Bitter Water

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur.  They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water.  When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink.  So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).  Then the people complained and turned against Moses.  “What are we going to drink?” they demanded.  So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.  Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.  It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him.  He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”   Exodus 15:22-26

The children of Israel had water issues.  When they were running away from Egypt, they were stuck with too much water, the Red Sea, preventing them from getting to the Promised Land.  The Egyptian storm troopers were hot on their heels, and God parted the waters so they could walk through dust, instead of swimming (and mostly drowning).  Three days later they had the opposite issue – no water.  They complained and Moses led them to Marah…where the water was unhealthy, bitter.  God fixed that by purifying the water.  Further on in the journey they were dry once again, and God brought forth water from a rock. 

I had my own issues with a water valve this week.  The plumber came right away and did another miracle, fixed it, and charged me less than the cost of a Buick!

Normally I write in the early morning hours.  Yesterday was an exception.  I started the day by getting my dog settled with his business, and carrying him to that spot he occupies right next to my desk.  I began to write when dawn was just breaking.  Elizabeth opened the study door and the pitiful sight of my bride in pain was worse than Israel’s drought on the run.  We immediately got in the car and went to the Emergency Room.  Around three o’clock we found out she had pancreatitis, along with a secondary infection.  An hour later she was admitted and settled into a room.  It is now 8:22pm, I’ve just had supper; it’s been a day!

So what does all that have to do with Marah’s bitter water?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  Today’s events were much like Israel’s Marah experience.  When they were back in Egypt as slaves, they could at least count on having water to drink from the beautiful river Nile.  Out in the desert life became uncertain, uncontrollable.  Today reminded me of that…my sweet bride, usually smiley and always on the lookout for our family…now helplessly rubbing her side, and not wanting to do anything but be left alone.  And Russell, helpless, unable to do anything like Superman, leaping tall buildings, stopping speeding bullets; I had no way to take away her hurt.  All I could do was just sit by the bitter water of pain.  I’m not sure how many people prayed for us today; I do know my phone looked like an exhausted little puppy when the battery died.  Tons of people responded to our Facebook post, and the word spread.  When I left Elizabeth’s room at 6:30 this evening she was smiling, and looking forward to coming home tomorrow.  The doc had said, “we’ll see,” but I know that look in the woman’s eye.

So…time to wrap it up and get some sleep.  My day was planned to write.  Pain had other ideas…and like too much water at the Red Sea, too little water in the desert, and bitter water at Marah, I got frazzled and saw my weakness.  But God had the answer…even before I asked.

For You Today 

Whatever you’ve got going on today, remember where the well is located.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image(s) courtesy of Pixabay.com

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

When God Lets the Arrow Fly

Monday, May 8, 2023

When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land.  God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”  So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.  Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.  Exodus 13:17-18

When God directed Moses to lead his children out of bondage in Egypt, it would have been so easy to march them directly to Canaanland, and let the party begin!  That would have been the way I would have planned the trip.  

It’s about 775 miles from Egypt to Israel, so they could have walked straight there in two months.  But they didn’t cross the Jordan river for 40 years.  Evidently there was a lot more to Israel becoming God’s people, than just 10 plagues and a visit by the death angel, before they would be ready for the prosperity of the Promised Land.

There is much I do not understand about how the sovereignty of God, intersects with the free-will of human beings.  However, the Israelite forty-year layover in the desert[1] is a great teacher of how we can navigate being free-will beings created by a sovereign God.  It all comes down to using the free-will we’ve been gifted, to cooperate with the sovereignty of God’s plans, rather than just do what pleases us.  After all, it is God’s sandbox, and we are visitors, whom God wants to adopt as family.  It pays to be on one’s best behavior!

When it comes to how that behavior shapes our relationship with God, I have this image of an archer with a bow, pointed at a target…the arrow flies, released by the archer.  God is the archer; we are the arrows.  The target to which God points each of us, is the place closest to God’s heart.  He wants us to hit the bullseye (so to speak), and lodge there.  The purpose is blessing.  God wants us close to the source of the universe’s wealth of wisdom and well-being.  He wants what’s best for us.  The problem for we arrows, having been released from the bow string, is we have freedom to be blown about by gusts of winds, or objects (all kinds of sins against hitting the target). 

While God’s eye is never off the arrows he releases, our free will is a type of sovereignty over the moments we are granted to live.  We are pointed at the right target; we have free will to choose how we respond to the direction we’re given. That direction is clearly stated in the prophecy of Micah 6:8:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. 

The arrow God releases into this vastness of free will invariably chooses to do what is wrong, love power, and walk arrogantly and selfishly, despising God.  And God allows that.  (Full Stop)

The full weight of sovereignty of humankind over their destination is a gift of God to His loved creation.  But the weight of that gift’s incredible value is the corresponding accountability of consequence for corrupting the gift against the holiness of God.  (Again – Full Stop)  We despise God’s sovereignty with our free will, and the result is spiritual Chernobyl.

