The Life of Moses
Sermon # 10
“From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again.”
Exodus 15:1-27
(key verses 22-27)
Dr. John R. Hamby
One of the greatest challenges that you will face in life is to try to keep bitterness at bay. Everyone has to guard against bitterness creeping into their hearts. A lot of things in life have the potential to make us bitter. Family problems, marriage stresses, rejection, past abuses, loneliness, misunderstanding, conflicts, church problems and the list could go on forever. All of these if not dealt have the potential to become bitterness in your soul. Everything you think about will then be processed through this filter of pain, it will effect your thinking, your emotions, your relationship with others and your relationship with God. When that happens you lose you effectiveness in accomplishing anything for God with you life.
In Exodus 15, verse one we read that the children of Israel were jubilant at the deliverance they had just received at the hand of God, we read, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD….” They were so joyful at having been miraculously redeemed from bondage and delivered from their enemies forever, that they are full of praise. The first twenty verses of Exodus 15 are a song in which the Israelites celebrated and commemorated their victory at the Red Sea. But now they face the wilderness. Would the joy of deliverance and the knowledge of their God give them the inner strength to face the trials that lay ahead? Does Yours?
As we look at these experiences in a sermon that I have entitled, “From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again,” there are five principles that we need to glean in order that we do not allow the problems that we face in life produce bitterness.
1. Great Victories Are Sometimes Followed by Great Problems (v. 22)
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.”
They were on their way to the Promised Land, but it was proving to be a difficult journey. We see Israel move quickly from the joy of victory to the bitterness of disappointment.
The text says “then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea…they traveled in the desert without finding water.” Only three days into their journey they encountered their first difficulty, a shortage of water. Can you imagine the relief when in the distance they spotted an oasis and their hopes rose high as they hurried to this potential of life-giving water.
2. Problems As Well As Victories Are Part of God’s Plan (v. 23)
Verse 23 says, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.” They plunged their faces into the water to quench their thirst only to find that the water was bitter. It was not poisonous but it was unpleasant. Because the water was to bitter to drink the people called it the “waters of bitterness.” When it became apparent that their hopes for relief from thirst were in vain, they reacted as they had in the past. I want you to notice that in the space of three short days they have gone from singing and praising to turning on their leader, murmuring and complaining. But in truth sometimes we can do that in a lot shorter time. Some of us lose our praise and forget God in the time that it takes us to get home from church.
The fact that “Marah” came to the children of Israel is proof that it can and will happen to us. Life is made up of such experiences, of highs and lows, of mountain-tops and valleys. Some say, “But I thought that being saved meant that life would be without pain and that I would have the presence of Jesus with me at all times.” Well, welcome to Reality. Difficulties and setbacks come with amazing regularity in life, sometimes right on the heels of extraordinary blessing. We are caught off guard and gladness quickly changes to gloom and despair.
It seems that some times when we as the people of God experience blessing instead of being thankful we come to expect that level of blessing. If God has blessed you in some tangible way and you have enjoyed the abundance you, if you do not watch yourself you will begin to expect that blessing as your right.
3. When We Murmur We Fail the Test (v. 24)
The next verse (v. 24) they cry out “And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Their agonizing cry tells us of their disillusionment and disappointment. Instead of turning to God in supplication and trust they assumed the problem was unsolvable and that they were doomed to die in this hot and arid wilderness. Even though they had only three days before witnessed amazing supernatural deliverance, they assumed that God had now left them to die.
Difficulties come to us all, and we are faced then with how we will respond to them. “Some people remind me of a little boy that that I once heard of. He got in trouble and his mother put him in the closet to (think it over). He spit on everything…his mother’s dresses, his daddy’s suits, the shoes, the wall, even the light socket! After a while his mother opened the door and asked , ‘what are you doing?’ He replied, ‘I’m waiting on more spit.’” [from sermon by J.G. Tharpe. “Turning Bitterness Into Sweetness.” Soul Winning. Vol XXIII # 4. Fall – November 1987, pp. 1-2]. The truth is that bitter believers are just as silly. When we are faced with a “Marah” experience we have two alternatives. We can either get bitter and turn from God or we can believe the promises of the Bible and be blessed by God.
