Hebrew Word Study – Distasteful – Marim – Mem Resh Mem

Exodus 15:23: “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 Marah.”

There is the story of a woman who did everything to try and please her husband, but he managed to find fault with everything she did.  One morning he demanded she make two eggs for him, one scrambled and one fried.  She took her time and scrambled the one egg to perfection and fried the other just as she knew her husband liked it.  When he looked at it, he frowned and said: “You fried the wrong egg.”

That sounds extreme, but sometimes we can treat God the same way.  The word in the Hebrew used for bitter is marim. There are three possible roots. One is found in both Hebrew and Aramaic, rum and means to be high, exalted, and prideful.  Another possible root word is marah which means to be bitter in the sense of being rebellious, contentious, or fault finding.  The third root is marar which means to be bitter in tasting.   Note in Exodus 15:23 Marah is repeated three times. It seems redundant to repeat the word three times.  It gets monotonous. But maybe there is purpose in that.

Jewish literature teaches that this word marim was intended to express all three roots.  When you look at the syntax of this verse you find it is not clear if the bitterness is in the people or the water.  This ambiguity in the syntax is most likely intended.  Jewish tradition teaches that the people did not drink the water because it was both bitter tasting and it tasted bitter because they were bitter and too proud to stoop to drinking water that was distasteful. 

Marar merely means distasteful, not poisonous.  The water most likely had a brackish taste to it as water in this area is known to have.  You can drink it but it is not exactly your dream date.  However, in time of thirst, it will serve your purpose.  But, the people themselves were bitter, making them contentious.  A contentious person is one who is always looking to find fault, always looking for an argument. 

As I listen to the presidential campaigns I am hearing a lot of mara’.  You hear so much contentious talk, not just between the candidates but the media as well. The media which is supposed to be unbiased sounds almost like they are bitter toward one candidate.  One finds it difficult tell the difference between editorials and the news, there is so much anger and mara’.  When you get angry and bitter your judgment is clouded and then your words become marar distasteful. 

The children of Israel could have drunk the water God provided for them, it was not poisonous but it just did not taste well enough for them, they tasted better water in Egypt.  There is an old Jewish saying: “The children of Israel did not drink the water because it was bitter, but they did not drink it because they were bitter.”

We, as Christians, can be pretty smug when we look at the children of Israel. Here God provided everything for them, food, clothes that would not wear out, protection, deliverance but when they did not get good tasting water, they turned their noses up at it and walked away like spoiled brats.

Yet, we as American Christians can be pretty much the same.  Here we live in a country with freedom of religion.  No one will arrest us for worshiping God, no one will chop our heads off if don’t follow another religion.  We have an overabundance of the Word of God, a church on every corner where we can find a worship service where we feel comfortable. Even some churches that don’t play that noise that they call music.  Just because I don’t like their style of worship music or all I hear is the boom boom of a drum, doesn’t mean I can have them arrested (unless they are disturbing the peace).  We can listen to whatever Christian music we want. I can go to any church I want that has the music I want. 

Not only that but we have full stomachs, a closet full of clothes, we live in one of the richest countries in the world, yet when I go to church I find people fighting over whether to have green olives or black olives at a church social (as a pastor I once sat through a business meeting where they argued this very thing for almost a half hour – I timed it. They decided on black because it was more natural – which it is not).  So before we pick up rocks to stone the children of Israel for belly aching over foul tasting water, maybe we should pause and see if there is any marah in us and thank God for the blessings He has given us.

I remember a story where a man stood outside the door of his kitchen listening to his housekeeper pray. She prayed: “Oh Lord, if I just had fifty dollars I would be the most contented woman in the world.”  Intrigued over this idea of seeing the most contented woman in the world he walked into the kitchen, apologize for ease dropping but said he would give her the fifty dollars.  She clapped her hands and praised the Lord for this swift answer to prayer.   Then as the gentlemen left he put his ear to the door to listen to her continue her praise to God. Only what he heard was: “Oh, Lord, why didn’t you make me say $100.” 

Probably many of us Christians need to memorize Philippians 4:11-13.  No I am not going to tell you what it says; I am going to make you look it up. 

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