Whining for Water

I almost always carry a water bottle with me. Hydration is important. Dehydration can lead to some nasty temporary health problems and can even be fatal if taken too far. Water helps keep our bodies regulated well. When I was a kid, my dad would take my brother and I to Two Rivers State Park and spend hours at the river. We would tread through the water, walk along sandbanks, and lazily float downstream. Exploring was a lot of fun. It always felt like an adventure, but I learned an important lesson about having a water bottle with me one time. We had walked a good distance down the river without carrying any water with us. It was a hot day, and we only decided to turn back when I was already getting thirsty. Half-way back to our water bottles, I was about ready to give up and drink river water. I was irritable, frustrated, tired, and whiny. I imagine my dad learned his lesson too. If you don’t bring a water bottle when exploring the river with Gary, he’ll whine at you until you break. 

Now, you might say that my dad should have known better than to lead two children on a journey down the river without bringing water, but then again, he’s in good company. In Exodus 17:1-7, Moses and God led the people into the wilderness out of Egypt, and they had to camp in a place without water. Naturally, the Israelites complained. Not only were the adults thirsty, but they had to listen to their thirsty children asking them for water, so they passed the complaint up to the next level. They complained to Moses, who took the case to God.

The Israelites are portrayed as quarrelsome here, but that doesn’t seem fair, honestly. I was at my limit after only a couple of hours of wandering and having fun. Imagine moving your entire family through a rugged, barren wilderness, marching through the heat of the day, and then camping at a place with no water. This isn’t Israel being whiny. This is a necessity. If they don’t have water, they will die. If they ever had a good reason to complain, this is it.

In fact, much of their complaining honestly seems pretty reasonable. When presented with only one food group, they ask for meat. When they have no water at all, they ask for water. Even their great act of idolatry, the building of a golden calf, comes after Moses has disappeared into a scary burning cloud on top of a mountain for over a month. If we’re being honest, we would probably have assumed the worst long before the forty days were up. In our fast-paced, super-connected culture, we would be shocked to not hear from our leaders for a couple days. Imagine if the President of the United States just disappeared for a month and no one knew what happened. We’d pretty quickly start to figure things out on our own, even if that meant making some mistakes along the way.

Because of the way the Bible portrays them, we often look at the Israelites as lacking in faith and being whiny and quarrelsome. However, when we actually take a look at what they went through, their faith is much stronger than ours. We would certainly complain about a lack of variety in food. We would absolutely complain about being thirsty. Imagine how many bad Yelp reviews God would get if God did this to a bunch of people with smartphones.

So, if Israel’s complaints were reasonable, why are they portrayed as being so combative? Why does Exodus portray them in such a negative light? There is a simple explanation, which is probably the safest reading. The fact is that the people of Israel had such a direct contact with God that they shouldn’t have doubted. All of these events could have been seen as opportunities for them to demonstrate their faith in the God who had just delivered them from slavery in Egypt. This was their opportunity to prove themselves as God’s people.

I think anyone who has been a parent could understand God’s frustration at this point. As much as parents wouldn’t want to admit it, I’m sure they’ve all had times when they have looked at their children making absolutely stupid mistakes, being unreasonably rude or whiny, or saying something really offensive without realizing it and thought, “How can you be my kid? I don’t do stuff like this?” Of course, when the frustration passes, they remember that they did, in fact, do the same dumb stuff when they were young. They’ve just grown up. Nonetheless, in these passages, Israel has a chance to demonstrate that they are the “good kid” of a good God. They have an opportunity to demonstrate their maturity and equanimity in the face of challenges. As we know from reading the stories, they fail this test. They fail to demonstrate their maturity. They act like the rebellious children God wished would just grow up.

However, there may be another way to read their combativeness. Maybe this is actually a sign of faith, or perhaps more accurately, a way of learning faith. The Israelites were genuinely afraid, frustrated, upset, hungry, thirsty, and more. They deeply experienced feelings of vulnerability. And when this happened, they were honest with God and cried out about it. They complained. They were combative. They wrestled with God. They demanded that God remain accountable to God’s own promises. If God wanted these people, God would have to provide.

Now, certainly God wanted to provide and was able to provide, but the provisions come after the people cry out. We can see them as grumbling malcontents, or we can see them the same way we see children. They are vulnerable and have needs, and when they have needs they cry out for help. They may do so combatively. They may grumble. They may be whiny, but they do all this simply because they don’t know how else to get what they want. They are trying to navigate their feelings and ask for help at the same time. 

The people of Israel whined and complained because they, like children, didn’t really understand their relationship with God. They were testing the waters to see what was possible, what was permissible, and what was forbidden. But though there were some catastrophic failures, we can look at them as an example of praying boldly. They asked God for what they needed, and God came through for them. Even if they sounded disrespectful. Surely, we can be bold enough to pray like children, not trying to make deals with an equal partner, but simply relying entirely on God’s love and kindness. We can bring all our feelings and needs before God, trusting in God’s mercy even when we are whiny.