Exodus 17:1–7
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
It is a spiritual thirst, a deep-seated discontentment with God's providence. 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. The story before us in Exodus 17 is far more than a historical account of divine provision. 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. We must not read this story with an air of superiority, as though we would have behaved better. The heart of natural man wants to grumble, and it doesn't matter what sights you have seen.