Exodus 15:23-27
I�d like to offer a quick apology here. I had planned to talk on the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of Christ. I have decided not to do so. I went to look at David Cloud�s web site to do some research. Folks, there ain�t nothing left to say!
If you do not own a computer, go to the library and use theirs. Or use the one at the church office. Or go out and buy one! Just find a way to get on the web and access the site: wayoflife.org! I stand in amazement at the dept of material available on this site that is profitable for study in the Scripture and the issues of the day in the light of that Word!
I did do a little work on The Passion. I had a little short of five thousand words prepared with which to come here and impress you. My manuscript here reads, "Wait for laughter to die down," as I acknowledge the absurdity of the thought that I�d ever impress you with my study. Ain�t gonna happen!
Anyway, I had worked for quite a few hours. I�d put my heart and soul into preparing for this talk. Somewhere along the line that "still small voice (I Kings 19:12) jumped up and said, "Might it not be better to use MY Heart and Soul rather than your own?"
Not being charismatic, I tried to dismiss that urging as being a simple reaction to some of my medication. "After all," I reasoned, "I spent a lot of time getting this ready. It looks pretty good to me."
The Voice returned. "It doesn�t look all that good to Me."
By the way, I�m not really hearing voices. Neither did I see a six-hundred-foot tall Jesus standing next to my bed in the morning. You know, when I first heard Oral Roberts had said that, about the "six-hundred-foot Jesus," my first thought was, "How in the world does he ever heat the place with ceilings that high!" O. K. I stole that joke. But, I don�t remember from who it was.
But, I digress. You all probably know what I am speaking about - that gut feeling that God is telling something and that you�d better listen. Or, as a great theologian - my daughter when she was about six-years-old - once said, "It�s not a very good idea to get God mad at you."
Anyway, a few days ago God and walked out to the woodshed so He could talk to me without interruption. I tried to do all the talking, "Now, You don�t really mean for me to rip up all this work and start again? After all, this is pretty good work I did."
God doesn�t normally waste a lot of time or words. "Yes; rip it up. You did the work. That�s the problem!"
Anyway, here I stand before you as a confessed and confirmed liar. I had promised to talk on a certain subject but will not. I have scrapped my talk on the Mel Gibson film and will begin with, as the Monty Python crew would say, "Something completely different."
First, I�d like to direct your attention to the Words which God wrote - well, at least a translation of them!, in Exodus 15:23-27.
23. 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. 24. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25. 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. 26. And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all these 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. 27. And they came to Elim where were twelve wells of waters, and threescore and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters.
I had a real problem in the last national elections. I just couldn�t decide who to vote against. I worried about Mr. Gore. He who claimed to have been the subject of the book Love Story, he who claimed to have invented the internet, he who couldn�t decide whether he had cultivated tobacco with his own hands or had hated tobacco, and many other claims he made, seemed to me to not be in complete control of reality. This probably says more about my mental state than Mr. Gore�s. Still, it did give me pause. I just couldn�t bring myself to vote for him.
Then there was Mr. Bush. He just seemed too slick. We had just finished with a Slick Willie and I was not really ready for a Slick Georgie. He has an earned MBA from Harvard. His "country bumpkin" persona thus seemed contrived and affected for political gain. I even worried that his professed past use of alcohol abuse and conversion seemed to be calculated to appeal to both the sinner and the saint.
I think that there is a possibility, of course, that my status as a Democratic election judge may have colored my judgment on Mr. Bush. Still, after the fact, the enormous intrusions into our civil rights under the Department of Homeland Security, and especially The Patriot Act, not to mention the very ballooning of the size of the Federal Bureaucracy under that new department, have raised even new concerns.
Suddenly the prohibition against buying and selling without the Mark of the Beast seems much easier to envision.
