The Lord Satisfies His People's Thirst
Text: Exodus 15:22-26
22 Then Moses had Israel march on from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur; and they walked three days into the desert and found no water.
23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.
24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
25 Then he cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There he made for them a statute and a law, and there he tested them.
26 And he said, “If you will indeed listen to the voice of the Lord your God and will do what is right in his eyes, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not lay on you any of the diseases that I have laid on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”
Sermon:
Have you ever been up against serious troubles when a well-meaning friend told you? “Cheer up! Things could get worse.” And sure enough! He was right. Things did get worse!
The psalms figuratively refer to those troubled times of life as waters. Psalm 69, which depicted Christ’s passion and suffering, says in the first verse: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.” No doubt that what Christ Jesus went through on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to save us was worse than anything we have experienced. Yet we all have had those times when things were going from bad to worse until we felt we were up to our neck in troubles. At such times we want to cry out: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. And the waters are bitter!”
Moses and the Israelites literally came up against bitter waters. Verse 22 tells us, “Then Moses had Israel march on from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur; and they walked three days into the desert and found no water.” After crossing the Red Sea on dry land, the nation of Israel--about 2,000,000 people, journeyed for three days into the Desert of Shur, a desolate area. The area provided little more than some places for the livestock to graze on. The rest of the region was barren limestone hills and rocky places. There was no water. While walking in that hot, desolate region, they ran out of water. Can you imagine the scene? Two million people out in the desert without water! Talk about a problem - that was a huge one!
Had you been traveling with them, what fears do you think you would have had? Dehydration! Dying of thirst! The vultures feeding on your dead carcass and that of your children! This was not a pretty picture, was it? Things looked bad.
Then the Israelites came to Marah, where there was water. Can you imagine the joy those people felt upon seeing that water? Had you been there with them, can’t you imagine the joyful thoughts racing through your mind? “At last! Water! Our lives are saved! We can quench our thirst!” Their joy would have been profound!
When they sampled the water, however, they got an awful surprise. Verse 23 states: “When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.” What was the awful surprise? They discovered the water was bitter, brackish. It was not fit for consumption. They could not drink it. This was why the place was called Marah. The name means “bitter.”
Can you sense their emotional let down? After going without water in the desert and facing the prospect of death, but then experiencing the elation of finding water and having their lives spared, only to discover the water was undrinkable, don’t you think they would have felt let down? Of course they would have. They would have felt frustrated and hopeless. They would have seen that their plight had become worse than it had been before. The undrinkable water would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Then the anger would have set in. So guess what they did then? Verse 24 states, “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” The people began to grumble against Moses, their spiritual leader. They complained, “What are we to drink? Our water is bitter! Quench our thirst!”
Little did the people understand at the time that the Lord was using the bitter water to give them an object lesson. He was using their thirst and confronting them with the bitter water and the prospect of dying for lack of water to put their faith in him to the test. He wanted them to learn that in such times of trouble when they were faced with such bitter waters, they needed only to trust in him, the Lord of love, with whom nothing is impossible and who can do great things.
Moses had the right solution to the people’s thirst. Verse 25 states, “Then he cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.” Moses’ solution was to cry out to the Lord for help. The Lord, then, and once again, performed the impossible. With a mere piece of wood, that in itself could not purify the water and make it fit for consumption, the Lord healed the waters and satisfied his people’s thirst.
Are you in your life up against bitter waters? Do troubles surround you like floodwaters that have surged up to your neck? To make matters worse, do you see that the waters are rising? Do you feel like the mariner adrift on the sea surrounded by water that you can’t drink? Maybe you are up against real financial woes. You have been working to the point of killing yourself and scrimping on every penny to stay financially afloat. But then what happened? Your car took a dump, or your house roof started to leak. Did you then find yourself asking, “What do I do now? I don’t have the money to repair the car or to fix the roof! Things have gone from bad to worse and now the bottom has fallen out of the bucket!” Or, perhaps you have been ill. Your doctor prescribed medications that were supposed to make you well. Just getting the prescription made you feel better, for then you had some hope of becoming well again. You could begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel. But when you took the medications, you discovered you were either allergic to them or their side effects were so bad that you became worse off than you were before. The cure was worse than what was ailing you!
At such a time, don’t you thirst for the solution that will heal your woes?
