Good morning, everyone. We are in the book of Exodus, chapter 15, verses 22 to 27 today.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sean. I'm one of the pastors of Trinity Cambridge Church.
It's my joy and privilege to preach God's Word to you this morning.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.
Heavenly Father, we live in a world that is full of bitterness.
The bitterness of sin, sickness, death.
But we pray that this morning you would help us to see and experience the sweetness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We humble ourselves before you, incline our ears and our hearts to you.
Speak, O Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Please stand for the reading of God's Word, Exodus 15, verses 22 to 27.
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur.
They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter.
Therefore, it was named Marah.
And the people grumbled against Moses, saying,
What shall we drink?
And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log,
and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule,
and there he tested them, saying,
If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God,
and do that which is right in his eyes,
and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes,
I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians.
For I am the Lord, your healer.
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees,
and they encamped there by the water.
This is God's holy and authoritative Word.
Please be seated.
What a sudden change in tune from last week's passage to this week's passage.
The triumphant singing of Yahweh's glorious victory at the Red Sea over the Egyptians and Pharaoh,
and the jingling of tambourines at the Red Sea have given way now to the sound of grumbling
and murmuring among the people of God.
This 180 degrees turn in Israel's disposition occurred in a mere span of three days.
But that's how fickle we all are as human beings, isn't it?
We're like the wide-ranging and rapidly changing weather in New England.
I don't know if you remember, on the morning of Wednesday, February 16th, 2022,
we woke up to a frigid 14 degrees Fahrenheit while below freezing temperature.
But by the afternoon, on the very next day, Thursday, February 17th, we were at 59 degrees Fahrenheit.
You guys remember that?
It's t-shirt weather for most of us.
Cold on one day, hot on the next day.
We can go from fervently blessing God one day to cursing angrily our friends and family members
made in the likeness of God the next day.
We can go from raising our hands in praise to God to shaking our fists at God in protest.
But though Israel's attitude toward God fluctuates with their circumstances,
there is one constant that does not change through Israel's journey in the wilderness,
and that is the name of the Lord, Yahweh,
which contains in it the promise of his faithful presence, provision, and protection.
It means I will be with you.
I am who I am.
Like the immovable mountains and the earth beneath,
the Lord remains unchanged through the seasons,
the rain or shine or spring, summer, fall, winter, ups and downs.
And it's for this reason that this passage teaches us this morning,
that rather than grumbling against the Lord,
we should cry out to him in the bitterness of our souls,
for he is our healer.
So we're going to talk about the bitter water and the grumbling people
and the healing Lord in turn.
It says in verse 22,
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea,
and they went into the wilderness of Shur.
So this is the only time in the Pentateuch,
which is the first five books of the Bible,
where the verb set out or lead out occurs in a causative form in Hebrew.
So Moses caused Israel to set out.
He made them set out.
It's almost as if the Israelites were too enraptured by their triumph at the Red Sea,
too high in the moment,
that they forgot that they still had the wilderness to cross into the Promised Land.
They were not in the Promised Land yet.
They still had a long way to go.
So Moses has to make them set out.
It would not be wrong to describe the crossing of the Red Sea
as a kind of a birth of the nation of Israel.
It's a new iteration of the people of God.
And 1 Corinthians 10, 1-2 tells us that it was a baptism into Moses.
That's when God's people were baptized into Moses.
It's a sign of the new birth, a new life for them in that era.
But after crossing the Red Sea on dry ground,
after coming out of, if I may use the language,
the birth canal of the Red Sea,
it's as if the Israelites are unaware
that they still have the rest of their lives to live in faith and obedience.
That they haven't reached the Promised Land yet
where they will dwell in the gracious presence of God under His rule.
Sometimes I think we Christians can be like that, too.
We have repented of our sins.
We have been baptized in water.
We have believed in Jesus for salvation.
We have made public profession of that faith.
But then, because we have been forgiven of our sins,
we have been washed of our guilt,
we celebrate that,
and then we turn around and act like we have crossed the finish line already.
Like the rest of our life is not there.
It's just a victory lap.
But no, that's not the case.
Baptism is the initiation,
not the culmination of the Christian life.
