Lesson 25 Warring Against the Flesh - Overcoming Bitterness
Questions 3 and 4
Impurity and Bitterness
Impurity of all kinds (abuse of drugs, alcohol, etc.) brings bitterness. The root of bitterness takes hold of us, causes all kinds of trouble in our lives, and it defiles everyone around us. Embittered, we become short-tempered, self-protective, and accusatory; we blame-shift, nit-pick and require others to measure up when we, ourselves, do not.
What is worse is that this bitterness keeps us enslaved to all kinds of sins. We get caught in a vicious cycle of giving in, living in guilt and shame, experiencing anger and frustration which turns to bitterness, then we return to sin in a misfocused effort to get some relief.
But there is a way out of all of this, a way off the vicious merry-go-round, a way to be entirely free from it all!
The Way Out
To see what this way is, let’s look to the Old Testament and see how God eradicated a bitter problem the Israelites faced as they were traveling through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. Please read the following passage and answer the questions below:
“Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” 25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.”
Exodus 15:22-25 NIV
Question 3. Why could the people not drink the water?
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Question 4. What was the solution for the bitter water? Fill in the blanks. “Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a ” (Exodus 15:25 NIV).
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