As God is revealing Himself here in Exodus, Chapter 15, the Scripture says in the last verse of Chapter 14 that, as they came across on dry ground, it says, “And the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant, Moses.”  The people had seen the power of God in dividing the Red Sea, the destruction of Pharaoh and all that Egypt stood for, and they were judged before their very eyes, and it caused them to fear the Lord, and the song breaks out: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and rider cast into the sea.  The Lord is my strength,” verse 2, “and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”  So, we see this acknowledging of the majesty of God, the sovereign power of God, all of this revealing His desire to deliver His people.  Verse 11 says, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing signs, wonders?”  Causing us to stand constantly in awe.  “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them.  Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto a holy habitation.”

So, the people are now experiencing the benefits of redemption.  God has shown them great things, and they’re dancing in verse 20 and ministering to the Lord.  And now they go out into the wilderness.  They’re only three days into the journey—three days of great victory and rejoicing, then the murmuring starts.  We look at that and go, “They could only maintain a victorious spirit for three days?”  For some of us, that’s a record, and so, here they are.  The one thing I love about reading all through Exodus.  It just absolutely shows the longsuffering, the mercy of God.  Amen?  These are stiff-necked people.  I just had a thought flash through my mind—it’s weird, just like so many are—but I just thought they were such stiff-necked people that you could never have an Aaron bobblehead night at the ballpark.  For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, they have the different players, and they have a little statuette, and then their head is larger.  These are stiff necked people, so that’s how my brain works.  The people are crying out, “There’s no water to drink.”  They were at Marah now—it was bitter water—bitter, probably talking about brackish water.  So, the people are murmuring, saying, “What shall we drink?”  And He said, “Bring me that tree.”  I don’t think the tree had anything to do with it, maybe symbolically, we could see the tree as the cross.  He said, “Bring me that tree.” And He cast it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?  He can turn water into wine.  He can turn stone into bread, or He can rain manna down upon us.  He can allow our shoes and our clothing to last 40 years, and get this—3 million people and not one feeble person among them.  What a great God we serve.  Amen?  Are we limiting Him in what is available to us?  What do you think caused those 40 years without a feeble person?  I think one of the things is they continued to move when the cloud moved.  They were going God’s direction.  They weren’t getting everything right, but they were headed in the right direction; amen?  I believe, when we’re following this course, that God has set for us, this straight and narrow path, the more we stay on the straight and narrow path, the stronger we will continue to be.  God will sustain us if we’re about His business, if our bodies, our strength, our time, our energy, our resources are being used up for the glory of God, He will sustain us, praise God!