We are in still in Exodus chapter one with our word for today. מָרַר be bitter, be desperate, bewildered, make bitter, to cause to be very difficult to accept or bear. It is used 16 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used to describe one’s life when losing a loved one 2 Kings 4:20, 27-28 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. …When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in מָֽרָה bitter distress.” We also see our word used to describe one’s life when suffering with an illness as King Hezekiah had. Isaiah 38:17 Surely it was for my benefit that I מַר suffered such מָ֑ר anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. We also see our word used in the sense of to cause or be very difficult to accept or bear. Good examples of this are Job and Naomi. Job 27:2 As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life הֵמַ֥ר bitter. Not only is Job struggling with why God allowed him to experience such painful challenges. We also see Naomi who suffered the death of both her sons and her husband. Ruth 1:20-21 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me מָרָ֔א Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very הֵמַ֥ר bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” This is the sense our word is used today in our chapter. Exodus 1:11-14 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens...they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives וַיְמָרְר֨וּbitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
This is not easy for us when we struggle with such painful challenges in this life. One of my favorite Pastors would say that death is the most confusing and meaningless time there is. I would say that would also be true of very painful challenges of all kinds. What do we do when we struggle with why God is allowing these things to happen to us? We trust God with our painful emotions as we have looked at previously. The evil one wants to get us to either act on our emotions or avoid them but God wants us to trust Him with them through prayer allowing ourselves to feel them. We see David throughout the Psalms doing this. He allows himself to feel his pain and disappointment with why God isn’t doing something to stop his challenges. Here is a great example of David doing just this with our word. 1 Samuel 30:3-6 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was מָ֙רָה֙ bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. I’ll close with this great passage found in Nehemiah 8:10. Right after the people heard God’s word read to them they started to grieve and rightly so because they had not been living the way God wanted them to. So they were trusting God with their emotions. Then Nehemiah says this, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” God is the one who heals us and gives us strength to trust him with the painful emotions that are a part of this life. And the good news is that God will lead us to gladness.
