The Trial
at Marah
“Then Moses
led
God saved
the Israelites from slavery in
The trial
of the Israelites at Marah in those days provides for us who follow Christ
today four aspects of a lesson in hardships:
1.
Hardships are a test for the children of God. Sometimes, God
makes us encounter hardships so that we will be tested in our spiritual quality
and our degree of knowledge of Him. As with the function of academic
examinations, the purpose isn’t to torture the students, but to test their
degree of learning and absorption of the subject they had been taught. An
adverse circumstance could be God’s instrument to test the character of our
spirituality.
2.
Hardships are just temporary. The Israelites became panicked
after just three days without water in the desert, and grumbled against God and
Moses who had rescued them from
3.
Hardships are the turning points for spiritual revival. The
Israelites had drunk water from rivers, wells and rain. But it is certain that
none among the more than one million of them had ever drunk sweet water from
the stream at Marah. By means of a designated tree, God turned bitter water
into sweet. This was a wonderful miracle. Sometimes God will revive us from a tedious
life, mundane job, or depressed spirituality through hardships. If we wait for
and seek Him, God can convert a peril into a turning point, and hardships into
brand new blessings.
4.
Hardships compel us to trust God. The response of most
people to hardships is fear, grumbling, avoidance or withdrawal. When the
children of God face hardships, our response will be different from that of the
world if we truly know our place and are certain that God is with us. All
depend on our trust in the Almighty Father. Hardships are good opportunities
for our spiritual growth. They will nurture our genuine faith in God and
complete dependence on Him. If we are always successful and never encounter
setbacks, we will never learn the reliance on God that is generated through
hardships.
“This poor
man called, and the Lord heard him; He saved him out of all his troubles. The
angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them. Taste
and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”
(Psalm 34:6-8)
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