinking at a fountain. After every sip of the crystal fluid, it raised its head, swelled its gorgeous throat, trilled its glorious song, only so long as the machinery was wound up. When the chain and spring had run down, then the bullfinch stood stiff and still. The winding up had not changed it from a stuffed to a living bird. Israel, wrought up to enthusiasm on the spur of the moment, sang Jehovahs praises by the Red Sea wave; but the wilderness-way cools their fervour. Alas! they soon show that their hearts had yet to be changed.

Oh! wonderful rebellion,

Thou Lord of hope and life!

Betwixt Thee and Thy servant

There have been war and strife.

Rephidim-Rest! Exo. 17:1. The course of none has been along so beaten a road that they remember not fondly some resting-places in their journeyssome turns of their path in which lovely prospects broke in upon themsome soft plats of green refreshment to their weary feet. Talfourd says, such are confiding lovegenerous friendshipdisinterested humanity. The Rephidim-rest was by no means barren. It was doubtless surrounded by steep shelving mountains of gneiss, the fantastic cleavage and variety of which added greatly to the beauty of the scene. It has been said that the scenery is not unlike Gleneoe without its heather. Through the plain nay be seen scattered groups of treesthe tamarisk with its long, feathery boughsthe palm-tree with its long, bare trunk, and tuft of broad leaves at the topand the thick, straggling, thorn bushes. But palms and tamarisks were dotted all around; and on every knoll and mountain slope were ruined houses, churches, and walls, at the time Captain Palmer visited the scene. Farther on were some hundreds of palmswhat Southey calls a palm grove islanded amid the waste.

Mine eyes have seen Thy wonders
All through this desert land.

Rephidim-Rebellion! Exo. 17:2. How oftenespecially in Eastern lands and under Syrian skieshave we seen a morning fair and bright as ever dawned on mortal vision, and looked for a high noon golden and glowing, flashing its glories far and wide, only, when the hour arrived, to find it clouded and mournful, with wailing winds and muttering thunders! When the motley hosts of Moses clustered on the far shore of the Red Sea wave, what a bright dawn was their libertybrighter far than the radiant beams of eastern dawnlight that lit up the wide waste where slept in their watery couches the mailed phalanxes of Pharaoh. Alas! how soonere noondid that bright promise pale and fadepale as pales the northern coruscations from the arctic zonefade as fades the blush upon the cheek of consumption, beauteous when it is christened death. When Sir Samuel Baker was in Abyssinia, he saw the natives employing their cattle not only as beasts of burden, but for carrying supplies of water in skins slung at their sides. Probably the Israelites brought with them from Egypt supplies of water in this way. These would last until, having reached the Wilderness of Sin, they were called upon to turn away from the seashore, and get up among the mountains. Here the water supply becomes exhausted, and Israel once more sins. With fierce impatience, they turn to their leader, and heap upon him reproaches as bitter as they were unjust and ungrateful. The falling spoke of the revolving wheel returns and reascends. The ebbing tide of rebellion rolls in again. Thus troubles fall and rise again; temptations die and revive again. The Israelites murmur; and in their repinings we see the bias of human nature. Yet, on the base of rebellion there rises a lovely pillar, on which all ages may read the golden glories of the Lordthe Lord God merciful and gracious

And yet I could not trust Thee,
Or wait upon Thine hand.

Rephidim-Rock! Exo. 17:6. About two miles below Paran, on the side towards Egypt from which the Israelites would have approached, there is a spot never noticed by former travellers, which is connected by Bedawin tradition with this miracle. Thus writes Captain Palmer of the Sinaitic Expedition:Dr. Durbin, in his Observations on the East, says that the rock made more impression upon him than any natural object claiming to attest a miracle ever did. No moisture is now seen about the surface, but the Arabs say that there is water beneath the soil. They accordingly give to the stone the name of The Concealed Spring of the Writer, i.e., Moses. In Psa. 114:8, it says that Jehovah turned the flint into a fountain of water. The manna was simply sent from heaven; but the water, on the contrary, was brought out of the smitten rockthe most unlikely place that could be imagined. Some men went about collecting funds for an important charity. They arrived in course of time at a very rich mans door, who was known to be churlish in his manner and niggardly in his gifts; whereupon they said that there was no need to call on him, He is not likely to give. However, they entered, laid their case before him, and were beyond measure astonished when he gave them the largest donation of all. Rephidim-Rock was a most unlikely place from which to receive supplies of water. And nothing more unlikely than that life and happiness should flow from One crucified as a malefactor.

What if my lips have thirsted?

Thou from the rock couldst bring

The pure refreshing water

Of some unfailing spring.

Rock-Rifts! Exo. 17:6. The command is: Smite the rock Moses lifts his rod, and with it he strikes the great granite mass. It is rent, torn asunder; and from inside the water bubbles upgushes outoverflows in all directionspours down into the valleyand rolls onward a clear, bright, and sparkling river. Law remarks that the antitype is the smitten Jesus.

(1.) It was from the stricken stone that the waters gushed out. The wounds of Jesus are the avenue of the Spirit. They give forth waterthe sparkling emblem of the power of grace.

(2.) Sweet was this blessing to the pilgrims of the desert; but sweeter far to the true sons of God are those spiritual supplies, of which they drink with greediness and gladness.

And now that I have tasted

The soul-reviving stream,

Alas! how sad and shameful

My late repinings seem.

Seeing Purity! Exo. 17:1-7. We have become familiar with the symbol of the stagnant pool, all whose impurities have settled at the bottom, and left its waters clear. The sunbeam or even the travellers staff soon discloses the seeming purity to be real impurity. But we have recently read that a tourist in the Holy Land on one occasion procured two little phials, which he filled with water from the Jordan. The liquid in one of the vessels was filtered, so as to be clear like crystal. The other bottle had in it the sediment as well as the water; and when shaken, it rose and discoloured the liquid. So with Israel; when Jehovah shook them, it was apparent that deep down at the bottom of the sea of their religious life there was much impurity. Affliction soon tests the integrity of our motivesthe disinterestedness of our friendshipsthe reality of our faith in God. And so with Israel. The manna miracle had only caused the doubts and despairs to settle at the bottom of their heart; so that when the hand of God shook it by lack of water, loud murmurs rose up. All the goodness of God was forgotten; and maddened with thirst and rage, they threatened the life of their leader.

Yes, I have vainly chided

Thy providential ways;

And I have mourned and murmured

When thou hast looked for praise.

Prayer-Power! Exo. 17:4. There is scarcely a material force or element which has not been at one time or another influenced by prayer. We speak of a flinty rock; and lo! waters gush forth plentifully when prayer touches it with her magic wand. We speak of the ocean; and lo! a pathway is made for the ransomed of the Lord, when prayer stretches over it her magic wand and divides it asunder. Talk of Aladdins lamp; behold the true secret of power in the uplifted hand and heart of Moses in the Mount. It will be one of the grand revelations of the future to see the proofs of the power of prayermany and more marvellous than Jacobs Peniel wrestlingsthan Elijahs Carmel agonisingsthan Pauls strong cryings and tears. As has been said, prayer plucks out the briers and thorns in the pathway of life, and covers that pathway with flowers and fruitsstretches out its mighty hand to heaven, and scatters the dark portentous cloud threatening destructionlinks its hands to Divinity, so that it becomes strong as God, and can hurl defiance at all foes:

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Prayer makes the Christians armour bright.

Sanctified Suffering! Exo. 17:3-7. It has been beautifully said, There are many fruits which never turn sweet until the frost has lain upon them. There are many nuts that never fall from the boughs of the forest trees till the frost has opened and ripened them. And there are many elements of life that never grow sweet and beautiful until sorrow comes. But these sorrows need the sanctifying influences of the Spirit to the end that they may ripen and sweeten the elements of character upon which they act. Without divine grace we may grow sour and ungainly under heart sorrows.

God guideth all His children home

By paths we know not here;

But once with Him, His ways will be

To every loved one clear.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE TEXT OF EXODUS
TRANSLATION

17 And all the congregation of the children of Is-ra-el journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the commandment of Je-ho-vah, and encamped in Reph-i-dim: and there was no water for the people to drink. (2) Wherefore the people strove with Mo-ses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Mo-ses said unto them, Why strive ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt Je-ho-vah? (3) And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Mo-ses, and said, Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of E-gypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? (4) And Mo-ses cried unto Je-ho-vah, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they are almost ready to stone me. (5) And Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Is-ra-el; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thy hand, and go. (6) Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Ho-reb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Mo-ses did so in the sight of the elders of Is-ra-el. (7) And he called the name of the place Mas-sah, and Mer-i-bah, because of the striving of the children of Is-ra-el, and because they tempted Je-ho-vah, saying, Is Je-ho-vah among us, or not?

(8) Then came Am-a-lek, and fought with Is-ra-el in Reph-i-dim. (9) And Mo-ses said unto Josh-u-a, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Am-a-lek: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. (10) So Josh-u-a did as Mo-ses had said to him, and fought with Am-a-lek: and Mo-ses, Aar-on, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (11) And it came to pass, when Mo-ses held up his hand, that Is-ra-el prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Am-a-lek prevailed. (12) But Mo-ses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aar-on and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. (13) And Joshua discomfited Am-a-lek and his people with the edge of the sword. (14) and Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Am-a-lek from under heaven. (15) And Mo-ses built an altar, and called the name of it Je-ho-vah-nis-si; (16) and he said, Je-ho-vah hath sworn: Je-ho-vah will have war with Am-a-lek from generation to generation.

EXPLORING EXODUS: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
QUESTIONS ANSWERABLE FROM THE BIBLE

Propose a topic or theme for chapter 17.

Where did Israel go from the Wilderness of Sin? (Exo. 17:1; Compare Num. 33:12-13)

Who directed Israel to Rephidim? (Exo. 17:1)

What disaster faced them in Rephidim? (Exo. 17:1)

Who tempted the Lord? How did they tempt the Lord? (Exo. 17:2; Exo. 17:7)

How did the Israelites feel toward Moses? (Exo. 17:3-4)

What did Moses do when the Israelites strove with him? (Exo. 17:4)

Who went with Moses as he went to smite the rock? (Exo. 17:5-6)

Where did God stand when Moses struck the rock? (Exo. 17:6)

10.

What place is Horeb? (Exo. 17:6; Exo. 3:1)

11.

How abundant was the flow of water from the rock? (Psa. 78:15-16)

12.

What two names did Moses give to the place where the waters came forth? What do these names mean? (Exo. 17:7)

13.

Who fought against Israel? (Exo. 17:8; Deu. 25:17-18)

14.

Who led Israels armed forces? (Exo. 17:9; Exo. 17:13)

15.

How did Moses help in the battle? (Exo. 17:9)

16.

What was Joshuas original name? (Num. 13:16; Exo. 17:9) See if you can find the meanings of Joshuas names.

17.

Who held up Moses hands? (Exo. 17:10; Exo. 17:12)

18.

What did Moses sit on? (Exo. 17:12)

19.

How long did the battle last? (Exo. 17:12)

20.

What was to be written in a book? (Exo. 17:14)

21.

When was the prophecy against Amalek fulfilled? (Exo. 17:14; 1Sa. 15:8-9; 1Ch. 4:43)

22.

What was the name of the altar that Moses built? (Exo. 17:15)

23.

What did the LORD swear that he would have? (Exo. 17:16)

EXODUS SEVENTEEN: TWO TESTS: WATER AND WAR

Water; (Exo. 17:1-7)

The danger; Exo. 17:1.

The disagreeable debate; Exo. 17:2-3.

The deliverance; Exo. 17:4-6.

The memorial names; Exo. 17:1.

II.

War; (Exo. 17:8-15)

The danger; Exo. 17:8.

The deliverance; Exo. 17:9-13.

The memorial name; Exo. 17:15-16.

WATER FROM THE LORD

(Joh. 4:10; Joh. 4:14; Joh. 7:37-39)

Given to the undeserving; Exo. 17:1-3.

Given miraculously; Exo. 17:4-6.

Given abundantly; Psa. 78:15-16.

TEMPTING THE LORD VS. FAITH

Tempting the LORD: Is God among us or not? (Exo. 17:7) Faith: God exists! (Heb. 11:6)

Tempting the LORD: It is vain to serve God. (Mal. 3:14-15) Faith: God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (Heb. 11:6)

Tempting the LORD: Give us food that we crave! (Psa. 78:18) Faith: Feed me with food that is needful for me. (Pro. 30:8)

Tempting the LORD: Leap from the pinnacle! (Mat. 4:5-6) Faith: You shall not tempt the LORD. (Deu. 6:16)

Two PLACES TO AVOID! (Exo. 17:7)

.Massah The place of Tempting (testing).

Meribah The place of Strife (quarrelling).

AMALEK: THE PROTOTYPE OF GODS ENEMIES

Cruel (Attacked the weary stragglers); Deu. 25:17-19.

Determined (Fought all day); Exo. 17:12.

Powerful (Only Gods power can defeat); Exo. 17:11.

Doomed; Exo. 17:13-14.

JEHOVAH-NISSI: JEHOVAH IS MY BANNER! (Exo. 17:15-16)

He gives me triumph.

He forgets not evil.

He lives through every generation.

EXPLORING EXODUS: NOTES ON CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

What is the subject matter of Exodus 17?

The chapter contains two distinct sections: (1) Concerning the giving of water from the rock of Israel; Exo. 17:1-7. (2) Concerning Israels battle with Amalek; Exo. 17:8-16.

Where did Israel go from the Wilderness of Sin? (Exo. 17:1)

The whole congregation journeyed by stages (By their journeys) and encamped in Rephidim. By stages we mean the most significant stopovers and encampments, which became starting points for travel to their next major encampment.

Num. 33:12-13 names two of these stages, Dophka and Alush. These lay between the wilderness of Sin and Rephidim.

Where was Rephidim? (Exo. 17:1)

No one knows for certain. Exo. 17:6 indicates that it was very near to Horeb (Mt. Sinai). Also Exo. 18:5 relates that Moses was camped at the Mt. of God when his father-in-law Jethro came to him. This occurred at Rephidim (Exo. 19:2).

We feel that Keil and Delitzsch[275] are correct in suggesting that Rephidim lay near the point about ten miles north of Mt. Sinai where the great Wady es Sheikh opens into the Plain of Er Rahah, which lies at the north end of Mt. Sinai.

[275] Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 75.

Others have located Rephidim at a small wady (valley) called Wady Rephayid.[276] This lies some fifteen miles NW of Sinai. It is an inconsequential wady. We see little to commend the identification except a partial resemblence between the names Rephidim and Rephayid.

[276] John Davis, Moses and the Gods of Egypt (Baker, 1971), p. 184.

SPECIAL STUDY: ISRAELS PASSAGE ROUTE TO SINAI

From Israels encampment by the seaside (which we have suggested was near modern Abu Zenima) there are two main routes by which Israel could have passed up to Mt. Sinai, a northern route and a southern route. Each of these two routes could have been entered by two different valleys (wadies). Both would be about the same length, about one hundred and ten miles. We feel the southern route is much the more probable. But no one can be completely certain.

The Northern Route

The northern route would primarily pass through the sandy plain of Debbet er Ramleh (the Plain of Sand). This lies south of the mountain range called Jebel et-Tih (Mt. of the Wandering) and north of the granite mountains of southern Sinai. If this route is the true one, then the Wilderness of Sin is probably the Debbet er-Ramleh.
This northern route could have been entered from Israels seaside encampment, by backing up northward via the Wady Taiyibeh. After six or seven miles this wady turns abruptly eastward, where it is called the Wady Hamr (or Humur), and goes into the sandy plains.
This northern route could also have been entered if Israel had travelled SE along the seacoast about ten miles into the barren plain of El Murkha (which we feel is the true Wilderness of Sin). They could go east across this plain, and enter a narrow wady and follow it northeastward twenty miles (or thereabouts), where it enters the sandy plains near Debbet er Ramleh.

The northern route would have taken Israel to within ten miles of the ruins now called Serabit-el-Khadim. Numerous scholars suggest that this is the site of Dophka (Num. 33:12). We can see no cause for this identification. Serabit is off from the main trails. It was an Egyptian mining location (turquoise and copper). An Egyptian temple to the goddess Hathor was there. Egyptian troops were stationed there both before and after the time of Moses. They would not have really gone from the Wilderness of Sin (Debbet el Ramleh) in going to Serabit, for the sandy plains extend far on east of Serabit. Therefore, it does not appear to us as even a remote possibility of being the site of Dophka.

The northern route would primarily move southeastward. Eventually it would enter the valley of the Wady Esh. Some identify this with Alush on the basis of the remote resemblance between the names.

Finally the route would join the Wadi esh-Sheikh about fifteen miles north of Mt. Sinai. The Sheikh valley goes directly south into the plain of Er-Rahah at the north foot of Mt. Sinai.

The Southern Route

The southern passage route is the route via the Wady Feiran and its north branch, the Wady esh-Sheikh. The Wady Feiran is the largest Wady in southern Sinai, and extends a little over eighty miles from its mouth to the region of Jebel Musa (the Mount of Moses, or Mt. Sinai).
To enter the Wady Feiran passage, we feel that Israel came southeastward from its seaside encampment into the great barren plain of El-Murkha (which contains the modern town of Abu Rudeis and its oil fields). This plain is about six by fifteen miles. We feel it is the true site of the Wilderness of Sin, where Israel first received the manna. Israel could depart from this plain at its south end, and after going no more than ten miles, with ridges of hills on their left (east), they would come to the mouth of the Wady Feiran, where they would turn eastward.

The Wady Feiran is one to two miles broad much of its way up to Sinai, but frequently narrows between mountains to the width of half or a third of a mile.[277]

[277] Bartlett, Op. cit., p. 238.

Another route by which Israel might have entered the Feiran valley would have been to have left the Wilderness of Sin from its east side, near its south end, via the Valley (Wady) Sidri. After going eastward about ten miles between hills, they would veer north to bypass a mountain. After going around northeast of this mountain, they would enter the Valley (Wady) Mukkatab (the Written valley, so-called on account of the numerous Sinaitic inscriptions in it). This broad rather flat valley gradually rose as they journeyed SE about fifteen miles, where, after crossing a watershed, it would descend to the Wady Feiran. This entry into Feiran may have been Israels actual passage route.

The Feiran zig-zags a great deal, but has an overall easterly direction. About forty miles up the Wady Feiran is the magnificent Oasis of Feiran (The Pearl of the Desert). Here pure sweet water flows in the valley. There are many lovely palm groves and other trees. High cliffs (800900 feet) rise on every side.
Just to the south of this oasis about five miles stands the great Mt. Serbal (6,790 feet). From its peak one has a view spanning almost the entire length of the Gulf of Suez.

Just on the north side of the Oasis of Feiran is Mt. Tahuneh. A spot on this mountain has been called the Place of Moses prayer (Exo. 17:11). The Oasis of Feiran has been identified as Rephidim, the place where the Amalekites attacked Israel. These proposed identifications are known to have been made at least as far back as A.D. 600. Nonetheless, we cannot accept the identifications, because Rephidim, where Moses prayed, seems to have been very much closer to Sinai than the Feiran Oasis. See Exo. 17:6; Exo. 18:5. It is possible that this Oasis was the site of Alush. Dophka would then have been some small oasis downstream (westward).

Israel most probably detoured left (north) off the Feiran into its northern branch, the Wady esh-Sheikh. This is the route usually followed by caravans even today. The Sheikh circles around the rugged hills lying northwest of Mt. Sinai, and then turns directly south toward Mt. Sinai, and enters into the plain Er-Rahah, lying at the north foot of Mt. Sinai. Er Rahah was almost certainly Israels place of encampment before Mt. Sinai.

What did the Israelites chide with moses about? (Exo. 17:2-3)[278]

[278] Some critics assert that the first part of Exo. 17:1 is by one author (P), and then Exo. 17:1 b Exo. 17:7 is by yet another author (J); but even this J section has been mixed with the writings of a third (E) author. Thus 17:lb-2 is assigned to I, and Exo. 17:3-6 to E. Cassuto (Op cit., p. 201) well says concerning these unproven allegations, that in conformity with Biblical usage, which expresses things in coordinate rather than subordinate clauses (since Hebrew lacks many subordinating conjunctions), the opening part of Exo. 17:3 is to be understood as a subordinate clause, to wit, Since the people thirsted for water, they complained against Moses. . . . Verse two contains the general information about the accusations against Moses. Verse three gives a detailed account of the general statement, There is no necessity for assuming the existence of multiple sources.

They had no water, and they demanded that Moses give them water. It was an angry confrontation. They did not just murmur; they strove with Moses. The verb translated strove (or did chide or found fault) is the Hebrew rib (or riv), meaning to quarrel, strive, or contend. This word is the key to the passage, because it explains why the place was called Meribah, meaning strife, or argument. (Note the rib in Meribah.)

In demanding water, the Israelites used the plural pronoun: You (plural, referring to both Moses and Aaron), give us water!

Note that in Exo. 17:3 the Israelites accused Moses of trying to kill them. Compare Exo. 16:3. They asked, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill me (singular) and my children? The singular pronoun me seems to be used following the plural us to give special emphasis to the suffering of the children. For if the text had read us, the children would also have been implied.[279]

[279] Cassuto, op. cit., p. 202.

The reference to the Israelites cattle indicates that they had many animals. See Exo. 12:38.

The previous deliverances of the Israelites from Egypt, and at the Sea, and at Marah should have produced in them a habit of trusting God in every emergency, and of trusting Moses. Surely Moses leadership was by then thoroughly vindicated. Sadly, they were still ruled by an evil heart of unbelief (Heb. 3:12). They were never fully delivered from this lack of faith in that whole generation. Forty years later at Kadesh-Barnea, they murmured for water once again, even after water was provided for them this time. See Num. 20:2-3.

Gods people must expect to face problems, discomforts, dangers, and tribulation. They must be spiritually prepared to trust God when such experiences arrive.

Did Moses trust God when they were without water? (Exo. 17:2; Exo. 17:4)

Definitely he did. He reproved the people saying, Why do ye tempt the LORD? (Why do you put the LORD to the test?) In this situation Moses went and cried (prayed) to the Lord: What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me! The Israelites on several occasions were ready to stone leaders with whom they were displeased. See Num. 14:10; 1Sa. 30:6.

Prayer was very characteristic of Moses. See Exo. 15:25; Exo. 32:31-32.

How did Israel TEMPT God? (Exo. 17:2; Exo. 17:7; Deu. 6:16; Psa. 78:18; Psa. 78:41)

They tempted (or tested) the LORD by saying, Is the LORD among us or not? To question Gods reality, his presence, power, and concern for us is to tempt him.

Psa. 78:18 says that they tempted God by asking food for their desire (Heb. nephesh!) Seemingly they did not really need all they were demanding. They were asking for food to spend it on their pleasures (Jas. 4:3).

God wanted to prove (test, tempt) Israel. Instead Israel proved the LORD. This was Gods right, but not Israels right. Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. (Deu. 6:16; Mat. 4:7). Testing God shows a lack of faith.

Who was with Moses when he went to provide water? (Exo. 17:5-6)

He took with him some men from the elders of Israel (not all of the elders). Regarding the elders, see Exo. 24:1; Exo. 24:11; Exo. 4:29; Exo. 18:12.

The elders were to be the eyewitnesses of this miracle, that they might bear testimony to the unbelieving people. Certainly there was not enough room around the rock for 600,000 men to crowd around Moses and see him do this. The fact that water did not flow from the rock until MOSES struck it was surely a powerful evidence that Moses was a divinely appointed leader.

Moses was to take with him the rod with which he had smitten the Nile river (Exo. 7:20).

What happened when Moses struck the rock? (Exo. 17:6)

The answer to this is vividly stated in Psa. 78:15-16 : He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly, as out of the depths (the sea). He brought forth STREAMS also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

The text says the waters went out FROM the rock. This suggests that the waters flowed TO the people, probably several miles.

1Co. 10:4 : They did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. It was not Moses who produced the stream of water. Rather, the water was provided by Christ, who is the spiritual rock. Christ followed them so as to be with them always to provide their needs. In the same way he is always available to us to provide our spiritual and material needs.

Where was God when Moses struck the rock? (Exo. 17:6)

He stood before Moses upon the rock in Horeb (Mt. Sinai). We suppose that the statement I shall stand meant My pillar of cloud shall stand. Here again God condescended to mans level by manifesting Himself in one spot, though He fills heaven and earth.

10.

By what names did Moses call the place where water was provided? (Exo. 17:7)

He called it Massah (meaning tempting, or proving) and Meribah (meaning strife, chiding, or quarrelling).

The word Massah is derived from the verb (nasah) meaning to prove or test. This verb is used in Exo. 17:3 and Exo. 16:4. We must not read into the word tempt here the idea of moral temptation, but only the idea of testing.

Psa. 95:8 : Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness. Compare Num. 20:13.

Psa. 81:7 : I proved thee at the waters of Meribah.

Num. 14:22 : . . . because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice.

The name Meribah was also given to a second place where God miraculously provided water from a rock (See Num. 20:1; Num. 20:13). But the events occurred in different places and forty years apart in time. It may seem a little surprising that two places should get the same nickname. But it is by no means impossible.[280]

[280] Martin Noth (op. cit., p. 140) thinks that the two events were actually only one event but that we have two versions of the one story. The scripture, however, clearly distinguishes the two events.

The two stories of Gods providing water for Israel (in Exodus 16 and Numbers 20) occur near the start of the wilderness wanderings and near its close. This suggests the continuity of Gods care and of Israels unbelief.

11.

Was the water-from-rock event a miracle?

This seems like an obvious question to which the answer would be YES. We accept it as a miracle. Christ, the spiritual rock, brought water from a rock of flint (Deu. 8:15).

However, some semi-natural explanations for it have been suggested. Cassuto tells of an English army officer over a Sudanese camel corps in southern Sinai, who, when seeking to discover the source of water dripping between pebbles in a gravel heap by a cliff, struck the outer face of the cliff a hard knock, fracturing it, and an abundance of water began to flow. The scripture does not suggest that Moses fractured the rock, releasing a barely-shut-in vein of water.
A very extreme view is that of Noth, who felt that the water came from the rock in such a way that those who went there could only think that at one time the rock had been made to produce water in a miraculous way. This is an example of the astounding lengths to which people will go to avoid accepting the scripture accounts of miracles.

Josephus (Ant. II, i, 7) says that Moses informed the people that a river should run for their sakes out of the rock. Also, when it happened, they were astonished at this wonderful effect; and, as it were, quenched their thirst by the very sight of it. (That is a BIG yarn!)

12.

What hostile tribe fought with Israel at Rephidim? (Exo. 17:8)

Amalek (the Amalekites) fought Israel. Amalek was a grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:12); the Amalekites were his descendants. These people are mentioned at least twenty-five times in the Old Testament. Amalek feared not God (Deu. 25:17-18). As Israel passed through the wadies (valleys) on the way to Mt. Sinai, they got strung out into a column perhaps ten miles long. Amalek smote the stragglers at the rear of the column when they were weary and faint (Deu. 25:19). These Amalekites were nomads. We read of their presence in northern Sinai, near Kadesh (Gen. 14:7). They dwelt in the Negev, the semi-desert area of southern Palestine from Beersheba south (Num. 13:29).

The exact cause of Amaleks hostility is not stated. Perhaps it harks back to the ancient feud between Jacob and Esau over the birthright and blessing (Gen. 27:41). More probably it was precipitated by the fear of the Amalekites that the Israelites would occupy all the good pasture spots and springs in Sinai. There the grass dries up in the lower districts by the beginning of summer, and the nomads seek pasture at the cooler heights, the very area where the Israelites were now entering. Therefore, they fell upon Israel, to destroy them if possible. We suppose that this occurred in the Sheikh valley (Wady) north of Mt. Sinai.

God had provided Israel with food and water. Now He must save them from attack by an enemy. This was absolutely necessary, if God was to be triumphant for His people.

13.

Whom did Moses send to lead Israel in battle? (Exo. 17:9-10)

He sent Joshua, who is mentioned here for the first time in the scripture. Moses did not need to explain to the original readers of Exodus who Joshua was. By the time the book had been written, Joshua had become well-known to them.

Joshua had been a tribal chieftan of the tribe of Ephraim (Num. 13:8). His name had originally been Hoshea (meaning salvation). To the name Hoshea Moses added Gods name Yah (or Jah), making his name Joshua (Heb. Yehoshua), meaning Jehovah is salvation.

We are impressed with Joshuas faith, courage, and immediate obedience. For forty years he was Moses principal minister. See Exo. 24:13; Exo. 32:17. He became the leader of Israel after Moses died, and led in the conquest of Canaan. His name in Greek is Jesus, and the King James Bible refers to him as Jesus in Act. 7:45 and Heb. 4:8.

14.

Where did Moses go during the battle? (Exo. 17:9-10)

He went to the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand.

Note that the rod is again called the rod of God, as it was back in Exo. 4:20. We suppose that Moses had received instructions from God about going up onto the hill while Joshua was fighting Amalek.

We suppose that the hill was the height now called Fureia (or Feria), on the very north side of the plain Er-Rahah. The traditional location is just north of the great Oasis in Wady Feiran, on Mt. Tahuneh. S. C. Bartlett, who climbed these hills, thought that a hill called Jebel Shiah, just to the west of Mt. Tahuneh, was more likely the place, since it commanded a much wider range of view than Mt. Tahuneh. Bartlett felt that the Amalekites were contesting the Israelites for possession of the great Oasis of Feiran, which was certainly a prize worth fighting for.
These proposed locations of the hill of Moses prayer do not seem to us to harmonize with the clear statements that the site of the battle at Rephidim was very close to Mt. Sinai (Horeb).

15.

Who accompanied Moses to the hill top? Why? (Exo. 17:10-12)

Aaron (Moses brother) and Hur accompanied Moses, to help him keep his arms uplifted.

Hur is mentioned again in Exo. 24:14 : Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them. A man named Hur is named in Exo. 31:2 as the grandfather of Bezalel, a builder of the tabernacle. So also in 1Ch. 2:3-5; 1Ch. 2:18-20. However, we cannot be certain that the Hur of Exodus 31 is the same man as Hur in Exo. 17:10. Josephus (Ant. III, ii, 4) says that Hur was the husband of Miriam. We do not know whether this tradition is true or false.

16.

What was the significance of Moses lifting up his hands? (Exo. 17:11)

It meant victory if he did and defeat if he did not!

We feel that the lifting up of his hands was an act of prayer. The expression lifting up the hands frequently refers to prayer. (See Psa. 28:2; 1Ti. 2:8; Psa. 63:4). The lowering of the hands was a sign of ceasing to pray.

The weariness that soon comes when we try to hold our arms up-lifted for long periods is familiar to all. Moses hands soon became heavy. When his hands came down, Amalek began to win the battle. So Aaron and Hur seated Moses upon a stone, and helped him hold his hands uplifted till the sun went down that day.

Because the text does not specifically mention Moses as praying, some interpreters feel that the lifting of his hands and the rod had other significance. Some say it was a signal to do battle (as in Jos. 8:18). Others propose that some mysterious force was thought to radiate from the rod of Moses. (This view is sheer blasphemy.) Yet others have thought that the lifting up the hand and rod was the sign of some oath (Gen. 14:22), putting Amalek under a ban or curse of complete destruction. None of these views seem very satisfactory.

At the very least, we can say that Moses lifting up his hands pointed toward God as their only strength for victory. It is difficult for us to think that Moses was not praying, considering how often he prayed on other occasions.

Ponder the mixture of human effort and divine power needed for victory. Israel had to fight, but they won only by the power of God. The dividing line between natural effort and supernatural help is often difficult to pinpoint in our experience. The child of God must perceive that both are real and both are necessary for victory.

17.

How severe was the battle with Amalek? (Exo. 17:11-13)

It lasted all day. This indicates both the strength and determination of their assailants. It started as a hyena-like attack on the Israelite stragglers, but it developed into a massive battle. Israel had full opportunity to use the weapons they took as they went up armed out of Egypt (Exo. 13:18). There are times when Gods people must fight. See Luk. 22:36.

