“And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.”
My Notes
What Does Exodus 17:4 Mean?
"What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me." Moses cries to God in desperation: the people he's been leading are about to kill him. The complaint is directed at God, not the people — Moses doesn't confront the crowd. He runs to God. The leader's desperation is expressed vertically, not horizontally.
The phrase "almost ready to stone me" describes the imminent threat of lynching. The crowd's frustration with thirst has escalated to the point of violence against their leader. The man who brought them out of Egypt, who parted the Red Sea, who provided manna — they want to kill him because there's no water.
Moses' question — "what shall I do?" — is genuine helplessness. He has no water to give them. He can't produce springs by willpower. His leadership has hit its capacity limit. The question isn't rhetorical; it's desperate: God, I literally don't know what to do. Help me before they kill me.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Has the community you serve ever turned on you?
- 2.Why is the gratitude-to-violence transition so short in stressed communities?
- 3.What does Moses running to God rather than confronting the mob teach about crisis leadership?
- 4.What fear are you carrying about the people you lead?
Devotional
They're about to stone me. God, what do I do? Moses — the liberator, the sea-parter, the manna-provider — is about to be killed by the people he saved. The gratitude-to-violence pipeline is terrifyingly short.
The speed of the mob's formation is the detail that haunts every leader: the same people who sang at the Red Sea are picking up rocks at Rephidim. The same community that celebrated God's provision of manna is threatening to stone God's appointed leader. The transformation from grateful worshippers to would-be murderers takes less time than you'd imagine.
Moses runs to God, not to the crowd. He doesn't try to talk the mob down. He doesn't negotiate. He doesn't defend his record. He goes to God and says: what do I do? The leader's first response to a mob is prayer, not confrontation. The crisis is beyond human solution. Only God can provide what the people need and what Moses can't produce.
The vulnerability — 'they be almost ready to stone me' — shows Moses as genuinely afraid, not performing leadership calmness. He tells God the truth: I'm about to die. The leader who stood before Pharaoh fearlessly is terrified of his own people. The external enemy (Egypt) was less dangerous than the internal threat (the congregation).
Has your community ever turned on you? Has your leadership ever been met with violence — physical or emotional — from the people you're serving? Moses' cry gives you language: God, what do I do? They're about to destroy me.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And Moses cried unto the Lord..... Or prayed unto him, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; which shows the distress…
Here is, I. The strait that the children of Israel were in for want of water; once before the were in the like distress,…
Cross References
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