It is the beginning and not the end.
We have had several babies born in our church in recent months,
which is very happy.
And there's more on the way.
And it's right to celebrate the birth of the precious boy or girl
made in the image of God.
But that birth is only the beginning of the child's life.
There's still much growing and learning left for the child to do.
Likewise, when the Lord delivered Israel out of their slavery in Egypt,
he didn't stop by saying, let my people go.
He said, let my people go that they may serve me.
Israel has been freed.
They've been delivered from the pursuing Egyptian army through the Red Sea.
But now they must serve the Lord.
Now they must obey the Lord.
Now they must worship the Lord and journey with him into the promised land
while he will rule over them in his gracious way.
So let me ask you, my Christian brothers and sisters,
are you purposefully journeying toward the promised land
or are you wandering aimlessly in the wilderness?
Are you obeying the Lord?
Are you serving the Lord with your life?
Are you worshiping him?
That's why Moses leads Israel out of the Red Sea and from the Red Sea.
And of course we know from the rest of the book
that it's not ultimately Moses' direction,
but it's at the Lord's direction that Israel sets out
and goes into the wilderness of Shur.
And it says in verses 22 to 23,
they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
When they came to Marah,
they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter.
Therefore it was named Marah.
Think about how crucial bringing a bottle of water is
even on a half-day hike.
But the Israelites have been journeying in the wilderness for three days
in a desert climate, under the hot sun,
with dry sand beneath their feet.
People estimate that the Israelites have probably traveled
about 40 miles or so by this point.
And remember, this is not a trek of experienced hikers.
This is men and women, their children, and their livestock,
and they are carrying their luggage.
They get thirsty.
They consume a lot of water.
I imagine parents have heard a lot of,
Mom, Dad, I'm thirsty.
Can I have some water, please?
Probably on the first day, they were more generous.
Perhaps on the second day,
with no water in sight in the wilderness,
the heads of households begin rationing out the water more frugally.
Hey, you already had a sip 30 minutes ago.
You can't have another sip for another hour and a half.
Make sure you take a sip and no more,
just enough to wet your parched mouth.
Take care not to spill any of it because we don't have any we could waste.
And as the sun sets on another day and it rises,
on the next day, they start journeying again,
and their anxiety grows with each step
when they don't see any water on the horizon.
They don't see signs of any living things.
And then all of a sudden,
they hear people yelling that,
hey, there's water ahead.
This word is getting passed down from the front
that they have come across a body of water.
So people hasten their steps with fresh hope and expectation,
and some of them run,
and the fastest to reach the water,
they all greedily and impatiently
lapped the water onto their mouths,
and then, yuck,
you spit it all out.
It's bitter, brackish water.
It's not drinkable.
There are lakes in that region called the Bitter Lakes
precisely because of the minerals dissolved there,
the saline, you know,
the levels in the water,
it makes it brackish, not drinkable,
just like you can't drink ocean water.
And the name of the pool,
because of that, is named Marah,
which in Hebrew means bitter.
It's repeated three times,
Marah, Marah, Marah,
bitter in verse 23,
just to highlight how bitter that experience was
for the Israelites.
Just imagine being in their shoes.
And the word bitter, of course,
recalls Exodus 1, 13 to 14,
where it says that the Egyptians ruthlessly
made the people of Israel work as slaves
and made their lives bitter,
with hard service.
And as a perennial reminder
of their bitter slavery in Egypt,
the Lord commanded them to eat the Passover meal
with bitter herbs,
in Exodus 12, verse 8.
So then Israel's experience
at the waters of Marah
is a reminder to them
of their bitter past.
They're reminded of Egypt.
And as they continue to face hardship
in the wilderness,
Israelites will, at some point,
boldly say
that they wish
they had never left Egypt.
They felt like
they were better off in Egypt.
They're not saying that
at this point yet,
but they're probably thinking it.
There's so much bitterness here, too,
outside of Egypt.
At least in Egypt,
we knew what to expect.
But here,
there's so much unknown.
We don't know
when we will get to water,
when we will reach
the promised land.
Maybe we shouldn't have left Egypt
in the first place.