Once again the children of Israel had to be taught that no problem is so severe and no danger is so great that Almighty God cannot find a solution.
4. God Brings Us Into Trials In Order To Teach Us Great Lessons (v. 25)
Fortunately, Moses did not forget where to turn for help because in verse 25 we find, “So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them,
In this situation God showed Moses a nearby desert tree and told him to cut off a branch and throw it into the nearby water. Here he asked Moses to by faith do something that may or may not make sense to him on a natural level. God rebuked the lack of faith among the people of Israel and told them that it had been a test. But it was not God who has on trial. It was a test of the people, a test that we can easily see that they failed miserably. God had used these difficult circumstances to show the children of Israel what was in their hearts. He said to them in verse 26, “… If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you (that is Jehovah Rophe).”
Here we find God reveals himself as “Jehovah Rophe - the God who heals. ” “The word heal means “to mend” as a garment is mended, to repair – as a building is reconstructed, to cure – as a diseased person is restored to health.” [Herbert Lockyer. All the Divine Names And Titles In the Bible. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975) p. 24]
When we find our lives have become bitter because of our circumstances if we will go to the Lord he will help us. He does not always do it the same way; (1) He may change our circumstances and remove the cause of bitterness. (2) It may be however, that he adds a new ingredient as he did at the well of Marah. Perhaps your position at work has become intolerable, but God does not give you a new job. Instead he brings on new management or a new co-worker who is a Christian to encourage you. (3) It may be that God just gives us new found toleration for the situation we are in. God is God and is not restricted in how he heals our situation.
The tree in the desert is an encouraging symbol even for us as Christians today. Jehovah showed Moses a tree which if cast into the water would take away its bitterness. The Lord has revealed to us another tree, the cross of Calvary.
Have you ever applied the cross of Christ to the bitter waters of your life? There is but one physician who can heal the ills of our soul. There is a Great Physician and his name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord Jesus Christ. All you must do is run to him. He is waiting for you with open arms.
It is God who can take the bitterness of the death of a loved one, the bitterness of family relationship problems, the bitterness of severe illness, the bitterness of losing your income and the bitterness of having yielded to temptation and make those experiences to become sweet. As the psalmist discovered in his own life and recorded for us in (30:5), “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
He assured the people that he would continue to be with them as they made their journey to the promised land.
5. When God Is Finished With the Test He Takes Us Back To A Place of Blessedness (v. 27)
“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.”
The children of Israel arrived at Elim which means “large trees” here they found an oasis with twelve wells and seventy palm trees where they drank their fill and rested.
Application
1. Not all of life is going to be sweet! Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet.
2. Rather than complaining we must go to God with our needs and seek His provision.
3. God not only gave them relief at Marah but rest at Elim.
One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own. The first monk kindly offered, "We will carry you across if you would like." "Thank you," she said gratefully, accepting their help. So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.
After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. "Look at my clothes," he said. "They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff." The first monk just smiled and nodded his head.
A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, "My back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain." The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning. "Have you wondered why I am not complaining?" he asked. "Your back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago."
That is what many of us are like in dealing with our families. We are that second monk who cannot let go. We hold the pain of the past over our loved ones’ heads like a club, or we remind them every once in a while, when we want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something they did years ago.
Dr. Anthony T. Evans, Guiding Your Family in a Misguided World.
The Life of Moses
Sermon # 10
“From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again.”
Exodus 15:1-27
(key verses 22-27)
One of the greatest challenges that you will face in life is to try to keep bitterness at bay. Everyone has to guard against bitterness creeping into their hearts. A lot of things in life have the potential to make us bitter. Family problems, marriage stresses, rejection, past abuses, loneliness, misunderstanding, conflicts, church problems and the list could go on forever. All of these if not dealt have the potential to become bitterness in your soul. Everything you think about will then be processed through this filter of pain, it will effect your thinking, your emotions, your relationship with others and your relationship with God. When that happens you lose you effectiveness in accomplishing anything for God with you life.
