A Crisis of Faith
[Yahweh said:]“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 Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?” (Exodus 17:6-7)
In keeping with my new, weekly practice, I’m posting here a portion of yesterday’s sermon. The text for the morning was Exodus 17:1-7, and the sermon focused on the question there at the end of the passage, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”
This is one of the most important questions a human could ask. And as we studied this section of God’s story, we explored the apparent crisis for God’s people — no water — versus the actual crisis for God’s people — no faith. The section below was the beginning of my dealing with the latter.
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
Grace to you!
Pastor Matthew
Yahweh continues: “And when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.”
And that’s it. We don’t get much more from the storyteller — just that Moses does it just like Yahweh said to — but we don’t get a description of how the people got the water, that they were satisfied, the deets on exactly how all that played out — because the storyteller’s focus isn’t actually on the sign and wonder of Yahweh in this story to deal with the apparent crisis of no water.
Because that’s not actually the crisis here.
The True Crisis Revealed: No Faith
You see, the true crisis is revealed in verse seven: “He named the place Massah and Meribah, Testingville and Quarrelingburg, because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh…”
Do you see?
The apparent crisis was no water.
But the true crisis was no faith.
And I say “no faith” because that is the root of their testing of Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”
How is that question a testing of Yahweh?
I mean, isn’t that a bit of a harsh judgment, to say that asking that question is a test? Well, when you think about it a bit, you see that it’s not harsh at all to say that.
As Victor Hamilton reflects:
“So what is the problem with testing God? Well…to test God is to pose an ultimatum in which we decide what shall count as evidence of God’s presence, and then decide on God’s presence or absence on the basis of whether God has met the test we have posed.”
Or Terence Fretheim:
“Testing God is seeking a way God can be coerced to act or show himself. It is to set God up, to try to force God’s hand in order thereby to determine concretely whether God is really present or not. In essence, testing God is demanding that he jump through our hoops and make himself answerable and accountable to us.”
And here’s why that’s so dangerous, family. Because in that scenario sovereignty passes to us. We are effectively putting ourselves over and above God.
That’s what Israel was doing by asking the question. They were challenging him: “If you are here, really here, then you would make water materialize.”
And the only way they’ll believe — have faith — in him, that he is present with them, is wether he provides water or not. Oh boy…so dangerous.
One commentator warns:
“Such attitudes set God up for a test, hold God hostage, determining just how God is to show his divine power. It places God in the role of servant, at the beck and call of anyone in difficulty. And besides violating the Goodness of God, it endangers the understanding of faith. It can lead to further dangers such as: God did not heal you, because you must not have had enough faith. If you had, God would have acted. All such actions are a putting of God to the test.”
That is the true crisis.
The crisis of faith, displayed by testing God.
Asking, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”