Joshua discomfited Amalek. This unusual verb seems to mean prostrated, or mowed down, or disabled. There were many casualties inflicted in close combat with the edge of the sword. (This expression often indicates a great slaughter of the enemy. See Jos. 6:21; Jos. 8:24; Num. 21:24.)

18.

What was to be written in a book? (Exo. 17:14)

Moses was told by God to write in a book that He would utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. They would be exterminated from the earth.

The prophecy of Amaleks future annihilation was also given in later prophecies. See Num. 24:20. Deu. 25:17-19.

It was centuries before this prophecy was fulfilled. In the time of king Saul (10501010 B.C., about 400 years after Moses time), God sent Saul to wipe out the Amalekites (1Sa. 15:2-3). Saul did not fully do this. In the time of king Hezekiah (728696 B.C.) the remnant of the Amalekites (in one area anyway) were smitten. We read no more about them after that. (1Ch. 4:41-43)

Ponder the fact that Gods promises and threats will certainly be fulfilled, even if it takes centuries, and even if we do not live to see it done. God does not look at time as we do (2Pe. 3:8).

Does the Bible say that Moses wrote the words in A book or in THE book? Was this the start of a new book, or was it added to the book Moses already was writing? As the Hebrew text now reads, it says in the book. However, this reading depends on the vowel marking, and the vowels were not added to the Hebrew Bible until A.D. 500900. Obviously, the later Jewish rabbis who added the vowels to the text thought that it meant in the book, although the consonants can be read either way. (Ancient Hebrew was written with consonants only.) The Greek Bible is similarly indefinite as to whether it says A book or THE book.

19.

What does the command to write indicate about the writing of the book of Exodus? (Exo. 17:14)

It indicates that Moses was proficient in writing, but it really tells little about the composition of Exodus. Num. 33:2 says that Moses wrote all the places where Israel encamped, by the command of the Lord. Probably Moses had therefore been doing a little writing as they journeyed, although he surely had very little time to do this during their marches.

Other references to writing in Exodus include Exo. 24:4 (And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD), and Exo. 34:27 (The Lord said to Moses, Write down these words).

The Egyptians were thorough recorders of all types of family and business records. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He surely knew several languages.
We suspect that the document Moses wrote about the Amalekites was a separate roll at first, and was later incorporated into the entire book of Exodus. This was done most likely during the forty years of wandering around Kadesh-Barnea, after Israel left Mt. Sinai.

20.

What did Moses build, and what did he call it? (Exo. 17:15)

He built an altar after the victory over Amalek, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi, which means The LORD is my banner.

The meaning seems to be that the name of Jehovah is the true banner under which victory is certain.
There are numerous cases in the scripture where memorial names were given to altars or special spots. Jacob built an altar and called the place God of the house of God (El-Bethel). See Gen. 35:7; Gen. 31:46-47; Gen. 22:14; Gen. 16:14; Gen. 29:18-19.

21.

What did Moses prophesy about Amalek? (Exo. 17:16)

Very literally translated, Exo. 17:16 says.

For (because) a hand upon (or against) the throne of Jah; War for Jehovah with Amalek from generation, generation.
To us this seems to say simply that because the hand (or power) of Amalek was lifted against the throne of Yah, or Jehovah, Jehovah would have war with Amalek through every generation. The expression, Gods throne implies His kingdom, which included His people Israel.

The verse is confessedly difficult, and anyone acquainted with it knows that there are several interpretations of it.
The first difficulty is this: Whose hand is referred to in the phrase A hand upon the throne ?

(1) Is it Gods hand upon the throne? Some understand it this way, and take the verse to mean, Jah hath sworn (with his hand upon his throne), Jehovah will have war. . . . As we take an oath with our hand upon a Bible, so Jehovah makes an oath with his hand upon his throne. To us this seems a poor interpretation. Jehovah can swear by nothing greater than Himself (Heb. 6:13). Why should it strengthen His oath to lay his hand upon his throne? Furthermore, we have no other examples of Gods taking an oath in this manner.

(2) Is it the hand of Israel (or Moses)? This view would give the meaning that Israel lifted up its hand toward the throne of God in heaven, in cooperation with Gods war against Amalek. This view is more acceptable. It does leave unanswered the question as to why there should be a shift between Israels declaration in the first line of the prophecy, and Gods declaration in the second line.

(3) Is it the hand of Amalek? We prefer this view. It makes clear why Jehovah decreed war against Amalek from generation to generation. (To adopt this view we must assume that the preposition al means against. This is a common meaning for it, as in Eze. 5:8, although it usually means on, or upon, or above, etc.)

(4) Could the hand refer to the altar just built by Moses? The Hebrew word for hand (yad) also means monument. According to this view, the altar was a monument (or hand) to Jehovahs throne, or rule, which had been challenged by Amalek.

Another difficulty is in the word translated throne (Heb., kes). This is an unusual spelling for throne, which is usually kise. Cassuto thinks that kes means a plan or reckoning, and thinks that it refers to the Lords plan to blot out Amaleks memory. This interpretation makes the first part of the quotation difficult to understand.

Other interpreters propose altering the spelling of throne (kes) to the word for banner (nes), and thus making it refer back to the banner of the LORD mentioned in Exo. 17:15. R.S. V. accepts this conjectural change, and translates the passage A hand upon the banner of the LORD. We feel that the verse makes good sense without making changes in the Hebrew text that have no support in the ancient manuscripts.

Even the translators of the Greek O.T. seem to have had difficulty with Exo. 17:16. The Greek reads, For with a secret hand the LORD wages war upon Amalek from generation to generation. There was surely nothing secret about the way the LORD fought with Amalek!

The general idea that the Lord was going to fight Amalek always is clear from the verse. The exact wording for a translation remains a problem.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XVII.
THE MURMURING AT REPHIDIM AND THE FIGHT WITH AMALEK.

(1) The children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin.The route by which Rephidim was reached is very uncertain. From El Markha there are three modes of reaching the Wady Feiran, where Rephidim is placed by most critics. One route (the shortest) is from the northern part of El Markha by Wady Shellal and Wady Magharah, where there was an important Egyptian settlement. This the Israelites would probably have avoided. Another, from the central part of El Markha, leads through the Wady Seih Sidreh to Magharah, and would, therefore, have been equally inconvenient. The third is circuitous, but has the advantage of being very open, and therefore suitable for a vast host. It passes through the whole of El Markha, and then, skirting the mountain, enters Wady Feiran at its south-western extremity. The probability seems on the whole to be that the Israelites pursued this last route.

After their journeys.We find from Num. 33:12-13, that Rephidim was reached from the wilderness of Sin by three journeysfrom Sin to Dophkah, from Dophkah to Alush, and from Alusb to Rephidim. The distance by the route which we have supposed the Israelites to have taken is about fifty miles.

Rephidim means rests, or resting-places, and is an appropriate name for the central part of the Wady Feiranthe most fertile spot in the whole peninsula, where there is usually abundant water, rich vegetation, and numerous palm-trees. (Lepsius, Tour from Thebes to Sinai, pp. 21, 37; Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 40, 41.) According to Dean Stanley, the oldest known tradition of the peninsula identifies Rephidim with Paranthe seat of an early bishopricundoubtedly the same word with Feiran.

There was no water.Though Feiran is usually watered by a copious stream, there have been occasions when the brook has been dried up. Graul found it dry in March, 1858. (Stanley, p. 40, Note 3.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

MARCH TO REPHIDIM WANT OF WATER, Exo 17:1-7.

1. From the wilderness of Sin The plain of Murkha . See Introductory Note, (1,) on chapter 16 .

After their journeys Or, rather, breaking up places stations in the desert implying that there were stations between Sin and Rephidim . Two of these, Alush and Dophkah, mentioned in Num 33:12-14, are not as yet identified with any known localities, but were probably in Wady Feiran .

According to the commandment of the Lord Literally, the mouth of Jehovah, who regulated their halting places by the pillar of cloud . Moses had lived forty years in this wilderness, and must have had much knowledge concerning its thoroughfares, springs, and oases, which would be of the highest value to him in conducting Israel . How much of this guidance was in this way natural, and how much supernatural, it is impossible to determine .

Rephidim The last station mentioned before the “Desert of Sinai,” though other halting-places may have intervened . Here their progress was contested by the Amalekites . In Wady Feiran, where now we suppose the main body of Israel to have been, we find precisely such a spot as would be certain to be held by a tribe of the desert, and where they would be likely to dispute the passage of this great thoroughfare through their territory. At the northern base of Mount Serbal is a large fertile tract, “the paradise of the Bedouin,” with springs and palm groves, extending for miles along the valley, where, if anywhere in the whole peninsula, the Amalekites would be encamped, holding the wells, and cutting off the advance of an invading host. Israel was thus obliged to halt in a dry part of the wady, before reaching the oasis, and was not able to get to the springs. Thus there was no water for the people to drink. All the members of the “Sinai Expedition,” except Mr. Holland, agree in identifying this spot with Rephidim. Holland locates it farther along, at a pass leading into Wady es Sheikh. A rocky hill, from six to seven hundred feet high, overlooks this palm grove from the northern side of the valley, called Jebel (Mount) Tahuneh. On this hill, in the early Christian ages, stood a church and a bishop’s residence, while a settlement called Paran, whose name survives in the modern Feiran, clustered among the palms below. The walls of an ancient convent still stand on a mound in front of this hill, originally built of dressed sandstone, but repaired with rude stones from Serbal. Stanley says that “the oldest known tradition of the peninsula is, that Rephidim is the same as Paran.” If so, this hill, Jebel Tahuneh, is without doubt the one on which Moses prayed during the conflict with Amalek. (Palmer’s Desert of the Exodus, pp. 158, 276.)

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Water From the Rock ( Exo 17:1-7 ).

The children of Israel leave the wilderness of Sinai and encamp in Rephidim. Its site is uncertain. There they find themselves without water. Considering the continual shortage of water in the wilderness when they were not at oases or wells, a situation which they must have become used to, this comment must be taken to mean that they had reached a desperate state. Their mouths were parched, their water skins were dry, they were dehydrating and they saw no hope of finding water. And once again they murmur. And they turn to Moses their only hope. Behind all their belligerence lies the confidence that they have that Moses can somehow do something. Their only hope lay in deliverance from Yahweh.

Moses is therefore told to take the elders of Israel with him to a place which Yahweh will show him, and then Yahweh will stand before them on the rock in Horeb and when he smites the rock the water will flood out so that all may drink. All we are then told is that Moses did so. But we note that the emphasis is not on the provision of water but on the fact that the people tempted God, asking whether He was among them or not.

So the children of Israel have now been tested by water three times. Firstly after their first three days when there was no water (Exo 15:22), secondly at Marah, where it was bitter (Exo 15:23), and now here at Rephidim, where there was again none. Yahweh’s testings are always complete. Note that the people first ‘strove with Moses’ (Exo 17:2), and then ‘murmured’ against Moses (Exo 17:3). It would appear that the situation lasted for some time and that the people were getting more and more belligerent (Exo 17:4).

a They journey by stages to Rephidim where there is no water, and the people wrangle with Moses and ask him to give them water, at which Moses asks, ‘why do you wrangle with me? Why do you put Yahweh to the test?’ (Exo 17:1-2).

b The people thirst for water and murmur against Moses saying, ‘Why have you brought us from Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?’ (Exo 17:3).

c Moses cries to Yahweh and asks what he must do, as the people are ready to stone him (Exo 17:4).

d Yahweh tells him to pass on before the people with the elders of Israel and the staff with which he smote the river (the Reed Sea) and go forward (Exo 17:5 a).

c For Yahweh will stand on the rock in Horeb, and Moses must smite the rock, and then water will come out that the people might drink (Exo 17:5 b).

b ‘Moses did so’, that is, he obediently smites the rock in the sight of the elders of Israel and water comes out (Exo 17:5 c).

a And he call the name of the place Massah (‘testing’) and Meribah (‘striving’) because of their striving, and because they had tempted Yahweh asking whether He was with them or not (Exo 17:7).

Note in ‘a’ that the people wrangle with Moses and Moses asks why they put Yahweh to the test, while in the parallel he names the place Massah and Meribah because that is what they people did. In ‘b’ there is a contrast between a disobedient people crying out in anger and distress, certain that they will die, and the confident Moses doing what Yahweh has commanded him which results in life-giving water for the people (assumed from the narrative). In ‘c’ Moses cries to Yahweh and in the parallel Yahweh answers him. Instead of stoning him, they will drink. Central to the narrative is that Moses goes forward into the barren wilderness, taking the unbelieving elders of Israel, and the mighty staff with which the waters of the Reed Sea had been parted. On the one hand is fear on the other is power. In this will the whole problem be rectified.

Exo 17:1

‘And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin by their stages according to the commandment of Yahweh, and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink.’

The journey towards Sinai continued. Prior to reaching Rephidim they passed through Dophkah (possibly meaning ‘smeltery’, a reminder of the copper workings found in a number of places in South-central Sinai) and Alush (Num 33:12-13). Neither can be specifically identified. And then they reached Rephidim. A regular feature of such a wilderness journey is shortage of water, especially for so large a group. Thus in order to be mentioned the situation here must have become desperate. Their waterskins were empty and their mouths were parched. It is not said at this stage that their cattle and sheep needed water. They could survive far longer without it.

“Rephidim.” The site of Rephidim is not certain although the Wadi Refayid in south west Sinai has been suggested. The fact that these sites are unidentifiable is a striking feature of their accuracy. Had a later writer invented the journey the places would have been identifiable.

However Exo 17:6 speaks of ‘the rock in Horeb’ to which the elders go from Rephidim. It is thus fairly close to Mount Sinai (Horeb and Mount Sinai are almost interchangeable terms, although the former refers to a slightly wider area). Compare how Exo 18:5 describes being ‘at the mount of God’, that is Mount Sinai

Exo 17:2-3

‘For this reason the people strove with Moss and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you strive with me? Why do you put Yahweh to the test?” And the people thirsted for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”

Because their situation was getting desperate the people came to Moses in their desperation, crying out for water. But Moses too was parched and thirsty, yet he struggled on with confidence in Yahweh. Thus he challenged them as to their lack of faith. They too should share his confidence.

“Why do you strive with me?” The word means ‘to wrangle, to engage in controversy’. It was clear that they were in a very angry mood, even ready to attack him (Exo 17:4) and he challenged what they were intending to do in order to diffuse the situation. Why were they doing it? he asked. The situation was not his fault. It was a consequence of desert journeying. They knew the position as well as he did and he possibly felt that they should have shown the same resilience as he did.

“Why do you put Yahweh to the test?” But worse he pointed out to them that what they were really doing was challenging Yahweh. They should have been continuing on in confident faith waiting for Yahweh to act on their behalf, not blaming His representative. It was Yahweh that they were really confronting. Let them remember with Whom they were dealing. Compare Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4. There Yahweh had ‘proved’ them, now they were ‘proving’ Yahweh They had clearly not learned their lesson from those incidents.

“And the people murmured against Moses.” The controversy has now resulted in incipient rebellion. Their feeling are growing stronger.

“And the people thirsted for water.” The repetition shows that the shortage continued and grew worse. There they were in that excessively hot, barren place with water supplies run out. Their children and cattle were crying out for water, and in their desperation they were beginning to feel that death was inevitable (compare Exo 16:3; Num 16:13). And they accused him of being responsible for it. If he had not brought them out of Egypt they would never have been in this situation. They forgot the joy they had had in their deliverance. What good was that if they now died of thirst?

Exo 17:4

‘And Moses cried to Yahweh saying, “What shall I do to this people. They are almost ready to stone me?”

Moses himself was getting desperate, not at the shortage of water but because of the angry belligerence of the people. And he cried to Yahweh for help, possibly in the Tent where the covenant tablets of his fathers were held, or in front of the cloud which represented the presence of God.

Exo 17:5

‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, and take with you the elders of Israel. And take in your hand the staff with which you smote the Nile, and go. Behold I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will smite the rock and water will come out of it so that the people might drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.’

Yahweh answers Moses. This time Moses must take not only Aaron, but also all the elders of Israel. They too must now become involved in the finding of solutions that they might learn to trust in Yahweh. Note that on the one hand he has with him the weak and trembling elders, and on the other the mighty staff of God. The contrast is striking. On the one hand fears, on the other the perfect answer. But only Moses was aware of it.

“Take in your hand the staff with which you smote the Nile.” There the staff made the water undrinkable. Now it was to be used to provide drinkable water. It was not just a staff of judgment but one of mercy to those who followed Yahweh. The staff was the symbol of Moses’ authority and its use therefore confirmed his position before the elders and the people. Yahweh is here revealed as the great controller of waters.

“I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb.” This would seem to have been a rock reasonably well known to Moses from his previous time in the area, and he had possibly heard stories of water coming from the rock. We are probably to see here that the cloud will move over this famous rock to denote Yahweh’s presence. Horeb is closely connected with Mount Sinai, and to some extent equated with it. Thus they were to go close to Sinai.

And Yahweh would stand there on it. All the elders would see was a barren rock, but Moses would know that Yahweh was there. Although it may be that the cloud descended on it. Either way Horeb was to be the place of Yahweh’s blessing.

“And you will smite the rock and water will come out of it.” The limestone rocks in the area absorbed water and it has been known for water to come from such rocks when they are knocked. But in this case the particular rock must have been over a large spring in view of the amount of water that came from it.

The actual carrying out of his assignment is described in a sentence, ‘and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.’ The mentioning of the elders as witnesses suggests a recognition of the importance of having such witnesses to what happened, which suggests a contemporary narrative. They would inform the people of all that had happened.

Notice that no attempt is made to bring out a miraculous element. What is considered important is not that it was a miracle but that it was Yahweh Who provided water for His people after they had challenged why He had done nothing and had put Him to the test. He had provided water at Marah (Exo 15:25), He had provided water at Elim (Exo 15:27), now He provided water at Horeb (Exo 17:6).

Exo 17:7

‘And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the striving of the children of Israel and because they tested out Yahweh saying,. “Is Yahweh among us or not?” ’

Moses was clearly very concerned at the behaviour of the people and he expressed this concern by applying two names to the area (he is not said to have done this in other places so it is clearly seen as significant). This was possibly because there were two prominent landmarks to which he gave each a name. One he called Massah, which means ‘tempting, proving’, and the other he called Meribah, ‘chiding, striving’. These would be forever a symbol and reminder of the behaviour of the people. They were to be a monument to rebellious doubt and lack of faith.

“Is Yahweh among us or not?” This was not the doubt of unbelief but the muttering of rebellion. They saw His cloud. But what use was that, they asked, if He did not provide for them? In other words they were disgruntled at the way He behaved.

Note for Christians.

Paul likens the rock from which the water flowed to Christ (1Co 10:4) Who provides His people with living water (Joh 4:10; Joh 4:14-15; Joh 7:37-38). He does not there mean that the rock was literally Christ (any more than baptismal water was from the Red Sea) but that the water from the rock came from the same source as the living water we receive through Christ, from the heart of God Himself. Thus just as the people of Israel drank water from the rock, so we can drink spiritual water from Him.