It was with that same sort of Double Dread that I approached our Questionnaire For Prospective DBS Executive Committee and / Advisory Council which I received a few years ago. The demand was made that we eschew any reference to the Authorized Version as being the Authentic, Inspired, God-breathed Word of God.
Well, maybe not as much dread. I do know that God could have only given full inspiration to one set of writings - the Words of the originals. After all, He is a God of Power; He is not a God of absurdity. If God did, indeed, give His Word perfect and established forever, inspired in the words of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, it had to be perfect.
It could only remain perfect in exact copies of those originals. To allege that this perfection was moved from these Words to the words of any translation, even the KJB, is to say that God was mistaken in His assertion that the original inspiration was perfect. I am not ready to say that God was mistaken!
The only other possible argument I could see, to claim inspiration for the King James Bible, would be that He had inspired the words of the KJB as well. Again absurdity raises its reasonable head. To inspire the KJB in such a way is to say that God had decided on an ending program for His first stab at an eternal Word.
Again, this would bring into question as to whether or not God had made a mistake in His first try at a Scripture that was "...settled in Heaven." (Psalm 119:89)
This also begs the question of how long our KJB would remain as the Word of God.
This throws our entire concept of inspiration into turmoil. We have ripped from our faith that upon which our faith is founded: The Unalterable Word of God.
Not only that but we are suddenly presented with a God Who is not the Unchanging One. He is become a vacillating Sovereign Whose pronouncements we can only trust for we know not how long. What is to become of the promise of our eternal salvation if God would change His mind on so important a factor as His very message to us?
Worse still!, this sort of occurrence would bring into question the entire cosmology of Who we understand God to be. We understand God to be The God of Eternity. If He would choose to do away with His promise of an eternal Word in a time-centric manner, where does this place our understanding of Heaven, and of Hell, and of the very nature of God, Himself?
No! No! No! The King James Bible, for all that I love and revere it, can never be the completely unalterable, eternal, inspired Word of God. What a travesty it is that anyone would ever suggest that this is so!
But, what a problem it becomes for me. I ain�t no Greek scholar. I ain�t even competent as a geek scholar! There was a song back in the seventies: I Fought the Law and the Law Won. Well, I Fought the Greek... That is why it is so comforting to me, and to most of the Christians who sit in the pew on Sunday Morning, that the KJB is such an accurate rendition of the original tongues in which the inspired Words have been conveyed to us.
This Book gives us the Word of God in the English language. It is true that there are probably a few places where a better word could have been used - though one would be hard pressed to find those places. It is true that certain passages may not give the full flavor of the original tongue - though these be very few and far between. It is true that the language may cause one to misunderstand the meaning of certain passages, such as confusing alms giving with selfless love in I Corinthians 13 - though with the advent of The Defined King James Bible no one ever need have that problem!
A quick aside, Brethren, we need to get this Bible, "The Defined King James Bible," out into the hands of the Sunday School student and the church member, and the casual Christian, and the study list of the concerned Christian, and the book stores, and the libraries..."
I don�t think that I am overstating the case when I say that this volume is one of the most important tools to getting out the Message of God that has been made available in this time. This Bible edition carries forward the task of the translating committee of the King James Bible. It is useful in taking the Word of the original tongues and putting Them into the minds of the English speaker of today! Many of us are just too close to this work to fully appreciate the scope of that work in the furtherance of the Gospel Message.
In the passage above the story is given of Moses, bitter water, and the tree which God used to make the bitter water sweet and drinkable.
As abhorrent as it is to my Dispensationalist upbringing, I�d like to look at this as a simple allegory. In my look at the story, Moses, the author - humanly speaking - of the first five Books of Scripture, will stand for the Word of God in It�s purity as originally given.
The bitter water is our English language. ...and if you don�t believe that this language is bitter just try diagraming one of Paul�s sentences from the New Testament in the English!
How can anyone, with a straight face, claim to have a simple English translation when so many of the words being translated come, humanly speaking, from the pen of Paul the Apostle!?
