Learning the Lessons of Marah Exodus 15:22-27

[Music] amen wonderful song isn't it open your bibles this morning to Exodus chapter 15 Exodus chapter 15 just to know that you are on the mind of Almighty God is a great blessing he loves you with an everlasting love and that love is real and he's done something about that love that he has for you he sent his son to die on the cross to pay for your sins for all eternity so that you wouldn't have to that's a wonderful God that we serve amen by the way pray for our deaf ministry they are downstairs was brother Rami rice I don't mean that's why he should pray for them Ronnie rides to a good godly preacher and he's preaching to the death this morning and it gives them an opportunity Rome service I hope that you will pray that the Lord will bless their time there and then also by the way these are not our vehicles that Isaac and I used to commute to church in okay if they were I would be in the green one okay just so y'all are well aware of that but but anyway I think these are going to be are these going to be given away in the VBS are and so kids be prepared for that parents pump your kids up about that I'm sure bringing visitors will count for points toward that and so I hope we'll have a great week Exodus chapter 15 great pastor scripture here many lessons to be learned I want us to jump in here and read it and then I'll give you the title of the message this see this morning by the way I need to say this for going any further good to have the Ingalls back in town they'll be here for this week and he's going to give a testimony and share with us tonight about some of their travels and then he'll also be preaching tonight and our evening service I hope you'll plan on being here for that I know it will it will be a blessing to you and I'm looking forward to hearing about how God's been using their family and their travels this past couple of months and so pray for him concerning that Exodus chapter 15 verse number 22 exodus 1522 so Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water and when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were bitter therefore the name of it was called Marah and the people murmured against Moses saying what shall we drink and he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree which when he had cast it into the waters the waters were made sweet there he made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he proved them and said if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God and will do that which is right in his sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep all his statutes I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee those are great words right there I am the Lord that healeth thee and they came to Elam where were twelve wells of water and threescore and ten poems and they encamped there by the waters I want to speak to this morning on the lessons of Marah the lessons of Marv let's pray together then I'll give you some more introduction and then we'll get into the message father we want to thank you for your word today I thank you very sweet spirit in our congregation this morning I pray Lord that you help all of us to learn some things today from what we see in the lives of your children as you were bringing them out of that bondage in Egypt and you brought them to their first test after the Red Sea and truthfully Lord they didn't perform very well but you gave them an opportunity to learn and Lord you tell us in your word in the New Testament that all these things were written for our learning it wasn't just an exercise of time whenever you had the prophets write down the truths that we see in the word and when you had Moses write down all the things that they experienced you did it for a reason and one big reason you did it was for us right here on this day in 2017 lord help us to learn from the Mara in the Old Testament but also learn from the life Mara's that we'll face in our struggle our walk with you in this world will praise and thank you for what you do we ask it in Jesus precious name Amen there are several things here that we need to talk about just getting us on the right path of understanding what we're looking at here in the story of Mara and truly you do have two locations listed here you have Mara which was the place of bitterness and you have Elam which was the place we would say the place of blessing but in reality the greater blessings came to the people of God in Mara as far as what God did with them and for them the children of Israel are fresh out of Egypt they have up until very recently been living as slaves in Egypt and now they have begun their journey to the promised land they have spent the last several weeks watching God decimate the most powerful nation on earth at the time and that was of course the nation of Egypt they saw each of the plagues destroy the false gods of the Egyptians they saw as God protected them and allowed his plague to rest on the people of Egypt they learned the lesson of the Passover and the necessity of the application of the blood of the Lamb and only three days ago they walked across the Red Sea on dry ground and watched as God destroyed what was left of the armies of Egypt with that water there there on the seashore when we pick up the story dead bodies of Egyptians may still be floating up onto the coast Exodus 14 31 is a fitting conclusion to the events that took place from chapters 5 to 14 look at verse 31 with me if you would Exodus 14 verse number 31 the Bible says an Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord listen now and believe the Lord and his servant Moses the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses that's what they got out of this event there there the Red Sea and there is a a fear of God that should be there now today we live in a society that wants to slap God on the back and calling the big guy upstairs I want to tell you he's much different than that he loves you with an everlasting love he was willing to die for you he sent his son to pay