“Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7)
In May of 1916, three men walked across the interior of South Georgia Island. Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley, and Tom Crean had already survived a ship crushed by pack ice, five months on a drifting iceberg, and an eight-hundred-mile open-boat voyage through the Southern Ocean. Twenty-two of their crew waited on Elephant Island for rescue. The three men crossed thirty-two miles of uncharted mountains in roughly thirty-six hours, with fifty feet of rope and a carpenter’s adze among them, and walked into the Stromness whaling station on the morning of May 20.
Shackleton wrote later that during that march he kept sensing a fourth man with them. Worsley and Crean each said the same thing without any prompting. Three exhausted men in a place without shelter or map, asking: Is anyone with us out here?
Israel asked a similar question while suffering from dehydration at a place called Rephidim. The readings this week address it, and the answer lies in four movements: a rock struck for a thirsty camp, a story told to children, a summons to turn and live, and the Son who took on the form of a slave.
Exodus 17:1-7: A Question Asked on Bone-Dry Ground
The community traveled in phases according to the LORD’s command, and they camped at Rephidim, where there was no water (v. 1). Obedience put them there. God’s directions led Israel to an empty well, where the accusations began.
The people demand water and accuse Moses of marching their children and livestock into the desert to die (vv. 2-3). Moses tells God the crowd is close to stoning him (v. 4). God answers with instructions similar to a courtroom drama. Take the elders as witnesses. Bring the staff that struck the Nile. “I am going to stand there in front of you at the rock at Horeb” (v. 6). Moses strikes the rock while the elders watch, and water runs out for a camp of complainers.
God named the site in response to their question: “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16: The Answer Must Be Rehearsed
Generations later, a worship leader in Israel picks up the same events and turns them into a song for instruction. He calls the congregation to listen and promises to speak the riddles of the past. Fathers hand these things down, and children will hear them, so a future generation will know the praises of the LORD and the wonderful works He performed (vv. 1-4).
Then he sings about the wilderness. God split the sea and stood the water like a wall. He led them with a cloud by day and a fiery light at night. He split rocks and gave drink as abundant as the depths, bringing streams out of stone and running water down like rivers (vv. 13-16).
Notice what Israel did with Massah. They kept it in the songbook of Israel. Children who never stood at Rephidim learned that God delivers a thirsty camp with rivers out of rock, from parents who kept retelling the story. Belief travels this trail, from a table in one household to a pew in the next generation.
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32: The Answer in a Summons to Turn
The exiles in Babylon ask the same question in a different location. They quote a proverb about fathers eating sour grapes and children’s teeth going numb, which is a tidy way of saying that they inherited a mess and God has treated them unfairly (v. 2). Twice they repeat His way is unfair (vv. 25, 29).
God dismantles the proverb with another. Every life belongs to Him, the father’s and the son’s alike, and each person answers for his own ways (vv. 4, 30). Then He describes a man who considered his sin and turned from his transgressions, and He says that man will live (v. 28). The chapter ends with both a command and an invitation. Throw off transgressions, receive a new heart and a new spirit, and live, because God takes no pleasure in anyone’s death (vv. 31-32).
Israel wanted to know whether the Lord was with them in Babylon. The answer this time was found in a river of water that appeared as a new heart and new spirit where once lived a dry, unrepentant stone. God’s presence with a guilty people shows itself in the summons to repent, and the same prophet later records how the new heart is possible: God promises to give it Himself (Ezekiel 36:26).
Matthew 21:23-32: The Answer Standing in the Temple Courts
Jesus teaches in the temple, and the chief priests and elders interrupt to ask by what authority He acts (v. 23). He offers them to trade questions and asks where John’s baptism came from. Their huddle gave them away. One answer would expose their unbelief; the other would bring the crowd down on them, so they answer that they do not know (vv. 25-27).
Jesus tells them about two sons. The first refuses his father’s order to work the vineyard and later changes his mind and goes. The second answers, “I will, sir,” and stays home. Jesus asks which one did the father’s will, and they give the obvious answer (vv. 28-31). Then He tells them tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom ahead of them, because those people believed John and turned, while the leaders watched without repentance and stayed where they were (vv. 31-32).
The presence of the Lord stood among them, and the credentialed men said they had no idea. The people who repented were the only ones to recognize Him.
Philippians 2:1-13: The Answer Took the Form of a Slave
Paul provides the answer to Rephdim’s question in its deepest form. Christ existed in the form of God and declined to use equality with God for His own advantage. He emptied Himself, took the form of a slave, came in the likeness of men, humbled Himself, and obeyed to the point of death on a cross (vv. 6-8). God responded by exalting Him and giving Him the name above every name, so that every knee bows and every tongue confesses Him as Lord (vv. 9-11).
That is the final answer to Rephidim. God came among us as a servant and was struck at the cross. This is why Paul could look back at the wilderness rock and say that the rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
How can the church answer “Is the Lord with us or not?” in confidence? A congregation where Christ dwells thinks the same way, shares the same love, and drops rivalry and conceit, with each person counting others more important and watching out for their interests (vv. 2-4). The individual believer works out his salvation with fear and trembling, because God works in him to will and to act for His good purpose (vv. 12-13). Answering the question about the Lord’s presence finds its final answer inside a Christian who finds himself looking more and more like Jesus.
Model the Son Whose Presence Came at Great Cost
Jesus is the rock struck in front of the elders. He is the Son who received His Father’s assignment and went all the way to a cross. He is God who came among us wearing a servant’s form.
Obedience led Israel to a dry campsite, so a hard season proves nothing about God’s absence. Tell God plainly that the well looks empty and ask Him for water. When He delivers you, tell someone the story. Psalm 78 makes testimony a duty of each household. This week, tell one of your children, or a younger believer, one specific thing God has done for you.
Repent of the sin you have been putting off. Find the place where you answered Christ, “I will, sir,” and stayed home instead. Ezekiel 18:28 describes a man who thought it over, repented, and went. Pick the one thing the Holy Spirit bears witness to and go this week. Christ dwelling among His people shows up as people counting others more important than themselves. Give up one preference this week in a meeting, a rehearsal, or a conversation at home, and let that be your evidence that the Lord is with you.
When your congregation gathers on Sunday, look around while you sing. A room full of people who have turned from sin, singing about the Rock struck for thirsty sinners, is your answer to Rephidim’s question, “Is the Lord with us or not?”
Points to Ponder
- Israel arrived at a waterless camp by following God’s directions. Where has obedience led you somewhere dry, and what have you concluded from it?
- God stood at the rock before Moses struck it. What does that placement tell you about how God handles the judgment His people deserve?
- Psalm 78 assigns the telling to parents. Which story about God’s work in your life have your children heard, and which one have you kept to yourself?
- Ezekiel’s exiles said God’s way was unfair. What complaint of yours would sound like that if you said it out loud?
- The second son gave a good answer and stayed home. Where has your yes gone unaccompanied this month?
A Prayer
Lord God, You stood at the rock in front of Moses, and You stood among us in the form of a slave. You answer the thirsty, and You hold the door open for the guilty.
I have asked whether You are with me, sometimes with a complaint in my mouth. Give me water in this dry stretch and give me the honesty to ask You for it. Put Your words in my mouth so my family hears them. Throw off the transgressions I keep excusing and give me the new heart You promised to give. Where I have said yes and stayed home, move my feet. Make our congregation a place where Christ shows Himself in people who count each other more important. Work in me to will and to act for Your good purpose, in the name of Jesus Christ, whom You have exalted and named above every name. Amen.
“For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)
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