Disclaimer- I don't agree with everything this guy says. Specifically about their being a myrrh anointing. But I think the gist of this message is pretty good about the bitter seasons of our life.
From the book ~The Decree of Esther Aaron Fruh
The Cross turns bitter to sweet
I want to discuss further the message of myrrh as it relates to the cross, because one of the last lessons Jesus taught us during His life here on earth involved myrrh.
In fact I used to feel confused by it because scripture seems to offer contradictory information. Mark 15:23 says, “they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it.” Matthew gives a similar account adding, “When he tasted it, he would not drink.” Matthew 27:34 Yet John’s gospel says this;
Who is right? Mark says that Jesus would not drink the myrrh but John says that he did. On closer examination we see that both are right. There were two different times that Christ was offered bitter myrrh to drink at Golgotha the place of the skull.
The first time recorded in Mark 15:23 and Matthew 27:34 was before he was crucified. It was Roman custom to offer the victim of crucifixion myrrh mingled with wine before they pierced the hands and feet with the nails. You see myrrh and wine mixed together act as a simulant and pain reliever. Jesus rejected the medication so that he would experience the inferno of pain for us. Soon all the shame anguish and bitter seasons of our lives would be cast upon Him, and he chose to take the full force of them.
The book of Exodus, gives us a beautify foreshadowing of Christ rejecting the numbing myrrh. The children of Israel have crossed the Red Sea triumphantly and have seen their enemies perish before them as the sea walls cascaded down upon the Egyptian horses and chariots. The Israelites sang the song of Moses and Miriam led a joyful procession of praise with timbrels and dancing. The very next stop in their journey was the wilderness of Shur where for three days they found no water.
Exodus 15: 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah. [a] ) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"
25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
Remember the Hebrew root word for myrrh is marrah, which means “bitter.” When the Israelites tasted the bitter water they spat it out, just as Jesus would reject the bitter myrrh after he had tasted it.
Here is the lesson he was teaching us. When we come to the “bitter water’ seasons of our lives we can begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together. First of all we concluded that we are in the beginning of a myrrh season. Next, we realize that we are thirsty. And finally, we conclude that the water is bitter. Thus we refuse to drink. We mistakenly reject the discomfort of the myrrh in hopes that we can make it to a place where the water is sweet. The Israelites too, were pressing on to a better place; Elim, where there were twelve wells of fresh water and seventy palm tress for shade. We choose to spit out the bitter myrrh of Shur in order to taste the cool waters of Elim.
Do not think however there is anyway around those bitter waters without the cross of Christ. Like the tree Moses threw into the water, the tree of Calvary, where Jesus bore our sorrows, is the only way to end our wilderness experience. It is only through the work of the cross that our bitter waters will be made sweet. Without the cross we are forever stranded in the wilderness. We can never get to Elim and rest … and beauty.
God has designed and organised your beauty preparation schedule. Every person’s path is different. There are times when, like Esther you come to a season of life in which all you see, taste and smell seems painfully bitter. How will you endure it? Not by longing for the sweet wells and shade of another season. You simply need to find the one ‘tree; in your puzzling wilderness that will make your life complete. One that tree Jesus took all of our pain and bitterness. He spat out the myrrh so that He would endure it every aspect of our desperate moments. He spat out the myrrh so that when we face our own myrrh anointing we can be transformed into His image- a church without blot or blemish.
You see, the tree of Calvary when applied to my bitter wilderness experience makes it sweet. Jesus has taken away the bitterness of life’s suffering. Paul tells us that on the cross Jesus brought us a glorious victory so now we can proclaim, “Death is swallowed up in victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
Jesus swallowed the bitterness of death for us and made life sweet. Even your pain is bearable because of the tree of Calvary.
Mark’s gospel records that even before the nails pierced Jesus’ body, He spat out the myrrh mixed with wine because it acted as a pain reliever and He desired to experience all of our pain. In John’s gospel, and also is Matthew 27:48 as we read earlier, Jesus drank the wine mixed with myrrh just before He gave up His spirit. So the last thing Jesus did before He died was to drink the the cup of bitterness on our behalf. This was done to fulfil the Scripture; “They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 69:21).
Jesus is returning for a glorious church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. And every time we allow the Lord Jesus to anoint us with myrrh to cause us to be more attractive to Him, we are fulfilling the scriptures.
In the old Covenant law in Leviticus 14 a procedure is given for cleansing lepers. The priest was to take hyssop (a long reed) and dip it into the blood of an animal and then sprinkle the blood on the hyssop over the leper. David says in Psalm 51:7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Unknowingly, that Roman solider at Golgotha was fulfilling the Levitical law. He took hyssop and put a sponge filled with myrrh on the tip of it and gave it to Christ to drink. Before Jesus committed His spirit into the hands of His father, He was purged with hyssop and anointed with myrrh. We remember of course that when Christ came into the world as a baby He was anointed with the gift of myrrh given by the wise men. It was used as a balm for the skin care of a new child. Before he gave up His spirit on the cross, Jesus was again anointed with myrrh…
…First the suffering then the glory. First the bitter, then the sweet. All of the authority that Esther will later receive is a direct result of her willingness to be anointed with myrrh. Beloved it is time to start walking in the divine authority. It is time to get the putrid odour out of our anointing.
The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus.
Hebrews 5: 7During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered
If Jesus learned obedience to God through the things he suffered then our life journeys will also have moments of myrrh. IF Jesus came into the world anointed with myrrh and went out of the world anointed with myrrh, then I say, “Bathe me Jesus in myrrh anointing. I desire to be beautiful and carry with me your sweet smelling fragrance”.
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