Thirsty?
3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5 The LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:3-6)
When we read the above Exodus passage, we sometimes mistake Moses' exasperation for God's. However, God has no weary words in response to the complaints of thirst by the people traveling with Moses. God simply instructed Moses and provided. In verse 2 we are told that the people quarreled with Moses and that Moses told them not to test God. Eventually Moses stopped arguing with the people and gave their complaint to God. It's interesting - and just like us - that Moses didn't immediately take the concern to God before he got fed up with the people. Perhaps God was waiting for them to turn to the only One who could meet their need. Might God have led them to this dry place specifically so that they could see God do for them what they could never have done for themselves?
In Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman, Jesus claimed to be thirsty and asked the woman to get him a drink from the well. The woman was instantly suspicious because, as both a man and a Jew, Jesus should not have spoken to her. Also, it was noon so she expected to be alone at the well, and Jesus had nothing with which he could draw water. Perhaps because this woman had already broken societal norms (she had been with several men and the one she was currently with was not her husband), she did not excuse herself but kept talking to Jesus. When Jesus told the woman that he could give her living water, she called him on not having a bucket and, possibly sarcastically, asked if he was even greater than the one who gave the Samaritans that well. Uncharacteristically, Jesus revealed to the woman - in plain language - that he was the one they'd been waiting for, and, because Jesus was able to tell her all about herself, she believed him. Then this woman - who preferred to go to the well in the heat of the day rather than risk seeing or talking to those who might judge her - ran and told everyone she encountered to come and see Jesus.
The Hebrew people traveling with Moses were thirsty to be reminded that God was still with them, had never left them, and would supply their needs. The woman at the well was thirsty for release from the bondage of other peoples opinions and expectations. Sometimes God allows us to find ourselves in a hard, dry, place so that we can only credit God with our provision. God longs to replace our fear and dis-ease with freedom and hope. How ever we are thirsty, God can quench us.
11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." (John 4:11-15)