End of note.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Water from the Rock Exo 17:1-7 records the story of God providing the children of Israel water from the rock. During Israel’s encampment at Rephidim, which means “support,” Moses struck the rock and water poured forth to refresh the children of Israel. The striking of the rock represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and it symbolized the fact that God used men to crucify Jesus on the Cross (1Co 10:4). God, through man, brought about this act. God struck Jesus once for all that we might have living water. In Num 20:8 God told Moses to speak to the rock. When Moses struck the rock the second time out of anger (Num 20:11), it was a type of crucifying the Son of God a second time (Heb 6:6).
The water represents the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues that is available for every believer who desires more of God’s presence in his/her life. It also represents the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit that every child of God can experience by praying in tongues and worshipping the Lord (Eph 5:18-19). God sends His children the gift of speaking in tongues to support and strengthen the believer.
1Co 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
Num 20:11, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
Heb 6:6, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
Now man can speak to Jesus, call upon his name, so that we may have living water (eternal life).
Illustration – Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays of 1986, work was slow. Therefore, I spent extra time praying. One morning the Lord as I awoke, the Lord said to me, “You will never walk in victory in your life unless you spend two hours a day praying in tongues.” During this time, I had become concerned and was asking Him why my life lacked so much victory, peace and joy. So the Saturday after New Year’s day, while praying in tongues at the church altar, I was led to turn to Eph 6:10-18. Immediately the Lord showed me that I’d never have the total, abiding victory as a Christina unless I spend time daily, constantly praying in the spirit. I began doing this two hours a day then. And a heaviness lifted and peace and joy came from within, all day long.
Exo 17:1 Word Study on “Sin” Gesenius says the name “Sin” ( ) (H5512) means, “clay.” PTW says it means, “bush.”
Exo 17:1 Word Study on “Rephidim” Gesenius says the word “Rephidim” ( ) (H7508) means, “props, supports.” Strong says it means, “ballusters.” PTW says it means, “beds.” John Durham says it possibly means, “places of spreading out.” [76]
[76] John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), translation of Exodus 17:1.
Exo 17:6 “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb” – Word Study on “Horeb” Gesenius says the word “Horeb” ( ) (H2722) means, “dry, desert.” Strong says it means, “desolate.” PTW says it means, “desert.”
Exo 17:6 Comments – The rod of Moses was not only used to bring ten plagues upon Egypt and part the Red Sea, but it was used by God through Moses to strike the Rock.
Exo 17:6 Comments – Note that the same rock that was used to write the Ten Commandments was also used to produce the Living Water (1Co 10:4).
1Co 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
Exo 17:7 Word Study on “Massah” PTW says the name, “Massah” means “temptation.” See Deu 6:16, “Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.”
Exo 17:7 Word Study on “Meribah” Gesenius says the name “Meribah” ( ) (H4809) means, “strife, contention.” Strong and PTW says it means, “quarrel.”
Exo 17:7 “and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not” Comments – God had brought the ten plagues upon the land of Egypt while protecting the Israelites in the land of Goshen. He had brought them out with riches and gold. When the faced the Red Sea, the Lord has parted it and destroyed their enemies with the same waters. He had made the bitter waters sweet at Marah. In the wilderness of Sin God has given them quail and manna to eat. Now they ask if God is with them. This is evidence of a hardened heart towards God.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Exo 15:22 – Exo 18:27 The Journey to Mount Sinai Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 records Israel’s journey from the shores of the Red Sea to Mount Sinai. This journey contains symbolisms of the Christian’s early journey immediately after water baptism as God divinely provides for his needs, guiding him to a place of greater spiritual maturity through the knowledge of His Word.
1. Israel Encamps at Marah ( Exo 15:22-26 ) Exo 15:22-27 records Israel’s journey immediately after their deliverance from the Egyptian army in the crossing of the Red Sea. This pericope takes the children of Israel from the shores of the Red Sea to Elim.
Israel’s first test of faith takes place at Marah, which means “bitter,” located in the Wilderness of Shur (meaning “journey”) where they become thirsty after three days of following the Lord through the wilderness. In the midst of their labours, they come to a spring of water, but find the waters bitter. Moses cuts down a tree and throws it into the water to make it sweet. The Lord then gives them a statute to obey His Word as an opportunity for them to prove their love and devotion towards Him. God had blessed the Israelites with prosperity and health as they departed Egypt. His statute promised them that if they would obey God’s Word, they would be able to walk in the blessings continually. This event could symbolize the first trial that a child of God experiences in which he must put his faith in obedience to God’s Word. Their choices would make life bitter or sweet. God gave them the choice. As God’s children, the things of this world no longer have to be bitter, for in obedience to Christ Jesus, He makes everything sweet. From the first day we believed in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, there is not a situation that we face alone. If we will seek the Lord, He will give us wisdom to deal with every difficult, bitter situation so that it becomes sweet, a blessing to us and others.
Illustration – The Lord spoke to me the night of 18-29 January 2005 and said, “The bitter and the sweet are all used by God to mould and shape your life.” This word came the same day that my sister-in-law Dyan was told by her Muslim “husband” called Nabal to leave her home and was only allowed to take one of her two children with her. It was “sweet” news for us that she has decided to leave this environment for the sake of her eternal salvation, but it is “bitter” news to know that her oldest child is being left behind. However, I know that God will work in her life in the midst of this heartache to draw her to Him and to work miracles for her as she learns to trust in Him. The following night the Lord spoke to me saying, “Be patient and you will see Me working in the midst of this situation.”
2. Israel Encamps at Elim ( Exo 15:27 ) The children of Israel found twelve springs and seventy palm trees when they encamped at Elim, which means, “trees.” In the Scriptures, trees can symbolize men, and leadership among men (Jdg 9:7-15), and wells are symbolic of the anointings of the Holy Spirit (Joh 7:38, 2Pe 2:17). These twelve springs may represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb and the seventy trees the first seventy disciples upon which the early Church in Jerusalem was founded in the upper room. This symbolizes the need for the new believer to join the body of Christ in order to continue his life of being refreshed by the Holy Spirit and walking in freedom and liberty from this world. It is in the local fellowship that a believer will find times of refreshing, in the midst of worship, the teaching of God’s Word, and genuine love from the brethren.
Jdg 9:8, “The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.”
Joh 7:38, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
2Pe 2:17, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.”
However, these twelve springs and seventy trees may better represent the times of refreshing that God provides each of His children. Along our spiritual journey, the Lord leads us in paths of rest and peace, as described in Psalms 23. These times of refreshing follow seasons of trials.
3. Israel Encamps in the Wilderness of Sin ( Exo 16:1-36 ) In the wilderness of Sin, which means, “bush,” the children of Israel are given manna from Heaven and quail to eat. The manna symbolizes the daily word that God speaks to every one of His children as a part of His fellowship with them. God speaks to His children each day if he will just take the time to listen. The quail represent the stronger meat that God can give to those who are mature in Christ (Heb 5:12-14).
Illustration – As a young Christian in 1980, the Lord gave me a dream in which I saw an old, wooden, screen door with the familiar, metal sign “Colonial is Good Bread” fastened to the center of this door. This sign became famous because it was found on the wooden screen doors of so many country stores across the United States. The makers of Colonial Bread invested in an advertising campaign using these signs because they wanted everyone to buy a loaf of their bread when they entered the grocery store. This metal sign was not just fastened in the center of the screen door as a push plate to prevent damaging the screen; the message on this sign became embedded into the mind of every customer that entered the store to buy groceries. The Colonial Bread Company wanted everyone to partake of their bread. The unique aspect of this dream is that the metal sign on this old, wooden screen door did not read, “Colonial is Good Bread,” but rather, “The Bread of Life.” As a young Christian I interpreted this dream to mean that the Lord wanted me to open this door in my spiritual journey and partake of that bread that comes from heaven. He wanted me to read and study His Holy Word diligently, and on a daily basis.
4. The Water from the Rock ( Exo 17:1-7 ) Exo 17:1-7 records the story of God providing the children of Israel water from the rock. During Israel’s encampment at Rephidim, which means “support,” Moses struck the rock and water poured forth to refresh the children of Israel. The striking of the rock represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and it symbolized the fact that God used men to crucify Jesus on the Cross (1Co 10:4). God, through man, brought about this act. God struck Jesus once for all that we might have living water. In Num 20:8 God told Moses to speak to the rock. When Moses struck the rock the second time out of anger (Num 20:11), it was a type of crucifying the Son of God a second time (Heb 6:6).
The water represents the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues that is available for every believer who desires more of God’s presence in his/her life. It also represents the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit that every child of God can experience by praying in tongues and worshipping the Lord (Eph 5:18-19). God sends His children the gift of speaking in tongues to support and strengthen the believer.
1Co 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
Num 20:11, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
Heb 6:6, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
Now man can speak to Jesus, call upon his name, so that we may have living water (eternal life).
Illustration – Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays of 1986, work was slow. Therefore, I spent extra time praying. One morning the Lord as I awoke, the Lord said to me, “You will never walk in victory in your life unless you spend two hours a day praying in tongues.” During this time, I had become concerned and was asking Him why my life lacked so much victory, peace and joy. So the Saturday after New Year’s day, while praying in tongues at the church altar, I was led to turn to Eph 6:10-18. Immediately the Lord showed me that I would never have the total, abiding victory as a Christina unless I spend time daily, constantly praying in the spirit. I began doing this two hours a day then. And a heaviness lifted and peace and joy came from within, all day long.
5. Israel’s Battle with the Amalekites ( Exo 17:8-16 ) Exo 17:8-16 records the story of Israel’s first battle, which took place at their encampment of Rephidim with the Amalekites. The Lord allowed the children of Israel to be refreshed with a continual source of fresh water from the rock that Moses struck (Exo 17:1-7) prior to their attack. The water of Marah was symbolic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. The water from the rock struck by Moses is symbolic of the continual filling of the Holy Spirit through a lifestyle of praying in the Spirit (Eph 5:18).
Eph 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;”
The Amalekites could symbolize the flesh or the demonic realm that comes against the children of God on their spiritual journey. The lifting up of the rod of God in the hands of Moses could represent a believer’s declaration of the name of Jesus in taking dominion over the powers of darkness. As Moses held up the rod of God, which symbolizes the authority of the name of Jesus, the enemy was defeated. God’s children must learn to use the name of Jesus when Satan attacks the body of Christ. Had Israel remained in Egyptian bondage, the Amalekites would not have attacked them. Neither would Satan attack God’s children if they would return back into the world. The Lord once spoke to a friend of mine, saying, “A king does not fight against a city he has already conquered.”
Illustration The Lord gave me a three-part dream, which opened my eyes and taught me how to exercise the authority of the name of Jesus in every area of my life. I had learned how to pray and make my requests to the Lord known using Jesus’ name. Now, I was going to learn to use His name to take authority over Satan. The first part of the dream was a vision of a pastor friend of mine sitting in his house peacefully reading his Bible in a chair. I still remember how peaceful and tranquil the scene appeared. Then, the Lord spoke these words to me, “There is peace in a home when there is dominion in that home.” Finally, the Lord brought the words “Luk 11:21 ” to my mind. I had no idea how that verse read nor if it applied to the dream. I woke up and read this passage, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.” I knew immediately that this dream was from God. Through the next few months, I began to study the Bible and learn how to use the name of Jesus to set my household at peace. (4 July 1988)
6. Moses Honours Jethro ( Exo 18:1-12 ) In Exo 18:1-12 Moses encamps at Mount Sinai, while the children of Israel are still at Rephidim. While Moses was encamped at the mountain of God, he honours Jethro, his father-in-law. Jethro offers the sacrifice and they eat together. Jethro’s visit to Moses could symbolize Jesus Christ as He offers His blood at the Father’s throne. Perhaps the fact that he went ahead of the encampment symbolizes that fact that Jesus went before us to God’s throne to offer His atoning sacrifice in our behalf. There he met his father-in-law, who made a sacrifice unto God. This may symbolize God the Father receiving Jesus’ sacrifice, which was actually a sacrifice that God gave to mankind for his salvation.
7. Jethro Advises Moses ( Exo 18:13-27 ) – Exo 18:13-27 records the incident in which Jethro advises Moses on how to delegate judges to assist him in judging the matters of the people. After Moses honours Jethro, his father-in-law gives Moses wisdom regarding organizing leadership among the children of Israel so that all of them can receive wisdom and ministry. This event symbolizes High Priesthood of Jesus Christ, seen in Jethro’s comment to Moses, “You be for the people an advocate before God, and you bring the problems to God.” [71] (Exo 18:19). The ordaining by Moses of leaders over the people represents church order and service. Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand to judge His church, while sending forth the Holy Spirit to anoint the five-fold ministry and give the gifts of the Spirit to the body of Christ (Eph 4:8-13). If a child of God will submit himself to the leadership of a local fellowship, he will be able to experience the gifts and anointings of the Holy Spirit and join in the ministry of helps.
[71] Translation by John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), translation of Exodus 18:19.
8. Indoctrination ( Exo 20:1 to Exo 24:8 ) – The next phase of a believer’s life after regeneration is called indoctrination. The giving of the Law and statutes (Exo 20:1 to Exo 24:8) represents this phase in the Christian life. It is important to note that God guided them to Mount Sinai and throughout their entire forty-year wilderness journey with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21). This divine guidance symbolized the fact that every child of God must learn to be led by the Holy Spirit throughout his spiritual journey.
Exo 13:21, “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:”
Motifs found within Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 – John Durham notes a number of contrasts within this passage of Scripture. (a) Israel’s Need verses God’s Abundance Supply The children of Israel entered the wilderness journey totally dependent upon God’s provision for their every need. Time and again God reveals Himself as having more than enough to supply their needs. (b) Thirst verses Abundance of Water This passage of Scripture opens with Israel in desperate need of water, only to find bitter water; and the passage closes with Israel encamped at Elim, where there was an abundance of water and trees. Understanding that God was leading them with a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21-22), it is easy to conclude that God was testing His children. (c) Israel’s Grumbling verses God’s Loving Patience An underlying motif found in Israel’s forty-year wilderness journey is Israel’s constant grumbling and complaining, beginning in this passage, being met with God’s continual intervention to meet their need. (d) Health verses Sickness – Another contrast is made between Israel’s promise of health and healing against the backdrop of the Ten Plagues of Egypt (Exo 15:26). (e) Disorder verses Order The multitude of Israelites began this journey in an awkward manner, in their encampment, in their travelling, in their lifestyles, so that Moses was overwhelmed with their problems. God sends Jethro with the wisdom to begin setting their lives in order. These contrasts reveal that God was gradually guiding them into an orderly lifestyle of faith and obedience to Him, a lifestyle that would meet their daily needs. However, the multitude of the Israelites were grumbling against change because it clashed with their old habits and customs. [72]
[72] John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), explanation of Exodus 5:22-27.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Murmuring at Massah and Meribah
v. 1. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, after several days’ marching, on each of which they encamped for the night, Num 33:12, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim, on the boundary of the wilderness of Sinai; and there was no water for the people to drink.
v. 2. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. They deliberately challenged Moses for an explanation; they started a quarrel, they wrangled. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? The second question was the explanation of the first, for in attacking Moses the people rebelled against the Lord and provoked Him to anger.
v. 3. And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? So this was the substance of their complaint, of their doubt as to the merciful presence of the Lord.
v. 4. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. They held Moses responsible for the impending ruin, and assumed such an ugly attitude as to cause Moses to fear the worst.
v. 5. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, the shepherd’s staff which was his symbol of authority, take in thine hand and go. The solemn departure of Moses and the elders from the camp was to draw the attention of the entire army to their actions.
v. 6. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, whose foot-hills extended down to the neighborhood of the camp; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. God assured Moses of His presence and definitely promised him a miracle. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. They were witnesses to the miracle and could testify before the people as to the manner in which water had been produced.
v. 7. And he called the name of the place Massah (temptation) and Meribah (strife) because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? So that had been their real transgression, the doubts as to the presence of the Lord with their army, the pillar of cloud and of fire apparently not being sufficient any more to uphold their faith. The events here narrated were considered an example of warning throughout the time of the Old Testament as well as in the New, Psa 95:8; Heb 4:9. And as it was Christ who journeyed with His people at that time and strengthened the faith of those who noted His presence in the miracle, so it is He who gives us at all times the true spiritual water to quench the thirst of our souls.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION
THE SECOND MUMURING FOR WATER. When the Israelites had come to Rephidim which was probably in the Wady Feiran, near its junction with the Wady Esh-Sheikh, complaint arose, not, as at Marah (Exo 15:23), that there was no drinkable water, but that there was no water at all. Water had been expected, and consequently no supply had been brought; but none was found. Violent murmurs arose, and the people were ready to stone their leader (Exo 17:4), who had, they considered, brought them into the difficulty. As usual, Moses took his grief to God, and laid it before him, with the result that God gave miraculous relief. Moses was bidden to take his rod, and go with the elders to a particular rock known as “the rock in Horeb” (Exo 17:6), and there strike the rock, and water would flow forth. This he did, and a copious stream welled out, which furnished abundant drink to the whole multitude. In remembrance of the murmuring, he called the place Massah (trial) and Meribah (quarrel).
Exo 17:1
From the wilderness of Sin. See the comment on Exo 16:1. The sandy coast tract (El Murka) was probably quitted in lat. 28 42′ nearly, and the Wady Feiran entered on at its south-western extremity. Two stations, Dophkah and Alush, lay between the Sin wilderness and Rephidim, as we learn from Num 33:12, Num 33:13. It is impossible to locate these places with exactness. After their journeys. The three stagesfrom Sin to Dophkah, from Dophkah to Alush, and from Alush to Rephidimseem to be alluded to. According to the commandment of the Lord. Literally, “at the mouth of Jehovah,” i.e. as God ordered them. The command was signified by the movement of the “pillar of the cloud.” And pitched in Rephidim. The word Rephidim signifies “resting places,” and “is the natural name for the paradise of the Bedouins in the palm-grove where the church and palace of the bishops of Paran formerly stood “. There was no water. The Wady Feiran is watered ordinarily by a copious stream; but at times the brook is dry.
Exo 17:2
The people did chide. I.e. “quarrelled,” made open murmurs and complaintas before frequently (Exo 14:11, Exo 14:12; Exo 15:24; Exo 16:2, Exo 16:3). Give us water. As Moses had already given them flesh (the quails) and bread (the manna), so it perhaps seemed to the people easy that he should give them such a common thing as water. Stanley notices that the wadys suggest the idea of water, and make its absence the more intolerablethey are “exactly like rivers,” with “torrent bed, and banks, and clefts in the rock for tributary streams, and at times even rushes and shrubs fringing their course”signs of “water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink.” Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? To “tempt the Lord” is to try his patience by want of faith, to arouse his anger, to provoke him to punish us. It was the special sin of the Israelites during the whole period of their sojourn in the wilderness. They “tempted and provoked the most high God” (Psa 78:56); “provoked him to anger with their inventions” (Psa 106:29), “murmured in their tents” (Psa 106:25), “provoked him at the sea” (Psa 106:7), “tempted him in the desert” (Psa 106:14). God’s long-suffering, notwithstanding all, is simply amazing!
Exo 17:3
The people thirsted there for water. There is probably no physical affliction comparable to intense thirst. His thirst was the only agony which drew from the Son of Man an acknowledgment of physical suffering, in the words “I thirst.” Descriptions of thirst in open boats at sea are among the most painful of the records of afflicted humanity. Thirst in the desert can scarcely be less horrible. The people murmured and said When the worst comes on men, if they are alone, they bear it silently; but if they can find a scapegoat, they murmur. To lay the blame of the situation on another is a huge satisfaction to the ordinary human mind, which shrinks from responsibility, and would fain shift the burthen on some one else. To kill us. Compare Exo 14:11, Exo 16:3. The circumstances of their life in the wilderness were such, that, until accustomed to them, the people thought that, at each step, they must perish. It may be freely admitted, that without continual miraculous aid this would have been the natural denouement. And our cattle. It is interesting to see that the “cattle” still survived, and were regarded as of great importance. How far they served as a secondary head of subsistance to the people during the 40 years, is a point not yet sufficiently elaborated.
Exo 17:4
And Moses cried unto the Lord. It is one of the most prominent traits of the character of Moses, that, at the occurrence of a difficulty, he always carries it straight to God. (See Exo 15:25; Exo 24:15; Exo 32:30; Exo 33:8; Num 11:2,Num 11:11; Num 12:11; Num 14:13-19, etc.) They be almost ready to stone me. This is the first which we hear of stoning as a punishment. It is naturally one of the easiest modes of wreaking popular vengeance on an obnoxious individual, and was known to the Greeks as early as the time of the Persian war (Herod. 9.5), to the Macedonians (Q. Curt. Vit. Alex. 6.11, 38), and others. There is, however, no trace of it among the Egyptians.
Exo 17:5
Go on before the people. “Leave the people,” i.e; “where they are, in Rephidim, and go on in front of them, with some of the elders as witnesses, that the miracle may be sufficiently attested.” On the other occasion, when water was brought forth out of the rock (Num 20:8-11), it was done in the presence of the people. Perhaps now there was a real danger of their stoning Moses, had he not quitted them. Thy rod with which thou smotest the river. See above, Exo 7:20.
Exo 17:6
Behold, I will stand before thee there. A visible Divine appearance seems to be intended, which would guide Moses to the exact place where he should strike. The rock in Horeb must have been a remarkable object, already known to Moses during the time that he dwelt in the Sinai-Horeb region; but its exact locality cannot be pointed out. It cannot, however, have been very far distant from Rephidim. (See Exo 17:8.)
Exo 17:7
He called the name of the place Massah. Massah is from the root nasah, “to try,” or “tempt,” and means “trial” or “temptation.” Meribah is from rub, “to chide, quarrel,” and means “contention, chiding, strife.” Moses gave the same name to the place near Kadesh, where water was once more brought out of the rock, near the end of the wanderings. (See Num 20:13; Deu 32:51; Psa 106:32.)
HOMILETICS
Exo 17:1-7
Water out of the rock.
“They did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ” (1Co 10:4). When man is at his last gasp, perishing for lack of what he sorely needs, then God lavishes his mercies. All previous trials were as nothing compared with that which befel Israel at Rephidim. Lips parched, throats dry, bodies fevered with heat, hearts expectant and buoyed up with hope till the close of the day, then suddenly despairingthey lay on the arid soil around the ill-named “resting-places,” maddened, furious, desperate. Without water, they must perish in the course of a few hoursthey, “and their children” (Exo 17:3)the little tender innocents, a while ago so gay and sprightly and joyous, now drooping, listless, voiceless. What wonder that some hearts were stirred with fury against Moses, that some hands clutched stones, and were ready to launch them at their leader’s head? Men in such straits are often not masters of themselves, and scarcely answerable for the thoughts they think or the acts they do. But the greater the need, the richer the manifestation of God’s mercy. At God’s word, Moses strikes the rock; and the outcome is an abundant copious streamaye, “rivers of living water!” All were free to drink at oncemen, women, little children, cattle, assesall could take without stint, satiate themselves, drink of the water of life freely. And the water “followed them.” From Rephidim, in the second year, to Kadesh, in the thirty-eighth year of the wanderings, there is no more complaint of want of water at any time, no need apparently of any new and distinct miracle.
And we too have WATER OUT OF THE ROCK, which is
1. Miraculous;
2. Abounding;
3. Life–giving.
1. Miraculous. For our Rock is Christ himselfnot the type, not the shadow, but the reality. Christ himself, the true and only-begotten Son of God, makes himself to us a perpetual, abiding, exhaustless source of a constant living stream, from which we may drink continually. “If any man thirst,” he says, “let him come unto ME and drink” (Joh 7:37); and again”Ho, every man that thirsteth, ,come ye to the waters” (Isa 55:1). He “opens rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys”he “makes the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isa 41:18). As from his riven side, upon the Cross, blood and water flowed down in a mingled stream, so ever does he give us by a standing miracle his atoning blood to expiate our guilt, and his pure spiritual influences to cleanse our hearts and purify our souls. And the supply is
2. Abounding. The water that he gives, is in each man “a well of water, springing up into everlasting life” (Joh 4:14). It is given without let or stintfreely to “every one that thirsteth.” This is his promise”I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring” (Isa 44:8). Men have but to thirst for the living stream, to desire it, long for it, and he pours it forth. As in heaven, “a pure water of life, clear as crystal, proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:2), so even here there is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, abundant, copious, never-failingof which all may drink freely. And the draught is
3. Life-giving. However weak we are, however drooping, however near to death, once let us drink of the precious water that he gives, and we are saved. Death is foiled, the destroyer forced to release his prey, life springs up again within the heart; every nerve is invigorated; every fibre of our frame recovers its tone. True “water of life” is that stream which wells forth from the riven side of the Lamb. Christ is “our Life;” and in him, and through him we have life. The water that he gives us is “living water”for it is in truth the Spirit of him who is “the true God and the eternal life” (1Jn 5:20)who “hath life in himself.” Lord, evermore give us this “life!”
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 17:1-7
The water from the rock.
The Israelites pursued their journey to the mount of God. It was
1. By stages”after their journeys.” It is well to discipline the mind to look at life as a succession of stages. “Most people can bear one day’s evil; the thing that breaks one down is the trying to bear on one day the evil of two days, twenty days, a hundred days.”
2. According to God’s commandmentfollowing still the guiding cloud.
3. It brought them in due course to Rephidim, the scene of a new trial, and of a new theocratic mercy.
I. THE SITUATION. Its horrors can be better imagined than described.
1. The want of water. “There was no water for the people to drink” (Exo 17:1). Even where water was comparatively abundant, it would be a task of no small difficulty to supply the wants of so immense a multitude. Now they are conducted into a region where water absolutely fails them. The last drop in their water-skins is exhausted. There is a famine of the needful element. Scouts bring in the intelligence that the place is one of utter drought, without streams, wells, rivulets, oozing rocks, or any other means of renewing the supplies. Consternation sits on every face. Dismay is in every heart.
2. The consequent thirst. “And the people thirsted there for water” (Exo 17:3). The pangs of unallayed thirst constitute an intolerable torture. Hunger is attended by gnawings and tearings in one organ of the bodythat concerned in the reception of food. But thirst possesses the whole being. It mounts to the brain. It burns and rages like fever in the blood. Draining the body of its juices, it causes every nerve to throb with acute suffering. “Heart and flesh” cry out for the boon of water. It has been remarked that “I thirst” was the only expression of bodily suffering wrung from our Lord upon the cross.
3. The spiritual analogue. God brought the people into a situation in which they not only experienced acute thirst, but were made to feel that in their sore strait, nature could do nothing for them. If left to the resources of nature, they must inevitably perish. They cried for water, but it was not to be had. The depth said, It is not in me. The thirsty sand said, It is not in me. The sky that was as brass above them said, It is not in me. The dry, dead rocks around said, It is not in us. From no quarter could they extract so much as a drop of the precious liquid. The analogue to this is the condition of the spirit which has become awakened to the emptiness and unsatisfyingness of the world around it, of the finite generally; which feels the need of a higher life than the world can give it. In the renewed nature, it becomes definitively the thirst for God, for the living God, for his love, his favour, for knowledge of him, for participation in his life (Psa 42:1, Psa 42:2; Psa 63:1-3). Under conviction of sin, it is specially the thirst for pardon and holiness (Psa 51:1-19.; Psa 119:41, Psa 119:81,Psa 119:123, Psa 119:166, ] 74). By bestowing on the Israelites supernatural water to quench their thirst, God declared at the same time his ability and willingness to supply these higher wants of the soul; nay, held out in type the promise of this gift. This is not a far-fetched application of the incident. The word spoken to the Israelites at Marah, “I am Jehovah that healeth thee” (Exo 15:26), gave them a key to the interpretation of this whole series of miraculous facts. We cannot say to what extent they used it; but the key was there. Just as at Marah, the healing of the waters was a symbol of the truth that Jehovah would be their healer in every sphere of their existence; as the gift of manna was the type and pledge of the gift of “that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” (Joh 6:27); so, in the case before us, was the water from the rock, this supernatural water, an emblem and token of a supply in God for the satisfaction of spiritual thirst, and a pledge to his people that this supply would actually be made available for their wants.
II. THE CHIDING (Exo 17:1-5). The behaviour of the people (making all allowance for their sore necessity) showed how little they had profited by past experiences of God’s kindness.
1. They chided with Moses. This is, they blamed, rebuked, reproved, reproached him for having brought them into this unhappy situation. How unreasonable was this, to chide with Moses, when they knew that in every step by which he had led them, Moses had only done God’s bidding. It was God’s arrangements they were quarrelling with, not the arrangements of Moses. But it is usually in this indirect way that murmuring against God, and rebellion against his will are carried on. Because of this chiding of the people, the place was called Meribah (Exo 17:7).
2. They asked Moses for the impossible. They said, “Give us water to drink” (Exo 17:2). Here was further unreasonableness. They knew very well that Moses could not give them water. There was none to give. Probably they meant that he should supply their wants by miracle. If so, the spirit of their demand was wholly unbecoming.
(1) They addresed themselves to Moses, not to God. They ought to have addressed themselves to God, but they did not.
(2) They did not in a becoming manner ask for the water, but violently demanded it.
(3) The demand was made in a spirit of unbelief. This is evident from Exo 17:7“they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?” They did not believe that water could be provided for them.
3. They taunted Moses with design to kill them. This was a further disclosure of their unbelief. Twice, on previous occasions, they had made the same complaint, ostensibly against Moses, but really against God (Exo 14:11; Exo 16:3), and twice had God shown them how unfounded were their ungenerous suspicions, lie had saved them from the Egyptians. He had supplied them with bread. Could they not now trust him to supply them with water? Perhaps, as a writer has remarked, had the combination of circumstances been exactly the same as before, their hearts would not have failed them. “But when are combinations of circumstances exactly the same? and when the new combination arises, the old faith is apt to fail”. This, however, was part of the design, to reveal the Israelites to themselves, and show them the strength of this “evil heart of unbelief” within them, which was ever prompting them anew to depart from the living God (Heb 3:12). We have equal need to beware of its operations in ourselves.
4. They were like to stone Moses. Moses speaks, in Exo 17:5, as one driven to his wits’ end by the unreasonableness and violence of the mob. He did, however, the right thingbetook himself in his strait to God. There is perhaps no prayer, which in the discharge of public duties, servants of God are more frequently tempted to offer, or do offer with greater heartiness than this, that they “may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for all men have not faith” (2Th 3:2).
III. THE DELIVERANCE (Exo 17:5, Exo 17:6). God, as before, grants a supply for the people’s wants. By bringing streams out of the rock for them, and causing waters to run down like rivers (Psa 78:15, Psa 78:16; Isa 48:21), he showed how wanton and ungrateful had been their suspicions of him, and how foolishly they had limited his power. Notice
1. God‘s loving-kindness in this gift. This was very marked, when we remember how soon the people had forgotten previous mighty works.
(1) The water was given without chiding and rebuke. Save, indeed, as it was itself the most pointed of all rebukes of the unbelief of the murmurers. They had chided with Moses; but God, in return, does not chide with them. He is merciful to their unrighteousness, and seeks to overcome it by showering on them his undeserved benefits. He does not return them evil for evil, but seeks to overcome their evil with his good. It is the same loving-kindness which we see in the Gospel. God seeks to conquer us by love.
(2) The gift was plentiful. All scripture allusions to the miracle confirm this idea (Psa 78:20; Psa 105:41; Isa 48:21). The tradition was, that the waters continued to flow, and followed the Israelites wherever they went. The Rabbins had a fable that the rock itself, in some way, accompanied the people in their journeys. In a figure, or parabolically even this was true, for the real rock was God himself, whose presence and agency in the miracle is denoted by the words, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb” (Exo 17:6). It was probably in the parabolic sense that the Rabbins used the expression.
2. The manner of the gift. This is to be carefully noted.
(1) Elders were to be taken as witnesses of the transaction (Exo 17:5). This denoted that in what he did, God was looking beyond the immediate supply of the people’s bodily wants. The design was, of course, to secure for posterity a properly authenticated account of the miracle. The importance attached to evidence in this whole series of transactions is very marked (cf. Exo 4:1-10; Exo 7:9). A similar importance is attached to evidence in the law (Deu 17:6, Deu 17:7; Deu 19:15-21). This suggests to us how far we are, in believing scripture, from relying on “cunningly-devised fables” (2Pe 1:16). God took pains that his mighty works should not lack contemporary authentication. Christ, in like manner, took security for the transmission to posterity of a faithful account of his words and works, by appointing twelve apostles (Luk 24:48; Act 1:21, Act 1:22). What additional confidence all this inspires in the historic ground-work of our religion! The direction for the appointment of formal witnesses had no doubt in view the character of the miracle as a pledge and type of spiritual blessings. As myths, these miracles might still suggest to us certain spiritual ideas; but their value would be gone as Divine acts, positively pledging the Divine fulness for the supply of “all the need” of the children of faith.
(2) Moses was to work the miracle by means of the rod (Exo 17:5). The rod appears here as the symbol of the authority with which Moses was invested, and also as the vehicle of the Divine power. The personal character of Moses sinks in this miracle as nearly out of sight as possible. God stands before him on the rock, and is all in all in the cleaving of it, and giving of the water. God is everything, Moses nothing.
(3) The rock was to be smitten (Exo 17:6). The distinction made between this miracle and that at Kadesh in the 40th year (Num 20:7-12), where the rock was only to be spoken to, shows conclusively that the act of smiting was meant to be significant. The smiting was, first, a cleaving of the way for the passage of the waters, which otherwise would not have flowed, as contrasted, in the later miracle, with a renewal of what was practically the same supply. God would plainly have the people recognise a continuity in the supply of water at different-stages of the journey, the outward rock merging in the spiritual and invisible one from which the supply really came, and which was with them at all times and places (cf. l Corinthians Exo 10:4). But this is not the whole. The singular fact remains that the rock was to be smitten, and smitten with the rod wherewith “thou smotest the river.” In other words, the way was to be opened for the waters by an act of violence, the smiting here, as in the case of the river, almost necessarily suggesting judgment. If there were indeed in this any typical allusion to the actual mode in which living waters were to be given to the world, viz. by the smiting of the rock Christ, it must have remained an enigma till later prophecies, and ultimately the event itself, threw light upon it. There is, however, nothing extravagant in believing that this form was given of design to the transaction, that, when the truth was known, believing minds, reverting to this smitten rock, might find in it all the more apt and suggestive an emblem of the great facts of their redemption.
3. Its spiritual teaching. The rock points to Christ (1Co 10:4). The waters which flowed from it, accordingly, are to be taken, not simply as streams of literal refreshment for the Israelites, but spiritually, typically, symbolicallymay we not almost say sacramentally?as representative of spiritual blessings. So, in the above-cited passage, the apostle calls the water “spiritual drink,” even as the manna was “spiritual meat” (1Co 10:3, 1Co 10:4). See below. We may extend the figure, and think of Christ, in turn, smiting with his cross the hard rock of the human heart, and causing living waters to flow forth from it (cf. Joh 7:38). While this obvious lesson is taught in addition, that in providing and ministering spiritual refreshment to his people, God can, and will, break through the greatest outward hindrances and impediments (cf. Isa 35:6).
IV. TEMPTING GOD. “They tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exo 17:7). The peculiarity of this sin of Rephidim deserves to be carefully noted. Rephidim, it is true, is not the only instance of it; but it is the outstanding and typical one, and, as such, is frequently alluded to in Scripture (cf. Deu 6:16; Psa 95:8, Psa 95:9; Heb 3:8, Heb 3:9). The allusion in Psa 78:18, Psa 78:19“They tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” is to the incident in Num 11:1-35. Comparing the different scripture references to this sin of “tempting,” it will be found that both in the Old and New Testaments, it is invariably connected with the idea of proposing tests to God, of putting him in some way to the proof, of prescribing to him conditions of action, compliance or non-compliance with which is to settle the question of his continued right to our trust and obedience. It is the spirit which challenges God, and is even peremptory in its demand that he shall do as it requires, if, forsooth, he is not to fall in its esteem. It is, as in the gospels (Mat 16:1, etc.), the sign-seeking spirit, which, not satisfied with the ordinary evidences, demands exceptional ones, and lays down conditions on which belief in the revealed word is to be made to depend. Cf. Renan’s demand for “a commission, composed of physiologists, physicists, chemists, and persons accustomed to historical criticism,” to sit in judgment on the miracles (“Life of Jesus,” Introduction). It is, in short, the spirit which requires from God proofs of his faithfulness and love other than those which he has been pleased to give us, and which even presumes to dictate to him what these proofs shall be. It is, therefore, a spirit which carries distrust on the face of it, and is, besides, daringly presumptuous and irreverent. This furnishes the key to Christ’s second temptation in the wilderness. It was a temptation to put his father’s care and faithfulness to the test by casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple (Mat 4:5-8). And he repelled it by quoting the passage in Deuteronomy which alludes to this sin of Massah, “Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Deu 6:16). It is forgotten by those who are guilty of this sin, that God brings us into situations of trial, not that we may test him, but that he may test us. Professor Tyndall’s proposal of a prayer-test may be cited as a not irrelevant illustration of the type of transgression referred to.J.O.
Exo 17:6
That rock was Christ.
In the statement of Paul”They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1Co 10:4)we have a clear assertion of the typical character of this transaction at Rephidim. We may either suppose the term “Rock” in the first clause to be used by metonymy for the water which flowed from the rock, or we may understand the allusion to be to hint of whom the rock was but a symbol, and who did accompany the Israelites in their wanderings, abundantly supplying their wants. The latter view, which conserves the grain of truth in the Rabbinical traditions above referred to, to which the apostle seems to make allusion, is most in keeping with the further statement, “that Rock was Christ.” An interesting comparison is with the words of Christ himself, when, on “the rest day, that great day of the feast,” he “stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink” (Joh 7:37). The libation of water from the pool of Siloam, which was a ceremony connected with the feast of tabernacles, and which most commentators take to be the subject of Christ’s allusion in these memorable words, was commemorative of this miraculous supply of water in the desert. Dr. Godet goes further, and takes this passage in Exodus to be itself the “scripture” (Joh 7:38), and the bringing of the water from the rock the evert, which Jesus had in view when he gave his invitation. “Why,” he says, “should not Jesus, instead of stopping at the emblem, go back to the Divine fact which this rite commemorated He had in Exo 2:1-25. (of John’s Gospel) represented himself as the true temple, in Exo 3:1-22. as the true brazen serpent, in Exo 6:1-30. as the bread of heaven; in Exo 7:1-25. he is the true rock: in Exo 8:1-32. he will be the true light-giving cloud, and so on till Exo 19:1-25; when he will at length realise the type of the Paschal Lamb” (Godet on Joh 7:37). The points to be noted here are these:
I. HUMAN NATURE IS IN A CONDITION OF THIRST. Its state is figured by that of the Israelites in the desert. It thirsts for a satisfaction which the world cannot give it. Give man all of the world he asks for, and still his soul is deeply athirst. His increasing cry is, who will show us any good? (Psa 4:6). Learning does not satisify this thirst (Ecclesiastes, Goethe’s “Faust”). Pleasures do not satisfy it (Byron’s “Childe Harold”). Colonel Gardiner told Dr. Doddridge how, on one occasion, when his companions were congratulating him on his distinguished felicity, a dog happening to conic into the room, he could not help groaning inwardly, and saying to himself, “Oh, that I were that dog.” Riches do not satisfy it. It is, however, when spiritual awakening comes, and the sinner is brought to realise his true condition as alienated from the life of God, that his thirst enters on the phase which makes satisfaction of it possible. It is now spiritual thirstthirst for pardon, for holiness, for salvation. Note, in passing, how this deep-seated thirst of man testifies to his spiritual dignity. If man is merely a natural beingthe highest of the animalswhy does not nature satisfy him? Why are all. things thus full of labourthe eye not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing (Ecc 1:8)? The mere animal is easily satisfied, and returns into its rest. How different with man! His bodily comforts may be every one attended to; his senses filled with grateful pleasures; his imagination fed with the most gorgeous images, of beauty; his intellect stored with the facts and laws of every department of finite science, but all does not slake the thirst of his spirit. His soul still cries, “Give, give; I want not this, nor this; give me living water, of which, if a man drink he will never thirst again.”
II. CHRIST IS THE SATISFACTION OF THIS THIRST. He says”If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink” (Joh 7:37). He understands better than any one else the nature, causes, and intensity of our thirst, yet he promises to gratify it. And who that puts his word to the test is ever sent disappointed away? His salvation is found by every one that tries it, to have really this property of quenching spiritual thirst. He meets the special thirst of the sinful soul, by satisfying its desires for pardon and holiness. He meets the more fundamental thirst of our naturethe thirst for blessed lifeby admitting us to fellowship with himself, the perfect embodiment of truth, purity, and goodness; by giving us a true end in our existence; by furnishing the soul, in the living God
(1) with a spiritual object, congruous to its own nature;
(2) with an adequate object, capable of filling and occupying all its powers;
(3) with a living object, in communion with whom it specially attains to the blessedness of life eternal: finally, by imparting to us, in fullest measure, the influences of the Spirit, source of all light, joy, strength, and powers of holy obedience.
III. CHRIST SATISFIES THIS THIRST IN VIRTUE OF HIS HAVING BEEN SMITTEN. It was only as a rock “smitten’ that Jesus could yield waters of salvation to mankind. Atonement must be made for sins. The Christ must be smitten for the transgressions of the world. He came to save. He must appear as the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world (Joh 1:29). Jesus was thus smitten in the garden and on Calvary. John notes how from his wounded side there came forth the water and the blood (Joh 19:34, Joh 19:35). “Rock of Ages,” etc.
IV. THE WATERS OF CHRIST‘S SALVATION ARE FREE AND PLENTIFUL.
1. Free. “Ho, every one that thirsteth” etc. (Isa 55:1), “Whosoever will” Rev 22:17).
2. Plentiful. “Preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mar 16:15).J.O.
HOMILIES BY H. T. ROBJOHNS
Exo 17:1-7
Christ our Spring.
“They drank of that spiritual rock,” etc. (1Co 10:4). Introduction may deal with the following important items, as all leading up to the theme of the homilythe journey from Sin to Rephidim (Num 33:12-14), the incidents connected with furnishing water out of the rockthe fact that the water may have followed Israel for at least a few stationsand on that fact (not on the [Rabbinical legend) found the New Testament application of the Apostle Paulwhich justifies us in speaking here of Christ as The Eternal Spring of Refreshment to all believers. Expound the connection of 1Co 10:4; thus:By passing under the cloud and through the sea “our fathers” were baptised unto Moses, committed to him as to a leader they being, his disciples Thereupon two necessitiesbread and waterboth in a spiritual sense found in Christ. Even in the desert the water came not so much from the rock, as from the Lord of the rock: i.e. Christ.
I. THE, SOUL, NEEDS REFRESHMENTi.e; not only food for strength, but spiritual influences for refreshment. Show from Christian experience how many and powerful are the causes of depression, weariness, and fainting.
II. OUT OF THE ROCKCHRISTREFRESHMENT SPRINGS. Refreshment does come from time to time to the faint. But the cause is Christ, the living and the ever near. As to the way in which the ministration comes, it does not concern us much to point out; enough to know the fact. Still there are many channels of this grace, e.g; a gleam of morning sunshine, the song of a bird, the pleasant letter of a friend, etc. etc. Channels of the grace, mark! But what is the water itself? See Joh 7:37, Joh 7:38, Joh 7:39. “This spake he of the Spirit,” etc. The water is the consolation of the Spirit; and the rock (from whom proceeds the Spirit) is Christ.
III. THE REFRESHMENT SPRINGS IN UNLIKELY PLACES. As out of the very desolations of Rephidim came the water; so out of our very sorrows come our deepest consolations.
IV. THE ROCKCHRISTEVER FOLLOWS US. Here give the fable of the Rabbis; and show that in it there was a deeper truth than the Rabbis knew. Paul saw it. The refreshments of the Spirit are not like angels’ visits; for the Dispenser of the grace is never far away.
V. WE ARE REFRESHED THAT WE MAY REFRESH. See Joh 7:38. “Out of his belly,” etc.R.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exo 17:1-7
The giving of water in Rephidim.
I. OBSERVE HOW THE PEOPLE CAME TO REPHIDIM. There is a distinct intimation that it was according to the commandment of Jehovah. He it was who led them where there was no water to drink, and equally he must have given them the intimation to pitch their tents. And we who read the narrative are not at all discomposed on learning that there was no water in this place of encampment. We remember how God has already shown that his ways are not as men’s ways, by taking his people where they were entangled in the land, and the wilderness shut them in (Exo 14:3). And we are sure that as he then showed what men count folly to be the highest wisdom, so it would prove again. Water is a necessity, and when Jehovah takes his people where there is no water to drink, it must be under the compulsion of a still higher necessity. If water had been one of the chief things to consider, the people would never have gone to Rephidim at all. But at present the great matter for consideration was Sinai, the mountain where the people were to serve God. Everything else was in subordination to the sojourn at Sinai. God could bring Rephidim to Sinai, and he did so when he caused Moses to smite the rock; but it was not possible to bring Sinai to Rephidim.
II. OBSERVE THEIR FIRST REQUEST, AND THE ANSWER OF MOSES. “Give us water that we may drink.” The mere words, of course, tell us nothing as to the spirit of the request. In certain circumstances such a request would be innocent and natural enough. Jesus began his conversation with the woman at the well by asking her for a drink of water. The request here, however, was evidently expressed in a complaining, chiding tone; and we can only understand it as we come to study the rejoinder of Moses. That. rejoinder shows how he is becoming more and more alarmed at the perils into which the unbelief of the people is taking them. They are still looking towards Moses; they cannot be got to understand that he is as much dependent on the cloudy pillar as are the rest of them. Him who had been given to help and encourage their faith, they treat in such a way that he becomes a stumbling-block. Hence he tries his best to move away their thoughts from himself to Jehovah, with whose long-suffering he warns them that they are making very presumptuous and perilous experiments. They are on dangerous ground, and none the less dangerous because they tread it with such profane unconcern. There had now been several trials of the Divine long-suffering in the short time since they had left Egypt (Exo 14:11, Exo 15:24, Exo 16:3, Exo 16:20, Exo 16:27); and through all these God had moved gently, providing and protecting, even in the midst of their unbelief. But this gentleness of dealing could not go on for ever; and Moses felt it was quite time to warn them, so that none in Israel might delude themselves with the notion that whatever they said and however they complained Jehovah would not smite them.
III. IN DUE COURSE, THERE IS A SECOND APPEAL TO MOSES. Their first request seems to have come immediately on encamping. They look round with an instinctive feeling for the water supply; and, missing it, they ask for it. Then they wait awhile; and, of course, the longer they wait the more thirst begins to assert itself. Their children cry; and all the cattle signify, in an equally impressive way, their want of water. (Remember what a terrible calamity the want of water is in eastern countries.) No wonder then that increasing thirst drove the Israelites to the bitter complainings of Exo 17:3. It was not without a profound reason in the plans of God that waterless Rephidim lay so near Sinai. He will make his people to know the utter privations that belong to Rephidim as well as the bitterness of Marah and the abundance of Elim. Thus they passed in a very remarkable way, and in a very short time, through three great representative experiences with regard to the resources of nature. They found those resources existent but impaired at Marah; well-nigh perfect at Elim; and at Rephidim altogether absent. Then, to add further to the significance of Rephidim, God made the people to wait there till their want of water became little short of agony. Not that he delights in inflicting pain; but pain is often needful to teach great lessons, he seems to have made them wait longer at Rephidim where there was no water, than at Marah where the water was only bitter. Hence the exasperation, defiance, almost despair which find utterance in their second cry. For all they can see, they are on the point of death; they, their children and their cattle. And yet this very referenceexcusable as it might be in their half-maddened statesuggested at once its own confutation. God had worked by special interventions to bring those very children and cattle out of Egypt intact. Those first-born especially, for whom the lamb had been slain and the blood sprinkled, was it likely they would perish from a thing so entirely within Divine control as lack of water? The truth seems to be that one more great discovery had. to be made by Israel before they came to Sinai. They had known Jehovah appearing to them in bondage and more and more manifesting his power; giving them at last an exceeding abundant deliverance from bondage and overwhelming their great enemy in all his strength. These were all completed experiences. There remained one thing more, namely that they should be made to feel their dependence on Jehovah for bread and water. That dependence must be taught in the most practical way, before he proceeded formally to ask as he did at Sinai, for the unreserved regard and obedience of his people.
IV. THIS OCCASION EVIDENTLY BECAME THE MEANS OF DRAWING MOSES HIMSELF NEARER TO GOD. We feel that he was coming into peril from the exasperated people. They were, indeed, past all argument and expostulationsuffering themselves, and made more frantic still by the cries of their children and the threatened damage to their property. So here again we see how Moses’ own path was the path of faith. Jehovah has ever some fresh revelation of power to deepen the impression already made on the mind of his servant with regard to his omnipotence. Moses must be brought to feel by all sorts of illustrations that God can do everything which is not by its very nature impossible and which does not contradict his own character.
V. OBSERVE THE METHOD OF SUPPLY.
1. God has the elders called out from among the people. Thus, for his own purposes, he still further extends the period of waiting. Possibly it was through these very elders, chosen and responsible men among the people, that the complaints and threats had come. The Israelites, even in their unbelief and worldliness, did not degenerate into a rabble. They had their leaders, whom they chose, recognised from the human point of view, as well as that leader whom God had sent, and whom they so often had despised and rejected. The time had come to make these elders feel their responsibility. Many who made light of Moses looked to them; and according to the way they spoke and acted, they would do much either to produce faith throughout the people, or, on the other hand, to produce unbelief.
2. God brings the rod once more into requisition, and as he does, makes a special connection of it with one accomplished work in particular. With that rod Moses had been the means of smiting the river and turning it to blood; the import of the reference evidently being that water everywhere is under the Divine control. By this time there must surely have been great virtue in the sight of the rod to call forth faith and expectation. Hitherto it had been used to destroyit delivered, indeed, at the same time that it destroyed but now it is called to a work of unmixed beneficence. All that had been done so far was right and necessary; but it is well that there should now be one work of the rod which, in blessing Israel, does not inflict harm on a single human being.
3. The source whence the water comes. From a rock. The smiting, of course, was simply a symbolic action, just as the smiting of the water was. It was not as if some blow had been struck, suddenly opening up a hidden reservoir. What God did here by smiting he commanded, at a later date, to be done by speaking. (Num 20:8.) The water came, and was to be understood as coming, from a most unlikely place. Did we know more of the details, more as to the kind of rock that was smitten and the way in which the water gushed forth, we might be even more deeply impressed with the miracle. It may not be going too far to say that no amount of excavating or tunnelling would have got water from that rock. He who turned the water to blood made water to flow from an arid rock in some altogether mysterious way. Doubtless many of the Israelites were beginning to think that it was with a rocky God they had to deal; a hard, unsympathising Deity; that, in short, they had exchanged a human Pharaoh for a Divine one. And so God shows them that even the rock holds unexpected, abundant, and exactly appropriate blessings. The rock at Meribah was a good symbol of Jehovah for the time. He had already presented to the people much that was in aspect stern and unyielding; and he would have to do this still more in the future. And yet in the midst of all necessary hardness, he took care to refresh his people with gracious comforts and promises. He who demands that everything shall be done in righteousness, truth, and profound reverence for his will, is by no means one of those tyrants who seek to reap where they have not sown. Rather does he take his people into circumstances seemingly the most unfavourable, seeking there to teach them how, if they only sow a spirit of faith, obedience, and expectation, they shall reap a sufficient and steady supply for all their daily wants.
VI. OBSERVE THE NAME THAT WAS GIVEN TO THE PLACE. Massah and Meribah. These words did not so much mark the power and providence of God as the unbelieving, self-regarding spirit of the people. This they constantly needed to be reminded of. It might well happen that some of the more sanguine would say, “We shall never be unbelievers again; we shall go with confidence into any place whatever, whither the Lord may lead us.” And so these warning names are fixed for them to look back upon. The unbelief of the people was not to be lost in the glory of the Divine action, as if it were a thing of no consequence. We cannot dispense with any recollection of the past, however disagreeable it may be, which keeps before us our own deficiencies, and impresses upon us the need of constant humility.Y.
HOMILIES BY G. A. GOODHART
Exo 17:7
They tempted God in the desert.
Illustration. Child cries; parent sends for doctor; pleasant medicine is prescribed. Later the child cries again; cry is apparently addressed to parent, but real aim is to see if the doctor will give more pleasant medicine. Chiding with the parent is a cover for experimenting upon the doctor. Hereprevious murmuring against Moses had resulted (Exo 16:2-5) in food from God. The people would see whether like conduct might not lead to a like result; they chode with Moses, but, in reality, they were temptingtrying experiments uponGod. Notice:
I. THE CHIDING (Exo 17:2). An outward manifestation of displeasure against the visible leader. Why should Moses have brought them, thirsting, to this barren and inhospitable spot? The fact that their journeys were “according to the commandment of Jehovah” (Exo 17:1) is altogether forgotten or ignored. Not a rare offence: the people, displeased, blame the minister, quite forgetting that he has a master other than themselves. Churches are called Eben-ezers and the like; they might often as truly be called Meribahs. The question which must be put in such cases is one not easy to answer: “Why strive ye with me?” The answer is involved in that other question which few grumblers care to face”Why do ye tempt Jehovah?” Chiding can only be passed on with the motive which inspires it to its true object; he who tries to answer it otherwise does but stand in God’s light, doing that which Joash declined to do for Baal (Jdg 6:31), and which, with yet more reason, God’s servants had best abstain from in his cause.
II. THE TEMPTATION. The inner motive for the outward manifestation was to see whether God was really among them, and would indicate his presence by supporting his servant. He had given quails and bread, would he now shield Moses by supplying the demand for water? Observe
1. The favourable side of the offence. The people remembered that God had helped, whence they inferred that he might help again. Memory fed hope. So far it was well. Memory, however, was but half instructed, The remembered gift was more thought of than the giver. Hope was not faith; it could not prompt the prayer of faith. God was not regarded as he should have been, and consequently men could not state their needs with confidence, “nothing doubting.”
2. The unfavourable side of the offense. Jehovah, they thought, was the friend, if of any one, of Moses. They regarded him as a being apart, quite as likely to be their enemy as the enemy of the Egyptians. Perhaps, however, if they put his friend in difficulties, to help his friend he might appease them. Is not the same thought latent still in like cases? “If the minister is a good man, God will help him, and we shall be the gainers. If not, we shall get quit of him, and possibly his successor may remedy his defects.” A kind of witches’ ordeal from which the accusers hope to profit any way. Trouble should strengthen trust, and when it does, trust will be rewarded. Beware, however, lest imperfect trust take the form of temptation. God will justify his own elect, but experiments made on him are apt to recoil on the experimenters.
III. THE RESULT (Exo 17:5, Exo 17:6). The people spoke at God instead of to him. Moses, instead of being the channel for their prayers, was the rock whence might echo their complaints. God, in answer, draws himself yet further off from the complainers. They get their water; but they lose that which they might have had as well, the sense of the presence of their God. The experiment was successful, physical thirst was slaked; it was also a disastrous failure: instead of gaining a strong assurance that God was indeed among them, they gained rather a confirmation of their suspicion that he was not among them, but at a distance.
Conclusion.Beware how you tempt God. Whether is it better to endure discomfort and have a nearer sense of his presence, or to escape discomfort and endure his absence? Thirst endured trustfully must have brought the Israelites such a realisation of the Divine presence as would have quenched, what was worse than thirst, the irrepressible desire to murmur. Temporary satisfaction then, as ever, thus obtained, led on to yet deeper doubt.G.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
Exo 17:1-7
Trial and failure.
I. THE PURPOSE OF RECURRING TRIALS. Israel, tried before at Marah, is now led from the comforts of Elim to the thirsty land of Rephidim. They might have learned something of their own heart and of God’s unfailing goodness, and now they are led hither that he may prove whether they will serve him or no. Trial comes that the teachings of truth may be changed into the convictions of trust.
II. ISRAEL‘S CRIME.
1. It was not unbelief, but impious presumption. They demand water, believing that it can be produced. They regard themselves as having a right to the choicest of God’s blessings. This presumptuous claim lies in the heart of all unbelief.
2. Their accusation of Moses and of God (Exo 17:3). They have belief but no prayer, no trust, only strife and bitterness.
(1) Their base ingratitude. All past mercies are blotted out because of a little present suffering.
(2) Their blindness. They might have asked themselves whether there was cause for this rebuke.
(3) Their stubbornness. They refused to bow themselves in prayer, or even to ask Moses to intercede for them.
(4) Their readiness to entertain the grossest suggestions of doubt.
III. GOD‘S LONG–SUFFERING.
1. Their murmuring is met with help. He might have proved himself to be among them by his judgments; but he gives them water from the flinty rock. Not till mercy has done her utmost is judgment let loose against his people.
2. He labours to establish their faith in himself. The elders are taken as witnesses, and the reek is smitten with the rod of God.
(Second sketch.)
I. A PICTURE OF THE SEEKERS AFTER MORAL IMPROVEMENT WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THE PATHWAY OF FAITH.
1. Their unquenched thirst.
2. Their despair. It had been better for them, they say, that the desire to go forth had never been awakened; that the quest after a better country had never been entered upon.
3. Their cry, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Does God take thought of us? Is there a God? How often has youthful earnestness come to rest at last in the blankest unbelief!
II. A PICTURE OF CHRIST, THE ANSWER TO THE SEEKER‘S NEED.
1. The living rock, the changeless one, the sure foundation.
2. How he is made to us the fountain of living waters: he is smitten by the rod of God on behalf of the sinful.
3. The water “followed them.” Christ’s consolations the one perennial stream for refreshment and strength.
4. How he may be found: by following the guidance of those who testify of him.U.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Exo 17:1-3. After their journeys,and pitched in Rephidim See Num 33:12-14. Rephidim was a dry and sandy part of the desert of Sin, within a march or two of Sinai; where, there being no water for the people to drink, and that which they brought from Elim being spent, their usual temper predominated, and they murmured against Moses for water now, as they had done for bread before. See ch. Exo 16:2-3 and Num 20:4.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

