DISTRESS: I Thirst
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. – John 19:28-29
Water in the Wilderness
“I will not be mastered by anything.” –The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 6:12
The archetypical representation of worldly power, protection and provision in the Old Testament is Egypt. As we read in the book of Genesis, on more than one occasion the people of God fled famine and foreign enemies into the provident hands of the Egyptian pharaohs and the Egyptian people. The first to do this was the great patriarch Abraham.
We read in Genesis: “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.” (12:10) Several generations later twelve of Abraham’s great-grand children would follow in his footsteps as they also look to Egypt for provision during a time of famine.
The problem with seeking refuge in Egypt was the cost. You may enter as God’s free people, the gateways into the land of Egypt were massive and intimidating to those who sought entrance, but at a price. Egypt demanded the self-sacrifice of your freedom, and the sacrifice of your wife and children. For four hundred years, many generations of the people of God toiled under the tyrannical burden of bondage to their Egyptian protectors and providers. Worldly powers are like that, they promise protection and provision, but always at the cost of human freedom and dignity.
God would have his people be free and dependent on him alone. Following the great salvation of Israel from Egypt, God led the people into a season of wilderness wandering. While in their minds they all desired to be free from the bondage of Egypt, their hearts had been formed by a slave-like dependency on Egyptian provision. The Lord used the distress of forty years of wilderness wandering to purge Egypt out of Israel.
Again and again the people grumbled against the leadership of Moses as he led them through the deprivation of the desert wilderness:
They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
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 livestock die of thirst?” – Exodus 17:1-3
Yet, in their thirst they were learning a very important lesson. God would teach the Israelites that He is to be their provider. Again and again, the Lord provided food, water and protection for the people as they cried out for His provision. When their slave-formed hearts would look nostalgically back to the provision of Egypt, God would discipline them until they cried out to Him alone for salvation and sustenance.
The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
The Hebrew name Massah means “Testing”. The Israelites “tested” the Lord by their mistrust and doubt of His provision and nostalgic longing for Egyptian worldly provision. The Lord would have them simply trust Him. The Hebrew name, Meribah, means “quarreling”. They had argued, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
The history of humanity demonstrates that humanity continually tests and quarrels with God. We so often find it extremely difficult to trust and submit to His provision. We grow impatient with His timing and methods of provision. Sadly, testing and quarreling with the Lord can thrust us straight into the promising arms of worldly refuge and provision.
Have you ever asked “Is the Lord with me or not?” The question is exactly backwards. Rather you should ask yourself, “Am I with the Lord or not?”
So often when we are moving through seasons of distress, we are testing God and quarreling with him for not joining us in fulfilling our agenda and will for our lives. God does desire to provide water for His people, but the goal of our journey is to trust and look to Him for his leading and guidance.
When Jesus cried, “I thirst” from the Cross, it was not the first time He had experienced human distress. At the beginning of his ministry, He too was led into the wilderness for forty days. In that place of desperation, He showed us the way where we so often fail. In response to the temptations that come through times of desperation, He demonstrates total faith:
‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ – Matthew 4:4
Are you in a wilderness time? How can the struggles of Israel and the leadership of Jesus help you? In what ways are you looking to the world rather than the Lord to provide? Allow the distress of these present trials to lead you into a thirst for God.
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