If this describes you now, or when the day comes that you find yourself up against bitter waters, resist the temptation to become angry and grumble. Instead, call out to the Lord for help like Moses did. Pray, trusting in the Lord, and then wait expectantly to see what the Lord may do for you. He can cure your bitter waters and satisfy your thirst. Listen to what Psalm 27:14 tells you to do: “Wait for the Lord: Have courage and let your heart prove itself strong; And wait for the Lord.” And why should we pray and then wait on the Lord? Because in Luke 1:37 it says: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Like the Israelites did, however, because of our weakness of faith, how many times have we fallen into grumbling and complaining about the troubles that make our life bitter? Such grumbling is one more sin among our many sins. The knowledge of our sins that plague us with guilt and terrify us with the punishment of God is some more bitter waters that can make our lives miserable. There is but one cure for such a tormented soul that thirsts for comfort and salvation--the ever-flowing waters of God’s grace and the Spirit who satisfies that thirst for salvation. This water that quenches our thirst is found in none other than Jesus Christ, whose death paid for our sins and whose resurrection guaranteed our resurrection to eternal life in heaven. In John 4:14 Jesus says, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give to him will never thirst eternally. Indeed, the water that I shall give to him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life.” So drink deeply from Jesus. He will satisfy your thirst for forgiveness and salvation.
The Lord satisfies the thirst of his people who fear and obey him. The bitter waters were an object lesson for the Israelites to teach them to put their trust in him and to fear and obey him in the days ahead. To prepare his people for the bitter waters that were still to come, verse 26 states: “And he said, ‘If you will indeed listen to the voice of the Lord your God and will do what is right in his eyes, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not lay on you any of the diseases that I have laid on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.’ ” If the Israelites gave the Lord the honor that was due him by obeying his commands, he would not bring the plagues and diseases on them that he had brought on the Egyptians. Rather he would heal them of their woes.
The same holds true for us. As bitter as the waters of life may become in the days ahead, if we desire the Lord to quench our thirst and to heal us of what ails us, we need to be honoring him and obeying his commands now and in the days ahead. Then when we call out to him, “O Lord, my waters are bitter!” he will be there to hear our cries and heal us. Remember what Psalm 34:15 says: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; And his ears are open to their cry for help.”
Amen.
22 Then Moses had Israel march on from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur; and they walked three days into the desert and found no water.
23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.
24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
25 Then he cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There he made for them a statute and a law, and there he tested them.
26 And he said, “If you will indeed listen to the voice of the Lord your God and will do what is right in his eyes, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not lay on you any of the diseases that I have laid on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”
Sermon:
Have you ever been up against serious troubles when a well-meaning friend told you? “Cheer up! Things could get worse.” And sure enough! He was right. Things did get worse!
The psalms figuratively refer to those troubled times of life as waters. Psalm 69, which depicted Christ’s passion and suffering, says in the first verse: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.” No doubt that what Christ Jesus went through on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to save us was worse than anything we have experienced. Yet we all have had those times when things were going from bad to worse until we felt we were up to our neck in troubles. At such times we want to cry out: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. And the waters are bitter!”
Moses and the Israelites literally came up against bitter waters. Verse 22 tells us, “Then Moses had Israel march on from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur; and they walked three days into the desert and found no water.” After crossing the Red Sea on dry land, the nation of Israel--about 2,000,000 people, journeyed for three days into the Desert of Shur, a desolate area. The area provided little more than some places for the livestock to graze on. The rest of the region was barren limestone hills and rocky places. There was no water. While walking in that hot, desolate region, they ran out of water. Can you imagine the scene? Two million people out in the desert without water! Talk about a problem - that was a huge one!
Had you been traveling with them, what fears do you think you would have had? Dehydration! Dying of thirst! The vultures feeding on your dead carcass and that of your children! This was not a pretty picture, was it? Things looked bad.
Then the Israelites came to Marah, where there was water. Can you imagine the joy those people felt upon seeing that water? Had you been there with them, can’t you imagine the joyful thoughts racing through your mind? “At last! Water! Our lives are saved! We can quench our thirst!” Their joy would have been profound!
When they sampled the water, however, they got an awful surprise. Verse 23 states: “When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.” What was the awful surprise? They discovered the water was bitter, brackish. It was not fit for consumption. They could not drink it. This was why the place was called Marah. The name means “bitter.”
