Old Testament Survey

(Exo 17:7) Moses names the place as a rebuke to the children of Israel.

So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Moses did what God told him to do and water came from the rock. This was a great miracle of God’s provision and a rebuke to unbelieving and rebellious Israel.

God remembered the way Israel tested Him at Massah and Meribah, recalling it in several passages. God dramatically said, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb (Exodus 17:6), saying that He was and would be present with Israel. Yet they still wondered, Is the Lord among us or not?

a. This attitude among the Israelites was their great sin. In this time of difficulty, the children of Israel – directly or indirectly – doubted the loving presence and care of God among them. “Under the stress of an immediate lack, these people doubted the one fact of which they had overwhelming evidence.” (Morgan)

b. Later, when Israel remembered God’s provision in the wilderness at the Feast of Tabernacles, they had a specific ceremony where they recalled this miracle of water from a rock. In that exact context, Jesus said: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. (John 7:37-38).