This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. OT Sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 1, 1996.

Tonight we are reading Exodus 15. We begin with verse 1. This is the word of God, Exodus chapter 15. Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord and said, I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. The horse and its rider He has curled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him, my Father’s God, and I will extol Him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is His name. Hero’s chariots and his army he has cast into the sea, and the choices of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea. The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone.

Thy right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellence thou dost overthrow those that rise up against thee. Thou dost send forth thy burning anger. and it consumes them as chaff.

And at the blast of my nostrils the waters were piled up. The flowing waters stood up like a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils. My desire shall be gratified against them. I will draw out my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

Thou didst blow with thy wind. The sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like thee among the gods, O Lord? Who is like thee, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? Thou didst stretch out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. In Thy lovingkindness Thou hast led Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed. In Thy strength Thou hast guided them to Thy holy habitation.

The peoples have heard, they tremble. Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. The leaders of Moab, tremblings gripped them. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them. By the greatness of thine arm they are motionless as stone.

Until thy people pass over, O Lord, until the people pass over whom thou hast purchased, thou wilt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thy dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever.’ And the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them.

But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea. And Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. And Miriam answered them, Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted, the horse and his rider he has hurled into the sea. Then Moses led 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 the waters of Marah, for they were bitter, therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, What shall we drink? Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute. and regulation, and there he tested them. And he said, If ye will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, 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, the Lord, am your healer. Then they came to Elam, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy deep pools. and they camped there beside the waters.

By your spirits working for God, you have brought order into chaos, and it pleases you, O God, to structure your word even according to that blessed pattern of things in glory above. So in keeping with that word, O God, and by your Spirit, the world itself is ordered and arranged. And Father, we ask that you might also Bless us in the knowledge that your spirit brings order to the chaos that reigns because of sin and death, so that even now, as your church is formed, there is order there in answer to the chaos that reigns among men. Bless us, O God, with your peace, even as we are a part of your people. And may your people throughout the world know your peace and the blessedness of your spirit who works in their midst to bring order out of chaos. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. In some ways, Thanksgiving Day is no help to us. In some ways, Thanksgiving Day is no help to us.

For one thing, it finds us so preoccupied with everything but Thanksgiving. I’m reminded of the story of Mary and Martha. with those two sisters, and Martha preoccupied with everything but Jesus. But for another thing, Thanksgiving Day suggests a localization for Thanksgiving that makes this day an exception to every other day of the year. In other words, we must give thanks on Thanksgiving Day because we haven’t been giving thanks regularly on the days throughout the year. Could Thanksgiving Day actually be construed as a national day of penance, when we make restitution to God for 364 days of thanklessness?

Now, please understand me. My message this evening is not a diatribe against our national custom to celebrate a special day of thanksgiving, although it does seem to me that increasingly this special day designed to accent our thanksgiving to God has become a day in which we actually thank one another. family members, close relatives. And as I heard one football commentator this last Thanksgiving Day say, the technicians who have actually given up their day with their families in order to provide us with coverage of our favorite teams. But as I said, this is no diatribe against the day itself.

It is a sermon about thanksgiving to God in view is not the day, but an attitude, a disposition. According to the Scriptures, ours is to be a disposition overflowing with thanksgiving to God. In fact, we are told by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5.20, and elsewhere I might add, that we are to give thanks always. Not just one day a week, if that, but always. Thanksgiving, then, it would seem, according to the word of God, is a way of life, something that is always to characterize us. to be interrupted, to be perpetually pursued. Now, the call to this way of life is most definitely heard throughout all of Scripture, including the Old Testament. This way of life is set before us, in fact, in the most dramatic fashion in the story of the Exodus.

