Where should a Christian go when they face a bitter trial?
When bitter trials and tribulations come, a Christian should go to the foot of the cross. Trials are normal for believers, just as Israel faced the forbidding desert and bitter water. The tree that healed the water points to the cross, God's one remedy, where wrath was poured out on the Passover lamb.
Les explains that believers are never saved to walk a rose-petaled pathway; trials and difficulties come just like they did for Israel. Israel came into the forbidding desert, and God did not just give them roses. They were thirsty, their cattle were bellowing, their sheep were bleeding, and there was no water. When they found water, it was bitter and not fit to drink. The people murmured against Moses, asking what they should drink, and Moses cried to the Lord. The Lord showed him a tree, and when it was cast into the water, the water became fit to drink. Les says many lose the thought by treating it as merely a branch and a chemical reaction. The tree throughout Scripture points to one tree: the cross. The cross is called a tree because Deuteronomy says, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, and the cross was the place of curse where God poured out His wrath upon our Passover lamb. So when they come to a bitter experience, there is only one remedy: the cross. Whether a person has been a Christian for years or is a new believer, when a trial or tribulation comes, the place to go is to the foot of the cross.