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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/things-thrown-in-to-remedy-a-problem/
Exodus chapter 15 and verse number 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.
Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians.
For I am the Lord that healeth thee. Now verse number 27 is also important. And they came to Elam, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters.
Let's turn please to 2nd Kings for our next reading. The book of 2nd Kings and chapter 4. 2nd Kings chapter 4 and verse number 38. And Elisha came again to Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.
And he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lapful, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not.
For they poured out, or so they poured out, for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof.
But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot, and he said, Pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. Now just over two chapters to chapter 6 and verse number 1 please.
2nd Kings chapter 6 verse number 1. Again we have the sons of the prophets. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there where we may dwell.
And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed.
And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place, and he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim. Therefore he said, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.
Now that's all we'll read for my little part of the meeting this morning. I want to think about these three different portions of Scripture where we find a problem, and in order to remedy that problem, something was thrown in.
Right? You can see it with me. In Exodus chapter 15, there was a problem at the waters of Marah. There was the bitterness at the waters of Marah, and a tree was thrown in to improve the situation. In 2nd Kings chapter 4, we have the issue of the death in the pot, or that which was poison in the pot, and the meal is thrown in to improve the situation.
And of course, we read finally in 2nd Kings chapter 6 about the axehead that had been lost, and a tree again, or a stick, is thrown in to improve the situation. We could have gone back earlier in 2nd Kings and found that there was one other time when something was hurled in to improve the conditions, and that was in the city of Jericho, when the water had gone sour, or the water was not.
And this man of God, Elisha, again, he comes with a new cruise, and it's filled with salt, and he throws it in, and the water is made sweet, or the water is made usable for what they needed. So the conditions were improved by the throwing in, or the hurling in, of that salt.
We're going to focus on the first three, the three that we have read together, and we're going to learn some practical lessons for each of us, perhaps, and perhaps for us collectively, as we look at the things that were thrown in.
Exodus chapter 15 is quite a story, isn't it? I don't know if you've read it recently. I've been enjoying it, actually, over the past few months, and how the events of Exodus chapter 15 come so closely on the heels of Exodus chapter 12, right?
So you see these people, these people who are now moving through the wilderness on a journey, they come to these waters of Marah, but it's not long, really, after they experienced the redemption in Exodus chapter 12, right?
They were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb that was slain, and the proof of that death, the blood was placed on the upper lintel and on the two side doorposts. So these were a people who had experienced redemption by blood, right?
But they had also experienced redemption by tremendous power. You know what it was. They were taken from the land of Egypt. They found themselves on the shores of the Red Sea, right? They found themselves in a condition or a position of great peril, where Pharaoh was coming from behind.
There were mountains on either side, and the Red Sea was in front of them, and the only way that they could be delivered from that situation is if God intervened, and in miraculous power, his hand was shown, and through that intervention by God, they were redeemed not only by blood, but they were redeemed by power, right?
You see it with me. Perhaps your mind is going now to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and verse number 14, right? We have redemption, don't we? In whom we have redemption? In who? In the Lord Jesus Christ, through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
And we need not remind ourselves, brethren, but we should always be reminding ourselves that we have redemption. We have been blessed with a redemption that is based on the value of no less than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And each one of us who are saved, born again, and going to heaven, we have been redeemed by blood. But we've also been redeemed by power. Because if you go one verse before the one I just quoted from Colossians chapter 1, you will find that we have been taken from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son.
Again, you go back to these people as they were there on that bank of the Red Sea, and they needed power to remove them from under the dominion of Pharaoh, and place them on a new ground. To take them from the place where, this has thrilled my heart, now you listen to this, they were taken from the place where it was impossible to worship and serve God.
And they were put on this new ground where the purpose was worshiping and serving God. And you see it played out now in the New Testament. We have been taken from out under the dominion of the power of darkness, and placed, translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love, redeemed by blood, and redeemed by power.
Do we appreciate that today? I hope we do. Now I'm willing to venture a guess that we don't appreciate it as much as we should. But brethren, there should be practical effects on our lives when we realize the power of redemption.
