Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 15:22
So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
22. led onward ] properly, made to journey (Exo 12:37); so Psa 78:52 a.
from the Red Sea ] The Arabs regard ‘Ayn (or ‘Oyn) Ms, the ‘springs of Moses,’ 9 miles below Suez, on the E. side of the gulf, and 1 miles from the coast, as the station at which the Israelites first halted, after their passage of the Red Sea. ‘Ayn Ms is a small oasis, where Robinson (1:62), m 1838, counted 7 fountains, some evidently mere recent excavations in the sand, in which a little brackish water was standing, and saw about 20 stunted, untrimmed palm bushes, and a small patch of barley, irrigated from one or two of the fountains. More recently (cf. Ordnance Survey of Sinai, p. 73; Palmer, Desert of the Ex., 1871, p. 34 f.) the irrigation has been artificially improved: several acres of garden ground, containing fruit and vegetables, have been brought under cultivation, which supply the Suez market; and palms and tamarisk trees are more abundant. Whether however ‘Ayn Ms was really the Israelites’ halting-place, or was only assumed to be such on account of its convenient situation opposite the supposed crossing-place, must remain uncertain: if the passage was made either through, or N. of, the Bitter Lakes (p. 126), ‘Ayn Ms, being 35, or 50, miles distant, would be too far off for at least the first stopping-place.
Shur ] The name of the district on the E. frontier of Egypt (i.e. E. of line extending from Suez to what is now Port Said), mentioned also in Gen 16:7; Gen 20:1; Gen 25:18 (where ‘before,’ or ‘in front of,’ means East of), 1Sa 27:8. On theories of the origin of the name see Shur in DB. Shur in Heb. means a ‘wall’; and hence it has sometimes been supposed to denote the ‘wall’ built by the Egyptians, at least as early as Usertesen I, of the 12th dynasty, to protect their E. frontier against invaders from Asia. But it is uncertain whether the Egypt. word means a wall or only a line of military posts or fortresses: Shur also is the regular word for ‘wall’ only in Aramaic, in Heb. it occurs only twice, in poetry (Gen 49:22; Psa 18:29 = 2Sa 22:30): so it is very doubtful if this theory of the meaning of the name is correct (see further DB. s.v., with the references).
three days ] a day’s journey, for a caravan travelling with tents, baggage, and cattle, would be hardly more than 15 miles.
the wilderness ] In the itinerary of P in Num 33:8, ‘the wilderness of Etham ’: i.e., if this interpretation is correct, the part of the wilderness of Shur that was near Etham (Exo 13:20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22 27. The journey from the Red Sea to Elim.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
So Moses – Literally, And Moses. The history of the journey from the Red Sea to Sinai begins in fact with this verse, which would more conveniently have been the commencement of another chapter.
From the Red sea – The station where Moses and his people halted to celebrate their deliverance is generally admitted to be the Ayoun Musa, i. e. the fountains of Moses. It is the only green spot near the passage over the Red Sea. There are several wells there, which in the time of Moses were probably enclosed and kept with great care by the Egyptians, for the use of the frequent convoys to and from their ancient settlements at Sarbutel Khadem and the Wady Mughara.
The wilderness of Shur – This name belongs to the whole district between the northeastern frontier of Egypt and Palestine. The word is undoubtedly Egyptian, and is derived probably from the word Khar which designated all the country between Egypt and Syria proper.
Three days – The distance between Ayoun Musa and Huwara, the first spot where any water is found on the route, is 33 geographical miles. The whole district is a tract of sand, or rough gravel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 15:22-27
They came to Marah.
Marah
I. The water was deleterious, not distasteful only. Had the people drunk it, it would have wrought disease; but it was healed by the obedience of Moses to Gods directions. So if we are attentive and obedient to His voice He will find us remedies from all things that might hurt us.
II. It was not possible, perhaps, that the children of Israel should, by persevering in the unwholesome draught which is there typical of sin, have vitiated their taste till they delighted in it. But it is too possible in the antitype.
III. Though we axe compelled by Gods providence to pass through difficulty and temptation, we are not doomed to dwell there. If we are faithful, it is but in passing that we shall be endangered. If we use the remedy of obedience to Gods Word to-day, to-morrow we shall be beside the twelve ever-springing fountains, and under the shade of the palm-trees of Elfin. (Archbishop Benson.)
The waters of Marah
We have here a parable of the deep things of Christ.
