After crossing the Red Sea, the children of Israel traveled for three days through the wilderness and found no water; then, they got to Marah, but the waters there were bitter, and they murmured against Moses, and Moses cried out to God. God showed Moses a tree, which he cast into the waters and they became sweet. It was there that Jehovah made a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them.
In our Christian life we encounter many situations and environments that are bitter, and even in our being there’s nothing but bitterness; we are thirsty for water, but what we are given to drink is something bitter.
According to the dictionary, bitter is a taste that is sharp, acrid, or unpleasant. Bitter is something difficult and distasteful to accept, admit, or bear. Sometimes our environment is difficult and distasteful to bear.
Bitterness results from an expressive or severe grief and disappointment. Sometimes we come to situations of severe grief, anguish, and disappointment; in such situations we need to cry out to Jehovah, and cast the crucified and resurrected Christ into our situation!
To be bitter is to be marked by resentment or cynicism; when someone is bitter, he is resentful and scornful of the motives and integrity of others.
What should we do when we encounter bitterness in our situation or even in our being? We should turn our bitterness into prayer: whenever we come to bitter circumstances or when there’s bitterness in our being, we need to pray and apply Christ as the crucified and resurrected One to our situation and to our being, and the bitter waters will turn to sweet.
We may be on the verge of becoming bitter toward God because of sufferings and bitter circumstances which we don’t understand and we can’t accept, but we need to turn our bitterness into prayer, cry out to the Lord, talk to Him, and have honest crying out talks to Him, then cast Him as the crucified and resurrected One into our bitter circumstances and being!
The Hannah Ministry: Our Bitter Situation can Produce a Nazarite through our Crying out Before God in Prayer!
In the first chapter of 1 Samuel we see that Hannah was bitter: Jehovah shut up her womb, yet her rival had many children and was provoking her bitterly. When Hannah went to the house of God with her husband and the other wife, she didn’t sleep or eat; she was bitter in soul and had bitter circumstances around her…so she prayed to Jehovah and wept much; then, she made a vow to Jehovah that if He gives her a son, he will be a Nazarite unto God.
Eli the priest saw her praying and thought she’s drunk, but she was a woman oppressed in spirit pouring out her soul before Jehovah. This is what we need to do: we need to pour out our feelings, our intentions, and our thoughts before God, being real and honest with Him.
Hannah did not have any peace or rest until she would have a son – this was a human need; on the other hand, God’s need was for a Nazarite, and in 1 Sam. 1 we see how the human need met God’s need, and man’s prayer met God’s need and man’s need. Out of her bitter circumstances and bitter being came an overcomer, Samuel, who turned the age from the age of judges to the age of the kings.
If we cast the crucified and resurrected Christ into our bitter being and circumstances, the result will be that we will be produced as overcomers, the Nazarites of today.
Hannah’s prayer was an echo, a speaking out of the desire of God’s heart; it was the human cooperation with the divine move for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy. The Lord brings us into certain circumstances of bitterness so that we may echo the prayer of His heart to fulfill His heart’s desire, and as long as He can gain such a person, He has a way on earth!
Out of our bitter being and circumstances, if we cry out to the Lord and pour out our soul to Him and cast the crucified and resurrected Christ, the result will be that we will be produced as the overcoming Nazarites!
Watchman Nee wrote an article entitled, The Hannah Ministry, where he expounds on this matter. The Lord today wants overcomers who turn the age from the age of revivalists (the age of judges) to a new revival that will change this age to the age of the King with the kingdom.
There are two different ministries operating today: one to bring in the king, not having many children, and the other to have much result with many children, but none of them had to do anything with God’s king. Penina had much to boast of, but Hannah didn’t.
If we are still in the realm of “judges”, we can have much result and God will bless us. But these are the last days, and God’s eyes are on those who would be the means to bring in the King. We need to have the heart to enter into the “Hannah ministry”, desiring not a revival or a great work but bringing in the King, the Lord Jesus.
Those who will be the Hannah of today have to be prepared for scorn and persecution, weeping and fasting; this ministry is wrought into them through testing and suffering. Others can eat and drink and look at their children, the result of their work, but those in Hannah’s ministry weep, fast, don’t have many children, and pour out their heart and soul before the Lord.
It’s not a matter of how many we can save but a matter of God getting a company of overcomers who would bring in the kingdom. Many don’t understand this ministry; those who take this way put eating and drinking aside and come to a point where they can’t go on without the King being brought in.
The son that Hannah got from Jehovah is the manchild in Revelation 12 who brings in the king with the kingdom. Out of our bitter situations and being, we need to cry out to God, pouring out our soul before Him, and this will produce us as His Nazarites and will bring in the King with the kingdom!