Right? I could waste all my time on that. I don't think it'd be a waste of time. I could spend all my time on that. Moving forward, they rejoiced in this redemption, didn't they? They rejoiced to know this deliverance.
They began to sing a song, Song of Moses. There was a joyful response in the hearts of every individual in the camp. There was a joyful response by those women led by Miriam when they said, the Lord hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider he hath cast into the sea.
And you can just sense the atmosphere of joy and rejoicing just on the heels of that redemption. I want to be very practical perhaps with you, but do you remember, do you remember how it felt when you were first saved?
Now I must be absolutely clear, your feelings have nothing to do with your salvation. I'm not saying that. In fact, I've told people before that the night that I was saved and I realized that it's the death of Christ for me that saves me.
It is God's Word to me that makes me sure. I went downstairs and I laid on my pillow and little tears came to the corners of my eyes. A man almost 24 years old had lived that long and never realized that God loved him enough and that the death of Christ was enough to take him to heaven.
But I don't know that I'm saved because of the tears, right? Because I'll tell you this, sometimes when I'm really tired and I lay on my back and I let out a big yawn, I get those same tears that come to my eyes.
So we don't base the assurance of salvation on the feelings that we have, but brethren, unless we have hearts of stone, there has to be some kind of an emotional joyful response when we finally realize I'm never going to be in hell, right?
When we finally realize it's heaven for me. I don't know what touched you the night that you were saved. I didn't know very much. I still don't know very much, but I remember feeling a relief and a joy.
And I believe that it is this joy on the heels of the redemption by blood and the redemption by power that is what started to take these people across the desert for three days without water. They never murmured.
I'll tell you, I murmur a lot more now after 14 years being saved than I did after 14 months being saved. We have to check our attitudes, right? But they didn't murmur and they're moving really on the strength or on the joy that comes with redemption.
They find themselves now coming to Marah. Marah, the place of bitterness. Marah, the place that should have been happy, but it turned to sorrow. I'm not sure what you see Marah as representing. I think if you go to the other instance of it that stands out in my mind in the book of Ruth, you will find a woman named Naomi and she had gone out full.
She came back empty. And perhaps in her experience, as a result of the decisions that she and her husband had made, there was bitterness that had come into her life. So in the book of Ruth, it could be a result of what she had done.
But here in Exodus chapter 15, these people had not done anything that we would call sinful. And we were hearing this from our brother Cain last night. Just because things come into your life that are trials and cause for sorrow does not mean that it's a result of sin.
We're going to find out here a little later where we would if we had time that it really was the Lord's purpose to test these believers. And in the lives of every believer, you might say maybe in the lives of those who are parents, there can be Marah.
Where that which is supposed to bring joy brings bitterness or sorrow. In the lives of older people who lose a loved one or maybe a spouse, when it was supposed to be a time of retiring and relaxing together.
It's a time of doubt and bitterness and sorrow. But listen closely. I believe we don't think about this enough, brethren. There are young people among us who are just beginning their Christian experience.
And three days in for these people, there was Marah. And we have to remember that some of our young people, yea, I would say every Christian in this room has probably experienced the waters of Marah. The key, I believe, in these waters was not to remain there.
See, that's why I read that they did come to Elam. It was not God's purpose that his people would remain in the place of testing. It was God's purpose that they would come through it. And having come through it, they would be stronger for it.
And then he would lead them on to a different place, the place of Elam. But here they come and they finally murmur. I would have murmured too. Don't tell me you wouldn't have. They murmur against Moses.
And Moses pleads with God. And God says, or God shows him, a tree. And when he tipped the tree and he threw it into the waters that were bitter, the waters became sweet. And through that time of trial, they were nourished and sustained and strengthened all because of the tree that was thrown in.
You may say the tree speaks to you of the cross. It could be. I haven't come to Iowa to argue with you, but usually I'm right. I knew that at wake, yea. It could be that the tree speaks really of the person of the Lord Jesus.