I. Israel was in those days fresh from the glorious deliverance out of Egypt; they had sung their first national song of victory; they had breathed the air of liberty. This was their first disappointment, and it was a very sharp one; from the height of exultation they fell almost at once to the depths of despair. Such disappointments we have all experienced, especially in the outset of our actual march, after the first conscious sense of spiritual triumph and freedom.
II. Of us also it is true that God hath showed us a certain tree, and that tree is the once accursed tree on which Christ died. This is the tree of life to us, though of death to Him.
III. It was God who showed this tree unto Moses. And it was God who showed it to us in the gospel. Applied by our faith to the bitter waters of disappointment and distress, it will surely heal them and make them sweet. Two things there are about the tree of scorn which will never lose their healing power–the lesson of the Cross and the consolation of the Cross; the example and the companionship of Christ crucified.
IV. The life which found its fitting close upon the cross was not a life of suffering only, but emphatically a life of disappointment. Here there is comfort for us. Our dying Lord must certainly have reflected that He, the Son of God, was leaving the world rather worse than He found it in all human appearance.
V. Whatever our trials and disappointments, let us use this remedy; it will not fail us even at the worst. (R. Winterbotham, M. A.)
Bitter-sweet
I. That great joy is often closely followed by a great trial. Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong is the grateful word of many a rejoicing Christian; and lo! suddenly touched by the finger of Providence, it reels and rocks as though heaved by an earthquake, and falls into the depths of the sea. In the day of prosperity be wise! Rejoice with trembling! Do not presume on the possession of present good. In the hour of peace forget not the preparation for a possible storm. Trust in God with a firm hand, both in sunshine and in shade.
II. Here is a great trial transformed into a great blessing. The bitter was not removed, but converted into sweet. So God can make the grief a grace anti change the burden into a blessing. The rod itself shall bud and blossom and bring forth almonds, so that the very thing that chastens the trustful soul shall present beauty to the eye and fruit to the taste. It was a Divine work. The Israelites, even with Moses at their head, had no skill to meet the given necessities of the hour. The Lord showed them a tree, and so miraculously healed the forbidding spring. Brothers! human wisdom, earths philosophies, the worlds limited resources are all useless in the midst of our desperate needs.
III. Here is a great trial, so transformed, preparing for and leading to a still greater blessing. (see Exo 15:27). Christian, be of good courage. Egypts chains were heavy; but the Red Sea victory made thee glad. Marahs waters were bitter; but the Lord distilled sweet streams therefrom to strengthen and refresh thy soul. Then He led thee to beautiful Elfin, with its springs and palm-trees, and its grateful rest, and in all and through all thou art nearer Canaan than when first thou didst believe. Amid all thine alternations of joy and sorrow there shall be, if thou art faithful to thy God, a clear current, progressive gain, and it shall still be better further on.
IV. This gracious alternation and abundant deliverance was all experienced on the line of march. Let the Christian never forget that these are the conditions necessary to secure his gracious progression of conquest, transformation, and exceeding joy. (J. J. Wray.)
The sweetening tree in lifes bitter streams
Heaven has prepared a sweetening tree for the bitter waters.
I. Of our secular life. Wrecked plans, blasted hopes, etc. The tree to sweeten this is Christs doctrine of a Fatherly providence.
II. Of our moral life. The bitter waters of an accusing conscience. Whom God hath set forth, etc.
III. Of an intellectual life. Gods revealed character in Christ–all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful.
IV. Of our social life. I am the Resurrection, etc. Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.
V. Of our dying life. (Homilist.)
The mysterious tree
I. That prayer will meet every painful crisis in human experience.
II. That all men, everywhere, are athirst.
III. That every man will at length come to his well; but the water thereof will be bitter to his taste. Sensual indulgence. Fashionable amusement; inebriety; riches; worldly renown; infidelity. All mere earthly pools are acrid and unsatisfying.
IV. That there is a tree which can sweeten all earths waters. The tree of life–the Cross of Christ. He, every one that thirsteth, come. (S. D. Burchard, D. D.)
Lifes bitterness
The wilderness brings out what is within. It also discovers Gods goodness and our unworthiness.