FIFTH SECTION
The journey through the wilderness to Sinai. Want of water. Marah. Elim. The Wilderness of Sin. Quails. Manna. Rephidim (Massah and Meribah). The Amalekites. Jethro and his advice, a human prelude of the divine legislation
Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27
The stations as far as Sinai
1. Marah
Exo 15:22-26
22So [And] Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the [drink the] waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25And he cried unto Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree, which, when he had cast [and he cast it] into the waters, the [and the] waters were made sweet: there he 26made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved [tried] them, And said, If thou wilt diligently [indeed] hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these [the] diseases upon thee, which I have brought [put] upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah that healeth thee.
2. Elim. Exo 15:27
27And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells [fountains] of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
3. The Wilderness of Sin. (The Manna and the Quails.)
Exo 16:1-36
1And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God [Would that] we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and [flesh-pots,] when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with 4hunger. Then said Jehovah [And Jehovah said] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate [a daily portion] every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no [not]. 5And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 6And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then shall ye know that Jehovah hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. 7And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of Jehovah; [since] he heareth your murmurings against Jehovah: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8And Moses said, This shall be, when [And Moses said, Since] Jehovah shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that [since] Jehovah heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him, and [against him,] what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah. 9And Moses spake [said] unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before Jehovah: for he hath heard your murmurings. 10And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the 11glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 12I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God. 13And it came to pass that at even [at even that] the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host [camp]. 14And when the dew that lay [the layer of dew] was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay [the wilderness] a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna [What is this?],7 for they wist [knew] not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the 16bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat [for food]. This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man [a head], according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which [that] are in his tents [tent]. 17And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 18And when they did mete [And they measured] it with an [the] omer, he [and he] that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. 19And Moses said [said unto them], Let no man leave of 20it till the morning. Notwithstanding [But] they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them [and some] left of it until the morning, and it bred worms,8 and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. 21And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. 22And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man [each man]: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23And he said unto them, This is that which Jehovah hath spoken, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath [is a day of rest, a holy sabbath] unto Jehovah: bake that which ye will bake to-day [bake], and seethe [boil] that [that which] ye will seethe [boil]; and that which [all that] remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto Jehovah: to-day ye shall [will] not find it in the field. 26Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the [onthe seventh day is a] sabbath, in [on] it there shall be none. 27And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to [day to] gather, 28and they found none. And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 29See, for that Jehovah hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30So the people rested on the seventh day. 31And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made [like cake] with honey. 32And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah commandeth, Fill an omer of it [An omer full of it] to be kept for [throughout] your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. 33And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot [basket], and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay 34it up before Jehovah, to be kept for [throughout] your generations. As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35And the children of Israel did eat manna [the manna] forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna [the manna], until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. 36Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
4. Rephidim. The place called Massah and Meribah
Exo 17:1-7
Exo 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys [journey by journey], according to the commandment of Jehovah, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the 2people to drink. Wherefore [And] the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt Jehovah? 3And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast [Wherefore hast thou] brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4And Moses cried unto Jehovah, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to [a little more, and they will] 5stone me. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go on [Pass on] before the people, and take with thee of the elders of the people; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine [thy] hand, and go. 6Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that [and] the people may [shall] drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not?
5. Amalek. The dark side of heathenism
Exo 17:8-16
8Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to-morrow I will 10stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine [my] hand. So [And] Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses hands were heavy: and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge 14of the sword. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a [the] book, and rehearse [lit. put] it in the ears of Joshua: for [that] I will utterly put 15[blot] out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an 16altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: For [And] he said, Because Jehovah hath sworn that [For a hand is upon the throne of Jah;9] Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
6. Rephidim and Jethro. The bright side of heathenism
Exo 18:1-27
1When [Now] Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and [how] that Jehovah had brought Israel out 2of Egypt; Then [And] Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses wife, after he had sent her back [after she had been sent away], 3And her two sons; of which [whom] the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien 4[a sojourner] in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine [my] help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: 5And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped [was encamped] at the mount of God: 6And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her. 7And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. 8And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israels sake, and [sake] all the travail [trouble] that had come upon them by the way, and how Jehovah delivered them. 9And Jethro rejoiced for [over] all the goodness [good] which Jehovah had done to Israel whom he had delivered [in that he had delivered them] out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all [all the] gods: for [yea], in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above [dealt proudly against] them. 12And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God. 13And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. 14And when Moses father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? 15And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God: 16When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make 17[I make] them know the statutes of God, and his laws. And Moses father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. 18Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this [the] thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself [able to do it] alone. 19Hearken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel, and God shall be [God be] with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward [before God], that thou mayest bring [and bring thou] the causes [matters] unto God: 20And thou shalt teach [And teach] them ordinances and laws [the statutes and the laws], and shalt shew [and shew] them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. 21Moreover [But] thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness [unjust gain]; and place such over them, to be [as] rulers of thousands, and [thousands,] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: 22And let them judge the people at all seasons [times]: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they [they themselves] shall judge: so shall it be [so make it] easier for thyself, and they shall [let them] bear the burden with thee. 23If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt [wilt] be able to endure, and all this 24people shall also [people also will] go to their place in peace. So [And] Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in-law, and did all that he had said. 25And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26And they judged the people at all seasons [times]: the hard causes [matters] they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 27And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went his way into his own land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo 16:15 . Gesenius and Knobel derive from , to apportion; Frst (Concordance) from the Sanscrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard as the Aramaic equivalent of . Even Frst so renders it in his Illustrirte Pracht-Bibel. Comp. Michaelis, Supplementa ad Lexica Hebraica.Tr.].
[Exo 16:20. And it bred worms: . The Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of defectively written, and therefore to mean: rose up into (or with) worms. Kalisch says, that the form is used instead of to show that it comes from (?) in the sense of putrefy. So Maurer and Ewald (Gr., 281, d). But it is doubtful whether (assumed as the root from which comes worm) really means putrefy at all. Frst defines it by crawl. Moreover, it would be inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna became putrid with worms; the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the putridness. Rosenmller, Frst, Arnheim and others render by swarm, abound, but probably as a free rendering for rose up. De Wette: da wuchsen Wrmer. The A. V. rendering may stand as a substantially correct reproduction of the sense.Tr.].
[Exo 17:16. We have given the most literal rendering of this difficult passage. But possibly , instead of meaning for (or because), may (as often in Greek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient authorities, takes it as an oath; but for this there is little ground. Keil interprets: The hand raised to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Jehovahs war against Amalek, i.e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towards Jehovahs throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: Because a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is against the throne of Jah, therefore Jehovah will forever have war with Amalek. This interpretation has the advantage over Keils of giving a more natural rendering to , which indeed in a few cases does mean up to, but only when it is (as it is not here) connected with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps the majority of modern exegetes) would read (banner), instead of (throne), and interpret: The hand upon Jehovahs banner; Jehovah has war, etc. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, inasmuch as the name of the altar, Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner), seems to require an explanation, and would receive it if the reading were , instead of Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
General Survey of the Section. Israels journey from the shore of the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai. The host enters the wilderness of Shur (the same as the wilderness of Etham), and its first camping-place is by the bitter waters of Marah. The second is Elim. Next comes the encampment on the Red Sea recorded in Numbers 33. Still later the entrance into the wilderness of Sin, and the encampment in it. With this is connected the sending of the manna and of the quails. Then follows the stay in Rephidim with three leading events: the water from the rock, the victory over Amalek, and Jethros advice concerning an orderly judicial system. According to Numbers 33 it must be assumed that the people encamped on the Red Sea just as they touched the wilderness of Sin; for it was not till after this that they entered the wilderness (Exo 16:11), as they also at the first entered the wilderderness of Shur, on the borders of which they found themselves at the very outset. Between the encampment on the Red Sea and that in Rephidim we find in the Book of Numbers Dophkah and Alush; and it is said that they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah. Knobel observes that these two stations, not mentioned in Exodus, are omitted because nothing of historical importance is connected with them. Also about this journey from Ayun Musa to Sinai there has been an immense deal of discussion, as well as about the journey from Raemses to the Red Sea. Vid. Robinson I., p. 90, Brm, Israels Wanderung von Gosen bis zum Sinai (Elberfeld, 1859); Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha, p. 124; von Raumer, Palstina, p. 480; Tischendorf, Aus dem heiligen Lande, p. 23; Kurtz, History of the Old Covenant III., p. 15 sqq.; Bunsen V., 2, p. 155; and the commentaries.
There is general agreement as to the locality of the first stations. It is assumed that Israel, after the passage of the sea, encamped at Ayun Musa (the Wells of Moses), opposite the high mountain Atakah, on the other side of the Red Sea. The next camping-place, Marah (Bitterness), is found about sixteen and a half hours, or a three days journey beyond, by the well Howara or Hawara, of which Robinson says: The basin is six or eight feet in diameter, and the water about two feet deep. Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter. The Arabs consider it as the worst water in all these regions (Pal. II., p. 96). Cf. Seetzen III., p. 117, and Keil II., p. 58, who quotes divergent opinions of Ewald and Lepsius.The next camping-place, Elim, is two and a half hours further south, in what is now the Wady Ghurundel, with a beautiful vegetation consisting in palms, tamarisks, acacias, and tall grass,a prominent stopping-place on the way from Suez to Sinai. The way from Howara to this place is short, but the camping-places of an army in march, like that of the Israelites, are always determined by the supply of water (Keil). The fourth stopping-place, called in Num 33:10 the one on the Red Sea, is found at the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh (Robinson I., p. 105), eight hours beyond Wady Ghurundel. From this point the route becomes less easy to fix. In Num 33:11 we read: They removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.10 Here in Exodus it is said that the wilderness lies between Elim and Sinai. This addition seems designed not only to give the general direction (since that would be quite superfluous), but to designate the middle point between Elim and Sinai. The chief question here is, whether the wilderness of Sin as traversed by the Israelites, is to be located further south on a sea coast, where the plain is for the most part a good hour wide, as is assumed by many (not all, as Brm says), or whether the high table land el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb, with its red sand and sand-stones, is to be taken for the Wilderness of Sin (Knobel). Accordingly, there are two principal routes, of which the first again branches into two. By the coast route one can go along the coast as far as Tur (Ewald), and from that in a northeast direction come to Sinai; or more directly (i.e., at first in an inland direction from the fountain Murkha) enter through the wadies Shellal and Badireh (Butera) into the wadies Mukatteb and Feiran, and reach Mt. Horeb (de la Borde, von Raumer, and others).11 The other route, the mountain or highland route (Burckhardt and others) turns from Taiyibeh southeast through Wady Shubeikah over a high table-land, with the mountain Sarbut el Jemel, then through Wady Humr upon the wide sandy plain el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb (Keil), and on through several wadies directly to Horeb. For and against each of these routes much may be said. Cf. Knobel, p. 162 sqq.; Keil II. p. 61. According to the latter view, advocated by Knobel and Keil, the camping-place in the wilderness of Sin is to be sought in Wady Nasb, where among date-palms a well of ample and excellent water is to be found. The second seacoast route was taken by Strauss and Krafft (Sinai und Golgotha, p. 127). Also the last time by Tischendorf (Aus dim heiligen Lande, p. 35). The same way is preferred by Brm in his work Israels Wanderung, etc. Likewise Robinson regards this as the course taken by the Israelites, though he himself took the one on the table-land. To decide is not easy, and is of little importance for our purpose. But the following observations may serve as guides: (1) If, as is most probable, the names Sin and Sinai are connected etymologically, this is an argument for the table-land route, especially as it also seems to lie more nearly midway between Elim and Sinai; (2) the water seems here to be, though less abundant, yet better, than in most of the salty fountains on the seacoast, whose turbidness also is easily to be explained by its situation on the coast (vid. Robinson, p. 110); (3) on the table-land, in the depressions of which vegetation was everywhere found, there was certainly better provision for the cattle than on the seacoast, where they were often entirely separated from pasture land by mountain barriers; (4) if the encampment in the wilderness of Sin was also an encampment on the Red Sea, the preceding encampment could not, without causing confusion, be designated by the term on the Red Sea. So much for the mountain route. Ritter has argued against the view that the journey was made on the table-land through Wady Nasb, in the Evangelischer Kalender. Vid. Kurtz III., p. 61. For the rest, each way had its peculiar attractions as well as its peculiar difficulties. The mountain route allowed the host to spread itself, as there was much occasion for doing; it presented grand views, and prepared the people for a long time beforehand for its destination, Sinai. It is distinguished by the singular and mysterious monuments of Surabit el-Khadim (Robinson I., p. 113; Niebuhr, p. 235). By the way which runs half on the seacoast, half through the mountains, we pass through the remarkable valley of inscriptions, Mukatteb, and through the grand valley Feiran, rich in tamarisks, in whose vicinity lies the lofty Serbal, regarded by Lepsius as the mountain on which the law was given. On the inscriptions on the rocks and cliffs in the valley Mukatteb, see Tischendorf, Aus dem h. Lande, p. 39 sqq.; Kurtz III., p. 64. By these they are ascribed for the most part to Nabatan emigrants and to pilgrims going to attend heathen festivals. On the rock of inscriptions see also Ritters reference to Wellsted and von Schubert, Vol. XIV., p 459. On the former city Faran in Feiran, see Tischendorf, p. 46. The camping-place in the wilderness of Sin is, as follows from the above, variously fixed; according to some it is the plain on the sea south of Taiyibeh, which, however, must then be called the wilderness of Sin up to the mountain range, if the camping-place is to be distinguished from the one on the Red Sea; according to Bunsen and others, the camping-place was in the place called el Munkhah. According to others, it is the large table-land el Debbe or Debbet en Nasb. The camping-places in the wilderness of Sin being indeterminate, so are also the two following ones at Dophkah and Alush (Num 33:12). Conjectures respecting the two stations beyond the wilderness of Sin are made by Knobel, p. 174, and Bunsen, p. 156. The last station before the host arrives at Sinai is Rephidim. This must have been at he foot of Horeb, for Jehovah stood on the rock on Horeb, when He gave water to the people encamped in Rephidim (Exo 17:6), and at the same place Moses was visited by Jethro, who came to him at the mount of God (Knobel). This is a very important point fixed, inasmuch as it seems to result from it, that Serbal is to be looked for north of, or behind, Rephidim and Horeb, but the Mt. Sinai of the Horeb range in the south.12 The great plain at the foot of Horeb, where the camp of the Israelites is sought, is called the plain er–Raha (Knobel derives , breadth, surface, plain, from , to be spread).13 For a refutation of Lepsius. who finds Rephidim in Wady Feiran, and Sinai in Serbal, see Knobel, p. 174. On Serbal itself (Palm grove of Baal) vid. Kurtz III., p. 67. Between Serbal and the Horeb group lies Wady es-Sheikh. From the mouth of this wady towards Horeb the plain of Rephidim is thought to begin. Other assumptions: The defile with Moses seat, Mokad Seidna Musa, or the plain of Suweiri. Perhaps not very different from the last mentioned (vid. Keil II., p. 79; Strauss, p. 131). The most improbable hypothesis identifies Rephidim with Wady Feiran (Lepsius).14
1. Marah. Exo 15:22-26
On the wilderness of Shur, vid. Keil II., p. 57. Particulars about Howara [Hawara (Robinson), Hawwara (Palmer)], Knobel, p. 160.The bitter salt water at Marah.15 The miracle here consists in great part in the fact that Jehovah showed Moses a tree by which the water was made drinkable. That the tree itself was a natural tree is not denied by the strictest advocates of a literal interpretation. A part of the miracle is to be charged to the assurance of the prophetic act, and the trustful acceptance of it on the part of the people. Various explanations: The well was half emptied, so that pure water flowed in (Josephus); the berries of the ghurlud shrub were thrown in (Burckhardt). According to Robinson, the Beduins of the desert know no means of changing bitter salt water to sweet. In Egypt, as Josephus relates, bad water was once purified by throwing in certain split sticks of wood (Brm). This leads to the question, how far the salt water might have been made more drinkable by Moses dipping into it a crisp, branchy shrub, as a sort of distilling agent. For this the numerous clumps of the ghurkud shrub which stand around the well, and whose berries Burckhardt wished to make use of, are very well suited. The distillation consists in the art of separating, in one way or another, salt, from water, especially by means of brushwood; generally, for the purpose of getting salt; but it might be done for the opposite purpose of getting water. In proportion as a bunch of brushwood should become incrusted with the salt, the water would become more free from the salt. For the rest, Robinson observes, concerning the water of the fountain Hawara, Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter; but we could not perceive that it was very much worse than that of Ayun Musa. It must further be considered that the Jews had the soft, agreeable Nile water in recollection. Kurtz has even found an antithesis in the fact that Moses made the undrinkable water at Marah drinkable, as he had made the sweet water of the Nile un-drinkable. We are here also to notice that the effect of Moses act was not permanent, but consisted only in the act itself, the same as is true of the saving effect of the sacraments in relation to faith. Here, too, is another proof that Moses had a quite peculiar sense for the life of nature, a sense which Jehovah made an organ of His Spirit. With the curing of the well Jehovah connected a fundamental law, stating on what condition He would be the Saviour of the people. Brm (p. 114) points out, with reason, that the Israelites, in drinking salty water, which has a laxative effect, might well apprehend that the much-dreaded sicknesses of Egypt, the pestilence, the small-pox, the leprosy, and the inflammation of the eyes, caused by the heat and the fine dry sand, together with the intense reflection of light, might attack them here also in the wilderness, the atmosphere of which otherwise has a healing effect on many diseased constitutions. Therefore, in curing that well, Jehovah established the chief sanitary law for Israel. It is very definite, as if from the mouth of a very careful physician well acquainted with his case. General rule: perfect compliance with Jehovahs direction! Explanation of it: if thou doest what is right in His eyes, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes (in reference to the means of spiritual recovery, dietetics), then I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians, for I am Jehovah, thy physician.But how can it be added, and there he proved them? The whole history has been a test of the question, whether the people would obey the directions of Jehovah given through Moses, and particularly whether, after the singular means employed by Moses, they would drink in faith. Every test of faith is a temptation for sinful man, because in his habituation to the common order of things lies an incitement not to believe in any extraordinary remedy, such as seems to contradict nature. But out of the actual temptation which the people had now passed through, proceeded this theocratic sanitary law, as a temptation perpetually repeating itself. There is even still a temptation in the principle of the theocratic therapeutics, that absolute certainty of life lies in absolute obedience to Gods commands and directions. According to Keil, the statute here spoken of does not consist in the divine utterance recorded in Exo 15:26, but in an allegorical significance of the fact itself: the leading of the Israelites to bitter water which the natural man cannot and will not drink, together with the making of this water sweet and wholesome, is to be a , that is, a statute and a law, showing how God at all times will lead and govern His people, and a , that is, an ordinance, inasmuch as Israel may continually depend on the divine help, etc. If this is so, then the text must receive an allegorical interpretation not obviously required.
Furthermore, it is a question whether, after the tremendous excitements through which the people had passed, bitter and salty water like that at Marah, might not have been more beneficial than hurtful to them. Salt water restores the digestion when it has been disturbed by excitement. Notice, moreover, the stiff-neckedness or stubbornness peculiar to the disposition of slaves just made free, as it gradually makes its appearance and increases. It was in their distress at Pi-hahiroth that they first gave utterance to their moroseness; true, they cried to Jehovah, but quarrelled with Moses. They seemed to have forgotten the miracle of deliverance wrought in the night of Egypts terror. Here they even murmur over water that is somewhat poorer than usual. The passage through the Red Sea and the song of praise seem to be forgotten. In the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation murmurs against Moses and Aaron, i.e., their divinely appointed leaders, from fear of impending famine, probably because the supplies brought from Egypt were running low;the ample refreshment enjoyed at Elim seems to be forgotten. In Rephidim they murmur on account of want of water;the miraculous supply of manna and quails seems to be forgotten. On the other hand, however, the wise augmentation of severity in the divine discipline becomes prominent. At Marah nothing is said of any rebuke uttered by Jehovah, as is done later, Num 11:14; Num 11:20. Especially noticeable is the great difference between the altercation at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, and the mutiny at Kadesh, Numbers 20. The altercation there is expressly called a striving with Jehovah, Exo 15:13.
2. Elim. Exo 15:27
A fine contrast with Marah is afforded here, both in nature, and in the guidance of the people of God, and in the history of the inner life. In Elim, Baumgarten and Kurtz find a place expressly prepared for Israel, inasmuch as by the number of its wells and palm trees it bears in itself the seal of this people: every tribe having a well for man and beast, and the tent of each one of the elders of the people (Exo 24:9) having the shade (according to Baumgarten, the dates) of a palm-tree. Even Keil finds this too supernaturalistic; at least, he observes that, while the number of the wells corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel, yet the number of the palm trees does not correspond to that of the elders, which, according to Exo 24:9, was much (?) greater. On neither side is the possibility of a symbolical significance in the numbering thought of; without doubt, however, the emphasis given to the number seventy is as significant as that given to the number twelve. Keils allusion to the 23d Psalm is appropriate. See particulars about Elim in Knobel, p. 161; Tischendorf, p. 36.16
3. The Wilderness of Sin. Chap. Exo 16:1-36
Notice first the aggravated character of the murmuring. Now the whole congregation murmurs. And not against Moses alone, but against Moses and Aaron, so that the murmuring is more definitely directed against the divine commission of the two men, and so against the divine act of bringing them out of Egypt, that is, against Jehovah Himself. Moreover, the expression of a longing after Egypt becomes more passionate and sensual. At first they longed resignedly for the graves of Egypt, in view of the danger of death in the desert. The next time, too, they say nothing about their hankering after the Nile water in view of the bitter water of Marah. But now the flesh-pots of Egypt and the Egyptian bread become prominent in their imagination, because they conceive themselves to be threatened with famine. Corresponding to the aggravation of the murmuring are the beginnings of rebuke. Says Knobel, What the congregation had brought with them from Egypt had been consumed in the thirty days which had elapsed since their exodus (Exo 16:1), although the cattle brought from Egypt (Exo 12:38) had not yet all been slaughtered or killed by thirst (?), since after their departure from the wilderness of Sin they still possessed cattle at Rephidim, which they wished to save from thirsting to death (Exo 17:3). For the herds had not been taken merely to be at once slaughtered; and meat could not take the place of bread. In their vexation the people wish that they had died in Egypt, while filling themselves from the flesh-pots, by the hand of Jehovah, i.e., in the last plague inflicted by Jehovah upon Egypt, rather than gradually to starve to death here in the wilderness. In the verb used ( Niph.) is expressed a murmuring just passing over into contumacy. Yet here too Jehovah looks with compassion upon the hard situation of the people, and hence regards their weakness with indulgence.
The natural substratum of the double miracle of feeding, now announced and brought to pass, is found in the food furnished by the desert to nomadic emigrants. The manna is the miraculous representative of all vegetable food; the quails denote the choicest of animal prey furnished by the desert. The first element, in the miracle is here too the prophetic foresight and assurance of Moses. The second is the actual miraculous enhancement of natural phenomena; the third is here also the trustful acceptance of it: the miracle of faith and the religious manifestation answering to it. The ultra-supernaturalistic view, it is true, is not satisfied with this. It holds to a different manna from that provided by God in nature, and ought, in consistency, to distinguish the quails miraculously given from ordinary quails.
In this case, too, the trial of faith was to be a temptation (Exo 16:4), to determine whether the people would appropriate the miraculous blessing to themselves in accordance with the divine precept, and so recognize Jehovah as the giver, or whether they would go out without restraint I and on their own responsibility to seize it, as if in a wild chase. Here, therefore, comes in the establishment of the fundamental law concerning the healing of life; and this is done by the ordaining of the seventh day as a day of rest, the Sabbath. As man, when given over to a merely natural life, is inclined to seek health and recuperation without regarding the inner life and the commandments of God, so he is also inclined to yield himself passionately and without restraint to the indulgence of the natural appetite for food, and, in his collection of the means of nourishment, to lose self-collection, the self-possession of an interior life. As a token of this the Sabbath here comes in at the right point, and therefore points at once from the earthly manna to the heavenly manna, (vid.John 6).17
The announcement of the miracle. I will rain. The first fundamental condition of the feeding: recognition of the Giver, comp. Jam 1:17.From heaven. Though this in general might also be said of bread from the earth, yet here a contrast is intended. From the sky above, i.e., as a direct gift.The people shall go out and gather. A perpetual harvest, but limited by divine ordinance.A daily portion every day. Reminding one of the petition, Give us this day, etc. An injunction of contentment.On the sixth day. They will find, on making their preparation of the food, that the blessing of this day is sufficient also for the seventh.At even. A gift of flesh was to precede the gift of manna. Thereby they are to understand that Jehovah has led them out of Egypt, that He has provided for them a substitute for the flesh-pots of Egypt. But on the next morning they shall see the glory of Jehovah, i.e., they shall recognize the glorious presence of Jehovah in the fact that He has heard their murmuring against Moses and Aaron, and has applied it to Himself, in that He presents them the mannaFor what are we? Thus do the holy men retire and disappear behind Jehovah.But the people also must come to this same conviction, must repent of their murmurings, and feel that they have murmured against Jehovah, not against His servants. Thus with perfect propriety is a sanction of the sacred office interwoven into the same history into which the history of the Sabbath is interwoven. Hence it follows also that the true sacred office must authenticate itself by miraculous blessings. Both are sealed by a specially mysterious revelation. It is significant that in this connection Aaron must be the speaker (Exo 16:9), that he must summon the people before Jehovah to humble themselves before His face on account of their murmuring. Equally significant is it, that the congregation, while Aaron speaks, sees the manifestation of Jehovahs glory in the cloud. Especially significant, however, is it, that they see this glory rest over the wide wilderness, as they turn and look towards it. A most beautiful touch! With the wilderness itself the way through the wilderness is transfigured at this moment. If we assume (with Keil) that the summons to appear before Jehovah is equivalent to a summons to come out of the tents to the place where the cloud stood, then it must be further assumed, that the cloud suddenly changed its position, and removed to the wilderness, or else appeared in a double form. Neither thing can be admitted. Hereupon follows the last solemn announcement of the miraculous feeding, as the immediate announcement of Jehovah Himself.
The double miracle itself.The quails came up.This narrative has its counterpart in the narrative of the quails in Num 11:4 sqq., just as the chiding on account of want of water at Rephidim has its counterpart in the story of the water of strife (Meribah), distinctively so-called in Numbers 20. The relation of the narratives to one another is important. The murmuring of the people in the beginning of their journey through the wilderness is treated with the greatest mildness, almost as a childs sickness; but their murmuring towards the end of the journey is regarded as a severe offence, and is severely punished; it is like the offence of a mature man, committed in view of many years experience of Gods miraculous help. At the water of strife even Moses himself is involved in the guilt, through his impatience; and the gift of quails in abundance is made a judgment on the people for their immoderate indulgence. Another difference corresponds to the natural features of the desert: the quails do not keep coming; but the people find themselves accompanied by the manna till they are tired of eating it.Came up.. The coming on of a host of locusts or birds has the optical appearance of a coming up., with the article of a word used collectively of a class (Keil). LXX. , Vulg. coturnices. Large quails, whose name in Arabic comes from their fatness, fat. Says Knobel: They become very fat, increase enormously, and in the spring migrate northward, in the autumn southward. Here we are to conceive of a spring migration. For the events described took place in the second month, i.e. about our May (Exo 16:1; Num 10:11), and the quails came to the Israelites from the south-east, from the Arabian Gulf (Psa 78:26 sq.; Num 11:31). In his journey from Sinai to Edomitis in March, Schubert (II., p. 360 sq.) saw whole clouds of migratory birds, of such extent and denseness as never before; they came from their southern winter-quarters, and were hastening toward the sea-coast (?). Probably they were quails, at least in part. Further particulars on the abundance of quails in those regions, see in Knobel (p. 166) and Keil (II., p. 66). They are sometimes so exhausted that they can be caught with the hand (Keil). Some identify the fowl with the kata of the Arabs [a sort of partridge]. Of course it must be assumed that the Israelites in the wilderness were no more confined to the quails for meat than to the manna for bread.
The manna. Exo 16:13-14. A layer of dew. A deposit or fall of dew.A dust, i.e. an abundance of small kernels. If the . is explained simply according to the verb , to peal off, scale off, we get the notion of scaly or leaf-shaped kernels, but not that of coagulated kernels. But perhaps the notion of shelled kernels of grain is transferred, in accordance with appearance, to these kernels. According to Exo 16:31 and Num 11:7, says Knobel, the manna resembled in appearance the white coriander seeds (small, round kernels of dull white or yellowish green color) and the bdellium (resin). Again he says: According to the Old Testament, the dew comes from heaven (Deu 33:13; Deu 33:28; Pro 3:20; Zec 8:12; Hag 1:10); with it the manna descended (Num 11:9); this seems therefore like bread rained down from heaven, and is called corn of heaven, bread of heaven (Psa 78:24; Psa 105:40). Further on Knobel relates that the ancients also supposed, that honey rained down from the air; hence he should more exactly distinguish between the notions of atmosphere and of heaven as the dwelling-place of God, comp. Joh 6:31-32.Man hu.The explanation that is to be derived from , to apportion, and that this expression therefore means: a present is that (Kimchi, Luther, Gesenius, Knobel. Kurtz), does not suit the context, which would make Moses repeat what the people had said before him, to say nothing of the fact that the derivation of the notion present from the verb is disputed. On the contrary, the interpretation of the LXX., Keil and others, , perfectly accords with the connection. They said: What is that? because they did not know what it was. for belongs to the popular language, and is preserved in Chaldee and Ethiopic, so that it is indisputably to be regarded as an old Shemitic form (Keil).
The natural manna and the miraculous manna.Comp. the articles in the Bible Dictionaries. Keil says: This bread of heaven was given by Jehovah to His people for the first time at a season and in a place where natural manna is still found. The natural manna is now found in the peninsula of Sinai usually in June and July, often even as early as in May, most abundantly in the vicinity of Mt. Sinai, in Wady Feiran and Es-sheikh, but also in Wady Ghurundel and Tayibeh (Seetzen, Reisen, III., p. 76, 129), and some valleys south-east of Mt. Sinai (Ritter, XIV., p. 676), where it in warm weather oozes by night out of the branches of the tarfa-tree, a sort of tamarisk, and in the form of small globules falls down upon the dry leaves, branches, and thorns which lie under the trees, and is gathered before sunrise, but melts in the heat of the sun. In years when rain is abundant, it falls more plentifully for six weeks; in many years it is entirely wanting. It has the appearance of gum, and has a sweet, honey-like taste, and when copiously used, is said to be a gentle laxative (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 600; Wellsted in Ritter, p. 674). There are thus presented some striking points of resemblance between the manna of the Bible and the tamarisk manna. Not only is the place where the Israelites first received manna the same as that in which it is obtained now, but the time of the year is the same, inasmuch as the 15th day of the second month (Exo 16:1) falls in the middle of our May, or even still later. Also in color, form and appearance the resemblance is unmistakable, since the tamarisk manna, though of a dull yellow color, yet when it falls upon stones is described as white; the resemblance is likewise seen in the fact, that it falls in kernels upon the earth, is gathered in the morning, melts in the sun, and tastes like honey. While these points of agreement indubitably point to a connection between the natural and the Biblical manna, yet the differences which run parallel with all of the resemblances indicate no less clearly the miraculous character of the heavenly bread. Thus Keil leaves the matter, without reconciling the two positions. The miraculous manna, he says, was enjoyed by the Israelites forty years long everywhere in the wilderness and at all seasons of the year in quantity equal to the wants of the very numerous people. Hengstenbergs theory (Geschichle des Bileam, p. 280) that the natural manna which is formed on the leaves of the tarfa-bush by the sting of an insect (according to a discovery of Ehrenbergs), is the natural substratum of the miraculous abundance of manna, is combated by Kurtz III., p. 34. Kurtz can conceive that the people lived at Kadesh thirty-seven years in apostasy, and that nevertheless during all this time they received regularly their portion of manna for every man. By this method of distinguishing the miraculous from the natural manna, we come to the hypothesis, that the people of Israel were fed with two kinds of manna; for it will certainly not be assumed that the natural fall of manna during all this time was supernaturally suspended, as in a similar manner Keil on Exo 16:10 makes out two pillars of cloud. Von Raumer and Kurtz, we may remark, go as much beyond Keil, as Keil does beyond Hengstenberg. Vid. Keil, p. 72, and the note on the same page. Between the baldly literal interpretation and the embellishments of wonder-loving legends the view above described recognizes nothing higher; it does not understand the symbolic language of the theocratic religion, nor see how an understanding of this lifts us as much above the mythical as the literal interpretation. The defect of the latter consists, as to substance, in the circumstance that it identifies the conception of nature with that of the common external world raised by a Providential government only a little above a material system; as to form, it is defective in that it identifies the word and the letter, and cannot understand and appreciate the specific difference between the heathen myth and the symbolical expression of the theocratic spirit as it blends together ideas and facts. Kurtz refers to the miracle in John 2, without clearly apprehending that this miracle would be the merest trifle, if his notion of the miracle of the manna is the correct one, to say nothing of the evident conflict of this with Joh 6:32. Knobel, whose learned disquisition on the manna (p. 171 sqq.) should be consulted, thus states the distinctive features of the miraculous manna, which he regards as a legendary thing: (a) The manna, according to the Biblical account, comes with the mist and dew from heaven (Exo 16:14);so Kurtz III., p. 28. But since the mist does not come down from the throne of God, the meaning is simply that it comes from above, not from below. (b) It falls in such immense abundance that every person of the very numerous people daily receives an omer (Exo 16:16; Exo 16:36). The omer, however, is a very moderate hand measure, the tenth part of an ephah, originally hardly a definite quantity, vid. Keil II., p. 74. (c) Furthermore, those who gather the manna collect always only just what they need, no more and no less. This is clearly to be symbolically explained of contentedness and community. (d) The manna falls only on the six working-days, not on the seventh day, it being the Sabbath (Exo 16:26 sq.). On this is to be observed that this extraordinary fact was needed only once, in order to sanction the Sabbath; the fact may also be explained by the circumstance that on the day before an extraordinary, double fall of manna took place. (e) The manna which is kept over from one working-day to another becomes wormy and offensive (Exo 16:20), whilst that preserved from the sixth day to the seventh keeps good (Exo 16:24), for which reason, except on the sixth day, the manna must always be eaten on the day when it is gathered. This too is a singular, enigmatical fact; but it is cleared up by looking at it in its rich ideal light. The supply which heathen providence heaps up breeds worms, decays, and smells offensively: not so the supply required by the Sabbath rest, sacred festivities, and divine service. (f) It is ground in the hand-mill, crushed in the mortar, and cooked by baking or boiling, made e.g. into cakes (Exo 16:23, Num 11:8). (g) It appears in general as a sort of bread, tasting like baked food (Exo 16:31, Num 11:8), and is always called , even (vid. Exo 16:15), to say nothing of the miraculous doubling of the quantity (Exo 16:5; Exo 16:22). This latter feature comes at once to nothing, if we assume that on the sixth day there was a double fall of manna.18 How far the manna, which contains no farinaceous elements, but only glucose, was mingled with farinaceous elements, in order to be used after the manner of farinaceous food, we need not inquire; at all events the Israelites could not afterwards have said, of a properly farinaceous substance, and that too of a superior kind, Our soul loatheth this light food. The splendor with which faith, wonder, and gratitude had invested the enjoyment of the miraculous food had vanished. According to Keil, the connection of the natural manna with the miraculous manna is not to be denied, but we are also not to conceive of a mere augmentation, but the omnipotence of God created from the natural substance a new one, which in quality and quantity as far transcends the products of nature as the kingdom of grace and glory outshines the kingdoms of nature. But Christ, in John 6, speaks of a manna in the kingdom of grace and glory, in contrast with the Mosaic manna.According to Kurtz, who, especially in opposition to Karl Ritter, follows the opinion of Schubert, the manna was prepared by a miracle of omnipotence in the atmosphere; according to Schubert, that tendency to the production of manna which at the right time permeated the vitalizing air, and with it all the vital forces of the land, has propagated itself still, at least in the living thickets of the manna-tamarisks. The natural manna, then, is a descendant of the Biblical manna, but a degenerate sort, developed by the puncture made by the cochineal insect in the branches of the tarfa-shrub !
We are specially to consider further (1) the preservation of a pot, containing an omer of manna, in the sanctuary; (2) the specification of the time during which the use of manna by the Israelites lasted. As to the first point, the object was to preserve the manna as a religious memorial; hence the expression of the LLX., , is exegetical. The historian here evidently anticipates the later execution of the charge now given. Comp. Hengstenberg, Pentateuch II., p. 169 sqq. (Kurtz). As to the second point, it is expressively said that Israel had no lack of the miraculous manna so long as they were going through the wilderness; but Kurtz infers from Jos 5:11-12, that the Jews did not cease to eat manna till after the passover in Gilgal, though they had other food besides. The correct view is presented in the Commentary on Joshua, Exo 5:12, where stress is laid on the contrast between Jehovahs immediate preservation of the food of the wilderness, on the one hand, and the historical development that took the place of this, on the other hand, i.e., the natural order of things which belongs to civilized life; corresponding to the fact that the ark took the place of the pillar of cloud and fire, as leader of the people.
The question whether in this narrative the Sabbath is instituted for the first time (Hengstenberg), or again renewed (Liebetrut), is thus decided by Kurtz (III., p. 42): The observance of the Sabbath was instituted before the law, may even in Paradise, but the law of the Sabbath first received a legal character through the revelation on Sinai, and lost it again through the love which is the fulfilling of the law, in the new covenant (Col 2:16-17). In the fulfilment nothing indeed is lost, but every law becomes a liberating principle. It is noticeable how in the history of Moses, patriarchal customs, to which also probably the Sabbath belonged, are sanctioned by miraculous events and receive a legal character; as has already been seen in various instances (festivals, worship, sanitary laws, official rank, the Sabbath).
4. Rephidim
a. Rephidim and the place called Temptation and Strife.
Following the route of the mountain road the Israelites now came out of the region of the red sandstone into that of porphyry and granite (Knobel, p. 174). They came thither according to their days journeys, i.e., after several days journeys. In Num 33:12 the two stations Dophkah and Alush are mentioned. On the conjecture of Knobel (p. 174) concerning these places, vid. Keil II., p. 76.
According to Knobel (p. 176), popular tradition transfers the occurrence here mentioned to Kadesh, therefore to a later time, (Num 20:8). It is a universal characteristic of modern scientists that, not being free from the propensity to give predominant weight to sensible things, they are easily carried away with external resemblances, hence with allegories, and so may disregard the greatest internal differences of things. Thus as the external resemblance of man to the monkey is more impressive to the naturalist than the immense inward contrast, so Biblical criticism often becomes entangled in this modern allegorizing; even Hengstenberg pays tribute to it in identifying the Simon of Bethany with the Pharisee Simon on the Lake of Galilee, and so, the Mary of Bethany with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus.
As the sending of the quails in Num 11:5 sqq., forms a companion-piece to that in Exodus 16, so the water of strife in Num 20:2 sqq., to the water of strife in Rephidim. There is a resemblance even in the sounds of the names of the deserts Sin ( thorn?), and Zin ( low palm). So also the want of water and the murmurs of the people, and in consequence of this the seemingly identical designation of the place; also the giving of water out of the rock. Aside from the difference of time and place, the internal features of the two histories are also very different; even the difference in the designations is to be observed, the place Massah and Meribah (temptation and strife), and the water Meribah, over which the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, and He was sanctified (shown to be holy) among them. In the first account Jehovah is only tempted by the people; in the second, He is almost denied. In the one, Moses is said to smite the rock, away from the people, in the presence of the elders; in the other, he and Aaron are said to speak with the rock before all the people. Also the summary description of the journey in Deu 1:37, leaves no doubt that the second incident is entirely different from the first. Likewise in Deu 33:8, two different things are mentioned, and the temptation at Massah is distinguished from the strife at the water of strife, (comp. Psa 95:8). It lies in the nature of the case that the religious mind would celebrate in a comprehensive way its recollection of the most essential thing in the two events, viz., the miraculous help of Jehovah, Deu 8:15, Isa 48:21, Psa 78:15; Psa 78:20; Psa 105:41; Psa 114:8, Neh 9:15. Why chide ye with me?The true significance of this chiding with him Moses at once characterizes: it is a tempting of Jehovah. This he could do after what he had affirmed in Exo 16:8-9. After the giving of the quails and the manna, designed to confirm the divine mission of Moses and Aaron, they had now to do with Jehovah, when they quarrelled with Moses. But how far did they tempt Jehovah? Not simply by unbelieving doubt of the gracious presence of the Lord (Keil). They sinfully tested the question whether Jehovah would again stand by Moses, or would this time forsake him. Hence their reproach against Moses reaches the point of complaining that he is to blame for their impending ruina complaint which might well have been followed by stoning. Jehovahs command corresponds with this state of things. Moses is to go confidently away from the people to the still distant Horeb, but to take with him the elders of the people as witnesses, and there to smite the rock with his rod. But Jehovah is to stand there before him on the rock. Does this mean, as Keil represents, that God humbles Himself like a servant before his master? He rather appears as Moses visible representative, who rent the rock and produced the miraculous spring. The rock that followed them, says Paul, was Christ (1Co 10:4). Thence again is seen the divine human nature of the miracle, a mysterious synthesis of natural feeling and prophecy of grace. On Tacitus invidious narrative of Moses having discovered a spring of water by means of a drove of wild asses, see Kurtz III., p. 48.
b. Rephidim and Amalek. Hostile Heathendom.
As in the account of Amalek we see typically presented the relation of the people of God to the irreconcilably hostile heathendom; so in that of Jethro their relation to heathendom as manifesting a kindly disposition towards the theocracy.
Exhaustive treatises on the Amalekites may be found in the dictionaries and commentaries, especially also in Hengstenberg (Pentateuch II., p. 247 sqq., and Kurtz III., p. 48). In the way nations used to be formed, Amalek, a grandson of Esau, might quite well have become a nation by Moses time (vid. Genesis 36), Edomite leaders forming a nucleus around which a conglomerate multitude gathered. The Edomite tendency to barbarism was perpetuated in Amalek, and so in his descendants was developed a nation of Bedouin robbers, who might have spread from Idumea to Sinai, and perhaps in their capacity as waylayers had come to give name to a mountion of the Amalekites in the tribe of Ephraim (Jdg 12:15). Thus might a little people, which was kindred to Israel in the same way as Edom was, after Israel was regenerated to be the people of God, be the first to throw themselves hostilely in their way, and thus become the representative of all hostile heathendom, as opposed to the people and kingdom of God. In accordance with this was shaped the theocratic method of warfare against Amalek. and the typical law of war (see Keil II., p. 77). It is significant that the Midianites in the branch represented by Jethro should present heathendom on friendly terms with Israel, although the relationship was much less close. On the denial of the identity between the Amalekites and the above-mentioned descendants of Esau, see Kurtz III., p. 49. The descendant of Esau might, however, have received his name Amalek by transfer from the Bedouin horde which became subservient to him.
Then came Amalek. According to Deu 25:18, the attack of the Amalekites was a despicable surprise of the feeble stragglers of the Israelites. We have to conceive the order of the events to be about as follows: The murmuring on account of want of water and the relief of that want took place immediately after the arrival at Rephidim of the main part of the host which had hurried forward, whilst the rear, whose arrival had been delayed by fatigue, was still on the way. These were attacked by the Amalekites (Kurtz). The several features in the contest now beginning are these: Joshua with his chosen men; Moses on the mountain; the victory; the memorial of the fight; the altar Nissi and its typical significanceeternal war against Amalek!
Joshua. Jehovah is help, or salvation. Thus, according to Num 13:16, his former name, Hoshea (help, or salvation) was enriched; and perhaps the present war and victory occasioned the change.Choose us out men. It was the first war which the people of God had to wage, and it was against a wild and insidious foe. Hence no troops of doubtful courage could be sent against the enemy, but a select company must fight the battle, with Joshua at the head, whose heroic spirit Moses had already discovered. Precipitancy also was avoided. They let the enemy remain secure until the following day. The host of warriors, however, had to be supported by the host of spirits in the congregation interceding and blessing, as represented by Moses in conjunction with Aaron and Hur. See my pamphlet Vom Krieg und vom Sieg.
The completed victory was to be immortalized by the military annals (the book) and by the living recollections of the host (in the ears of Joshua).The altar Nissi (Jehovah my banner), however, was to serve the purpose of inaugurating the consecration of war by means of right military religious service. Accordingly, the two essential conditions of the war were, first, Jehovahs summoning the people to the sacred work of defense, secondly, Jehovahs own help. And also the war against Amalek is perpetuated until he is utterly destroyed only in the sense that Amalek typically represents malicious hostility to the people and kingdom of God.
Hur comes repeatedly before us (Exo 24:14, Exo 31:2) as a man of high repute, and as an assistant of Moses. Josephus (Ant. III. 2, 4), following a Jewish tradition, of the correctness of which there is much probability, calls him the husband of Miriam, Moses sister (Kurtz). According to Exo 31:2, he was the grandfather of Bezaleel, the architect of the tabernacle, of the tribe of Judah, and the son of Caleb (Chron. Exo 1:17.)
It is clear that the transaction with the rod of Moses was in this case too a symbolic and prophetic, a divine and human, assurance of victory. Therefore the rod must be held on high, and inasmuch as Moses hands cannot permanently hold it up, they must be supported by Aaron and Hur. In the holy war the priesthood and nobility must support the prophetical ruler. Thus is produced an immovable confidence in Jehovah Nissi, afterwards called Jehovah Sabaoth (of hosts). From His throne, through Moses hand, victorious power and confidence flow into the host of warriors. The book begun by Moses, in which the victory over Amalek is recorded, is important in reference to the question concerning the authority of the Bible. When Jehovah further commands Moses to intrust to Joshua the future extirpation of Amalek, it becomes evident even now that he is destined to be Moses successor (Kurtz). A conjecture about the hill where Moses stood may be found in Knobel, p. 177; Keil, II., p. 79. Subsequent wars waged against Amalek by Saul and David are narrated in 1 Samuel 15, 27, 30. Kurtz regards the elevated hand of Moses not as a symbol of prayer to Jehovah, but only of victorious confidence derived from Jehovah, III., p. 51. Keil rightly opposes the separation of the bestowment of victory from prayer, p. 79, but goes to the other extreme when he says, The elevated rod was a sign not for the fighting Israelites, since it cannot even be made out that they, in the confusion of battle, could see it, but for Jehovah. In all human acts of benediction prayer and the impartation of the blessing are united.
c. Jethro, and heathendom as friendly to the people of God.
Inasmuch as chap. 19 records the establishment of the theocracy, or of the typical kingdom of God, it is in the highest degree significant that the two preceding sections fix the relation and bearing of the people of God towards heathendom. Out of one principle are to flow two opposing ones, in accordance with the twofold bearing of heathendom. The heathen, represented by Amalek, who are persistently hostile, wage war against Jehovah Himself; on them destruction is eventually to be visited. The heathen, however, represented by Jethro, who are humane and cherish friendship towards the people of God, sustain towards Christianity, as it were, the relation of catechumens. The people of God enter into commercial and social intercourse with them under the impulse of religion and humanity; similarly James defines the relation of Christianity to Judaism. [There is nothing about this in his Epistle. Is the reference to Act 15:20-21?Tr.]
(i.) The pious heathen as guest, relative, and protector of Moses family, and as guardian of the spiritual treasures of Israel. Exo 18:1-4.
It seems like too legal a conception, when Keil calls Jethro the first-fruits among the heathen that seek the living God, and incidentally adduces his descent from Abraham. Jethro did not become a Jew, but remained a priest in Midian, just as John the Baptist did not become, properly speaking, a Christian, but remained a Jew. It is more correct, when Keil says that Amalek and Jethro typify and represent the two-fold attitude of the heathen world towards the kingdom of God. In opposition to the special conjectures of Kurtz and Ranke, especially also the assumption that there was not time enough in Rephidim for this new incident, see Keil, II. p. 84.19
(ii.) The pious heathen as sympathetic friend of Moses and of the people of God in their victories. Exo 18:5-9.
Notice the delicate discretion which both men observe, with all their friendship towards each other. Jethro does not rush impetuously forward; he sends word of his approach. Moses receives him with appropriate reverence, but first leads him into his tent; for whether and how he may introduce him to his people, is yet to be determined.
(iii.) Religious song and thank-offering of the pious heathen. Exo 18:10-12.
The lyrical,20 festive recognition of the greatness of Jehovah in His mode of bringing the Egyptians to confusion through their very arrogance does not involve conversion to Judaism; neither does the burnt-offering and the thank-offering: but they do indicate ideal spiritual fellowship, aside from social intercourse.
(iv.) The religious and social fellowship of the people of God, even of Aaron the priest, and of the elders, with the pious heathen. Exo 18:12.
A proof that the religious spirit of the Israelites was as yet free from the fanaticism of the later Judaism is seen in the fact that Aaron and the elders could take part in a sacrificial feast with Jethro. Common participation in the Passover meal would have been conditioned on circumcision.
(v.) The political wisdom and organizing talent of the pious heathen thankfully recognized and humbly used by the great prophet himself. Exo 18:13-26.
Jethros advice given to Moses, like political institutions and political wisdom, is not a gift of immediate revelation, but a fruit of the sensus communis. But observe that Jethro acknowledges the prophetic vocation of Moses, and Jehovahs revelation in regard to all great matters (questions of principle), just as Moses acknowledges the piety of his political wisdom. Moses and Jethro came nearer together than the medival church and ordinary liberalism. Exo 18:17-18 contain very important utterances concerning the consequences of such a hierarchy. On the distribution of the people according to the decimal system, see Keil, II., p. 87. The decimal numbers are supposed by him to designate approximately the natural ramifications of the people [ten being assumed to represent the average size of a family]. A further development of the institution (comp. Deu 1:9) took place later, according to Num 11:16.
(vi.) Distinct economies on a friendly footing with each other. Exo 18:27.
Analogous to this occurrence is the covenant of Abraham with Abimelech; the friendly relations maintained by David and Solomon with Hiram, king of Tyre, the queen of Sheba, etc.
Footnotes:
[7][Exo 16:15 . Gesenius and Knobel derive from , to apportion; Frst (Concordance) from the Sanscrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard as the Aramaic equivalent of . Even Frst so renders it in his Illustrirte Pracht-Bibel. Comp. Michaelis, Supplementa ad Lexica Hebraica.Tr.].
[8][Exo 16:20. And it bred worms: . The Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of defectively written, and therefore to mean: rose up into (or with) worms. Kalisch says, that the form is used instead of to show that it comes from (?) in the sense of putrefy. So Maurer and Ewald (Gr., 281, d). But it is doubtful whether (assumed as the root from which comes worm) really means putrefy at all. Frst defines it by crawl. Moreover, it would be inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna became putrid with worms; the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the putridness. Rosenmller, Frst, Arnheim and others render by swarm, abound, but probably as a free rendering for rose up. De Wette: da wuchsen Wrmer. The A. V. rendering may stand as a substantially correct reproduction of the sense.Tr.].
[9][Exo 17:16. We have given the most literal rendering of this difficult passage. But possibly , instead of meaning for (or because), may (as often in Greek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient authorities, takes it as an oath; but for this there is little ground. Keil interprets: The hand raised to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Jehovahs war against Amalek, i.e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towards Jehovahs throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: Because a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is against the throne of Jah, therefore Jehovah will forever have war with Amalek. This interpretation has the advantage over Keils of giving a more natural rendering to , which indeed in a few cases does mean up to, but only when it is (as it is not here) connected with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps the majority of modern exegetes) would read (banner), instead of (throne), and interpret: The hand upon Jehovahs banner; Jehovah has war, etc. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, inasmuch as the name of the altar, Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner), seems to require an explanation, and would receive it if the reading were , instead of Tr.].
[10]Inasmuch as Pelusium, as being a marshy city, is culled Sin, and Sinai, being a rocky mountain, is just the opposite, the question arises: What is the common feature of a marshy wilderness, and of a rocky mountain range? Possibly, the points and denticulations of the thorn-bush. An old interpretation calls Sinai itself a thorn-bush, from the thorn-bush () in which Jehovah revealed Himself to Moses. The stony wilderness may have the thorn-bush in common with the marshy fens.
[11][Lange omits another way which might have been taken, viz., from el-Murkhah along the coast, and thence up Wady Feiran, instead of the more direct way through the wadies Shellal and Mukatteb into Wady Feiran. This is the course which the members of the Sinai Survey Expedition unanimously decided to be the most probable, inasmuch as the road over the pass of Nagb Buderah, between the wadies Shellal and Mukatteb, must have been constructed at a time posterior to the Exodus (E. H. Palmer: The Desert of the Exodus, p. 275). Robinson also mentions this route as at least equally probable with the other (I., p. 107). Palmer is quite decided that no other route afforded facilities for a large caravan such as that of the Israelites.Tr.]
[12][This is not perspicuous. Inasmuch as Serbal is not mentioned in the Bible, no inference can be drawn from these circumstances respecting its location. Moreover, Serbal is not north of Sinai (Jebel Musa), but nearly easta little north only. And why is north called behind? The hinder region, according to Hebrew conceptions, is in the west.Tr.]
[13][The theory that Rephidim is to be sought in er-Raba (advocated by Knobel, Keil, Lange, and others), is certainly open to the objection that that plain is close by Mt. Sinai itself, and is in all probability the camping-place before the mount, mentioned in Exo 19:1-2. Palmer (p. 112) and Robinson (I., p. 155) are emphatic in the opinion that the plain of Sebaiveh, south-east of Jebel Musa, is quite insufficient to have accommodated the Israelitish camp. Rephidim, therefore, being (according to Exo 19:2) at least a days march from the place whence Moses went up to receive the law, cannot well have been er-Raha. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, p. 40) and Palmer defend the old view that it is to be looked for at Feiran, near Mt. Serbal. Palmer argues that the distance, apparently much too great to have been traversed in a single day, is no insuperable objection, provided that by the wilderness of Sinai we understand the mouth of Nagb Hawa, which may have been reached in a single day by the direct route from Feiran.Tr.]
[14][On this point see the last note. A good map of the whole peninsula is to be found in Smith and Groves Atlas of Ancient Geography.Tr.]
[15]The Arabs call the well exitium, interitus, probably in accordance with the notion that that which is bitter is deadly (2Ki 4:40). Knobel. The Arabs may make humorous remarks about bad wells of water, like the Germans on bad wines, in hyperbolical expressions which are not to be taken literally.
[16][Wilson, (Lands of the Bible, Vol. I., p. 174), would identify with Elim, not Wady Ghurundel, but Wady Waseit (Useit), five or six miles south of Wady Ghurundel.Tr.].
[17]Further on follows the fundamental law of warfare in self-defence against heathen enemies, as well as the fundamental law for the unhesitating appropriation of heathen wisdom.
[18][This reply, apparently not very clear, is the same as the one made above to specification (d) of Knobel. Lange distinguishes between a miraculous fall and an extraordinary fall, and supposes besides that the extraordinary (double) fall may have been limited to one occasion.Tr.]
[19][Kurtzs conjecture is that what led Jethro to visit Moses was the report of the victory of the Israelites over Amalek; to which the reply is that nothing is said of this, but, on the contrary, that it was the report of the deliverance from Egypt that occasioned the visit. Rankes conjecture is that Jethros visit took place after the giving of the law, on the ground that the stay at Rephidim was too short; to which it is replied that, if (as is assumed from Exo 16:1 and Exo 19:1) half a month intervened between the arrival at the wilderness of Sin and the arrival at the wilderness of Sinai, ample time is afforded for all that is recorded in Exodus 18.Tr.]
[20][Lange regards Exo 18:10-11 as poetic in form.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS
This is a most interesting Chapter, and when explained to us by the gospel as it is in the outlines of it by one of the apostles, serves to show how much redemption work occupied the divine mind, when in so many ages before its accomplishment, Christ was held forth to the Church in type and figure. Here therefore, let the Reader particularly keep in view, that Moses wrote of Jesus. The children of Israel in their journeying through the wilderness, depart from Sin and arrive at Rephidim. Murmurings again break forth in the camp from the want of water. Moses cries to God. God causeth water to issue from the rock. After this the host of Amalek comes forth to obstruct Israel; but is defeated. God commands Moses to record this event in a book. These are the contents of this Chapter.
Exo 17:1
Reader! Keep in view, that this journeying of Israel was according to the commandment of the Lord, and under the direction of the pillar of cloud: and yet they wanted water. So is it in our spiritual warfare; the very path the Lord appoints may be a thorny path. Psa 107:4-6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Exo 17:2
In the first expostulation condemning them of injustice since not he, but the Lord, hath afflicted them; in the second, of presumption; that since it was God that tempted them by want, they should tempt Him by murmuring. In the one He would have them see their wrong; in the other, their danger.
Bishop Hall.
You, therefore, who wish to remain free, either instantly be wise, or, as soon as possible, cease to be fools; if you think slavery an intolerable evil, learn obedience to reason and the government of yourselves; and finally bid adieu to your discussions, your jealousies, your superstitions, your outrages, your rapine, and your lusts.
Milton, Second Defence.
Exo 17:4

