1st Saturday of Advent (December 7). WATER from the ROCK

Prepare to Listen.  I will be standing there in front of you on the rock.
 
Prayerfully Read Exodus 17:1-7
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded.  They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.  2The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’  Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the LORD?’  3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’  4So Moses cried out to the LORD, ‘What shall I do with this people?  They are almost ready to stone me.’  5The LORD said to Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.  Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.’  Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.  7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the LORD, saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
“They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water to drink.”  How would you react if you were out of water and your leader camped at a Rephidim, a place of no water?
 
I think we can understand Israel’s quarrel with Moses.  They were thirsty in the dry desert, and he camped where there was no water to drink.  Had they been led out of Egyptian slavery only to die of thirst in a waterless desert?  I suspect we too would complain and presume he’d mistaken the path.  But Moses wasn’t lost, nor were they in the wrong place.  Rephidim, despite having no water to drink, was a necessary stage in their journey, a stage commanded by God.  It was the right place at the right time.  There in Rephidim Israel experienced the astonishing presence of God—the miracle of water from the rock, flowing abundantly, enough for all to freely drink.
 
Desert experiences aren’t unusual.  It seems God loves the desert and often leads us, sometimes in stages, into dry spiritual deserts.  Our prayers, questions, doubts, remain ignored and we wonder if we’ll die of thirst in this wilderness we’re in.  It’s a mistake to go back or rush out of the desert.  God will meet us there, do for us what can only be done in the desert.  We’ll discover “there is grace in the wilderness,”[1] water from the rock.  As Paul knew, water from the rock was, for Israel then, and is for us today, Christ.[2]
 
While never welcome, the desert is often the place where we experience God’s grace most noticeably—if we pay attention, and remain open to God’s surprises, like water from the Rock.
 
What lessons have you learned in your desert experiences?  How did Christ show up?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus, you lead me in stages, even into Rephidim with no water.  Help me stay in these desert stages and be alert to your coming with water from the Rock, however surprising.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Stay in the desert and wait for water from the Rock.
[1] Jeremiah 31:2.  [2] 1 Corinthians 10:4.