Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Exodus 17:1-7 (Numbers 20:1-13)

Trouble at the Spring

There has again been a difficulty in the Israelite wilderness crossing located somewhere in the vicinity of Horeb, or Qadesh-Barnea, depending on who's telling it (see Numbers 20:ff). This is all part of the “murmuring thread” (Hebrew lûn: murmur, rebel (against)) we detect through the whole series of complaints that Israel lodges against Moses - and Yahweh. Exodus is kinder to Moses (and Aaron) than Numbers. Yahweh stands in front of Moses when he strikes the rock for water, as he was told. There are no repercussions. Just flowing water. In Numbers Moses delivers a short harangue to Israel and strikes the rock (twice) and it is called unbelief, resulting in a whole change in administration - the retraction of the Canaan promise to Moses, and a death-sentence to Aaron for other crimes. This place, split between two sets of redactors, shaping their own repetitions of the case, is very troubling.

The “spring” gets two names in Exodus: Massah (test) and Meribah (quarrel) according to the NRSV footnote. The whole trouble arose out of the question Israel raised to Moses: “Is the Lord with us or not?” (17:7) It was ostensibly not Yahweh's intention to lift Israel out of slavery only to dump them into a killing ground. But how thirsty is it necessary to become in Rephidim before we consider it an unfair test? Maybe nobody was really dying of thirst. Maybe no livestock was actually lost. Maybe Israel was just, by nature, a nation of complainers. Hence, the story, linked episodically by the complaining verb lûn, is the sad but simple truth about Israel. Considering the nature of protracted suffering in the world, I don't really believe that. People die of thirst who have perfectly good attitudes toward God. 

So maybe they really were dying of thirst. Yes. That's what makes me uneasy about this quarrelsome place. Consider the narrative setting: 'Horeb' (Exodus version) in Hebrew calls to mind a dried up waste. 'Qadesh-Barnea' (Numbers) in Hebrew is a holy and deadly ground. These are both hard terms, this waste and this menacing holiness that is also a test and a quarrel. How does one raise a family in a place like that? Does Yahweh intend his people to become a sect of desert ascetics, sealed off by an iron rule against any verdant hope, manna-gatherers forever, patiently smiling to heaven 'til rocks yield water? No. It's not one of those kinds of religions. The life-goal of this trek is milk and honey, pomegranates, large flocks, good wells, families, and festivals. Lots of festivals. And lots of Yahweh-celebrations. The key to that life is the covenant law that Yahweh is about to mediate from the mountain. At least that's how Exodus tells it.

Unfortunately, this will not be the last time Israel, in any of his incarnations, comes to Massah and Meribah. The names will change, of course. But this story will be told repeatedly because people “get it”. There are people who would dry up, seemingly abandoned, even as they call out to God. And yet, somehow, these people often end up having the most profound faith in their deliverer. They've known the high-cultural Egyptian versions of religion, convenient, magisterial, and magical. Out here you cannot negotiate. You take the water however it comes, hoping understanding will follow.

© 2011 Andy Gay