NOTES for Exo 17:1-16
The lessons of life with God continue. Again and again the people ask the same question: is God among us or not? Again and again they demand that their leaders, most often Moses, solve the problems that arise. Otherwise they threaten to stone the leader. In short, the situation is quite ordinary for any crowd. Even the episode of Moses’ raised hands, when Amalek was defeated through his prayers, changed nothing. After all, it was still the leader. It was he, his prayers, his hands that brought victory. And so—long live the leader!
But why not stone him if the leader has ceased to suit them, if life with him used to be good and has now become bad, if there were no problems before and now there are? Sometimes, however, the reverse happens, as in this chapter: first they nearly stoned him, then they glorified him. The order does not matter here; it is always only one step from the crowd’s love and adoration to its hatred. The task lies elsewhere: to stop being a crowd—but that is the most difficult thing. This is not because God does not help, hides, or turns away. On the contrary, all along the way from Egypt to Sinai He is continually present and continually intervenes, allowing everyone to experience His presence in a perfectly real and tangible way.
It would seem that under such conditions everyone can and should be convinced that God is near and turn directly to Him, without demanding from leaders what a human being by definition cannot provide. There is, however, one difficulty of great importance to fallen humanity: responsibility. To turn to God personally and directly means that one must also maintain one’s relationship with Him personally and settle every question with Him, rather than with intermediaries who take that task upon themselves.
One can make demands of a leader, of another human being, and constantly remind him: you led us, so now solve our problems. But one can only follow God oneself; one cannot say to Him, “Why did You bring us out here, into this desert?” Here everyone decides for himself whether to go into the desert, where God is, or remain in Egypt, where He is no longer present. Irresponsibility is always easier than responsibility, and a crowd always chooses the easiest path—that is why it is a crowd. Yet the promised land can be reached, conquered, and inhabited only by ceasing to be a crowd. Otherwise the holy land will very soon turn into Egypt—with all the consequences that follow.