At a place called Marah, the Old Testament prophet Moses – at God’s command – tosses a mere stick into a pool of water too bitter to drink. That cane of wood no sooner splashes the surface when the waters turn sweet: Like the sultry spe-chew of a cold one popped open on a hot summer night, a taste of “heaven to earth come down … all Thy faithful mercies crown!
Thus pours from a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night –
“If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not allow to befall on you the diseases that befell the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.” (Exodus 16:26)
As heaven is always want to do, the Lord provides for the Israelites even though they rebel against him. Upon reaching Elim, God’s people discover by experience that, even in the desert wilderness, the Lord indeed will care for them. They see in that piece of wood tossed the abundant, merciful care of God!
Farther down the long way of discipleship, next generations now see in that piece of wood tossed the same contours in the sharp, bloody form of Calvary’s Christmas Tree, the Cross of Christ – soaked in all the Marah-tasting bitterness of our sin. Mmmmm, how sweet it is, “Trust and obey.”
Obedience – toeing the line that God draws – ain’t for the faint of heart. Listening to the Word that God has spoken is oftentimes painful; so also the voice of the one who is close at hand: Like the voice of your mother barking, “Hands off, don’t touch,” when her holiday time came for homemade Christmas cookies and candy.
Yet on the kitchen counter there it lie. Slab upon slab of raw chocolate stacked what seemed to a little boy a mile high. Mmmmm, how sweet it is, “Yum! Cann-deee!!” And therein lay the problem: I’d not-yet learned the life lesson of reading the fine print. The chocolate I spied was meant for baking. As every good cook knows, there’s a remarkable difference in taste between semi-sweet baking chocolate and endlessly tasty sweet chocolate. And a well-placed shirtsleeve to the tongue wipes away the taste.
Ack! But at age 8, who knew?
So also in maturity: Sin often looks so sweet, brokenness so often tastes delicious. Yet it’s all baking chocolate; bitterness in disguise.
So also in maturity: Obedience to “hands off, don’t touch” builds healthy habits, like –
living off a little less, so others might live off a little more;
abiding in the day’s joys, that feeling of lightness in your chest;
maintaining a competitive spirit while realizing when it’s time to work for the common good.
Obedience builds healthy habits like forgiveness, never-more-gorging on the ever-more-just dessert of our enemies, instead practicing gratitude and embodying grace: Better to give than receive, and all that jazz. The sweet life made full in the radical choices of obedience.
God’s law is right. Perfect. Period. Over all Creation! Choking down the horse pills of the Lord’s seemingly harsh bitterness – forgiveness, sacrifice, common good – are really just disguised sweetness. It’s God’s way to the sweet center.
In my wonder years, the question posed, “How many licks does it take to get to the [sweet] center of a Tootsie Pop?” Somewhere between 253 and 412, depending on the lore of supposed study. Perhaps perform your own research with your littles over the holidays. Stuff some Tootsie-Pops in their stockings hung by the chimney with care. Make them lick-count their way to the sweet Tootsie Roll center. It’ll keep ’em occupied for a good 10 minutes!
Better yet, join Mary Mother of Jesus in treasuring sweet words, pondering them in your heart; glorifying and praising God for sweet goodness tasted and seen, broken and poured; singing Gloria in excelsis Deo in thought, word, and action.
At age 8 or 88, who knew? I know Mary knew! All because Moses threw a stick, and a Savior was fetched.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message on the Sixth Sunday of Advent, December 16, 2024, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Lora A. Copley and Chelsey Harmon inform the message, which is part of of Pastor Grant’s Advent series, “Words from the Beginning: Advent Reminders for New Seasons.”