Bitter Water

I just can't seem to get that passage from Exodus 15 out of my mind. Perhaps God still has a lesson for me and I haven't learned it yet.

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. 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.”
Exodus 15:25-26 NIV

Now, I am not all that smart. And I had to dig a little into the commentaries to gain some insight as to why this passage was speaking to my heart. And here is what I found. The evidence and speculative conclusions may point to a tree with some chemical properties that enabled the wood or its sap to render the bitter water sweet.

Maybe it did, or maybe it didn't. Maybe, as one lady in my Bible Study says, “It was God's will.” Maybe it was just another plain old garden variety miracle like the one at the Red Sea a few chapters earlier. The point is that the water became sweet to drink.

Now, here is the part that I failed to fully grasp earlier. The newly sweetened water had a medicinal effect as well as a refreshing effect. In fact, it had a “cleansing” effect. One of the commentaries noted that there is research to indicate that the water acted as a laxative and purged the Children of Israel of some internal gastrointestinal parasites that caused weakness and was marked by dysentery.

So, here is the point.

Are you ready for this?


Not only did God want to get His children out of Egypt. He wanted to get Egypt (or at least its ill effects) out of his children!

OK, that's may be a little gross and out of place on a blog about holiness. But maybe not once you let the thought sink in. At Marah, God provided just the right medicine to prepare His children both physically and spiritually for the long hot march to Sinai.

So what does that mean to me?

I think it means that when I have tasted the bitter waters of sin, shame and suffering I can have them sweetened by the wood of Calvary's cross. And that wood can bring refreshing, cleansing and healing to a sin sick soul. It can cleanse the outside. And it can cleanse the inside from the stain of sin. So that, just like the Children of Israel were cleansed of the internal parasites, God can cleanse me from the sinful nature that causes me fall into sin.

And that dear friend, is holiness.

Thanks to Calvary

"Thanks to Calvary, we don't live here, anymore."

That's the line to a song sung by The Cathedral Quartet that was written by Bill and Gloria Gaither.

The first verse and chorus goes like this:

Today I went back to the place where I used to go,
Today I saw the same old crowd I knew before.
When they asked me what had happened, I tried to tell them,
"Thanks to Calv'ry I don't come here anymore."

CHORUS:

Thanks to Calv'ry I am not the man I used to be,
Thanks to Calv'ry things are different than before.
While the tears ran down my face, I tried to tell them them,
"Thanks to Calv'ry I don't live here anymore."

I am struck by the message of God's power to change our lives in such a way as it is though we have completed changed our place of residence. In fact, that is what He does. Thanks to Calvary, His death on the cross, and my acceptance of His Grace and Salvation I have a new home. My home is even now being prepared for me in Heaven.

I don't live here anymore. In fact, I am a pilgrim and a traveler in a foreign land. My customs are different than the customs of this place. My actions and my attitudes are different.

In fact, if I understand the Apostle Paul's writings, I actually died. I was born anew. And the new life I now live I live in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. John Newton, author of the hymn, Amazing Grace, once said to a friend; "I am not all that I should be or what I want to be, but thank God I am not what I used to be."

Perhaps I should send a "change of address" card to all my friends and loved ones who don't know Jesus. I could tell them that "Thanks to Calvary, I don't live here anymore." Perhaps I should tell them how they can move on up to Gloryland as well.