I love setting goals. I love being inspired to set lofty personal and family objectives. And I
love pushing the envelope, stretching to see what else amazing life has to offer.
But have you ever envisioned
something so wonderful, way off in the distance that you almost died trying to get it. And then when you finally GOT
IT, you wanted to gag? “What kinda mess is this?!”
Well, that is precisely what
happened to the children of Israel in Exodus 15:22. Flying high off of a stunning liberation operation from a brutally
oppressive regime, they added some of the most legendary victory hymns to their national repertoire as they marched off into
exhilarating FREEDOM.
Both the horse and the rider, He has hurled into
the SEA
Who is like the Lord? Nobodyyyy!
But the vocalists
weren’t the only ones whose throats began to get a little dry. Water, their most powerful weapon in defeating
the enemy at the Red Sea, was now conspicuously absent as they traveled in the wilderness for three days without it.
Three to five days is clinically just about the maximum a human can live without water. So understandably...
Goal Number One: Get Water.
When the Oasis of Marah miraculously came into view, it could
not have come at a better time. And since an oasis is literally a fertile or green spot in a desert or wasteland, made
so by the presence of water, THIS goal was of “get rich water
or die trying” magnitude.
Or was it? Was the goal really to get water or to get God?
After all, didn’t He just miraculously prove that he knew a little something about the wet stuff?
Let’s
go with the original. Goal Number One: Get Water. And after that business is straightened out, then
deal with God.
But when they got to their oasis, the water was not what they thought it would be. It was
too bitter to drink! So they called the place Marah which means bitter (Ex. 15:23).
Wow,
you did it! Girl, you got the BIG office. When can we celebrate?!
Celebrate?! I am swamped
and these people are crazy. The budgets are due and I can’t even unlock the spreadsheets.
Oooh,
I’m loving the new ride! Let’s take a trip up to the Outlets and go shopping!
Shopping?!
I can barely buy groceries with this car payment. What was I thinking?!
Omg, Tyrell is so fine!
How’d you wrestle him off the market?!
Hmph, seems as if he ain’t exactly off the market according
to his new colleague who happens to be my soror!
Why do I have this bitter taste in my mouth?! I’ve reached my goal. I should be so satisfied
and happy. I just about died trying to get to this point. Is this really it?!
This is a hot mess. Whose idea was this anyway? That guy Moses is going to hear it from me. This moving
on to bigger and better is bull!
Then Moses cried out to the LORD,
and the LORD showed him a tree;
and he threw it into the waters,
and the waters became sweet.
Ex. 15: 25 (NASB)
The TREE.
The water was no longer disappointing after the tree got in it.
Sweet.
What I wanted so badly, thought I had to have …for life even, may really let me down.
The oasis I seek is not simply in pursuing the water, but in asking God to show me The Tree.
