Hey Gang: One of my
favorite lessons that I shared with the boys, as chaplain at the Village, was
based on this passage of Scripture. I
would give them a piece of paper with ten boxes side by side. The first one, large and beautiful,
represented all the money they could possibly spend. The second represented all the places you ever
dreamed that you would like to visit.
And the third all of the things in this world that you have always
wanted that could now be yours.
Each one contained one of those things that makes our mouth
water with lust of the eyes, when we think about them. But there was one last box. It was ugly to the eyes and seemed totally
out of place. It had no title attached
to it. And there was always one of the
troops that asked the question, “Mr. H. what is in that little ugly box on the
end.
I would then tell them contained within that box was a book
titled The Lamb’s Book of Life and an invitation to The Marriage Feast
of the lamb. I used an illustration of
the first car that I was able to buy .I loved that car. When a speck of dust landed on it I
immediately washed it off. Weekly it
received a cleaning inside and out and barely a month went by when I did not
put yet another coat of wax on it.
I loved that car. But
one day I noticed a small area of rust, just under the driver’s side door. An area that soon began to expand and other
areas began to surface as well. And then
one day when driving down the road I lost power. The fuel pump had breathed its last. This was
followed with tire and other mechanical problems. And then one day my beautiful car breathed its
last and was dragged to the nearest grave yard.
When I read the story of the Exodus I wondered why God
directed Moses to take the southern route through the Sinai. The Northern route was much, much shorter and
there were fresh water wells along that route.
The southern route had no such wells.
Scripture tells us they were three days into the desert and
were coming to the end of their water supply.
Why did God send them down that path? Was there a little green box
attached to that decision?
We have since learned that the crystal clear waters of Marah
contain calcium, and magnesium which forms into dolomite, a muscle relaxing
drug used by long distance runners to prevent cramping in hot weather. It is also
taken by heart patients to keep the heart from going into fibrillation.
The Bedouins have a saying, “One drop on the tongue, and you
go for three days.” If you drink the
water for a day or two, the purgative actions stops and your body adjust and
you can drink the water.
So was Marah God’s best for the traveling troopers from
Egypt? Keep mind they were mud stompers;
they made mud into bricks. The water
came from the Nile which was infested with parasites and amoeba that penetrate
the blood stream, zapping the carriers of energy and stamina and the root of
many diseases. If they would have drunk
the water of Marah and kept drinking it, the purgative action would have
cleaned their bodies of all unwanted guest.
We read that many died of their diseases. Does that make God’s promise not valid? Not so!
It does point out the conditional nature of God’s promises. Paul, in Galatians 3:13 wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
Law having become a curse for us - for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who
hangs on a tree”.
Blessings,
Gramps
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