1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?

3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4 And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

Hardship in the wilderness had already been solved twice for the Israelites, but clearly it wasn’t in their past. They had thirsted and God had provided, but now they thirsted again. Enduring trials and being tested were going to be an ongoing part of their journey, though God would always intervene for them before it was too late.

Notice from verse 1 that they camped in Rephidim, a place where there was no water, “according to the commandment of the Lord.” God was commanding them to halt their progression in this place, commanding them to be stuck somewhere that could not sustain them, commanding them to be in an untenable situation. I believe that most of our hardships arise as a result of our own sins or simply as a natural result of living in a fallen world, but sometimes, such as this time, the hardship was part of God’s own design.

And how did the people respond to this test? Well, according to Moses, they were about ready to stone him! They once again proved to be a people who sang praises when God saved them, but breathed threats when He did not. Their one great desire was not to follow God, but to have their needs met. Not only their needs, either, but as in the case of the quail, their preferences and desires. God was to be praised only so far as He gave them what they wanted, but to be reviled when He did not. In short, they really hadn’t submitted themselves to God at all. The fact that they still failed this test is the reason why they needed to have it.