And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (Exo. 15:24)
There are times when the things we learn seem wrong. In science class we are told that even when acceleration is decreasing, speed is increasing. The recording industry is beginning to think that they make more money when they give music away for free.
The Lord’s truth can seem counter-intuitive as well. Serving the neighbor is first in importance, but serving yourself is first in time. Doing whatever you feel like is slavery while submitting yourself to the Lord is freedom. Real charity is shunning evils within yourself as sins while helping the poor is only a secondary type of charity.
In Marah, the Lord taught the Children of Israel what to do when the waters were bitter; the Lord teaches us what to do when the truth seems confusing and unpleasant and therefor unholy and rejectable: heed the voice of the Lord. We need to have a basic trust in the Lord, that He wants the best for us and knows what He’s talking about—that He is Jehovah who heals us. So even when His laws seem counter-intuitive, we obey His voice instead of our own. The result of victory in this temptation is peace and comfort in an abundance of truth and the good things that come with it.
To see that this is true, read Exodus 15:22-27, Exodus 17:1-7, and Secrets of Heaven 8352:2, listen to the full audio sermon, and then spend a week on the following task:
Look for the good the Lord is bringing out of difficult, hard, and bitter experiences in your life. Consider the Lord’s eternal perspective on your life and look for the good in all situations. Even the hard truths and challenging situations in life are opportunities for growth. When you have a difficult experience, look for the good that can be brought out of it. What might the Lord be teaching you through these experiences?
This sermon is part 4 of 8 in our series, “The Journey: Realizing Spiritual Freedom”, and is on the subject of finding the good in challenges. Check back next week for part 5, which will be about receiving daily blessings from the Lord. For more information on the Journey, please contact us. To sign up for an online version, click here.
So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of Jehovah your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am Jehovah who heals you.”
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.
Exodus 17:1-7
Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of Jehovah, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.”
So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt Jehovah?”
And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
So Moses cried out to Jehovah, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
And Jehovah said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, “Is Jehovah among us or not?”
Secrets of Heaven 8352:2
A merely natural person cannot believe that anything such as [finding truth unpleasant] could be a cause of grief. For he thinks, ‘What difference does it make to me whether truths are pleasant or unpleasant? If they are unpleasant, let them be cast aside.’ But a spiritual person has an entirely different feeling. Learning truths and being enlightened in the kinds of matters that belong to his soul and so to spiritual life is the delight of his life. Therefore when those truths are lacking, his spiritual life becomes a trial and burden to him; and this gives rise to grief and anguish. The reason is that the affection for good flows in unceasingly from the Lord by way of the internal self, arousing accordant things in the external self which have previously been the cause of delight belonging to an affection for truth; and when these things are under attack from the evils of self-love and love of the world, in which too the person has previously taken delight, a conflict of delights or affections results, which gives rise to anguish, and this in turn to grief and complaint.
Comments are closed. Please check back later.