Tasting The Bitter

A commenter on Natalie’s blog made mention that she would be praying to Jehovah-Rapha on behalf of Natalie’s thyroid problems (I will stop linking to Natalie every other post when she stops getting in my head). I read the comment and immediately started to wonder if I was in the wrong place.

I have seen the true identity of God stretched and renamed by a number of religions, and I think I am naturally wary when I see something new applied to the basic truths I already know.

So I did what any web savvy member of my generation would do when faced with a question with no answer on file: I Googled it.

Rapha means “The God that Heals You”. I was directed to read Exodus 15:22-27 in which God reveals Himself as the God who heals. I’ll give you a brief overview of what I learned, because it really is something worth knowing.

Those poor Israelites. So much of what we know about their journey from slavery to freedom is wrought with all kinds of trials that begged them to ignore God’s hand on their lives. Exodus 15:22 finds them in the moments after Pharaoh and his armies were swallowed by the Red Sea right on the heels of God’s chosen.

Surely at least some of the Israelites looked upon the gurgling bubbles of drowning men and said, “God is for us”. Surely they would not doubt His sovereignty after such a great rescue.

Their backs to the bubbles, they walked on. In the hot, hot sun. For three days. No water. So. Thirsty.

And then finally, Marah. Water.

Can you just see how their eyes must have bulged a bit as they swallowed hard on their parched and swollen tongues at the sight of water? I bet they ran. I bet there was much laughter and even a bit of skipping as they jumped in and splashed about in the first reprieve of water they had seen since the Red Sea.

I’m not sure how it looked, but I imagine that one man scooped a nice handful of water up to his mouth and perhaps took a moment to let his distended tongue take in the sweet, sweet…

Gak! Spewing out the water, he raises his hands and alerts the others, “This water is bitter! We can not drink it!”.

Crushed.

How is this possible? Is God not aware that He has led us to bitter water? Did we follow the wrong pillar? We at least had water for our babies in Egypt. We have been led here to die. Why must our darkest moment conceive an even darker one?

Still so thirsty, the Israelites do the only dignified thing they know to do: they complain to Moses. (I would never do that.)

Moses takes their complaints to his best girlfriend and he tells her that the people are being mean and hurting his feelings. His best girlfriend then takes the complaints to her mother, because you know your girlfriends tell their mothers everything, and her mother sits down to the computer to blog about how dreadful it is that the water is bitter.

Wait.

They didn’t have blogs back then.

And also? Moses didn’t piddle around with his best girl friend, like we sometimes do. He went straight to God about the bitter water.

God directed Moses to a tree and Moses threw the tree into the water. The water became sweet and the people were saved. They were saved by Jehovah-Rapha, the God who Heals You.

Go read Exodus, or at least this site to learn more. Right now I just want to tell you what I took away from this lesson.

Sometimes we have to drink in the bitter before we can know what the sweet tastes like. Sometimes God will actually lead us to the bitter waters and this will be a moment when we are given the choice to decide what we believe.

Has God led you here to meet your death? Will you be left exposed in your shame? Does God not intend to fix what is destroyed?

You cannot answer those questions with authority until you have tasted the bitter.

Will He leave you exposed in your shame?
NO. (say it with authority)

Will He leave you here to die?
NO. (own it)

Really want to stick to the devil? Praise God for the bitter waters you cross. Praise Jehovah-Rapha for the healing we received from the tree. We only know the sweet because we have tasted the bitter.