In Exodus 15, verse one we read that the children of Israel were jubilant at the deliverance they had just received at the hand of God, we read, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD….” They were so joyful at having been miraculously redeemed from bondage and delivered from their enemies forever, that they are full of praise. The first twenty verses of Exodus 15 are a song in which the Israelites celebrated and commemorated their victory at the Red Sea. But now they face the wilderness. Would the joy of deliverance and the knowledge of their God give them the inner strength to face the trials that lay ahead? Does Yours?
As we look at these experiences in a sermon that I have entitled, “From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again,” there are five principles that we need to glean in order that we do not allow the problems that we face in life produce bitterness.
1. Great Victories Are Sometimes Followed by Great Problems (v. 22)
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.”
They were on their way to the Promised Land, but it was proving to be a difficult journey. We see Israel move quickly from the joy of victory to the bitterness of disappointment.
The text says “then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea…they traveled in the desert without finding water.” Only three days into their journey they encountered their first difficulty, a shortage of water. Can you imagine the relief when in the distance they spotted an oasis and their hopes rose high as they hurried to this potential of life-giving water.
2. Problems As Well As Victories Are Part of God’s Plan (v. 23)
Verse 23 says, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.” They plunged their faces into the water to quench their thirst only to find that the water was bitter. It was not poisonous but it was unpleasant. Because the water was to bitter to drink the people called it the “waters of bitterness.” When it became apparent that their hopes for relief from thirst were in vain, they reacted as they had in the past. I want you to notice that in the space of three short days they have gone from singing and praising to turning on their leader, murmuring and complaining. But in truth sometimes we can do that in a lot shorter time. Some of us lose our praise and forget God in the time that it takes us to get home from church.
The fact that “Marah” came to the children of Israel is proof that it can and will happen to us. Life is made up of such experiences, of highs and lows, of mountain-tops and valleys. Some say, “But I thought that being saved meant that life would be without pain and that I would have the presence of Jesus with me at all times.” Well, welcome to Reality. Difficulties and setbacks come with amazing regularity in life, sometimes right on the heels of extraordinary blessing. We are caught off guard and gladness quickly changes to gloom and despair.
It seems that some times when we as the people of God experience blessing instead of being thankful we come to expect that level of blessing. If God has blessed you in some tangible way and you have enjoyed the abundance you, if you do not watch yourself you will begin to expect that blessing as your right.
3. When We Murmur We Fail the Test (v. 24)
The next verse (v. 24) they cry out “And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Their agonizing cry tells us of their disillusionment and disappointment. Instead of turning to God in supplication and trust they assumed the problem was unsolvable and that they were doomed to die in this hot and arid wilderness. Even though they had only three days before witnessed amazing supernatural deliverance, they assumed that God had now left them to die.
Difficulties come to us all, and we are faced then with how we will respond to them. “Some people remind me of a little boy that that I once heard of. He got in trouble and his mother put him in the closet to (think it over). He spit on everything…his mother’s dresses, his daddy’s suits, the shoes, the wall, even the light socket! After a while his mother opened the door and asked , ‘what are you doing?’ He replied, ‘I’m waiting on more spit.’” [from sermon by J.G. Tharpe. “Turning Bitterness Into Sweetness.” Soul Winning. Vol XXIII # 4. Fall – November 1987, pp. 1-2]. The truth is that bitter believers are just as silly. When we are faced with a “Marah” experience we have two alternatives. We can either get bitter and turn from God or we can believe the promises of the Bible and be blessed by God.
Once again the children of Israel had to be taught that no problem is so severe and no danger is so great that Almighty God cannot find a solution.
4. God Brings Us Into Trials In Order To Teach Us Great Lessons (v. 25)
Fortunately, Moses did not forget where to turn for help because in verse 25 we find, “So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them,
In this situation God showed Moses a nearby desert tree and told him to cut off a branch and throw it into the nearby water. Here he asked Moses to by faith do something that may or may not make sense to him on a natural level. God rebuked the lack of faith among the people of Israel and told them that it had been a test. But it was not God who has on trial. It was a test of the people, a test that we can easily see that they failed miserably. God had used these difficult circumstances to show the children of Israel what was in their hearts. He said to them in verse 26, “… If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you (that is Jehovah Rophe).”
