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A Bitter Taste
And when they came to
Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were
bitter...And the people murmured against Moses
(Exo 15:23-24).
In only 3 days the Israelites have gone
from singing to murmuring, and this might be the experience we have
had at times in our lives; we have gone from the mountain top of
spiritual experiences to the valley of despair. For the Israelites
at the waters of Marah, Gods answer
was to provide a tree, and
when cast into the bitter waters, they were made sweet.
We may not always realise it, but the
oasis of Marah is a normal Christian
experience. When a bitter experience comes to the Christian, it is a
puzzling and perplexing thing, and yet in the pathway of every
believer there is a Marah, and God
has arranged it. The answer for us too also lies in a tree.
The cross is referred to as a tree in
Act 5:30, Act 10:39,
Act 13:29,
Gal 3:13,
1Pe 2:24. The One who died upon
the tree knows all about the bitterness of the experiences of this
world. The cross met our need in salvation and so when "cast
in", it can make sweet the bitter experiences of life, c.f.
Act 16:25.
Here is how God presents it to us:~
What
sinners did at the tree (Act 5:30;
Act 10:39) Whom
ye slew and hanged on a tree. This was the ultimate sin
the execution of Gods beloved Son. He could pray to His Father and
have more than twelve legions of angels on hand, but when He did
pray to His Father, His prayer was not for the angelic armies to be
dispatched, but was Father, forgive them
.
What God
did at the tree (Gal 3:13)
The apostle has been showing in his letter to the Galatians how
the law brings us under its curse (Gal
3:10), but he goes on to show how those under that curse can
be freed Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He was treated by
men as if He were guilty of breaking Roman law, but a greater
mystery was that He was treated by God as if He were guilty of
breaking His law.
What
Christ did at the tree (1Pe 2:24)
Who His own self bare our sins in His
own body on the tree. It is amazing that the Lord would bear
the cross, but how much more amazing that He would bear our sins. A
man assisted Christ in bearing the cross, but in bearing our sins He
was alone.
What His
own did at the tree (Act 13:29)
They took Him down from the tree, and
laid Him in a sepulchre. After all the vile treatment He
experienced we read of the way He was buried. Removing the spikes so
carefully, washing the wounds so gently, covering the body so
reverently, and burying the body so devotedly
But
God raised Him from the dead (v.30)!
His experience at the tree is over, but
its sweetening influence remains for us.
Jesus
keep me near the cross,
There a
precious fountain,
Free to
all, a healing stream,
Flows
from Calvary's mountain.
Fanny Crosby
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