I. Earths rottenness.
1. We must expect bitter pools in a bitter world.
2. Many of us make our own Marahs.
II. Heavens remedy.
1. To the praying man the Lord reveals the remedy.
2. God uses instramentality.
3. God does not always take away the Marah, but drops an ingredient into it to sweeten its bitterness. (Homilist.)
The waters of Marah
Had they been allowed to select their path, they would have taken the short cut by the seaboard to their own promised land. But the cloud steered their pathway through difficulty and into difficulty. Behind them was the blood of the lamb. They were ransomed. Behind them the wonders of Egypt wrought on their behalf. Behind them the passage of the Red Sea. And they might have expected that, the moment they had left their foes behind, they had left all trouble and sorrow too. But instead of that, their redemption from Egypt was their redemption from comparatively easy circumstances into arduous and difficult straits. God led His redeemed in the very heart and teeth of difficulty. I am often met by men who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who are truly His servants, behind whom there lies a wondrous story of deliverance, and they have come to me with complaints, and they have said, I thought when I had given up my old sins that my life would be calm and placid, and that difficulty would be at an end; but instead, I never did in all my life go through such a sea of difficulty as I have known since I became a Christian. Friend, that is always Gods way with His redeemed ones. You must not think that difficulty is a proof that you are wrong. Difficulty is most likely aa evidence that you are right. Never be daunted by it. Why? Those verses we read from Deuteronomy answer the question. It is in order to humble us, to prove us, and to knew what is in our heart. Difficulty is sent to humble you. If I offer my hand to a little maiden on a cold and frosty day, and she thinks she can keep her feet by herself, she is net likely to take my strong hand until she has been humbled by a tumble or two. God has been compelled to break down your self-confidence. When you started the Christian life you thought your arm was so strong it could beat down every barrier, or that you were so elastic that you could leap over any wall, or that your brain was so keen that you could see through any difficulty. God began by little difficulties, and you leapt over them; and then He put greater ones, and you successfully overcame them; and God has been compelled to pile difficulty upon difficulty until you are now face to face with a very desert on the one hand, and an Alpine range upon the other; and now broken, cowed, defeated, you are just at the very position in which to learn to appreciate, and to appropriate, the infinite resources of God. And there is another thing that difficulty does for a man. It proves him. He made a statute and an ordinance, and proved them. There are so many counterfeits, you do not know that you have got the real thing till you have tested it. You do not know the stability of a house till it has been tested by the storm. And it is only when difficulty comes that we really know what we are. You say that you have faith. How do you know? All your life has been sunny. Wait till God hides Himself in a pavilion of cloud. You think that you obey God, but up till now the path that God has led you hath been such an easy path, through a meadow where the flowers have been bestrewn. You do not know how much you will obey until you are proved. You say you have got patience; and there is nothing sweeter than patience–the patience and gentleness of Christ. Yet you wait until you are put into the midst of trying and difficult circumstances, and then you may talk about possessing patience. And then, once more, God not only humbles and proves us, but He tries what is in our hearts; not that He needs to know, but that He may give us the opportunity of equipping ourselves for larger work. For God thus deals with us: He puts us into difficulty and watches us lovingly to see how we act, for every day He stands before His judgment bar, and every hour is the crisis of our life. If we stand the test, He says, Come up higher, and we step up to the wider platform and plateau of usefulness. But if, on the other hand, we cannot stand the test, we step down. Will you take heart from this? Will you mind the difficulties? Oh, meet difficulty in God, and see if it be not a training-ground for great and noble work in the hereafter. But there is disappointment too. It was hard enough to have difficulty, but it was harder to be tantalized. They marched on three days; they exhausted the water they had brought, or what was left was stinking, and they could not drink it. Ah, how weary they were! Ah, you men and women, so disappointment comes to all of us. The youth has disappointments. The lad at school thinks that he is a slave, that the drudgery of Egypt was nothing compared to this. How he longs for the time when he will be his own master! And off he starts. He buries his school books, and goes forth into the world. Alas, poor lad! he finds there is no way to Canaan except by the hard plodding sultry desert march. So it is with age–mature life! mean. So it is with the young convert. They think Christian living is a great holiday, a march-past with banners and bands. But they soon find that there is a stern warfare. They are disappointed in the Church they join, they find all Christian people do not act as they thought; they are disappointed because they do not at once find sin die within them, or the devil yield, or Christianity become what they hoped, just wandering through a pleasant garden plucking flowers. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Moses at Marah
I. They could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter–so the greatest triumphs of life may be succeeded by the most vexatious inconveniences. You may be right, even when the heaviest trial is oppressing you. You may be losing your property, your health may be sinking, your prospects may be clouded, and your friends may be leaving you one by one, yet in the midst of such disasters your heart may be stedfast in faithfulness to God.
