Wilderness Wisdom
Notes
Transcript
Wilderness Wisdom
Wilderness Wisdom
Exodus 15:22
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
Introduction
Today I want us to look at the 15th chapter of Exodus. And most of the 15th chapter of Exodus as you will see is filled with a song from the Israelites about the Lord and his goodness and his faithfulness after delivering them from the Egyptians who were chasing them. And we know that the chapter preceding this 15th chapter is the 14th chapter, and that 14th chapter is the story of the Red Sea deliverance.
God did a tremendous thing for these people saving them and allowing them to walk across the middle of the parted Red Sea. That would have been a tremendous thing to see wouldn’t it? I can’t imagine what that would have been like. To see those walls of water on both sides just being suspended in midair, pretty amazing stuff.
The crossing of the Red Sea was a tremendous event in the life of the Israelites, it was the greatest display of power in their life up to this point. Such an impressive sight I’m sure that was for them to see the Lord deliver them in such a dramatic way, right? I mean wouldn’t you have felt that way?
And the Israelites probably thought all their problems were behind them right? Well let’s read from verse 22-27.
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
Something I want you to understand right up front here before we dive into these verses is that God never wastes time or trouble.
God never wastes time or trouble.
There have been time and trouble in my life that I thought was just wasted time. I didn’t see anything going my way and I thought that time was being wasted in my Christian life. I couldn’t see God moving and I felt stuck.
There have also been seasons of difficulty in my life that seemed like it had no purpose. The trouble seemed to serve no good purpose and it seemed like I was just miserable for no reason at all.
But, if we will come to the place that we really believe with all we are that God never wastes time or trouble, it will transform our perspective on our current situation in life. No matter what the situation, we will see it as an opportunity for God to work in our lives.
I can look back on those experiences of my life and I can see how God used those things in my life that were difficult and painful to shape and make me more like Jesus.
God never wastes time or trouble. That is so important for us to remember!
Why did God take the Israelites through the wilderness you think?
This wasn’t the quickest route, or the easiest route to get where they were going. God took them way out of the way to teach them some lessons.
God took his people through the wilderness like this to teach them some things that they wouldn’t have learned otherwise.
The wilderness teaches us many things about ourselves and about God that we need to know.
We don’t find out these things when the birds are singing and the sun is shining and all is well.
One of the difficult things about the wilderness experience for us is that sometimes there is no obvious reason to us why we are going through a difficult time. There was nothing in this chapter that says that they began to rebel, or that they were out of the will of God or anything like that.
See, many times when we are in the wilderness and it all seems dark and difficult we begin to think that we’ve done something wrong. And that may be true, we may have done something to get us into that spot. But many times we’ve done nothing to get into the wilderness and we find ourselves right there in the middle of it. Hot, sweaty, thirsty, and no water in sight.
But no matter our situation, God knows our way. God isn’t responsible for our sin, but even our sin He can use to shape us and bring us back to Him. He leads us along in these times for a good purpose and for His plan.
Let’s look at verse 22-24
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
Maybe today you are in a place like this describes. Maybe it is all bitter where you are right now. Maybe you need some wilderness wisdom. I think you’ll learn some things here this morning.
v.22-24)
They are only 3 days after seeing the Red Sea parted! 3 days!
They probably thought all their troubles were behind them. We do that too.
Three days after their great experience they are traveling along and they find no water. Then they come to a place called Marah. This place had water, but it was not drinkable. It was bitter.
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I remember the first time my kids were exposed to salt water!
Water is an important necessity and so they got a little nervous and agitated. Look at their response in verse 24. “WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DRINK!?!?!”
It’s a natural response, but given the miraculous way they were just delivered from the hands of the Egyptians THREE DAYS AGO, you would think they would have trusted God to provide for them wouldn’t you?
I mean don’t you just want to jump all over these folks and tell them to have faith that God will take care of them???
They just sang like 15 verses of a hymn to the Lord for how good and faithful He was!
But they are learning it’s one thing to sing a hymn, and another to live by faith.
This is their first lesson, they are learning that God brings trouble to us to show us our faith, (or the lack of it).
Why does God bring us to the place of difficulty?
