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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Bitter Water

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this week.

That Lord, even as the world seems to be in a turmoil all around us, as we come into your holy hours, that we can pause, we can have an assurance that we have an audience with our Father in heaven, with the heavenly intelligences above.

And so Lord, please, come now as we open your word together, as we study together, may you lead and guide us through this new set of studies that we'll be looking at, Lord.

I just pray that you would speak to our hearts, help us to learn these important lessons, to know how to apply it for our present day in the time in which we live.

So with our new series, as we start our first lesson this evening, the title of our study is entitled Bitter Water.

And so this focuses on the time of the Israelites in the wilderness as they are going from Egypt to Canaan.

In fact, we begin after the 10 plagues are poured out and the children of Israel have gone through the desert a little bit already and they've crossed the Red Sea.

The reason why we start after all of this is because we have another set of studies entitled Hebrews 11 by Faith as we go through the chapter in Hebrews and we spend quite a few studies on Moses, in particular the Red Sea Crossing and all of that as well.

So, you know, we have all those stories there.

And so, please feel free to go back to those studies.

And so, we start at the beginning of Exodus 15.

The Israelites, they are singing a victory song.

They're praising God because God has just brought the waves crashing down on the Egyptians and He's destroyed their enemies and now they are finally and totally free.

And so now we come to our passage of study found in Exodus chapter 15 and verse 22.

Exodus 15 and verse 22, the Bible says, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went 3 days in the wilderness, and found no water.

So they've traveled away from the Red Sea inland, and they've come to this point where they've all run out of water.

There's no water left amongst any of them.

And it seems like Moses is leading them forward.

But is he really the 1 that is in charge?

Let's look at another text, Exodus 13, verse 21 and 22.

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." And so we see here that Moses was simply following the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night.

God was leading them every step of the way.

And so it seemed like Moses was leading them forward, but actually in following him, They were following God.

So God would be the 1 that would lead them to the wilderness of Shur.

And he knew that they would run out of water.

So what happens next when they get to the point of their need?

We go back to Exodus 15 and then we read verse 23 and 24.

And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.

Therefore, the name of it was called Mara, and the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

They ran out of water, and then they got to this place called Mara, where they found a source to refill.

They found, then, as they were about to drink this water, so glad to finally quench their thirst, they found it bitter.

They began to complain to him and ask Moses, Moses, what shall we drink now?

How come, you know, didn't you know that it was bitter?

And upon hearing the complaint, What does Moses do?

And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." What does Moses do?

Moses does what the Israelites should have done.

He cried to God to ask for help, but instead they chose to complain to Moses and try to put the blame on Moses.

They got into this bad habit already of complaining to Moses.

As a parent would be patient with their children when they're young and when they're growing up.

This was not the first time they were complaining.

You know, when Moses stood before Pharaoh for the first time and he asked him to let the children of Israel go free, Pharaoh said that they were to go free, said that they were too free to go and sacrifice, so he increased their workload.

They were too free, they had too much time on their hands, and so he increased their workload.

Look at what it says in Exodus chapter 5, verses 20 to 23.

And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh.

And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge you, because ye have made our verses 20-23, servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.

And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people?

For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all." They didn't come to just complain to Moses, but they blamed him, almost as if to say, if you did not come, we would have been fine.

But Moses took it to the Lord and he sought help from God.

He took his complaint and his burden to God, something that we must learn to do ourselves as well.

Something that we got to make a habit of and not complain to man.

You know, there was another time after the children of Israel had left Egypt after the 10 plagues, Pharaoh had finally let them go but then he changes his mind and he takes his whole army that is remaining and he pursues after them and when he catches up to them, look at how the Israelites respond when they see the Egyptian army coming.

In Exodus 14 verses 10 through 12, And when Pharaoh drew nigh, The children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid.

And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?

Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt?

Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?

For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.

You know, they cried out to the Lord for a little bit, but then they saw Moses and they began to blame him.

They are telling Moses that he should have left them alone.

Why did he bring them out to die in the wilderness?

It had gotten so bad at the first sign of trouble that they would put all the blame on Moses.

If only they had learned to take the complaints to God, they would have been saved much trouble in the future.

Yet God in his mercy, he hears the cries of Moses.

He doesn't hear the cries of the Israelites because they didn't come to him, you see.

They were complaining about Moses, about all the situations, and of course in our study of the situation that we're looking at this evening, about the bitter water.

God hears the cry of Moses And he's the 1 that asks Moses, not the children of Israel, to take a branch from off his tree, throw it in, and the water becomes sweet and is made drinkable.

You know, we get an insight into how God operates here, friends.

Sometimes we think we are justified in our complaining to the point that maybe God hears our complaining, feels sorry for us, and then he proceeds to do something.

You know, that's sometimes how we think, isn't it?

But you know, friends, that's not the case.

God did not hear the complaints of the Israelites.

That's not the reason why he answered, well not answered, but he did something.

A miracle was not performed because of them.

The miracle was performed because somebody thought to quit the complaining and start praying instead.

Maybe you're amongst a group of friends that you know that somehow you feel like your complaining is justified because every time you've complained something has happened.

But friends, in fact, that is not the case.

Maybe it's because a friend next to you, a family member next to you, a church member or a church leader heard the complaint and instead of just dismissing it because you're complaining, he or she went and took that complaint to God and said, God, look at what is happening and as they are the ones that have been praying, Maybe God has answered their prayers and not your complaints.

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Bitter Water

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