Thursday, September 29, 2011

Remember the bitter waters of Marah

Remember the bitter water of Marah before you get to Massah and Meribah!

Saturday, September 24th, following our family prayer, I sat in the presence of the Lord by myself wanting to get back to where I used to be previously. I used to spend time alone reading and meditating on the Word of God (the Bible) and praying. I was perusing through the book of Deuteronomy and verse 16 of chapter 5 (NLT) caught my attention.
"Do not test the LORD your God as you did when you complained at Massah."
The week of September 4th and 11th I had decided to fast during the day time, breaking the fast after 7pm. During the 2 week fasting period my goal was to draw closer to God praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What I learned during this time is that in order for me to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I have to have within me the fruits of the Holy Spirit. More specifically the gift of forgiveness and love, forgiving those who have hurt me deeply. I've always said, "Forgive, but do not forget so you won't fall into the same trap again." But, Christ wants me (us) to forgive those who hurt me and forget the hurt just as he has forgiven and forgotten a thousand wrongs that I have done in my life to the savior who gave his life for me. I was reminded of Peter who denied Christ at his time of greatest need, yet Christ entrusted his entire family (his sheep and lambs) into the hands of Peter and asked him to take care of them. Christ did not give that responsibility to his mother or brother James or any other siblings birthed by Mary, but to Peter.

During this fasting prayer, I was also praying over God's promise to me for a healing from diabetes. I was praying over his promise from Hebrews 6:17-20,
"God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind.  So God has given us both his promise and his oath.  These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.  Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can take new courage, for we can hold on to his promise with confidence.  This confidence is like a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.  It leads us through the curtain of heaven into God's inner sanctuary.  Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the line of Melchizedek."
Though I have been off of medicines for the last three years, my body has felt fine unlike when I was on all kinds of medicine for my diabetes.  During my two weeks of fasting I felt fine and strong. But faith waivers and fear creeps in and my prayer becomes a complaint session asking God to act now forgetting all that he had done for me in the past. He heard my prayer for peace and a few minutes of restful sleep when as a seventeen year old I was deep in debt, unable to sleep, wanting my life to end; he was the God who heard my plea for his Holy Spirit on February 25, 2007; the God who enabled school admission for my children to the same school which turned them down initially as we lived in a different zone; a God whose gentle whispers led me, sustained me, encouraged me, strengthened me, protected me, gave me overnight healing restoring my sight. "Do not test the LORD your God as you did when you complained at Massah." was a reminder for me to continue in faith.

When you read the book of Exodus, chapters 15 through 17, we read the Israelites experience with the bitter water at Marah. Exodus 15:22-24,
Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water.  When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).  Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.
Now if you read the preceding sections, you see an Israelite people who were singing their praises to God for delivering them from the Pharaoh, taking them safely through the Red Sea, but then they reached Marah. The bitter water at Marah made them forget that they were just before singing and extolling the glory and might of their God who had delivered them from slavery under the Pharaoh of Egypt and a certain death at the the Red Sea. They forgot the walls of water standing upright as they passed through dry ground in the Red Sea. Following their Red Sea experience, God then provided these complainers mannah and quail from heaven in chapter 16. Even after repeatedly seeing these amazing deeds, the might of their sovereign God, experiencing how this God was able to provide for their needs from nothing, experiencing how their God was in complete control of the elements and their circumstance, in chapter 17 of Exodus, we read of a people who were ready to stone Moses when they had travelled through the Sinn desert and reached Rephidim. They complained and grumbled against Moses and God as there was no water to drink.  They forgot the bitter water at Marah. Again, God provides water for them in a miraculous way as Moses takes his staff and strikes the rock at God's command; water gushes out of the rock to satisfy the thirst of all the people. Moses named this place, Massah - "the place of testing" and Meribah - "the place of arguing."

There is a very important reminder for every christian in Exodus 16:32 following God's provision of mannah - the heavenly food, "Then Moses gave them this command from the LORD.  " Take two quarts of manna and keep it forever as a treasured memorial of the LORD's provision. BY doing this, later generations will be able to see the bread that the LORD provided in the wilderness when he brought you out of Egypt." The "treasured memorial" is your daily testimony, a calling to remembrance, in front of your children, grand children, family, the world, of God's past provision, mercies, deliverance, blessings on a daily basis for as long as you live, giving thanks to the Lord. This would remind you daily and strengthen you, giving you the faith to trust in your LORD, a sovereign God as you arrive at the next impossibility in life.

The christian walk is not a life of comfort, but a walk of faith, a walk of faith entrusting the LORD to provide where you are unable to deliver. Always remembering of God's past goodness, thanking for past blessings, without grumbling and complaining about the present situation, but praying about it.  Believing the God who made your bitter water of Marrah drinkable, is able to provide again as you walk through your desert, thirsty and parched. Let your life be a constant testimony to Christ's blessings, remember his goodness every time you pray so that your children see and hear and wonder about your God, putting in them a desire to know this God of yours. Let us not be at Massah and Meribah, but remember the bitter water of Marah that God sweetened for us and continually praise him.  May God bless you in your walk of faith!

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