Feb. 27, 2007 - Is there Marah in your life
Exo 15:23-25 KJV
(23) 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.
(24) And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
(25) And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
Have you ever come to a bitter place in your life? The Israelites did. In fact it was so bitter they named it after the Hebrew word for bitter, marah. Now it is true that it was the water that was bitter, but it holds so much of a parallel for our lives. Water is what provides life and without it life will shrivel up and go away. That is true with any form of life, from plants to humans.
Notice the first thing that the people did. Did they look around to find a solution? Did they pray to the God who walked them through the Red Sea? Did they have hope that they could make it through? No to all of those. They complained to the man in charge, Moses.
And what did Moses do? Well to his credit, though he did not try to find a way to get out of the situation, he did pray to God. Then God showed him a tree that when he put it in the water, would make the water sweet to drink. Now some will ask what it was that did it, I really do not care, because the kills the point I will try to make here.
Where was that tree when the Israelites complained to Moses? Where was that tree when Moses prayed to God? It was right in front of them! Anyone of them could have taken that tree and put it in the water, none of them did. The solution to their problems was right in front of them and they did not recognize it. And not only did they not recognize it, they did not even try to look for it. The people of Israel just started complaining. All Moses did was take the complaint and bring it to God.
You see, very often the answer to your prayer is right in front of you. We become so insensitive to things that in stead of looking for it we complain and gripe that city hall does not solve this, or the government should step in and take care of it. Maybe those complaints will make it to a person of God and what do they do? Do they take action and try to solve it or do they just pass it off as a prayer to God.
You have a tree around you some place that can take the bitter and make it sweet. You just have to look around to find it.
