THE TEMPTATION OF WATER TO DRINK 1- In Rephidim 1 2- The murmur of the people 2 - 4 3- Water flowing from the rock 5 - 7 4- The War with Amalek 8 - 16 1- In Rephidim “Then the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink” (Exod. 17.1). The Book of Numbers says in more detail that the people of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin and camped in Dophkah, departed from Dophkah and camped at Alush, and from there to Rephidim (33.12-15). The Book of Exodus intended to speak directly of Rephidim after the wilderness of Sin, in order to connect between the temptation of drinking (the rock bringing forth water) and that of food (the Manna and the quails). The Book of Numbers, on the other hand, spoke of that in more detail. The scholar Origen believes that these locations have a special meaning that relates to the journey of the believer in his setting forth from servitude to the freedom of glory of God’s children. The word ‘Dophkah’1, according to him, means good health, as though the soul that experiences God’s proclamations, with wisdom and discernment, and gets purified through the temptation ‘Sin’, would cross over to a condition of peace or good health2. The word ‘Alush’, according to him, means works. That is why he says that works come after good health because as the soul enjoys good health as a gift from God, it would carry out works readily and joyfully. Then, it will be told, “When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you” (Ps. 128.2) 3. After works, you would set forth to ‘Rephidim’4, which, according to him, means sound discernment, or sound decision; when the soul would be spiritual and “judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one” (1 Cor. 2.15). The scholar Origen believes that the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey according to four stages in good order: from the wilderness of ‘Sin’, to Rephidim, from the temptation, to reach the sound discernment and decision. Thus, he says that whoever gets out of temptation with a good ordinance would appear sound, on the day of judgment, in good shape, not hurt by the wounds of temptation, or according to the Book of Revelation, “To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev. 2.7) 5. 2- The murmur of the people In Rephidim the people contended with Moses, and said, “‘Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock 1 Some believe that it means ‘livestock market’. Its current location is probably ‘Sarabiet El-Khadem’ or near ‘El-Maghara ‘cell’ Valley’. 2 Origen in Num. Hom. 27 3 Ibid. 4 In Num. Hom. 27; In Exode. Hom. 11. Some believe that it means ‘wide places’. It is a city probably situated in Refaia Valley northwest of Mount Moses. 5 In Exode. Hom. 11. 115 with thirst” (Exod. 17.3)? Then, Moses cried out, with his heart as well as with his tongue, to the Lord saying, “‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me’” (Exod. 17.4)! In the wilderness, you may get murmuring thoughts, when you experience affliction. Notwithstanding, if you have Moses’ heart and tongue, and cry out to the Lord, He will bring out water from the rock. Moses cried out believing that divine grace is far above natural possibilities. God is capable, through one way or another, of quenching the thirst of the people. Moses’ life, with all what it contained of supernatural divine works, represented the work of grace in the Church. St. Ambrose says, “Grace has more power than nature, … Moses lifted up his rod, the water divided and hardened like walls, and a way for the feet appeared between the waves. … Moses touched the rock, and water flowed out of the rock. … Moses cast wood into the water, and the water lost its bitterness, which grace of a sudden tempered.”1 3- Water flowing from the rock [1] The rock refers to the Lord Christ, according to the words of the apostle, “All ate of the same spiritual food, and all drank of the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10.3-4). As to the water coming out of that Rock, it is the Holy Spirit, presented to us by the Lord, as the Secret of our comfort, sanctification and fellowship with the Father in His Son. The rock symbolizes our Lord in many ways: A. The people enjoyed the water of the rock, after crossing the Red Sea and the perishing of Pharaoh and his army, after drinking of the water of Marah and the wells of Elim and enjoying its palm trees. Thus, no one will get to know the secret of Christ and quench one’s thirst by the springs of the Holy Spirit, except after crossing over the water of Baptism, denying Satan and all his evil works. One then enjoys the Law that became sweet through the cross, not through its killing letters but its Spirit, and believes in the works of the apostles (the twelve wells of water) and the disciples (the seventy palm trees). St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, says that whoever forsakes the love of the world (symbolically the Egyptians, drowned in the sea) tastes the sweetness through the tree and enjoys the apostolic wells and the shade of the palm trees, would be able to receive God because the Rock, according to the apostle, is Christ, which is, for unbelievers, hard and solid. But for him who uses the rod of faith, it would be a spring to quench his thirst, as He said, “We will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14.23) 2. B. The Rock quenched the thirst of all and that was a symbol of the fountains of the New Testament, brought forth by the Lord Christ, Who called the thirsty for righteousness to come forward to drink out of the living water (John 7.37- 40). It is amazing how the Psalmist saw in the rock a living symbol saying, “With honey from the rock, I would have satisfied you” (Ps. 81.16). St. Augustine comments, “In the wilderness from the rock He brought forth water, not honey. "Honey" is wisdom, holding the first place for sweetness among the viands of the heart. … How many, then, are satisfied with that honey, cry out, and say, It is sweet; say, Nothing better, nothing sweeter could be thought or said!”3 1 St. Ambrose. On the Mysteries. 9. 2 Vita Mos. 2:136. 3 On Ps. 81 116 C. As the people could not have quenched their thirst from that rock, unless it had been struck by the rod; likewise, we would have not enjoyed the limitless wells of God’s love and the Holy Spirit in us unless the Lord Christ is struck to bear on the cross, through the divine justice, the price of our sins. As the rock was publicly struck once, the Lord Christ was lifted up on the cross before the people (Luke 23.48) and offered up Himself, once, for all (Heb. 7.27) and from Him a flow of blood and water came out (John 19.34), as atonement and purification for all who believe in Him. D. God said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod, with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb...” (Exod. 17.5-6). The invitation of the elders of Israel to accompany Moses as he strikes the rock to bring out the water carries a symbol that, not only the Law (Moses) testifies to the cross, but the Patriarchs and all the prophets have partaken in this testimony with the Law for the work of redemption through the cross. [2] The Psalmist says, “He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths” (Ps. 78.15). He does not say the rock, but he says the rocks, probably referring to another symbol, that the believers, whose hearts were before hard and dry as rocks, and then wells of living water came out of them, through the cross, not to quench their own thirst, but to flood on all others. On the last day, that great day of the feast, as the high priest stood to pour water before the people, to proclaim the work of God in their life, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7.37- 38). 