The tree will stand for the work of the translating committee of our King James Bible.
Now, I�m going to sound like I�m just "a preachifying." But, I do promise to tie this all up in the end so that I will be on topic. I�m not promising that you�ll appreciate it; but, I am promising that I�ll do it.
First of all, Moses. Now, Moses was a great man, right? No. Someone has rightly said that there are no great men of God; there are only men of a Great God. It is of great comfort to me that the True Author of Scripture, The Spirit of God, saw fit to populate His sacred page with the lives of men who were flawed. They overcame not because they were special but because He is the Lord Who Energizes those who are willing to put aside their own frailty and pride to be used of Him.
There is a chance for even me! And, for you!
It was Moses, you may recall, who saw the Glory of th Lord shining forth from a burning bush which was not consumed by the fire. As Moses realized in Whose presence he stood, Moses uttered those words which have inspired so many preachers for these many centuries: "Lord, here am I. Send Aaron."
What was it that changed Moses from the vacillating person who seemed afraid to return to Egypt, possibly because of his murder of an Egyptian although that is not the reason which he gave, into the stalwart servant of God who confronted Pharaoh and the scoffing multitudes of his own people? It was the Power and Person of God!
By the way, how many of us will either boast of our ability or shy away from the responsibility which God has placed upon us. We stand up and say, "O. K., God. I�ll get this little project taken care of. I�ll give You a call when I�m done." Or, we say that we can�t do it because we are slow to speak when the truth is that we are just slow to trust His Power. It�s a sad commentary on humanity that most of us are too proud to be pliable, or too afraid to be acting.
Moses found this middle ground of holy boldness and honest humility. In this lay his greatness.
Words, as you all know, are meaningless in themselves. Abraham Lincoln said it well in his Gettysburg Address, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here..."
Words are just fragments of thoughts strung together. Except, once in a while they are strung together in such a way as to give boldness to a people: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..."
The Scriptures given by God are such a document. The Words are simple words except that they are put together in such a manner as to convey the Mind of God to the souls of man. This is only one of the miracles of God�s Miracle Book. That is one of the reasons why it is so important to have the very Words which God gave. Without those very Words the power, the potentiality, the promise of those words is lost.
We don�t need the simple Message of God. We don�t need the simple meaning of the God Story. We need the very masonry He built the edifice of His covenant with, and conditioning of, mankind.
It is easy to say, "It�s obvious that we�re all alike in many ways and have some natural rights..." But, this is not the same as saying, "We hold these truths to be self evident..." And, that is in the natural! How much more important is that simple concept in the Spiritual realm?
Moses, in some respects, might not have been very important. But, he was the choice of God. Aaron could not have done the job because he was not called of God to do that job. Moses was!
That is not to say that Aaron was not capable of some very important actions. He even, let us not forget that the entire priesthood was the Aaronic Priesthood, did some very good things. Aaron may have even been a better public speaker than was Moses. But, he was not God called.
I would never say that the modern versions, culled from various bogus texts, are incapable of any good. People are saved through the preaching of these bogus bibles. Quiet time for many is real and profitable even in their use of these false scriptures. But, the full blessing of God is still lacking. It may not be noticed. Some may even argue that it is not really all that important.
But, folks, the question is not what will make us feel good. The question is not what may be easier to use in our carnal states. The question is even more than a matter of our own obedience to God. The question is: What did God choose?
If that�s not important then Aaron could well have led the people out of Egypt. As we consider this, however, may we recall the thirty-second chapter of Exodus. Aaron led the people into idolatry with a golden calf. The lack of the call of God upon a person who has usurped that position will be found out, if not in this life then in the life to come.
For all the good that can be said about the false translations from false texts, and - let�s be honest, many good things can be said - the lack of the presence of the blessing of God upon these texts will show itself eventually. Our fidelity to His True Word is a fidelity to Him.
It is also an anchor and protecting wall when the tempter comes at us with his fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16).
