Ex 15:22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Ex 15:23 Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah..
Ex 15:25 So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet...
.
In
verse 25, we see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the tree that made the bitter waters sweet. Spiritually
speaking, we are like the bitter waters. We are spiritual criminals who are
totally unacceptable to God.
But the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for us. He provided a
payment for all our crimes against God. And at the moment of trusting in Him
and what He did on the cross, He imputes to us His own righteousness, making us
totally and perfectly acceptable to God. In ourselves, we are bitter. In
Christ, we are made sweet.
Notice two things here:
First, it was only when the Israelites realized their needy condition that God
showed the tree. In the same way, the message of the cross of Christ will
remain obscure to us, if we haven’t seen our needy, helpless and hopeless
condition in saving ourselves.
Secondly, the mere existence of the tree was not enough. It had to be thrown
into the waters for the waters to be made sweet.
In the same way, the availability of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and the
fact of His death on the cross for us will do us no good, if it is not applied
to us.
It is at the moment of faith, of trusting in the Savior and what He did on the
cross, that we are saved.
GAL 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse
for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—
2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him.
