Is YHWH With Us or Not? Reflections on Exodus 17:1-7, Third Sunday in Lent, Year A

by John C. Holbert on Tuesday, January 20, 2026

         The well-known incident in the wilderness when Moses performs one of his more famous tricks by causing much-needed water to flow out of an otherwise dry rock formation regularly appears in lectionary lists. However, the trick itself is not actually the focus of the text, however memorable it may be. Two other parts of the tale need a closer examination: the quarrelsome and never fully satisfied Israelites who demand water and their haunting question at the end of the story: “Is YHWH with us or not?” Ultimately, it appears, that is the central question of the entire scripture, and the answer to it occurs in all manner of ways, some rather more satisfactory than others. We hardly have adequate space to address the Bible’s many ways to get at an answer, but at least in this text we can discern one sort of reply. Whether that reply will be adequate to all who understand it is another matter entirely.

         But first we should look at those recalcitrant Israelites. The people, recent escapees from Egypt, are thirsty, a constant problem in the deserts of the Sinai. The narrator tells us that “the people quarreled with Moses,” (Ex.17:2) or so the NRSV translates it. However, the word employed here is rib, a word always signaling a lawsuit in a courtroom. Thus, what the people have in mind is more than a simple quarrel; they want to haul Moses into court, because they imagine themselves to be in the right, and Moses is for unstated reasons not giving them what they need and deserve. Moses, they imply, needs to explain exactly why he has withheld from them the water they demand. Moses retorts, “Why do you want to go to court with me?” To this reply, Moses adds quickly, “Why are you testing YHWH?” (Ex.17:2). Moses makes it plain that their demand to drag Moses into court is in reality a way to test the faithfulness of YHWH. By testing YHWH, he says, they are turning the tables on YHWH who has been in the story up to now the one who is testing them! (See Ex.15:25-26; 16:4). 

         Perhaps realizing that to demand justice from Moses is at the same time to test YHWH, a potentially dangerous gambit, the verb now changes to “complain” in vs.3. They direct their complaining only to Moses, who, they say, apparently brought them out of Egypt only “to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst” (Ex.17:3). Here is the familiar and exhausting motif of “grumbling,” so indicative of the Israelites in the wilderness. And Moses, in complete exasperation, “cries out to YHWH,” using a verb common in experiences of utter desperation when only YHWH can hear and respond: “What can I do with this people; they are about ready to stone me!” (Ex.17:4) Stoning was an extreme punishment, reserved for the most egregious crimes in Israel, like adultery and blasphemy. Finally, YHWH responds to these contentious people and their leader by guiding them to the rock, and telling Moses to use his famous staff to strike the rock and to produce the needed water. And Moses does so “in the sight of the elders of the people” (Ex.17:6). 

         But the tale ends with that question that rather hangs in the air: “He (Moses) named the place Masah (“test”) and Meribah (“a call to the court”), because the Israelites demanded a court case and also tested YHWH, saying “Is YHWH with us or not?” (Ex.17:7). Well, is YHWH there with them? The easiest answer is yes. After all, they complained and Moses brought the complaint to YHWH, who answered by powerfully forcing water from rock with the help of the servant, Moses. On one level, then, YHWH is certainly there in that gushing flow of water. But I wonder if that answer is altogether too easy. The Bible will again and again plead that YHWH is there with us, is always ready to hear our cries for aid, is anxious to help the people, no matter how complaining, no matter how demanding.

         But what of those times when YHWH is not so obviously there? When our prayers lie unanswered? When our hopes are dashed? When our desires, even for justice and righteousness, are unrequited? When magic water does not come from the nearest rock? What then? I write this reflection a few days after President Trump has sent our military to kidnap the president of Venezuela and his wife, bringing them to the US to stand trial for drug smuggling, among other accusations. In the operation, some 80 people were killed inside that country. And now, after the arraignment of the couple in a New York courtroom, our president proclaims that the central reason for the kidnap was not in the end the problem of drug smuggling, but rather the desire for Venezuelan oil, whose reserves are some 300 billion barrels. Where is the justice in this action, a clear act of war, unapproved by Congress, and found to be abhorrent to some 70% of the US population according to a poll taken Jan.5, 2026. Is YHWH with us, or not? 

         I am always greatly helped by those magnificent lines from Habakkuk when confronted with events such as the one I have just enumerated:

“Though the fig tree does not blossom,

         and no fruit is on the vines;

Though the produce of the olive fails,

         and the fields yield no food;

Though the flock is cut off from the fold,

         and there is no herd in the stalls,

Still I will rejoice in YHWH;

         I will exult in the God of my salvation!” (Hab.3:17-18)

I still believe that YHWH is with us, that YHWH who is guarantor of justice and righteousness for the world, and that, despite all external appearances, justice and righteousness will prevail. I need no magic rock water to rest my life on the certain love and presence of YHWH. How about you?