Here we find God reveals himself as “Jehovah Rophe - the God who heals. ” “The word heal means “to mend” as a garment is mended, to repair – as a building is reconstructed, to cure – as a diseased person is restored to health.” [Herbert Lockyer. All the Divine Names And Titles In the Bible. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975) p. 24]
When we find our lives have become bitter because of our circumstances if we will go to the Lord he will help us. He does not always do it the same way; (1) He may change our circumstances and remove the cause of bitterness. (2) It may be however, that he adds a new ingredient as he did at the well of Marah. Perhaps your position at work has become intolerable, but God does not give you a new job. Instead he brings on new management or a new co-worker who is a Christian to encourage you. (3) It may be that God just gives us new found toleration for the situation we are in. God is God and is not restricted in how he heals our situation.
The tree in the desert is an encouraging symbol even for us as Christians today. Jehovah showed Moses a tree which if cast into the water would take away its bitterness. The Lord has revealed to us another tree, the cross of Calvary.
Have you ever applied the cross of Christ to the bitter waters of your life? There is but one physician who can heal the ills of our soul. There is a Great Physician and his name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord Jesus Christ. All you must do is run to him. He is waiting for you with open arms.
It is God who can take the bitterness of the death of a loved one, the bitterness of family relationship problems, the bitterness of severe illness, the bitterness of losing your income and the bitterness of having yielded to temptation and make those experiences to become sweet. As the psalmist discovered in his own life and recorded for us in (30:5), “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
He assured the people that he would continue to be with them as they made their journey to the promised land.
5. When God Is Finished With the Test He Takes Us Back To A Place of Blessedness (v. 27)
“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.”
The children of Israel arrived at Elim which means “large trees” here they found an oasis with twelve wells and seventy palm trees where they drank their fill and rested.
Application
1. Not all of life is going to be sweet! Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet.
2. Rather than complaining we must go to God with our needs and seek His provision.
3. God not only gave them relief at Marah but rest at Elim.
One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own. The first monk kindly offered, "We will carry you across if you would like." "Thank you," she said gratefully, accepting their help. So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.
After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. "Look at my clothes," he said. "They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff." The first monk just smiled and nodded his head.
A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, "My back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain." The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning. "Have you wondered why I am not complaining?" he asked. "Your back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago."
That is what many of us are like in dealing with our families. We are that second monk who cannot let go. We hold the pain of the past over our loved ones’ heads like a club, or we remind them every once in a while, when we want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something they did years ago.
Dr. Anthony T. Evans, Guiding Your Family in a Misguided World.
The Life of Moses
Sermon # 10
“From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again.”
Exodus 15:1-27
(key verses 22-27)
One of the greatest challenges that you will face in life is to try to keep bitterness at bay. Everyone has to guard against bitterness creeping into their hearts. A lot of things in life have the potential to make us bitter. Family problems, marriage stresses, rejection, past abuses, loneliness, misunderstanding, conflicts, church problems and the list could go on forever. All of these if not dealt have the potential to become bitterness in your soul. Everything you think about will then be processed through this filter of pain, it will effect your thinking, your emotions, your relationship with others and your relationship with God. When that happens you lose you effectiveness in accomplishing anything for God with you life.
In Exodus 15, verse one we read that the children of Israel were jubilant at the deliverance they had just received at the hand of God, we read, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD….” They were so joyful at having been miraculously redeemed from bondage and delivered from their enemies forever, that they are full of praise. The first twenty verses of Exodus 15 are a song in which the Israelites celebrated and commemorated their victory at the Red Sea. But now they face the wilderness. Would the joy of deliverance and the knowledge of their God give them the inner strength to face the trials that lay ahead? Does Yours?
As we look at these experiences in a sermon that I have entitled, “From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again,” there are five principles that we need to glean in order that we do not allow the problems that we face in life produce bitterness.
1. Great Victories Are Sometimes Followed by Great Problems (v. 22)
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.”
They were on their way to the Promised Land, but it was proving to be a difficult journey. We see Israel move quickly from the joy of victory to the bitterness of disappointment.
The text says “then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea…they traveled in the desert without finding water.” Only three days into their journey they encountered their first difficulty, a shortage of water. Can you imagine the relief when in the distance they spotted an oasis and their hopes rose high as they hurried to this potential of life-giving water.