Compare John Foster’s remarks to a misanthropist, in the fourth chapter of A Man’s Writing Memoirs of Himself: ‘Frail and changeable in virtue, you might perhaps have been good under a series of auspicious circumstances; but the glory had been to be victoriously good against malignant ones. Moses lost none of his generous concern for a people on whom you would have invoked the waters of Noah or the fires of Sodom to return; and that Greater than Moses, who endured from men such a matchless excess of injustice, while for their sake alone He sojourned and suffered on earth, was not alienated to misanthropy in his life or at His death.
Exo 17:4
The glory of all heroes and patriots grows pale before that of Moses; others deliver, he creates a nation. With him, ‘this people’ is, for the first time, recognized as a unity, the chaos of warring tribes is subdued into a cosmos, and the unity of a family expanded into the unity of a possible nation.
Miss Wedgwood, Message of Israel, p. 44.
Look almost where you will in the wide field of history, you find religion, whenever it works freely and mightily, either giving birth to and sustaining states, or else raising them up to a second life after their destruction. It is a great state-builder in the hands of Moses and Ulfilas, Gregory and Nicholas.
Sir John Seeley, Natural Religion, pp. 188 f.
He did not, like the Egyptians, fashion his works of art out of bricks and granite. He erected human pyramids, he carved out human obelisks, he took a poor shepherd tribe, and from it he created a people fit to defy the centuries, a great, a holy, an eternal people, a people of God! With greater justice than the Roman poet might this artist, this son of Amram and Jochebed, boast that he had erected a monument which should outlive all the creations of brass.
Heine.
The Lesson of Massah and Meribah
Exo 17:7