Look at the end of verse 25. It says that the Lord brought them there to “test them”
And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,
God brings us to the place of difficulty and trouble to TEST US.
He never tests us in the time of victory
Difficulty always makes us depend on God
They are just as close to God in this place of bitterness as they were walking through the Red Sea. These people were not out of the will of God.
God doesn’t prove you when the birds are singing and the sun is shining. He proves you when things are dark and you are in the valley.
When we are in times of bitterness, our faith is revealed to us. We can really see how much we believe God when we are tested.
v.24) “And the people grumbled against Moses”
Can you believe how quick these people forgot what the Lord had done for them? I mean this is unbelievable. You’d think they’d have more faith that God could provide right?
We do the same thing.
God brings us through some great difficulty and trial, He delivers us out of some major issue and we are so thankful and blessed and all is well...
Until the next hard spot… We are so forgetful.
We forget to remember. We forget to remember what God has done.
They grumbled. They grumbled. Why did they grumble?
Because they believed in that moment that God had led them out there just to watch them die. They forgot what God had done 3 DAYS AGO!
They should have been able to look back on the Red Sea experience and see God’s love and faithfulness right?
In your circumstances - are you looking for some sign for God to show you his love? The Israelites had the Red Sea to look back on and see God’s deliverance and faithfulness.
So, too we should constantly be looking back to Calvary. We should continually look back to what Jesus did for us and we should never doubt His love or care for us ever again. That should be so etched in our minds that we never forget it.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
v.25) “And he cried to the Lord”
Notice the difference in what the Israelites did and what Moses did. The Israelites grumbled and complained, Moses cried out to God. Moses prayed that God would deliver them and provide for them, despite the unbelief of the people.
There is a big difference between grumbling and praying. God detests our grumbling but he loves our praying. Satan loves our grumbling but hates our praying.
Oh friend, if you are in the wilderness today prayer is your most effective tool to keep you near the heart of God. Oh that we would be a people of prayer, not only in the wilderness but all the time!
v.25) “the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet”
Prayer connected Moses with God and God showed him the answer. It is not a coincidence that God revealed the log to him after he cried out to the Lord.
Now, God sometimes moves in unusual ways. What do you think these people thought when Moses starts throwing a log into the water. They must have thought, “Oh boy he’s really lost it now!”
As if the water wasn’t bitter enough right?
God had the answer to Moses’ prayer all along. The tree was always there and it was always designed to do exactly what they needed in that moment.
Folks, God has the answer before you have the problem. But we must remember, the answer is in the heart of God and that is where we turn when we are in trouble in the wilderness.
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
Now look at this verse. Notice God didn’t keep them there at Marah. He kept them moving and what were they moving towards? They were moving towards Elim where there were 12 springs of water. MORE THAN ENOUGH.
Why do you think God kept them moving? I think it was so they wouldn’t get caught up in the moment. So they wouldn’t get so reliant on that one blessing and they would learn again to live by faith. They went on from Marah to Elim and God provided for them there.
Keep Going, Elim Is Ahead Of You
This has great significance for us today. If you or I are in the wilderness and we are at Marah and there is bitterness and difficulty and pain, listen folks - Elim is just over the horizon. Don’t stop. It is tempting sometimes when we are in a hard spot to just stop and give up. To turn back. I wonder if any of the Israelites turned back and went back to Egypt? It doesn’t say that but I wonder if they did. If they did, they would have missed the blessing of Elim.
God has a plan to bless you with more than you need. But you have to trust him. You have to realize that God never wastes time or trouble. God is always using these circumstances to build our faith and test us so that we can grow and mature in faith.
God always gives us more than we deserve. It says here that at Elim there were 70 palm trees. So not only did they have water in the wilderness, they had shade. God is so good to us. He always gives us more than we deserve.
This morning, let’s remember a few key things when we are in the wilderness.
1.
God never wastes time or trouble.
Pray when it gets hard, and keep on praying!
Keep going, keep moving, keep trusting God.
Listen to me folks, and we are done. God won’t let you down. He didn’t save you to watch you die of thirst at Marah. He will provide for you. Give Him time to work in your wilderness.