4- The War with Amalek That was the first time for the children of Israel to enter into a war with another people. Before, when Pharaoh and his army came to attack Israel, the divine command was, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today...the Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exod. 14.13-14). However, having enjoyed the crossing over of the Red Sea, and having received all fulfillments from the Lord: the manna, the quails, and the water from the rock, the people were committed to fight not by their own human power but through the work of God in them. That war has been a symbol of the spiritual warfare between the Kingdom of God and that of the devil, where the conquest will be for the children of God through the cross. In this war, we notice the following: 1. Moses was expected, in that first war, to cry out to God and to kneel or to fall on his face but behold, he is stretching his hands as a cross. This is a symbol of the conquest of the cross. The scholar Tertullian says answering the Jews, “Why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bent, and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; … the figure of the cross was also necessary, (that figure) through which Jesus was to win the victory?” 1. Father Victorinus says that Moses, seeing the ferocity of the enemy, raised his hands, symbolically connecting himself to the cross2. St. Cyprian the martyr also says 1 Tertullian. Answer to the Jews. 10. 2 Victorinus. On the Creation of the World. 117 that Joshua conquered Amalek with that sign of the cross through Moses1. The scholar Origen comments that when Christ stretched His hands on the cross, He embraced the whole world2. 2. Moses, on the top of the hill, symbolized the Lord Christ who was crucified on the Mount of Golgotha. On the other hand, Joshua, with his men of war, fighting against Amalek, symbolized the persistent strife of the Church against sin. It is as though the Church, with Christ, is partaking of His crucifixion, through its union with Him and its daily strife to say with the apostle, “I have been crucified with Christ; It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me ...by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 2.20, 6.14). 3. ‘Hur’ was not as great as Moses was; yet, it would have been impossible for Moses to remain stretching his hands without the help of Aaron and Hur. Thus, every believer should realize his status within the divine work and should not underestimate his abilities even if they appear worthless. 4. The stretching of Moses’ hands also refers to the life of perseverance until the end. The scholar Origen says that when Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed and when he let down his hands, to give them some rest, Amalek prevailed. Therefore, let us hold up our hands with the strength of the cross of Christ and let us everywhere raise pure hands in prayers, “without wrath or a doubting”, in order to be worthy of God’s help. That is what the apostle James persuades us to do, when he says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jam. 4.7). Therefore, let us start with full faith. Then, the devil will not only flee away from us but he will be crushed under our feet, as was Pharaoh, when he drowned in the sea and was swallowed by the depths of the abyss3. In another homily, he speaks in more detail, of holding up the hands to prevail over Amalek saying that holding up the hands is a holding up of all works to God to be neither lowly nor earthly but working for the glory of God and heaven. He holds up his hands, who “lays up for himself treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be” (Matt. 6.20-21); and there will also be your eyes and hands. He holds up his hands, as David the prophet said, “I lift up my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Ps. 141.2). Thus, Amalek will certainly be defeated but the apostle advises us to “lift up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Tim. 2.8). He also says, “Strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet” (Heb. 12.12). If the people keep the Law (the commandments) Moses holds up his hands and the enemy will be defeated but if they do not keep it Amalek would prevail; for, we wrestle “against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6.12). 5. If you want to prevail, hold up your hands, lift up your works, and do not waste your days on earth. Hold up your hands toward God and keep the apostle’s counsel, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5.17). Then, the Scripture that says, “This company will lick up all that is around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field” (Num. 22.4) would be fulfilled. This means that the people of God (the congregation) uses their tongue, (lick up) and voice more than their hands 1 A.N.F., Vol. 5 pg. 524. 2 In Exode. Hom. 11:4. 3 Origen. In Exode. Hom. 3:3. 118 and weapons. By pouring their prayers to God, they prevail on their enemy. This is the way to have victory in the battle over the enemy (sin) 1. 6. Having prevailed over the enemy, Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law from God after making great preparations among the people and priests. As though the believer, after every conquest over Amalek [sin], is called by God to ascend the mountain of the knowledge of God to receive from Him a deeper understanding and knowledge of the secrets of the divine commandment. Our knowledge should not be based merely on reading and researching books and sermons but more on a life of strife against sin by the cross. 7. Moses’ fight against Amalek was not in a material way but was more through sanctifying his life to God and carrying the symbol of the cross, the secret of the people’s conquest and triumph. St. Ambrose comments that Moses, when silent, was crying out (Exod. 14.16); who, when he stood at ease, was fighting, nay, not merely fighting but triumphing over enemies whom he had not come near. So much was he at ease, that others held up his hands; yet he was no less active than others, for he with his hands at ease was overcoming the enemy, whom they that were in the battle could not conquer. Thus Moses in his silence spoke, and in his ease labored hard. And were his labors greater than his times of quiet, who, being in the mount for forty days, received the whole law (Exod. 24.17)? And in that solitude there was One not far away to speak with him2. 1 Ibid. 11:4. 2 St. Ambrose. Duties of the Clergy. 3:1.
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