2. Problems As Well As Victories Are Part of God’s Plan (v. 23)
Verse 23 says, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.” They plunged their faces into the water to quench their thirst only to find that the water was bitter. It was not poisonous but it was unpleasant. Because the water was to bitter to drink the people called it the “waters of bitterness.” When it became apparent that their hopes for relief from thirst were in vain, they reacted as they had in the past. I want you to notice that in the space of three short days they have gone from singing and praising to turning on their leader, murmuring and complaining. But in truth sometimes we can do that in a lot shorter time. Some of us lose our praise and forget God in the time that it takes us to get home from church.
The fact that “Marah” came to the children of Israel is proof that it can and will happen to us. Life is made up of such experiences, of highs and lows, of mountain-tops and valleys. Some say, “But I thought that being saved meant that life would be without pain and that I would have the presence of Jesus with me at all times.” Well, welcome to Reality. Difficulties and setbacks come with amazing regularity in life, sometimes right on the heels of extraordinary blessing. We are caught off guard and gladness quickly changes to gloom and despair.
It seems that some times when we as the people of God experience blessing instead of being thankful we come to expect that level of blessing. If God has blessed you in some tangible way and you have enjoyed the abundance you, if you do not watch yourself you will begin to expect that blessing as your right.
3. When We Murmur We Fail the Test (v. 24)
The next verse (v. 24) they cry out “And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Their agonizing cry tells us of their disillusionment and disappointment. Instead of turning to God in supplication and trust they assumed the problem was unsolvable and that they were doomed to die in this hot and arid wilderness. Even though they had only three days before witnessed amazing supernatural deliverance, they assumed that God had now left them to die.
Difficulties come to us all, and we are faced then with how we will respond to them. “Some people remind me of a little boy that that I once heard of. He got in trouble and his mother put him in the closet to (think it over). He spit on everything…his mother’s dresses, his daddy’s suits, the shoes, the wall, even the light socket! After a while his mother opened the door and asked , ‘what are you doing?’ He replied, ‘I’m waiting on more spit.’” [from sermon by J.G. Tharpe. “Turning Bitterness Into Sweetness.” Soul Winning. Vol XXIII # 4. Fall – November 1987, pp. 1-2]. The truth is that bitter believers are just as silly. When we are faced with a “Marah” experience we have two alternatives. We can either get bitter and turn from God or we can believe the promises of the Bible and be blessed by God.
Once again the children of Israel had to be taught that no problem is so severe and no danger is so great that Almighty God cannot find a solution.
4. God Brings Us Into Trials In Order To Teach Us Great Lessons (v. 25)
Fortunately, Moses did not forget where to turn for help because in verse 25 we find, “So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them,
In this situation God showed Moses a nearby desert tree and told him to cut off a branch and throw it into the nearby water. Here he asked Moses to by faith do something that may or may not make sense to him on a natural level. God rebuked the lack of faith among the people of Israel and told them that it had been a test. But it was not God who has on trial. It was a test of the people, a test that we can easily see that they failed miserably. God had used these difficult circumstances to show the children of Israel what was in their hearts. He said to them in verse 26, “… If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you (that is Jehovah Rophe).”
Here we find God reveals himself as “Jehovah Rophe - the God who heals. ” “The word heal means “to mend” as a garment is mended, to repair – as a building is reconstructed, to cure – as a diseased person is restored to health.” [Herbert Lockyer. All the Divine Names And Titles In the Bible. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975) p. 24]
When we find our lives have become bitter because of our circumstances if we will go to the Lord he will help us. He does not always do it the same way; (1) He may change our circumstances and remove the cause of bitterness. (2) It may be however, that he adds a new ingredient as he did at the well of Marah. Perhaps your position at work has become intolerable, but God does not give you a new job. Instead he brings on new management or a new co-worker who is a Christian to encourage you. (3) It may be that God just gives us new found toleration for the situation we are in. God is God and is not restricted in how he heals our situation.
The tree in the desert is an encouraging symbol even for us as Christians today. Jehovah showed Moses a tree which if cast into the water would take away its bitterness. The Lord has revealed to us another tree, the cross of Calvary.
