This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, August 26, 2025
If I were to ask any of you the most important stories contained in the Bible, I am sure that the Resurrection of Jesus would be first followed closely by His birth. And you would be correct! But once we get past those two obvious choices, what stories would you think were next? David vs Goliath? The 10 Commandments? Jonah and the whale? These are probably a few stories that would be considered. But I think that second only to Jesus, the Bible story that most people would recognize is the story of the parting of the Red Sea.
There are a lot of things happening in this story. The Israelites had been in captivity for 400 years. They had been waiting on God to deliver them from Egypt, the world superpower at that time. God sent Moses and after a little convincing in the form of 10 plagues, Pharaoh relented and let the people go. The Israelites had hardly got moving when Pharaoh had a change of heart and began to pursue them. The people were trapped between the Red Sea on one side and Pharaoh and his army on the other. God told Moses to raise his staff and the water parted, with a wall of water on each side. The Israelites ran across to the other side. When Pharoah ran across after them, the water came crashing down and washed the Egyptians away. God destroyed the most powerful army on earth at that time in one incredible act. Even if the Egyptians wanted to retake the Israelites, the army was at the bottom of the sea, there was no one to go get them.
If you would like to read this story from the Bible, you can find it in Exodus 14. Once on the other side and Pharoah no longer a threat, the Israelites paused and learned a song to commemorate the event. Everyone was taught the song and it was sung to remind people of the moment God took an enslaved people and delivered them to freedom. You can read the song in Exodus 15. Moses taught verses of the song, you can read them in Exodus 15:1-19. His Sister, Mariam, taught people what we would call the chorus, which you can read in Exodus 15:21.
So you can see that this is not a long song, it is all contained with a little commentary on what is happening in 21 verses. The words of this song are all about what the people had just witnessed happening. So this is not some song Moses and Mariam made up, this is a song about events the people had just watched happen with their own eyes. How long do you think it took them to learn this song? Maybe an hour? The song was important because it helped remind the people of what happened, but they sang this song of freedom with pride. People were motivated and I can’t imagine learning this song took more than half a day.
That brings us up to Exodus 15:21. Once the song is learned, Exodus 15:22 tells us that the people travelled for 3 days toward the Promised Land. Exodus 15:23 tells us that the place they arrived after travelling for 3 days is a place they named Marah. That means, when we get to Exodus 15:24, we are 3 days removed from one of at least the top 5 events in the entire Bible, the parting of the Red Sea. This incredible story of deliverance that has been revered for thousands of years, is a pillar of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith, happened three days before what is recorded in Exodus 15:24. Now I would like to quote Exodus 15:24 to you out of the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible:
Exodus 15:24 Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded.
Three days is all it took. Three days. Three days after God delivered the people through the Red Sea, ending 400 years of slavery wiping out the most powerful army on earth at that time, and bringing through the water, the people are already complaining about not having any water. The people managed to forget one of the pinnacle moments in the Bible in a mere 3 days. They went from grateful to grumbling in three days. This verse is contained in the same chapter in the Bible as the song of remembrance taught to everyone about how awesome it was that God delivered them. A song that I notice is never sung in the Bible again.
I would call these people ungrateful, but in doing that I would be calling myself hypocrite. Of all the incredible lessons about praising God, and the deliverance of God, and the power of God that come through the story of the Red Sea, I also see there is a lesson here at just how terrible we humans are at being grateful for anything.
It is so very easy to find reasons to be unhappy, to find stuff that is not to your liking and to have a long list of stuff to complain about. It requires almost no effort whatsoever. But in sinking to this level, the risk we run is to get caught complaining about water 3 days after God parted the water to open the door to freedom.
Sure, there is plenty that may upset you in the world today, but make the effort to count your blessings. I promise you, it will be worth it.