height, and only for their sake wilt thou find grace, goodwill, and
mercy in My sight." [121]

Then God bade him go with some elders to the rock on Horeb, and
fetch water out of it. The elders were to accompany him there, that
they might be convinced that he was not bringing water from a
well, but smiting it from a rock. To accomplish this miracle, God
bade him smite the rock with his rod, as the people labored under
the impression that this rod could only bring destruction, for
through its agency Moses had brought the ten plagues upon the
Egyptians in Egypt, and at the Red Sea; now they were to see that
it could work good also. [122] Upon God's bidding, Moses told the
people to choose from which rock they wished water to flow,
[123] and hardly had Moses touched with his sapphire rod the rock
which they had chosen, when plenteous water flowed from it. The
spot where this occurred, God called Massah, and Meribah,
because Israel had there tried their God, saying, "If God is Lord
over all, as over us; if He satisfies our needs, and will further show
us that He knows our thoughts, then will we serve Him, but not
otherwise." [124]

The water that flowed for them on this spot served not only as a
relief for their present need, but on this occasion there was
revealed to them a well of water, which did not abandon them in
all their forty years' wandering, but accompanied them on all their
marches. [125] God wrought this great miracle for the merits of
the prophetess Miriam, wherefore also it was called "Miriam's
Well." [126] But his well dates back to the beginning of the world,
for God created it on the second day of the creation, [127] and at
one time it was in the possession of Abraham. It was this same