More importantly, the True Scripture is the very Gift of God. Mohammed can never save my soul. Only Jesus can do this (Acts 4:12). Jesus is sent of God for that very purpose. The false versions can never completely feed my soul. Only the True Word of God can do this. God�s inspired Word was sent for that very purpose. It is at our own peril that we would denigrate the gifts of God for the glitter of man.
Now, what about the water?
Water is a unique compound upon the earth. The evolutionists would argue that without water there can be no life as we know it. At least once they�d be right. God has so constituted us that water is an important ingredient in our bodies.
Water provides lubrication even for our breathing. I have a little machine that I must use to breath at night while I am sleeping. It is called a "C-PAP machine." That stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure. Basically it is an electric bicycle pump that forces air into my nostrils so I will continue to breathe at night.
Maybe I�ll claim that�s why I look so fat. The machine pumps me up all night and makes me look like this! I�m not really fat; I�m just full of hot air!
As the air is forced out of that machine it passes into a small holding tank that contains water so that moisture will be added to the air. Without this moisture my nose and throat become very parched. Painful at times! At these times I wake up and get some distilled water to add to my little artificial lake.
That water is very important. But, it does have to be distilled water.
You know why this is so? It is because of another trait of water. Water is often called the Universal Solvent. That simply means that nearly anything that is left in water will eventually dissolve.
We all remember what we learned in seventh grade science. Matter can not be created or destroyed. So, what happens to this material when it dissolves? Does David Copperfield sneak into our ponds and make those materials disappear? No. That material dissolves, of course, into the water. That�s how most of the country puts fluoride into our drinking water. That�s why companies can make their money by producing clean water.
Years ago, back until the early days of the last century, Saturday night was often "bath night." In many places, especially those with well water and wood burning stoves, it was a tough job to get enough water, especially hot water, in which to take a bath.
There was a custom of women and children last. The water would be drawn from the well, carried - bucket by bucket - into the home where it would be heated on the old stove or fireplace. The water would then be dumped into a tub of some sort. This was just too big of a job to be done over and over when the families were large. So, dad would take a bath, then mom, then the kids - from the oldest to the youngest, all in the same water.
Many families back then were like the family in which my wife grew up. She was the oldest of eleven children. How would you like to have been the youngest and been number thirteen on that hit parade?
Me neither!
The water that Moses came upon was like that. It wasn�t that there had been too many baths, of course, but, there was some sort of pollution in that water. That�s why it was bitter.
I remember one time Linda and I were going someplace and we had to stay overnight in a town that had a very high sulphur content in their water. It was really horrible. It was so bad that it was tough to take a shower. Even shaving was a chore. Brushing our teeth was nearly out of the question!
That is the type of water which Moses found. It may not have been contaminated with sulphur; but, there was something in there that made it loathsome and, probably, poisonous.
Brethren, that�s what we have in these false texts. There has been something added that has made those Scriptures, so called, to be polluted. They are not the pure Word which God sent forth from the spring of His Inspired Breath.
What did God do about the problem for the Children of Israel? He told Moses to choose a particular tree - verse 25 says that it was a tree which God pointed out to Moses, to make the water pure and useful to the multitude.
That brings up the last point of my little allegory, the tree.
The tree that was used, as noted above, was not just any tree - it was a certain tree. It was the one which God choose.
Have any of you ever went out into the woods on a cold December day and searched for a special Christmas tree? Did you look for just the right tree? Or, did you just want any old tree?
Blonde joke: Did you hear about the blonde who spent six hours in the cold looking for a Christmas tree? She finally gave up. All she found were normal pine trees. None of them were decorated for Christmas!
Sounds like something I�d do.
Sounds like something that many have done when it comes to their Bibles. They have just gone out looking for something when they really didn�t even know what they were looking to find!
