Hardened Hearts and Ears

 Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95


In Exodus the people grumble and complain about the lack of water to Moses. This episode is not only understood as a complaint to Moses but as a direct test of the Lord. The lack of water interpreted as evidence of the absence of God. So, God provides a miracle when Moses strikes the rock. This spot gets names that remember how they quarreled and complained – Meribah and Massah.

These names conjure up the image of their hardened hearts, and these cities are named in Psalm 95 as warnings. Instead of complaining and questioning God’s presence, the psalmist says to worship God with voice and heart. This is to declare God’s greatness that created and sustains the world. Not only is God our maker but God cares for us like a shepherd.  The psalmist is saying do not harden your hearts like they did at Meribah and Massah. Instead, they are to join in the praises of God’s power and care for us.

“Oh, that you would listen to his voice.” Not only did they have hardened hearts but hardened ears that would not listen to God’s voice. Though they were a people who had seen all of God’s deliverance: the parting of the Red Sea, clouds and fires to guide them, and manna, they still asked God for proof.

They were a people whose hearts had gone astray and didn’t regard God’s ways. Many say they wandered 40 years so that these doubters and complainers died so what was said about them not entering the rest from their travels in the promised land came true.

Let us not be a people whose hearts go astray trusting in material things rather than trusting in the love and power of God. Do our hardened hearts and ears keep us from entering the peaceful rest of the promised land of God’s kingdom on earth?

Are there times in our troubles we cry out, “Where are you Lord?” and lose our faith and trust that God can pull us through? Is it time to unplug our ears and listen to God’s voice and soften your hearts by remembering and praising all the good God as done for you in the past with hope for the future that God will fulfill your thirsts and your needs. Amen

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