Into the Bitterness of Life

Into the Bitterness of Life

“Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water because it was bitter. Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” Exodus 15:22-23, 25.

Today I have been pondering the piece of wood God showed to Moses and what he did with it. The text doesn’t say that God told Moses to throw it into the water, just that God showed it to him and somehow he knew this thing God was showing him must be introduced into the problem of bitterness. This is quite important since as we journey, there is an ever present prospect that the waters from which we drink will be tainted with the acrid smelling, foul tasting bile we call bitterness! In this piece of wood  there is no psychological answer to why the water is bitter and no chemical or medicinal remedy to the effects of drinking the water. Neither is the wood a stirring stick used in order to mix the water into a more palatable concoction.  The water is bad and it is transformed by the introduction of a piece of wood! It is unfathomable to our mind why God would show to Moses a piece of wood and why Moses would see it as the answer to the problem.  That will always be a mystery.

But, there is another piece of wood mentioned in the Bible which might help us to understand what was going on with the bitter water and many of the other things faced by the nation of Israel as they wandered though the wilderness. On this Good Friday, God once again shows us a piece of wood that He himself will introduce into the bitterness of life with dramatic results. Today, as we survey the wondrous cross on which our Savior died, we understand that salvation is in and of the Lord. To many it makes no sense  that God could use the cross to sweeten the water of life so that we may drink and live, but that is exactly what He does. That piece of wood is a means He uses to bring about the miracle of salvation. “The son of man must be lifted up” John says; in that lifting up we are drawn to one who delivers and heals us of our defiling bitterness!