Stages

Exodus 17:1-7
The Thirsty Israelites
 
This passage begins with: “The whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages” (v.1). My mind immediately went to different stages of our spiritual journey. Some are just beginning, some are in the middle, and some have been on the journey for a very long time. Others fill in the gaps in between on this long spectrum. The Message Bible says, “Directed by God, the whole company of Israel moved on by stages from the wilderness” (v.1-2). This interpretation provides a different visual of them traveling in different groups, leaving the wilderness. We all leave the wilderness moments at different times and stages of our faith journey. The New Living Translation says, “they moved from place to place,” suggesting they were together, but making frequent stops. One wilderness led to another wilderness. The footnote in the Harper Collins Study Bible for “stages” says, “journey stops,” which would also suggest the stages were actually stops, moments when we pause on our faith journey or perhaps moments that stop us in our tracks, when we are thirsty for God.
 
On a physical hike, when we’re thirsty, we pause and take a drink. We make frequent “journey stops” to rest and drink the water we need in order to keep going. Our spiritual journey is the same way. We can’t keep going without making frequent journey stops to pause and to drink. In fact, we often stop to drink because we are thirsty. Or, we stop because we’ve arrived at a place that is difficult. We pause at the hardship to figure out how to overcome it, and we drink from the well of God.
 
This might suggest the Israelites’ experience. They encountered a lot of obstacles and hardship, and often went from one trial to another. God had just satisfied their hunger by feeding them. Now, they find themselves thirsty. They stopped at Rephidim, which is just described as a “stopping place,” and it had no water -- a new trial, a new challenge, in which they need to rely on the Lord to provide.
 
Perhaps the different stages were areas of their lives where they had to learn to trust God. They were fleeing from their enemies, and God parted the Red Sea so they could escape them. They were hungry, and God rained down bread and provided meat to satisfy their hunger. Now, they are thirsty, a new stage or area where they need to trust God. They stopped on their journey, but this new stage did not provide the water they thirsted for, the water they needed to survive.
 
God provided a way for them to receive the gift of water in this stage. God told Moses to “strike the rock [with the same staff he used to part the sea], and water will come out of it” (v.6). Water doesn’t usually come out of rocks, hard places, but with God, anything is possible.
 
What really satisfied their thirst is God’s presence with them during this stage. God told Moses, “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock” (v.6). Often, we don’t see God right in front of us. We miss the holy presence of God when we focus on our thirst and turn to grumbling and quarreling. Even so, God is there, waiting in the hard places, to give us what we need, to satisfy our thirst for God.
 
Reflection questions:
Are you thirsty for God?
Where are you on your spiritual journey? Are you at a journey stop?
How often do you stop to rest and to drink Christ’s life-giving water?
Have you missed seeing God right in front of you before?
​What can you do to make sure you don’t miss God’s holy presence?
 
Action: Do one thing this week that helps to quench your thirst for God.