your sin-debt but I want you understand that God is holy and there ought to be a great reverence for him in our hearts I believe that reverence that fear of God is one of the reasons that we are in the condition we're in not only in America but in American churches today and so the people there verse 31 they they feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses chapter 15 opens with a celebration of victory on the shore of the Red Sea Moses and the children of Israel sing praises to God they saying that the Lord had triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea the Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation he is my god and I will prepare him in habitation my father's God and I will exalt him well they had a celebration service and rightly so now you've got the picture here what's going on they've lived as slaves the plagues of Egypt that final plague the death of the firstborn and all that takes place with that and the Egyptians finally comes on say get out of here and they even gave them money for their journey and they sent them on their way they spoiled the Egyptians without even having to fight and now they're marching through the Red Sea on dry ground by the way it's kind of like doing the as you walk down the hall and you see all those sea creatures on the walls and above you they weren't above them but they walked through it on dry ground and they're unarmed these people had no fighting experience the children of Israel were not an army there were a mob of people following the instructions of Moses who was getting his direction straight from God and God had made that very clear to them I mean God spoke from heaven and they said hey Moses you go talk to God and come and tell us what God says you know that's what happens whenever they face God personally and they said hey we'll do whatever God asks we will follow in his footsteps we will listen to you and there's the picture of the Passover and all that took place there in that covenant that's established with the people of God and God Himself they stand on that seashore because God delivered them he says I said they weren't an army prepared for battle so when the Egyptian army marched into that sea with their chariots and horses that were left those Egyptians were armed with swords and spears and shields and bow and arrow and they were ready for blood remember what Moses said to the people of God on the other side he said stand still and see the salvation of the Lord they're there waiting and seeking instructions and they're screaming and crying out because the Egyptian army is behind them and God simply put up a wall between them and the Egyptian army that the Egyptian army could not come through and Moses said go forward because that's what God told him and they marched forward they see this great victory the Lord triumphs they sang with great confidence they sang thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of an inheritance the Lord shall reign forever that's the final words of the song this song that they sang to the Lord now we're in chapter 15 we're seeing this celebration if you look at these these last few verses there let's see here verse number 17 look at what it says here very powerfully written and very confident in what God would do with them he says thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance into place Oh Lord which thou hast made for thee to dwell in in the sanctuary O Lord which thy hand had has hands have established the Lord shall reign for ever and ever now by the way they they weren't Baptist yet you know how I know that because me and grabbed the timbrel and her and the rest of the ladies went out and danced supposed to be funny but anyway they were rejoicing their hearts were full because of what God had done and they're singing his praises and they're with confidence saying that God will bring us to the promised land he reigns forever and ever that's what they're saying here great confidence they sang those words now three days later we see their response to thirst and it sounds much different by the way here's something that we need to learn it's not in my notes but it's been on my mind a lot sometimes you have to be thirsty before you can learn any real lessons we sometimes have to realize our need for God that kind of thirst before we'll ever really begin to learn some valuable lessons from God so here is this situation and they're in the their three days from the seashore on the seashore after a great victory they were married but now facing their thirst their murmuring now we must be careful here in this situation where we look at their lives and and see what happens with them we have to be careful not to be too critical because we've all learned that it is much easier to sing about or our trust and faith in God than it is to live it out in our daily lives in that truth so much easier to sing it than it is to live it if we're honest all of us could probably admit to having some days where we praise God on pay day and murmured about our jobs on Sunday you know why would God do this why would God bring or work such a mighty victory over the Egyptian army and then allow his people to walk three days into a wilderness and within three days now listen we've never traveled in a desert place you and I and somebody here maybe has been in that environment before but we don't understand what it was like to have nearly a million people perhaps and women and children and I'm sure they brought some supplies remember they left in a hurry they were packed and ready but they left in a very slated and bottled they didn't have a lot of excuse me a bottled water to take with them on this journey so within three days they're starting to get to where the water supplies are gone maybe they've been gone for a day maybe the women and the children are starting to really talk to the husbands about how desperate this is and talking about how the babies really have some severe need here and boy we need water desperately and then they come to this place