It could speak to us of that one who has a tender shoot at the dry ground. That one who is the branch of Jehovah, his person and his character. And brethren, we have to remember that this tree, whether it was still standing or had already fallen beside the waters of Marah, was a tree that would have grown by the waters of Marah.
It was a tree that would have been nourished there at the waters of Mara. So a tree sucks in the water at its roots, but let's remember, even though the waters of Mara would have been sucked into the tree, the tree would not have become bitter.
The Lord Jesus lived and moved on this earth, the Lord Jesus, without ever having the possibility to succumb to temptation. Yet he was on all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. And as he lived in this world, let us remember that the things that he encountered never ever made him bitter.
And I believe the picture here is that in the circumstances of life that are bringing sorrow and that could bring bitterness, when we bring in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and focus on his perfect character, the waters of Mara become waters of sweetness.
So we need to bring Christ in. Right? We also need to move on. We need to move on to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 4, we have a picture. I'm going to look at it as a picture of an assembly. The idea is that the man of God had these young men, the sons of the prophets, gathered to him.
They were there so that they could learn. These men were there because they valued the wisdom and the experience of the man of God. We're going to talk about that a little bit more when we get to chapter 6.
But I think we do well, brethren, in a gathering like this. And we look around and we see the tremendous potential. Do you ever get that feeling when you're in a room like this? Maybe sometimes you come in and you say, oh, nothing's the same as it was 81 years ago, right?
When the first conference was here. And these people now, they're not the people that I was used to back 40 years ago. And we don't do the same things that we did 30 years ago. And perhaps we can become a little bit down on each other.
But you know what I see when I look around? Perhaps I'm the first type of personality you mentioned there. What I see when I look around an audience like this is tremendous potential for God, right? Don't be discouraged.
Young people don't be discouraged. God has left us here and God has placed us here for a purpose. God expects us to develop. God expects us to function in the purpose for which he has placed us here for his honor and for his glory.
But we better remember, we got to have a proper attitude. We need to have a proper attitude toward the assembly. We need to have a proper attitude as younger people toward the older generation. These men valued the older man and they move into his presence and they come and they're being taught.
And there's one thing that this older man has to realize. If these people are going to remain with me in this place where they can be taught the things of God and where they can honor the Lord, then I am going to have to feed them.
If I don't feed them, they're going to have to go somewhere else for food because they need to eat. If they go somewhere else for food, then they may never come back. So if they're going to stay, we need to feed them.
And brethren, that should be our attitude toward everybody in the assembly. Maybe especially a younger generation. If we expect them with us where they can honor the Lord in assembly capacity, we need to be sure we are feeding them properly from the word of God.
Now that's a challenge and it's not always easy, but here they were. And the prophet says we need to feed them. So he sends a servant out. I don't believe this servant had any agenda or ill intent, but he goes out and he finds what he can find.
But remember, he goes out into the field. The field we know is the world. It says that he goes to a wild vine. Literally it is a vine of the field and he finds a wild gourd. Again, a gourd of the field.
So this man, whether he knew it or not, he was taking something from the field to put into the pot to feed the people of God. And we are told that when he puts that in the pot, it's not something that is going to keep those men healthy and present.
It is something that is going to be to the detriment of those young men. It's just a picture for us and perhaps a little warning, brethren and sisters. We need to be careful what we are feeding the people of God with and that the contents that they receive, whether intentional or unintentional, are not the things of the field and the ideas and the philosophies of the world.
See, I'm convinced, I'm convinced that as the people of God, we need to socialize with one another. We were chatting about that yesterday. I think shepherding involves getting to know sheep. And if you don't spend time with the sheep, you're not going to get to know them.
I believe for that purpose, we need to have some activities, right? Usually it involves food, right? And that's why some of us need to push away from the table a little more. We can say that I'm overweight because I'm shepherding.
I don't know. But we need certain social activities so that we can get to know each other. But let's be absolutely clear. Social activity is not what assembly fellowship is based on. Assembly fellowship is based upon doctrine from the word of God.