II. The people murmured against Moses–so the greatest services of life are soon forgotten.
III. And Moses cried unto the Lord!–So magnanimous prayer is better than official resignation. All great leaderships should be intensely religious, or they will assuredly fail in the patience without which no strength can be complete. Parents, instead of resigning the oversight of your children, pray for them! Pastors, instead of resigning your official positions, pray for those who despitefully use you! All who in anywise seek to defend the weak, or lead the blind or teach the ignorant, instead of being driven off by every unreasonable murmuring, renew your patience by waiting upon God!
IV. And the Lord showed him a tree–so where there is a bane in life there is always an antidote. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The waters of Marah
I. A grievous need. Do we not see in mankind a weary marching host of pilgrims, looking eagerly for the next well, and hoping there to find satisfaction? It is trite but true of the greater part of them, Man never is; but always to be blest. There are deep yearnings after unattained good; a burning desire for rest. Moreover, even to them who have found the living waters there may be many a weary march.
II. A sore disappointment. Intense as are human desires for final good, they are doomed, so long as fixed upon created objects, to perpetual and agonizing disappointment. The apples that seemed ripe for the gathering and fit for baskets of silver are found to contain only rottenness and dust. It is wisely ordered that no creature should give satisfaction to the heart. Even those who have chosen the Lord as their portion need to be perpetually quickened, lest they should cleave to the dust.
III. A rebellious and unreasonable treatment of afflictions. The people murmured against Moses. So men complain still. They charge God foolishly; and governmental measures, blights, panics, failure of success, etc., are suffered to engender their thoughts and hard speeches.
IV. The true and sure refuge in time of affliction. There is no might of influence like that which is wielded by those who are hid in the pavilion of the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
V. The Divine sovereignty. When men are willing to see what God shows, how quickly is the bitterness of life changed into peace and joy through believing Looking away unto Jesus, they hear Him saying, I am the Lord that healeth thee! The mystic tree is set forth before the eye of faith, and its goodly boughs bend to the touch even of the chief of sinners.
VI. Another and most significant passage occurs in connection with Israels sojourn by the bitter well, and which shows the continual obligation of Divine ordinances even in great exigencies. There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them. They were now tested as to their disposition to obey alike the stated and occasional commandments of God; and it is possible that some further instructions were conveyed on Divine authority. But the statute and ordinance plainly refer to the solemn assembly which was now to be observed.
VII. Once again, we learn beside the waters of Marah the compensatory law of Divine proceedings. We are pilgrims as all our fathers were, and often reach a bitter well in our march through the wilderness; but beside each there is a tree whose virtue makes the nauseous waters sweeter than all the streams of Goshen. (J. D. Brocklehurst, D. D.)
Bitter things made sweet
But we have here also the means of sweetening all bitterness. The bitterness of repentance is sweetened by this consideration, that, being a godly sorrow, it worketh a repentance unto life, which no one repenteth of. The bitterness of denying the world and self is sweetened by this, that he who renounces everything for His sake receives it again a hundredfold. The bitterness of the spiritual combat is alleviated by this, that it is the good fight of faith to which the victory and the crown of glory is held out. The bitterness of the various sufferings we have to endure is sweetened by the consideration that they are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed; and also of the various temptations by which we are assailed, of which it is said, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for after he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which God has promised to them that love Him. In short, this wondrous tree can sweeten all the suffering that would be otherwise intolerable. But still it is necessary that the remedy be shown and pointed out to us by the Holy Spirit. (G. D. Krummacher.)
Marah; or, the bitter waters sweetened
I. The evils of the wilderness.
1. The perils and trials of the wilderness occur very early in the pilgrim life.
2. These evils assume varied shapes.
3. They touch very vital matters. God may touch you in the most beloved object of your heart.
4. There is a reason why the earthly mercies which supply our necessities must be more or less bitter. What can you hope for in a wilderness but productions congruous to it? Canaan! Who looks for bitterness there?
II. The tendency of human nature.
1. They murmured, complained, found fault. A very easy thing. No sense in it, no wit in it, no thought in it: it is the cry rather of a brute than of a man–murmur–just a double groan. Easy is it for us to kick against the dispensations of God, to give utterance to our griefs, and what is worse, to the inference we drew from them that God has forgotten to be gracious. To murmur is our tendency; but do we mean to let the tendencies of the old nature rule us?
