Exodus 15:22-27 (NIV- 1984)
The Waters of Marah and Elim
²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
 ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ 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.”
 ²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

In the Exodus story of the Bible the people of Israel (the first people in the Bible to have a special relationship with God), had just escaped from Egypt.
Egypt was for them the land of slavery. Moses their leader, a kind of old and mystical Prophet, had commanded the Sea, which blocked the Israelites in Egypt from reaching the desert, to separate and it had opened wide. So wide that the people of Israel could walk right across it – tens of 1000s of them, families, animals, children and old – ALL of them crossed the floor of the Red Sea as the Egyptian armies and charioteers rushed to catch up with them. Finally, as the last of the Israelites crossed onto the other side, the waters collapsed back into the sea and the Egyptian armies were drowned.
The Israelites were jubilant! Moses and his sister Miriam in particular – their God, this mysterious, supernatural force and personality called – YHWH – or “Iam what Iam” had delivered his people out of arduous slavery. Moses had found YHWH difficult to believe at first, but he had obeyed this God and now God had showed him right in front of all the Israelites. God had proved himself, by delivering the Israelites out of Egypt into the Wilderness.
Moses and Miriam are so jubilant that they turn to song and sing out the glories of this Holy God and the story of how he had transferred the people of Israel out of a land of hard, routine, relentless labour into a land of freedom.
But freedom quickly brings its own problems…
…and although this God had enabled them to be free of Egyptian oppression, the Israelites were now in a situation where they had to survive in difficult circumstances of the wilderness. Imagine escaping from the city with all its shops and restaurants, but the dullness of  seemingly endless 9-5 routine work…out into the moors and hills of the Peak District or Lake District… at first it’s great to be free…free of all your responsibilities…but soon hunger and thirst start to kick in. You’ve come prepared with food, but while with food you can carry quite a lot of it…water is more difficult to carry …You have enough for the first few days…but three days in… you are starting to run out…and beginning to worry.
From our reading the people of Israel are three days into the desert…three days into freedom…but the miraculous escape from the Egyptians through the Sea is no longer on their mind…what they are interested in are cold facts!

Water and Bread
Water
Bread
i.e. – their most basic physical needs!
Biblical faith has always been about physical needs. It has always been about God providing bread and water when we need it.
 We might think Christianity is more about spiritual highs and mystical, charismatic experiences…and it is!
But our God knows we are human too. He knows we are as the Bible tells – ‘Made from dust’ – Made from the soil of the Earth. We are physical beings…
 as well as spiritual ones!
So, this situation in the desert for the Israelites is a real one…very real…If this new God that Moses has told them about…who has delivered them from Egyptian slavery is to be trusted…believed…he’s got to look after their physical needs…and this is not going to be a straight forward process when you have tens of thousands of people camping out in the desert. Imagine New Wine or Greenbelt, Glastonbury or Reading festivals without the portable toilet facilities, shower blocks and fast food takeaway vans…this is not an easy task. So, when we put this story in context it’s perhaps no wonder that when the Israelites glimpse from afar the glimmering pool of water at Marah, they are overjoyed to have found a source of refreshment…only to be (excuse the pun) bitterly disappointed!

²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

“What are we to drink?”

Good question!
For the Israelites 3 days into a desert hike and camping trip…it’s a very real issue.  For us in 21^st Century Britain with clean drinking water on tap and warm water for baths and showers in the boiler – our needs may be very different.
But nevertheless, there are times in our lives or there will be at some point times in our lives when we are desperate for refreshment…desperate for comfort…desperate for replenishment…and suddenly we find a source of comfort…only to find out that actually it is BITTER and no comfort at all. Actually, it is bitter water…undrinkable…a bitter illusion of refreshment!
I think of those times at the end of the month when, the numbers in the bank account look smaller and smaller…how am I going to survive till the next pay check? Or the times when one starts a new relationship which initially fulfils only rapidly begins to disintegrate even quicker than the last one…under the pressures of the daily routine. Or perhaps, it’s the question of funding for the Bridge…we have funding enough for today, but what about in the future?
At some point we will ask: What are we to drink?!

Moses does what every servant of God should do.
He doesn’t hold back!
He doesn’t control his emotions or look like he has a back-up plan – a plan B for these very circumstances.
No, he cries out to the LORD!

 ²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood.

Six words in the NIV translation -  Moses cried out to the LORD

No holding back… no smart suited boardroom meeting…he just asks God for help…
What is his prayer? We don’t know…but it is probably as simple as ‘Help!’
and God answers him. God shows him a piece of wood:

 ²⁵ 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.

