OUR AWESOME GOD

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Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.

When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

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."

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Exodus 15:22-27

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Water.

It’s one of the vital elements needed for survival. Our bodies need it, and in the right quantity, so they can function properly. Without water, dehydration will set in and death can follow.

As we read in today’s passage, Moses has "led Israel from the Red Sea” and “into the Desert of Shur." For three days, they traveled through the "desert without finding water."

Now ironically, the people of Israel were surrounded by walls of water as they passed through a divided Red Sea but now couldn’t find a drop until "they came to Marah" and finally found the water they desperately needed. On the surface, it appeared like all would be well for the Israelites, but there was a problem.

For the scriptures tell us that "they could not drink its water because it was bitter" and because of this "people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’" through their words, we get a sense that the Israelite people still weren’t firm in their faith in a God who had already shown them His awesome power and love. Sadly, despite all the prior miracles that God had performed, the people didn’t even consider that He could do something about their current circumstance. So instead of crying out to Him, they complained to Moses.

I wonder if we haven’t done this at one time of another as we faced a dilemma and complained to other people who couldn’t do anything to change our circumstances instead of faithfully turning to the Lord who could. Definitely food for our spiritual thoughts.

Going back to our passage for today, we find Moses receiving the cries of the people God gave him to lead before interceding with God for them.

How did the Lord respond?

We see where he told Moses to make the water drinkable by showing him a piece of wood.

Huh?

Moses had to be thinking, “The answer to making the water safe to drink is wood?”

Well, in this instance, the answer was "yes".

For we see that as Moses placed the wood "into the water”, it became sweet." It was yet the latest miracle God performed right before the eyes of the people of Israel. And as we see, the Lord took advantage of the situation by sending a strong message to His people, saying:

"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."

In other words, God demanded that the Israelites be obedient or else. God didn’t really want to bring hardship on His people but reserved the right to do so if they failed to respect Him and follow His commands and decrees. After all, He was the one and only God, a God of great power who had delivered them from Egypt through the great miracle at the Red Sea. They also had seen where Pharaoh’s stubborn heart and refusal to be obedient to God led to the Lord bringing "diseases" on Egypt. And so, it definitely was in their best interest to follow God’s command and you think they would have learned their lesson, never again disobeying God but as we will see later, they didn’t.

Quick question:

How much are we like the Israelites today?

I mean, like them, we see miracles happening all around us all the time as God is still at work and yet we still often refuse to respect God by showing the kind of faith that says, "Lord, I know you can fix anything in my life according to Your will and I am placing my trust fully in You."

Friends, our God expects our full faith and trust to be in Him for the truth of the matter is that there’s nothing we’ll go through that He can’t handle. Over and over again, He shows that He has a solution to our problems when we have none. For He is God, our awesome God in Heaven above, who reigns and rules in unmatched and unrivaled wisdom, power and love.

He is an awesome God. Believe and trust in it, now and forever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.