Lawsuit City and the Smitten Rock Text: Exodus 17:1-7
Introduction: The Thirst Behind the Thirst
We live in a perpetually thirsty generation. But the thirst is not, fundamentally, for water. It is a spiritual thirst, a deep-seated discontentment with God's providence. Modern man is a grumbler by profession. He believes he is entitled to a life free of inconvenience, a journey with no desert stretches. When the air conditioning breaks, when the Wi-Fi is slow, when the paycheck is tight, the immediate response is to murmur, to complain, to grumble. This is not a new sin, but it is a foundational one. It is the sin of our fathers in the wilderness, and it is a sin that reveals the true condition of the heart.
The story before us in Exodus 17 is far more than a historical account of divine provision. It is a courtroom drama. It is a profound theological lesson on the nature of faith, the ugliness of unbelief, and the stunning grace of God in the face of insolent rebellion. The children of Israel, fresh from the miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea, having been sustained by manna from heaven, now find themselves without water. And their reaction is not humble supplication, but hostile litigation. They put God on trial.
We must not read this story with an air of superiority, as though we would have behaved better. We are cut from the same cloth. The heart of natural man wants to grumble, and it doesn't matter what sights you have seen. These people had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. They had seen the armies of Pharaoh obliterated. They were eating angel's food every morning. And yet, at the first sign of genuine hardship, their faith evaporates, and they bring out their legal briefs against God and His servant Moses. This passage forces us to ask ourselves: when our circumstances are dry and barren, do we cry out to God in faith, or do we sue Him for breach of contract?
What we will see is that God, in His astonishing mercy, does not dismiss the case. He answers their lawsuit, but not in the way they expected. He answers it with a staggering display of substitutionary grace, pointing forward thousands of years to another rock, another staff, and another thirst that would be quenched for all time.
The Text
Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of Yahweh, and they camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you contend with me? Why do you test Yahweh?" But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to put us and our children and our livestock to death with thirst?" So Moses cried out to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me." Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us or not?"
(Exodus 17:1-7 LSB)
The Indictment (v. 1-3)
The scene opens with obedience that quickly curdles into rebellion.
"Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of Yahweh, and they camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses and said, 'Give us water that we may drink.' And Moses said to them, 'Why do you contend with me? Why do you test Yahweh?'" (Exodus 17:1-2)
Notice, they arrived at this waterless place "according to the command of Yahweh." God led them there. This was a test, ordained by God, to reveal what was in their hearts. And what was in their hearts comes gushing out. The word "contended" here is the Hebrew word rib, which is a legal term. It means to bring a lawsuit, to file a formal complaint. This is not just whining; it is a legal challenge. They are taking Moses, and by extension God, to court.
Their demand, "Give us water," sounds like the cry of a petulant child, but it carries the force of a legal summons. Moses immediately identifies the true defendant. "Why do you contend with me? Why do you test Yahweh?" Moses understands his role as a federal head, a representative. An attack on him is an attack on the one who sent him. To test Moses' authority is to put God's own faithfulness and power on trial. This is the very definition of tempting God: demanding that He perform according to our standards, on our timetable, to prove Himself to us.
The charge becomes more explicit in the next verse.
"But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, 'Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to put us and our children and our livestock to death with thirst?'" (Exodus 17:3)
Here the legal contention devolves into outright grumbling. Murmuring is the soundtrack of unbelief. And their accusation is slanderous. They accuse God of malicious intent. They are not just saying, "We are afraid we might die." They are saying, "You brought us out here in order to kill us." They attribute to God the very motives of Pharaoh. This is a profound blasphemy. They are judging God's heart based on their empty stomachs, completely ignoring the mountain of evidence of His goodness and power that lay behind them in the parted sea and the smitten land of Egypt.
The Mediator's Plea (v. 4)
Moses, caught between a rebellious people and a holy God, turns to the only place he can.
"So Moses cried out to Yahweh, saying, 'What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.'" (Exodus 17:4)
The people are ready to execute the man of God. Their thirst has driven them to the brink of murderous rebellion. Moses' cry is one of desperation. He doesn't know what to do. He is at the end of his rope. And this is precisely where God wants His servants to be. When we are at the end of our resources, we are at the beginning of His. Moses, the mediator, stands in the gap. He doesn't call for fire from heaven to consume the rebels. He brings their sin and his own desperation before the Lord.