The journey of the children of Israel out of Egypt, initially, whether you realize it or not, was to be a three-day journey for the purpose of keeping a festival to the Lord. The Lord makes mention of this very fact in his first meeting with Moses, the meeting that took place at the burning bush. In Exodus 3, verse 18, God says to Moses that he is to tell Pharaoh to let Israel go so that Israel might travel three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Exodus 5, the beginning verses of that chapter. Moses, together with Aaron, deliver this self-same message to Pharaoh. a message that speaks about the three-day journey for the sake of keeping festival with the Lord. And chapter 8, verse 27, chapter 10, verse 9, this message is again repeated. But once the deliverance is accomplished, and Israel has now left Egypt by way of the Red Sea, the people make their three-day journey. And they arrive, you will note in the text that we read this evening, they arrive at Mara, a place whose name means bitterness. Bitterness. Because the waters of that place were bitter. Here’s the dilemma. Here’s the dilemma.

Israel has been delivered, having experienced the great saving work of God at the Red Sea. Indeed, as is stated and sung, the Lord has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider have been thrown into the sea. The Lord has become his people’s strength and song. He has become their salvation. Truly their inheritance, according to the Lord’s promise, is certain. Exodus 15, verses 17 and 18. Thou wilt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thy dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.

The Lord shall reign forever and ever.” The praise of Israel’s sons is complemented by the daughters led by Miriam. But the thanksgiving gives way in short course through grumbling and complaining. And that’s because the Israelites have made their three-day journey through the waterless wilderness of Shur, and have come to the bitter wells of Mar. So these redeemed, the nation of Israel, come to that appointed day, three days after their deliverance, when festival was to be held. And in that circumstance, they are greeted by bitter waters they cannot drink.

What would you do? What would you do? Well, left to your own power, left to your own devices, you would do exactly what the Israelites did. you too would grumble, calling into question the sincerity of God’s action three days previous in saving you, calling into question the inheritance into which you hoped to enter, yes, calling into question even the existence of the God who had claimed to renew Yes, you would grumble.

But wouldn’t your grumbling raise the question whether there is actually a parallel between the bitter waters at Mora and your own bitter hearts? The children of Israel, in coming to Marah, come to bitter waters, and as they look into the waters, they see the reflection of themselves. The bitterness of the waters greets the potential for bitterness in the people. It’s as if you have grumbling waters. as well as grumbling people. But if it is not to be grumbling and complaining, then what?

What is it, exactly, that God expects of Israel when it arrives at Moab? God expects them Yes, even in the midst of that wilderness, even now, beside those bitter waters, he expects them to keep the festival. He expects them to continue in their praise and in their thanksgiving. He expects them to give thanks bitter waters or no bitter waters, more or no more. God expects them, then, to be thankful out of hearts overflowing with gratitude.

He expects of them thanksgiving, as if they were carrying within them the event that had transpired three days previously. as if they were carrying the great deliverance at the Red Sea within their very souls, and more as if they were carrying within them the actual reality of the inheritance to which they were pressing, the destiny which God had for them. It is as if God expects of them, not only that they carry the event in their souls, but they live in that event, the event of their redemption, as if never leaving that event. They are always in it, defined by it, as if they were living in the reality of the inheritance already within their possession. They never separated from that inheritance. Now, as the children of Israel come tomorrow unto this test, for it is a test, and so described in the word of God, to which the Lord has brought them, they are unprepared to respond as the Lord wishes, for they are in need of a cure for their bitter, thankless parts.

In this story, then, we are told that God shows Moses a tree. which, when Moses throws it into the water, makes the bitter water sweet. We have to delay long over that tree that is showed to Moses, that tree that is thrown into these waters, powerful to transform the waters from bitterness to sweetness. Could this tree be anything less than an anticipation of that tree, the cross of Christ? The tree, like Christ’s cross, now enters into the bitter waters and is identified with those bitter waters, even more is identified with the bitter hearts and souls which that water represents, and it becomes the means for the curing of those waters.

If there is to be any curing for the people, it will have to be by the activity of the Lord, who identifies Himself in this passage as their healer. I am your healer. And He has in mind more than just diseases. He has in mind more than just the aches and pains and difficulties of life and aging. He has in mind the healing of the soul unto salvation and unto glory. If there is to be any cure for the people of God, it will have to be by the sovereign activity of the Lord, their healing. He has the power, through the action of setting Himself precisely in their condition, to cure the bitterness and the sin that plagues their souls. He has the power, through such action, to place them in the setting of His saving work, and it’s envisioned objective, the inheritance itself.

