Give Us Water to Drink

Lured by the promise of fertile farmland and a chance to start anew, several hundred thousand men, women and children set out along the Oregon Trail between the 1840s and the 1880s. They rolled west in groups of oxen-pulled prairie schooners through grass prairies, arid deserts, and over snowy mountain passes, bound for California and Oregon.

For 19th-century settlers traveling west across America by wagon train, every mile tested body and spirit. Blistered feet, choking dust, and swarming insects were just a few of the many physical challenges along the 2,000-mile, months-long journey. Settlers also had to contend with unpredictable weather in the wide-open West -- dust storms, rain squalls or blizzards.

Perhaps the worst physical challenge the settlers faced was severe water shortages, often forcing them to rely on contaminated, alkaline, or meager water sources that caused disease and death. While wagon trains followed rivers like the Platte and Carson for survival, they often struggled to find enough water for animals. Many settlers took shortcuts to get to California, such as the Hastings Cutoff in Utah, which promised a faster route but led directly into harsh deserts. Or settlers would come from the last good water of the Platte 20 miles back when they arrived at Clayton's Slough here in Natrona County. The contaminated water poisoned livestock and humans. Cholera, caused by contaminated water, was the leading cause of death, followed by diseases like dysentery.

These settlers were hearty souls, looking for a better land and a better life out West. They needed some water to drink along the way.

The Israelites had just escaped from being slaves in Egypt. They had witnessed God's miracles with the ten plagues, the Angel of the Lord appearing as a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire to separate them from the angry Egyptian army, and Moses using his staff to part the waters of the Red Sea. About a month earlier, they complained about being hungry, so God miraculously provided them with manna from heaven and quails that landed in their camp.

After receiving this miraculous food in the desert, the Israelites have been traveling for several more days. The hills are getting higher in the Horeb mountain range. The valleys are narrower and full of huge rocks. There are no springs of water to be found anywhere in this mountainous desert.

This time the Israelites not only complain. They "quarrel" with Moses. "The entire Israelite community set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin as the Lord had commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So the people quarreled with Moses and said, 'Give us water to drink'" (Exodus 17:1-2).

They even threaten to stone Moses! "Moses said to them, 'Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the Lord?' But the people were thirsty for water there, so they grumbled against Moses. They said, 'Why did you ever bring us up out of Egypt to let us, our children, and our livestock die of thirst?' Moses cried out to the Lord, 'What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me'" (Exodus 17:3-4)!

These people are ungrateful to the Lord for rescuing them. They are thankless to Moses for his leadership. Moses is in the same mountain range where he had previously tended sheep for his father-in-law Jethro. Who would have blamed him if he had traded in his leadership staff for a shepherd's staff and gone back to tending sheep! At least they would have been pleasant to be around!

The Lord had earlier directed Moses' staff and used water in his miracles by changing the Nile River into blood and then back into water again, and parting the waters of the Red Sea and then having those walls of water come crashing down on Pharaoh and his army. Now the Lord patiently deals with the quarreling children of Israel as a father deals with his crabby kids. He directs Moses to use his staff to strike a rock. As Moses obeys, water comes out of the rock for the people to drink.

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Go in front of the people, and take the elders of Israel with you. Also take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Watch me. I will stand there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. You are to strike the rock. Water will come out of it, and the people will drink.' Moses did that in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the Lord by saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not'" (Exodus 17:5-7)?

It's no wonder that Moses called that place "Massah," which in Hebrew means "testing," and "Meribah," which in Hebrew means "quarreling." Through their quarreling the Israelites were testing the Lord, demanding proof that he was still among them. In his mercy the Lord again gave evidence of his providential love to these undeserving people.

We need to understand that we are very similar to these quarreling Israelites kids. God has blessed many of our family members with long lives, but we question God when he takes a loved one away through death. God has blessed us with health, but we grumble when we get really ill. God has blessed us with a home, so we don't have be camping in the desert, but we grumble when we have to do home repairs. God has blessed us with manna and quail ... and a whole lot of other foods in our fridge, freezer, and pantry. Yet we complain that we can't find anything to eat. We have indoor plumbing with water in the bathroom, washroom, and kitchen, yet we still find a way to whine about the water pressure or the temperature or the taste.