Maybe there are recent converts here,
too,
young Christians
who are feeling
the same temptations
that Israel felt at Marah.
Maybe you're so preoccupied
with the bitterness
and the bitter circumstances
of your own lives
that now that your bitterness
of past slavery to sin
seems like a distant memory.
And you're wondering
whether or not
you made a mistake
in deciding to follow Jesus.
Perhaps you think
your life was more carefree
and pleasurable
without the discipline
of Christian obedience.
Maybe you don't want
to carry the cross of Jesus
for Christian discipleship.
Maybe you miss
your friendship with the world,
the affirmation
and acceptance
and approval
of this sinful world.
But don't let Satan fool you.
He is a cruel tyrant
while Jesus, our King,
is gracious and merciful,
gentle and lowly in heart.
In the movie,
I guess in the old,
really old movie now,
in the movie Braveheart,
the Scottish are enslaved
by the English
and William Wallace
leads the Scottish
to fight for their freedom
and in one scene
when trying to motivate
fearful Scottish soldiers
who are just overwhelmed
aside of the vastly
greater English army,
he says this famous line,
he says,
fight and you may die,
run and you'll live.
At least a while.
And dying in your beds
many years from now,
would you be willing
to trade all the days
from this day to that
for one chance,
just one chance
to come back here
and tell our enemies
that they may take our lives
but they'll never take
our freedom.
The day you become a Christian,
you become a target
of our spiritual enemy,
Satan.
He will oppose us
and he will sorely tempt us
because we follow
another prince,
another king.
But even though
there are struggles
and sufferings
that are peculiar
to the Christian,
to die free
in the Lord's service
is infinitely better
than to live
as slaves
to sin and Satan.
Psalm 8410 says,
for a day
in your courts
is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather
be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God
than dwell
in the tents of wickedness.
And there's a reason
why the Lord
brings Israel to Marah.
Verse 26 tells us
that this was
the Lord's way
of testing Israel.
Will they trust God
and continue
to listen to his voice
and do what is right
in God's eyes
and not what is right
in their own eyes?
And in the Christian life
also testing
often follows triumph.
The triumph of the Red Sea
is followed
by the trials
of Marah,
the test at Marah.
Similarly,
in Matthew 3,
we witness Jesus'
triumphant baptism
where the Holy Spirit
descends upon him
in likeness of a dove
and then the Father
speaks from heaven
saying,
this is my beloved Son
in whom I am
well pleased.
But then,
right after that baptism,
Jesus immediately says,
led into the wilderness
by the Spirit.
Why?
To be tempted
by the devil.
So,
testing follows triumph.
In 1 Corinthians 10,
after pointing out
that many of the Israelites
failed to pass
the test of God
in the wilderness
even after crossing
the Red Sea,
Paul writes in verses
11 and 13,
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.
Therefore,
let anyone who thinks
that he stands
take heed
lest he fall.
No temptation
has overtaken you
that is not common
to man.
God is faithful
and he will not
let you be tempted
beyond your ability,
but with the temptation
he will also provide
a way of escape
that you may be able
to endure it.
The Lord himself
tempts no one
as James 1.13
says clearly,
but scripture also
often speaks of
the testing of our faith
that the Lord brings.
And that testing
of our faith
is intended to produce
steadfastness.
We are lured
into temptation
by our own sinful desires
and the devil
who tempts us,
but the Lord
does allow trials
in our lives
in order to test us.
And the difference
is this,
the devil tempts us
to make us fall.
He tempts us
to see our downfall.
The Lord tests us
to prove our faith,
to build us up,
to give us
greater assurance.
So 1 Peter 1.67
teaches us
that like gold
that is tested by fire,
various trials
in our lives,
test the genuineness
of our faith.
And each time
we pass the test
from the Lord,
we are more assured
of the genuineness
of our faith
and therefore also
more assured
of the eternal glory
that awaits us.
And that's why
the Lord is testing Israel
here,
not to make them fall,
but to build them up,
to prove the genuineness
of their faith.
And verse 24
tells us
how the Israelites
fared with the test.
It says,
and the people
grumbled against Moses
saying,
what shall we drink?
That's a passive-aggressive question.
It's plain to everybody there
that there's no water
to drink.
