Context No. 3006 of 4322 · Numbers

Numbers 21:16-22: in context

16From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” 17Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it, 18the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah; 19and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert. 21Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or vineyard. We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.”

Israel comes to a place called Beer, which means the well, and there God says, gather the people together and I will give them water. And Israel does something rare in the wilderness story: they sing. Spring up, O well! Sing to it, the well the princes dug, the nobles hollowed out with their staffs. Then they journey on toward Moab, sending word to King Sihon to ask peaceful passage along the king's highway.

The little song of the well is a bright moment. So often in the desert Israel grumbled about water; here, when God provides it, they break into a joyful work-song, celebrating the gift as they help dig. It is a picture of glad, thankful cooperation with God's provision, a lovely and unusual note in a story full of complaint. God gives water in the desert, and his people, for once, answer with singing instead of grumbling.

When God provides for me, is my instinct to sing and give thanks, or to grumble as Israel so often did, and can I meet even a gift with joy?

Sources

Numbers 21:17: "Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, well! Sing to it."
Psalm 107:35: "He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs."
John 4:14: "The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."