Now some writers say there is perhaps nothing miraculous about this story as in the desert where the Israelites were camping there are known to be pools of bitter water which can be remedied with a certain kind of wood that has herbal properties. There is literally a bush that grows in the desert which makes bitter water sweet.

But could there also be a analogy for us here as Christians…could the piece of wood represent for us something prophetic…something that foretells the future of a different piece of wood that 1500 years later would take away a different kind of bitterness and poison from our lives…from the whole world’s lives?
Could the piece of wood God showed Moses represent the Cross of Jesus?
A dry length of wood that soaks up the toxicity in the undrinkable water…is it just our imaginations to think that this might be an ancient foreshadowing of the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross…taking in all the evil and bitter suffering of the World in his own flesh…as he hangs upon two beams of rough wood…His own blood soaking the dry grain as he takes upon the Sin of the World.

Did not another desert Prophet, John the Baptizer, in a much later age, say of Jesus?
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29

‘(Moses) threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.’
The bitter water became… sweet.
Sweetness out of bitterness!
Isn’t that what we want to happen in our own lives?
For our bitter experiences to become sweet?
For our tears to become laughter?
For our mourning to become joy?
For our open wounds to become healed?

Our society:
Our society is widely recognised as both a consumerist society  and as a celebrity society.
That means:
When we feel sad or unhappy or ashamed or we tend to solve the problem of these difficult feelings by buying something.
We consume.
We consume to solve our problems.
We also live in a celebrity society.
Where certain glamorous men and women represent to us in full multi-colour, high definition the kind of success and adulation we would all like for ourselves, but cannot have…at least not to the same degree.  We can see the allure of celebrity in the array of talent shows that have become such a huge hit over the last ten years or so…many people desire to be a celebrity…many people long for that glamorous lifestyle of a pop star or movie actress…we crave their beauty… We long to escape our own mediocre, dreary, routine lives, with all the chores and petty arguments with spouse or kids and be whisked away into the world of starlight celebrity…at least I do! Or is it just me?!
If we can’t become a star, we can make a deal
But if we can’t become full on celebrities our consumer society says actually if you work hard at your job and earn some money then I will allow you to ‘BUY’ – i.e. exchange some of your cash, which you have earned working away in a rather ordinary unglamorous job for a little bit of the celebrity shine…
So, we look to these celebrities for some of their magic and wonder to kind of rub off on us by buying a magazine telling us about the lives of celebrities or we watch on TV a documentary, we buy the latest DVD or download a music track, purchase the same brand clothing etc, etc
In this way, we can partake in the celebrity glory…even just taste it a little in exchange for money…of course the problem arises when we run out of money…then we really become stuck…but if we have money we can put up with it for a while…

Why? Because the lives of celebrities are SWEET and our lives are BITTER

If I may, I would like to share with you a story from my own life that happened recently:
Dream testimony – Mr. Jesson’s ‘sour berries’ + Bitter fruit tasting good, ‘Better than normal sweet fruit’
In the end…God does lead the Israelites to a place of abundant fresh water…12 springs at Elim. In the Bible the number 12 is a number of completeness – fullness. 10 is also a number of completeness and fullness, but 12 is ten + two more so it is a number of abundance, more than sufficiency. There are twelve tribes of Israel – twelve different family groups – with twelve distinct identities all of them catered for.
Twelve springs of fresh water – an oasis in the desert and trees too…trees for shade and lush greenery. But the journey takes us first through the bitter waters. God wants to prepare us for the fresh water by taking us through the bitter experiences…and showing us…in a way that the World cannot do…in a way our consumer, celebrity society cannot offer us… God shows us, like Mr. Jesson, that he is able and willing to transform our bitter experiences into sweet ones. This is a unique mission that only the Church…God’s People can share with the World. It doesn’t cost you anything…you can’t buy it…you just have to cry out to God and ask for his help and when he shows you the answer…the stick of wood… the teachings or Word of God…pick it up. Obey him and cast it into the bitter waters of your life… and they shall turn sweet…because God doesn’t want you to be in perpetual mourning. He wants to set you free. Free to enjoy the twelve springs of fresh water he has for you around the corner. The reality is though that we will never fully appreciate the fresh water springs until we have first encountered the bitter waters and seen them transformed.
 Crying out to God is the answer.
The command of God is the answer. Pick up the piece of wood – the Cross – it is the answer.
Throw it into the bitter waters. There it will soak up the poison and your life will become sweet… a special kind of sweetness, born through suffering, but redeemed through God’s Love. It is a prize, that not even the World with all its celebrities can offer.
Will you cry out to God today?
Will you listen and obey his command to pick up the piece of wood and throw it into the waters of Marah in your life?

By David L Fletcher (Copyright 2010)