So why in the world
are they asking Moses,
what shall we drink?
It's not like Moses
can gargle some water
in his mouth
and then spit it out
like a bit of filter,
right?
Why are they questioning Moses?
What they're saying is this,
well,
Moses,
you brought us out here.
You must have
had some kind of plan,
right?
I don't know
if you realize yet
or not,
Moses,
but we are thirsty
and we can't go on
for much longer.
What are you going
to do about it?
But their grumbling
is not ultimately
against Moses either.
It's against the Lord.
In the next chapter,
we will see the Israelites
grumble again
against Moses
and Aaron
and this time
about not having
enough bread and meat
and Moses says to them
in verse 8,
the Lord has heard
your grumbling
that you grumble
against him.
What are we?
Your grumbling
is not against us
but against the Lord.
Why does Moses say this?
Because even though
Moses might be
immediately responsible
for leading the Israelites
out of Egypt
and out of the Red Sea
and into the wilderness,
he's not ultimately
responsible
because all this
is happening
under God's
sovereign guidance.
It was the Lord
who appointed Moses
to lead Israel.
It was the Lord
who sent Moses
into Egypt.
It was the Lord
who used Moses
to bring Israel
out into the wilderness
of Shur.
So even though
the Israelites
don't dare openly
to grumble
against God,
that is in reality
what they are doing.
And that's what
we often do also.
we grumble
against our president
because of inflation.
We grumble
against our boss
at work
for the long
hard hours.
We grumble
against our parents
or against
our spouses
at home.
But underneath it all
we are grumbling
against the Lord
because he is
ultimately in charge.
if you knew
how to rule
the universe better,
if you knew
what I really needed
God,
these things
wouldn't be
happening to me.
This is why
the Bible
considers grumbling
to be such a grave
sin.
In Jude 15
to 16
it speaks of the day
when the Lord
will return
to execute judgment.
It says,
on all
and to convict
all the ungodly
of all their deeds
of ungodliness
that they have committed
in such an ungodly way
and of all the harsh things
that ungodly sinners
have spoken against them.
That's a lot
of ungodliness.
And what do they have
in mind?
What is this great
ungodliness
that God's going to judge?
It says,
these are
grumblers,
malcontents,
following their own
sinful desires.
They are loud mouth
boasters
showing favoritism
to gain advantage.
Grumblers
and malcontents
had this list
of ungodly sinners
in Jude
who warrant
the judgment of God.
This is probably
surprising for many of us
because we don't tend
to think of grumbling
as a serious sin.
In fact,
in our society
grumbling is increasingly
seen in a positive light.
In a 2015 article
in the New Yorker
the editor
Josh Rothman
makes some astute
observations
about grumbling
that's even more relevant
in 2022
quote,
it's no surprise
that grumbling
has become
a central aspect
of online life.
If HTML
had a tag
how much of Facebook,
Twitter,
and especially Yelp
would be surrounded
by grumbling?
Tumblr too
might be renamed
grumbler.
Grumbling
being simultaneously
entertaining,
elevating,
competitive,
and social
is a natural fit
for the web
and the web
in turn
has enobled
grumbling.
In recent years
the web's culture
of mass grumbling
has produced
a new kind
of distributed
social critique.
This has lent
to grumbling
an aura
of dignity,
even virtue.
Grumbling is,
after all,
a form of resistance
and there are
few things
contemporary culture
values more
than the act
of resisting.
To grumble
is to elevate
ourselves
at the expense
of others
that we grumble
against.
At its heart,
grumbling
is rebellious
and seditious.
When people
murmur
and grumble,
it creates
an atmosphere
of resistance
and a quarrel
is not far
from breaking out.
This is not
to say that
we never
can lament
or pour out
our complaints
to God.
For example,
throughout the book
of Psalms,
the psalmist
often pours out
his complaint
and moans
before God.
And similarly,
Job cries out
to God
in Job 10,
verse 1,
I will give
free utterance
to my complaint.
I will speak
in the bitterness
of my soul.
Like the Israelites
who have come
to the bitter waters
of Marah,
Job experienced
much bitterness
in his life
due to the trials
that the Lord
allowed in his life.
