Bitterness
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Bitterness is a word that is used frequently throughout the scriptures. Sometimes in scripture the words: wormwood or gall are used interchangeably for the word bitter. Mostly, bitterness evokes the idea of a spiritually poisonous problem that targets the heart. Various circumstances can initiate bitterness. Loss of life, loss of finances, friends or family turning on a person or mistreatment by someone you care about.
Any place where humans congregate is subject to an invasion of bitterness. People in churches, Pastors, workers, bosses, Teachers, students, anyone at anytime is susceptible to the seed of bitterness entering in and growing from a seed to a root, and from a root to fruit, but this fruit isn’t sweet, of course it’s not, it’s bitter and poisonous.
I remember learning in Nursing school about bitter taste buds and how they’re most important because they warn of the possibility of poison. No one likes the stimulation of bitter taste buds. Fruit created by God is sweet, it brings nutrition and life, whether it grows on a tree or flows from a heart, fruit from God brings life, but bitterness is a poison from Satan. It’s one of the tools in his belt that he uses to bring widespread destruction.
Bitter- grieved him 1, provoked, easily angered or irritated
Bitterness is usually the result of some form of provocation, meaning something provoked, poked, stimulated the origination or beginning of bitterness. Sometimes it’s legitimate we are hurt by someone or some thing and it affects us. Sometimes, it’s an attack on the mind, and it’s not even what it appears to be either way, the main point is that something provoked it and Satan used it to begin his work of slowly making the heart and life of a person bitter.
Hebrews 12:14,15— a warning to believer’s to look diligently.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled
Trouble- the malfunction of something such as a machine or a part of the body. disturbance or annoyance. Do you remember how a while back we talked about the symbol of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove? The Holy Spirit is sweet and likes a calm and restful environment. He is not comfortable in commotion, chaos and mess. A spirit that is full of bitterness, is a spirit that is full of chaos and a place that the Spirit of God is not really comfortable making that place a habitat.
Defiled- dye with another color, stain with sin— The Lord reasoned w you turned your scarlet sin white as snow. Your crimson He replaced with white wool, and then you allowed a root of bitterness to come in and dye your garment a different color other than white
Job 10:1 bitterness is often the companion of discontentment. Job, certainly was not happy w his circumstances. He realized in the end that God is always up to something good
“My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”
Job 23:8-12 8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: 9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: 10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. 12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Exodus 15:23-25 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
The testing: I wonder if it’s true that God is looking for a place where people’s hearts are broken and contrite, He’s looking for a place where He can pour out His Spirit and touch with fire from His finger to set it ablaze, I wonder if God would test a place like that before He just pours it out. Maybe give that person or church, maybe even a church like this a little taste of it first, then back up a little and observe how people respond to His manifest presence. How do they respect Him and His presence?
Talking about the test
The word Marah means bitter. The immediate reaction of trying to ingest bitterness is murmuring. Undoubtedly, this is a test. God certainly knew that the waters would be bitter when they got there, but He led them there anyway, surely He had a purpose… He obviously wanted to see how they would respond. They responded by murmuring. God had a plan in place beforehand because He had a tree in place to throw into the waters, making the bitter waters sweet. Obviously, the tree represents the cross, but don’t gloss over this so quickly:
1. Every trial in life provides an opportunity for applying the cross to situational or self death vs allowing bitterness to remain, which will result in murmuring, which will make God more angry. How does one apply the cross? The cross is always about death to self, death to flesh, death to the old ways of response. It’s likely that God wants to deal with murmuring crew of people in this story so He leads them to the bitter waters, so He leads them there. This isn’t speculation. This is Bible truth:
Deuteronomy 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Ruth 1:20 The plan of Satan is that bitterness will ultimately result in blaming God.
Wait, hold on a second you made these decisions to leave the house of bread to begin with. You chose to leave the protection of God in the time of famine, choosing to create your own path in the journey. And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Bitter parties are drawn to each other like magnets
Genesis 28:9 her name means sickness and that’s what holding onto bitterness is like, marrying sickness. Two bitter parties joining forces. It’s amazing how bitter parties will find each other.
Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
Circumstances
Exodus 1:13-14 the source of bitterness sometimes can be our circumstances. Jobs, finances, car troubles, but the underlying problems will usually be connected in some way with humans or our own choices that we made. If we don’t like our job, we can pray and God can change the atmosphere, or we can become bitter and negatively affect the atmosphere. We don’t have to stay there if we don’t like it. We can find another job, if we feel like the place we are is not good for us. It’s the same with church…we can pray and God can change things according to His will. That’s the issue when people pray about their job or their church and it doesn’t become what they expected or what they wanted when they wanted, is it possible that’s because that wasn’t God’s will, instead, they were trying to pray their will, but I really don’t like it. Okay, well, we have choices. We can stay and pray and let God change it and us, or we can pray and leave: find another job or church, or I guess we could stay, get bitter, and complain and make others around us bitter.
13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh— Ezekiel 36:26
Proverbs 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
Exodus 12:7-8 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
But consider the importance of verses 7 and 8 regarding the eating of the bitter herbs and the fact that the meal was to be eaten every year, and every year, they were to eat the bitter herbs as a remembrance of how God delivered them from the bitter situation.
Genesis 27:34 Esau cried out in desperation, but was it out of repentance and genuine concern where he was recognizing his wrong for despising the things of God, or was it because he lost his blessing, something that was personal to him? Is this not how it will be for the countless millions of embittered hearts that had shunned the heart of God and chose to live for themselves and in the end when the rewards are passed out and judgment of condemnation is placed on the eternity of the lost, that they will cry from that moment forward, with bitterness over losing their salvation and eternal reward?
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
2 Kings 4:38-41 When people grab things that are outside of God’s will and they bring these things into their lives and consume them.
This man tasted the death that was in the pot and cried out, “we have to stop. Put meal in the pot, put God’s will in the pot, put the cross in the pot, put stopping the sin in the pot. Bitter taste buds are like the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they warn us something isn’t right, but repeated rejection of the Holy Spirit’s conviction will result in a seared conscience and the next thing you know we will be eating bitter herbs and loving it. We will get to the place where gossip and slander and seeing people hurt tastes good to us.
38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. 39 And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. 40 So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. 41 But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.
Psalms 69:20-21 Imagine the sorrow of separation. We can apply this to our own lives, in that at times, God seems silent. Sometimes it’s sin, sometimes it’s a test, but if we will seek Him, we have the promise that we will find Him—(Draw near me and I will draw near you.).
One of the things that we need to understand about Jesus is the fact that He suffered many things and in multiple ways to purchase the grace that we would need in order to be able to walk in victory over sin, but also over the pains caused by the fallen world. How many times have people hurt you? How many times have you felt like you were being selfless and sacrificial to help other people and their response was that they could not care a red cent how their decisions would affect you? Here Jesus is dying for the sins of the whole world: religion mocked Him, the world scoffed at Him, His disciples fell asleep and then forsook Him, for a moment, my sin caused the Father to look away from Him. He peers through His periphery, through swollen eyes and says: reproach, scorn-they see me as worthless and despicable, it has broken my heart…
20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. With the rejection that the very people He came to save, Satan is trying to make Him drink the cup of bitterness.
Matthew 27:34
They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. The scriptures says that He would not drink that cup when they wanted Him to. He was too busy thinking about the cup that was handed to Him by His Father the night before. He said, “Not my will but your will be done.” But I don’t want to love them Lord. They talked bad about me, they hate me, they despitefully used me. “Drink the cup of sacrifice my son, my daughter, I promise that if you will learn this truth—die to self, trust me, release your life into my hands and watch me do a miracle.”
The remedy: humility
John 3:19-21 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
It must be brought to the light. Roots like to live in the dark under the surface. If you want a root of bitterness to die, bring it out in the open.
1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
This is the message of the cross in action