Bitterness can spring up in our hearts when we think God has led us to the wrong place.
In our last lesson, we imagined what it would be to have millions of people without water in the desert. But look up ahead. Is it an oasis? As the people drew closer, they realized the Lord had led them safely by the right way after all. But the first ones to scoop the liquid to their mouths spat it out! “Maw-raw!” they cried. “Bitter!” Thus “they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter” (Ex 15:23). Would this be a good time to pray? Not when we can complain to Moses! And that’s exactly what they did. And Moses? “He cried out to the Lord” (v 25). Dear believer, have you felt galling bitterness rise up in your heart? Some friend betrayed your trust? Overlooked in your work or ministry while others are promoted? Feeling that the Lord has let you down? Marah is a tough place to stop on the journey. Will complaining help? No. Some say you must pump out the bitterness—hold nothing back. But that will pollute the landscape for miles, “and by this many become defiled” (Heb 12:15). Holding it in won’t help; it will rot your soul. When Moses sought the Lord for His solution, what did He suggest? “The Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet” (v 25). Is the “tree” a figure of the Man of Psalm 1, or is it foreshadowing the place where, when all seemed dark, He gave the grandest display of trust in God ever given? It matters little. Peter links the two when he writes, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:…who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet 2:21-23). Hand it over to the One who can make even a Calvary sweet.