in the desert this place called Mara and their Mara they find that the water though plentiful is bitter that's kind of hard to understand isn't it now here's something to point out quickly in the message this morning God's ways are above ours God knows more than we know amen he has a plan and a purpose for the Mara's of our lives and obviously they come before the eelain's was God being cruel I don't think so but don't we usually expect eelain's in life from God rather than Mara's you know I remember as a young man growing up in the East Tennessee and hearing especially some preachers and they would preach a message that sounded a whole lot like this if you get saved if you trust Christ if you begin to follow God hey the rest of life is going to be a breeze I want to tell you that's just not true now I do remember when I got saved oh my goodness the joy the Lord everything was so much better I was 19 years old when I accepted Christ my Savior and I'm telling you I was walking about a foot off the ground but I found out real quick that the devil wasn't happy with my decision in fact I found out my flesh wasn't too happy with my decision I found out some people that I knew closely that I thought would be rejoicing with me could care less about the decision I made I found out real quick that although I felt like I had discovered what every single person that I knew all of my close friends I've discovered what they're all looking for in the world and they'll never get it from the world I found it and boy immediately I went into them and said here it is and you know what they said good for you but not for me you see the martyrs come pretty quickly in the Christian life so what I'm trying to tell you and they have their place and have their purpose the truth is that God had still still had a purpose in their situation God brought them to Marah for a reason God wanted them to be there because he needed to teach them some things and listen to me God has Samaras for your life for the very same reason there are some valuable lessons to be learned when we come to the bitter places of life lessons we could not learn in Elam these lessons will teach us about ourselves and teach us about our God we need the Mara's and will certainly experience the elands but you know what we as believers need to do we need to learn to praise God for both and trust God in both now I want to say this because I again this is something else I don't have in my notes but you see them murmuring in Mara there's not a record at all of them praising or rejoicing in Elam it's kind of a sad situation but I think there's a reason that that's the way it is now let me give you these things that I believe are the lessons we need to learn concerning Mara and the Elam - but mainly my number one and I think these are very important if you take notes or even if you don't y'all to write these down because guess what you're going to have a life full of Mars and Elam as long as you're a Christian you're living on this earth you're going to have some Mars and Elam z-- even if you're not a Christian guess what you're going to have both and all of us would do well to learn the lessons from them first of all this is a very important one neither Mara nor Elam our permanent places somebody should sit amen to that point I thought that was profound neither Mara nor Elam are permanent verse 23 says when they came tomorrow verse 27 says when they came to eat them and you know what chapter 16 verse 1 says they took their journey from Elam you have to understand that these are not permanent places Elam and Mara were simply points of reference in their journey their time at both was temporary the children of Israel faced many more places and people that would fall into one of these two categories either Elam or Marah it's not always a place it's not always a need sometimes it's a person even that comes into your life they would be there would be sweet places there would be bitter places there would be easy places there would be hard places but God would be there in all of them with them you and I will experience the same in our journey of life brother bill Winstead used to say and I don't know where he got it but I thought it was good he that fella gave me some just sayings that I've remembered over the years that are very valuable here was one of them all sunshine no rain say desert all rain and no sunshine makes a flood I'm thankful God knows how much we need of both to keep our lives in the right balance for him remember as you pass through the Mars of your life that they are not forever and don't forget neither are the elands so the first lesson I think we need to understand is that these are not permanent places they did spend some time there at both of them and God had a reason for that but they they were not there to stay it came to pass and not the state that's a good thing to remember secondly we have to notice that Marv was a place of testing verse 25 says he proved them there he proved them the word proof means to test her to try and why would God test them for the same reason that a teacher tests their students that student needs to understand where they are with the material they're supposed to learn the teacher needs to understand that as well but when you consider God listen God already knows where you are so really the test that God sends our way are probably more for us than they are for God because we need to understand where we are God wanted to show them how far they had come and what they still needed to work on God was not testing them to learn for himself he was testing them so that they could learn about themselves and of course they could learn about God in Marah we often find out listen this is important in Marah we often find out because it is a place of testing the place of proving proving we often find out how much of Egypt is still left in us if we don't know how much of Egypt so to speak which is a picture of the world how much of that's left in us we may never deal with it and so God wanted them to see where they