Massah

Biblical Text

Massah is the name given to the place where the Israelites, journeying through the wilderness after the Exodus, put God to the test. According to Exodus 17:1-7, the people set out from the Wilderness of Sin and encamped at Rephidim. Finding no water to drink, they quarreled with Moses and demanded water. When Moses cried out to the LORD, the LORD told him to take the elders of Israel with him, to take in his hand the rod with which he had struck the Nile, and to go and strike the rock at Mount Horeb. Moses did so, and water came out of the rock. Moses named the place Massah and Meribah because the people had quarreled and had tested the LORD: "And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?" (Exodus 17:7).

The name appears again in Deuteronomy 6:16, 9:22, and 33:8, and in Psalm 95:8.

Background

The Hebrew word massah is related to the verb meaning "to test" and signifies "testing" or "trial." The accompanying name, Meribah, means "strife" or "quarreling." Both place names directly reflect the character of the event.

The text locates the place only in the vicinity of Rephidim and Mount Horeb. Its exact location is unknown, and scholars have proposed various sites. The same chapter goes on immediately (Exodus 17:8-16) to recount the battle against Amalek at Rephidim.

Significance Throughout Scripture

In Deuteronomy, Massah serves as the classic example in the warning against testing God. Deuteronomy 6:16 says, "Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." Deuteronomy 9:22 lists Massah together with Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah as places where Israel provoked the LORD to wrath.

Psalm 95:7-11 recalls this event to warn the worshiping congregation not to harden their hearts. Hebrews 3:7-4:11 quotes this psalm at length. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, rendered Meribah and Massah not as proper names but as the common nouns "provocation" and "testing." Hebrews follows this rendering: "as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (Hebrews 3:8).

During his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4:7; Luke 4:12).

Interpretation and Issues

• Relationship to the Meribah incident: Numbers 20:1-13 also records an event at Meribah in Kadesh in which water came from a rock; on that occasion Moses struck the rock twice. Traditionally these are read as two distinct events, one early in the wilderness period and the other near its end. Some critical scholars regard them as two versions of a single tradition.
• The testing in Deuteronomy 33:8: In the blessing pronounced on the Levites, the Lord is said to have tested "him" at Massah. Here the direction of the testing is the reverse of that in Exodus. Some interpreters read this as a testing of the faithfulness of the tribe of Levi, while others take it as a reference to Moses and Aaron.
• The meaning of "testing God": Many interpreters hold that the fault lay not so much in asking for water as in an attitude that doubted God's presence and demanded proof.
• The rock that followed: 1 Corinthians 10:4 says that Israel drank "of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." Later Jewish tradition is known to have included stories of a water-giving rock or well that followed Israel through the wilderness. Opinions differ as to whether Paul had this tradition in mind. The Exodus text says nothing about the rock following the people. On the other hand, the interpretation of the rock as a type of Christ, that is, a foreshadowing that pointed ahead to him, has been widely held since the early church.

In the Korean Church

The name "Massah" is rarely used as a sermon title. However, the account of water from the rock in Exodus 17 is frequently used as a sermon text on grumbling in the wilderness and God's provision. The opening verses of Psalm 95 are also sometimes used as a call to worship.