The people move on from the area the Bible calls "The Wilderness Of Sin". As they move about they break camp whenever the Lord says and they set up a new camp wherever the Lord says.
"The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded." (Exodus 17:1a) It's important for us to keep in mind while studying our passage today that the people are not getting outside of the Lord's will. They are going when and where He says. They are moving about "as the Lord commanded".
The Lord directs them to a place called Rephidim. "They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink." (Exodus 17:1b) Their circumstances take a concerning turn even though they are exactly where the Lord told them to be. This is something we all will encounter on our walk through this life. We can be where we're supposed to be, we can be doing what we're supposed to be doing, and yet trouble strikes.
I don't know about you, but some of the worst troubles of my life have occurred while I was living within the will of God. Now, having said that, I want to point out that the first thing we should always do when trouble comes is examine our hearts to see whether or not we've brought the trouble on ourselves by being in the wrong place or by doing the wrong things, but we cannot automatically interpret every downturn in circumstances to having done something wrong or to God being "angry" with us. Quite often when examining our hearts we'll find that our troubles are not a result of having fallen into disobedience. We'll find that what's actually going on is something else, which we're about to discuss.
Off the top of my head I can think of three major reasons why bad things happen even when we're living right. For one thing, Satan hates it when we're living in obedience to the Lord. He doesn't want us setting a godly example for those around us, and he especially doesn't want us setting a godly example for unbelievers. If unbelievers see us living obedient, happy lives then they might turn to the Lord and be saved. But what if Satan can make our obedient lives appear unhappy? What if he can make it seem to unbelievers as if there is no reward for godly living? Then those unbelievers can say, "What does it profit a person to follow the Lord? Looks to me as if my neighbor Martha, who is a Christian, has as many troubles in her life as I have in mine. I'm not sure being obedient to the Lord is paying off for her. She might as well just live however she pleases and get whatever pleasure she can during this short and difficult life on earth."
Another reason troubles come upon us while we're living in obedience to God is that we are dwelling in a fallen world where bad things just naturally happen. When sin entered the world, so did disaster and disease and distress and death. We live in a world where illnesses happen and where accidents take place. We live in a world where natural disasters occur. We live in a world where many of our fellow human beings couldn't care less about godly living and will trespass against us whenever the opportunity arises. Even our fellow human beings who love the Lord will hurt us sometimes, either unintentionally (perhaps without even realizing they've hurt us) or because they fall into temptation and commit sins that bring distress on those close to them. Even fellow believers are prone to the faults and failures that plague the carnal side of mankind. A great deal of the time their actions affect not only themselves but also affect their friends and family members.
A third reason, and one that is closely related to the first two reasons, is that the Lord allows troubles to come into our lives even when we are living according to His will. Could Satan do anything against us if the Lord didn't allow it? No. Could this natural world, in its fallen state, have any power over us if the Lord didn't allow it? No. Could our fellow man lift a finger against us if the Lord didn't allow it? No. And the Lord does protect us from more things than we even know; I wouldn't be surprised if He protects us hundreds or more times each day, but sometimes He allows a carefully selected set of circumstances to take place in our lives in order to do something for us. It's not punishment. It's not that He's angry with us. It's because He has our best interests at heart and He sends something into our lives that helps us to grow spiritually, or that heals something in our hearts or minds that needs healing, or that puts a relationship back together, and I could go on and on with examples but you see where I'm going with this. He doesn't send anything into our lives that doesn't have a purpose. We are almost certainly not going to enjoy this process (I know I never do) but training for godly living---"boot camp", if you will---isn't easy. The Lord doesn't want us to be weak and lazy soldiers; we'll cave in under the pressures of this world if we're weak and lazy. We can't fight the good fight of faith if we don't develop spiritual muscle. As my pastor often says, while we live in this world we're living in enemy territory. Because we're living in enemy territory, we need to be strong, fit, capable warriors.
In today's passage the Lord tells the people to camp in a place where He knows there is no water. The people don't know there isn't any water until they get there. They expect there to be water. When there isn't any water they become angry, and in tomorrow's study we'll be taking a look at their quarrel with Moses. Their quarrel could more properly be said to be with the Lord, but Moses is acting as a mediator between them and the Lord so they take their anger out on Moses. But before we move on into that passage I want to take a few minutes to discuss what is often our first reaction to troubles or inconveniences: anger.
We may feel angry with the Lord when He allows problems to come into our lives when we're living within His will. We can understand problems that we bring upon ourselves. If we do something foolish or sinful then we can clearly see the "cause and effect" relationship between our actions and the unwelcome result of our actions. When we make a deliberate choice to do something we know is wrong, and when we reap the consequences of our choice, we can hardly blame the Lord for what we've brought upon ourselves. But when we examine our hearts and commune with the Lord and the Holy Spirit reveals nothing to us that we've done to bring something upsetting into our lives, we may feel angry with God. We may think, "I was doing what I was supposed to do! It isn't my fault this thing has happened. Why would God do this to me?"
I've been angry with God. I've told Him, "Lord, I'm mad at You. I'm very hurt that You've allowed this to happen to me. You know I didn't do anything that caused this to happen. I was minding my own business, doing the things I was supposed to do, and out of the blue this terrible thing happened. I was trying my best to do what was right and yet someone has done me terribly wrong and brought a lot of hurt and trouble into my life." It's okay to tell God we're angry with Him. He knows it anyway. We might as well pour out our hearts to Him and get all our feelings out into the open. There's no use trying to hide our anger and pretend to be feeling all holy and virtuous when what we're really thinking is, "What good did it do me to live a godly life? It didn't spare me this heartbreak." Like a doctor who can't treat a wound we keep covering with our hand, God can't heal a wound we keep covered. If we're hurt and angry, it's best to just admit we're hurt and angry.
During a period of about three and a half years when one trouble after another came into my life due to nothing I'd done to bring them onto myself, I said to the Lord over and over, "Lord, You love me, but You let this happen to me anyway. I'm so mad at You!" But during the last few months of that particularly trying time of life, something clicked one day. I was driving to work, talking to the Lord and repeating my usual litany of complaints, saying, "Lord, You love me, but You let this happen to me." I was saying it angrily, accusingly. And all at once it was like I heard what I was saying for the first time---really heard it---and everything in my mind and heart and soul was turned completely around. I said again, but wonderingly and thoughtfully, "Lord, You love me. You do love me. But You let this happen to me. You let this happen to me because You love me. Why? What is it You want to accomplish with these circumstances? What are You trying to tell me? What are You trying to do?" I can't take any credit for my attitude adjustment; that was the work of the Holy Spirit. But from that moment on everything changed. First it changed it my attitude. As soon as I accepted that my troubles came from the loving hand of God, my troubles began to look different. They began to look like tools the Lord was using to chisel me into someone more fit for His use. They began to look like a method for healing things that were broken. I started to view them not as things that were tearing my life apart but as things that were going to put my life together in a way that was more healthy and whole. And from that moment on things in my life began to change for the better, very slowly and little by little, but they were changing.
In tomorrow's study the people will have bad attitudes that need adjusting. The Lord led them to Rephidim where there was no water not to punish them and not because He was angry with them. He led them to a place where there was no water so He could do something to make their faith grow. He has a purpose for telling them to set up camp in a dry and dusty place, just as He sometimes leads us to a dry and dusty place in life. He intends to do something big for the Israelites at Rephidim. He intends to do big things in your life and in my life if we'll only say to Him, "Lord, I know You love me. I know You've let this happen because You intend to do something big in my life. What is it you're trying to teach me?"
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