Will You Trust The Lord Your Healer

Introduction

We have often stated that the Exodus is thee redemptive act of the OT. Much as Israelite theology is built around Yahweh’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt and the subsequent giving of the law. The Exodus, along with the wilderness wanderings, and entering the promise land details the LORD’s purpose for His people. This purpose was to free Israel, purify her, teach them how to serve Him, and ultimately dwell with them in the land of promise a people. This entire process of redemption, sanctification, and glorification would serve to proclaim God’s glory throughout the earth. By now you should have figured out where I am going. Israel’s experience in the wilderness provides rich nuggets concerning how we are to live as believers some 3500 years later. We will explore one of those today, the issue of complaining.

Background

According to the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Shur is a “Wilderness region located in the Sinai peninsula east of Egypt’s Nile delta and west of the Negeb. In antiquity, a caravan route passed through this region from Egypt to Palestine. It was perhaps along this route that the Angel of the Lord found Hagar (Gn 16:7). Abraham lived for a time between Shur and Kadesh (20:1) and it was part of the territory occupied by the Ishmaelites (25:18). After crossing the Red Sea, Moses led Israel on a three-day trek through this arid wasteland (Ex 15:22). King Saul of Israel (1020–1000 BC) conquered the Amalekites in the vicinity of Shur (1 Sm 15:7), and later David (1000–961 BC) defeated the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites here (27:8). The wilderness of Etham in Numbers 33:8 is identical with the wilderness of Shur.”[1]

Exposition

Verses 22-23: The song is over and it is time to get on the move. Free from their bondage, they are on their way to meet their God and savior, so that they may know who He is and how to please Him. There are two things we should notice in this passage, and our larger text: 1) They don’t immediately head toward or receive their inheritance. There is first testing and preparation. 2) There is spiritual growth that must take place. To the first point, the people are led by Moses into the wilderness of Shur. This was a place where water was scarce. It would have been absolutely insufficient for the massive Israelite population that came out of Egypt. They water they are able to find is bitter. They can’t drink it. The first question we should ask is why they are here? Remember Yahweh Himself is leading the people via the cloud and pillar of fire[2]. There path wasn’t an accident. What was the purpose of the LORD in this? This answer, later given by Moses to the second generation, is so the people could learn to trust in the LORD as their provider and sustainer (Deut. 8:2-6). Matthew Henry makes an interesting comment of this verse: “God can embitter that to us from which we promise ourselves most satisfaction, and often does so in the wilderness of this world, that our wants and disappointments in the creature may drive us to the Creator, in whose favour alone true comfort is to be had.”[3] The second question is what is the correct response to this situation? What should Israel have done? The text gives us an answer. Unfortunately it was the wrong one.

Verse 24: Let me preface by saying their concern was valid. The lack of water was a legitimate issue. We know that a person can survive a few weeks without food but only a few days without water. There supplies were probably low or almost gone. The problem was their response. This leads us to our second point. This is a spiritually immature people, despite everything they have seen. They have seen God’s power and recently sung of His miraculous rescue. It would have been perfectly proper to bring their concerns to God and ask for His assistance. In fact this is what the LORD wanted them to do. It is precisely what they didn’t do. Instead they responded with grumbling and complaints. Unfortunately will begin a pattern of complaints about food and water, Moses’s leadership, and even the promised land itself, that will continue throughout their wilderness journey. Such complaints are no more and no less than a demonstration of a lack of faith in the God that saved them. It is doubt that the same God that wrought mighty wonders in Egypt and parted the sea had to power to sustain them as they journeyed to Him and them to their inheritance. This is sin, as it all things that are not of faith (Romans 14:23).

How often are we guilty of this? We can about things in ministry or aspects of the worship we don’t like. We complain about our jobs, sickness, pain, and bad events in life. Some peoples list are longer than others. Commentator Philip Ryken tells the following story: “A man from Philadelphia was ordained to the pastoral ministry. It was a remarkable occasion because only four years earlier he had almost dropped out of the church altogether. The man had dedicated his life to serving God. At the time he was working for the church, attending seminary, and preparing for the ministry. Then his newborn daughter was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. As far as the man was concerned, this kind of suffering had never been part of the bargain. The deal was that he would serve God, and God would bless him. When God did not bless him, he was no longer willing to serve. It was not until he turned his bitterness over to God, trusting God to be faithful even in suffering, that he was restored to joy.”[4]

You may bristle at the words of the Apostle Paul. If so, consider what grumbling and complaining means. They are signs of ungratefulness, self-centeredness, immaturity, and insecurity. It is disbelief and distrust if God. Paul on the other hand told us to be anxious for nothing but go to God with our concerns (Phil. 4:6). Think about it. A God who could open the seas for Egypt and literally raise people from the dead, including the Son, is definitely able to provide all we need. Relatively speaking these are small things in comparison. Combine this with the reality of His great love for us, we slap God in the face when we grumble or complain. Paul warns us that we invite his wrath (1 Cor. 10:10). This is especially true given the reality that we were warned that we would endure hardships (Acts 14:22). We are also promised that God is always with us (Heb. 13:5) and nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35;39)

Verses 25 - 26: Moses responds correctly to the complaints of the people. He goes to the God he knows can answer prayer. Moses believed God. So must we. Yahweh, in His great grace and in supernatural power, provides the means by which the bitter water becomes sweet. Israel was used to bitterness. Yahweh took what was bitter and made it sweet. He had a purpose in this. It was to test them. The people needed to learn and grow.

Israel is called to listen to the voice of the LORD, to obey all He decrees and do what is right is His sight. They are to trust in Him and not in themselves or other gods. These things should be done with great joy directed toward the great God that saved them. In doing so they will not share the experience of the Egyptians. The LORD would be their Physician. He would preserve and care for them. This would include physical healing but it is wasn’t limited to that. There would be a wholesome of life for the nation.

Verse 27: God in His grace leads the people via Moses to were they can be refreshed, showing again His care for His people and that His ultimate purpose from them is to prosper and not the perish.

Practical Application

Israel needed several things, which map over well to believers today: 1) To learn that even as Yahweh was their redeemer, He also was their sustainer. They needed to learn who they were and who He is. So it is with the Christian. Christ didn’t save us to leave us on our own. We aren’t left to our own devices or could we make it if we were. We need to trust in Him. 2) To be free of their Egyptian mindset. The ways of Egypt were the ways of bondage. It wasn’t the path to seek. Rather, Israel needed to learn to seek her savior. For the believer, part of sanctification is a renewing of the mind which causes us to strive after the way and things of God in Christ. We must seek to know and grow in Him. 3) True continuous blessing predicated on continued obedience. It requires walking worthy of the calling. Were they going to remain faithful to Him? Likewise the favor of God is found in faithfulness in Christ. To him that endures shall Christ give the free gift of the tree of life. Finally, In Yahweh was true satisfaction. Our greatest thirst is internal and can only be filled with the water of God. Christ told the women at the well, and this is still true today, that those who drink of the living water shall be satisfied all their days into eternity.

Gospel Application

TBA later

Bibliography

[1] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Shur. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1959). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

[2] Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 366). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[3] Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 117). Peabody: Hendrickson.

[4] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus: Saved for God's Glory, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 417.