The Red Sea closed up three days ago and now our Israelites are without water. They don’t have the idea that they could call out to God, that He’s a God that hears. They don’t have the idea that they can wait on Him and trust Him, that He’s a God that provides.

They complain to their leader Moses.

Moses knows what to do. He doesn’t try to solve their problem; he cries out to God who hears and provides.

Then the Lord sets a test before them. “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

Then He brings them to a beautiful place of palm trees and springs of water, a place of life. It was a place of comfort, and comfort tends to make us forget.

The Lord told them straight out that He was their healer, that He would keep them from disease. They just had to believe Him.

Did they have to obey, or did they have to believe?

God said they had to obey, but to obey, they had to listen to His words and believe that He meant what He said. If we believe Jesus is God and that He meant the things He said, then we will obey Him. Jesus said that obeying Him was loving Him.

There’s no such thing as saying you believe in God or that you love God if you don’t obey God’s word and live righteously.

We have the biggest advantage in the world over the Israelites. We have the Holy Spirit living in us as believers. We have Jesus who fulfilled the law perfectly for us and who gave us His righteousness and the power to walk in it.

It’s all a gift from God. Believe and receive!