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Israel’s Journeyings
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we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me?
wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? 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? 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. 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?”
God directed the children of Israel to encamp in that place, where
there was no water, to prove them, to see if they would look to Him
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in their distress, or murmur as they had previously done. In view
of what God had done for them in their wonderful deliverance, they
should have believed in Him in their distress. They should have
known that He would not permit them to perish with thirst, whom
He had promised to take unto Himself as His people. But instead of
entreating the Lord in humility to provide for their necessity, they
murmured against Moses, and demanded of him water.
God had been continually manifesting His power in a wonderful
manner before them, to make them understand that all the benefits
they received came from Him; that He could give them, or remove
them, according to His own will. At times they had a full sense
of this, and humbled themselves greatly before the Lord; but when
thirsty or when hungry, they charged it all upon Moses, as though
they had left Egypt to please him. Moses was grieved with their
cruel murmurings. He inquired of the Lord what he should do, for
the people were ready to stone him. The Lord bade him go smite
the rock with the rod of God. The cloud of His glory rested directly
before the rock. “He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave
them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out