Bitter Waters

                Exodus 15 ends with a shocking plot twist. Fresh from the sight and sound of victory, the Israelites trudge through the hot desert sands for three days. Finally, they come across water. The place is called Marah because the waters are bitter instead of refreshing.
            The name not only fits the condition of the water, but also their hearts. After years of cruel oppression and heavy persecution, it’s not surprising that their broken hearts are encrusted with bitterness. And this is the first place God brings them? “What gives, Lord? How do you expect us to trust you?” Okay, that’s my paraphrase. But they did come to Moses complaining. It’s not what they were expecting.
            So Moses cried out to the Lord, seeking an answer. God shows him a tree. A tree? Seriously, Lord? Yes, for it foreshadows another Tree that shall be brought forth to a thirsty world. When Moses casts a branch from the tree into the waters, the waters are made sweet!
            The passage describes this as a test from God. The Father didn’t make the water bitter. He simply used the physical conditions to deal with the state of the people’s collective heart. The only way to overcome bitterness is through the Tree of Life. God wants to soften their skeptical, untrusting, and hardened hearts with His love. But the only way He can do that is if they choose to fellowship with Him.
            “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you” (Ex. 15:26).  The chapter ends with the faithfulness of God confirming His Word. “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.”
            The Chronos Lesson: The name Elim in Hebrew is Terebinths, a place in the desert. We may not like the place we are in right now. In these last Days we are surrounded by scoffers and lawlessness. As believers, our earthly place does not define us. Instead, we are defined as being “in Christ.” Jesus repeatedly taught that we shall overcome death when we are resurrected at the rapture at the last Day (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54).
            John, the disciple who seemed to have a heightened understanding of how much Jesus loved him, explains that there is more to this overcoming than just that glorious moment. When the Word of God abides in us, we overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:14). In chapter 4 of that same letter, John adds that we overcome the evil spirits, including the spirit of Antichrist, even though they surround us in this world. No problem. Why? Because He—the Holy Spirit who is in us—is greater than this Antichrist spirit at work in the world!
            The times we are living in are not for the faint of heart. No, they are for whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, whoever confesses that God abides in within them, and whoever confesses that they are in Christ. The more intimately we come to know Him and grasp the depth and width, and height of His love for us—the full dimension of His great love—the more we overcome the evil around us.
            When we are confronted with “bitter waters,” Romans 12:21 reminds us, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Or to put it another way, don’t partake of the same bitter waters that the world spews out. Instead, taste the refreshing waters of the Spirit, let them flow through you and out from you (John 7:38), so that the world can see that God is good (Psalm 34:8). His perfect love enables us to overcome fear (1 John 4:18).