NOTES for Exo 17:3-7

During the Exodus, already in the wilderness, after the Hebrews had left Egypt, the same story keeps repeating. When the people face yet another problem, one that was, in general, perfectly ordinary for desert dwellers, they begin demanding from Moses and from his God that the problem be solved immediately. And God's answer to such claims becomes harsher and harsher. This is understandable: over time everyone, one way or another, gets used to changed living conditions.

Especially since no one drove the people into the wilderness by force. It was not hard to realize that a nomad's life in the Sinai wilderness differs markedly from the life of an Egyptian. At first, of course, one could still understand the reaction of people who panicked at the first difficulties: for someone unaccustomed to it, the wilderness is a serious trial. But the panic repeated again and again, and then it became clear that the issue was not an inability but an unwillingness to live this new, difficult, but free life. An unwillingness to change.

Of course, distrust of God was also plain: after all, He had often brought His people out of situations that seemed hopeless to them. But behind this, so to speak, local distrust stood an absolute distrust, which in the end led God to give up the possibility of bringing the first generation that had come out of Egypt into the land He had promised to Abraham. It is no accident that so many times the people wanted to turn back to Egypt. Fear, of course, did its work. But there was more than fear here. This first generation of Hebrews who left Egypt was sure of nothing. Should we go there, into an unknown land? Will we make it? Or would it be better to turn back right away? There is no freedom there, no one needs us there, but at least we will stay alive...

With such an attitude, of course, there could be no talk of trust in God. People used to slavery trust no one. Trust is possible only for a person who is inwardly free, and among those who had left Egypt there were almost none like that. So the conquest of the land had to be postponed, postponed for two generations. The land was conquered by the grandchildren of those who had left Egypt. They were free, they knew how to trust God, and they proved worthy to receive the land promised by God to their fathers.