Daily Radio Bible - January 26th, 22

Week Three Reflections with Hunter
https://youtu.be/uUq-zxEcBPM

What’s standing in your way? Is it a big Red Sea or perhaps a small pond of bitter water?  What is standing in the way of you living the life that you’re intended to live?  When that obstacle seems to be removed there’s dancing, worship and song.  But when it shows up again, the dancing disappears.

The Israelites had sung and danced.  They had seen God’s hand deliver them by taking them across the Red Sea and saving them from Pharaoh’s army. But now, only three days later, it’s not the Red Sea standing in their way.  It’s a desert and a small pool of water that is full of bitterness and death.  They called it “Marah” – because the waters were bitter.  There was no life in the water.

Now, instead of thinking about the strong hand of God, their thinking about complaining.  Their thoughts turned to what they didn’t have, and what was standing in their way.  They had no water, no life.  Their thoughts turn from worship to complaint – not to prayer, but to complaint.  They didn’t look to God for help.  They looked for someone to blame.  That’s so much like our life and the human heart.  Our singing turns to blaming,.  The truth is, God has nothing to apologize for.  He was going to make good on His promise to them.  He would bring them out of Egypt and into the land of promise.  The thing that really stood in their way was not the Red Sea or a bitter pool of water, it was their hearts.

In Exodus, we see Moses standing there looking at the waters that are in his way.  God shows him a tree, a healing tree.  God tells him to throw this healing tree into the waters of death, so that deaths poison could be absorbed into this tree. In turn, the healing life of that tree would be released into the waters  The picture couldn’t be clearer.  God, in his great love, has seen our fickle and fallen hearts, so easily dismayed and quick to complain and blame rather than trust and worship.  Our God has seen the problem that stands in our way.  It’s not the Red Sea or the pool of Marah.  It’s our heart.  God’s answer for our heart is a healing tree, and His Son who would die on that tree. On that tree, the Son took the poison out of the water and released His life into you and me, and into this world, so that we might have life.  And this life is not meant to be lived in the desert.  It’s meant to be lived in the Land of Canaan, the land of promise, not 40 years from now, but now.  The healing life of that tree is for us now.

Look to the healing tree of Christ,  and all that He has accomplished for you on the cross.  Recognize, once again that on that Tree, he absorbed the poison and released his life.  His power enables you to live the with-God life, here and now.  And it is His Life that will take you into the Land of Canaan.   I’m not talking about life in Heaven.  I’m talking about Life, today.  

Are there struggles you’re facing today?  Maybe it is an impending divorce, a devastating diagnosis, or a rebellious child.  There is Life, now, in the midst of all of that. Because of what Christ has done on the Tree he He is able to teach us another way - one of awe worship gratitude, wisdom, and courage.  It is a way where we are walking with Him, once again. God has dealt with your heart on the Tree. Let Him apply the life of his healing tree to your heart. Then all things will be possible.

You are loved!