Many families spend some time together on a night before Christmas. They all get together and decorate their tree. When finished some of those trees look beautiful and balance. Some trees look like the one�s I�ve attempted to decorate.
When Linda and I had out first Christmas tree we did not have the money to go out and spend on decorations. Linda tried baking cookies and hanging them from the tree. Unfortunately we had a small dog that liked her cookie making project. He liked it very much.
We soon found that cookies were not what would work to decorate our tree.
That is the trouble with most of the many translation committees. They have tried to decorate their trees of translations with the cookies of text from their own theories and pride when the needed the garland and lights of the True Text which God inspired and gave to mankind.
All of those readings which are used today were available to the translating committee of the King James Bible. The difference between them and these newer translations is that they rejected what prideful man now gleefully accepts.
They didn�t need those spurious scriptures; the world already had the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible which has, ast its base, those same readings which are called newly discovered by the marketer�s of today�s new translations.
The King James translating committee also gave the world a beautifully decorated tree. The flow and cadence of the translation they produced has enriched our English language for four hundred years. Even today the staunch secularist is apt to be careful not to cast his pearls before the swine (Matthew 7:6), not realizing that in so doing his is paying homage to this God honored translation.
Not only is the language simply beautiful and inspiring, it is so because of its unequaled fidelity to the tongues from which it was translated. It is not so much that the words of the translators are beautiful; it is that the Words of God are a thing of beauty in and of Themselves. This translation, the Authorized or King James, conveys that beauty from the original languages to the ears of the English speaker in a way that the modern translations, culled from false texts and presented in the language of the secular street - or, often, the secular gutter - could never do.
Yes, the water of the English language held then, and holds now, no special purity. It is only by the Tree of the True Texts which the KJB translating committee put into that language that has made it sweet to our souls.
The water from Marah quenched the peoples thirst and gave them strength to move on to Elim where there was even more water, and more trees.
This is just what the Pure Water we�ve been given will do for us. It will allow our spiritual thirst to be quenched and show us the way to have the strength to walk through the valley of the shadow (Psalm 23) into the Land where the River of Life (Revelation 22:1) flows from the Throne of God.
I call myself a theologian. Just not a very good one. I do this because I consider this to be a lower offer than that of "preacher." A theologian is simply one who studies the Word of God. There is not necessarily any outflow.
The Dead Sea is like that. I�ve been told that there is immense mineral wealth dissolved in the water of that sea. But, there is no life therein. The Dead Sea is less than worthless to a man dying of thirst in the desert.
The preacher, meanwhile, is a flowing stream. Within his banks reside teaming life and abundant, thirst quenching, water. All of this flows from the source, the Lord of that preacher, out to those who line the shores waiting for sustenance for their lives. A Bible preaching preacher is a life giving reservoir to the thirsting souls of his congregations.
I�m going to assume the posture of an old country preacher for just a few minutes. Greek is not a second language to me; it is a huge chore! To most of the people I would preach to it is simply a complete mystery. "It�s Greek to me," is simply their way of saying, "Huh?"
That Water we have in this Book may not be the truly inspired Words of the Original. But it is a water than has been purified, and honored, by God for four hundred years. Most of us were saved by the hearing of the Message as contained herein.
Folks, for all practical purposes, this is the only Water I have. There are a bunch of thirsty people who need this water. I�m going to continue to hold up this Bible and say, "Thus Saith The Lord." I�m going to continue to do that until the Lord comes by and tells me to stop.
On an academic level the King James Bible may not be the inspired Word of God. But, on the real level of the real spiritual lives which I - and many like me - live, this is the Word which God has purified for me.
I�ll not disdain His Gift!
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One of the most well known verses in the entire Bible is John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Do you know what this means to you?
It means that the Passion of Jesus Christ is more than a movie. The reason for the Cross is the Love of God. Jesus came to this earth with the express purpose of dying to pay the penalty for your sin. That is how much God loves you! Accept Jesus as your Savior. Do it today!