22Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water. 23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.) 24So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” 25And Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them, 26saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
READ THE WHOLE CHAPTER →Three days earlier, these people had been singing. They had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground and watched Pharaoh's army disappear under the water. Miriam had a tambourine in her hand and the whole camp was dancing. Then they walked into the Desert of Shur, and for three days they found no water. When they finally did, at a place called Marah, it was bitter. They could not drink it.
It does not take long, does it? Three days from praise to complaint. The people grumbled against Moses. “What are we to drink?” Before you shake your head at them, think about your last three days. A worship service on Sunday. A flat tire on Monday. A bad report on Tuesday. And suddenly the same heart that sang is asking whether God is paying attention.
Watch what Moses did. He did not grumble back. He cried out to the LORD. That is the difference between complaining and praying. Both start with a real problem. One talks about God. The other talks to God. And the LORD answered. He showed Moses a log, Moses threw it in the water, and the water turned sweet. God did not explain the chemistry. He just did it.
Then God told them who He is. “I am the LORD who heals you.” He did not say, I am the LORD who healed the water. He said you. The bitter water was a picture. The real healing God was after was in the people. Their thirst was real, and He cared about it. But their bitterness ran deeper than the well.
We need to read verse 26 carefully. God attached it to a call to listen to His voice and keep His commands, and He promised Israel He would not bring on them the diseases He sent on Egypt. This was a specific covenant word to Israel in the wilderness. It is not a guarantee that faithful Christians will never get sick. Godly people get cancer. Good pastors get dementia. Paul left a friend sick in Miletus. If someone tells you your illness proves your faith is weak, they are not reading the Bible. They are adding to it.
But do not swing so far the other way that you stop believing God heals. He does. Sometimes through a surgeon's hands. Sometimes through medicine. Sometimes in ways no doctor can explain. And always, for His children, completely and finally on the other side of the resurrection. The name stands: He is the LORD who heals. The question is not whether He heals. The question is when and how, and those belong to Him.
Here is the deepest healing of all. Isaiah looked ahead to a Servant who would suffer for His people and wrote, “by His stripes we are healed.” Peter applied that verse to Jesus' death on the cross and said He “bore our sins in His body on the tree.” Our worst disease is sin. It turns everything bitter. And the cure was not a log in the water but a Savior on a cross. Jesus took the bitterness so we could drink the sweet.
So maybe you are at Marah this morning. A bitter report from the doctor. A bitter marriage. A bitter spirit you have been nursing for years toward someone who hurt you. Do what Moses did. Stop grumbling about God and cry out to Him. Tell Him exactly how bitter it is. Then trust Him to heal in His way and His time. And read the next verse, Exodus 15:27. The very next stop was Elim, with twelve springs and seventy palm trees. Marah is not the end of the road.
Rapha is the common Hebrew verb for healing, used of physical illness and also, in other passages, of restoring a land, a nation, or a broken heart (Psalm 147:3). In Exodus 15:26 it appears as a participle with God's name: “I am the LORD who heals you,” sometimes written Jehovah Rapha. The point of the phrase is not a technique for healing but the character of the Healer.
OPEN H7495 IN THE DICTIONARY →LORD, You are the One who heals. I bring You the bitter places in my life, in my body, in my relationships, and in my own heart. Forgive me for grumbling when I should be praying. Thank You that Jesus bore my sins and by His wounds I am healed of the deepest sickness I have. I ask You to heal what hurts today, and I trust You with how and when. Lead me on toward the springs. In Jesus' name, amen.
Turn one complaint into a prayer today. When you catch yourself grumbling, stop and say it to God instead of about Him.
- Where have you moved from praise to complaint in a short amount of time, and what triggered it?
- What is the difference between grumbling about a problem and crying out to God about it?
- How does knowing that sin is our deepest sickness change the way you pray for healing?