Exodus 17:1-7 Study Guide: Dealing with Distrust

Community Group Study Guide — Dealing with Distrust
Exodus 17:1-7

Study Information:
Our previous study guide explored the human tendency to grumble and complain about our circumstances and about God. We read about how God put them in the wilderness to grow their trust. However instead of praying and asking God to supply for their needs, the people of Israel grumbled about their circumstances and tested the boundaries of what God had said. Our scripture for this study guide continues the grumbling focus and shows us an escalation in their lack of distrust as they moved from grumbling to quarreling with God, actually putting him on a figurative trial. Their main accusation was, “is God with us or not?” 

In our scripture we will learn the nature of this accusation against God, how God manifested his presence to them and about the danger of a hardened distrusting heart towards God. 

Putting God on Trial
Exodus 17:1-3, 7
God once again directed the people to a new area of the wilderness, Rephidim, on their way to receive his Law at Mount Horeb/Sinai which was the place where God first revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. Keep in mind that the pillar of smoke and fire were leading the people and they had a visible representation of God’s presence with them this whole time. Yet, they once again found themselves without water and instead of learning the lesson from the previous encounter they grumbled against God and his intentions for their good. Instead of asking God for water, they resorted to their accusation that God wanted them to die in the wilderness (Exodus 17:3). There is also an escalation of language in our text of scripture from grumble to quarrel. The Hebrew word for quarrel is the word Rib meaning "a legal accusation.” Essentially the people were putting Moses and God on the stand in a figurative trial. They stood in the place of prosecutor and judge against God. Their main accusation was, “is the LORD really among us or not (Exodus 17:7)?” This was not an isolated event, it would play out again years later, at the same location. The book of Numbers recorded that second incident and the circumstances are almost identical except instead of crying out to God, Moses and Aaron responded in anger at the rebellion of the people. Moses was commanded to speak to the rock to bring forth water but struck it instead and both Moses and Aaron were confronted by God for their failure to believe his word (Numbers 20:12-13). That anger and distrust during the second event was what caused Moses and Aaron to not enter the Promised Land. 

We should not take grumbling and distrust of God casually. Complaining against God can often be a seed of distrust that grows up into putting God on trial for all the alleged wrongs he has done against us and it can lead to severe consequences and felt distance with God. 

The first event was memorialized in Exodus 17:7 with the name of this location both with Meribah and Massah. Meribah meant “place of quarreling” and Massah “the place of testing.” It may seem weird to memorialize this disobedience, but as we will learn this was the first step towards their delay in entering the Promised Land and something they needed to remember as a warning for future lack of faith. 

God’s Presence on the Rock
Exodus 17:4-6
God responded to their quarreling with more grace than they deserved. Notice Moses cried out to God but it was not about the water, it was about the people with Moses saying, “what shall I do with this people  (Exodus 17:4)?” The people’s distrust against Moses and God rose to the level where they wanted to put Moses to death by stoning. God responded by telling Moses that God would stand on a rock before Moses, a foreshadowing of what would happen at Mount Sinai. Moses was told to take his staff and strike the rock and water would flow out. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that “the drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” Paul connected the very presence of God with them to provide for their needs to Christ himself and how Christ’s ministry was fulfilled in providing for the spiritual needs of his people namely forgiveness and reconciliation. 

Many of us think it would be easier to trust God and do what he commanded if we were able to see his presence with us, except that is exactly what the Israelites had and they still failed to take God at his word. They saw the miraculous signs of God and had the pillar of cloud and fire in their midst. If you’re a follower of Jesus you have something better than the cloud and fire, you have the very presence of God the Spirit making you a dwelling place for God. This means that Christians are never without the presence of God with them. God is present with is people in their moments of holiness and faith, and in their moments of sin and distrust. God’s intended to lead the Israelites to Rephidim to provide for them, but their distrust prevented them from seeing that it was in God’s nature to give. The complained that God must have abandoned them and that God led them out to the wilderness so they could die. But, why would God save them so many times just to have them die in the wilderness? God brought them to places of need, so that they’d trust him. The New Testament helps us understand God’s very heart to give and provide through the ministry of Jesus who died so we could be reconciled to God. Paul wrote in Romans 8:32 that “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” God gives more than we deserve, that is the very nature of God’s grace on display in Christ Jesus. 

Dangerous Distrust
Hebrews 3:7-19
This event sowed the seeds of doubt that would come to fruition when the Israelites sent spies into the Promised Land who came back scared. Both events are cited as evidence for why God prevented the generation of Israelites from entering the Promised Land, because of their unbelief. The writer of Hebrews called the two events at Meribah a “hardening of heart” and that they were unable to enter God’s rest because of their unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). We should be careful with allowing distrust and doubt to fester in our hearts like a wound that you ignore and turns into an infection. The warning from Hebrews was to “take care” lest an evil and unbelieving heart causes you to fall away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12). We should be open with God and others with out doubt and distrust and the areas where we feel like putting God on trial because holding onto them and being closed off can cause them to grow in the darkness and fester to a point where we run towards disbelief. Being in the wilderness implies struggle and hardship and it is easy to take those challenges personally and assume that God is not good like the Bible says and that God’s intent is for harm. That seed of disbelief grew in the people and germinated to full rebellion to God from Exodus 17 to Numbers 20 and that same seed can be present in the hearts and lives of people who have heard the gospel today. The warning of Exodus 17 and Hebrews 3 for us today is to remember God’s presence and Christ’s promise. When we bring our complaints to God rather than allowing them to turn into quarreling and putting God on trial, we are able to shine light onto the areas where we are tempted to distrust God and even though the wilderness is still the wilderness, we are able to remind ourselves of God’s grace and his presence with us in it. 

At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week? 


Discussion Questions:
Read Exodus 17:1-7

How was the grumbling and complaining in Exodus 17:1-7 different than what we saw in Exodus 15:22-16:36? 

What was the main accusation against Moses and God? How did God command Moses to respond to the people and their needs?

What are some reasons it can be easy for us to forget God’s presence during hard circumstances? Do you think that followers of Jesus today have something better than the pillar of cloud and fire? Why or why not?

How could the Israelites deal with their distrust and hard circumstances differently? What connections can we make for when we are disappointed with God and are tempted to distrust God’s intention for our lives?