Marco Ambriz

February 16, 2025

Icebreaker: Where do you turn when you need to complain about something?

Exodus 15:22-26

Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah. 24 And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 He 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 for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” 

15:22 THE WILDERNESS OF SHUR. In those days the Desert of Shur stretched from Egypt almost all the way to Palestine. The Israelites did not find it very hospitable. The desert climate was semiarid, and its vegetation was sparse, insufficient to support a large group of refugees (Ryken, 415).

15:22 THREE DAYS IN THE WILDERNESS AND FOUND NO WATER. Their crisis concerned the most basic of all physical needs (Ryken, 415).

15:23 THE WATER WAS BITTER. The problem at Marah was not the water, bitter though it was, but the bitterness in the hearts of God’s people (Ryken, 418).

15:24 WHAT SHALL WE DRINK? Can you imagine the bitterness of Israel’s disappointment? By the third day the people must have been getting desperate. It is hard to go much more than three days without water, especially in the desert. “If we don’t find water soon,” they must have said, “we will all die of thirst.” Then, just when they were on the point of dehydration—praise God!—they saw an oasis on the horizon. They hurried to reach it, but when they bent down to take a drink, the water tasted brackish, and they had to spit it out. It was more than simply distasteful; it was unfit for human consumption. It tasted of salt, minerals, or perhaps even poison. “How can we drink this stuff?” they complained (Ryken, 415).

15:24: THE PEOPLE COMPLAINED AGAINST MOSES. Only three days into the journey, there was already discontent. The Israelites changed quickly from being joyful and trusting (vv. 1–18) to fearful and questioning. This pattern would continue for many years. Whenever life was rough, they grumbled at Moses and, ultimately, at God (Coleman, 109–110). Can you relate to this pattern of being joyful and trusting to fearful and questioning?

Water is essential for life. So this was a real emergency; it was either drink or die. At this point the Israelites should have cried out to God for help, asking him to give them the water of life. Remember, they had every reason to believe that God would save them. They knew that God answered prayer because it was in response to their cries that he had rescued them from Egypt. They knew that he had power over creation because they had witnessed the plagues. In particular, they knew that God controlled the water supply. They had seen him turn the Nile to blood. They had also witnessed his wonders at the Red Sea, his mastery over the wind and the waves. The Israelites had witnessed God’s mighty saving acts in history. Furthermore, God himself had led the Israelites to this place. Even the bitter oasis was part of his providential plan. To be reminded of this, all they had to do was look up and see the pillar of cloud that had brought them to Marah. God was in the cloud to guard them and guide them. If necessary, he could send down rain to water their parched lips and thirsty throats. Thus they had nothing to complain about and every reason to believe that God would save them. All they needed to do was ask, and he would provide. Instead, at the first sign of difficulty, the Israelites complained to God’s prophet. “Okay, Moses,” they said, “this whole trip was your idea. We’re out of water. So what are you going to do about it?” It was not wrong for the people to approach the prophet with this kind of problem. They had a genuine physical need. Since Moses served as God’s representative, it was appropriate for them to address their concerns to him. The problem was their attitude. To put it bluntly, they were whining (Ryken, 415-416). Do you agree or disagree with this summary? 

15:25 MOSES CRIED OUT TO THE LORD. When Moses was confronted with desperate physical need, he did not grumble. He did not turn around and bicker with the Israelites. Instead he took their troubles to the Lord in prayer. This was typical. Moses often cried out to God for help. He knew how to handle a difficult situation in a spiritual way. There was nothing that he could do to save God’s people, but he knew that God could save them, and so he trusted in God. He exercised real dependence on God’s promise to provide (Ryken, 418). What do you normally do when trouble arrives on your doorstep?

15:25 THE WATER BECAME SWEET. One reason to trust God is that he can turn what is bitter into something sweet (Ryken, 418). 

15:26 FOR I AM THE LORD WHO HEALS YOU. What is remarkable is not that God was able to perform the miracle at Marah, but that he was willing to do it for such a bunch of malcontents (Ryken, 419). How have you experienced God's faithfulness despite your lack of faith?

Preliminary Thoughts

The wilderness is a hard place. It is a place to meet with God, to be sure, and yet it is always a difficult place. It is barren and desolate. Thus the Israelites were setting out on a long and arduous journey. They had seen a great salvation, but for them it would not be “happily ever after.” They still had a pilgrimage to make, a pilgrimage that was both spiritual and physical. Going through the wilderness was not necessary for Israel’s salvation, but it was necessary for their sanctification (Ryken, 414). 

