Sports personnel make ample preparation for their events. It is not just days, but months and years of preparation that give them strength and stamina. How did God prepare the Israelites for the forty years of journey through the wilderness? (Exodus 15: 22-27) The weak slaves got spiritual, moral, mental, and physical strength during the Passover meal and later.
Three days: God divided the Red Sea for Israel to pass through and judged the Egyptians by drowning them in the same sea. Moses led them not in the traditional trade route but led them into the Wilderness of Shur. Three days is not a long time, but long enough to forget God’s power, His Victory, glory, and blessings. Three days is the maximum humans could survive in a desert.
Bitter water: They found water, but it was bitter. Hence, they termed it Marah and complained to Moses. It was like a cruel joke for Israel.
Prayer: Moses cried unto the Lord. Moses should not put the rod into the water and stir it. He is not a magician. Listening to God and doing His Will is essential. God showed a tree to Moses when he cut and placed it in the water, it became sweet.
Mineral content: The tree that was dropped could have absorbed the excessive mineral content, and water became drinkable.
Laxative effect: Even in that water experts state that there was magnesium and calcium that made a laxative effect to cleanse the digestive system. Amoebic dysentery and other diseases common among Egyptians were removed from Israel.
Performance enhancer: Magnesium and Calcium is used as a performance enhancer by athletes: like taking Dolomite. So, the Lord prepared Israel to be physically fit with strength and stamina for a long journey through the wilderness.
Jehovah Rapha: The Lord revealed Himself as the Lord who heals all diseases.
A spiritual symbolism: The tree or wood represents the cross. The Lord took the bitter cross to provide living water for the soul. Our bitter life in the world becomes sweet as we receive the Lord Jesus in our lives.
Do I experience a sweet life because of the cross?