Marah

"When they came to Mara, they could not drink its water because it was bitter." Exodus 15:23......"Beside each bitter Marah grows a tree that makes the water sweet.....Yet somehow turning the water from bitter to sweet seemed to be God's second best." Jamie Buckingham

We don't like the taste of bitterness. Even Jesus confessed He didn't want to drink the "bitter cup" placed before Him. We have a very hard time believing that the bitter can be made sweet, especially in the way that Buckingham goes on to explain in his wonderful book, A Way Through The Wilderness.

I first read this book more than 35 years ago, when I was walking through my own wilderness. It blessed me so deeply then, and it is blessing me anew as I re-read it now. I had forgotten some of the riches held within. One of them is how Buckingham addresses the bitter waters of Marah.

I have always tended to look at the experience there as God making the bittersweet. I think we all do, but Buckingham brings out a point almost all of us miss, and in truth, wouldn't much care to experience. We need to remember that it was the Lord who led the people to Marah. He knew the water was bitter, yet Buckingham writes of how he believes the Father wished for them to drink it anyway. Why? For what purpose?

The people had long been held captive in Egypt. They had gorged themselves on its food. Their systems were filled with all kinds of disease bearing bacteria as a result. The waters at Marah contained a great amount of calcium and magnesium. They would have acted as a means of cleansing the people's systems through purgative ways. They had brought bodies infested with all types of parasites picked up in Egypt. Yet they grumbled at the bitterness of the waters. As Buckingham writes, "They'd refused the bitter cup, and missed God's best purposes for their lives." The Israelites missed the truth of that. How often have we?

Scripture says that the Lord tested them at Marah. He had promised them that if they followed and obeyed Him, they would not suffer from the diseases of Egypt. It was His intention that they drink the bitter cup of the magnesium heavy water and be free of those diseases. They refused, and in His mercy, He made the water acceptable, but they moved on, still susceptible and victim to the diseases brought by the bacteria and parasites they carried. Someone said that He not only wanted to get the people out of Egypt, but He also wanted to get Egypt out of the people. This is still His primary means of bringing us out of the polluted world culture we're born into. How much do we, like the Israelites, fight against it?

God means for our wilderness to be a means of preparation. The bitter waters of Marah were to prepare them for what was yet to come in the journey, making them stronger and more able to bear the journey. They missed His desire for them in that. Buckingham writes, "The promise of a people without disease had to wait for a generation who listened carefully for the voice of the Lord and did not grumble at His commands." Which generation do our lives most clearly resemble?

If you have not yet come to the bitter waters of Marah in your journey, you will. What will you do? Will you demand that He make the "water," the circumstances of the journey sweet, or will you allow Him to bring you His best through the drinking of the bitter cup? The choice, and the results that come with it, is ours. What will it be? If you've missed it before, take heart, for as Buckingham writes, "He continually leads us back to the waters of Marah where our crusty spirits may be broken - that the Spirit of God may enter."

Blessings,

Pastor O