Wow. Jon Courson devo for today: ===================== 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 Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Exodus 15:23–25 Feeling as though death were breathing down upon them, the Israelites’ need for water was immediate and great, when suddenly the report must have filtered through the congregation that water lay ahead. I can see in my mind’s eye the people stampeding in the direction of the report, finding a pool, and diving in, only to come up sputtering and spitting out bitter water. The same thing happens to us. We come to our own Marah - a situation, a relationship, an occupation, or even a ministry we think will be cool and refreshing - only to find it bitter, not what we thought it would be. Why did the Lord choose Marah as a stop for His people? I believe it was to teach them three lessons, the first being that life is a mixture of sweetness and bitterness - for were it only sweet, we would have no desire for Heaven. I believe a second lesson God wanted to teach His people at Marah was that trials are the X-rays that allow us to see what’s going on in our hearts. You see, although the children of Israel murmured against Moses, in reality, they were murmuring against God for bringing them to Marah in the first place. And the same is true of us. I will never know what’s in my heart until I dive into a pool expectantly and find it isn’t what I thought it would be. People do not make us bitter. Situations do not make us bitter. They simply show us what is already within. I know this because, when I look at Jesus, I see that, although He was spat upon, cursed at, and nailed to a Cross, He said, “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing” (see Luke 23:34). No bitterness came out of Him because there was no bitterness within Him. Third, notice that God didn’t create this tree on the spot; it was there all along. The tree in Scripture is emblematic of the Cross (1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 3), and it is the Cross of Calvary that still transforms bitter experiences, bitter people, and bitter circumstances. How? By realizing that the wrongs done to us, the offenses against us, and the disappointments registered by us have all been paid for, dealt with, and washed clean by the blood of Calvary.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:30:57 +0000
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