Eucharistic meditation

Exodus 17:5-6: And the LORD said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink.”

Israel comes to a place called Rephidim, which means “rests” or “resting places.” They turn the resting place into a courtroom, bringing charges against Moses and against Yahweh, quarreling so much that when they leave the place has changed its name – the Massah, testing and Meribah, lawsuit. The focus of the trial is, as Pastor Sumpter has emphasized, the “Immanuel question”: Let us see whether Yahweh is with us or not.

Just when the contention gets to a fever pitch, when the people are about to convict Moses of attempted murder and about to stone him, the Lord intervenes and provides water. Though the place retains the name Massah and Meribah, Yahweh makes it an oasis, back into Rephidim. Yahweh turns the scorched land into a pool, thirsty ground into springs, the haunt of jackals into reeds and rushes.

How He does this is just as important as the fact that He does. When the people are about to stone Moses, Yahweh tells Moses to take his miracle-working staff to the rock. And there on the rock, Yahweh “stands before” Moses, stands between Moses and the rock, as Moses raises his staff of judgment and crashes it against the rock.

Striking Horeb won’t bring water; what brings water is striking Yahweh. Yahweh Himself is the Rock who provides water in the desert when Moses strikes Him with the plague-dealing staff. The people want to stone Moses for plotting to kill them, but Yahweh is the One who brought them out to the wilderness and He bears responsibility for it and them. He stands in for Moses, taking Moses’ punishment and absorbing the judgments of Egypt into Himself.

By this, Yahweh ends the trial. He proves He is in their midst. If there is water in the wilderness, Yahweh, the Lord of life, must be there. If Israel has spiritual food and drink, then God is with them. Above all, if Yahweh the Rock has been struck, then Israel can say Immanuel, God is With Us.

And so for us: How can we know that God cares for us, that He’s with us and among us? How can you know that God loves you? Here’s the proof: This spiritual food and drink, this manna that comes from heaven and this water turned to wine that flows from the side of our Rock, the Rock that followed Israel, that Rock whom we know as Jesus Christ.