There is a brief but interesting episode in the Exodus of the Hebrews out of their bondage to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Moses had led them, under God's protection and guidance, out of Egypt and beyond the realm of Pharaoh's thoughts and actions. During this wilderness passage to the Promised Land there was a need for fresh drinking water. At one point the Israelites had unsuccessfully searched for water for three days. "And when they came to Marah," the Bible relates, "they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter."
Then the people complained of Moses' leadership. Turning to God for guidance, Moses was led to a particular tree, "which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." The Israelites were reminded that strict obedience to God's commandments would save them from disasters and plagues. They were assured with God's promise, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." Ex. 15:23, 25, 26.
Moses must have known that Pharaoh had not been totally responsible for their harsh bondage as the Israelites supposed. To lead them out, hadn't he had to battle a slave mentality that would have held them captive — mastered and manipulated? Through his own obedience to the one God and trust in Him, Moses must have discerned that the children of Israel needed to develop more fully the thinking of a spiritually free people. A kind of bitterness kept reappearing. Their reaction to difficulties again and again was to blame and accuse. First, Pharaoh, for their slavery. Then Moses, when their deliverance required more than they had expected.
Any one of us in his journey through a wilderness may find himself at Marah, where he can learn a lesson and be healed. If we have felt that someone or some group has made our lives bitter, we too stand at Marah, and through an understanding of divine Love's allness can rise above the sense of victimizer and victim. The way out of the Egypt of our bondage to the promised land of spiritual dominion, health, and well being is not apt to be found while we hold some Pharaoh responsible for our problems. Our Marah might be a pool of self-pity or false martyrdom. The bitterness might be as slight a thing as a bad taste in the aftermath of an argument, or it might be the desperate extremity of physical incapacitation. It might manifest itself in severe despondency, pain, or even a sour disposition.
The Christ, Truth, penetrates these waters to their depths, sweetening them, no matter what anguish, deprivation, or illness is associated with one's bitter suffering.
The Bible repeatedly uses the beautiful metaphor of living waters, fountains springing up, and other such images to inspire a feel for the sweet renewing power of Spirit welling up in the consciousness of the one who seeks it.
The book of Revelation also employs the metaphor of wormwood, which makes the waters — the human consciousness — bitter, causing death and destruction.See Rev. 8:10, 11 In the last chapter the Revelator describes "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." And continues, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life . . .: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."22:1, 2.
To the extent that we turn our footsteps in the way of Moses, in the way pointed out by the Revelator and above all by Christ Jesus, the Way shower, we too can neutralize the bitter, destructive effect of wormwood experiences with the healing truth of the tree of life. Christian Science illumines for us the Bible path to this freedom.
A bitter taste or sour feeling is rooted in a sense of injustice. It is often a reaction against what one feels is silent or spoken accusation. In order to neutralize this bitter root and its effects, the accuser needs to be accurately identified.
The nature of evil was unmasked by Christ Jesus. He said of the devil, "He is a liar, and the father of it."John 8:44.Here the character of evil is revealed as it never had been — as not a person but a deception, as a lying sense and a lie. The Revelator called evil "the accuser," and in the dawning of his understanding of God's all power heard the command to rejoice because "the accuser of our brethren is cast down."Rev. 12:10.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy continues the great work of revealing to the maturing thought the wonderful fact of God's absolute allness and the spiritual purity of the real man made in His likeness. This book is crucial to the understanding of how to destroy evil in daily life. In order to begin to comprehend God's allness and man's perfection and to progress toward the ultimate victory over hate, selfishness, and sickness—over all evil, including death—we need to see something of what its author saw in her discovery of the rules of scientific Christian healing. She writes: "The notion that both evil and good are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates. Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power. As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie, nothing claiming to be something, — for lust, dishonesty, selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery, murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all the etceteras that word includes." Science and Health, p. 330.
If any form of evil is claiming to be something powerful in our own life, causing us to suffer bitterly, a healing should not be delayed if we are able to accept into our hearts and lives the fact that God is All and is absolute good, and that man truly reflects Him. If we are willing, we can let that truth so permeate consciousness that it will annihilate the wormwood effect of a false sense.
Seeing the unreality of an evil apparently done to us does not mean ignoring the wrong action. It does mean working out our own salvation through the recognition that evil impersonalized — undisguised — has no power now or ever over us. Rejected as a lie, a wrong has no might whatsoever. The real culprit, then, is not "him," "her," or "them," but the false consciousness that Christian Science calls mortal mind. This spurious mind (or carnal mind, as Paul has it) argues for the justification of all mortal modes of thought, including self-pity, anger, and even revenge. Sometimes self-justification is what makes the effects of a bitter experience seem to be incurable. It perpetuates bitterness and resentment on the grounds that one's own mental state is less evil than that of another, whose actions have caused us suffering.
Perhaps we are identifying with the Israelites as we mutter, "Can anyone blame me for feeling this way?" Yet such a mortally minded argument spirals in absurdity and ultimates in our viewing ourselves as trapped, as helpless slaves in a treadmill reign of injustice; or even worse, in a vicious circle of revenge. Self-righteousness and self-justification are mental postures highly resistant to spiritual healing. Nursing an injured sense or venting blame does not make us feel better but rather tightens the grip of evil, delaying our progress beyond Marah.
We don't have to drink the bitter waters. Nothing can force us to take in either draughts or sips of polluted thinking. We have the tree of life, the absolute truth of God and man, with which to purify and freshen consciousness moment by moment. In proportion as we reject the adulterated waters of believing that both good and evil are real, there will be a healing of bitterness and a harmonizing of conditions.
How far have we progressed out of Egypt and beyond Marah — beyond a slave victim mentality into the understanding of divine Love's tender caring? We can measure our progress by the degree to which our lips and lives respond to the Bible's searching question, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"James 3:11.Bitterness springs from the conviction that there is a cause for it. But God is the only source and cause. Every Christian Science healing is a powerful proof of this absolute fact.
To challenge even a small harbored bitterness is not insignificant, for it contributes to "the healing of the nations." It brings to us the refreshment of sweetness and joy, qualities not merely incidental but central to our nature as the sons and daughters of God.
"For victory over a single sin," our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes, "we give thanks and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain."Science and Health,p. 568.Getting beyond Marah—healing bitter feelings whenever they arise—speeds us on our way to the final triumph over all evil.