Have you ever applied the cross of Christ to the bitter waters of your life? There is but one physician who can heal the ills of our soul. There is a Great Physician and his name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord Jesus Christ. All you must do is run to him. He is waiting for you with open arms.
It is God who can take the bitterness of the death of a loved one, the bitterness of family relationship problems, the bitterness of severe illness, the bitterness of losing your income and the bitterness of having yielded to temptation and make those experiences to become sweet. As the psalmist discovered in his own life and recorded for us in (30:5), “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
He assured the people that he would continue to be with them as they made their journey to the promised land.
5. When God Is Finished With the Test He Takes Us Back To A Place of Blessedness (v. 27)
“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.”
The children of Israel arrived at Elim which means “large trees” here they found an oasis with twelve wells and seventy palm trees where they drank their fill and rested.
Application
1. Not all of life is going to be sweet! Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet.
2. Rather than complaining we must go to God with our needs and seek His provision.
3. God not only gave them relief at Marah but rest at Elim.
One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own. The first monk kindly offered, "We will carry you across if you would like." "Thank you," she said gratefully, accepting their help. So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.
After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. "Look at my clothes," he said. "They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff." The first monk just smiled and nodded his head.
A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, "My back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain." The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning. "Have you wondered why I am not complaining?" he asked. "Your back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago."
That is what many of us are like in dealing with our families. We are that second monk who cannot let go. We hold the pain of the past over our loved ones’ heads like a club, or we remind them every once in a while, when we want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something they did years ago.
Dr. Anthony T. Evans, Guiding Your Family in a Misguided World.
The Life of Moses
Sermon # 10
“From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again.”
Exodus 15:1-27
(key verses 22-27)
One of the greatest challenges that you will face in life is to try to keep bitterness at bay. Everyone has to guard against bitterness creeping into their hearts. A lot of things in life have the potential to make us bitter. Family problems, marriage stresses, rejection, past abuses, loneliness, misunderstanding, conflicts, church problems and the list could go on forever. All of these if not dealt have the potential to become bitterness in your soul. Everything you think about will then be processed through this filter of pain, it will effect your thinking, your emotions, your relationship with others and your relationship with God. When that happens you lose you effectiveness in accomplishing anything for God with you life.
In Exodus 15, verse one we read that the children of Israel were jubilant at the deliverance they had just received at the hand of God, we read, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD….” They were so joyful at having been miraculously redeemed from bondage and delivered from their enemies forever, that they are full of praise. The first twenty verses of Exodus 15 are a song in which the Israelites celebrated and commemorated their victory at the Red Sea. But now they face the wilderness. Would the joy of deliverance and the knowledge of their God give them the inner strength to face the trials that lay ahead? Does Yours?
As we look at these experiences in a sermon that I have entitled, “From Joy to Bitterness and Back Again,” there are five principles that we need to glean in order that we do not allow the problems that we face in life produce bitterness.
1. Great Victories Are Sometimes Followed by Great Problems (v. 22)
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.”
They were on their way to the Promised Land, but it was proving to be a difficult journey. We see Israel move quickly from the joy of victory to the bitterness of disappointment.
The text says “then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea…they traveled in the desert without finding water.” Only three days into their journey they encountered their first difficulty, a shortage of water. Can you imagine the relief when in the distance they spotted an oasis and their hopes rose high as they hurried to this potential of life-giving water.
2. Problems As Well As Victories Are Part of God’s Plan (v. 23)
Verse 23 says, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.” They plunged their faces into the water to quench their thirst only to find that the water was bitter. It was not poisonous but it was unpleasant. Because the water was to bitter to drink the people called it the “waters of bitterness.” When it became apparent that their hopes for relief from thirst were in vain, they reacted as they had in the past. I want you to notice that in the space of three short days they have gone from singing and praising to turning on their leader, murmuring and complaining. But in truth sometimes we can do that in a lot shorter time. Some of us lose our praise and forget God in the time that it takes us to get home from church.
The fact that “Marah” came to the children of Israel is proof that it can and will happen to us. Life is made up of such experiences, of highs and lows, of mountain-tops and valleys. Some say, “But I thought that being saved meant that life would be without pain and that I would have the presence of Jesus with me at all times.” Well, welcome to Reality. Difficulties and setbacks come with amazing regularity in life, sometimes right on the heels of extraordinary blessing. We are caught off guard and gladness quickly changes to gloom and despair.