The Astonishing Verdict (v. 5-6)
God's response to this lawsuit is one of the most remarkable displays of grace in all the Old Testament.
"Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.'" (Exodus 17:5-6)
God accepts the indictment. He agrees to go to court. He tells Moses to pass before the people, with the elders as official witnesses. This is a formal, public proceeding. And what is the evidence Moses is to bring? The staff. Not just any staff, but the very staff "with which you struck the Nile." This is crucial. That staff was an instrument of judgment. It turned the life-giving water of Egypt to blood, bringing death and plague. The people are demanding life, and God tells Moses to bring the instrument of death.
Then comes the most staggering part. God says, "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb." The defendant, Yahweh Himself, will present Himself for judgment. He identifies Himself with the rock. He will stand on the rock, making it His representative place. And then the command: "you shall strike the rock." Moses is to take the rod of judgment and strike the place where God Himself stands. The guilty party is Israel. They are the ones who deserve to be struck. But God, in an act of pure, unadulterated grace, puts Himself in the place of the accused. He takes the blow that they deserve.
And what is the result of this judgment? "Water will come out of it, that the people may drink." From the smitten rock, from the place of judgment, flows life-giving water. Judgment falls, but it falls on a substitute. And from that substitutionary judgment, salvation flows to the guilty. The Apostle Paul tells us exactly what is happening here: "For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). Christ was the Rock. Christ was the one who stood in the place of His rebellious people. Christ was the one smitten by the rod of God's law and judgment. And from His smitten side flowed living water for a thirsty world.
The Memorial Names (v. 7)
Moses memorializes this event with two names that will echo through Israel's history.
"So he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, 'Is Yahweh among us or not?'" (Exodus 17:7)
He calls the place Massah, which means "Testing," and Meribah, which means "Contending" or "Lawsuit." These names are a permanent reminder of the people's sin. Their fundamental question was, "Is Yahweh among us or not?" They made His presence contingent on their comfortable circumstances. If things are going well, God is with us. If we are thirsty, perhaps He has abandoned us. This is the essence of a consumer relationship with God, not a covenantal one.
And yet, God answered their faithless question with a gracious, thundering "YES!" Is Yahweh among you? Yes, He is. He is among you standing on the rock, taking the blow you deserve, and giving you life from His own wounds. He is among you, not because of your faithfulness, but in spite of your faithlessness. The names Massah and Meribah stand as a monument to human sin and divine grace. They are Lawsuit City, a place of rebellion, but they are also the location of the smitten rock, a place of redemption.
The Gospel from the Rock
This story is our story. We are all born thirsty, and we are all born grumblers. We come into this world with our fists clenched, ready to contend with God for our perceived rights. We stand in the wilderness of our sin, and we accuse God of abandoning us, of bringing us into this world only to let us perish.
And God's answer to our rebellious lawsuit is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, God the Father took the rod of His righteous law, the staff of judgment that we all deserved, and He struck the Rock of our salvation, His only Son. Jesus stood in our place. He received the full force of the curse that was due to our contending, our testing, our grumbling, our sin. "He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5).
And from His smitten side, what flowed out? Blood and water. The blood to atone for our sin, and the living water of the Holy Spirit to quench our spiritual thirst forever. Jesus Himself stood in the temple and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37-38).
The question for us, then, is the same one that faced Israel. When the wilderness trials of life come, when you are thirsty and your resources are gone, will you put God on trial? Will you grumble and contend and demand that He prove Himself? Or will you go by faith to the smitten Rock? Will you drink freely from the salvation that He purchased at so great a cost?
You cannot steer your way out of a grumbling heart. You cannot manage your way out of a complaining spirit. You can only repent of it. You must kill it. And you kill it by turning away from your own perceived entitlements and turning toward the cross. You see there the judgment your complaints deserved, and you see the grace that quenched that judgment completely. The Rock was struck once, so that we who believe might drink forever. Do not sue your God. Instead, fall down before Him and drink.