were in Marah we often find this out the children of Israel should have learned listen now this is so important because we get to the end this is what's going to challenge us I think and this is where we need to the lesson they did not learn but the children of Israel should have learned that their normal response to a trial was murmuring and turning away from God rather than praising and rejoicing for what God had done in the past and seeking Him in the face of a trial now they really didn't do that notice verse 24 and 25 look what happens here and notice the difference between the children of Israel and Moses the people murmured against Moses saying what shall we drink verse 25 he cried unto the Lord when you come tomorrow that ought to be your response crying to the Lord now I think he obviously cried about the need because God showed him the answer he cried to the Lord Moses did what they all should have done he cried out to the Lord the children of Israel murmured the word murmur means to complain to express discontent and really it means to express discontent toward Authority and that's exactly what they did here's a question I think we have to ask ourselves who directed them tomorrow you know what here's the reality they went on the exact path that God led them all these folks when they come tomorrow folks when they are three days into the wilderness and they're starting to run out of water guess where they are they're in the perfect center of God's will what I'm telling you is that sometimes being right smack-dab in the center of God's will you're going to come to some hard places in life and God has a purpose for it God doesn't lead you to those to hurt you he leads you to those to help you and that's exactly what he was doing with the children of Israel but it's so important for us to understand that this was all a part of God's plan for their lives he still loved them with an everlasting love he was still the same God who had delivered them from the power of Egypt he was the same God they had sung about three days earlier but now their faith is waning because they're facing a difficult time they're thirsty and they start to complain now here's this is important I'm telling you God's used this in my heart so I'm telling you the things that stood out to me that the Holy Spirit of God said thinly cut shawl you better learn this and here it is it is a tragic mistake in the life of the believer if he does not learn to learn from his Maura experiences let me say that again it is a tragic mistake in the life of the believer if he does not learn to learn from his Maura experiences they needed to know their tendency towards murder Bree the only way to learn that was to end up in a situation that would bring them bring it out of them the illustration you've heard it before about the tea bag when you get a tea bag somebody brings you some tea and I still remember I've gotten tea from different places in the world people have given to me usually as gifts if I go to a different place in the world want to drink something with caffeine in its used coca-cola or a cup of coffee sometimes like that hi potent coffee that comes from other places in the world but anyway those tea bags they'll give them to you all they say oh this is great stuff this is great stuff luckily how many of you understand you've learned this life lesson from bitter tea that sweet tea from the south is the best tea amen amen but seriously you get that tea and there are some tea teas that you can drink you don't even put sugar in them and people will tell you all this is so good this is good stuff and I've had people missionaries that come off of Hill old preacher here's a gift you'll love this you'll love this and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're way off base men they need some of my wife's sweet tea they'll understand what good to you but seriously you don't have any idea until you get the water hot and you drop the teabag in and then what's inside the tea bag guess what comes out in the water God has to get us into a place where he can bring out what's on the inside now listen this is so important and this is why when somebody else gets in a spot of hot water you see their reaction you don't know oh oh look at oh oh that horrible person I knew what was on the inside of that person because I want to tell you something when you get into that spot you have to make sure the same stuff doesn't come out in your life and God is going to bring us some places in life and it might even happen in an Elam that God brings out what's on the inside so that you can learn to deal with it this was a place of testing God proved them God one of them understand what they needed to learn and it's important that we learn to learn the lessons of Marah in our lives the third thing I want you to see this morning Marah was a place of teaching verse 25 very quickly says there he made for them a statute and an ordinance verse 26 we learned what those were he says if thou wilt diligently hearken verse 26 if I would diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God and will do that which is right in his sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep all his statutes I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee they needed to learn a lesson very early moving into the wilderness that God was the one that was always right they got boarded them to learn this if you'll live according to the dictates of my word you're going to face some hard times but you're also going to experience some great blessings now once again we get over to Elim guess what we don't find there we don't find one miracle in Elam we don't find one place where it says in Elam that God gave them a statute and an ordinance so what I'm telling you is this the children of Israel received more blessings and more they got more from God when they were in Marah than they did in Elam that's why it's so important that the Mars of lifetime now remember they're not permanent it's like Elam is not permanent but they're going to come