When the Israelites passed through the Red Sea triumphantly, they sang and praised the Lord God. The Lord had drowned under water, Pharoah and his army who kept them in slavery for years together. 

Their journey after that was through the wilderness of Shur. For three days they wandered through the desert without water. Tired and thirsty the people saw an amazing sight; a sight that comforted their hearts – a place with plenty of water! They hurried to the water longing to drink some of it. But they were bitterly disappointed. The water was bitter! What are they to do now? They turned to Moses and grumbled.

The people who sometime ago experienced the goodness of the Lord now began to rebel and complain against Him. But Moses prayed to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree which, when he dropped into that water, the water turned sweet! 

 The Lord gave them a new revelation. “And He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and listen to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.” Exodus 15:26

What actually had happened there? The bitter water turned sweet because of the marvellous work of the Lord! In other words, that tree which the Lord commanded Moses to drop into the water, would have absorbed all the bitterness of the water! This is a shadow of something to come. What did Jesus accomplish through His death on the cross 2000 years ago?

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,And like a root out of dry ground;He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him,Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore,And our pains that He carried;Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted,Struck down by God, and humiliated. But He was pierced for our offenses,He was crushed for our wrongdoings;The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him. Isaiah 53: 2,4,5 

Hallelujah!! Let us believe in Jesus! Let us surrender ourselves completely to Him. May our bitter waters turn sweet. May the Lord give us a new revelation about our Lord Jesus Christ!He will turn our bitterness into sweetness.He will split the rock in the wilderness and satisfy our thirst.