John Calvin Commentary Exodus 17

And all the congregation. Scarcely had the people's rebellion about the lack of food been settled when they rebelled again over the issue of drink. They should, at least, have learned from the manna that whenever necessity pressed upon them, they should have humbly implored God’s help in prayer and supplication, with certain hope of relief. But this was their character: they were driven by despair into secret complaining and impulsive outcries.

We have an almost identical account in Numbers 20.¹⁸⁶ The error of those who think it is one and the same event is easily refuted by the circumstances of the time and place; and in Numbers 33, it is very clearly shown how great a distance there was between the one location and the other.

Nor does the tradition of some of the Rabbis seem probable, that this thirst did not arise from natural appetite because the manna was not only food but also served as drink. For there is no reason why we should be forced to imagine this; and we understand from the text that the beginning of their complaining arose from the fact that the water was now, for the first time, beginning to run out for them.

But it was God’s will, in two ways and at two different times, to test the minds of the Israelites, so that they might more plainly show their natural stubbornness. If they had needed bread and water at the same time, they would have been more excusable. However, after they had experienced that a sweet and wholesome kind of food was generously given to them from heaven, because that country produced no grain, it was an act of intolerable perversity to immediately complain against God when they had no supply of drink.

Moreover, a double accusation is brought against them here: for insulting God by quarreling and contending with Him, and also for testing Him. Both arose from unbelief, the cause of which was ingratitude. For it was too shameful of them to so soon bury in deliberate forgetfulness what God had so recently given them.

He had provided for them when they were suffering from hunger; why did they not turn to Him when they were oppressed by thirst? It is plain, then, that the former favor was wasted on them, since it so quickly vanished due to their lack of gratitude. From this, their unbelief also appears, because they neither expected nor asked anything of God. And with this, pride was also combined, because they dared to resort to arguing.

Indeed, this almost always happens: those who neither depend on His providence nor rest on His promises provoke God to contend with them and rush impulsively against Him. This is because the brutal force of our passions drives us to madness, unless we are persuaded that God will be our helper in due time and are submissive to His will.

In the beginning of the chapter, Moses briefly states that the Israelites journeyed according to the commandment—or, as the Hebrew expresses it, “the mouth”¹⁸⁷—of God, as if to praise their obedience. From this we gather that, at the very beginning, they were sufficiently inclined to their duty, until a temptation occurred which interrupted their progress on the right path.

This example warns us that whenever we undertake anything at God’s command, we should be very careful that nothing hinders our perseverance. It also shows that only those are equipped to act rightly who are well prepared to endure the assaults of temptation.

And Moses cried. This cry does not seem to have aligned with the true model of prayer, but rather to have been mixed with confused complaint, to which Moses was impelled by the deep agitation of his mind. For excessive earnestness sometimes carries away the godly, so that they tend to fret in their prayer rather than properly and moderately express their requests.

Indeed, there is something in these words that sounds angry and unruly: “What shall I do to this people?” It is as if Moses, struck with indignation, complained that he was weighed down with a heavy burden, which he would willingly shake off if he could obtain permission and deliverance from God.

Interpreters explain what follows in various ways. Some interpret it this way: “Unless God immediately came to his aid, or if He were to delay His help even for a very short time, Moses would be stoned.” Others say: “It is only a little more, and they will rush upon me to stone me.” Still others read it in the past tense, but the particle עוד,¹⁸⁸gnod, which relates to the future, is an objection to this view.

I find this interpretation most convincing: if God delays His assistance even for a short time, the people’s rage could not be restrained from stoning Moses.

And he called the name of the place. The verb here might be taken indefinitely, as if it were said that this name was given to the place; but it is more probable that Moses, at God’s command, so called the place, so that the Israelites might be more ready to acknowledge their crime, when it was thus marked with double infamy.

It was not only His intention to impress this feeling upon their minds, but also to pass down its memory to posterity. The same reproof is afterwards repeated at Cades, as we shall see, because the former notice had been forgotten by these foolish people.

The very name of the place¹⁸⁹ was as much as to say that the earth itself cried out, that the people, in their perverse nature, were rebellious and prone to unbelief. Now, temptation is the mother of contentions; for as soon as anything occurs contrary to the wishes of one who distrusts God, he resorts to murmuring and dispute.

When Moses relates that the Israelites “tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?” he does not mean that they openly spoke this; but this was the tendency of their cries when, because of the lack of water, they rose against Moses and complained that he had deceived them, as though God had no power to help them.

But though God branded the people for their wickedness and perversity with a lasting mark of disgrace, yet He gave them an extraordinary proof of His goodness. He did this not only by giving them the drink by which their bodies might be refreshed but also by honoring their souls with spiritual drink.

As Paul testifies (1 Corinthians 10:4), that rock was Christ, and therefore he compares the water that flowed from it to the cup of the Holy Supper.

So we see how God’s immeasurable bounty surpasses all human wickedness, and how, by turning their vices towards salvation, He brings light out of darkness; He is so far from giving them the reward they deserve when He grants them what is profitable.

But we must remember the warning inserted here: that it availed many of them nothing to drink of that spiritual drink, because by their crimes they profaned that excellent gift.