God calls us today to repent of our self-centeredness, confess our quarreling; admit whining, grumbling, and complaining. We must admit that we fall into the sin of the Israelites when they became so thirsty that they questioned God's love for them asking, "Is the Lord among us or not?" When things go against us, we, too, fall into the Devil's trap of believing that God doesn't care about us.

We repent and then believe. Believe that the Lord knows what's best for you. Believe that you learn more through suffering and want than through ease and comfort. That's what St. Paul is teaching in our Epistle lesson, "We rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope" (Romans 5:3-4). Trust that whether in plenty or in scarcity, whether in suffering or in pleasure, God gives you exactly what you need. As Martin Luther said it so well, "I believe that God has made me and all creatures ... given me clothing, shoes, food and drink... [and] he richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life."

Have you ever been really thirsty but had nothing to drink? The books I've been reading have thirst as a major theme in them. The Christian Crusaders leaving Europe and heading to Jerusalem. Magellan and Columbus sailing across the ocean but having no fresh water to drink. Polar explorers surrounded by ice and snow, but again, having no fresh water to drink. Soldiers fighting in the Civil War, World Wars, or wars in the Middle East. They all battled thirst.

We, too, battle thirst. But not a physical thirst. A spiritual thirst. St. Paul uses the thirst of the Israelites in the desert and the water from the rock as an application for spiritual meaning to their physical actions. "For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them―and that rock was Christ! Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. He had them die in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples to warn us not to desire evil things the way they did" (1 Corinthians 10:1-6).

The term spiritual food refers to the manna. The spiritual drink refers to the water that came out of the rock. The food and drink are called spiritual because they were miraculously provided. But the real source of their food and drink, the one who really did accompany and save them, was the promised Savior, the Messiah.

God, in his love, quenches thirst. When our physical needs are met, when we have cozy homes, and nourished bodies, when our physical thirst is quenched, it can be easy to stop there and think, "What more could I need." So many in our world are lost in a desert of sin and unbelief and dying of spiritual thirst -- thirst for answers, for acceptance, for purpose. The problem is when we look in the wrong places to have that spiritual thirst quenched -- we become spiritually dehydrated. The danger of spiritual dehydration is eternal death.

Jesus Christ is the Rock of our salvation. God called Moses to strike the rock to quench the people's physical thirst. Jesus took the guilt of our sin upon himself so that by his death and resurrection, through faith, God would quench our need for forgiveness. We receive Christ as we read about him as the Rock of our salvation in the Bible. We receive Christ in Holy Baptism as the water and the Word works to create faith, washes away sins, and grants everlasting life.

Jesus answered the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14).

What is "living water"? Living water is the gospel message about Jesus. We end each of our Thirsty podcasts with the phrase, "You are thirsty, my friends, so drink deeply from the Water of Life." We become physically dehydrated because we don't drink enough water during the day. We become spiritually dehydrated because we don't drink enough of God's living water during the day and week.

Drink deeply from Christ's living water by being in Bible study -- we offer a lot of them. Drink deeply by listening to various Lutheran podcasts. Drink deeply by coming regularly to worship -- we have Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, plus Holy Week is coming soon. Drink deeply by receiving the Sacrament often -- you'll be able to receive the Lord's Supper five times during Holy Week with Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday. Drink deeply by reading and meditating on God's Word on your own or with your family. Every morning, speak the words of the invocation, make the sign of the cross, recite the Apostles' Creed, Luther's Morning Prayer, and the Lord's Prayer. Then read a portion of Scripture, meditate on it, and pray about it. Then do the same thing in the evening, except using Luther's Evening Prayer.

When we drink of Christ and his Word, we have all that we need. The Holy Spirit enables us to produce the fruits of faith, which "gush" forth from our lives. The living water that Jesus offers, quenches thirst forever, because it springs up like a well inside of people, resulting in eternal life. This is the ongoing effect of Christ and his Word, that satisfies any spiritual thirst forever.

The Israelites quarreled with Moses when they said, "Give us water to drink." Let us say those same words to the Lord. But may they instead be a prayer for the Lord to quench our physical and spiritual thirst. "Lord, give us water to drink." Amen.