“The Lord answered Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.’ Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Think for a minute about a really positive experience you had a long time ago. I’m talking about one in which you learned a good and important lesson that has stuck with you over generations. Those are good things both to have and to remember. But not all of the experiences we have that stick with us are good. Sometimes it is something bad we did that has shaped our outlook for the rest of our lives. That’s what happened to Israel here. This may not seem like such a big deal, but it shows back up at both the halfway point and near the end of the Scriptures to remind us not to do it. Let’s talk about what they did, how God responded, and what it might mean for us.

Israel had to learn to trust in the Lord. If they were going to be able to receive from Him what He desired to give them, their trust was essential. God was going to be able to accomplish His plans whether they trusted Him or not. He was God. But if they were at all interested in being an active part of those plans, trust was essential. The trouble was, Israel didn’t trust in the Lord. Actually, that wasn’t the entire issue. The main issue was that they didn’t trust in the Lord when He had already given them every reason to trust Him.

If you went up to a stranger, insisted that he trust you for the sake of his very life, and his balked at that, we could forgive him for such a thing. If, on the other hand, you went up to your spouse of thirty years, said the same thing, and she balked, we would have more of an issue on our hands.

One of the most iconic lines from the Terminator movie franchise is, “Come with me if you want to live.” In pretty much every instance the line is uttered, a stranger shows up out of nowhere (which in most cases happens to be a killer robot that has been repurposed to help humans rather than destroy them) and insists the main character go with them for the sake of their very survival. In each of these cases, the request is made in the midst of circumstances in which the main character will in fact die if she doesn’t go with it. If she indeed desires to live, she doesn’t have a choice. There’s not any kind of a relational context that would encourage her in the direction of trust, she can simply see with her own eyes that a second killer robot which very obviously wants to kill her is closing in to do just that.

As iconic as this image of trust in dangerous circumstances is, it is not at all how God comes to Israel with the expectation of their trust. When God comes with a request to trust in Him (a trust demonstrated by their obedience to His commands), it is only after He has more than proven Himself worthy of that trust. I feel like we have rehearsed this point over and over again, but it is nonetheless worth saying here.

God brought the people out of generations’ worth of slavery in Egypt. He defeated the most powerful ruler in the world on their behalf, and they didn’t have to lift a finger. They witnessed His miraculous deeds to overcome Pharaoh’s hard heart. They saw the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. They walked across the sea on dry ground. They saw the waters crash back down on the pursuing Egyptians forces. They drank the brackish water that had become sweet by throwing a tree into it. They ate the manna that appeared outside their tents each morning. (I wonder if it was ever soggy when it rained in the morning…) God’s expectation of trust did not come out of nowhere. It was firmly rooted in a generous revelation of His character as absolutely trustworthy.

And yet, when the people experienced thirst and water was not immediately available for them to drink, they came at Moses loudly complaining and openly wondering why they had ever come on this stupid journey in the first place. He had just brought them out into the desert to kill them all. The utter irrationality of this complaint was obviously lost on them. The deeper issue, though, was that in saying this they were not questioning Moses’ character (something he was quick to point out in his efforts to make sure that they didn’t take out their frustrations on him physically). They were questioning God’s.

That’s what is really going on here. The people were testing God’s character. Again, though, if this were the first time God had even come to them, that would be one thing. But it wasn’t. He had proven Himself over and over. In demanding that He prove Himself yet again here, they were essentially declaring that they didn’t trust Him. They didn’t believe Him. To go back to our earlier illustration, if a stranger doubts your character, that’s to be expected. If your spouse of thirty years does, we have a problem on our hands. When it comes to Israel’s refusal to trust in God’s character, we have a problem on our hands.

That’s what makes this moment so significant. Of course, in the moment, that’s a little hard to see. When we take in the larger story of the Scriptures as a whole, though, things become clearer. In Psalm 95, the psalmist calls on the people of Israel of his generation to not be like those of this previous generation who tested the Lord at the waters of Massah and Meribah. The author of Hebrews makes reference to the story as well, saying, “Don’t be like that.”

This episode became a warning to all future generations. Don’t test the Lord like those guys did. Things didn’t go well for them. In fact, the psalmist and the author of Hebrews both connected their faithlessness here to their eventually being punished with 40 years’ worth of wandering in the wilderness. Disbelieving in God when we’ve never heard about Him is one thing. Disbelieving after we’ve been presented with mountains of evidence is another matter entirely. They’re both sinful because, as the apostle Paul told us, God has made Himself knowable to everyone simply by looking around. But the latter is a much more willful sin that will carry significant consequences.

For Israel, those consequences wouldn’t come immediately to bear. Instead, God responded to their faithlessly demanding that He prove Himself to them one more time by doing just that. He miraculously provided water for them, this time from out of a rock. He told Moses to use the miracle staff so the elders could see and report back to their people that this was indisputably something God had done. This itself is yet another incredible testament to the patience and graciousness of our God. They rebelled and He provided. That’s the story of the Scriptures from cover to cover. We rebel and He graciously provides. That’s simply the character of our God.

This, however, does not mean Israel’s actions here were without consequence. But while God Himself would punish their eventual rejection in the form of refusing to move into the Promised Land in a few more months when God took them there as He had said He would, this punishment was in response to their initial rejection. That rejection wouldn’t have happened, though, had they been actively cultivating an instinct of faith instead of an instinct of doubt. This was the danger of what Israel was doing here. They were laying another brick in a foundation of doubt that would serve them most poorly in the days ahead.

This is where the lesson lands here for us. Failing to trust God in a critical moment once is certainly not a good thing, but neither is it the end of the world. Falling into a pit of anxiety and self-loathing over a brush with doubt like this is neither helpful nor necessary. One time does not a pattern make. But a pattern has to start somewhere. Experiencing a moment of doubt like this should not lead us to guilt, nor should it lead us to apathy. Instead, it should lead us to consciously giving greater attention to the state of our faith in God. How well do we really trust Him? How well do we really know Him? Indeed, to know Him is to trust Him because He is fundamentally trustworthy. If your trust has wavered in the recent past, take some active steps to shore it up so that a one-off moment of weakness remains a one-off moment of weakness and doesn’t get repeated and develop into a pattern that will eventually carry consequences you don’t want to face.

As we prepare for the coming of the Advent season, this is a great time of year for refreshing and restoring our faith on the basis of this powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness to us in sending Jesus to bring us life by saving us from our sins. Because He is so faithful, we can put our faith fully in Him with confidence.