Jehovah RopheНамуна

Israel’s sin was revealed by a “test” (Exodus 15:22-25). 

It’s ironic to note that their immediate crisis, a lack of water, came directly after an astounding miracle that God worked through water. 

Three days after Israel’s deliverance through the waters of the Red Sea, the people were stumbling through a dry desert, unable to find a water source to assuage their thirst. When the Israelites at last came upon water at a site called Marah, they found that it was bitter, polluted, and unfit for drinking. This point of crisis for Israel was defined in the text as the place where God “tested” them (Exodus 15:25). 

Unfortunately for Israel, the test scores presented by these bitter waters of Marah revealed equally bitter and untrusting hearts on the part of God’s people: “So the people grumbled at Moses, saying ‘What shall we drink?’” (Exodus 15:24). The Israelites had just observed and celebrated what God could do with water when he held back the Red Sea, so why did Israel doubt God’s ability to provide for them? 

Much like the Israelites, it does not take long for any of us to forget what God can do because it does not take long for us to forget what God has done. Our hearts are sin sick and afflicted with a disease of distrust in God, and when we are faced with the immediacy of our needs, we quickly forget the long story of God’s mighty acts of deliverance and provision on our behalf. 

The real miracle at Marah is that in spite of Israel’s distrust and bitter grumbling, God still provided for them by purifying the brackish waters: “The Lord showed him [Moses] a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet” (Exodus 15:25).

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