Think of it, never leaving the banks of the Red Sea, always living in the celebration that we have just read of this evening, the celebration of that saving work. Think of it. having such certainty of the inheritance that it is as if we are already there, living in the permanence of what has been given to us by grace.

You notice the development of the song of Moses as he recounts the great redeeming work of the Lord and speaks about it so wonderfully. He comes down to the latter part, and he’s talking about the people as if they’re already positioned within the promised land, as if they’re already there. I tell you, in such a life, thanksgiving never ends. It should not ever end. It is constant, and it is abiding.

And it is that through which we are called the people of God. I know the depths of depression. I know the struggles that some of you go through. I’m your pastor. That’s why I know these things. But there is a unique therapy that belongs to the Word of God. It is not some sort of twelve-step process. It is an identification with redemptive work of God. so that you carry that work in your soul, even as you are carried within that work.

It’s as if you live in the event of salvation, always. You never leave. Do you see what this means in New Testament terms? It’s like you’ve never left the cross. You’re always there. It’s as if you’ve never left the tomb. You’re always there. looking, gazing into that empty tomb in the certain knowledge that Christ has been raised.

Isn’t this what overwhelms you then as you hear the Apostle Paul speak, and he talks about being crucified with Christ, and having been raised with Christ also? You carry that within you, even as you are carried within it. That’s the full range. That’s the marvel of it. And that’s why Thanksgiving is always to be ours. Think about it.

The realization of such thanksgiving as I have been speaking of this evening, this thanksgiving for the life of God’s people, depends, as I have been underscoring, upon Christ and His cross, prefigured in the truth, mentioned in the text, thrown into the bitter waters of Mars. But if we consider Christ’s identification with his people in their bitter state, even as this tree is thrown into the waters with respect to the particulars of the story, think how close the identification, how deep and rich the identification of Christ with his people is at the time of his very sacrifice.

Jesus will speak about his own three-day journey. Now, this lest you despair about your ability to do what God has called you to do, you must look to Christ. Jesus has taken his own three-day journeys. Now, it’s a rather remarkable thing, because he speaks about two three-day journeys.

He speaks of one upon learning that Herod is out to kill him. He learns that from all people, the Pharisees. He responds to the Pharisees who bring him this information, “‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, but the third day I reach my goal.'” Now, according to my calculations, that’s three days. Now, you understand he’s speaking figuratively. He’s a long way from Jerusalem yet. But He’s picking up the imagery, you see, because there is a Mara coming in the experience of the Son of Man, and He’s destined for it, for you.

So, yes, there is that three-day journey. If ever there was a Mara, it was the cross to which Jesus journeyed. in which he takes to himself the sinful bitterness of his people, embarrasses that, in order that not only the waters, of course, but the people themselves might be made sweet. Jesus also journeys not just three days before the cross, but three days after the cross. The cross then becomes the starting point, the great day of celebration comparable to the deliverance at the Red Sea, a new Red Sea experience in this new journey as Jesus travels into death itself, into his own waterless wilderness of sure, only to come forth from death into the realm of perpetual thanksgiving.

Let me ask you, do you ever think about what Jesus is doing right now. I know. Now, that’s not presumption. I happen to know. He is offering up perfect thanksgiving. Before his father. and it is that thanksgiving into which you are privileged to enter. The continual thanksgiving to which the Apostle Paul calls the people of God, the Church of Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 5.20 and elsewhere, finds its foundation indeed in Christ and his cross, by which we have been delivered, even from our grumbling and complaining, even from our sinful bitterness. We are affectionately bound to God’s great saving act in Christ, whose entrance into our life has meant the resolution of our sin, including our thanklessness but whose entrance into our life has also meant our participation in him, the one whose praises of God even now never fail, even through the cross, even through the grave, even unto glory itself. my dear friends, cannot be seasonal. Thanksgiving, my dear friends, is dispositional. May God grant to each of us a full participation, by grace, in just such a disposition. Give thanks. Always.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.