Moses teaches us that great
successes in ministry are often followed by failure. Moses led the people from the
Red Sea. They went into the desert of
Shur and for three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah they could not drink
its water because it was bitter. “Marah”
means “bitter”. Here’s this distasteful
experience; it’s no small problem. He’s
got three million thirsty people, one million thirsty animals. He’s got a major problem. It is said, “Great successes are often
followed by failure." It says in the Bible that
it was only three days earlier that they had the Red Sea victory. In the very first part of this chapter,
they’re singing a song of praise and everybody’s jumping up and down and
thanking God and their victory celebration is enormous. They’re having a great time. Great success.
The
greatest source of disappointment in life is people.
People let us down. They cop out,
betray us, criticize. They’re disloyal. They don’t fulfill a promise. The most common type of disappointment. When you’ve tried hard to help somebody and
they’re ungrateful, that’s the most difficult kind of disappointment. They say, “What have you done for me
today?” What’s worse is when they
criticize you for the effort you made.
how to deal with this. He understood
that great successes in life are often followed by failure. You’re going to have Marah’s in your life.
Marah’s? In Exodus15:25 it tells us, “There the Lord made a decree and there He
tested them.” God allows Marah’s in
our lives in order to test us. God had
just brought them through the great experience of the Red Sea and immediately,
three days later, they’re without water and they’re in a bitter
experience. God allowed the Marah
experience to check their reaction: “Do
they really trust Me?”
allowed the Marah experience to test them. It doesn’t say that at all about the Red Sea experience but about the
Marah experience. Our character is not tested
in the great spectacular successes. Our
character is tested in the daily irritations. The difference between the Red Sea and Marah is that God’s character was
revealed at the Red Sea, but man’s character was revealed at Marah. Disappointment says a lot about us. It tells us what’s inside of us, what our
reactions are, what our motivations are. Israel’s response was to complain, gripe, grumble, criticize their
leader. They were incredibly immature. Disappointments always reveal more about us
than they do about the circumstance.
of my favorite verses is Psalm 34:18 that says “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and He saves those who are
crushed in spirit.”