It’s amazing to discover the number of people who are angry with God. Sometimes it’s a central, dominant theme in a person’s life. For others there are buried pockets of anger and resentment toward God. This disease of the heart affects both believers and unbelievers alike. Where does it come from? One source is our inclination to second-guess God. Let’s dissect an example in the scriptures.
When God sent the ten plagues on Egypt, the Egyptians not only allowed the Israelites to leave, they actually drove them out! But Pharaoh immediately changed his mind and sent his army after the fleeing Jews. God takes His people across the Red Sea on dry ground and drowns the Egyptian army before their eyes. Exodus chapter fifteen opens with the people rejoicing and singing to God over this latest deliverance. Egypt is in ruins and its army drowned. The tents of
the Israelites are filled with the gold and valuables that the desperate Egyptians had handed over to them on their way out of the land. And the people are singing God’s praise. Nice!But just three days later the very same people are grumbling once again at Moses. Just three days! Their joy and exuberance died in just three days! How could this have happened? The answer is: Marah.
As God led them into the dry, lifeless wilderness of Shur, he brings them to a little stopping place that they later named “Marah.” (“Marah” means “bitterness.”) There was water at Marah, but it was undrinkable because it was so bitter. Panic! Frustration! Disappointment! Anger! It’s easy to guess what they were thinking: “God has made a terrible blunder, or maybe he wants us to die! We’ve risked our lives to follow Yahweh God and this is how He treats us!?”
But the problem was not God. The problem was not the water. The problem was in their expectations. They treat Marah as if it was the destination and instead of a stop along the way. And they were quite wrong. The bitter water of Marah was not where God was leading them. Just beyond Marah lies a place called Elim. Ah, Elim! Twelve springs of water, and seventy palm trees. A paradise oasis in the midst of the wilderness! That was the place God had in mind. Marah was just a necessary stop on the way. Oops! They had fashioned their own expectations and then jumped to their own conclusions. The real disaster was their second-guessing of God.
And we are all too much like the Israelites at Marah. We interpret what we see God doing on the basis of what we think he should be doing. So when our own foolish expectations are dashed to the ground, we blame God! Get that? We Think God has failed us because He didn’t do what we wanted, when we wanted, and how we wanted it done. We are like travelers who have mistaken a broken down, filthy, rest-stop on our journey for the special place that God has in store for us just a few miles further down the highway! So we grumble and question and complain against God!
He insists:
“I know the plans that I have for you; plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11)
But did you get that? God knows the plans that HE has for us. He does not say “I know the plans that YOU have for Me.” Because we are so insistent on own expectations and so ignorant of God’s plans, we end up second-guessing Him. Measuring God against our thinking instead of trusting His wisdom, will lead us into disappointment, frustration, and anger. . . of our own making!
It doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s go back to Marah for a moment. If they had so chosen, the Israelites could have taken a very different approach to their water problem. Instead of assuming the worst and railing against God, they could have said something like, “Lord, we’ve got a serious problem with the bitter water here. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”
Instead of blaming God, they could have faithfully turned to him for help, and so can we! Marah comes first; then Elim. The challenge is to let go of our own desires and expectations, and to remember who God is and what He has in store for His people:
“From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides You,
Who acts for those who wait for Him.
You meet those who joyfully work righteousness,
those who remember You in Your ways. . .”
(Isaiah 64:4–5 )