For You Today 

You have freedom; choose wisely how to cooperate with God today.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   An Uncertain Path  and  Cloud by Day - Fire by Night   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Read all of the Exodus story, from Moses at the burning bush, to the miraculous rescue of God’s people at the Red Sea, and provision of God through 40 years of wandering in the desert.

Between the Rock and Hard Place

 

Thursday, March 3, 2022

So the slave drivers and foremen went out and told the people: “This is what Pharaoh says:  I will not provide any more straw for you.   Go and get it yourselves.  Find it wherever you can.  But you must produce just as many bricks as before!”  So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use as straw.  Meanwhile, the Egyptian slave drivers continued to push hard.  “Meet your daily quota of bricks, just as you did when we provided you with straw!” they demanded.  Then they whipped the Israelite foremen they had put in charge of the work crews.  “Why haven’t you met your quotas either yesterday or today?” they demanded.  So the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him.  “Please don’t treat your servants like this,” they begged.  “We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, ‘Make bricks!’  We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault!  Your own people are to blame!”  But Pharaoh shouted, “You’re just lazy!  Lazy!  That’s why you’re saying, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’  Now get back to work!  No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.”  The Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the number of bricks you make each day.”  As they left Pharaoh’s court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them.  The foremen said to them, “May the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials.  You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us!”  Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, “Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord?  Why did you send me?  Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people.  And you have done nothing to rescue them!”  Exodus 5:10-23

Four hundred years in captivity was a hard place.  The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were conscripts of Pharaoh’s dynasty.  They were forced to work endlessly just to stay alive, and had nothing.  Then things really got hard.

Bondage is brutal – and that is certainly an understatement.  Not just Israel, but humanity has been under something of bondage to COVID-19 and its cousins the past two years.  Even if you have been blessed enough to have escaped having the virus, you know someone, perhaps many, who have had to tough it out like making bricks without straw.

You’ve also seen what happens when the rock of struggle meets the hard place of frustration…someone must take the blame.  Pharaoh, like any pandemic virus, was an iron-fisted, hard-hearted tyrant.  He threatened, bullied, and killed.  His soldiers spread the virus of hate and oppression.  The people, frustrated, having no place to turn for relief, blamed Moses for stirring up Pharaoh’s anger.  Moses went right to prayer….and blamed God!

Just a few plagues later, the slaves were seeing Egypt in the rearview mirror.  Forty years later Moses saw the Promised Land from the mountaintop.  But none of the original group, including Moses, ever set foot on the other side of Jordan. 

The conclusion is rather rock-like:  Blaming someone else for your problems will get you somewhere, and it’s often a harder place than the rock you were facing.

For You Today

When the temptation comes for you to blame someone, some pandemic, some circumstances, or God, for whatever trouble presents, let your prayer of surrender to God’s will and care turn blame into blessing.  

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

The Passover Connection

 

Thursday of Holy Week, April 1, 2021

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself.  On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.  Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood.  Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”  For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.  1 Corinthians 11:23-26

If you have ever attended a Passover seder meal you may have noticed the connection between the Old and New Testaments of Scripture.  

This meal, marking the Exodus of Israel from Egyptian bondage is a rich source of shadow of the ministry of Jesus, and God’s unfolding plan of redemption for all people. 

It would be impossible to write a small book to examine the similarities of Seder and Lord’s Supper, so let’s just admit to the brevity of what we will look at…something of a spiritual appetizer.[1]

There are 15 steps (or movements) to the Seder.  Each step is accompanied by food or elements that help tell the story of the captives who were set free by God.  Some of the elements and their meaning, salt water (signifying the tears shed in captivity), bitter herbs (the harshness of bondage and servitude), wine (the joy of release to freedom), and unleavened bread (made in haste).

The connection to the Lord’s (last) Supper include remembering His death as our release from bondage, the wine looking ahead to celebration of the Kingdom, and bread, representing He who is the Bread of Life.

Of the parts of seder I love most, and see the strongest connection to our Eucharist are:

·       Haggadah (translated Passover) literally means “tale”.  In the haggadah Jews tell the story of God’s salvation; our Gospel recounted in The Supper is the gateway to eternal life.

·       Barech and Hallel are the blessing after the meal and songs of praise.  The blessing is done with the opening of the door to invite Elijah into the home.  It is an acknowledgement of the coming of Messiah as their hope.  Our Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist, remembers his coming, and sacrifice with Hallelujahs, songs of praise for God’s mighty hand of salvation.

·       Nirtzah is the 15^th and last step in seder, a final blessing that includes the hope of next year, Jerusalem.  It is that looking forward to gathering at the place of God’s presence.  The connection, of course, for Christians is our blessed hope of eating the new meal with Jesus at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, in the New Jerusalem.

The meal is, for me, a hinge upon which swings the connection of Old Testament prophecy which looks to the coming of Christ and His Kingdom, and New Testament fulfillment, unfolding the glory of Jesus’ coming, ministry, and eternal life.  It is a sacred meal, our Passover connection!

For You Today

Here we are in the middle of Passover, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday.  How could we end, except with Nirtzah…next year, New Jerusalem!!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] For deeper study see:  Pelaia, Ariela. "The Order and Meaning of the Passover Seder." Aug. 28, 2020