A Proto-miracle: Water from the Rock

We saw earlier that the narratives of the miraculous feeding of the followers of Moses in the desert with manna are common to both the Qur'an and the Old Testament. The same is true of the miraculous production of water from a rock by Moses. Once again, the appearance of the water is what might be characterised as a ‘grumbling and testing’ miracle.

The encamped community of Israel find no water to drink at Rephidim. In their thirst they complain to Moses, asking him why he led them out of Israel only to let thirst overtake and kill their families and animals. A thoroughly exasperated Moses seeks God's help and is instructed to strike a rock from which water will flow. Moses does so and the thirst of his fractious followers is quenched. Clearly fed up, Moses calls the place Massah and Meribah, words which mean respectively ‘tried’ and ‘contention’ because of the argumentative nature of his people and the way they persisted in testing God.

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) comments that ‘this is another instance of the theme of discontent in the desert’ and reminds the reader of a previous water miracle by Moses at Marah where the water is undrinkable because it is so bitter: Moses takes a piece of wood shown to him by God, casts it into the water and this then changes from bitter to sweet.

The NJB also reminds us that the miracle of the water at Massah and Meribah is relocated in The Book of Numbers to a place called Kadesh. In this account Moses and Aaron call everyone together before a rock and, addressing them angrily as ‘rebels’, Moses asks whether he should go ahead and get the rock to produce water. Moses then takes the branch and hits the rock twice with it. Copious amounts of water flow forth and the discontented Israelites, together with their animals, quench their thirst.

This then is another important narrative repetition, akin to the repetition of the narrative of the feeding of the five/four thousand in the Gospels. In the Old Testament it is clearly done for emphasis, emphasising both the power of God, again, as well as the exasperation of Moses.