2. Observe that the murmuring was not ostensibly against God. They murmured against Moses. And have you ever noticed how the most of us, when we are in a murmuring vein, are not honest enough to murmur distinctly against God. No; the child is dead, and we form a conjecture that there was some wrong treatment on the part of nurse, or surgeon, or ourselves. Or we have lost money, and have been brought down from opulence to almost poverty; then some one person was dishonest, a certain party betrayed us in a transaction by failing to fulfil his part; all the murmuring is heaped on that person. We deny, perhaps indignantly, that we murmur against God; and to prove it we double the zeal with which we murmur against Moses. To complain of the second cause is about as sensible as the conduct of the dog, which bites the sticks with which it is beaten.
3. Once more, while we speak of this tendency in human nature, I want you to observe how they betrayed an utter unbelief in God. They said unto Moses, What; shall we drink? They meant by it, By what means can God supply our want of water? They were at the Red Sea, and God cleft the intervening gulf in twain, through the depths thereof they marched dryshod; there is Marahs water–shall it be more difficult for God to purify than to divide? To sweeten a fountain–is that more difficult than to cleanse a sea? Is anything too hard for the Lord?
III. The remedy of grace.
1. Take the case of prayer to God.
2. As soon as we have a prayer, God has a remedy. The Lord showed him a tree. I am persuaded that for every lock in Doubting Castle there is a key, but the promises are often in great confusion to our minds, so that we are perplexed. If a blacksmith should bring you his great bundle of picklocks, you would have to turn them over, and over, and over; and try half of them, perhaps two-thirds, before you would find the right one; ay, and perhaps the right one would be left to the last. It is always a blessing to remember that for every affliction there is a promise in the Word of God; a promise which meets the case, and was made on purpose for it. But you may not be always able to find it–no, you may go fumbling over the Scriptures long before you get the true word; but when the Lord shows it to you, when it comes with power to the soul, oh, what a bliss it is!
3. Now that remedy for the healing of Marahs water was a very strange one. Why should a tree sweeten the waters? This was no doubt a miraculous incident, and it was also meant to teach us something. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was eaten by our first parents and embittered all; there is a tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.
4. That remedy was most effective. When they cut down the tree, and put it into the water, it turned the water sweet–they could drink of it; and let me assure you, that in the case of our trouble, the Cross is a most effective sweetener.
5. It is transcendent. The water was bitter, but it became absolutely sweet. The same water that was bitter became sweet, and the grace of God, by leading us into contemplations that spring out of the Cross of Christ, can make our trials themselves to become pleasant to us. It is a triumph of grace in the heart when we not only acquiesce in trouble, but even rejoice in it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The well of bitterness
I. That the first days journey, in spite of the splendid scenery of the coasts of the gulf, is probably the most wearisome and monotonous of the whole way. Sand-storms, white limestone plains, the dust caked into a hard surface intensely hot and dazzling, no water, no trees–it is as if the desert put on its dreariest dress to greet its pilgrims, and gave to them at once a full taste of the foils and wants which they must endure in traversing its wastes. And is it otherwise in life? Is not the same character impressed for us on earth and life, when we enter on its sterner era, when we leave the home of our childhood, the Egypt of our careless, half-developed youth, and go out into the wilderness, to wander freely there under the law of duty, and before the face of God. Does it not seem to all of us strange and dreary? Who ever found the first aspects of duty pleasant? Is it holiday pastime, the first grappling with the realities of life? Who has not been choked and parched by the hot dust of the great desert! though it be full of looms, and mill-wheels, and manifold activity, it is a desert at first to us before we get accustomed to its atmosphere and at home in its life. Well does the schoolboy know it, as he plods into the wilderness of study, and faints under the first experience of its dryness and dust. Let him but hold on awhile, and lie will find springs and palm-trees, where he may rest and play; but it wants large faith and a goad of sharp necessity to get him through the weariness of those first days. God does not conceal from any one of us the stern conditions of our discipline.
