Message: Strike the Rock / Exodus 17:1-7

Our first Scripture reading today begins with a water crisis. The crisis was real. It was a serious problem that had to be addressed. The lack of water threatened not only the people, but also their children and their animals. Without water, there would be no life and no hope.

But the real problem was not only the crisis itself. It was how they responded to the crisis. The crisis made them afraid, and their fear led them to act in the wrong way. They said to Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” Moses was blamed for the crisis. Their anger put him in danger of being stoned to death.

The French anthropologist René Girard developed the concept of the “scapegoat mechanism.” When fear and hostility grow during a crisis in a community, anger can become focused on one person or one group. Instead of facing the real cause of the crisis, people redirect their fear and anger toward a single victim. By excluding or removing that victim, the community tries to find a sense of unity and peace.

This pattern has appeared many times throughout history. When the Black Death spread through Europe in the 14th century, rumours circulated that Jewish people had poisoned wells, and many Jewish communities across Europe were attacked and massacred. After the Great Kantō Earthquake in Japan in 1923, false rumours spread that Koreans were poisoning wells and setting fires. Thousands of innocent Koreans were killed. When people do not understand the real cause of a crisis, they can blame those who are easiest to attack for the problem.

But Girard argued that the Bible does something more than describe the scapegoat mechanism. It exposes it. Scripture reveals both the suffering of the victim and the violence of the community. One example is today’s passage. God does not allow the water crisis to turn into violence against Moses. Instead, God says to Moses, “Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile.”

The Nile was essential to life in Egypt. Agriculture and food production depended on its water. Because of this, the power to control water could also become power over people’s lives. In the 20th century, historian Karl Wittfogel explored this kind of relationship through the idea of a “hydraulic society.” He argued that, in ancient times, the power to organize and manage large irrigation and water-control systems could become closely connected with centralized political power. Pharaoh’s Egypt can be viewed through this lens.

The Hebrews had been living among the Egyptians, but Pharaoh portrayed them as a threat and forced them into labour. They were made to work on the store cities of Pithom and Rameses in the Nile region, where water was central to the life and power of Egypt. Human labour became a resource for maintaining the power of the empire.

God heard the cries of the Hebrews and called Moses. Moses was then commanded to strike the Nile with his staff. When the staff struck the Nile, the water turned to blood. The fish died. The river began to smell, and the people could no longer drink its water. What had been a source of life became water that revealed death.

And the effects did not remain in the water. In the second plague, frogs came out of the water, covered the land, and died. From an ecological perspective, when creatures such as fish and frogs disappear, the larger food web connected to them can also be disturbed. The following plagues brought insects, disease among livestock, and sores on human bodies.

Not all ten plagues can be understood as one ecological chain caused by the pollution of the Nile. But many of them can be considered in relation to ecological processes. When water becomes polluted, it is not only the water that suffers. Fish and amphibians, birds and insects, animals and human beings are all interconnected. When one part of an ecosystem is disrupted, the effects can move through the food web and reach other forms of life. In a world where people and nature are treated as tools for power, no living thing can remain completely untouched by the consequences.

In this sense, “the staff that struck the Nile” was a tool that exposed the reality of Pharaoh’s world. Creation is threatened when a few seek greater and greater power. The staff did not contaminate the Nile. It revealed what the endless desire for power had done. The river turned to blood, and the staff exposed the deeper problem behind the crisis.

And now, God tells Moses to take that same staff. Then God says, “Strike the rock.” In the wilderness, the staff reveals that another way is possible. Moses strikes the rock at Horeb, and water begins to flow. The people drink. The children drink. The animals drink.

It is the same staff, but what it reveals is entirely different. Pharaoh used life to strengthen his own power. God brings water from a dry rock so that life may continue. Pharaoh’s power seeks to place life beneath itself. God’s power opens a way for life to flourish again.

This story invites us to think about the water crises of our own time. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation because access to these is a basic necessity for a life of dignity.

Yet water continues to be polluted in the pursuit of economic benefit. According to data published by WHO and UN-Habitat in 2024, among the 22 countries reporting data on industrial wastewater, 38% of industrial wastewater received some form of treatment, while only 27% was safely treated. The economic benefits of industrial activity may go to businesses, investors, and consumers. But when wastewater is not safely treated, the costs can be borne by rivers and soil, by plants and animals, and by the communities that live nearby. People and communities that are socially vulnerable or have less political influence can face even greater risks.

One of the water justice issues here in Canada concerns access to safe drinking water in First Nations communities. In 2021, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada reported long-standing problems with funding, water-system operators, and the lack of a regulatory framework. A 2025 report found that 35 long-term drinking water advisories remained, nine of which had been in place for more than ten years.

This issue continues today. The federal government has introduced new legislation to protect drinking water in First Nations communities, but the bill has not yet become law. A previous version of the legislation included stronger provisions for source-water protection, but it faced strong opposition from provincial governments, including Alberta and Ontario, which argued that these provisions could affect resource development. The current bill has changed some of those provisions, and the debate over how to protect water while balancing economic development and provincial jurisdiction continues.

Christian faith invites us to take up again the staff that struck the Nile and to look toward the rock God points out to us. Instead of making someone a scapegoat in a time of crisis, faith calls us to discern what is preventing life from flowing.

God says to us, “Strike the rock.”

Even where there seems to be no water, even where there seems to be no hope, even in the deep crisis facing all creation, God does not give up on life. Look more deeply. Do not try to go back to Egypt. Do not look for someone to blame. Do not act as if there is no God. Instead, ask what is preventing life from flowing. Ask why this keeps happening. Ask who benefits and who bears the cost. Ask whose voices are not being heard. And ask how life can begin to flow again.

When we look carefully and find the courage to strike the rock God points out to us, water can flow again. Life can begin again. And our journey can continue. 

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Min Hwang