Bitter Water Made Sweet

Story:  Bitter Water Made Sweet

Passage: Exodus 15:22-27

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:  The Israelites went into the wilderness.  After three days they couldn’t find water so the people complained to Moses.  They found a source of bitter water.  The Lord showed Moses a piece of wood that he threw into the water and it became sweet.  The Lord promised to keep the Israelites healthy if they follow the Lord.  They camped by the water at Elim. 

  

Notes:   It takes very little to pull our focus from God.  It generally just takes a little bit of discomfort.  When discomfort gets to us and pulls us away from God, it shows that our focus was on ourselves the whole time!  To be fair on Israel though, three days with little to no water is tough to deal with.  And with the thousands and thousands of people they had, it probably looked grim.  Can you imagine the emotional rollercoaster they went through when they came to Marah and saw water?  They were probably overjoyed!  Then they realized the water was “bitter”.  It wasn’t drinkable!  The people would obviously have been upset.  But instead of praying to God for deliverance from this next obstacle, they complained about Moses!  Moses then asked God for deliverance.  Apparently, the fact that not even a sea had stopped them so far did not cross their minds!  God showed Moses a branch, or a tree depending on how you translate the word.  Moses threw it into the water and it became healthy to drink!  The passage says that the Lord tested them and gave them a statute that day.  He promised to heal them if they followed His commandments and diligently listened to His voice.  God calls Himself the Lord, your healer.  God is a healing God. He can heal physical, emotional, and mental brokenness.  Diligence is careful and persistent work or effort.  After this incident the Lord led them to Elim.  Elim had 12 springs of water and seventy palm trees.  God never intended them to die of dehydration; He just wanted them to trust Him to provide water.  Now that they had sort of passed the test, He led them to a huge source of water! It should also be noted that while God could have fixed the water Himself, He appears to have wanted Moses to do a tangible act of obedience to Him.  We will see that consistently throughout scripture.

Questions:  Was God still leading them with a cloud and fire?  Did the people carry water with them on the journey?  How did Moses know to throw the wood into the water?  What made the water bitter?

Lessons: The promise God made to Israel is worth noting today.  We need to diligently listen to His voice!  We need to try to do what is right in His eyes and not our own.  We need to believe that God is a God of healing and trust Him to deliver us from any brokenness that comes as a result of our fallen nature.  Just like God turned the water from being useless and bitter to sweet and useful for consumption, He can transform us from being polluted and worthless to clean and useful for doing His will.

The Song of Moses

Story:  The Song of Moses

Passage: Exodus 15:1-21

Characters:  Moses, Miriam, Israel

Summary: Moses and the people of Israel sang a song of worship to God.  I will go through it in the notes.

  

Notes:   This song of worship was quite profound and it demonstrates how much the Israelites were affected by the visual display of God’s power.  The song begins by addressing God’s power.  He has cast the horse and its rider into the sea.  He is our strength and our song.  The Lord is a man of war.  His power is emphasized.  Then the song describes what had just happened.  It describes the Egyptians pursuing Israel into the sea and then God collapsing the waters on them.  It attributes the events to God.  Even though they were caused by a wind, it was a wind from God.  Next, the song recognized the superiority of God.  Who is like our God, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?  At His command, the earth obeyed.  The next section details His love, leadership, and reputation.  It is acknowledged that is was an act of love to lead them out of Egypt.  The surrounding people will tremble when Israel comes near out of the fear of God.  Israel will be brought to God’s dwelling place.  Then Miriam, Moses’ and Aaron’s sister danced and sang and the women joined in singing, “Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” This is the first line of Moses’ song.  This entire scene is like a real life musical!  The people began signing as a nation as soon as they were delivered.  After the men sang the song, the women danced and sang the chorus.  But the important thing was that the song was focused on God’s provision, power, and love.  If only the Israelites could remember this their entire lives!

Questions:  Was this song written by Moses?  Was it written later to express the feelings of Israel at the time?  What was the atmosphere of the people like at this point? 

Lessons: God is a God of war and a God of love.  His holiness demands war, but His grace, mercy, and love demands salvation and deliverance.  God is not just a God of war or a God of love, He is both!