Moses - the Water Man of Faith

September 4, 2026 - Feast of the Prophet Moses

Moses: The Water Man of Faith

1) The name Moses is derived from his experience at birth—strictly speaking, three months after his birth—of being thrown into the waters of the Nile and then being “drawn/pulled out” from those very waters by Pharaoh’s daughter. The first encounter of Moses with our common home is through water.

2) In Exodus chapter 2, we find the young fighter for justice for his people having to flee to Midian for his life. His very first encounter with the people of Midian is about water rights. The seven daughters of the Midianite priest Reuel are helped by Moses in resisting the shepherds who were preventing them from drawing water.  The bargain ends with his obtaining the daughter of Reuel, Zipporah, as his wife. It is also a likely pointer to the fact that the “water wars” predicted by Vandana Shiva [2002] are not something entirely of the future, though they may take more aggravated forms in the future.

3) Then we have the famous Mosaic intervention that turns the fresh waters of the Nile into blood (Exodus 7), indicating the potential of human injustice to affect natural resources, as we have experienced indirectly in many cases and directly through the pollution of rivers such as the Cooum (Chennai), Yamuna (Delhi), Hindon (U.P.), Ghaggar (Punjab/Haryana), Musi (Hyderabad), Sabarmati (Ahmedabad), Adyar (Chennai), and Mula–Mutha (Pune).

4) The liberative passage of the Israelites begins on the watery grounds of the Red Sea, where the waters are divided (Exodus 14) to make a people free.

5) In Exodus 15, we come across the bitter waters of Marah, which are made sweet through Moses’ introduction of a piece of wood into them. Today, with much of our available drinking water becoming polluted, human determination and innovative action can certainly bring about change. Make the bitter water sweet, make the running water walk, and make the walking water lie down and remain within the bosom of the earth.

6) Exodus 15 also provides the comforting encounter with the twelve springs and seventy palm trees of Elim, reminding us of the gracious gifts of nature and of our need to conserve and enrich them.

7) In chapter 17, the great Water Man is confronted by the people demanding water in the wilderness of Sin at Rephidim. And the Lord comes to the aid of Moses, with water gushing forth from the rock at Horeb. The incident and the place become a reminder of the unresponsive human heart—Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarrelling).

8) In the wilderness of Zin, at Kadesh, the people again vent their frustration against Moses because they have no water. The Lord commands Moses to speak to the rock, but in his own frustration, Moses strikes the rock with his staff, perhaps entertaining a doubt in his mind as to whether the Lord would provide. The water gushes forth, but Moses is banned from entering the Promised Land in the last leg of the Exodus (Numbers 20:1–13).

9) The Vision of Water Sufficiency for All - Liberation also implies that.

In his last exhortation, Moses visualises the Promised Land:

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills.” (Deut. 8:7)

And in Deuteronomy 33, he speaks of water from above and from the depths of the earth (v. 13), along with an abundant harvest of grain and wine, implying also the assurance of water.

So, on the fourth day of the Season of Creation 2026, we have the legendary Water Man of Faith, Moses—one whose life was restored from and through the waters; who witnessed and manifested the impact of human action upon water; who led a people to freedom through a watery passage; who played mediatory roles in the small and great “water wars” of his time, implying the divinely endowed human potential to find and use water; and who envisioned a land and a life blessed by the gift of life—water!

And for believers, Moses foreshadowed the Second Moses, the giver of the Life-giving Waters (Jn. 7:37-38).

We Need the Water Man/Woman Here

(From the net - not sure of the authenticity)

Here in Kochi, we are on the banks of the Chitrapuzha (literally, “picturesque river”). Across from the institution is now the infamous waste dump of Kochi Metropolitan City at Brahmapuram, evidently polluting the waters through seepage and rainwater flowing over the waste dump, and also polluting the air with noxious gases released in abundance, affecting people all around, including the 10,000-strong learning community of the campus.

I spoke to our Jesus Youth of Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology to take up the challenges offered by the remembrance of the great Water Man, who provided water to the people: to identify local water issues, initiate experiments, establish models for managing waste without affecting water bodies, conserve water, reduce pollution, and clean polluted water.