Exodus 15:22-24 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
The people blamed Moses for the circumstances they where facing. When we face adverse situations we always try to find someone to blame for.
The desert has some challenges
When Israel was in Egypt, they drank of the river Nile. No ordinary water that. To this day the dwellers on the banks of the Nile assert that the water has a peculiar taste not to be discovered in any other stream, and they prefer the waters of the Nile to all the waters in the world besides. What a change from the sweetness of the Nile to the bitterness of Marah.
They must have water, it was no luxury, it was a necessity; with the hot, burning sand beneath them reflecting the fierce heat of a cruel sun, not to have water in the wilderness is to feel an urgent necessity producing a terrible pain.
When faced with challenges people have a tendency to look back and remember the pleasures of the past. When you do this you don’t remember that you where once a slave to sin and that is better to face bitterness free than being a slave to sin.
They spent 3 days without water and when they arrived to Mara God changed one challenge for another. They found the water they desired however a new challenge occurs, the waters are bitter.
God does a miracle
Exodus 15:25 And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,
Moses took the complaint to his Master. In all trials, the surest way to a remedy is prayer.
Note, next, that as soon as we have a prayer God has a remedy. The remedy is near at hand; but we do not perceive it till it is shown us. "The Lord showed him a tree." The tree had been growing for years on purpose to be used. God has a remedy for all our troubles before they happen to us.
Now that remedy for the healing of Marah's water was a very strange one. Why should a tree sweeten the waters?
The tree
This tree cut down is an emblem of the Savior! A glorious tree indeed was he, with spreading branches, and top reaching to heaven-but he must suffer the axe for our sakes; and now, to-day, contemplating his atoning sacrifice, and by faith resting in him, the troubles of life and the troubles of death are sweetened by his dear cross, which, though it be a bitter tree in itself, is the antidote for all the bitterness that comes upon us here and hereafter.
When they cut down the tree, and put it into the water, it turned the water sweet-they could drink of it; and let me assure you, that in the case of our trouble, the cross is a most effective sweetener.
The cross avails to sweeten all the bitterness of our mortal life, and even the last bitterness of death, it is assuredly available this morning to sweeten the bitterness of our present sorrow.
Just like the tree, the Cross has the power to transform every situation, every circumstance, and every relationship… from the bitter to the sweet!
In Egypt, they knew about God, but they knew very little about His nature. Here in a place of bitterness, God reveals His heart—not only to heal water—but to heal His people. Yahweh Rapha, as the following verse says,
“I am the LORD who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).
Galatians 3:13–14. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.”
The blessings of the cross
Remember that the tree was the cross. Some people don’t understand that, but in some languages the word tree means a tree when it’s growing and a tree when it’s cut down
In other words, when Jesus hung on the cross, every Jew who knew his Old Testament recognized that Jesus was made a curse. Then we read the other side of the exchange in verse 14:
“That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