Lord Jesus, gain a group of overcomers who would turn this age from the age of the church to the age of the kingdom. Lord, we want to take the way of pouring out our soul before You and crying out to You until our need and Your need are met. Oh Lord, no matter the bitterness in our soul or in our circumstances, keep us coming to You and crying out to You until we are produced as Your Nazarites and this age is changed to the age of the kingdom! Lord, make us the Hannah of today, those who contribute to bringing in the King with the kingdom!
Casting the Resurrected Christ in our Bitter Situations makes the Bitter Waters Sweet
Sometimes what makes us bitter is when we are in a situation where we’re offended or wounded by someone, and we have an unforgiving heart and a judgmental spirit. We should never do this! Some people end up being bitter: they do not forgive and forget other’s offenses. We need to always take the Lord as our forgiving life to forgive one another.
We need to let all bitterness be removed from us and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave us (Eph. 4:31-32). We need to be full of compassion, not judge or condemn, but release and we will be released, forgive and we will be forgiven (Luke 6:36-37). We need to give up resentment – let it drop, and we will be also forgiven, acquitted, and released!
If any bitterness comes in our family life or church life, we need to cast Christ as the crucified and resurrected One into our being and circumstances so that He may change these waters into the sweet waters of His presence! If we do this, He will change our bitter waters into sweet waters!
The more we drink of the living water, the sweet water of the resurrected Christ, the more we will be regulated – we will have a statute and rule that we will no more complain or murmur but will come to the Lord and pour out our soul to Him for Him to heal our being and our circumstances (see Phil. 2:12-16). When murmurings and complaints and reasonings are killed in us, we shine forth as luminaries in the world.
If we don’t enjoy the Lord, we find fault with others, we grumble, and we complain. If we don’t drink from the living waters, we are discontented and have secret mutterings and grumblings. If we murmur all the time, we will be sick; murmuring opens the door to the enemy to bring in all kinds of diseases – including physical sicknesses.
People in the world complain and murmur all the time; in most worldly associations and societies people murmur, complain, and even fight with one another. But if we have the resurrected Christ applied to our situation, our situation will be so sweet, filled with living water, and we will have a statute: we would never murmur, complain, or fight with one another!
May the Lord save us from having diseases or illnesses among us! May we all experience the resurrected Christ as our Healer, and may we have a statute and an ordinance that we would not complain, criticize, or murmur, but rather praise the Lord!
The highest work carried out by God’s children is to praise the Lord! The Lord is enthroned on our praises (Psa. 22:3); when we praise Him, we enthrone Him and we give Him the first place and the preeminence in our being. Always praise the Lord, no matter how you feel!
Lord Jesus, we want to have a statute and ordinance among us to NEVER complain, murmur, or criticize! Remind us, Lord, when we encounter bitter circumstances or when we’re bitter in our being, to cast the crucified and resurrected Christ into our bitter waters for them to become sweet! Oh Lord, keep us drinking the living waters today, enjoying the sweet water of the resurrected Christ. Save us from becoming bitter and staying bitter; keep us pouring out our heart and soul before You and applying You as the crucified and resurrected One to our being!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 2, “The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 7 / msg 7, The Experiences of Marah and Elim (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
- Hymns on this topic:
# God needs men who pray; / Those who lay the tracks for Him; / God’s economy is carried out through men of prayer. / They love not themselves; / But a willing sacrifice. / What they fear—offending God, losing His presence dear. (Song on Being Produced as a Nazarite)
# Thy presence meaneth everything; / Thou art my secret, Lord. / I welcome Thee into my boat; / True rest Thou dost afford. / Though bitterness surround my soul, / Thy sweetness I can taste, / For in life’s storms in Thee I find / The eye wherein I’m graced. (Song on Opening to the Lord)
# Trust all your burdens to the Lord, / Pour out to Him your sighing, too; / His heart of love your sorrow knows, / He’ll grant His grace, He’ll see you through. (Song on Pouring our Heart to God)
About aGodMan
If murmuring and chiding can be found in a local church, this proves that there are Egyptian diseases there. If there is an absence of murmuring and chiding, there is a living statute made of the sweet, living water that instructs us not to criticize, chide, murmur, complain, or fight with one another. This statute was not given at Sinai but was made at Marah where the children of Israel had the sweet waters. Exodus 15:26 says, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of Jehovah your God and do what is right in His eyes and give ear 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 am Jehovah who heals you.” We should not have diseases or illness among us, because the Lord is the Healer to us, and His healing is in the sweet waters. We have the Lord as our Healer. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 2, pp. 414-415)