II. It is a trite saying, that disappointment is the hardest of all things to bear. Hardest, because it finds the soul unbraced to meet it–relaxed, at ease, and tuned to indulgence and joy. Who has not muttered Marah over some well in the desert, which he strained himself to reach and found to be bitterness? It strikes me that we have, in this miracle, most important suggestions as to the philosophy of all miracles. I believe that the object of all miracles is to maintain, and not to violate–to reveal, and not to confound–the order of Gods world. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Marah and Elim
I. The thoughts suggested by the changes here described.
1. That the life of a God-led man is full of changes in outward circumstances.
2. That these changes are divinely ordained.
3. That each change brings its own temptations.
4. That these varied changes are intended to develop all our graces.
II. Thoughts suggested by the halting-places here mentioned.
1. Marah was a place of temptation.
2. Marah was a place of disappointment.
3. Marah was a place of trustfulness and prayer.
4. Elim has its suggestiveness. Gods bountiful goodness. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
The moral lessons of Marah
I. We have an expressive type of human trial in the bitterness of the waters.
1. The bitterness of the waters disappointed their most eager expectations.
2. The bitterness of the waters left them apparently without a grand necessity of life.
3. The bitterness of the waters immediately succeeded a remarkable deliverance.
II. We have unreasoning mistrust of the Divine providence the murmuring of the people.
1. Their mistrust was unreasoning, considering the person against whom they murmured. Not Moses, but God, was their Guide, as they well knew.
2. Their mistrust was unreasoning, considering the Divine promises they had received.
3. Their mistrust was unreasoning, considering the displays of Divine power which they had witnessed.
III. We have an instructive appeal for Divine help in the prayer of Moses.
1. It indicates the importance of earnest supplication to God in all our trials.
2. It suggests the importance of a submissive spirit in supplicating deliverance from our trials.
IV. We have a gracious display of Divine power in the sweetening of the waters. God answers prayer in the hour of trouble.
1. By influencing the mind in the direction whence relief may be obtained.
2. By transmuting the temporal affliction into a rich spiritual blessing.
V. We have an intimation of the design of all affliction in the declared purpose of this particular trial. There He proved them–tested their faith and obedience. Afflictions prove us.
1. By discovering to us the unsatisfying nature of earthly things.
2. By disclosing the true measure of our piety. (W. Kirkman.)
Poisoned waters
What is all this, but a striking picture of human life, and of that which the grace of God can and does effect? All the waters of human life have been poisoned by sin. There is not one drop that has been left quite pure,–all has been made bitter. Much there is still which at a distance looks beautiful and refreshing; and those who walk by sense and not by faith, are often, may, always, deceived by appearances just as Israel was. It is not until they taste for themselves that they find out the truth of Solomons words, that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Look at the attractions of the world, which cause so many souls to wander. What are they all but a vain show, which can intoxicate or lull the soul for a time, but which leave it, oh, how weary and restless afterwards! The waters of the world are truly bitter waters. Or, look at the occupations of life. To some energetic spirits the very difficulty and toil of labour are attractive; but, after a while, will not the question thrust itself upon the busy mind–oh, what is the profit? what the end of all this? Suppose that everything prospers. Suppose that I have enough to satisfy every earthly want, to secure me every gratification, to encompass myself and children with every luxury. What then? There is a voice, a penetrating voice, that says, Prepare to meet thy God! that proclaims, It is appointed unto men once to die, but after that the judgment. And then, what will become of me? Or, look again at the relationships of life. Instituted though they are by God, yet sin has embittered them also. Whence is it, that some of the deepest and most certain trials of life come to us? It is through our relationships and our friendships. Deep affection, sacred as it is, has always many anxieties associated with it. How many a mothers heart is gradually worn out by cares about her children! How many a father, when surveying the disturbances of his family, is impelled to adopt the words of the aged Jacob, All these things are against me! And then, how many a heart is left widowed even early in life, with a void which nothing earthly can ever fill! Is it too much to say that this world, viewed as it is in itself, is Marah? Its waters are bitter. Have not numbers who have embraced it as their all, gone down to the grave, restless, discontented and murmuring? It may seem to some as if we had invested the world with its pleasures, its occupations, and its relationships, in too thick a gloom. If so, we would remind you that we have been speaking of the world, as such, as it is in itself–of pleasures which are far from God–of business and occupation from which God is excluded–and of relationships which are put in the place of God. (G. Wagner.)
