Exodus 15:22-27 The Wilderness

Summary of verses 1-21

Application Points:

Trust: Trust God.

Diligently Listen: Listen to Him.

Don’t be Stagnant (Vs 22, Vs 25, Vs 27): Keep pursuing Him.

Read Verse 22

Three days in the heat, danger, and the likelihood of death. Three Days with no water is the maximum amount of time the human body can live without water. So they were at the end of themselves.

This was hopeless rock bottom. I imagine they were probably thinking “At least in Egypt we had water”.

This all happened right after they got done worshipping God. Right after they lifted their praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

Then they finally find water- but it’s undrinkable.

There’s been so many times where i think i see God finally has come through- but then nothing, and i’m still waiting.

and it’s frustrating!

And it’s those moments that cause me to finally cry out to God and give Him the feelings i’ve been hiding away in my mind and heart.

Notice how it took them three days to finally say something. But they didn’t cry out to God for mercy, they complained. But not to God- to Moses!

Moses was the one who cried to the Lord, not the people.

“This is hardly the land of milk and honey you said God promised us”.

Throughout the rest of the book and exodus we’re going to see this pattern of the israelites complaining and grumbling against God, and Moses crying to God.

Who can tell me the difference between complaining against God, and Crying out to God?

Sometimes we need to see and feel how weak we are, to open our ears to God’s voice.

God knows the way we really truly learn to trust Him, and see His heart- is those moments when He seems to swoop in at the last second and save us.

And we’re terrified of those last second swoop ins He loves to do.

But understand how important both the mountaintop experience of the red sea, and the wilderness experience of Marah both served a purpose in the Israelite’s life: Learning to trust God.

First Point:

Trust: We can Trust God as we walk through the red sea that He parted, and we can trust God when there’s no water in the wilderness- Why? Because He’s good and faithful to keep His promises.

Read Verse 23-24

The israelites failed this test. They grumbled against the leader that God had put over them, ultimately grumbling against God’s direction of their lives.

The way wasn’t easy, it was hard for them. Their suffering didn’t make sense to them- because their expectations were wrong- and they wrongly blamed God for it.

Who can think of who else was led into the wilderness?

Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Jesus passed that test. He responded to the enemy with the authority of the Scriptures, and he resisted the enemy- and perfectly passed that test.

Hebrews 5:7–8 “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”

Although you are a son. Although you are a daughter, as we follow Jesus- we too learn obedience through what we suffer.

It’s the most powerful and effective way that God teaches and grows us and changes our hearts.

Romans 15:4 “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Jesus is the living water that your soul craves. Not a fun career, not perfect grades or a scholarship, not even job security.

Read Verses 25-26

God is using their suffering as a moment to test them and speak to them.

it says: And he (Moses) cried to the Lord.

Some of you are in that spot- youre in between right now- waiting on God to do something. Crying out for help.

crying out to the Lord for help, Waiting for God to speak and provide. David captures this perfectly in Psalm 13:

Psalm 13:1–4 “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”

Look at the size of the pain and suffering in 22-24, then look at the size of God’s response from 25-27.

We don’t know how long Moses had to wait for the Lord to respond, But the Lord DID respond.

Psalm 13:5–6 “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

He loves you, and He will respond. He will act. But allow Him to teach you about Himself in this moment.

Romans 5:1–5 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

God was bringing the israelites through trial after trial, so that they would have endurance, character, and hope in God’s steadfast and unchanging love and salvation for them. They didn’t yield, because of their hard hearts.

Let Him produce endurance, character and hope in you- don’t fight Him, no matter how much it hurts.

SECOND POINT:

Diligently Listen: Listen to Him. When He tells you to stop, stop. Don’t argue, don’t resist- listen to Him. Real obedience comes after faith- not before. You can’t grow in faith if you don’t listen to Him and let Him take you through hard things.

Read Verse 27

They werent promised by God health and wellness and comfort and no hardship.

In fact, in the midst of their trial and misery and hardship- God didn’t comfort them at all about their circumstances.

He comforted them with Who He is. His character.

He did not promise that He would take their suffering away, or that there would be breakthrough in their timing or their way.

He promised to be to them what they needed- The Healer.

Jesus is your healer, He is your provider, He is your Good Shepherd, your Wonderful Counselor.

He is the sweetness that God has provided for you to remove the bitterness in your heart and heal you.

But you have to cry out to Him for it.

THIRD POINT:

Don’t be Stagnant (Vs 22, Vs 25, Vs 27): Moses Made Israel set out, The water God provided was just enough to keep them moving- not enough for them to set camp and stay, then they finally come to Elim where they could encamp by the water- but even in the next verse in chapter 16- God wanted them to move on and keep going.

Keep pursuing what God has for you. Don’t stop and settle.

The Israelites only wanted salvation, not sanctification. Don’t be like them. When’ we’re stagnant in our walk with God and don’t press into Him to see what He wants to do, where He wants us to go, how He wants to change us and teach us: We’re Marah. Bitter stagnant water, that is useless. It only serves to make other people sick.

I believe God was preemptively showing the israelites the danger of the wilderness isn’t hardship- it’s allowing bitterness to harden our hearts. Before those 40 years even started, He was showing them the danger of bitterness.

The wilderness still has life. It still has water. It still has shade. It’s just harder than our preference.

We prefer the beaches and the woods and the mountains- where the elements aren’t challenging like they are in the middle eastern desert.

If time allows, tell story of current job situation:

-God is allowing this to happen

-This is the route He’s chosen to allow for me to be on

-I can either fight and resist and try and get myself out of it, or i can follow this route and see where He takes it.

-I can choose to be bitter and not pursue Him and closeness with Him because life is hard, or i can pursue Him even more because it’s hard. It’s my choice.

Don’t allow the horrible things that happen to you in your life to make you stagnant and bitter. Cry out to the Lord for help, come here and tell people what you’re going through and get prayer, and trust God’s faithfulness.

and keep doing it as often as possible.

Summary:

Trust God, Listen to Him and what He says in His word, and don’t be stagnant in your walk with Him. He wants to keep you moving with Him, learning about Him, growing in Christ- so keep walking.

How do you grow in trust in God? How do you keep walking? How do you not grow stagnant?

Story of I can only imagine 2 and the story behind “Even if”

In the movie they had this line: “What do you do when all you have to hold onto is just a song? Keep holding on.”

We don’t know if God will choose to remove our problem, our suffering, our situation, our fear or anxiety. But even if He doesn’t, even if He chooses to not give you what you’re asking for: cry out to Him. Sing to Him- worship Him anyways.

The Israelites had just finished singing praise to God for His faithfulness. They forgot to keep singing even when times got hard.

We cannot forget His character.

Daniel 3:17–18 “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.””

So How do you grow in trust in God? How do you keep walking? How do you not grow stagnant?

Cry out to Him like Moses did.

Sing to Him like you did when you saw Him move in your life.

Expect this journey to be hard. But expect that He is with you always, and He will always provide for your needs, because He promised.

Prayer