POST SALVATION
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. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? - Exodus 15:23-24
When they were in Egypt, they had been accustomed to crying out when they were in dire straights and anguish of soul. After all, it was their cries that God heard and that led to their deliverance. However, the magnificence of such promised deliverance from long bondage did not turn to their trusting God for a less complex deliverance from momentary thirst. “What shall we drink?” Another way of saying this is, We do not have anything to drink. Did they all of a sudden assume that God did not understand or have concern for their needs? Did they feel that in spite of the greater work of deliverance from bondage by the hand of God, they were now getting less than what they felt they deserved?
Though Israel's situation and location had changed, God had not changed, and yet the hearts of the people were changing toward God their Deliver from moment to moment. They seemed to respond to Go as if He were a mortal man like unto themselves. In effect, as to say, God, we will praise you when your actions and consideration toward us seem to be favorable, and we will cease to praise you even complain against you when we think that your actions are not favorable. If God were to respond to this error, He might say, When are they not favorable? Have I not always….? Although Israel had come out of bondage, you must travel through the wilderness because you are not yet a people who can appreciate plenty. The wilderness will test your loyalty to God.
God delivered us who were enslaved to sin from birth. The working of His power, the evidence of His mercy and grace. Due to our past blindness, we had not known we lived in the house of a liar, a thief, a murderer, and a destroyer because it was the only home we had ever known. The thoughts that we thought, we assumed them to be our own. Feelings that we felt were just a part of life, even containable. Although we may have hoped for better, we did not know that it was available and that ‘better’ was coming to us. This new way, this truth, this new life, would first move us out from the old house and into the direction of the new. Then there would begin the work of deconstructing us. Our thoughts, feelings, and desires would all be exposed in this next place, a wilderness. A place where there only seemed to be a lack our hearts would be exposed. In this place, we would have the potential to undergo a real change that would make up the new us over time, and we would completely forget how to live, think, and feel after the old way. In the wilderness is where we learn to trust God and to desire what He desires for us. It is where we gradually and painfully come out from our own will and way to fully and completely accept His. A complaint is what we offer up in resistance to such change. However, we must remember that God is the one who determines the stint of our wilderness stay, and He is sovereign over the trials that we will face therein. Tread lightly, as to not judge the character of God as if we had the right to do so. Should a man be the judge of God? Remember that not everyone will make it out of the wilderness. Some will choose to revert back to the thoughts and practices of their bondage.
“And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Lk. 9:62). A Kingdom is coming on earth as it is in heaven, and its King has already been identified. Now is the time that we are being groomed into its citizens.
