The Place of Bitter Waters
Pastor Tan Thai · Oct 21, 2016
This sermon draws from the account of Israel at Marah (Exodus 15:22–16:4) to remind believers that spiritual victories are often followed by trials and disappointment. The pastor identifies two common wrong responses—forgetting God's faithfulness and blaming leaders—while holding up Moses and Paul as models of the right response: entrusting disappointment to God, waiting patiently, and pressing forward.
This sermon was preached at the Amarillo Vietnamese Baptist Church in October 2016, in the context of many families and individuals leaving the city for work or study, leaving the congregation sparse and discouraged. The pastor uses Exodus 15:22–16:4, the account of Israel arriving at bitter waters in Marah after three days without water in the Desert of Shur, to develop three main points: before the place of bitter waters, bitter waters and the people, and bitter waters and Moses.
The first point emphasizes that disappointment and hardship typically follow victory and success. Only three days after witnessing the great miracle at the Red Sea, the Israelites fell into deep discouragement over undrinkable bitter water. The pastor draws on multiple biblical examples — the defeat at Ai after Jericho, Elijah's fear of Queen Jezebel after the victory at Mount Carmel — to establish this as a universal pattern in the spiritual lives of God's people and His servants.
The second point analyzes the people's wrong responses at the place of bitter waters: forgetting God's faithfulness and blaming their leader. The congregation forgot the Red Sea miracle within three days and turned to accusation against Moses. The pastor traces this habit of blame from Adam and Eve, to Aaron after the golden calf incident, and warns that nurturing disappointment breeds bitterness, suspicion, gossip, and even revenge, citing Hebrews 12:15, James 4:12, and Romans 12:14–21.
The third point holds up Moses as a model of three godly responses to bitter-water experiences: (1) entrusting disappointment to God through prayer rather than retaliating against the people; (2) patiently waiting for God to act, because the church belongs to God, not to members or the pastor; and (3) pressing forward without giving up, because Elim — with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees — was not far from Marah. The sermon closes with the example of Paul in 2 Timothy, who, though abandoned by many near the end of his life, continued to entrust everything to God and faithfully preach the gospel.
The sermon speaks directly into the situation of the Amarillo congregation, encouraging believers to recall God's past deliverances as a foundation for trusting Him in present difficulty. The place of bitter waters is not only a testing ground for the people but above all a training ground for leaders, and it is precisely there that the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience — will be produced most sweetly.