This does not mean our salvation is not secure. It is secure, and God will bring us to our journey’s end. But the way is still hard. We will face disappointment and difficulty, discouragement and doubt. All our problems and persecutions are meant to teach us to depend on God alone, to have absolute confidence in his faithfulness. It is important for us to know where we are in the Christian life. We have not yet reached the promised land. We are still in the wilderness, where God is sanctifying us. The wilderness was Israel’s teacher. Knowing this keeps us from having the wrong expectations and also enables us to “consider it pure joy … whenever [we] face trials of many kinds, because [we] know that the testing of [our] faith develops perseverance” (Jas. 1:2, 3) (Ryken, 415).

What has the wilderness taught you about life and life with God?

Exodus 16:1-4

1 The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”  4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.

Did the Israelites have a legitimate complaint in these verses? Why or why not? How do you typically respond when people complain to you?

16:3 IF ONLY WE HAD DIED. Remember that the great question in Exodus concerned Israel’s worship: Whom would they serve—God or Pharaoh? God wanted his people to serve him alone, but now the Israelites were saying, “We would rather serve Pharaoh.” Patrick Henry’s famous words were, “Give me liberty or give me death!” The Israelites said exactly the opposite: “Give us bondage or give us death!” Their complaining went far beyond griping about their menu. They were rebelling against God’s plan for their salvation (Ryken, 425). Whom do you serve—God or Pharaoh? 

16:3 TO KILL THIS WHOLE ASSEMBLY WITH HUNGER. Really the Israelites had nothing to complain about. They were not running out of food. This is what they said, of course—“We’re starving out here!”—but it simply wasn’t true. In the next chapter they talk about needing water for their livestock (Exod. 17:3). Obviously they still had the flocks and herds that they had brought out of Egypt. They could drink milk and make cheese; if necessary, they could even eat meat. So they were not starving. This is confirmed by Psalm 78, which speaks of “the food they craved” (vv. 18, 30), not the food essential for their survival. The Israelites confused what they wanted with what they needed. This is often the source of our discontent—thinking that our greeds are really our needs (Ryken, 424). Can you distinguish between need and greed?

16:3 ATE OUR FILL OF BREAD. The Israelites also did something else that complainers often do: They exaggerated the advantages of their former situation. “Remember the good old days?” they said. “Remember how stuffed we used to get?” They looked back with longing on their time in Egypt, when they used to belly up to Pharaoh’s buffet. At least that’s how they remembered it. In truth, it is doubtful whether Pharaoh fed them all the meat that they could eat. And if he did, it was only so they could work longer and harder. Nevertheless, the Israelites longed to go back, proving once again how much easier it was to get them out of Egypt than it was to get Egypt out of them (Ryken, 424). Whatever bondage you experienced or are experiencing, run to God and remember God's mercies.

Preliminary Thoughts

This is an important insight about the sin of complaining. All our dissatisfaction and discontent ultimately is directed against God. Usually we take out our frustrations on someone else, especially people who are close to us. A psychologist would call this displacement. In the case of the Israelites, although they were taking things out on Moses, they were really angry with God. This is why God always takes our complaints personally. He knows that when we grumble about our personal circumstances, our spiritual leaders, or anything else, what we are really doing is finding fault with him. We are complaining about what he has provided (or not provided, as the case may be). A complaining spirit always indicates a problem in our relationship with God (Ryken, 425).

If the sin of complaining is an issue for you. Begin to repent of it. 

Sermon Outline

1. Provision is needed in our world because of uncertainty, tragedy, and greed. 

2. God’s very presence is our greatest provision. 

3. We need a healthy skepticism about God’s provision as a magic formula.

4. We need to rethink God’s provision in a redemptive way. 

Reflection

1. Where is the place in your life that reminds you of Elim?

2. Has something happened in your life—or not happened, for that matter—that has become a constant source of complaint?

3. Is there something that has come between you and the Lord, something that hinders your prayers and limits your effectiveness in ministry?

4. Why do you think God’s people were so ready to disbelieve his promise and doubt his provision? What are the things that ought to encourage us today in the belief that God will meet all our needs?

5. Just as God’s people had to be fed daily on heavenly bread, so too must we. What parallels can you find between the regulations for the daily gathering of manna, and our need to walk closely with God and feed on him day by day?

Works Cited

Lyman Coleman. Life Connections Study Bible. Nashville, TN: Holman Bibles, 2019. 

Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes. Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005).