The first is this, which we have just read, Marah, where the bitter springs are made sweet. I want you to just see the occasion of each and how this language of testing is used in each story. This is actually the first of three testing stories that you have in Exodus 15, 16, and 17. Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter therefore it was named Marah. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. Let’s look first at the wilderness as the place of testing, and we’re going to begin by reading in Exodus 15:22-27. I really do believe that this is one of the most practical and helpful sections in the book of Exodus, and that if we will take it to heart this can have life-changing effects in our lives. We’re going to work our way through these three chapters, not reading every verse but reading some of the most relevant sections. They’ll teach us that first, the wilderness is a place of testing second, the wilderness is a place of provision and third, the wilderness is a place of judgment and grace. I believe that they will teach us three things. There are some common threads and themes that run through these stories of Israel in the wilderness. There are three stories that have a lot in common. This morning we’re going to look at three stories in particular from Exodus 15:22-17:7. The period in between is the period in the wilderness, where the children of Israel are journeying towards Mount Sinai. We are between the time when God delivered his people Israel out of bondage in Egypt, we’ve looked at that we’re between that and God then constituting the children of Israel as a nation under his direct, kingly rule, and then giving them his law in Exodus 19-20 and the rest of the book. This is especially true in the section of Exodus that we are currently in. It shows us how to walk with God, what it means to walk with God, and to walk with God through these different seasons of life. But this book is also very instructive about the life of faith. In this study in the book of Exodus-we’ve called it “Exodus: The Story of Redemption”-we have seen that the book of Exodus gives us the vocabulary, the images, the stories, the motifs for understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s really drawing from the wilderness experiences of the children of Israel in Exodus 15-17. This morning we’re going to talk about what it means to walk by faith in a wilderness experience, a wilderness season in our lives. In Christianity, these seasons of trials and tribulations have often been called “wilderness experiences.” When Christians talk about going through a wilderness, we often are referring to these kinds of seasons in our lives, where we’re going through difficult times, we feel like we’re in a desert, we feel like we are challenged by trials and tribulations at every hand. It could also come through seasons of spiritual difficulty, where we experience something like spiritual dryness or drought or even feelings of desolation and despair. It may be a physical sickness or some kind of suffering. It may be through relationship difficulties, it may be through financial hardship, stressful work environments. That can come in a number of different forms. One way or another we face trials, tribulations in life. We all face uncertainty, disappointment, grief, and loss. We’re going to be in Exodus 15, 16, and 17.Īll of us go through difficult times in our lives. ![]() Let’s turn in our Bibles this morning to the book of Exodus. Lessons from the Wilderness | Exodus 15:22-17:7
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