And the food that we need to feed the people of God is found in the word of God, right? So there's death in the pot. This death that is in the pot is going to be the means whereby these people will be driven away and some will fall out by the way.
So they come to the man of God and I love his response. They say the old man of God, there's death in the pot and there's almost a panic among the young people. What are we going to do if there's there's no hope for us now?
And he very calmly he I believe is very calmly. He says, OK, well, bring meal. And when they brought the meal, he throws it in. And when he throws it in, they can eat and when they can eat. They can grow and when they grow, they can stay and when they stay, they're bringing honor and glory to God and they're in the place where God wants them to be right.
But what does the meal represent to us? I remember as a young Christian, a good man coming to us and teaching us about the offerings, right? The Levitical offerings and Leviticus chapter two, we read about the meal offerings called the meat offering in our King James Version.
And the meal offering speaks to us about the Lord Jesus and his character and his consistency and his sinlessness. And you think about all the details of what was included in the meal offering and the things that had to be excluded from the meal offering.
And we find very quickly that the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in his character and in his beauty is what the man of God put in the pot. And as we have a gathering together such as we have today, brethren, let us not forget that all scriptural, all nutritious, sound teaching flows out from the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us never forget that he is the focus. I believe all doctrine flows out from his character and from his person. Everything is geared toward honoring him. Even assembly truth, which I value extremely.
Let us never forget that assembly truth and the obedience of assembly teaching is absolutely Christ focused and honoring to the Lord Jesus. And when he threw in the meal, they were able to stay. And then they started to work.
And the work was progressing. In chapter six, that's what's going on. They say this place is too straight for us. It's too narrow. It's becoming too small. I believe that's a statement that is indicative of the growth that was occurring.
The growth that was taking place among the people of God. It's wonderful to see when that happens, isn't it? I think, brethren, sometimes we need a little more enthusiasm, right? We can become very humdrum and it becomes a going to meeting, right?
Now, I think we should be at every meeting of the assembly. Don't get me wrong. But my presence at the meeting should be the bare minimum. I should be coming with an exercise. I should be coming with a desire to function in the capacity that God would have me function.
Each one of us have a gift. That gift should be exercised in the local assembly, but not just in a mechanical, formal type way. If we fall into that, I believe we're missing the purpose. I think we have to be enthusiastic.
If our enthusiasm is lacking, then it could indicate a coldness of heart. Let's remember to be warm to the person of Christ and to be enthusiastic in this work that he would have us to do, to give our entire selves to the assembly.
Let's do it. If you're not doing it already, let's do it. These men were in it. They were experiencing growth and development and things were carrying along just fine. And I want you to notice one thing about it.
They knew we've got lots of energy. We've got lots of plans and we can do lots of activities, but we don't want to move forward unless the older man comes with us. Sometimes I find brethren, we find ourselves trying to reconcile between an older generation and a younger generation and trying to pull together.
Brethren, let's be absolutely clear. We cannot get along without each other. It's impossible. And they valued the older man. They took him along. He said, I'll go. While the work of God was carrying on, while things were getting done, something happened.
I'm not going to talk about what I think it means, but I am going to tell you something happened to cause the work of God to stop. And that's serious. So they come to the man of God. Now remember, this man has already had experience in throwing the salt into the spring.
He's had experience in throwing the meal into the pot. So he turns and he takes a stick and he throws it in to the stream and the ax head floats and the work continues. Let's remember brethren, even in our activity, we can never leave out the person of the Lord Jesus.
It's all about him, isn't it? When they bring in the tree, I believe it is the same word that's used in Exodus 15. It speaks to me of the person of Christ and the work now carries on through the exercise of one exercise, older man of God who knew that we cannot carry on without Christ as our focus.
So let's remember in the trials of Mara, bring in the Lord Jesus. In the teaching of the assembly, always bring in the Lord Jesus. And when it comes to the work of God, let us never forget, even in the business and the activity, always remember the Lord Jesus is the focus.