our way and we must learn from them and God will teach you some great things in the Marah of life not saying you will learn anything in Elam but listen to me God is close to them that are of a broken and contrite heart when those children of Israel were crying out in murmuring if they had just changed that to crying out to God they would have experienced more closely the fellowship with God that they could have some of you learned that lesson going through hard times in life how close God draws to us in those times and here was Mara here they were and here's the lesson God's teaching that God wanted them to learn to listen to God to do right in his sight to obey his commands and here was his promise I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians I am the Lord that healeth the Jehovah Rapha God that heals God is teaching them that obedience brings blessing it was a simple but profound and much-needed lesson God uses the Morrow's of life to help us understand some needs of our lives but also he gives us that promise and that lesson that word of instruction that many times anywhere else in life we're not willing to listen to so it's crucial that you learn in Marah and let God lead and let God direct while you're there another lesson God gives them another lesson really that God gives more to us than he did to them I believe was the lesson of the Cross look with me if you would at verse 25 again Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree which when he had cast it into the waters the waters were made sweet there he made for them a statute and ordinance and there he proved them now I've recently heard a preacher preach from this passage of Scripture and his point I understood it was a good point but it wasn't scriptural I had to think about it for a while but it ended up not being scriptural here's what he said you and I have to learn in life to drink the bitter water we got to learn to drink the bitter water now he got around to the point of how God makes it sweet but here's the thing you know what the children Israel simply tasted it just got a taste of it but then God showed them how to make it sweet now here's how the bars of life become a blessing to you first you let them bring you to the cross where Jesus drank of the cup of the wrath of God that should have been ours he endured the bitter wrath of God so that you could be free from the punishment and penalty of sin you see I don't know how much the children of Israel understood this I know they understood some I mean God showed them and taught them with Moses he I think Moses understood a lot more than probably the rest of the people but understand this fact he's taught them about the blood covenant the lamb the sacrificial lamb they put the lamb the blood of that lamb on the doorpost of their house a lot of people believe it made a cross when they put it on the post of their house there and then the Death Angel came sweeping through and those that were under the blood were protected from God's judgment that's exactly what salvation is all about and then they come to this place where the water is bitter and listen to me think about this think about living all your life and listen I don't care who you are if you live in the lap of luxury if you have it made in the shade you've got more money than anybody could ever dream up and you have everything that life can offer you're still going to have your Mara's Andy limbs through life but when you get to the end of life if it's without Jesus if you haven't put the tree in the bitter water of life so to speak then your life not only will have those bitter disappointments now you talk about a bitter disappointment at the end here's one great lesson that you and I should learn today that God often allows the bitter waters of life to bring people to the cross of Jesus Christ and boy there's where listen there's where those bitter waters become sweet when you learn that lesson you learn the fact that God is in control and that Jesus Christ died for your sins and that God has an everlasting love for you and God's bringing you through these hard times and you may feel like you put yourself in those positions at times God's still going to use them in your life and you can learn that the bitter waters become sweet because of what God's doing in your life the greatest tragedy that could result in a person's life I believe is for them to not learn to learn the lessons of the Morrow's of life now here's what I believe happened with the children of Israel now by the way Marah was just a few days or just a short journey from Elim and they ended up in Elam very soon a neelam was a blessing it was a place of rest but they had to leave helium too you know that but in the life of the children of Israel now we're skipping ahead now because we know the rest of the story don't we I love like Paul Harvey said lastly the rest of the story what we know about the children of Israel is they really didn't learn the lesson you say preacher how do you know that because this crowd here had to stay in the wilderness until they all died off except for those that were under the age of 20 those younger people got to go into the Promised Land but that older crowd didn't learn the lesson now here's a point that we need to be careful about the older you get the harder it is to learn the older you get the harder it is sometimes to change I'll tell you this it's not impossible God brings us now I want to say this to our church and most of you know where tomorrow we got some bitter water the cross can make it sweet if you let God use it in your life to help you learn the areas of need in your life you can come through Marah and really enjoy Elam but there's another mark coming another even coming learn to learn the lessons of the Mars of life let's pray together

Channel: Finley Cutshaw

Views: 2,008

Rating: 4.4000001 out of 5

Keywords: bitterness, sweet, disappointment, salvation, wilderness

Id: s1OL18tA2L8

Length: 35min 38sec (2138 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2017