Have you ever asked the question "Why Lord?"

“When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter”. (Exodus 15:23)

Hey Gang: Did you ever ask God why? I certainly have. I wonder if Moses might have asked God why, when He (God) told him he should take the southern route when leading the children of Israel out of Egypt to Canaan. The northern route would have been much shorter and, when leading a million or more people with all of their animals, you most certainly would want to take the shortest route to your destination.

Moses was a seasoned veteran of the wilderness, having spent forty years as a shepherd there. He was very aware that the wells on the northern route were deep and the water sweet to the taste but the southern wells were bitter water. The Bedouins have a saying “One spoonful and you go for a week.”

Three days is the maximum time one can survive in the desert without water. The people were at the end of their water supplies when they saw the green oasis, which they knew meant liquid refreshment – problem – the water was bitter.

Did God not know that Moses would have open rebellion on his hands when the people found that the waters were bitter? There is no question that He did. But God had a plan already in place – a tree by the waters. God said to Moses, throw it into the waters. The results, cool, clear, clean water. Did you know that beside each Marah there is a tree?

But in reading this account in Exodus, I wonder if this was not God’s second best. Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane confessed He did not want to drink the bitter water, yet He surrendered to God’s will. His prayer as He knelt in the darkest night of His soul “not my will Father, but thine be done,”.

By grumbling, the children had refused the bitter cup and missed God’s purpose for their lives, for you see the bitter waters of Marah contained magnesium, calcium and dolomite, a drug used by distance runners to strengthen their leg muscles. The calcium and magnesium would have cleansed their bodies of the amoebae parasites and death dealing germs that they had picked up in the mud pits of the Nile. The bitter waters would have done their cleansing wash in a couple days and they would have been prepared for the long trek in the wilderness.

Soooo, young lads and lassies, keep in mind, God never brings a hindrance into our lives that He does into intend to be used to open another door that would not have been opened otherwise.

Blessings

Gramps