FIRST HURDLE
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Opening Prayer
Lord God, thank you for making yourself known to me and for proving your love and faithfulness each day. Help me to show others around me who you are.
Read EXODUS 15:22–27
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Waters of Marah and Elim
22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
Reflect
Have you experienced a time when what God wanted you to do seemed really difficult? Did you do it or not? Either way, what was the outcome?The Israelites have been traveling away from Egypt, fleeing their enemy and seeing God do miraculous things. Now the journey toward the Promised Land begins. It doesn’t start well. In spite of Exodus 14:31, adverse conditions quickly lead the people to complain, against Moses particularly. Clearly, they believe, it’s Moses’ fault that they’re thirsty.
Three days without water in dry and dusty conditions are hard to live through. The water at Marah must have seemed a wonderful sight until they tried to drink it. Jamie Buckingham,* a frequent traveler in that region, suggests that, had they been able to drink the water, the minerals would have purged them of the internal parasites and diseases they brought with them from Egypt and helped them cope with the hot weather. But this first test is too much. Moses cries out to God, a way is found for the water to become drinkable, and God makes one of his ‘If… then…’ conditional promises (v. 26). Will they listen?
Apply
It’s not easy to accept that sometimes what God wants us to do will be hard in some way. All of what he asks of us has his plan and purpose behind it; pray for anyone you know who is facing difficult decisions.
Closing prayer
Father, you know the end from the beginning. Help me to trust you, no matter what my circumstances are, to stand firm in your promises at work in, through, and for me.
*J Buckingham, A Way through the Wilderness (Risky Living Ministries, Inc.), 2013
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