And Job did not
hold back.
He voiced
his complaints
and he cried
out to God
in the bitterness
of his soul.
But the Hebrew word
that is translated
here as complain
is not the same word
that's translated
as grumble
in our passage.
Apart from
one instance
in Joshua 9,
18,
the Hebrew word
for grumble
occurs exclusively
in the accounts
of Israel's journey
in the wilderness
in the book of Exodus,
in the book of Numbers.
The two words
grumble and complain
or grumble and moan
do not mean
the same thing.
Crying out to God
with your complaints
is not the same thing
as grumbling
against God.
Moaning in your grief
and pain
is not the same thing
as murmuring
in prideful resistance
and rebellion.
Do you see the difference?
The New Testament
also maintains
the same distinction.
Philippians 2,
14 to 15 says,
do all things
without grumbling
or disputing
that you may be
blameless and innocent.
1 Peter 4, 9 says,
show hospitality
to one another
without grumbling.
The Pharisees,
scribes,
and the Jews
who oppose Jesus
grumble against him
throughout the Gospels.
And on one occasion,
Jesus' disciples
also grumble
against him
after a teaching
that is hard to accept.
This is the grumbling
that we should not be doing.
But there is another
Greek word
that is usually translated
as a sigh
or a groan,
which is okay for us
as Christians to do.
Even Jesus sighs
in Mark 7, 34.
The Holy Spirit,
he says in Romans 8, 26,
intercedes for us
with groanings
too deep for words.
It's as if the Spirit
empathizes with us,
feels our pain,
and he groans for us
in interceding for us.
Acts 7, 34 refers to Israel
crying out to God
in their slavery in Egypt
as groaning.
And Romans 8 tells us
that the whole creation
has been groaning together
in the pains of childbirth
under the weight of
and the consequences of sin.
And so we also,
he says,
groan inwardly
as we wait eagerly
for adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies.
While we are still
on this earth
with our fallen bodies,
we groan,
it says in 2 Corinthians 5,
we groan longing
to put on
our heavenly dwelling.
This kind of groaning
is the appropriate response
of the Christian
who lives in a broken
and sinful world.
When you are living
in constant pain
due to arthritis,
when your body
is wasting away
due to cancer,
you can groan
and pour out
your complaint to God.
When you lose
a loved one to death,
just as Jesus wept
in front of Lazarus' tomb,
you can grieve
and you can groan
that death is still
ravaging our loved ones.
When you face rejection,
isolation,
and loneliness
due to a sinful people,
you can groan.
When you are saddened
by your own besetting sins,
you can sigh
and you can groan.
But we must never grumble.
We can groan
before God
and to God,
but we must not grumble
about God
or against God.
We can groan
in submission to God,
but we must not grumble
in rebellion against God.
We can walk by faith
and still groan,
but if we grumble,
then we are walking
by sight.
A groan says,
God,
this is really hard,
but I trust you.
A grumble says,
God,
you are a hard man,
and I don't trust you.
To groan
is to implore God
to plead with him.
To grumble
is to try to impeach him.
The Israelites grumbled,
but Moses,
we see in verse 25,
he groans.
He says,
Moses cried
to the Lord,
and the Lord
showed him a log,
and he threw it
into the water,
and the water
became sweet.
Moses cried
to the Lord
instead of
grumbling against him,
and this one man's cry
accomplishes more,
far more
than all Israel's grumbling,
because he directed
his prayer to the Lord,
and the Lord answers
Moses' prayer
by showing him a log,
or as the footnote
on ESV says,
a tree,
that he can then
throw into
the bitter waters
to make it sweet.
Verses 25 to 26
continue there,
the Lord made for them
a statute
and a rule,
and there he tested them,
saying,
if you will diligently
listen to the voice
of the Lord your God,
and do that which is right
in his eyes,
and give ear
to his commandments,
and keep all his statutes,
I will put none
of the diseases on you
that I put on the Egyptians,
for I am the Lord,
your healer.
It's a wonderful promise.
This is a covenant promise
given specifically
to the people of God.
