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The Bitter Water
Exodus 15: 22-27
Vs. 22 - Just three days after the spectacular events of the Red Sea deliverance they were murmuring against Moses and ultimately against God. Vs. 25 tells us that this whole ordeal was a testing.
It is interesting that they are taken to the wilderness of Shur, which means "Wall." It may be the case that in your life God has allowed you to go into a wilderness and apparently run into a 'wall.' How do we handle the walls that cross our path from time to time? Do we murmur against God because of them or do we look for the lesson to be learned by them?
The water in the wilderness will not be sweet! The only thing that will change not only the walls but the bitterness of the wilderness water is the tree. The tree represents the cross of Christ because He bore all our infirmities and bitterness of sin on the cross for us.
When we again turn our heart and focus to Him then we will see our way through the wall to sweet waters of refreshing. It is easy to sit back and think that we should be led on straight paths right through all the wilderness experiences and right to the Promised Land. Where would the faith be built then if God never allowed obstacles to be allowed in our paths? God allows these times in our journey to build our faith in His ability to deliver us from any situation.
No matter how desperate we may be or the situation may seem, God is trying to train us to keep our dependence on Him and not on our past experiences. Although many of our past experiences were great we do not live in the past but the present. Therefore our faith needs to be built anew each day to foster our dependence on our Savior and not the arm of man.
Vs. 26-27 - There is a lesson to be learned - if we diligently harken unto God and "do" that which He asks of us then we can camp by the waters of refreshing. It does not mean that we will never again be allowed into the wilderness. In fact, it appears that most of the great experiences with God are followed by wilderness experiences.
We are only promised as in this instance that if we keep our heart and focus on Christ that we will never remain in the wilderness. No one camps as a permanent state, but for a brief period. It may be days weeks or maybe even a month, but we will have to pick up camp and move on when the Lord directs us.
We can enjoy the experience we had while camping under the presence of God for our brief moments but we are quickly tossed back into the reality of life with a new wilderness experience. Thus, the cycle is once again started with the journey leading to another campground with the presence of God waiting patiently for us to arrive so that He can soothe all our hurts encountered on the journey.
How long has it been since you made it to the campsite?
If you seem to be on an endless wilderness journey then you are apparently not following the correct compass.
Bible Studies
By Adam Bartlett
Bible Headquarters
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