Exodus 15 sets the scene for “The test” – when for “three days the Israelites travelled in the desert without finding water” (22), but at the first oasis they come to, desperately thirsty, “they couldn’t drink the water because it was bitter” (23).
And Yahweh did that. He took them that route on purpose, knowing that they and their children, the elderly, the exhausted, and all their massive flocks and herds, would end up in a life threatening situation. But after boatloads of evidence that he had the power to rescue them from sure death, not only from thousands of bloodthirsty Egyptian soldiers, but also from a watery grave, what was the problem? And what about the song the Israelites had just sung earlier in the chapter too, with the words, “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling” (13).
But hit with this latest crisis, “the people grumbled against Moses” (24). So Yahweh gave Moses some needed credibility in their eyes by “showing him a piece of wood,” which Moses threw into the bitter water and it became wonderfully and drinkably sweet, all of which put the final props in place for “The test” (25).
It had all been beautifully choreographed by Yahweh – both the scary problem and the memorable solution – to get across the point in verse 26, that “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.”
That wasn’t difficult for the Israelites to grasp too, because they’d seen what Yahweh had done to the Egyptians, and they’d just sung why he’d done it too, that “you threw down those who opposed you” (7). The Egyptians were given the chance to humbly accept the obviously superior power of Yahweh over their own gods, but they were too arrogant for that, and they paid the price. So Yahweh was now offering the Israelites the same chance, and he’d show what humbly accepting his directions and power would do for them instead.
Arrogance or humility, that was the test. And how brilliantly useful knowing that is when, like the Israelites, we too are being “Hit with overwhelming circumstances”….(next blog)
