bitter

Passage: Exodus 15:22 – 17:7

The complaining starts shortly after the Israelites have walked between the parted waters of the Red Sea. Granted they’ve just taken a three-day trek through the desert without sight of water. The first spring of water they get to tastes awful (hence the name of the spring: “Marah”, or “bitter”). Immediately they complain to Moses; he cries out to God; and God tells him what to do. The spring is miraculously sweetened. And then the narrator adds this note:

There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

So the three days in the desert without water are a test. Why?

God’s primary interest for his people is not their immediate comfort. It’s their trust. They need to trust in God because God’s instructions are often all they’ll have to go on in the wilderness. They also need to trust God because he will equip them to live successfully in the lush land that awaits them at the end of their journey. So far God hasn’t let his people down. They need to trust.

Immediately following the bitter water episode the Israelites face another test. As they make their way through the desert they look around and say, “Wait a minute. There’s nothing to eat here!” They once again complain to Moses, adding, “We would have been better off as slaves in Egypt. If only God hadn’t rescued us.” Once again God delivers by providing meat and bread from heaven. “Trust me”, says God.

This episode is followed by a third. The Israelites are once again without water. They confront Moses and demand that he do something about the situation. Moses in turn complains to God that his people are about to impeach him. And God says, “What’s that in your hand? Is that the staff with which you struck the Nile? Remember what happened? I turned the Nile into blood. Why don’t you take that staff, and strike that rock over there. See what happens.” Of course the rock splits open, and water springs forth. The resulting springs are named “Massah and Meribah” (“Testing and Quarreling”) to forever commemorate the Israelites' response to the test.

It only takes until the next crisis for us to forget what God has done for us. We tend to expect, once God has seen us through a period of hardship, that it’ll be smooth sailing from now on. We’re shocked and incensed, then, when new hardships arise. We say, “What a minute God, where’d you go?”, assuming that God’s job is to prevent any difficulty from coming our way. Assuming that if God were with us, there’d be no crisis. What God offers, however, is not to eliminate life’s hardships and crises but rather, to carry us through them. As with the Israelites, each of our crises is an opportunity. An opportunity to recall the ways God has delivered in the past; and an opportunity to practice trusting him.