The Lord repeats it again
to Israel in Exodus 23,
verse 15,
where he promises
that if they serve the Lord,
he will take sicknesses
away from among them,
and this covenant blessing
is repeated
in Deuteronomy 7,
12 to 16.
Again,
if you listen to these rules
and do them,
the Lord your God
will keep with you
the covenant
and the steadfast love
he swore to your fathers,
and the Lord will take away
from you all sickness,
and none of the evil diseases
of Egypt which you knew
will he inflict on you,
but he will lay them
on all who hate you.
But there's also
an accompanying curse,
covenant curse,
in Deuteronomy 20,
15 to 23.
If they break the covenant,
if they are not faithful
to the Lord,
they disobey his voice,
then all these diseases
will come upon them.
This is not because
the Lord is vindictive,
or harsh.
It's because the Lord
loves his people
and is teaching them
and disciplining them.
Job 36, 15 says that
the Lord delivers
the afflicted
by their affliction
and opens their ear
by adversity.
God sometimes delivers us
by afflicting us
to wean us off
from some pride
and sinful pleasure.
God opens our ears
by adversity.
That's how he gets us
to pay attention
to his voice.
That's why C.S. Lewis
is not wrong
when he writes in his book
The Problem of Pain.
God whispers to us
in our pleasures,
speaks in our consciences,
but shouts in our pains.
It is his megaphone
to rouse a deaf world.
Generally speaking,
sickness is a symptom
of a sinful fallen world.
That's why in John 5
when Jesus heals
an invalid,
he tells him,
sin no more,
that nothing worse
may happen to you.
But this shouldn't make us
go around judging
everyone who is sick.
Oh, he just coughed.
What sin did you do
the other day?
Why?
Why can't we do that?
Because in John 9
when Jesus and his disciples
come across a man
blind from birth,
the disciples make
that assumption
and they ask Jesus,
who sinned,
this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?
But Jesus answered,
it was not that this man
sinned or his parents,
but that the works of God
might be displayed in him.
Sometimes people have
a disease or a disability
for no particular sin,
but simply to serve
God's greater purposes
and display his glory.
But we must not miss
the general force
of the Lord's assurance
to his people here.
Because our Lord redeems us
from our slavery to sin,
he also brings healing
from our sicknesses.
If the Israelites
obey the Lord,
things will go well for them.
And if they disobey the Lord,
things will not go so well
for them.
That's the case
for everyone in the world.
Just as any product
that you buy
works better
if you use it
according to the manual,
just as every citizen
in this country,
fares better
if they live
according to the laws
of the land.
If you follow
the ruler of the universe
and you live
according to his will,
things go better for you.
It does.
The healing of the water
of Marah
is a dramatic illustration
of this truth.
God says specifically
in verse 26,
I will put none
of the diseases on you
that I put on the Egyptians,
for I am the Lord,
your healer.
Remember the first plague
that the Lord brought
upon the Egyptians.
In Exodus 7,
the Lord commanded Moses
to strike the water
with what?
With his staff,
wooden staff.
And what happens to it?
The water turns into blood.
People can no longer
drink from the water,
the sweet waters
of the Nile.
He turns the sweet waters
of Nile bitter
so people cannot drink it.
And the miracle in Marah
is nearly the exact opposite
of this.
They come across bitter,
undrinkable water,
and the bitter water
becomes potable,
sweet water
when it is struck
with a tree,
a log,
a staff.
By this,
the Lord demonstrates
another one of his titles,
the Lord,
your healer.
And the healing hand
of our king
is most perfectly demonstrated
by the person and work
of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
When Jesus cast out
evil spirits
and healed all
who were sick
in Matthew 8,
Matthew notes
that this was to fulfill
what was spoken
by the prophet Isaiah.
He took our illnesses
and bore our diseases.
This is a citation
of Isaiah 53, 5,
which is about Jesus,
the messianic king
who was to come.
He says there
that he was pierced
for our transgressions.
He was crushed
for our iniquities.
Upon him
was the chastisement
that brought us peace,
and with his wounds,
we are healed.
We saw earlier
from Romans 8
that all creation
is still groaning,
and we are still groaning
in our decaying bodies.
As Paul writes
in 2 Corinthians 4,
our outer self
is wasting away.
