Water is scarce in the desert. Traveling through a barren wilderness, the children of Israel would no doubt have seen miles upon miles of billowing dust, gnarled and misshapen brush, and precious little greenery. This was why they were always sensitive about the scarcity of water and ready to mount a mutiny at the drop of a hat.
But time and again they forgot the provision of God. They forgot how God had provided for their needs before they even realized they were present. Leading the children of Israel for forty years through an unforgiving wilderness would at times have seemed like a form of cruel and unusual punishment. A thankless task that required infinite amounts of patience. But Moses loved the people, regardless of their weaknesses and failings. He showed them the greatest tenderness and compassion, almost paternal care. A shepherd tending to his weak and foolish flock.
But there came a time when even the patience of Moses was worn very thin. As they neared the end of their forty years of wandering the Lord allowed the faith of His people to be tested yet again. The supplies of water began to dwindle. Soon there were whispers and murmurs rising up from the camp like fine mist at dawn. Before long the complaints had swelled to angry shouts billowing and foaming like roiling clouds overhead. A thundercloud of mutiny ready to burst and rain down wrath on the head of their leader; Moses.
And yet, though Moses was their visible leader, Israel kept forgetting the presence of the One who guided them wrapped in a gauzy pillar of cloud by day and a smoldering pillar of fire by night. They demanded water, in such loud and angry voices, tinged with such violence that Moese was driven to his knees before God pleading for intervention, fearing for his life.
God instructed Moses to go up to a rock, planted in the desert, brown and unmoving, and to speak to it, plainly directing water to spring out of it. In his anger and frustration, Moses struck the rock instead. The rock split apart and water gushed out of it, cool, sweet, and abundant. Israel was happy but God was displeased by his servant.
