Once again God's people show their immaturity.  Just three days after celebrating the great victory that God gave them in delivering them from the mighty hand of Pharaoh, they find themselves thirsting and angrily complaining to Moses.  Moses in turn cries out to the Lord who shows him a piece of wood.  For some reason Moses picks this wood up and throws it into the bitter water, which in turn becomes sweet. 

There is a beautiful picture here; in fact there are several.  The people, Gods people need help and he provides it.  They are thirsty and he has made water to satisfy their thirst.  Water is a pure and perfect creation of God but something outside of God has made it bitter.  Something has corrupted God's work.  And the people of God have an urgent need.  They need salvation and once again He brings it.  But take note of its form.  It is far from what I would have expected or what I would have provided.  It is a piece of wood.  A piece of wood!

Now think about it:  you are thirsty and need water and you find it.  But it is salty or poisoned and useless to satisfay your need.  So you cry out to God, unhappy that you are so close to having what you need but still so far away.  And he shows you a piece of wood!   Didn't Jesus say:

 Mt 7:9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Well, it does appear that you have asked for water and God has done a cruel thing:  You now have water but it is useless.  Why would God do this?  God didn't:  Consider this story about a baker and his cake:

Ro 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

1)  In all things…  The baker takes salt, honey, sugar, flour and various other items and makes a cake.  The ingredients are “all things”.  If you take the salt or flour alone, they don’t taste good.  If you take the sugar alone or the honey, they taste very good.

2)  Works for the good…  The baker mixes them together in a way which complements the cake.  If he uses too much salt the cake is ruined.  Not enough yeast and the cake is flat.  But mixed together in the right way they combine to make the cake taste very good!

3)  According to his purpose…  The baker knows what kind of cake he wants to make.  If he wants chocolate he adds that to the ingredients, the “all things”.  If he wants strawberry frosting he adds in the strawberries…you get the idea.

And so it is with God.  He steps into the kitchen of our lives (those who love him) and takes the available ingredients, mixes them together in just the right proportion, adds his special ingredients to make the final product to his liking and out comes a beautiful cake!  That is God!  We simply have to trust that he can make all things in our kitchen good.  We must trust the baker’s ability!  No matter what the situation!

But perhaps in your life it’s more difficult.  Maybe Satan has snuck into the kitchen and put 10 times as much salt into the batter as there should be.  He knows that he has ruined your cake and he tells you so.  You are destitute.  Your cake was everything and you were counting on it to come out right.  You already invited 10 of your closest friends to partake of the special cake, telling them how good the baker was.  And now Satan has ruined everything.  As he runs away from the kitchen laughing and making fun of you, you have enabled him and defeated the good work of the baker in your kitchen.  How so?

Your friends who you invited to the party to see the good work of the baker are eager after all you’ve told them to meet this baker and taste his cake.   They might want to use this baker too.  He sounds too good to be true so they’re waiting for the final test before deciding whether this baker is for them.  And now they see you defeated and depressed because of the baker’s inability to deliver the cake in this circumstance.  This is not a good testimonial from you to the bakers abilities.

The baker (God) has told us in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in him in all situations, in all circumstances even when we don’t understand how things can get better.  In fact, in Romans 8:28 above he promises us just that—if we trust in him.  But you say how so?  Satan has ruined the entire batch of batter.  Yes, he changed it but has he defeated God our baker?  I think not.

You see, God enters the kitchen and immediately understands what has happened.  By simply dipping his finger in the mix he knows what Satan has done.  This is step one above.  Then in step two he determines in his sole and absolute discretion how to fix the problem.  In this case, he simply decides to add 10 times the amount of all the other ingredients and maybe a dash more of the honey to make it extra good.  In step three he decides the final touches and…the cake is as good as the original and ready for baking!  Only now it is 10 times as big and extra special!

One final precaution.  A cake that is 10 times as large as originally planned will take a special oven and a lot more time to completely bake.  So once again we have to trust in the ability of the baker.  He knows the ingredients, how to mix them together in just the right proportion, and how to add special things to make it come out just right.  And above all, he knows how long to let everything cook.

And so goes the hardships of our life.  Satan and his demons place obstacles and difficulties in our path.  Our friends watch us to see how we react.  Either we lift up God and glorify him, knowing that he can fix anything Satan touches in our lives, or we show our friends that we do not trust in God or his plan.  And when we persevere, patiently waiting for God’s plan to unfold, it will often be bigger and more magnificent than we could have ever envisioned or planned ourselves.  The Bible is full of examples of this.

Before going on please click here and listen to the song while reading the lyrics.

Chorus
And Jesus said,
"Come to the water, stand by my side
I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied
I felt every tear drop, when in darkness you cried
And I strove to remind you,
It's for those tears I died"

Your goodness so great, I can't understand it
And dear Lord I know now that all this was planned
I know You're here now and always will be
Your love loosened my chains, and in You I'm free
But Jesus why me?

Chorus
And Jesus said,
"Come to the water, stand by my side
I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied
I felt every tear drop, when in darkness you cried
And I strove to remind you,
It's for those tears I died"

Jesus I give You, my heart and my soul
I know now without God, I'll never be whole
Savior, You opened all the right doors
And I thank You and praise You from earth's humble shores
Take me I'm Yours!

Chorus
And Jesus said,
"Come to the water, stand by my side
I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied
I felt every tear drop, when in darkness you cried
And I strove to remind you,
It's for those tears I died"