We have in this life
momentary light affliction,
but that's preparing us
for eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison.
In this life,
we still sin.
We still get sick.
We still die.
But the glorious redemption
of God
has already begun
in Christ.
Humanity's sin
and their consequent
alienation from God
is the root of all diseases
and death in this world.
But Jesus came to die
for our sins,
to atone for our sins,
and to reconcile us again
to the Lord,
our healer.
And as we are reconciled
to the giver of life,
we have eternal life.
As we are reconciled
to God,
our healer,
we are healed
of our diseases.
This is why sometimes
we experience
miraculous healings.
They are a sign
of the in-breaking
kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God
that has already begun,
that's been inaugurated,
and that will soon
be consummated.
It is the cross
of Jesus Christ,
like the tree of Mara,
that sweetens
the bitter waters
of our own lives.
Do the circumstances
of life taste bitter
to you?
Are you sick
and depressed?
Are you hurt
and lonely?
Are you weary
from the fight,
worn out from your battles
with the world
and the flesh
and the devil?
Throw the cross
of Christ
into your bitter waters.
Let it have its
sweetening effect.
Behold the Savior
who died
that you might live.
Behold the King
who was wounded
that you might
be healed
and it will sweeten
the bitterness
of your life.
Elim,
in verse 27,
was a foretaste
of the promised land,
Canaan,
for the Israelites.
It says in verse 27,
then,
they came to Elim
where there were
twelve springs of water
and seventy palm trees
and they encamped
there by the water.
It's a wonderful picture.
The numbers
twelve and seventy
have symbolic significance
throughout the scriptures.
There is,
of course,
the twelve tribes
of Israel,
but also when
Jacob's family,
Israel's family,
first moved into Egypt,
he said in Genesis 46,
27,
that their number
was seventy.
Later in Exodus 24,
we see that there are
seventy elders of Israel.
So then,
twelve springs of water
for Israel to drink from
and seventy palm trees
for them to take shade in
under the beating sun.
They represent
God's perfect provision.
And I believe this points
beyond God's provision
for Israel
toward God's provision
for all of God's people
and all nations.
Why?
Because there are
twelve apostles
of Jesus Christ.
And according to Genesis 10,
there are seventy nations
or people groups
descended from Noah
scattered throughout the world.
So then,
this promise is also
for all nations,
for all of God's people,
including Gentiles.
And Revelation 21,
14 tells us
that in the new city
of God,
new Jerusalem,
and in the new heavens
and the new earth,
quote,
the wall of the city
had twelve foundations
and on them
were the twelve names
of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb.
And when Christ returns,
it says in Revelation 21,
verse four,
he will wipe away
every tear from our eyes
and death shall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourning
nor crying
nor pain anymore,
for the former things
have passed away.
If only Israel
had persevered in faith
a little longer,
they would have come
to Elam
and they would have had
no cause to grumble.
The same is true for us,
brothers and sisters.
We are journeying
still in the wilderness.
In the world,
we will have tribulation,
but take heart,
Jesus has overcome the world.
Because of Jesus,
there are twelve springs
of water
and seventy palm trees
ahead of us.
Because of Jesus,
there are,
there's a promised land
flowing with milk
and honey
ahead of us.
There is the new Jerusalem
with the throne of God
and of the Lamb
in the midst of the city,
with the rivers
of the water of life,
bright as crystal
flowing from it.
And on either side
of the river,
there will be
the tree of life
with its twelve kinds
of fruit.
And its leaves,
it says,
are for the healing
of the nations.
The Lord,
our healer.
So let us not grumble
against the Lord.
But let's behold
the Lord Jesus,
our healer,
by whose wounds
we are healed.
Let's pray.
God,
we thank you
for sending Jesus
our Savior.
God,
we thank you
that though
in our sin
you should be
our destroyer,
in your grace
and mercy
you are our healer.
We thank you
for the cross
of Jesus.
Jesus
smite all
grumbling
from our hearts,
Lord.
Let us instead
groan in faith
and praise you
in gratefulness.
I pray for
dear members
of our church,
people here
who are experiencing
significant bitterness
in their own lives
right now.
Lord,
sweeten those waters.
In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.