“And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”
But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said: why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and our livestock die of thirst? The accusation against Moses is now escalated to include children and livestock — the full vulnerability of the community in the wilderness. The why did you bring us up out of Egypt is the recurring complaint of the wilderness generation, the retrospective idealization of Egypt that accompanies every crisis. Deuteronomy 8:15 says God led Israel through the vast and dreadful wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, and provided water out of hard rock — the provision that follows this complaint is specifically remembered in Deuteronomy as evidence of God's care for His people through the wilderness they could not survive without Him.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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