It seems that some times when we as the people of God experience blessing instead of being thankful we come to expect that level of blessing. If God has blessed you in some tangible way and you have enjoyed the abundance you, if you do not watch yourself you will begin to expect that blessing as your right.
3. When We Murmur We Fail the Test (v. 24)
The next verse (v. 24) they cry out “And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Their agonizing cry tells us of their disillusionment and disappointment. Instead of turning to God in supplication and trust they assumed the problem was unsolvable and that they were doomed to die in this hot and arid wilderness. Even though they had only three days before witnessed amazing supernatural deliverance, they assumed that God had now left them to die.
Difficulties come to us all, and we are faced then with how we will respond to them. “Some people remind me of a little boy that that I once heard of. He got in trouble and his mother put him in the closet to (think it over). He spit on everything…his mother’s dresses, his daddy’s suits, the shoes, the wall, even the light socket! After a while his mother opened the door and asked , ‘what are you doing?’ He replied, ‘I’m waiting on more spit.’” [from sermon by J.G. Tharpe. “Turning Bitterness Into Sweetness.” Soul Winning. Vol XXIII # 4. Fall – November 1987, pp. 1-2]. The truth is that bitter believers are just as silly. When we are faced with a “Marah” experience we have two alternatives. We can either get bitter and turn from God or we can believe the promises of the Bible and be blessed by God.
Once again the children of Israel had to be taught that no problem is so severe and no danger is so great that Almighty God cannot find a solution.
4. God Brings Us Into Trials In Order To Teach Us Great Lessons (v. 25)
Fortunately, Moses did not forget where to turn for help because in verse 25 we find, “So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them,
In this situation God showed Moses a nearby desert tree and told him to cut off a branch and throw it into the nearby water. Here he asked Moses to by faith do something that may or may not make sense to him on a natural level. God rebuked the lack of faith among the people of Israel and told them that it had been a test. But it was not God who has on trial. It was a test of the people, a test that we can easily see that they failed miserably. God had used these difficult circumstances to show the children of Israel what was in their hearts. He said to them in verse 26, “… If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you (that is Jehovah Rophe).”
Here we find God reveals himself as “Jehovah Rophe - the God who heals. ” “The word heal means “to mend” as a garment is mended, to repair – as a building is reconstructed, to cure – as a diseased person is restored to health.” [Herbert Lockyer. All the Divine Names And Titles In the Bible. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975) p. 24]
When we find our lives have become bitter because of our circumstances if we will go to the Lord he will help us. He does not always do it the same way; (1) He may change our circumstances and remove the cause of bitterness. (2) It may be however, that he adds a new ingredient as he did at the well of Marah. Perhaps your position at work has become intolerable, but God does not give you a new job. Instead he brings on new management or a new co-worker who is a Christian to encourage you. (3) It may be that God just gives us new found toleration for the situation we are in. God is God and is not restricted in how he heals our situation.
The tree in the desert is an encouraging symbol even for us as Christians today. Jehovah showed Moses a tree which if cast into the water would take away its bitterness. The Lord has revealed to us another tree, the cross of Calvary.
Have you ever applied the cross of Christ to the bitter waters of your life? There is but one physician who can heal the ills of our soul. There is a Great Physician and his name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord Jesus Christ. All you must do is run to him. He is waiting for you with open arms.
It is God who can take the bitterness of the death of a loved one, the bitterness of family relationship problems, the bitterness of severe illness, the bitterness of losing your income and the bitterness of having yielded to temptation and make those experiences to become sweet. As the psalmist discovered in his own life and recorded for us in (30:5), “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
He assured the people that he would continue to be with them as they made their journey to the promised land.
5. When God Is Finished With the Test He Takes Us Back To A Place of Blessedness (v. 27)
“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.”
The children of Israel arrived at Elim which means “large trees” here they found an oasis with twelve wells and seventy palm trees where they drank their fill and rested.
Application
1. Not all of life is going to be sweet! Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet.
2. Rather than complaining we must go to God with our needs and seek His provision.
3. God not only gave them relief at Marah but rest at Elim.