I. Few incidents during the wanderings in the wilderness made a deeper impression upon the Jews than the striking of the rock by Moses, and the supply of water from it which followed, if, at least, we may judge from the number of references to it in their national literature.
But if, on the one hand, the incident thus stood out brightly as a signal manifestation of God’s power and love, there was a darker side to it as well, for on the other hand, it was a no less striking and mournful example of the faithlessness and unbelief of God’s people, and as such also it made a deep impression. So in that Psalm which the Christian Church has taken for daily use in her morning service there is a reference which the English reader is apt to miss, for when in the Venite the appeal is made, ‘Today if ye will hear His voice,’ etc., there is in the original a definite and clear allusion to that which happened ‘at Meribah, in the day of Massah’; and these names, which were given to the spot in commemoration of the incident, stood forth to all time as a memorial of Israel’s ingratitude, for Meribah means strife and Massah temptation. It was indeed a tempting of God. After so many manifestations of His power and goodness towards them they were still unable to trust Him for an instant.
II. When Israel is said to have ‘tempted Jehovah,’ it means that they acted as if doubting whether His promise was true, or whether He was really faithful to the character in which He had so often revealed Himself as a present God, able and ready to supply their every need. It indicated on their part a temper of distrust, a readiness to fall into a panic, to doubt God, and so to forsake Him at the first difficulty; and for this it is that it is so often alluded to in the subsequent history as a warning and example to all time.
III. Can we say that we of today have no need to lay to heart the warning which is writ so large on the face of the story, and that the temper shown by Israel has no counterpart among us now? The doubt which Israel felt of God’s power and presence, because of an unexpected difficulty and a new problem, seems to me typical of that timid, faithless attitude which comes over so many when the advance of knowledge and discovery raises some difficulty with regard to the Christian faith.
Bishop Gibson, Messages from the Old Testament, p. 29.
References. XVII. 8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 712. XVII. 8, 9. Ibid. vol. xxxvii. No. 2233. XVII. 8-11. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p. 509. XVII. 9. Ibid. vol. iii. No. 112.
Exo 17:9
Then only can we pray with hope, when we have done our best. In vain shall Moses be upon the hill, if Joshua be not in the valley. Prayer without means is a mockery of God.
Bishop Hall.
Exo 17:11
Moses, when the battle was raging, held up his arms to heaven, with the rod of God in his hand; and thus Israel overcame Amalek. Hence a notion got abroad through the world that in times of difficulty or danger the mightiest weapon a man can make use of is prayer. But Moses’ arms grew heavy; and he was forced to call in Aaron and Hur to hold them up. In like manner do we all too readily weary of prayer, and feel it become a burthen, and let our hands drop; and then Amalek prevails…. As our flesh is so weak, that our prayers soon drop and become faint, unless they are upheld, Christ and the Holy Spirit vouchsafe to uphold our prayers, and to breathe the power of faith into them, so that they may mount heavenward, and to bear them up to the very Throne of Grace.
Julius Hare in Guesses at Truth.

References. XVII. 11. A. F. Wilmington Ingram, Under the Dome, p. 75. H.I.M. William II. of Germany, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. 1901, p. 49.
Exo 17:12
Aaron was brother to Moses: there cannot be a more brotherly office than to help one another in our prayers, and to excite our mutual devotions. No Christian may think it enough to pray alone. He is no true Israelite that will not be ready to lift up the weary hands of God’s saints.
Bishop Hall.
We do not find that Joshua’s hands were heavy in fighting, but Moses’ hands were heavy in praying. The more spiritual any service is, the more apt we are to fail and flag in it.
Matthew Henry.
References. XVII. 12. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. i. p. 34. XVII. 13. T. Champness, New Coins from Old Gold, p. 66. XVII. 15. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, etc., p. 72. Prof. Findlay, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 285. T. G. Rooke, The Church in the Wilderness, p. 53. XVIII. 3, 4. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, etc., p. 80 XVIII. 7. D. Strong, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii. 1892, p. 166.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

1. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
2. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?
3. And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
4. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me (tumultuary, not legal stoning).
5. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
6. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb (some particular rock in the Horeb range); and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water 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 (trial or temptation), and Meribah (chiding or quarrel), because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?
8. Then came Amalek (the first formal mention as a nation), and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
9. And Moses said unto Joshua (the first mention of Joshua, the tenth in descent from Joseph, probably forty-five years old), Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
10. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses (upwards of eighty), Aaron (eighty-three), and Hur (the grandfather of Bezaleel, and not much younger than Moses or Aaron) went up to the top of the hill.
11. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone (only an eyewitness would have noted this), and put it under him, and he sat thereon and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven (done finally and completely in the reign of Hezekiah, see 1Ch 4:43 ).
15. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner).
16 For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation (because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of God, therefore the Lord hath war with Amalek from generation to generation).
Rephidim: Ancient and Modern
Exo 17

Chapters like this enable us to see how far the race has advanced in a moral direction. How far have we travelled from Rephidim? This is more than a question in geography: it is a profound inquiry in morals. We are too apt to dismiss as ancient history terms which we consider to be merely local. The terms themselves may be strictly local and hardly worth remembering; but they may be associated with qualities, influences and ministries, which constitute an eternal presence in human life. The New Testament did not hesitate to make use of the history of the Old, and we are called upon in this matter to follow the example of Christ and to imitate that of the Apostles. They told us the meaning of the things which happened aforetime; and every teacher who would maintain a profound influence upon any age must see to it that he does not allow the unity of the ages to be broken, but rather insist upon their continuousness, their solidarity, and their unanimous meaning. The ages are one. If we ask how far have we advanced in a mechanical direction, it will be difficult to establish any link of union between our country to-day and five hundred years ago. Verily, we have travelled from ourselves innumerable thousands of miles in all matters of a merely mechanical nature. Our ancestors would not know us in these particulars. All things have been created anew. It would be impossible for us to go back upon the olden days. We should scorn their narrowness, wonder at their poverty, and hold in more or less gracious contempt the slowness, and the weariness, and the dull monotony of the old times of our forefathers. We rejoice in this progress; we mark it in a way that cannot be easily mistaken, and say that civilisation has expanded its influence and consolidated its empire. So be it. How far have we advanced in a literary direction? Again the progress has been almost immeasurable. In words, in pureness of literature, in daring boldness of conception, in loftiness of speculation, in splendour and vividness of diction and representation, we seem to have advanced almost incalculably from many of the old standards. So be it. In this respect there is in very deed what may be termed ancient history. We have almost a new English. We have been so complete in our criticism and progress as to have almost established a new alphabet of things. We rejoice in this, and call it progress, and boast of it with honest and legitimate triumph. But the preacher’s question is: How far have we advanced morally, spiritually, and in all the higher ranges and Diviner outlooks of our being? Here we seem to be still at Rephidim. Geographers say they cannot find out the exact locality. Verily, there need be no difficulty about the exact locality it is just where we are. We carry the locality with us. Let men who like to search the sand, and turn over the stones, and compare ancient and modern geography, bewilder themselves in seeking for square feet and precise positions; we interpret the event by a broader law, and have no difficulty whatever in affirming that we carry Rephidim with us, and this day, four five thousand years away in time from the place, we are standing in the very footprints of old Israel, and doing in all their broader meanings exactly the actions which old Israel performed. Unless we seize this idea of the Scriptures we shall separate ourselves very far indeed from their truest and deepest meanings. We must not allow little boundaries, and local names, and occult Hebraisms and Chaldaisms to come between us and the great unity of the human race. We must overleap these, or crush our way through them, and claim association with the central and abiding line which marks the development of human history and Divine purpose.
Why be so emphatic about our being at Rephidim? Because, first of all, I said that the people at Rephidim were tormented by a continual consciousness of necessity. How far have we got from necessity? Not one inch. Necessity has followed us all the time. It is awake in the morning before we open our eyes, and the last thing we see, before we close our vision in sleep, is the grim image of necessity. The people wanted bread a day or two ago now they are consumed with thirst, and are chiding Moses and murmuring bitterly against him because of the want of water. If that is so, verily we are still at Rephidim. Every life knows the bite of necessity; every man represents the great void of need; every soul cries out in pain because there is wanting some completing favour, some culminating and all-contenting benediction. Here it is bread; there it is water; but everywhere a famine a hungrier famine than the wolfs cry for food in many a case, a famine of the soul, a spiritual destitution, a consciousness of a void which time cannot satisfy or space content. Why did they not find themselves water? Why did they not supply their own necessity? This is the mystery of human life: that we are not self-complete, but are debtors to nature. We must put out our hand and receive from another that which we daily need. Poor creatures! yet so august in greatness. We are indebted to one another. We find a leader when we are in pain, sorrow and deep necessity. In the great round of daily occurrences we pay but small heed to him he is there, or will soon be present, or where he is we hardly know and do not specially care; but let us become surrounded by danger, let us become conscious of some new necessity, let a sudden pain strike our life and torment our happiness, and up goes the cry, Where is Moses? Where is the leader? Where the priest who can pray? Where the man who is a host in himself? These are the hours in which we discover just what we are and just what we can do. Strange that men who cannot support the body without help have in some infatuated cases supposed that they could nurture the soul without assistance. God will have hold of us somewhere. If we do not give him the opportunity of laying hold of our consenting minds, and burning, loyal, devoutest love, he will get hold of our fleshly necessities, and we shall cry to him, whom we spiritually deny, when our tongue is athirst for water and our life is perishing for want of bread. Pray we must a prayer of agony and hopefulness. Prayer in its deepest meaning not in its formality, or as a matter of attitude, and posture, and mechanical expression is a necessity of life, an instinct of the soul, and an aspiration that separates us from the base and makes us men We must advance from the lower to the higher. We have it before us as a certain and indisputable fact that for the support of the body we need external help: we need the whole ministry of kind and gracious nature. What wonder if in the education, and culture, and strengthening of the soul we need all heaven, with its infinite Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Were we pressed to affirm that necessity it would be in strict consonance with all the other wants that follow and devour our wasting life.
Why be so emphatic about our still being at Rephidim? Because at Rephidim help was found in unexpected places and given in unexpected ways: “Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” Is that ancient history? It may be ancient, but it is very new quite modern, young as the morning, present as our immediate consciousness and experience. We are always helped by unexpected people, in unexpected ways, and at unexpected places. God would appear to delight in baffling the ingenuity that would forecast the future with too exclusive a minuteness. God will not allow us to trifle with his prerogatives. He will find water where we should find none. The rock is not an inhospitable stone; it is a congealed fountain. Human necessity and Divine grace meet in sweet consent Have no fear then. I know that there is a rock immediately ahead of me; but God can melt it into a river. I know that there is a Red Sea just in front of me; but God can divide it and let me pass as through an iron gate. I am aware that Jordan’s water is rolling just a few paces ahead, and I may have to go so near it as to touch it; but the moment the foot of faith splashes in the waters of danger they must give way, for faith can never fail. Lord, increase our faith.
In the great encounters of life, either the spiritual or the material must give way, and God has never been stopped by that which is material and physical. Say that it is a work of imagination if you please, but as such it is done with infinite skill a skill so infinite as to be more than human. God is never represented as being worsted, baffled, by any of the material which is built up into the house which we call his universe. “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” We die when our faith dies. Our power is not a power of genius, but an almightiness of belief. Nature is always equal to our physical necessities. God has put everything into nature which that other nature, called human, requires for its bodily sustentation. All food is in the kind earth. All medicine is in the garden. All healing is in the air which is blowing around us like a Divine benediction. The water is sometimes kept in the rock, and the bread is sometimes locked up in the cloud and allowed to drop down upon us like a very small coriander seed which we gather with wonder, and eat with an inquiry, saying, What is it? All help is near, if you did but understand it: “there standeth One among you, whom ye know not; he it is.” The unknown is sitting next to you. The tree you need for the cure of the bitter pool is bending over the very water that needs to be healed. We realise the nearness of food, the nearness of music, the nearness of the living air, the nearness of those elements which are essential to the upbuilding and maturity of our lower nature, why do we not realise the nearness of the redeeming God the immediate presence of him who says “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in”? In all other things we glory in the nearness of the remedy, in the close proximity of what we need: yet, when we come into spiritual inquiries, the soul says “Why standest thou afar off, O God?” and the inquiry is rebuked by the infinitely tender gospel “I am a God near at hand,” saith the Lord, “and not a God afar off.” A wonderful rock! I cannot explain it; but rocks and more than rocks; rivers and more than water the Lord hath turned every Nile into saving blood, every rock into living water, and he has interpreted the parable of nature into the great and saving gospel of love. Do you ask the meaning of the rock? The Apostle Paul shall give it: “I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” Be it mine to belong to the school that sees great things in little ones, that sees the moulding hand of God in the dew-drop as well as in the infinite constellations which seem to crowd the very amplitude of infinity. The very hairs of your head are all numbered; and as for so-called small things, take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; it were better for that man that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea, than that he should dispossess or offend one of God’s little ones. Look for great meanings. See in the dust the possibility of children being raised up unto Abraham. See in the temple stones possible voices of praise, if the natural worshippers should suddenly become dumb; and see in every rock not stone only, but an unhewn stairway up to the Jerusalem which is lighted by the Lamb.
Why be so emphatic about still being at Rephidim? Because peevish tempers were corrected by great duties in that ancient locality. So the providence of God continues to work in us. The children of Israel were peevishly sighing and crying for the old Egyptian life, longing for the fleshpots of Egypt, desiring to be back again where they had food enough, because even Egyptian slave-drivers were wise enough not to starve their beasts of burden. So Israel fell into fretfulness, and whining, and dissatisfaction, and rebellion. What did God do? He sent Amalek upon Israel. That is the function of war among the nations. It is no use reasoning with peevishness. It is time wasted to try to expostulate with any man who is in a whining mood of soul, displeased because of his bread, discontented because of the scarcity of water, making no allowance for the undulations of life, reasoning, remonstrance, expostulation would be lost. What must be done? An enemy must be raised up to smite him with the sword. Then he will come into a new mood of mind, forget his littleness, and, springing forward to a realisation of his true power, he will lose in service the discontent which he contracted in unbelief.
What we want to-day is persecution. We do not want eloquence, criticism, new learning, some new invention in theological confectionery that shall tempt appetites that have been sated; we want war persecution the enemy at the gate. Then we should begin to forgive one another, to pray for one another, to come more closely together at the altar and more near in that consent of soul which is blessed with insight into spiritual mysteries. We have lost in losing the enemy. The sting of Smithfield fire would correct our theology a good deal; the old gibbet would take the fretfulness out of our tone; the great earthquake rocking our cities would make us forget our animosities and unite us in bolder intercession. This is the meaning of your commercial depressions, of your mercantile losses, of your great and small afflictions in the family. This is the meaning of the little coffin in the upper chamber, of the father’s dead body being carried out to the churchyard. This the meaning of all the gloom, and cloud, and battle, and contest. We have been too peevish, wandering, discontented. We have been in need of knowing the true tragedy of life and of being whipped out of our peddling criticism, out of our mean and contemptible conceptions of God and his universe; and if we accept the Divine discipline in the right spirit, when that discipline has exhausted itself, each man will say for himself, “It was good for me that I was afflicted; before I was afflicted I went astray.” “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” When God sends the Amalekite upon you, it is that the enemy may teach what the friend has failed to convey.
A most beautiful picture: the old men up the hill praying, Moses, and Aaron, and Hur a man almost as mysterious in history as Melchisedek himself, all the three men more than eighty years of age, away supplicating Heaven; the young men fighting as young men always should be, and the Lord watching. Now the Amalekite prevails now Israel. How goes the fight? Watch the leader’s arms. They are up; then the banner is Israel’s that floats with triumph in the hot air; the poor arms have fallen down, and Amalek springs towards the temporary victory It is a great parable; it is a most tender idyl. This scene is full of present mystery and present grace. Mock the suppliants if you will; but they are men who are engaged in the upper regions of the battle. They are not cowards who have fled from the fight, they are heroes who are standing at its front and have undertaken the responsibility of its success. Young men, go forth to the war. I am ashamed of the young man who stays at home and sates himself with debasing luxury, when there are great wars to be fought, great positions to be taken, mighty fortresses of evil to be overthrown. Awake! awake! put on thy strength, oh redeemed life, and carry the Lord’s banner away to the front and set it up in sign of victory.
Wondrous is one little line in the history: “And thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go,” and afterward Moses, having spoken to Joshua, said, “I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.” Never forget the old rod, the old book, the old truth; the sword that cut off the head of Goliath “Give me that,” said David, “there is none like it.” Thus God hides inspiration in things of apparently little value, and touches the imagination and the faith by books, ministries, churches, altars, which we thought had passed away into desuetude, perhaps oblivion. Your first prayer may help you to-day. The faith of your youth may be the only thing to win the battle which now challenges your strength. One little hour with the old, old book may be all you need to obtain the sufficiency of light which will drive away the cloud of mystery and bring in the heaven of explanation. Of ancient Rephidim we know nothing: the geographers and discoverers are still searching for it; but the modern Rephidim of conscious necessity, of finding help in unexpected places, of having peevish tempers corrected by great duties, that Rephidim is our present environment. May we answer the call of God when challenged to battle with a heroism that cannot cringe and with a faith that can only satisfy itself with prayer.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XI
FROM THE RED SEA TO SINAI (Continued)
Exodus 17-18

Our present chapter is a continuation of the last theme, “From the Red Sea to Sinai,” and this part of the theme is covered by Exodus 17-18. The chapter will be given catechetically.
1. What was the double sin of Israel at Rephidim?
Ans. The chiding of Moses and the tempting of God.
2. What was the occasion of this sin?
Ans. No water for the people to drink.
3. In what words did they chide Moses?
Ans. “Give us water that we may drink . . . Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” This chiding of Moses is further repeated in their being ready to stone him.
4. How did they tempt God?
Ans. By saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” That certainly ought not to have been a debatable matter. They should have remembered the indications of God’s presence with them when they were in Goshen, and the mighty work that he did in their deliverance, and how he was with them at the Red Sea and in the pillar of cloud and of fire. His presence was visible to them at all times. In their perplexities he had communed with them through Moses, and had just sweetened the water at Marah.
5. How was the want supplied?
Ans. Jehovah commanded Moses to take with him the elders of the people and the rod, the staff, and go to the rock in Horeb and smite it, and water would gush out of it. At the striking of that rock by Moses, the fountain was unsealed. The first time I saw Kickapoo Spring in Texas, I was reminded of the smiting of the rock. That spring cornes out of the rock just about on a level with your face as you stand in front of it, and the volume of water is about one yard thick, just gushing out, and trout are playing in it fifteen steps from where it gushes from the rock. An old Indian tradition is that in days long past a number of the Indians’ were there starving and that there came a thunderbolt which smote the rock and unsealed that fountain of water.
6. What names were given to these places? What of their derivation and meaning?
Ans. The names given were Massah and Meribah. They I are derived from verbs. Massah is the noun of the verb which j means “to tempt, or prove.” Massah, then, means temptation, trial or a proving, from Exo 17:7 : “And he called the name of I the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, I saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?” In Exo 17:2 the verb “to: chide” has for its noun Meribah, and the meaning is suggested by the verb “to chide.” Meribah then means a chid-. ing. “Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink” (Exo 17:2 ).
7. How does Moses later refer to this sin?
Ans. Deu 6:16 : “Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.” There on the borders of the Promised Land about thirty-nine years after this event, Moses gave them this law.
8. How does our Lord apply these words of Moses?
Ans. We learn in Mat 4 and Luk 5 that when Jesus was tempted of Satan in the wilderness, he cut him off by this saying: “It is written, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God,” quoting Moses.
9. What does Paul say of this event at Rephidim, and what does he mean by the rock “following them”? And how do the rabbis explain that “following”?
Ans. Paul says that the fathers did all eat the same spiritual meat (referring to the manna), and did drink the same spiritual drink, i.e., the water from the smitten rock, and he is “That rock was Christ.” Now, the rabbis claim one of two alternate things: (1) That when the Israelites moved away from there that rock moved with them, carrying its fountain of waters, which is foolishness; or (2) that while the rock remained where it was, yet the water followed that company trough their march; that stream which started to flow at Horeb followed them wherever they went, and that, too, is foolishness, for a good deal of the time they went uphill, and that being so, there would be no necessity later on to get water from another rock, as we learn in Numbers. What, then, does Paul mean in this: “And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was the Christ” (1Co 10:2-4 ). The meaning is that Christ in his pre-incarnate state accompanied them all through their wanderings.
10. Contrast this water from the rock with a later occasion, as given in Num 20 , and expound the difference.
Ans. In the occasion at Horeb God commands Moses to smite the rock. In the occasion at Kadesh God commands Moses to speak to the rock, not to smite it, but to speak to it. But Moses, instead of speaking to it as he had been commanded, smote it twice in anger. The benefits coming from Christ originated in his being smitten, and he was smitten once for all. He has to die but once; the sacrifice was never to be repeated, but after he died we get the benefits which flow from Christ by petition; by speaking to him. We do not have to crucify him afresh every time we need anything from him. He was to be crucified but one time. But all through our lives we may speak to the smitten rock and get what we need. That is the most striking point of contrast.
11. What other great event occurred at Rephidim?
Ans. At that point the Israelites were attacked by Amalekites.
12. Who were the Amalekites? Their position among the nations ?

