Bittersweet Times
Opening Prayer
Lord, show me how You can make sweet the bitter experiences in my life.
Read Exodus 15:19–27
19 When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. 20 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. 21 Miriam sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”
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.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Consider the statement from R. Alan Cole: “God’s blessing is always dependent on the obedience of his children to his revealed will.” Is disobedience in your life hindering God’s blessing?
As so often happens in our own experience, a high ushers in a low. Miriam’s performance of the song, together with the women’s tambourines and dancing, is exuberant. If only life could always be like that! It is swiftly followed, however, by the next test in a drastically altered atmosphere. Lack of good water is serious (cf. 2 Kings 3:9). Could God really care about them if he allows this to happen? Can God really love me if he allows my loved one to die from cancer? Can God really be in charge of the world in light of the terrible news headlines we see every day? Despite Israel’s propensity to grumble (as subsequent stories will show), their doubts are understandable!
Moses approaches God with the problem, as of course should we. God instructs Moses to cast a tree into the water. Some Christians think that this act accomplished a supernatural “cleansing” of the water, others that God directed Moses to a tree whose chemical properties he had already discovered in many years of steppe living (Exod. 2:15; 3:1). We shall never know. Apparently, modern Arabs use a barberry bush to sweeten water (as most artesian wells are bitter and unpleasant because of mineral salts), and there are parallels from other lands (R. Alan Cole, Exodus, 129). The idea would have been to find some pungent or aromatic shrub whose flavor would cover the mineral taste of the water and make it palatable.
As any good teacher knows, it’s useful to follow up an experience like this with a teaching point! God uses the “healing” of the bitter water to show the people the need for constant obedience ifthey are to remain in relationship with their Healer. Once they learn that lesson, God leads them
to a wonderful oasis! To their delight, they find they can trust God after all!
Apply
It is hard to trust when we can’t see the end of the story. Are you in that situation at present? Be honest with God about how you are feeling.
Closing prayer
O Lord, You are indeed the great provider. Where there is no water in sight, You can direct Your thirsty followers to wells full of it. Thank You for being my provider in life.
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