From Bitter to Sweet

Introduction

Life tends to make us more bitter as time goes forward. As children, life is sweet and good and fun. As adults, we begin to become more and more bitter.

When you look at the world, you will always have a reason for bitterness and complaint. When you look to the Lord, you will always have a reason to praise Him.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Israel was about to make a pilgrimage that was both physical and spiritual. Going through the wilderness was not necessary for Israel’s salvation, but it was necessary for their sanctification. // Philip Ryken

God was going to deal with the Israelites bitterness in this text and in many texts to come.

CIT: God takes the most bitter moments in our lives and makes sweet results from them.

Explanation

The people of Israel, after worshipping at the Red Sea at the destruction of Pharoah, continue forward in the wilderness.

They went for three days without water in the wilderness.

The wilderness isn’t like the woods going up highway 25 towards Starkville. It is a complete desert.

It is hot and dry, and not having water for three days is dangerous.

The people of Isreal grumbled at their misfortune.

Now, before you say, “How dare they?” I want you to think about the things you grumbled about this week.

They felt that they were in danger, and they were grumbling against Moses and Aaron.

Parents, have your kids ever been hungry and grumbled against you?

Moses cried to the Lord, and God showed him a log. He threw this log in the water, and it became sweet.

God instituted a rule for them, “Listen to me and do right, and None of the diseases of the Egyptians I will place upon you, for I am the Lord, your healer.

They people of Israel were led then to Elim to camp, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.

Application

The wilderness would be a time of great testing and growth for the people of Israel.

Their time in the wilderness would bring growing dependence upon God. The older you get, the more you want your children to become independent.

They had every reason to believe that God was going to save them. Every reason. They simply had to look up to the pillar of cloud that they were still following. If God had turned the Nile to blood, he could make this water drinkable. Yet ,they complained. God is going to fix that issue in them.

Spurgeon said that the wilderness was the “Oxford and Cambridge for God’s students.” It is where they learn what he would have for them.

God is dealing with the bigger issue of the Israelites than their complaints. He is dealing with their bitterness.

What does bitterness normally produce? Complaint.

We often deceive ourselves into thinking that our complaining is insightful, but it is truly a thinly-veiled guard over our immaturity.

The Israelites are bitter and cynical. After all, they and their ancestors have been in captivity for 400 years. The problem with their complaints is that they are no longer in captivity. They have denied God’s gracious intend for their own cynicism.

This is the same thing that happens when your toddler throws a temper tantrum. Sure you made sure that they had enough to eat that day, woke them up, got them dress, kept them entertained, watched the TV that they wanted to watch, and your entire life revolves around them. But give them the blue cup at dinner instead of the red cup that they wanted, and a cry will rise to heaven - the likes of which has never been seen. What is this a sign of? Immaturity.

In all that God has given us, we still complain. We complain about the brand of cereal our wife bought this week or how late the mail runs in our neighborhood. Or we complain about those truly bitter moments: a diagnosis, dissatisfaction at work, disappointment with our children, or disagreements with our spouses.

You can either live one of two ways: You can choose to complain every time something isn’t optimal and spend your life focused on the shallow circumstances around you. Or, you can use every circumstance to rid your heart of your dependence on the world and to trust God to do what he needs to do.

I know that they physical opposite of bitter is sweet, but I think the spiritual opposite of bitterness is expectancy.

Bitterness despairs at God’s supposed inaction, and expectancy waits for God to act. Bitter people are hopeless people.

How do we see God’s sweet and from bitterness to expectancy? The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God would turn the water from bitter to sweet for the people of Israel. God would perform a miracle. No tree in Sinai could cleanse a pool large enough for Israel to satiate their thirst. God performed a miracle.

How does God make sweet that which is better? God has used a tree on many instances

The Cross: The tree that was used to build the cross signifies sweetness from bitterness.

Damnation to salvation

The grace of Jesus frees us from the condemnation.

Salvation is good and sweet.

Sin to Grace and Holiness

Our sin is bitter, but God’s grace is good and wonderful.

Our sin and shame is difficult, but our grace is wonderful.

Guilt to peace

c. The Tree of Life

Death to life

Enemies of God to Continually in the Presence of God.

God gave the people a statute to obey Him and vowed to protect them.

God is saying, obey me and I will protect you.

It is the first suzerainty feudal covenant that we see with God’s people. God is giving himself to Israel, and Israel is giving themselves to God.

Conclusion

Where did the Holy Spirit take Jesus to be tested by Satan, proving his legitimacy as the son of God and marking the beginning of his earthly ministry? The wilderness.

God did not fail the Israelites in the wilderness, and Christ did not fail us in the wilderness.

God did not require something of us that he would not require of Jesus.