Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too much,
because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy for
today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect yesterday's
portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going
to change all of that. Let's experience God's words today
and receive the power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives.
Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Sunday, August tenth,
twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's Word every single day, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson
study series through the Book of Exodus. We are marching
into Zion by the way, going from and going from
Egypt straight through to the Promised Land Egypt to Canaan.
And our caption for today is bitter waters. Oh my
bitter waters. We'll get into that in just a moment,
but first I'd like to say welcome to you and
ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community. Please pick up your Daily
Portion Life application guide and let us know where you
are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.
This is one of the ways that we continue to
build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and
then we will get underway. Father, We thank you for
this new work week and for the privilege that you've
given us to see what our ancestors experience with you rise,
whether for good or for ill. Please teach us to
not repeat the mistakes of the past, but learn from
people like Joshua and Caleb and Abigail and others in
the scriptures who who knew what the right pathans and
then actually lived it. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen
and Amen again, bitter waters. So much to say, so
little time. Let's go ahead and jump right into Exodus
chapter fifteen. Exodus chapter fifteen Versus twenty two through twenty seven.
And let me just say, for all of the teachers
out there, you're preparing for Sabbath coming, you need to
actually be preparing. That's how we're able to run through
the lesson like we do here at your Daily Portion,
because we're actually preparing. Please do that, and the people
that you serve will thank you. Going in at verse
twenty two, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea.
And if you're following, I'm gonna skip some parts. And
now we go to verse twenty three. And when they
came to Mara, they could not drink of the waters
of Mara. Why not for they were bitter. And he
cried unto the Lord, and the Lord verse twenty five
showed him a tree fast forwarding, and the waters were
made sweet. So God gave Moses the solution to the
problem of no water, and then to the problem of
the water. We now have discovered is not poddible, It
is not drinkable, it is bitter. So God gave Moses
the solution to their need for provision. Somebody just got that.
Somebody just got that. This was not a health message discussion.
This was not a well let's discover what tree that
Moses used, and we can go find bitter water and
it can be transformed to poddable water, like like some people,
you know use instead of floculent some people use the
seeds of of the maringa tree in order to purify water.
This is not what we're talking about. We're not replacing
God with the solutions that he gave that looked practical
and actual. You see what I mean. Like, when God
sends you a job, it's not the job that you worship.
I think somebody just got it. When you are lonely
and God sends you a companion, it's not the companion
that you worship. You see, when God has resolved a
part of confusion in your mind and he sends you
another human being to give you some structure, it is
not the other human that gave you structure that you worship.
God is the provider in this case and in all cases.
And so Mara, Mara. It means bitter. That's a Hebrew word.
It means bitter. It symbolizes hardship and disappointed. Have you disappointment?
Have you ever been mara, somebody's getting it? Have you
ever been and bittered by your circumstance? M Have you
ever been scarned in a relationship and now you are bitter?
Have you ever had hardships whether you brought it upon
yourself or it came from someone else? Have you ever
been disappointed? There's some things that you want to do,
and you've been begging God, please allow me to do this,
and He has allowed you to be disappointed. Mara, it
is bitter. And then and then there is another word introduced,
ma tholk. Ma tholk. It means sweet, it's pleasant, satisfying
to taste or experience. So God transforms their experience from bitter,
a hardship, a disappoint meant when they were completely thirsty
to the extreme. And finally they see the water that
is set out before them and they realize they can't
even drink it. And then God brings my tholk. It's pleasant.
Now that hardship that was burying us in our minds
is now pleasant. It is now satisfying, no longer disappointing.
It's no longer bitter, but it is satisfying to the taste,
satisfying to the taste. And so God's people's bitter water
crisis is symbolized the bitterness of unbelief, oh and the
need of faith under pressure. You see, when you're faced
with a bitter trial, do you choose to have faith
and to wait for my thought? Or do you complain
to God and say, God, how could you bring me
to this point? And I get disappointed? You see, And
so the tree is seen as a test of obedience
and divine cooperation, a symbolic for shadowing of the Cross,
which brings sweetness to life's bitterness. Jesus turned the bitterness
of the cross into sweetness of eternal life for anybody
who chooses to believe. And then, of course, the miracle
is both provisional and instruction. God gave them the water.
We see that we've seen God make provision for them,
provided a way out of Egypt, provided a way for
them to be protected while in Egypt, provided a way
for them to eat manna from heaven, bread from heaven.
We have seen that He has provided the guidance that
they needed in order to get through whatever they were
going through. But it was also instructional. It taught here's
a big word dependence on God in dry places. And
so in the book Patriarchs and Prophets, page two hundred
and ninety two, it reads, God permitted these trials to
what test their faith. You're in a trial right now? Brother?
Are you in a trial right now? Sister? God has
permitted this to test your faith. Let me keep reading.
Every difficulty was a call to prayer. Some of our
brothers and sisters pray five times a day. Some of
our brothers and sisters pray three times a day. And
some of our brothers and sisters are following the model
that Paul showed us and Enoch, who walked with God
showed us of prayer without ceasing. You're like Dave. You
can't bow and pray all day long and all night.
That doesn't even make sense. But our attitude, our connection
with God is can be a prayer without ceasing attitude.
I would say, ask Enoch about that. But Enoch's in
heaven right now. Why Because God wanted him with him.
He saw that Enoch wanted to be connected to him
to the degree that God couldn't wait until the end
of time as we know it. He said, I need
him with me now because he knows what it is
to live though without ceasing experience with me. Okay. And
so it's a lesson that the bitter experiences of life
can be sweetened by trust in God. And now we
apply it to ourselves. Don't judge God by your most
recent hardship. Trust him beyond the bitterness. God doesn't always
remove the desert, he doesn't always remove the bitter water,
but he sweetens it. He sweetens what is bitter when
you obey his voice. Obey.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,