In Exodus 15:22, as soon as Miriam stopped singing, Moses led the people into the wilderness, the place of testing and growth. The Israelites probably expected the journey to be fairly uneventful. Its only around 200 miles from Egypt to the promised land, but Israel was not go directly from grace to glory. They would only get to the promised land through the wilderness. So it is with us. As Philip Ryken says, “The church is now living in the wilderness between the first and second comings of Christ. He came once to save us; he will come again to lead us home." In the meantime we are on a long and difficult pilgrimage, which God is using us to make us holy. As the Scripture says, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. The hardship is magnified in verse 23 because, though water was found, it was undrinkable. Having no water is hard, but having undrinkable water may be harder still. For this reason, they called the place Marah for its bitter waters.
What’s interesting to me about this trial is how it so quickly follows the great victory of God at the Red Sea. At this, the first test, the people grumbled and complained against Moses. Moses cried out to God. Moses did not defend himself or get into a shouting match with the Israelites. He called on God. Moses knew only God could deliver the people and he knew that no amount of grumbling would change anything. God showed him a tree, which he threw into the water, and the water became sweet - drinkable.
We see the patience of God here. He had just delivered Israel from Egypt by His mighty hand, but when they turned to complaining, God did not forsake them or punish them. He id not speak against them, but He just provided for them. He gave them fresh water to drink. Calvin said, “Herein shone forth the inestimable mercy of God, who deigned to change the nature of water for the purpose of supplying such wicked and rebellious and ungrateful men.” God’s grace is so amazing that he even provides for whiners. God is so gracious even though we are so ungrateful. God blesses His people. In the first plague, God cursed Egypt by making their water undrinkable, turning the Nile to blood. In this passage God did the reverse for Israel, making the undrinkable water drinkable. God blessed His people and judged His enemies.
It is amazing to see that it was a tree that turned the bitter to the sweet. We think about other trees in the Scriptures - the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, and, of course, the tree on which Jesus was cursed, the cross, where through His death we are set free from the bitter penalty of our sin. So we have here in the healing tree a little foreshadow of what is to come.
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. Elim was a place of abundance. The numbers 12 and 70 are numbers of fullness and blessing. There were twelve tribes in Israel and 70 elders of the people. So life in the wilderness is not all hardship. God gives us wonderful blessings in the midst of this life as we wait for the greater blessing of eternity with Him.
As I think about God leading Israel from despair to hope to abundance, I think about the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John. John 7:37-38 tells us that On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” This same Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”
In His Abundant Grace,
Brown
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