Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, ¡°The Bitter Water of Marah Became Sweet.¡± The Israelites who came out of Egypt went into the Desert of Shur and walked in the desert for three days. But, they suffered because they could not find water. They discovered water when they came to Marah and all of them shouted for joy and ran into it pushing one another, but could not drink its water because it was bitter. Anyone who drank it vomited because it was terribly bitter! The people began to grumble against Moses. The desert is a very tough place. If we travel through a mountainous area, we can find direction when we look for the peak. However, if we enter into a desert, we can't orientate ourselves due to the endless horizon everywhere we go. As the Israelites could not find water, they cried out and complained and then Moses prayed to God. There is nothing but turn to God in difficulty. God told Moses to throw a piece of wood into the water. When Moses threw a piece of wood that God showed him into the water, the water immediately became sweet. The Israelites drank water to the full and kept it in their wineskin. The bitter water became sweetened. Today, all people live thirsty and tiring lives in the desert called life. At the well in Samaria a Samaritan woman who had had five husbands and was living with the sixth man met Jesus while her heart was bitter. Jesus said to her, ¡°The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. But you are still thirsty in your life. but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst." Jesus says that we can¡¯t find living water anywhere else, now people are living a thirsty and difficult life in this world. This is because of so many thorns and thistles filling this life because of Adam¡¯s sin.

We have to live drinking bitter water of life caused by sin.
When we enter into the spring of sins, all water is bitter. The spring of sins can be found in Romans 3:9-10, which says, ¡°What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: ¡®There is no one righteous, not even one.¡¯¡±

There is no one righteous in the world. We are all sinners. Can anyone say with boldness that he/she is righteous? We are living surrounded by springs of sins of the world and enter into them now.


Galatians 5:19-21 says, ¡°The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.¡±


While we are living in the spring of sins, we also live in the spring of filth. And then we enter into the spring of diseases.


Psalm 38:3-4 says, ¡°Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.¡±


We are all sick and ill without soundness in our body. The most happy instance is that we can live without disease. To be sick is most terrible and painful. Nowadays there are countless people who suffer from diseases. It is beyond description how painful diseases make people! And another spring of curses exists for us. There are so many bitter springs for us such as the spring of sins, the spring of filth, the spring of diseases, and the spring of curses.


Genesis 3:17-19 says, ¡°To Adam he said, ¡®Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18.It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Adam and Eve were cursed due to their rebellion against God. And the final curse is the spring of death.


Romans 5:12 says, ¡°Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--¡±


Unsatiable thirst comes from these springs. Wherever we see, we cannot but be thirsty due to sins, cursed land, or disease. We suffer from this unsatiable thirst. Since the fall of Adam, any human being who leaves God all live a painful life with fundamental thirst in their spirit and soul. Everybody has his/her own thirst. People seek power and accumulate wealth, but these things can¡¯t quench their fundamental thirst. As a joke, people usually say that there are three things that do not exist in the world. First, more than enough salary. Second, a good boss in the workplace. Third, a perfect spouse that is after your heart. Salary is always less than enough and there is no perfect boss in the world and no matter how much you fell in love and marry your seemingly ideal spouse, there is no perfect spouse who satisfies you. The fundamental thirst of life can¡¯t be filled with anything worldly.

In this desert-like life, we should remember the words of Steve Donahue, a desert explorer. He said that our life is not a mountain that we can see cleary where to go but a desert in which we can¡¯t find where to go. Mountains have many peaks so we can find our direction through them, but in a desert we are surrounded by endless an horizon so it is very hard to find direction in it. It is an endless desert. Even if we look around all directions in the desert, there is nothing but a vast sand horizon. Then our life seems to be like a desert. In the desert, there is no way but also no food and no drinking water. There are only fiery snakes and scorpions there. Therefore, Moses confessed after 40 years of life in the desert as follows, ¡°through all that vast and dreadful desert.¡±(Deuteronomy 1:19)

Only when we come before the Lord can we receive the grace of the cross that gives us washing and holiness.


Titus 2:14 says, ¡°who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.¡±


1 Corinthians 6:11 says, ¡°And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.¡±


Next, there is the cross of healing and health.


1 Peter 2:24 says, ¡°He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.¡±


The Fivefold Gospel through the cross of Jesus has become a spring of life for us.


