The mirage before the oasis

"Then Moses made Israel 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. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. . . . And the people grumbled. . . ." (Exodus 15:22-24).

Let me get this straight: God takes a bunch of people, already weary from years of slavery, on a hair-raising adventure that features a cliff-hanging episode where they are momentarily trapped between a sea and an advancing dust cloud of warhorses. And then when they think they have attained their happily ever after, they walk for three days and find no water. So they walk some more and finally find water---but it is undrinkable.

This is easy to read in an armchair, but imagine living it.

I know two people who can imagine. Andy and Nancy Merrick had a dream of collecting cars for furloughed missionaries. When their backyard in suburbia became too small, they looked for more land, holding prayer meetings with friends and supporters. Finally they found it: 20 acres, not far from where they lived. Not only that: One supporter stepped forward to offer them a large sum of money. The only hitch was that they needed a zoning variance because the property was farmland, but the neighbors were friendly and everything seemed a go.

The day before the zoning board meeting was the Jim Jones cult mass suicide in Guyana, and the mood at the zoning board meeting turned suspicious toward weird religious endeavors. On top of that, when Andy and Nancy got home, there was a message saying that their benefactor had suffered a serious heart attack and was no longer able to front them the money.

Nancy was deflated, but two days later Andy was making phone calls again. In no time he learned of another property: 52 acres, and not only land but buildings in place from a former orphanage. It was like the Israelites finally reaching the promised land and finding it in move-in condition---houses already built and the vines ready to harvest.

If you read further in Exodus 15, you will see that all this was by divine design, an orchestrated plan of God to "test" (v. 25) the hearts of His people, to see if they would trust Him with bumps in the road, and when He seemed to be closing the doors He had opened. A better gift was waiting on the other side of faith. Blessed is the man who, in his perplexity, does not walk away from God, but keeps on walking with him to discover joy around the bend.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.