Is the LORD among us or not?

Monday September 26th, Exodus 17: 5 the LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" When we read the exodus story it is easy to wonder how the people could grumble about their liberation from Egypt. Had they forgotten the slave labor, the loss of the promise given to Abraham, the killing of the first born, had they forgotten it all? Then we turn to real life. Do couples remember their wedding vows in times of stress? Do congregations remember their promise to the children baptized in their midst? Do you remember all your promises in life? The answer is no. It is also easy to forget that the Lord Is among us, not just at the times of promise, but at the times of our broken promises. One could say, especially at our times of broken promises. If you have ever, in the midst of despair, asked where God is, that is precisely the time when God was closest.