Exodus 15:25 says, ¡°Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.¡±


The cross of forgiveness and righteousness is found in Romans 3:23-24 which says, ¡°for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.¡±

We are living in the desert of life, but the grace of Jesus Christ makes us drink good water from the spring.

Galatians 3:13-14 says, ¡°Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.¡±


Jesus was crucified in our place. In the past, anyone who was cursed was hung upon a tree. Jesus was cursed on the cross in our place. Therefore, when we accept the cross in our hearts, all the curses will disappear from our lives.


2 Corinthians 8:9 says, ¡°For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.¡±


Jesus Christ was cursed and became poor and suffered pain on behalf of us. Now resurrection and eternal life and heaven become also sweet water for us through the cross of Jesus Christ.


1 Corinthians 15:20-22 says, ¡°But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.¡±


It is only Jesus who gives us life. During the Second World War, when many soldiers lost in the desert of Africa while carrying out an operation, they died as they chased a mirage. They mistook sand for water so they poured sand into their mouths and so suffocated to death from sand in the airway. While the German soldiers and the Allied Forces fought in the desert of Africa, many of them who lost their way suffocated to death from sand in the airway. Nowadays there are also so many people that do the same thing. In the desert of life, they keep chasing the futile things of the world to quench the thirst of life. However, they can¡¯t remove their thirst. Like sand in the desert, if we eat it, we will end up being suffocated to death. In order to solve our thirst of life, we must come to Jesus. Jesus says, ¡°but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."(John 4:14)


He also says, ¡°On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."(John 7:37-38)


Jesus also says in Revelation 22:17, ¡°The Spirit and the bride say, ¡®Come!¡¯ And let him who hears say, ¡®Come!¡¯ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.¡±


Today whosoever comes to Jesus can receive the water of life and will never thirst. Next, we speak about Yahweh Rapha, the God who heals.


Exodus 15:26 says, ¡°He said, ¡®If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.¡¯"


Jesus is not only the Savior of our souls but also the Doctor who heals us. God says, ¡°I am the Lord, who heals you.¡±(Exodus 15:26) Here the word, ¡°heal¡± means a doctor in Hebrew. God has become our Doctor who heals us.


Psalm 147:2-3 says, ¡°The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.¡±


Therefore, when we hurt in our hearts and body, we must come before the Lord. Then He will heal us and bind all our hurts and wounds. Jesus spoke of Himself as a doctor.


Mark 2:17 says, ¡°On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ¡®It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.¡¯"


Jesus came to the earth to revive humans who died from the disease of sins. The Lord says spiritual sins, mental sins, heart sins, and physical sins as diseases. Therefore, Jesus revives those who were dead in their transgressions and sins when they believe in Him and makes them a new creation.
God heals us and changes the bitter water of life into a sweet water and absolute despair into absolute hope. Therefore, whosoever believes in God should not give up in any circumstances. When we pray to Him, He will change all bitter water of life into sweet water. When we suffer from all bitter water of life, if we look up to the cross and the Lord on it, the cross will transform our bitter water of life into sweet water. He will change our sins into His righteousness, our filth into holiness, our diseases into health, our curses and poverty into richness to share it with others, and make us evade death and receive eternal life and blessing instead. The cross of Jesus Christ is the only way to change our desert of life and bitter water in it to sweet water. Jesus, the Son of God, was born in human flesh to revive us. Therefore, He came to the desert of our life and took charge of all bitter water in our place.
Is there anyone who suffers from bitter water in the heart? Please look up to the cross and hold it tightly and pray. ¡°Lord, thank you for giving me joy and delight and peace of mind and happiness through the cross. Lord, please keep me from trial and deliver me from evil this day. Lord, thank you for making all things work together for good. I indefinitely thank you! Let us always give thanks to you.¡± While you are living in this world, you can¡¯t change your desert of life into a beautiful garden, neither the bitter water of life into sweet water on your own. Only Jesus Christ who came in human flesh and died and was resurrected from the dead is with you now through the Holy Spirit. Today the Holy Spirit is here with us now. When you rely on the Holy Spirit and pray to the Lord, the mighty power of God will manifest. And through the cross our bitter water of life will be changed into sweet water.

The cross of Jesus Christ changes our life from bitter water to sweet water. The cross of Calvary is the greatest blessing in the world. Through the cross of Jesus, our desert-like life will become a beautiful garden and our bitter water will be changed into sweet water.