Bitter waters
Such are often the consolations of this world. We ardently long for them, and when we obtain them they are bitter. The things we have most wished for become new sorrows. And this is to teach us to seek our true joys in God alone, to make the wilderness of this world distasteful to us, and to cause us to long for eternal life. Suppose a man to be so poor as to earn his bread with difficulty; he can scarcely provide for his family. Ah! he may perhaps say to himself, if I were only like so many people around me, who are not obliged to work, and are so happy in this world! Suppose this man to become rich; but still a prey to care, surrounded by enemies, and unhappy in his children. How many bitter sorrows are still his lot: he was once in the desert of Shur, now he is at the waters of Marah! A woman finds herself solitary and lonely; she wishes for a friend and protector; she marries. But she finds out too late that her husband is a man of bad character or of bad habits. She was in the desert, she is now at Marah. (Professor Gaussen.)
Sweetening the waters
I. Marahs of disappointment.
I. The young convert imagines that when he has got to the Cross he has got, so to speak, next door to heaven; he imagines that, once he has got pardon, he will never have another sigh; but oh! it is only a three days march from the City of Destruction to the Slough of Despond, only a little way out to the darkness and the trouble; and then, when it comes, the young convert is sometimes tempted to look back to the delights of the old days, when he had not any fear of God before his eyes; for he has thus to learn in bitterness and disappointment that it is through much tribulation he is to be perfected for the kingdom.
2. So, too, with the mature believer; life is full of disappointments. It takes very little to turn the waters of our best comforts into bitterness; and disappointment in any case is hard to bear; but sometimes it is doubly hard when it comes upon the back of other trials.
II. Marahs of mercy.
1. God sends no needless trims. He does not afflict for His own pleasure, but for our good.
2. For every need God has provided the supply, for every bane the antidote. But you will not discover it yourself. He must point it out.
3. Notice the method of the Divine mercy. God does not take away the burden; He will give you more strength; and then you will have the strength, even after the burden is removed. You will be permanently the better for it. (G. Davidson, B. Sc.)
The tree of healing
Gods plans of mercy to mankind are remedial. He allows sin and suffering to exist, but He provides means for the cure of these evils. The religion of Jesus Christ is the great healing and curative influence in the world.
1. Take, for example, the bitterness of temptation. A man has made noble resolutions, formed high plans of life, and lo, he finds, to his utter mortification, that his sinful nature still yields to any blast of temptation. He is like one who has built a noble palace and finds that some foul infection renders it hateful. Before the solemn aspect of the Crucified, the powers of evil lose their fascinating glow.
2. And then there is the bitterness of remorse, the sting of remembered guilt. A German writer describes a youth who returned, after a long absence, to his home. All welcomed him with joy. Everything was done to make him happy; but he still was oppressed with a silent gloom. Some friend urged him to say what ailed him and kept him so depressed amidst their happiness, and at length, with a groan, he explained, A sin lies heavy on my soul. But the Cross of Christ removes this bitter sorrow, for He who is our peace has nailed the writing which was against us to His Cross.
3. What shall we say about the bitter cup of suffering which God, in His inscrutable dealings, places in the hands of so many to drink? Yet the sufferer finds succour in remembering that his Saviour has also suffered, and for his salvation. A poor woman in a ward of one of the great London hospitals had to undergo a fearful operation, and, as a special favour, besought that it might be performed on Good Friday, which was close at hand, that the reflection on her Redeemers agony might the better enable her to endure her own sufferings. Is the bitterness of poverty, or of contempt, our lot? So was it that of Jesus, our Lord; and turning to Him, with all confidence we appeal to His sympathy. Are we called on to feel the terrible bitterness of bereavement, to gaze on the empty cradle, or the unoccupied chair? Then think how the Cross points upward! (W. Hardman, LL. D.)
Anticipated pleasure alloyed
We look with great expectancy for the arrival of some pleasure which we imagine will afford us the most complete satisfaction, and no sooner does it arrive than we find in its train a whole host of petty annoyances and unwelcome accompaniments. It is not only so in social life, but also in the material world. Mr. Matthew Lewis, M.P., in his interesting Journal of a residence among the negroes in the West Indies, relates how eagerly in Jamaica, after three months of drought, the inhabitants long for rain; and when the blessing at last descends, it is accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning, and has the effect of bringing out all sorts of insects and reptiles in crowds, the ground being covered with lizards, the air filled with mosquitoes, the rooms of the houses with centipedes and legions of mosquitoes. And it will, on inquiry, be found that the enjoyment of nearly every anticipated pleasure is in like manner more or less alloyed by reason of the unpleasant things which seem inevitably to attend it. (Scientific Illustrations.)
