From Bitter to Healed

Propositional Argument:

God provides spiritual healing for those willing to trust him in wilderness seasons. God will use your occasion of complaining to test you and teach you about trusting him enough to obey him and thus enjoy his benefits.

Background

Moses and the children of Israel have seen God’s hand at work throughout their enslavement and subsequent deliverance from Egyptian bondage. From the first nine plagues, to God miraculously sparing the lives of the first born of Israel by application of lamb’s blood to the door post, to his protection in the wilderness prior to the Red Sea God had done enough to warrant their faith and praise. At the Red Sea, they saw God move from the front to the back, part the sea, dry up the ground, and with the self same water they passed through Pharaoh’s army drowned. Moses and the people sing their song of victory, praising God for his deliverance from the army. As they began the journey towards the Promised Land, how soon the people forgot their praise and picked up that complaining spirit.

Problem — “We have no water…What are we to drink?”

After passing through water, they complained that they had no water….it is understandable for them to begin to worry about water after three days. They and their animals probably had consumed nearly all the water they had carried with them in skins…and as they approached Mariah, they expected to have water to drink…when they arrived at Marah and found foul water was not merely a disappointment but a cause of panic…the water looked potable but in fact large percentages of dissolved mineral salts that rendered it undrinkable…Their question was not unreasonable, but their sin manifested itself in their attitude….The people followed the pillar of cloud and therefore knew perfectly well that it was Yahweh who had led them to this location….The people did not have what they had expected and failed to trust god to provide it. Since the Garden of Eden that had been a formula for disobedience.

Provision — “Throw the log into the water”

Like in God’s fashion, just like he ordered their steps to this water, He also ordered the provision for this water. Trying to figure out how the log got there is pointless; what we do know is that the log was there for the purpose of healing the bitter water. The Bible does not say if the log was part of a larger tree, which is not crucial to understanding how God moves. This supernatural demonstration of God’s presence and provision is not notably different from the earlier demonstrations used by Moses to convince the elders of Israel and then the people in general that he had been sent from God. Moses needed something to assure the people that all was well; God told him what to do, and God’s care was demonstrated when he did it. Speculation about how a tree could eliminate mineral salts from a large body of water is just as fruitless as speculation about how the Nile could turn to blood or how staff could turn into a snake and back again: it was a supernatural, not a natural event; a miracle, not a prescientific application of a natural remedy. Moses’ faith in being willing to do what God commanded him, without understanding why or how it would work, is implicitly commended here. The log or piece of wood heals the water, making it drinkable for both people and animals….

Prescription — “Obey my commandments.”

Israel passed this test, which is predictive of what was coming and resumptive of what had occurred….this rule or statute was given before the formal establishment of the covenant law in chapter 20; God gave a law intended to provide a general understanding for his people of his policies and principles…God called for loyalty and obedience: loyalty in a sense of a willingness to pay close attention to what God’s will was and to want, above all else, to please him by doing what he thinks is right…His people must give him full, not partial, loyalty and obedience. If he wanted it, they were to do it….

Promise — “Divine Protection by Jehovah Rapha”

There is an advantage to obeying God….perfect divine protection. There has been a misconception about verse 26 which to some is seen a general guarantee that faithful believers cannot get sick or that if they do, they will be always be healed in this life. What God was saying through Moses is that those sickness he brought upon Egypt, he would not bring on them because he is Lord that heals…The promise here was not that God would never allow those who place their faith in him to get sick. It was that the Israelites would be free from having to worry about the plagues….His promise to serve as their doctor/healer also was not a promise that is anyone among them ever got sick he would immediately heal that person. It was instead an assertion that it was to him they must turn for healing if they found themselves afflicted as a result of sin…They went on from Marah to Eilm to camp, and here they had abundant water and seventy palm trees….God will heal you and take you to the place of abundant provision….