Ans. We learn in Genesis that one of the descendants of Esau, the elder brother of Jacob, was Amaiek; and hence many commentators make the Amalekites kinsmen of the Israelites, the descendants of Esau. I am not at all inclined to accept that. The only thing in the world to support it is that Esau did have a son named Amalek, and that is all there is. But in the Bible references the Amalekites are not reckoned as descendants of Shem. They are reckoned with the Amorites; Jebusites, Hittites, and Philistines, occupying the Holy Land and those neighboring to it. So I would say that the Amalekites were a tribe descended from Ham, and occupied territory assigned to them. Their principal territory at this time was in the Arabian Desert, extending all the way from Sinai to the borders of the Holy Land. We get at their position among the nations by certain words of Balaam, the prophet, who, under the inspiration of God, spoke a word against the Amalekites, calling them “the chief of the nations” (Num 24:20 .)
13. Who commanded Israel’s forces in this battle? How many times before this is he named? Was his name Joshua! at the time of the battle? If not, what was his name, and: when and why did he get the name Joshua?
Ans. Joshua commanded Israel’s forces in this battle. His name does not appear in the record before this incident. His name was not Joshua at the time of this battle. It was Hoshea which was later changed to Joshua by Moses when he sent the spies to view the land.
This shows that Exodus up this point, at least, was written after the incident of sending out the spies. Moses here calls him Joshua because by the time of the writing of this record he was known by this name. Just as I say, “When was Abraham born? When did he enter Haran and the Promised Land?” Now, his name was not Abraham but Abram when he entered Haran. I am speaking of it later and mean to say that his name was Abram then.
14. Explain Exo 17:11-12 of this chapter: “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”
Ans. The principal thought is that while in the line of duty, Joshua with the armed members of Israel should fight his best, but there is praying to be done; fight and pray, like “watch and pray.” So the lifting up of the hands of Moses signifies the intercession to the God of battles that victory might be with the Israelites; that is the signification of it. The lifting up of the hands in the Psalms refers to the praying of the people at the time of the evening sacrifice. Now, while Joshua fought, Moses prayed. Moses had a part to do in that battle, and if his intercession stopped, then the Amalekites would get the victory, which means that if he pitched untried Israel against warlike Amalek and left God out, Amalek would win the fight, but one plus God is a majority always. Intercession keeps God on the side of Israel; and while Moses prays, the inferior Israelites will triumph over the superior Amalekites.
15. What is the thought and application of “Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands”? Illustrate.
Ans. It suggests the thought of there being something for everybody to do. Joshua must fight and Moses must continue his pleading; he is the great intercessor of his people, a mediator; and if weakness at last overcomes him, and his hands have to drop, that suggests something for somebody else to do. “I cannot fight like Joshua; I cannot plead like Moses; but I can stand by Moses and hold up his hands; I can keep the posture of supplication continually.” You have heard of the man who wanted to go down into a mire and rescue some perishing people, and there were a great many who were competent to do that. One of them volunteered, saying, “I’ll go down if you will hold the rope.” He had to be let down; and our foreign missionaries use that and say, “We will go to the heathen alone if you people at home will hold the rope. Don’t you quit praying for us. Don’t quit contributing; don’t let us get out of your mind.” There is something for everybody to do. You cannot do Joshua’s part, nor Moses’ part, but perhaps you can do the part of Aaron and Hur. You can hold up somebody’s hands. I heard a pastor once make this remark: “You have been unfaithful to me since I became pastor of this church.” The man said, “No man living has ever heard me say a word against you, and you cannot prove that I did.” “No, I cannot prove that.” And the man continued, “I have always paid my part of your salary promptly; you cannot deny that.” “No.” “Then why do you say I have been unfaithful to you?” The pastor replied: “You have not held up my hands. As a deacon of this church you had something more to do than simply to refrain from criticizing the pastor. You are an officer of the church, and the office of a deacon was instituted as a help to the pastor; you don’t stay up my hands.”
16. What was the memorial of this battle? What is its object?
Ans. It is expressed in these words: “And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” The memorial was a sentence from God to be put into the book, the book of the Pentateuch. Moses would keep on writing; here he would put in some, then again he would put some in the book which was to be the Bible of this people, and of all God’s people until the end of time. God said, “Write.” “Write what?” “I will blot out the name of Amalek from the whole earth.” That is the memorial. The object of the memorial was this: To rehearse it to Joshua. You tell Joshua what you have written “So now, Joshua, you are to succeed Moses; after awhile you are to command the armies of Israel. You are never to forget that the sentence is in the Holy Book: ‘Amalek must be blotted out.'” Like the voice of old Cato every time he would make a speech in the Roman senate: Carthago delenda est, i.e., “Carthage must be destroyed.” Rome was not safe unless Carthage perished. Now you rehearse this to Joshua, and let Joshua’s successors see it in this book; and their successors said, “Amalek must be destroyed.”
17. What is the meaning of Jehovah-nissi? Illustrate.
Ans. Moses built an altar there and he called it “Jehovahnissi” “Jehovah is my banner.” Nissi means banner. I once heard my father preach a sermon on “Jehovah-nissi.” I was a little fellow, and I remember that he wanted us to get the true meaning of that title: “Jehovah our Banner.” How is the flag an ensign? “In order to get the thought,” he said, “go back to Moses praying.” As long as the hands of Moses were upheld the Israelites prevailed. What does that posture of Moses with outstretched hands look like? What does it make? A cross. The Lord is our banner; banners have something on them, like the English battle flag. Now you are to think of a banner with a cross inscribed on it.
Constantine reminds you of this, who, when he first became a Christian, declared he was led to conversion by something he had seen in a great battle with his enemy; that while the battle was at its hottest, and the Roman army seemed about to be defeated, he saw in the clouds a banner on which was written the words, over an inscribed cross. In hoc siano vince, “by this sign conquer.” Constantine always claimed that saw that flag in the air.
The first time that I ever heard of it was my father’s telling this incident n his sermon. Now he say, “This posture [with his hands down] would not be a banner; this posture [arms and hands outstretched, horizontal with shoulders] is & banner. As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed but if Moses let down his hands, Amalek prevailed. Therefore who did that whipping? It was not Joshua and it was nod Israel. When did the whipping take place? When Moses has his hands outstretched. That must have been Jehovah-nissi Jehovah Our Banner. In this banner we conquer.” Anyhow I tell it to you for whatever value you are disposed to attach thereto.
18. Explain the first clause of Exo 17:16 .
Ans. This is the last verse of the chapter. “Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi; and he said, Jehovah hath sworn; Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation,” or the marginal reference, “Because there is a hand against the throne of Jehovah” (Hebrew) “A hand is lifted up upon the throne of Jah.” Because the’; Lord hath sworn. The difficulty of explaining that is this? The text of the Hebrew does not hold that out well. The’ real meaning makes sense. The Hebrew expresses the idea of putting a hand on the throne. “A hand is lifted upon the throne of Jah.” Now God would not swear by his throne; as we are told in the New Testament. Men swear by a greater; and because God could not swear by a greater than himself, he took an oath himself, by all his authority. That is why the King James Version is a bad rendering of the Hebrew. But somebody’s hand is reaching up to that throne. Whose and what is it? Amalek. What is Amalek trying to reach? The throne of Jehovah, working against the march of God’s people. That makes sense. Because he hath put his hand on the throne of Jehovah, Jehovah hath sworn that he will have with him from generation to generation. That is certainly a fine sense.
19. When and where do the Amalekites next fight Israel?
Ans. Num 23 . After the people have gotten to Kadesh-barnea, and the spies had returned, the people refused to go up. Moses then announced their doom. That was never to be recalled. So far as that generation was concerned, they were doomed; they had rebelled and murmured and now when God bad brought them to the very border of the land, they refused to go in. He now announces the doom on this generation, and this made such an impression on the people that they said, “We will go up.” Moses says, “You cannot go up because the Lord won’t let you.” “We will go up anyhow,” said they, in their presumption. They went up, and met Amalek drawn up in battle array. The same people that had fought them just before they had gotten to Sinai now fights them on the other border just before they go to enter the Holy Land; as God was not with them, and nobody interceded with outstretched hands, Amalek prevailed and Israel was defeated. That is the next battle.
20. When was the doom, pronounced by Moses, fulfilled?
Ans. This war was going on, and God had it recorded in the Bible that Amalek was to be blotted out from the face of the earth. When fulfilled? I cite you to 1Sa 15 , and if you know of anything later happening to these people, tell me about it. Saul, the first king of Israel, destroyed the Amalekites.
21. Who was the last Amalekite known to the Bible, what was his attitude toward Israel and what became of him?
Ans. After the monarchy had perished and Daniel was dead, Esther was queen to the Xerxes who led his army into Greece. Haman, the Amalekite, a descendant of the Agagites, sought to destroy Mordecai the Jew; and he himself swung on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai; so the last we see of the Amalekites is Haman swinging. Look at this last of them. Hundreds and hundreds of years, we go back to this memorial written in the Book: “I will blot Amalek from the face of the earth,” and at last the sponge is passed over the slate and that problem is wiped out.
22. What momentous meeting took place at Horeb?
Ans. Jethro, father-in-law to Moses, having heard of his glorious success in the deliverance of the people and that he is approaching Horeb, goes to meet him with Zipporah, the wife of Moses, and his two sons. You see when Moses and Zipporah started to go to Egypt and had that little discussion about circumcising the second child, Moses sent her back., She did not go on with him. All that time she was in her father’s house. When the father hears that Moses has reached that mountain, he thought Moses had better have his wife and children, and I agree with him. How very handsomely I does he compliment Moses on his achievements; and they talk about each other’s welfare. Moses tells him all the details of the Israelites’ deliverance.
23. What valuable suggestion of Jethro was made to Moses?
Ans. Jethro was there as a guest, and sat around the camp, noticing Moses early and late. Moses would sit there and judge cases presented. Two women would come up after a dispute and ask Moses which was right. From all over the camp of three million people, every little judicial matter was brought to This man, and great crowds would be waiting to get brought to this man, and great crowds would be waiting to get audience. Old Jethro seems to have been a man of good common sense. So he says, “This is not good; you are killing yourself and wear-ing out these people. I suggest that you appoint a number of judges to whom all these small cases shall be referred. Let them decide such. But the things the big things that relate to God, let them be brought to you; and in that way you will live; and you will put some of the rest of these people to work.” It was a grand thought and was adopted by Moses. It was the commencement of the judicial system in the organization of the well-known justice court for small cases. We have a county, district, and a justice court. Little cases go to the latter; and if the cases require a bigger court, they go to the county court; and still rigger affairs that relate to more than one county go to the circuit court.
24. Compare this appointing of judges relieving Moses from the details of multitudinous affairs with a similar relief in Num 11:1-17 , brought about in exactly the same way.
Ans. These were not to have charge of judicial matters, but tribal. So God tells Moses to appoint seventy men of the elders of Israel, saying, “I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.” These elders were to judge the tribal cases. We have a similar circumstance in Act 6:1-6 : “Now in these days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Grecian (Hellenistic) Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not fit that we should forsake the word of God and serve tables. Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will continue stedfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word.”
25. Now compare this appointment of judges with the appointment of seventy elders in Numbers II and with the appointment of deacons in Act 6 ; define and illustrate the economic principle governing the three transactions.
Ans. answer to question 24. The economic principle is the division of labor. It is not worth while for a man to attend to details which anybody else can and will do. Never use a thirteen-inch cannon to shoot a humming bird. The division of labor is the answer. To illustrate: Dr. Howard, pastor of the First Church at Galveston, was one day approached by Deacon Dunklin, who said, “You are not doing well; you are doing too much, the whole thing, pastor, clerk, treasurer, and Sunday school superintendent. Now you are wearing yourself out and there are just a lot of good people in this church lying around idle who can help the pastor do some of these things; and they will be better satisfied if you give them something to do, and you will preach better sermon and do better pastoral work if you don’t have to worry over a thousand things.” That illustrates the point.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Exo 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and [there was] no water for the people to drink.
Ver. 1. After their journeys, ] i.e., After they had first been at Dophkah, and at Alush. Num 33:12-14

There was no water. ] Bread they had from heaven, but wanted water. Our condition here is a condition of singular indigency: we are ever wanting somewhat or other.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

children = sons.
Sin. Hebrew Bush.
commandment. Hebrew “mouth”. Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause). App-6. Mouth put for what is spoken by it. the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4. Rephidim = reclining places. Two stations omitted here. Compare 17. Num 33:12-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 17
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and they pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water to drink. Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? why do you tempt the LORD ( Exo 17:1-2 ).
Now their murmuring and their complaining was really classified by Moses as a “tempting of God”. We are warned in the New Testament concerning the failure of the children of Israel because they were guilty of tempting God, and proving Him, murmuring against Him.
And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that you have brought us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? [“Why have you brought us out of Egypt to kill us with thirst?”] Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What am I going to do with these people? they’re ready to kill me ( Exo 17:3-4 ).
Poor Moses. I’ll tell you the position of leadership is not an easy position. Moses didn’t have an easy task at all. Here the people now ready to stone him.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, where you smote the river, take it in your hand, and go. And behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, [Which means “temptation”] and Meribah, because of the chiding [Or the “striving”] of the children of Israel, because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? ( Exo 17:5-7 )
So first of all it was their hunger. Now God has promised to provide all of our needs according to His riches and glory. Having led them out, God would’ve provided and taken care of them. Their first complaint was that of their hunger, the second was that of water. These are two necessities, food and drink, especially in a wilderness area. So I think that it is important to notice that though Moses was really upset with the people, there’s no indication that God was upset with them, for their needs were natural needs.
Now the way they were going about the accusations that they were making were extreme and wrong; and yet, their need was a natural need. God recognized that. God does not show any displeasure with the people; so much as He does show with, as Moses actually shows to the people. But God now tells Moses, “Take the rod and strike the rock and water will come forth.”
Now in the New Testament we are told that these things are all figures. It doesn’t mean that it’s mythology. It’s actual history. But they all have a spiritual counterpart. We are told by Paul that that rock was Christ.
Now you remember Jesus, on the last day of the great day of the feast cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink”( Joh 7:37 ). This was the Feast of Tabernacles in which they were celebrating how God preserved their fathers through the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. A part of the preservation was the providing of the water out of the rock.
So during the Feast of Tabernacles, the priest would go down to the Pool of Siloam with these water jugs. They would fill them with water, and they would come back up to the steps where several hundred thousand Jews would be gathered in the Great Temple Mount area. In front of all of the people, as they were singing the Halel songs, the priest would pour the water out on the pavement there of the Temple Mount. That was to remind them how that God gave water to their fathers out of the rock in the wilderness. This was just sort of weaved in to the celebration of Tabernacles, the Booths, where they had to make their little booths, again to remind them how their fathers lived out in the wilderness for forty years. So this pouring out of water ceremony was a reminder of the water out of the rock, this experience.
Now Jesus, even as He took the Passover and applied it to Himself personally, and said, “This bread is My body broken for you. This cup is My blood shed for the remission of your sins”. Now here at the Feast of Tabernacles, on the last day, the great day of the feast, they would not go down and get the water. They didn’t pour out. They’d do it for the seven days of the feast. The eighth day, the great day, they wouldn’t do it, which was symbolic of the fact that we are now in the land that God promised to our fathers. We don’t need the miraculous water out of the rock. On that day as the people were gathered, the great assembly of people there on the Temple Mount, Jesus stood and cried, “If any man thirsts let him come unto Me and drink. And he who drinks of the water that I give, out of his innermost being, there will flow rivers of living water”( Joh 7:38 ).
So Paul tells us that Jesus is the rock. He is the rock from which the living waters flow. In that land where water was such a premium, and thirst is almost constant. The idea of Christ as the water of life is probably much more significant than it is to us here where you just go turn a spigot on and just go get a drink whenever you’re thirsty. There you really had to think about water. You had to-you had to be constantly thinking about water. Wherever you go you’d have to think about, “Well where will I get my water?” The water supply was an important thing.
So Jesus, the fountain of living waters, and so the final invitation of Revelation, “Is him that is athirst, let him come and drink of the water of life freely”( Rev 22:17 ). Partake of Christ. So Christ is the rock, the fulfillment of this Feast of the Tabernacle. The rock, from which the water flows, the water of life, by which we might have life.
Now this is why when later on the people came to Moses again, and they were thirsty, and Moses went in before the Lord, and said, “God I can’t stand it, these people are complaining again.” God said, “That’s all right Moses, go out and speak to the rock, and water will come forth.” Moses went out and he was angry with the people. He said, “Must I smite this rock again and give you water?” And he smote the rock with his rod. Water came forth.
But God called Moses in, and said, “Moses that was a bad mistake. I told you to speak to the rock. You disobeyed Me; you misrepresented Me before those people. Because of that Moses, you can’t go into the Promised Land.” “Oh God please, I’m sorry, please let me go in.” “Don’t talk to Me anymore about it, Moses. It’s the way it’s gotta be.” Why? Because now the symbolism is broken.
You see the rock was smitten, and from the smitten rock comes life, from Jesus being smitten, there comes forth life to you. But once the rock has been smitten, it never needs to be smitten again. He died once and for all, so that we need not to smite the rock to get the water. All we need to do is by faith, ask, speak to the rock and water will come forth. So we are not in the position of smiting the rock, that has already happened. Christ was smitten and the water of life came forth. Now all that is necessary is just speak, ask, and ye shall receive the water of life freely. So the whole scene here as God was setting the thing up.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim ( Exo 17:8 ).
Now Amalek was the grandson of Esau, who was of the fleshly seed, and represents the flesh. So in scripture, Amalek is always a type of the flesh, the flesh-life, the fleshly seed. There’s a spiritual seed; there’s a fleshly seed. There’s a spiritual side of my nature, there is a fleshly side of my nature, and the spirit and the flesh are in conflict. A constant warfare, my spirit lusting against my flesh, my flesh against the spirit, these two are contrary. Every child of God knows what it is to have a conflict with his flesh.
Now Amalek is a type of the flesh. Here God’s people, the spiritual seed is coming in to take the land, but the flesh is the first thing that moves in the way to stop them, and to hinder them from going in and taking, and possessing that which God has promised to give to them. One of the biggest barriers to our receiving the full promises of God for our lives is our flesh. The flesh is always warring against the spirit. Our flesh would keep us from entering into the fullness of God’s promises, and into the fullness of God’s blessings. Amalek came out to meet them, the picture of the flesh, and fought with them.
And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, and fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said unto him, and he fought with Amalek: and Moses, and Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses; hands were heavy; and so they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on the stone; and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword ( Exo 17:9-13 ).
Joshua of course is the name “Jesus” in Greek, which means, “Jehovah is salvation”. So God’s salvation. Joshua was sent to fight against them, was put over the servants of God, and fought against Amalek the picture of the flesh, and they prevailed.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book ( Exo 17:14 ),
So Moses was already writing the events that were transpiring, and later on was to write and to compile these first five books of the Old Testament. So the compiling of the book no doubt was already in progress at this time. God told him to write this in a book for a memorial.
and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven ( Exo 17:14 ).
Now have you met an Amalek lately? Amalikite? No. God’s wiped them out, He said He would.
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: [The Lord has become our banner.] For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation ( Exo 17:15-16 ).
The Lord has sworn that you’re gonna have a battle with your flesh from generation to generation. So it is true.
You remember later on in the history God gave a command that is difficult for many people to understand and because of this, many of the critics have faulted the Bible, and faulted God. At the time when Saul was king of Israel, God ordered Saul, through Samuel, to go down and to utterly slay the Amaleks. Remember that? “Utterly slay them, don’t even leave an animal alive. Slay all the men, women, and children and every animal, wipe them out completely”( 1Sa 15:3 ). As I say, people have great difficulty in understanding this particular command of God.
But when we realize that Amalek represents the flesh, what God is saying is that you can’t make any truce with your flesh. God has no remedy for your flesh. God’s only answer for your flesh is crucifixion, put it to death. “You by the spirit, mortify the deeds of your flesh.” God didn’t want them to make any truce. God didn’t want them to leave anything of the flesh. “Utterly destroy it, wipe it out completely.” That was the command of God unto Saul.
Now Saul failed to obey God, and God was angry with Saul. And God said, “Because you have rejected God from ruling over you, you’ve refused to obey God, thus God has rejected you from being king over Israel.” It was as a result of this that Saul was dethroned, rejected by God, his failure of complete obedience in totally wiping out the flesh, Amalek.
Now later on in the Jewish history, we come across another man who was of the tribe, or of the people of Amalek. Because Saul failed to wipe them out completely, Amalek came close to wiping out the children of God.
It was the time when Ester was queen. Her uncle Mordecai refused to bow to this wicked Haman. And so Haman was so angered by this man’s refusal to bow to him that he went to the king to sign the decree that on a particular day every Jew in all the kingdom should be destroyed. Do you remember the story of Haman? Haman was an Amalek. He was of Amalek. Because Saul failed to totally destroy the flesh, the flesh came back and almost destroyed the people of God. But the king signed the decree, and the day was appointed and all of the people from Israel were to be slain, in all of the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians.
So Amalek whenever you read of it in the scripture is always a type of the flesh, the flesh life. As I say God doesn’t have any reformation programs, which we’re always trying to reform our flesh. God has no reformation programs. He has only one edict for the flesh; that’s crucify it. “I am crucified with Christ.” That’s God’s only solution for your flesh. You try to pamper it, you try to nurture it, you try to keep alive the best part of it. You say, “Oh well, I’ll just keep the best part of my flesh for God” like Saul. “Lord I saved the best for you, I want to make a sacrifice.” “To obey is better than to sacrifice, and hearken to it, it’s better than the fat of rams” ( 1Sa 15:22 ).
So, “Make no covenant with them”, God said, “There’s gonna be warfare with Amalek from generation to generation.” “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Another trial of their faith came to the people in the lack of water. In view of the fact that they had been provided with bread and flesh, it would seem as if they would have learned enough to be able to wait patiently for God. Yet it was not so. It is an arresting and important fact that a present darkness will make men forget the clear light of the past and imminent danger render us unconscious of previous deliverance. Here again the divine patience appears, for Jehovah uttered no word of reproach, but in spite of their impatient unbelief provided water out of the rock for them. Again, in impossible circumstances all things are seen to be possible where God is.
The forward march of the people brought down on them the army of Amalek. To the Israelites this was a new experience. In their first movement God led them in such a way as to avoid the possibility of war (Exo 13:17). Now they were involved in war. A perfect victory was gained over Amalek and in this first battle the principles of their conflict were revealed. Joshua led men to an actual conflict, while Moses, assisted by Aaron and Hur, prayed. It was a combination of fighting and faith, the manifestation of loyalty to duty combined with dependence on God. Thus came to them a new revelation of God which Moses signified by raising an altar which he named Jehouah-Nissi meaning “Jehovah, our Banner.”
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Water from the Rock; Victory over Amalek
Exo 17:1-16
From the smitten rock flowed the water for the thirsty hosts. So the Rock of Ages was smitten, and from His riven side has flowed out blood and water, for the sin and thirst of the world. He that eateth His flesh and drinketh His blood, spiritually, hath eternal life. Such refreshment is in preparation for warfare. Then came Amalek! When our physical needs are satisfied, there is always the fear of Amalek, who, in the typology of Scripture, stands for the flesh. Between this wilderness tribe and Israel the conflict was long and bitter. The old Adam, said Luther, is too strong for the young Melanchthon. But let the Lord fight for you! Lift up your hands with opened palms to Him; He will not fail. See r.v. margin and Mat 1:21. But guard the rear, and ask that Jesus shall beset you behind as well as before. See Deu 25:17-18.
For Review Questions, see the e-Sword Book Comments.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Exo 17:13
I. Amalek, as we learn from Deu 25:18, had “smitten the hindmost, even all that were feeble.” The stragglers are always a temptation to the foe. The hindmost and the feeble are sure to be the first attacked, and therefore should have special care.
II. Joshua discomfited Amalek, not Moses or some other friend. Let us keep our bitterness for sin, and our swords for the King’s enemies.
III. Amalek is not to be beaten without a fight. The struggle against sin is real, as we shall find to our cost if we are not wary.
IV. Moses was for each minding his own work, Joshua to fight, and himself to take the top of the hill.
V. Moses on the hill is an emblem of public prayer. There is a mystery about prayer that we cannot unravel. One of the bravest of Christian soldiers, scarred with many a fight, said, “I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands.”
VI. How much even the mightiest of men are dependent upon others much weaker than themselves. It was well for the fortunes of the day that Moses was not alone.
VII. An altar marked the place of battle, and glory was given to the Lord of hosts. The soldiers of the Cross should call the battlefields where they have won their bravest fights by the name of Him to whom they ascribe all might and majesty.
T. Champness, New Coins from Old Gold, p. 66.
Exo 17:15
I. The fight with Amalek was Israel’s first battle, and God made it to them the revelation of the mystery of all battles-the unseen spiritual things on which depend the final issues of all struggles and the progress of the world. (1) The main purpose of Israel’s history is the revelation of the unseen influences which mould the character and guide the progress of all people or minister to their decay and death. (a) The first apparent condition of success was the courage and skill of the commander and of the troops. The successes of life are to the capable, the brave, the enduring; but-and here is the great lesson of Rephidim-they are to capacity, courage, and energy married to, and not divorced from, the fear and the love of God. (b) There was a second and higher condition. Joshua fought while Moses was praying, and while he knew that Moses was praying. The people had a conscious hold on the strength of the arm of God. (2) It may be fairly asked if in all battles the victory is with those who can not only fight, but pray. The answer is that it is only on a very large scale that we can trace the ways of God. Yet we may say that in any conflict the best reinforcement, that which stands a man in best stead and raises the surest hope of victory, is the assurance that God is on his side.
II. The text is the revelation to us of the mystery of the great battle in which we are all combatants, the battle of life. “Jehovah-nissi” must be our watchword if we would not doom ourselves to go down before the foe. (1) The Lord is our banner against self, that baser part of us which is ever ensnaring, enslaving, and dragging us down into the pit. (2) The Lord is our banner against the world. (3) The Lord is our banner against the devil.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 235.
References: 27-Parker, vol. ii., p. 132. Exo 18:1-27.-W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 164.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 17 At Rephidim
1. The water from the rock (Exo 17:1-7)
2. The conflict with Amalek (Exo 17:8-16)
From Sin they went to Dophkah and Alush before they came to Rephidim (Num 33:12-13). Again there was no water and Moses feared they might stone him. Without following the historical record we point out some of the most interesting lessons of the two events at Rephidim. The Rock is a type of Christ. Jehovah stood upon the rock to be smitten, even as God was in Christ (2Co 5:19). The smiting by the rod, used in judgment upon the river of Egypt , is the type of the death of Christ. There could be no water till the rock was smitten. There could be no water till Christ had died. The water from the cleft rock is the type of the Holy Spirit, who was given as the result of the finished work of Christ. Exodus 16 and 17 go together and John 6 and 7 go together likewise. In Exodus 16 we find the manna and in John 6 the bread of life. In Exodus 17 the water out of the rock, the type of the Holy Spirit; in John 7 the Lord Jesus announces the coming gift of the Holy Spirit. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified (Joh 7:37-39). They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ (1Co 10:4).
The first conflict followed. There was no conflict at the Red Sea , but immediately after the water had been given in such wonderful abundance, Amalek appeared. Amalek is the type of the flesh. The conflict illustrates Gal 5:17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye should not do the things ye would. The flesh and its lusts, which war against the soul (1Pe 2:11), are represented by Amalek. And Amalek attacked Israel , and Israel , Amalek. The attack was made when Israel in unbelief had asked, Is the Lord among us or not? Even so, when Gods people do not reckon in faith with the presence and the power of the Lord the flesh rises up; but if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Joshua is here mentioned for the first time. He was twenty-seven years younger than Moses, that is fifty-three years. He is the type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation. Moses, on top of the hill, represents Christ risen from the dead and at Gods right hand, to appear in the presence of God for us as our advocate. Aaron and Hur at Moses side typify His priesthood of loving sympathy and His righteousness. (Hur means white, the color used for righteousness.) But the hands of Christ never hang down. He ever liveth and intercedes for US.
Amalek is not destroyed and the flesh is not. Amaleks end comes when Christ comes (see Num 24:17-20). The conflict with Amalek, the flesh, continues as long as we are in the body.
In Exo 17:14 we have the first command to Moses to write. Not so long ago critics claimed that writing at Moses time was unknown. The tablets of Lachish and Tel-el-Amarna have silenced this foolish assertion. The memorial altar, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my banner, tells us of victory. The assurance of victory should be as complete as the sense of forgiveness, seeing both alike are founded upon the great fact that Jesus died and rose again. It is in the power of this that the believer enjoys a purged conscience and subdues indwelling sin. The death of Christ having answered all the claims of God in reference to our sins, His resurrection becomes the spring of power in all the details of conflict afterwards. He died for us, and now He lives in us. The former gives us peace, the latter gives us power.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Sin: Exo 16:1, Num 33:12-14
Rephidim: Exo 17:8, Exo 19:2
Reciprocal: Gen 21:15 – the water Gen 45:21 – commandment Exo 6:2 – I am the Lord Num 9:18 – and at the Num 20:2 – no Num 33:10 – Elim Num 33:14 – Rephidim 2Ki 3:9 – no water
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

