And There He Tested Them
“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose wounds you were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
Have you ever been so thirsty that it didn’t matter what there was to drink? While your thirst grows, you might be discriminating, but if it’s prolonged, you might drink anything. Anything, that is, that is drinkable! After Moses led the people through the Red Sea and they celebrated God’s victory over the Egyptian Army, they walked into the wilderness without finding water. When they arrived at Marah, they couldn’t drink the water because it was bitter. Imagine being parched from three days of walking through the desert, and the water you put to your lips to quench your thirst is like seawater! “What shall we drink?” the people complained.
Moses prayed, and the Lord showed him a tree to cast into the water to make it sweet. The story doesn’t say that the people drank to their satisfaction, nor does it say that they repented for their complaining. The one may be assumed, the other may not! It does say, however, that “It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them a standard to test their faithfulness to Him.” Their faithfulness would be the principal requirement to possess the land the Lord was bringing them into. As David would later sing, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.” (Psalm 37:3)
And this was the standard they were to live by: “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians.” You may think it particularly egregious that the Lord would allow them to suffer, but they only first needed to evaluate their unfaithfulness to Him, “for I am the Lord who heals you.”
Are you desperately thirsty for healing? The Lord has promised by His eternal name, Jehovah Rapha. That tree for the healing of the water has become the healing for the nations! For by the cross of Jesus, all sin is pardoned, and by His stripes we were healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
Read: Exodus 15:19-27; Leviticus 26; Isaiah 53
Listen: I Am The God That Healeth Thee