The trust on God

While reading chapters 16-22 of Exodus, I saw a part that really made me think. It is in Exodus 17, verse 7, " and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?" Here, the choldren of Israel are defying the Lord, by trying to make him think, are you going to help us, or let us die here? This I thoight was strange, because, even If you are reading this book without a religious purpose, you would notice that God has helped them in every way he can, he has taken the Egyptians off their backs, he had given them food before in every occasion they needed, and without going further, it is thanks to God that they were even alive. I thought it was very strange that they questioned their own faith in God that way, especially after all he has given them. The children of Israel should stop making those rhetoric questions and start thanking God more, and perhaps he will be more generous when they need it. 

Also, as I already said it, I found rhetoric in the text. It is a question without answer, made to make God think, "am I really helping these people, should I be more generous?" It is demonstrative rhetoric, or rhetoric of the present. It is to "pursue" God to show himself more in the bad times that they are having in their trip to Sinai.