EVENTS AT REPHIDIM
WATER OUT OF THE ROCK (Exo 17:1-7)
What is the next stopping place (Exo 17:1)? What do you suppose is meant by the commandment of the Lord in this verse?
Rephidim is a wide-spreading plain at the northern base of the cluster of mountains named Horeb. What made it unfit for an encampment? How does this show that God sometimes guides His people into trouble? Are distress and difficulty an indication that believers are not in the will of God?
How did the people express impatience and lack of faith (v. 2-3)? How does Moses act in comparison (Exo 17:4)? What does God command him to do (v. 5-6)? Were the elders to go with him as witnesses? Did the Lord stand on the rock in the pillar of cloud? How must the people have felt when the water came rushing down the valley towards them? Which prevailed, gratitude or shame? What names were given this place, and why (Exo 17:7)? Bush remarks that the people may not have uttered the very words here ascribed to them, but that such was the language of their conduct, and he applies the circumstance to Mat 12:37, saying that Christ will judge men by the actions which have the force of words.
AMALEK CONQUERED AND CURSED (Exo 17:8-16)
The Amalekites were a nomadic people living in the north of this peninsula, and to the south of the Philistine country (Gen 14:7), who came out of their way to attack Israel, approaching them in the rear where they were the more defenseless. (Compare Deu 25:18.) As the Amalekites were descendants of Esau, hereditary hate may have prompted this attack. Then also the thought of loot is to be considered, for they probably knew the wealth Israel brought out of Egypt. But their strongest hostility was aroused by the fact that Israel was to take possession of Canaan, into which their territory penetrated (Jdg 5:14; Jdg 12:15). At all events, it is with them that Gentile antagonism to Gods peculiar nation is seen to begin as soon as the latters political independence is established. Their action therefore was a virtual defiance of Him who had so lately destroyed the Egyptians, a fact which explains His resentment as shown in the sequel.
Who now comes into the forefront, and what is he directed of Moses to do (Exo 17:9)? The name Joshua means savior, the Greek of which is Jesus.
What new personage is before us in Exo 17:10? For a little of his genealogy see 1Ch 2:9-20. What was the significance of the transaction in Exo 17:11? Do you suppose Moses held the rod of God in his hand? And if he did, was it not merely as an indication and accompaniment of prayer? Where in the incident do we find an emblem of the value of united and common prayer? What lesson is taught by the combination of the rod in the hand of Moses and the sword in the hand of Joshua? Which, however, assumes the more importance, Moses prayer or Joshuas sword?
How does God emphasize the significance of this battle (Exo 17:14)? We have not met with the word write before, but where with the word book (Gen 5:1)? There is the definite article before book in the original indicating that a book, and doubtless this particular book, was well known. Can you imagine a reason for this matter being rehearsed to Joshua? For the subsequent fate of Amalek read Deu 25:19; 1Sa 15:30; 2Sa 1:1; 2Sa 8:12.
How is this victory commemorated on the spot (Exo 17:15)? Have we met with any other altar since we ended the history of Jacob? Does not this then mark a new epoch on the affairs of Israel? Jehovah-nissi means Jehovah my banner (Compare Psa 20:5-7), and expresses thanks to God for the past and confidence in Him for the future. Perhaps it was suggested by the lifting up the rod of God as a banner or standard in this action.
The last verse of the chapter is obscure.
A VISIT FROM JETHRO (Exodus 18)
It is felt that the visit here recorded, with the events growing out of it, took place at a later time, and after Israel had arrived at Sinai, but is related here either not to interfere with the main narrative, or for some other unexplained cause.
It is a story of mutual affection and esteem, but one is not more impressed by it than by the importance God attaches to such chapters in our lives by causing it to be recorded for our learning and example.
Note that Jethro was one of those outside of Israel by whom the tradition of the true God was retained, and who gave glory to Him for His mighty works.
The incident (v. 13-26) needs little comment, but there are a few things worth noticing. One is the practical wisdom in it (v. 18); another, the qualification for the choice of these sub-rulers, ability, godly fear, truthfulness, incorruptness (Exo 18:21); a third, the circumstance that this advice is given in submission to God (Exo 18:23); and a fourth, that the selection was by the people and appointment by Moses (Deu 1:9; Deu 1:13); a fifth, that God did not disdain to permit Moses to be taught through another man, and he one not of the commonwealth of Israel. It is remarkable, as another says, that the rudiments of the Jewish polity were thus suggested by a stranger and a Midianite. There is food for reflection here in the ways of God in teaching His own people wisdom.
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Exo 17:1. The children of Israel journeyed By divers stations, recorded Num 33:12-13, but here omitted, because nothing extraordinary happened in them. According to the commandment of the Lord Signified either by word, or by the motion or rest of the pillar of cloud and fire. Although led by this, they came to a place where there was no water for them to drink We may be in the way of our duty and yet meet with troubles, which Providence brings us into for the trial of our faith.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exo 17:1. Rephidim. The plain before Horeb, where the Israelites encamped before they removed to the plain opposite Sinai.
Exo 17:6. Thou shalt smite the rock. Horeb was the place where God spake to Moses from the burning bush, chap. 3.; and now he fulfilled his word, that the Israelites should worship in that mountain. It was the eastern summit of mount Sinai. The waters came out so abundantly as to form a rivulet, which followed the Israelites on the lower ground of their camp for some way, till lost in the sandy desert. Without this resource the nation must have perished. The waters gushed out, and ran in dry places like a river. Psa 78:16; Psa 105:41.
Exo 17:7. Massah; that is, tempting.Meribah; that is, chiding.
Exo 17:12. Hur, is said by Josephus to have been the husband of Miriam. He was a man of the tribe of Judah.
Exo 17:14. Write this in a book; which was called The Wars of the Lord. We have now, by the labours of our antiquaries, proofs that sixteen letters of the alphabet did exist before the dispersion of the tribes at Babel. Cadmus brought these letters into Europe from Phnicia. Odin brought them into Scandinavia (now Sweden.) All the oriental languages emanated from the Persic, as has been shown in the notes on Genesis 11. The order and power of these letters in all those alphabets being nearly the same, carry demonstration and force beyond all the fancies and conjectures of curious and learned men, that writing by the letters of the alphabet is anterior to all the records of history.
Exo 17:15. JEHOVAH-nissi; the Lord is my banner. The patriarchs generally built an altar, as a monument of gratitude for signal mercies.
REFLECTIONS.
Mens natural disposition, and the strength of their religion, are made manifest by affliction. Israel, when assailed with hunger, murmured against Moses; and the Lord, pitying their distress, gave them bread from heaven. Now they are assailed with thirst, and they murmur again, being a carnal people. Miracles had saved them from the Egyptians, but not from their sins. He who has by grace a command over his own spirit, is greater than he that taketh a city.
The carnal mind we see is distinguished by cruelty and cunning. They murmured against Moses, and were about to stone him, as though he had brought them out of Egypt, and divided the sea. The enmity was in truth against the Lord; and instead of asking his counsel and aid in the time of drought, they rebelled against him: the unregenerate world are still of the same spirit. They would serve God, in their way, provided their passions might all be flattered, and provided crosses and afflictions might never come. But at present they are always starting objections to religious habits, and religious people. The fact is they are at enmity with God, and hate the light; and without regeneration they can no more be saved, than carnal Israel could enter the promised land.
The Lord is very gracious, merciful, and longsuffering; he gave bread from heaven, and water from the rock to a murmuring and gainsaying people. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. But from Israels murmuring let us learn patience and resignation; for though a poor man may for a moment suffer hunger and want, God will soon hear his prayers, will crown his efforts with success, and give him bread.
In the rock of Horeb, as well as in the manna, we have a striking figure of Christ, who was smitten on Calvary, and whose waters of grace give life and salvation to the believing soul. See this miracle, this abundant stream giving life to a dying people, and taking a wide circuit through the desert land. See a whole nation, eager for life, crowd with their vessels to quench their thirst with the gift of heaven. They all drank of that rock, which on account of the course of its stream is said to have followed them in the wilderness; and without which they had utterly perished. And had not Christ our true rock been smitten for our sins; had he not opened to us rivers of life and salvation in the grace of his Holy Spirit, which follows us in our pilgrimage; we had all remained in darkness, and perished in our sins. Let us never murmur or tempt the Lord, for he who laid down his life for our redemption, will never suffer us to languish for want of seasonable supplies. He will be unto us as a place of broad rivers, and the wilderness shall be as the garden of the Lord. Israel, delivered from hunger and thirst, were next assailed with the sword. This, on the part of Amalek, was the most wanton cruelty of war. It was one of the grossest breaches of the covenant of Noah. It was a war against heaven, for the enemy could not be ignorant of the wonders God had wrought for his people. Hence the Lord determined to visit the iniquities of the fathers on the children, and ultimately to blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven; and he awfully performed his word by Saul, and also by David.
In Moses and Joshua we have high examples of public spirit and national duty, in the time of war and danger. The one prayed, the other fought: so Israel was saved by devotion and by arms. Israel had been led by the hand, now they must be tried to walk alone, and defend themselves. Learn then, oh my soul, to stay thyself on Christ the rock, with uplifted hands in prayer, till the sun of life shall go down; then the name of Amalek, yea, of all the enemies of the church, shall forever be blotted out.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exodus 17
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?”(Ex. 17: 1, 2) Did we not know something of the humiliating evil of our own hearts, we should be quite at a loss to account for Israel’s marvellous insensibility to all the Lord’s goodness, faithfulness, and mighty acts. They had just seen bread descending from heaven to feed six hundred thousand people in the wilderness: and now they are ” ready to stone” Moses for bringing them out into the wilderness to kill them with thirst. Nothing can exceed the desperate unbelief and wickedness of the human heart, save the superabounding grace of God. In that grace alone can any one find relief under the growing sense of his evil nature which circumstances tend to make manifest. Had Israel been transported directly from Egypt to Canaan, they would not have made such sad exhibitions of what the human heart is; and, as a consequence, they would not have proved such admirable ensamples or types for us; but their forty years’ wandering in the desert furnishes us with a volume of warning, admonition, and instruction, fruitful beyond conception. From it we learn, amongst many other things, the unvarying tendency of the heart to distrust God. Anything, in short, for it but God. It would rather lean upon a cobweb of human resources than upon the arm of an Omnipotent, all-wise, and infinitely gracious God; and the smallest cloud is more than sufficient to hide from its view the light of His blessed countenance. Well, therefore, may it be termed “An evil heart of unbelief” which will ever show itself ready to “depart from the living God.”
It is interesting to note the two great questions raised by unbelief, in this and the preceding chapter. They are precisely similar to those which spring up, within and around us, every day, namely, “what shall we eat? and what shall we drink?” We do not find the people raising the third question in the category, wherewithal shall we be clothed?” But here are the questions of the wilderness, “What!” “Where!” “How?” Faith has a brief but comprehensive answer to all the three, namely, GOD! Precious, perfect, answer! Oh! that the writer and the reader were more thoroughly acquainted with its force and fullness! We assuredly need to remember, when placed in a position of trial, that “there hath no temptation taken us but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, (or an “issue” ekbasin,) that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor. 10: 13) Whenever we get into trial, we may feel confident that, with the trial, there is an issue, and all we need is a broken will and a single eye to see it.
“And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying; What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Ver. 4-6.) Thus all is met by the most perfect grace. Every murmur brings out a fresh display. Here we have the refreshing stream gushing from the smitten rock – beauteous type of the Spirit given as the fruit of Christ’s accomplished sacrifice. In Ex. 16 we have a type of Christ coming down from heaven to give life to the world. In Ex. 17 we have a type of the Holy Ghost “shed forth,” in virtue of Christ’s finished work. “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that, Rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. 10: 4) But who could drink till the Rock was smitten? Israel might have gazed on that rock and died of thirst while gazing; but, until smitten by the rod of God, it could yield no refreshment. This is plain enough. The Lord Jesus Christ was the centre and foundation of all God’s counsels of love and mercy. Through Him all blessing was to flow to man. The streams of grace were designed to gush forth from “the Lamb of God;” but then it was needful that the Lamb should be slain – that the work of the cross should be an accomplished fact, ere any of these things could be actualised. It was when the Rock of ages was cleft by the hand of Jehovah, that the flood-gates of eternal love were thrown wide open, and perishing sinners invited by the testimony of the Holy Ghost to “drink abundantly,” drink deeply, drink freely. “The gift of the Holy Ghost” is the result of the Son’s accomplished work upon the cross. “The promise of the Father” could not be fulfilled until Christ had taken His seat at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, having wrought out perfect righteousness, answered all the claims of holiness, magnified the law and made it honourable, borne the unmitigated wrath of God against sin, exhausted the power of death, and deprived the grave of its victory. He, having done all this, “ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” (Eph. 4: 8-10.)
This is the true foundation of the Church’s peace, blessedness, and glory, for ever. Until the rock was smitten, the stream was pent up, and man could do nothing. What human hand could bring forth water from a flinty rock? And so, we may ask, what human righteousness could afford a warrant for opening the flood-gates of divine love? This is the true way in which to test man’s competency. He could not, by his doings, his sayings, or his feelings, furnish a ground for the mission of the Holy Ghost. Let him be or do what he may, he could not do this. But thank God, it is done; Christ has finished the work; the true Rock has been smitten, and the refreshing stream has issued forth, so that thirsty souls may drink. “The water that I shall give him,” says Christ, “shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4: 14) Again; “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7: 37-39; compare, also, Acts 19: 2)
Thus, as in the manna, we have a type of Christ, so in the stream gushing from the rock we have a type of the Holy Ghost. “If thou knewest the gift of God, (i.e., Christ) . . . . thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water,” – i.e., the Spirit.
Such, then, is the teaching conveyed to the spiritual mind by the smitten rock; but the name of the place in which this significant type was presented is a standing memorial of man’s unbelief. “He called the name of the place Massah (i.e., temptation,) and Meribah, (i.e., chiding,) because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?” (Ver. 7) After such repeated assurances and evidences of Jehovah’s presence, to raise such an enquiry proves the deep-seated unbelief of the human heart. It was? in point of fact, tempting Him. Thus did the Jews, in the day of Christ’s presence amongst them, seek of Him a sign from heaven, tempting Him. Faith never acts thus; it believes in, and enjoys, the divine presence, not by a sign, but by the knowledge of Himself. It knows He is there to be enjoyed, and it enjoys Him. Lord, grant us a more artless spirit of confidence.
The next point suggested by our chapter is one of special interest to us. “Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in mine hand.” (Ver. 8, 9) The gift of the Holy Ghost leads to conflict. The light rebukes and conflicts with the darkness. Where all is dark there is no struggle; but the very feeblest struggle bespeaks the presence of light. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye should not do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5: 17) Thus it is in the chapter before us; we have the rock smitten and the water flowing forth, and immediately we read, “then came Amalek and fought with Israel.”
This is the first time that Israel are seen in conflict with an external foe. Up to this point, the Lord had fought for them, as we read in Ex. 14. “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” But now the word is, “choose us out men.” True, God must now fight in Israel, as, before, He had fought for them. This marks the difference, as to the type; and as to the antitype, we know that there is an immense difference between Christ’s battles for us, and the Holy Ghost’s battles in us. The former, blessed be God, are all over, the victory gained, and a glorious and an everlasting peace secured. The latter, on the contrary, are still going on.
Pharaoh and Amalek represent two different powers or influences; Pharaoh represents the hindrance to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; Amalek represents the hindrance to their walk with God through the wilderness. Pharaoh used the things of Egypt to keep Israel from serving the Lord; he, therefore, prefigures Satan, who uses “this present evil world” against the people of God. Amalek, on the other hand, stands before us as the type of the flesh. He was the grandson of Esau, who preferred a mess of pottage to the birthright. (See Gen. 36: 12) He was the first who opposed Israel, after their baptism “in the cloud and in the sea.” These facts serve to fix his character with great distinctness; and, in addition to these, we know that Saul was set aside from the kingdom of Israel, in consequence of his failing to destroy Amalek. (1 Sam. 15) And, further, we find that Haman is the last of the Amalekites of whom we find any notice in scripture. He was hanged on a gallows, in consequence of his wicked attempt against the seed of Israel. (See Esther) No Amalekite could obtain entrance into the congregation of the Lord. And, finally. in the chapter now before us, the Lord declares perpetual war with Amalek.
All these circumstances may be regarded as furnishing conclusive evidence of the fact that Amalek is a type of the flesh. The connection between his conflict with Israel and the water flowing out of the rock is most marked and instructive, and in full keeping with the believer’s conflict with his evil nature, which conflict is, as we know, consequent upon his having the new nature, and the Holy Ghost dwelling therein. Israel’s conflict began when they stood in the full power of redemption, and had tasted “that spiritual meat and drunk of that spiritual Rock.” Until they met Amalek, they had nothing to do. They did not cope with Pharaoh. They did not break the power of Egypt nor snap asunder the chains of its thralldom. They did not divide the sea or submerge Pharaoh’s hosts beneath its waves. They did not bring down bread from heaven, or draw forth water out of the flinty rock. They neither had done, nor could they do, any of these things ; but now they are called to fight with Amalek. All the previous conflict had been between Jehovah and the enemy. They had but to “stand still” and gaze upon the mighty triumphs of Jehovah’s outstretched arm and enjoy the fruits of victory. The Lord had fought for them; but now He fights in or by them.
Thus is it also with the Church of God. The victories on which her eternal peace and blessedness are founded were gained, single-handed, by Christ for her. He was alone on the cross, alone in the tomb. The Church had to stand aside, for how could she be there? How could she vanquish Satan, endure the wrath of God, or rob death of its sting? Impossible. These things lay far beyond the reach of sinners, but not beyond the reach of Him who came to save them, and who alone was able to bear upon his shoulder the ponderous weight of all their sins, and roll the burden away for ever, by His infinite sacrifice, so that God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from God the Father, in virtue of the perfect atonement of God the Son, can take up His abode in the Church collectively, and in each member thereof individually.
Now it is when the Holy Ghost thus takes up His abode in us, consequent upon Christ’s death and resurrection, that our conflict begins. Christ has fought for us; the Holy Ghost fights in us. The very fact of our enjoying this first rich spoil of victory, puts us into direct conflict with the foe. But the comfort is that we are victors ere we enter upon the field of conflict at all. The believer approaches to the battle singing, “Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15: 57) We do not, therefore, fight uncertainly or as those that beat the air, while we seek to keep under the body and bring it into subjection. (1 Cor. 9: 26, 27) “We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. (Rom. 8: 37) The grace in which we stand renders the flesh utterly void of power to lord it over us. (See Rom. 6 passim.) If the law is “the strength of sin,” grace is the weakness thereof. The former gives sin power over us; the latter gives us power over sin.
“And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said unto him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” (Verses 9-13)
We have, here, two distinct things, namely, conflict and intercession. Christ is on high for us, while the Holy Ghost carries on the mighty struggle in us. The two things go together. It is as we enter, by faith, into the prevalency of Christ’s intercession on our behalf, that we make head against our evil nature. Some there are who seek to overlook the fact of the Christian’s conflict with the flesh. They look upon regeneration as a total change or renewal of the old nature. Upon this principle, it would, necessarily, follow that the believer has nothing to struggle with. If my nature is renewed, what have I to contend with? Nothing. There is nothing within, inasmuch as my old nature is made new; and nothing without can affect me, inasmuch as there is no response from within. The world has no charms for one whose flesh is entirely changed; and Satan has nothing by or on which to act. To all who maintain such a theory, it may be said that they seem to forget the place which Amalek occupies in the history of the people of God. Had Israel conceived the idea that, when Pharaoh’s hosts were gone, their conflict was at an end, they would have been sadly put about when Amalek came upon them. The fact is, theirs only then began. Thus it is with the believer, for “all these things happened unto Israel for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition,” (1 Cor. 10: 11) But there could be no “type,” no “ensample,” no admonition” in “these things,” for one whose old nature is made new. Indeed, such an one can have but little need of any of those gracious provisions which God has made in His kingdom for those who are the subjects thereof.
We are distinctly taught in the Word that the believer carries about with him that which answers to Amalek, that is, “the flesh” – “the old man” – “the carnal mind.” (Rom. 6: 6; Rom. 8: 7; Gal. 5: 17)Now, if the Christian, upon perceiving the stirrings of his evil nature, begins to doubt his being a Christian, he will not only render himself exceedingly unhappy, but also deprive himself of his vantage ground against the enemy. The flesh exists in the believer and will be there to the end of the chapter. The Holy Ghost fully recognises it as existing, as we may easily see, from various parts of the New Testament. In Romans 6 we read, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies.” Such a precept would be entirely uncalled for if the flesh were not existing in the believer. It would be out of character to tell us not to let sin reign, if it were not actually dwelling in us. There is a great difference between dwelling and reigning. It dwells in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever.
However, though it dwells in us, we have, thank God, a principle of power over it. “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The grace which, by the blood of the cross, has put away sin, insures us the victory, and gives us present power over its indwelling principle.
We have died to sin, and hence it has no claim over us. “He that has died is justified from sin.” “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified together, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Rom. 6: 6) “And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” All was victory; and Jehovah’s banner floated over the triumphant host, bearing the sweet and heart-sustaining inscription, “Jehovah-nissi” (the Lord my banner). The assurance of victory should be as complete as the sense of forgiveness, seeing both alike are founded upon the great fact that Jesus died and rose again. It is in the power of this that the believer enjoys a purged conscience and subdues. indwelling sin. The death of Christ having answered all the claims of God in reference to our sins, His resurrection becomes the spring of power, in all the details of conflict, afterwards. He died for us, and now He lives in us. The former gives us peace, the latter gives us power.
It is edifying to remark the contrast between Moses on the hill and Christ on the throne. The hands of our great Intercessor can never hang down. His intercession never fluctuates. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” (Heb. 7) His intercession is never-ceasing and all-prevailing. Having taken His place on high, in the power of divine righteousness, He acts for us, according to what He is, and according to the infinite perfectness of what He has done. His hands can never hang down, nor can He need any one to hold them up. His perfect advocacy is founded upon His perfect sacrifice. He presents us before God, clothed in His own perfections, so that though we may ever have to keep our faces in the dust in the sense of what we are, yet the Spirit can only testify to us of what He is before God for us, and of what we are in Elim.” “We are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.” (Rom. 8) We are in the body, as to the fact of our condition; but we are not in the flesh, as to the principle of our standing. Moreover, the flesh is in us, though we are dead to it; but we are not in the flesh, because we are alive with Christ.
We may further remark, on this chapter, that Moses had the rod of God with him on the hill – the rod with which he had smitten the rock. This rod was the expression or symbol of the power of God, which is seen alike in atonement and intercession. When the work of atonement was accomplished, Christ took His seat in heaven, and sent down the Holy Ghost to take up His abode in the Church; so that there is an inseparable connection between the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit. There is the application of the power of God in each.
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch

Exodus 27. Water from the Rock (Exodus 17 :1 P (Rephidim), Exo 17:1 b Exo 17:2 a (strove, strive) E, Exo 17:3 and Exo 17:2 b (tempt) J, Exo 17:4 E, Exo 17:5 a (people) J, Exo 17:5 bd (and go) E, Exo 17:5 c, Exo 17:6 a J, Exo 17:6 b E, Exo 17:7 a (Massah) J, Exo 17:7 b (Israel) E, Exo 17:7 c J).After an extract from Ps itinerary (Exo 17:1 a), a second water story is given from JE. The blooming oasis near Kadesh, with its spring and its trees, was a lasting reminder of the goodness of God. The two variants relate to Massah (J) and Meribah (E) respectively, while a Meribah story is also given in Num 20:2-13 (J and P), and a trace of Es Massah story has been found in Exo 15:25 b, Yahweh proving Israel there, while here Israel tempts (same Heb.) Yahweh. Both uses of the word are found in D, and the ancient Blessing of Moses names both places (Deu 33:3). The analysis rests on various clues, and can only be conjectural. In J, Moses passes on alone before the people, but the account of the descent of Yahweh (cf. Exo 19:20-24, Gen 28:13 ff.) has been displaced by Es narrative of Mosess striking the rock with his rod (Exo 4:2*) in the presence of some of the elders of Israel (cf. Exo 18:12 E).
Exo 17:2 b, Exo 17:7 b. tempt: better put to the proof.
Exo 17:6. the rock in Horeb: the phrase is peculiar; perhaps the name has been misread.
Exo 17:8-16 E. The Fight with Amalek.This incident is latest in order of time in Ex. Moses is old and feeble, and does not head the host himself, though he settles the details of time and command. Joshua is the well-known commander of the host (contrast Exo 33:11, Exo 24:13); and Israel has gained a unity over against Amalek (both sing.). The people are beginning to move northwards after their prolonged stay at Kadesh. But Amalek, a nomad Bedawin tribe (cf. the Azzimeh Arabs in that region now), roaming over the southern Negeb, was bent on blocking the way to Canaan. Out of many encounters (cf. Num 14:40-45) this was a pronounced success after a desperate struggle. Moses surveys the battlefield from high ground above, and holds up the symbol of power and victory, the rod, in his hand (Jos 8:18*). So long as thus visibly he trusts God and prompts man, his side wins. When his strength flags his cause fails. So Aaron and Hur, his two aged companions, set a stone under him as seat and take turns in holding up the hand that holds the rod. In Exo 17:15 the old form of memorial of the event is described, an altar (probably based on the stone, Exo 17:12) for sacrifice, in honour of the victory and its symbolic means, as the title Yahweh my staff shows. A snatch of song has survived in a corrupt text. It ran probably, Hand on the staff of Yahweh, war for Yahweh with Amalek [on and on]. Perhaps the last words and all Exo 17:14, which gives a variant memorial in a book, are glosses based on Deu 25:17 ff., where the action of Amalek in cutting off Israels tired stragglers does not fit anything here. The long feud was ended only by Saul (1 Samuel 15) and David (1 Samuel 30). With the rod we may compare the kings sceptre, the field-marshals baton, the chamberlains staff or wand, the mayors mace, and the ecclesiastical crozier, pastoral staff, and verge (or poker). They all mean more than in themselves they are, and have, or may have, something sacramental about them.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

WATER FROM THE ROCK
(vs.1-7)
Bread has been provided for the people. Can God provide water also? Why did they not simply appeal to Him in fullest confidence that He would answer just as fully as He had done in the case of their need of food? But when thirsting for water they again complained against Moses (v.2). He firmly responded that in talking this way they were actually tempting the Lord. How sad it is to see this contentious spirit among the people of God!
But Moses again, in his interceding for them (v.4), reminds us of the Lord Jesus, the great Intercessor on behalf of His people. Though they are almost ready to stone Moses, yet he pleads for them, and the Lord answers without delay. He tells Moses to take with him some of the elders of the people, take his rod in his hand, and lead the people to a rock in Horeb (v.6). A rock is the most unlikely place to find water, and specially in Horeb, which means ‘the dry place.”
However, Moses obediently struck the rock with his rod, and water came out of the rock in such abundance that all the people could drink. The giving of the manna was a miraculous act of God, and the water from the rock was no less a miracle.
The manna speaks of Christ in His lowly Humanity, but the rock is typical of Christ as the Son of God (Deu 32:3-4). The smiting of the rock speaks of Christ suffering the judgment of the cross for us in order that the water, the living Spirit of God (Joh 7:38-39) might flow forth to believers, as is seen at Pentecost (Act 2:1-4). Thus the manna speaks of human ministry, the water from the rock, divine ministry. Wonderful is such provision for the wilderness journey!
The name of the place was called Massah (meaning “temptation”) and Meribah (“chiding”), a painful reminder of Israel’s having faithlessly insulted the God who had never ceased to care for them. Have there been places like this in our own lives that bring us regretful memories?
THE ATTACK OF AMALEK
(vs.8-16)
God did not allow the attack of the Amalekites until after Israel had been refreshed by the water from the rock. As we have seen, the water is symbolical of the Spirit of God given by the Son of God as a result of His being smitten at Calvary. But though the Spirit now dwells in every believer, we quickly learn that there is another nature within us that is against the Spirit. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit” (Gal 5:17). Amalek speaks therefore of the lusts of the flesh. Its name means “licking up,” for such lusts lick up all that is beneficial and necessary for our soul’s welfare. This is not Satan’s attack, but an attack from within us, fed by the desire to get what we want when we want it.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in {a} Rephidim: and [there was] no water for the people to drink.
(a) Moses does not note every place where they camped as in Numbers 33, but only those places where some notable thing was done.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The lack of water at Rephidim 17:1-7
Again the Israelites complained because there was no water to drink when they camped at Rephidim (cf. Exo 15:24). At Marah there was bad water, but now there was none.
". . . the supreme calamity of desert travellers [sic] befell them-complete lack of water." [Note: Cassuto, p. 201.]
Rephidim was near the wilderness of Sinai (Exo 17:1; cf. Exo 19:2; Num 33:15) and the Horeb (Sinai) range of mountains (Exo 17:6).
The Israelites’ grumbling demonstrated lack of faith, since God had promised to supply their needs (Exo 17:2). They wanted Him to act as they dictated rather than waiting for Him to provide as He had promised. This was how they tested or challenged the Lord (cf. 1Co 10:10). It was proper for God to test them (Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4), but it was improper for them to test Him in the sense of trying His patience.
"One of Moses’ most characteristic and praiseworthy traits was that he took his difficulties to the Lord (Exo 17:4; Exo 15:25; Exo 32:30; Exo 33:8; Num 11:2; Num 11:11; Num 12:13; Num 14:13-19 et al.)." [Note: Kaiser, "Exodus," p. 406.]
By using his staff (Exo 17:5) Moses proved that God was still enabling him to perform miracles as he had done in Egypt. He still had divine regal authority, and the power of God was still with him. The elders apparently accompanied Moses as representatives of the people since the whole nation could not get close enough to witness the miracle.
Horeb may refer to the mountain range at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula (Exo 17:6; cf. Deu 1:2; 1Ki 19:8) also called Sinai. This is the traditional site, but I question it (cf. Deu 33:2; Gal 4:25). Wherever the Horeb range may have been, Moses struck the rock somewhere near these mountains. [Note: See Aviram Perevolotsky and Israel Finkelstein, "The Southern Sinai Exodus Route in Ecological Perspective," Biblical Archaeology Review 11:4 (July-August 1985):26-41.]
"Massah" means "testing" or "proof," and "Meribah" means "murmuring," "dissatisfaction," or "contention" (Exo 17:7). Except for Jos 9:18 and Psa 59:15, all the other references to grumbling in the Old Testament occur in six chapters of the Pentateuch: Exodus 15, 16, 17, and Numbers 14, 16, , 17. [Note: Kaiser, p. 398.] The first name commemorated the Israelites’ testing of God and the second name their quarreling with Moses. They failed to believe that the Lord was among them as He had promised He would be.
"In our own time the same demand is made, the same challenge repeated. Men are not satisfied with the moral evidences of the Being and providence of God, they point to the physical evils around, the hunger and thirst, the poverty and misery, the pollution and self-will of our times, crying-If there be a God, why does He permit these things? Why does He allow suffering and sorrow? Why does He not interpose? And then, when the heavens are still silent, they infer that there is no God, that the sky is an empty eye-socket, and that there is nothing better than to eat and drink, because death is an eternal sleep." [Note: Meyer, p. 196.]
God had assured the Israelites in Egypt that He would bring them into the Promised Land (Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17; Exo 13:5; Exo 13:11). Consequently all their grumbling demonstrated a lack of faith. This second instance of complaining about lack of water was more serious than the first because God had provided good water for them earlier in the desert (Exo 15:25).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER XVII.
MERIBAH.
Exo 17:1-7.
The people, miraculously fed, are therefore called to exhibit more confidence in God than hitherto, because much is required of him to whom much is given. They have now to plunge deeper into the wilderness; and after two stages which Exodus omits (Num 33:12-13), and just as they approach the mount of God, they find themselves without water. Even the Son of Man Himself was led into the wilderness next after the descent of the Spirit, and the avowal by the voice of God; nor is any true Christian to marvel if his seasons of special privilege are succeeded by special demands upon his firmness.
One finds himself conjecturing, very often, what nobler history, what grander analogies between type and antitype, what more gracious and lavish interpositions might have instructed us, if only the type had been less woefully imperfect–if Israel had been trustful as Moses was, and the crude material had not marred the design.
It would be more practical and edifying to reflect how often we ourselves, like Israel, might have learned and exemplified deep things of the grace of God, when all we really exhibited was the well-worn lesson of human frailty and divine forbearance.
In the story of our Lord, it has been observed that before the Pharisees directly assailed Himself, they found fault with His disciples who fasted not, or accosted them concerning Him Who ate with sinners. And so here the people really tempted God, but openly “strove with Moses,” and with Aaron too, for the verb is a plural one: “Give ye water” (Exo 17:2).
But as Aaron is merely an agent and spokesman, the chief value of this tacit allusion to him, besides proving his fidelity, is to refute the notion that he sinks into comparative obscurity only after the sin of the golden calf. Already his position is one to be indicated rather than expressed; and Moses said, “Why do ye quarrel with me? wherefore do ye try the Lord?”
But the frenzy rose higher: it was he, and not a higher One, who had brought them out of Egypt; the upshot of it would only be “to kill us, and our children, and our cattle, with thirst.”
Look closely at this expression, and a curious significance discloses itself. Was it mere covetousness, the spirit of the Jew Shylock lamenting in one breath his daughter and his ducats, which introduced the cattle along with the children into this complaint of dying men? Shylock himself, when death actually looked him in the face, readily sacrificed his fortune. Nor is it credible that a large number of people, really believing that a horrible death was imminent, would have spent any complaints upon their property. The language is exactly that of angry exaggeration. They have come through straits quite as desperate, and they know it well. It is not the fear of death, but the painful delay of rescue, the discomfort and misery of their condition in the meanwhile, the contrast between their sufferings and their own conception of the rights of the favourites of heaven, which is audible in this complaint. And thus their “Trial” and “Quarrel” are admirably epitomised in the phrase “Is Jehovah among us or not?” a phrase which has often since been in the heart, if not upon the lips, of men who had supposed the life divine to be one long holiday, the pilgrimage an excursion, when without are fightings and within fears, when they have great sorrow and heaviness in their hearts.
Because God is not a Judge, but a Father, the murmurs of Israel do not prevent Him from showing mercy. Accordingly, when Moses prays, he is bidden to go on before the people, bringing certain of their elders along with him for witnesses of the marvel that was to follow. Such is the Divine method. As soon as unbelief and discontent estranged the Jews of the New Testament from Christ, He would not vulgarise His miracles, nor do many mighty works among the unbelieving. After His resurrection He appeared not unto all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before. And as the Jews were chosen to bear witness to Him among the nations, so were these elders now to bear witness among the Jews, who might without their testimony have fallen into some such rationalising theory as that of Tacitus, who says that Moses discovered a fountain by examining a spot where wild asses lay.
With these witnesses, he is bidden to go to a rock in Horeb (so nearly had these murmurers approached the scene of the most awful of all manifestations of Him whose presence they debated), and there God was to stand before them upon the rock, making His universal presence a localised consciousness in their experience.
A true religion is progressive: every stage of it leans on the past and sustains the future; and so Moses must bring with him “the rod, wherewith thou smotest the river.” The dullest can see the fitness of this allusion. Among all the wonders which the shepherd’s wand had wrought, the mastery over the Nile, the plague which inflicted an unwonted thirst upon the inhabitants of that well-watered field of Zoan, was most to the purpose now. To kill and to make alive are the functions of the same Being, and He Who spoiled the Egyptian river will now refresh His heritage that is weary. At the touch of the prophetic wand the waters poured forth which thenceforth supplied them through all their desert wanderings.
Reserving the symbolic meaning of this event for a future study, we have to remember meanwhile the warning which the apostle here discovered. All the people drank of the rock, yet with many of them God was not pleased. Privilege is one thing–acceptance is quite another; and it shall be more tolerable at last for Sodom and Gomorrah than for nations, churches and men, who were content to resemble soil that drinketh in the rain that cometh upon it oft, and yet to remain unfruitful. Already the conduct of Israel was such that the place was named from human worthlessness rather than Divine beneficence. Too often, it is the more conspicuous part of the story of the relations of God and man.
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

Disfruta de miles de canciones cristianas en exclusiva sólo en Bibles