lael的部落格

We will look at the “Five Wilderness Tests” for the next 3 days.

Chuck D. Pierce

1. Marah: bitter water

When they left the shores of the Red Sea, Israel traveled through the desert for three days without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Israel was in a bad situation. They were three days into their journey in the desert and were running out of water. This was a group of two million people—men, women, and children, along with all their livestock. If they found no water to drink, they would all die.

After three days in the desert, they came to a beautiful oasis. This appeared to be a miracle on their road. You can just picture them running toward the water and throwing themselves down at its edge, eager for a big drink of fresh water. But when they tasted it, they spit it out. The water was bitter! It was poisoned! Undrinkable! They still had no water to drink. Faced with this problem, they had a choice. Their first option was that they could choose to remember what God had done for them in the past. They could have chosen to believe He would provide. They could have said, “Lord, we will trust You to meet our needs.”

Their other option was that they could focus on their problem and grumble in unbelief. Unfortunately, they did the same thing we often do—they grumbled and complained. Let me camp out here for a while since this is where we normally camp out. In the Christian life, many of us never get past this first wilderness stop.Complaining, or murmuring, is dangerous. Here are four dangers of murmuring:

1. Murmuring cuts off our vision for the future. Jesus did not murmur and complain on the cross, because His eyes were fixed on the outcome: “For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). We don’t complain in the wilderness if our eyes are on the promised land! Our problem is that Satan tells us there is no way out of the wilderness. Satan tells us, “You will die in the wilderness—there’s no way out!” God says, “Follow Me! I have a promised land for you!” We get to choose who we’re going to agree with. When we complain, we are agreeing with the devil that our future is cut off.

2. Murmuring is dangerous because it causes us to doubt God’s goodness for the present. When we complain, we are saying, “God, I don’t like the route You have mapped for my life.”

3. Murmuring causes unbelief to deepen and grow. The Lord told me something awhile back. He said, “Unbelief is like a seed; if you water it, it will grow.” Every time we complain, we are watering our unbelief. What happens when you are underwater and open your mouth wide? Water comes in! In the same way, when we open our mouth to complain, unbelief floods in.

4. Murmuring invites greater adversity. Some of us have gotten into a cycle that gets worse and worse! When we’re having a problem with someone and we complain, what happens? We experience more adversity. Murmuring puts us under a curse. Let me prove this from Scripture. What was Israel’s complaint in the wilderness? The Jewish people said, “We are going to die in the wilderness!” That was not God’s plan. He had promised to get them to the Promised Land.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness.’”

 —Numbers 14:27–29

What was God was saying? “You have refused to come into agreement with My words over your life, so instead I will come into agreement with your words.” We must be careful about what we say.

Returning to the account of the bitter waters at Marah, we find that Moses cried out to the Lord, and God was gracious and provided. The Lord showed Moses a piece of wood. He said, in effect, “Moses, let Me tell you a secret. Bitter water is not a problem for Me! I can heal bitter water. See that piece of wood? Put it in the water and see what happens.” Moses put the stick in the water, and the water was healed. And then God said something else: “And by the way, Moses . . . I not only heal water; I heal people! If you listen to My voice, I will keep you well, for I am the Lord who heals you.” This is where God revealed Himself by the covenant name Yahweh Rophe. God was identifying Himself to His people as a God who would heal their physical infirmities. God wants us to know Him that way also. That is always part of who God is!

This was the precursor of our Healer hanging on a tree (the cross) to deliver us from all of our past murmuring and complaining and making a way for us to advance into the promise of eternal life. We can learn to praise God in adversity. We can praise God for His goodness. Even when God has us in the wilderness, there are blessings for which we can praise Him. When Israel was in the wilderness, they received manna (bread) from heaven. It came every day. Their shoes did not wear out for forty years. They saw the visible Shekinah glory of God leading them as a pillar of cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night. God’s goodness is not cut off from us in the wilderness. We need to take our eyes off the discomfort of our situation and look around us. We will surely find things for which we can offer praise. We can praise God for His presence. No matter what wilderness we are in, God is in it with us. His presence is there. We can praise God for the outcome. No matter what wilderness we are in, God has a plan for us through that wilderness, and it is a plan to take us into a place of promise.