Can you sense their emotional let down? After going without water in the desert and facing the prospect of death, but then experiencing the elation of finding water and having their lives spared, only to discover the water was undrinkable, don’t you think they would have felt let down? Of course they would have. They would have felt frustrated and hopeless. They would have seen that their plight had become worse than it had been before. The undrinkable water would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Then the anger would have set in. So guess what they did then? Verse 24 states, “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” The people began to grumble against Moses, their spiritual leader. They complained, “What are we to drink? Our water is bitter! Quench our thirst!”
Little did the people understand at the time that the Lord was using the bitter water to give them an object lesson. He was using their thirst and confronting them with the bitter water and the prospect of dying for lack of water to put their faith in him to the test. He wanted them to learn that in such times of trouble when they were faced with such bitter waters, they needed only to trust in him, the Lord of love, with whom nothing is impossible and who can do great things.
Moses had the right solution to the people’s thirst. Verse 25 states, “Then he cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.” Moses’ solution was to cry out to the Lord for help. The Lord, then, and once again, performed the impossible. With a mere piece of wood, that in itself could not purify the water and make it fit for consumption, the Lord healed the waters and satisfied his people’s thirst.
Are you in your life up against bitter waters? Do troubles surround you like floodwaters that have surged up to your neck? To make matters worse, do you see that the waters are rising? Do you feel like the mariner adrift on the sea surrounded by water that you can’t drink? Maybe you are up against real financial woes. You have been working to the point of killing yourself and scrimping on every penny to stay financially afloat. But then what happened? Your car took a dump, or your house roof started to leak. Did you then find yourself asking, “What do I do now? I don’t have the money to repair the car or to fix the roof! Things have gone from bad to worse and now the bottom has fallen out of the bucket!” Or, perhaps you have been ill. Your doctor prescribed medications that were supposed to make you well. Just getting the prescription made you feel better, for then you had some hope of becoming well again. You could begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel. But when you took the medications, you discovered you were either allergic to them or their side effects were so bad that you became worse off than you were before. The cure was worse than what was ailing you!
At such a time, don’t you thirst for the solution that will heal your woes?
If this describes you now, or when the day comes that you find yourself up against bitter waters, resist the temptation to become angry and grumble. Instead, call out to the Lord for help like Moses did. Pray, trusting in the Lord, and then wait expectantly to see what the Lord may do for you. He can cure your bitter waters and satisfy your thirst. Listen to what Psalm 27:14 tells you to do: “Wait for the Lord: Have courage and let your heart prove itself strong; And wait for the Lord.” And why should we pray and then wait on the Lord? Because in Luke 1:37 it says: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Like the Israelites did, however, because of our weakness of faith, how many times have we fallen into grumbling and complaining about the troubles that make our life bitter? Such grumbling is one more sin among our many sins. The knowledge of our sins that plague us with guilt and terrify us with the punishment of God is some more bitter waters that can make our lives miserable. There is but one cure for such a tormented soul that thirsts for comfort and salvation--the ever-flowing waters of God’s grace and the Spirit who satisfies that thirst for salvation. This water that quenches our thirst is found in none other than Jesus Christ, whose death paid for our sins and whose resurrection guaranteed our resurrection to eternal life in heaven. In John 4:14 Jesus says, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give to him will never thirst eternally. Indeed, the water that I shall give to him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life.” So drink deeply from Jesus. He will satisfy your thirst for forgiveness and salvation.
The Lord satisfies the thirst of his people who fear and obey him. The bitter waters were an object lesson for the Israelites to teach them to put their trust in him and to fear and obey him in the days ahead. To prepare his people for the bitter waters that were still to come, verse 26 states: “And he said, ‘If you will indeed listen to the voice of the Lord your God and will do what is right in his eyes, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not lay on you any of the diseases that I have laid on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.’ ” If the Israelites gave the Lord the honor that was due him by obeying his commands, he would not bring the plagues and diseases on them that he had brought on the Egyptians. Rather he would heal them of their woes.
The same holds true for us. As bitter as the waters of life may become in the days ahead, if we desire the Lord to quench our thirst and to heal us of what ails us, we need to be honoring him and obeying his commands now and in the days ahead. Then when we call out to him, “O Lord, my waters are bitter!” he will be there to hear our cries and heal us. Remember what Psalm 34:15 says: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; And his ears are open to their cry for help.”
Amen.
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