The God who makes bitter things sweet

The Israelites had just walked between the walls of the water of the Red Sea and watched as the Lord washed away the whole Egyptian army. They sang a song of triumph on the far shore of the sea, rejoicing in the the fear that had fallen on the surrounding nations (Ex 15.14-16) and looking forward to taking possession of the Promised Land in the near future (Ex 15.17). But within three days they raised a very different kind of sound—a chorus of grumbling against Moses because there was no water to drink at Marah (Ex 15.22-26).

I wonder what they expected would happen after the Red Sea. A straight, unhindered journey to the land flowing with milk and honey? Instead the first thing the Lord does is to lead his people to the undrinkable water of Marah. There is no question that the Lord is the one who led them there—it’s easy enough to take a wrong turn when you’re following Google maps, but not when you’re following a towering pillar of cloud or fire!

So why did God lead Israel to Marah? Is it because he is sadistic and cruel and takes delight in watching his people suffer dehydration and fear? Is it because he is really bad at geography? Of course not!

In fact we’re told why he brought Israel to Marah in Ex 15.25: There the Lord tested them. In fact, the whole wilderness is a place of testing. That’s the significance of the wilderness—it’s a hard place. Deuteronomy 8.15 calls it ‘the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions.’ God is training his infant son to trust him—and training is always painful. There are no short cuts, whether in the physical training of our bodies to make them stronger and faster, or in the mental training of our minds to increase our knowledge and understanding, or in the spiritual training of our souls to grow in godliness.

Learning to trust God is not something we can do lounging on the sofa. It means being put into situations that are stressful, confusing, messy and complicated, when we don’t understand what is going on or see any answers. Anyone can trust God when things are easy; the real test is if you will trust God when things are tough.

Israel’s failure

Marah was Israel’s first test and they failed. They have been travelling for three days and haven’t found any water. Supplies are running low. Perhaps as they saw the waters of Marah in the distance they finished up their last reserves: ‘It’ll be OK—we can refill very soon!’

Imagine the relief and joy as the first to reach Marah fall down and scoop the water to their mouths. And imagine them spitting it out as they discover it’s foul and undrinkable. They’re not just disappointed—they’re horrified. Panic seizes them. ‘What shall we drink?’ (v24) This is not like someone in a restaurant complaining that their steak is a bit on the tough side or that the soup is a tad cold. They are exhausted and dehydrated and they can’t see any way of getting water. Suddenly life is hanging by a thread.

There is nothing unreasonable about their concern. That’s not why they fail the test. They fail the test because of their attitude. They grumble: the word means ‘hostile complaining, verbal attacks of dissatisfied people.’

Why do they grumble? There are at least two reasons:

• Faithlessness. They don’t trust God. They don’t trust his power (that he can take care of them) or his goodness (that he wants to take care of them). They should have gone to the Lord with their needs, humbly asking him to provide what they needed. And this lack of faith was due to…
• Forgetfulness. This is the diagnosis of Psalm 78.40ff: How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! … They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, ⁴³ when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan. The people had such short memories! It’s only been three days since they walked through the Red Sea! Just a few weeks since they witnessed the ten plagues and the Passover! They can see the Lord going before them in a pillar of cloud and fire. But fear and thirst have driven all the Lord has done for them so far out of their minds. All they can think about is their problem—their terrible thirst.

Israel’s failure is a warning for us, as Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 10.6,11. Talking re Israel in wilderness P says …These things took took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did… they were written down for our instruction. Of all the sins Israel committed in the wilderness, Paul specifically picks out grumbling in v10: [we must not] grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. This is a warning to instruct us today.

This world, this life is our wilderness—our training ground for faith and godliness. As long as we’re here God is making us holy through testing.

So we need to beware of a grumbling spirit in the wilderness. Hard things will happen to us. They won’t make sense to us. We won’t be able to see why God has allowed them or what possible good could ever come out of them. It’s going to look like the Lord is not able or willing to provide what we need. Even though we’re following where he leads, there will be times when it will feel like he’s abandoned us.

How thankful we should be for a Saviour who has come into the wilderness of this world to live a perfect life of faith in our place, who never once grumbled in word or thought, even when he faced the worst suffering imaginable. On the cross he rasped the words ‘I thirst’ as he endured the most bitter cup of God’s wrath for us.

God’s Grace

How patient the Lord is with his people! He shows Moses a tree (v25), which makes the bitter water sweet. The tree is just the symbol that the Lord is doing it (just like the staff in Moses’s hand throughout the plagues and at Red Sea).

So God turns the bitter water into sweet water. It’s an illustration of what the Lord says in v26: I am the Lord, your healer. This first test in the wilderness is a picture of what God continually does for his people—he makes bitter things sweet.

The Exodus itself is a picture of this: bitter slavery in Pharaoh’s service becomes sweet freedom in God’s service. You couldn’t ask for a better description of our salvation than this: the Lord our Healer brings us from bitterness of death into the sweetness of life to full. He comes to us in the bitterness of our sin and misery and transforms it into the sweetness of forgiveness, a clean conscience, his love and his presence.

In v26 God calls his people to listen diligently to the voice of the Lord and to do what is right in his eyes. As we obey that we experience the sweetness of his blessing. When we sin we make life bitter for ourselves—we suffer the pain of a guilty conscience, we bring all kinds of harmful consequences on ourselves and others, we spoil our fellowship with God. But miraculously, graciously, the Lord our Healer can turn even the bitterness of our sin and backsliding into sweetness again.

And he is so powerful and so gracious that the Lord our Healer is even able to take our most bitter sufferings and turn them into sweet blessings. Rom 8.28: …we know that for those who love God all things work together for good… 2Cor 4.17: For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison… Can’t you say that, as you look back even on the hardest times of you life? That the Lord took what bitter and made it sweet. Joseph could: he was able to look back on the many bitter afflictions he had to endure over 30 years and conclude that God meant it for good (Gen 50.20).

We see a far greater Marah above all in the cross of Jesus Christ. Here was the most bitter thing in the history of the universe: the Son of God nailed to tree by the hands of wicked men. But the Lord our Healer took that tree and through it brought an infinity and eternity of the sweetest blessing to the world! If the Lord is able to bring such sweetness out of such bitterness, there is no limit to what he can do with all our (by comparison) lesser sorrows and troubles.