We have not done with hardship when we have left Egypt
This may be regarded as a universal law so long as we are in the present life, and may be illustrated as really in common and secular matters as in spiritual things. The schoolboy is apt to imagine that he is a slave. He is under tutors and governors; and as he grinds away at his studies, not seeing any relation between them and what he is to do in the future, he is tempted to think that the drudgery of the Hebrews in the brickyard was nothing to that which he has to undergo, and he longs for the day when he shall be a free man and enter upon the active duties of life. His emancipation from the dry and uninteresting labours at which he has so long been held marks an epoch in his history, and he sings over it a song as sincere, if not as exalted, as that of Moses at the sea. The burial of the books by our graduating classes may be in the main a foolish freak; but yet it is the expression, in its own way, of relief from that which has hitherto been felt to be a restraint, and each of those who take part in it is intensely jubilant. But after he has entered on the active duties of the work to which he devotes himself, the youth has not gone far before he comes to Marah, and his first experience is one of disappointment. Ah! well for him then if he cries to God, and finds the healing tree which alone can sweeten its waters of bitterness! So it is, also, with every new enterprise in which a man engages. After his first victory comes something which empties it of half its glory. Pure and unmingled success is unknown in the world, and would be, let me add, a great calamity if it were to be enjoyed; for then the man would become proud and forget God, and lose all remembrance of that precious influence by which the disappointments in our experience are transmuted into means of grace. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
A valuable tree
The eucalyptus tree is efficacious in preventing malaria. The cause is supposed to be that its thirsty roots drain the soil for many yards around, and that its large leaves exhale an aromatic oil and intercept the malarious germs. An incident shows its efficacy: An officer in India whose troops were often attacked by sickness removed their huts to a place where several large trees grew between them and the swamp, and from that time until the trees were cut down the troops enjoyed excellent health; afterwards sickness reappeared. It appears to be only in the case of zymotic diseases that the trees operate as a preventative, but that is of no slight value in many districts. (Youths Companion.)
A heaven-sent plant
It is impossible for us to win any victory over this terrible evil in our own strength. Even heathen teachers acknowledge this. Many of you will remember the classic fable when Ulysses was on his way from the ship to deliver from Circe those companions of his who had been changed into swine by the power of the enchantress of sensuality, he was met by the legendary god Mercury, who told him that he would never be able to overcome the enchantress by his own sword. Mercury gave him a plant, the root of which was black and the flower of which was white, and it was by the power of this plant that he was to win his victory over the enchantress. There is a deep moral truth in that myth of the old Greek poet. We have an enchantress to contend against; we have to contend against a mighty power that is changing our fellow-men into swine every day, and we cannot attain the victory over that power except by means of a heaven-sent plant, the Tree of Life, the blessed Cross of Christ. (Dean Edwards.)
Difficulties of leaders through opposition among followers
What a hard place was this of Moses here! Every great reformer has had to go through a wilderness to the promised land of his success; and always some of those who left Egypt with him have turned against him before he had gone far. I think of the almost mutiny of his men against Columbus, as, day after day, he steered westward and saw no land; I think of the trouble which Luther and Calvin had so often with their own followers, and of the banishment at one time of the latter from that Geneva, which, even to this day, is the creation of his greatness; I think of the curs that yelped at the heels of the Father of his country, when he was following that course which now the universal voice of posterity has applauded; I think of the difficulties which have embarrassed many meaner men in lower works of reformation, which have at length benefited and blessed the world; and I blush for the selfishness of those who prefer their own interest to the welfare of the community, while, at the same time, I honour the conscientious courage which determines to go on, in spite of opposition in the front and dissatisfaction in the rear. Oh! ye who are bravely battling for the right, the pure, the benevolent, whether it be in the sweeping out of corruption from political offices, or in the closing of these pestilential houses which are feeding the intemperance of our streets, or in the maintenance in the churches of the faith once delivered to the saints–take heart of grace from Moses here. Go with your causes to the Lord, and be sure that they who are on His side are always in the end victorious. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The sin of murmuring
Consider that murmuring is a mercy-embittering sin, a mercy-souring sin. As the sweetest things put into a sour vessel are soured, or put into a bitter vessel are embittered; so murmuring puts gall and wormwood into every cup of mercy that God gives into our hands. The murmurer writes Marah, that is, bitterness, upon all his mercies, and he reads and tastes bitterness in them all. As to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet, so to the murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter. (T. Brooks.)
The evil of murmuring
I have read of Caesar, that, having prepared a great feast for his nobles and friends, it so fell out that the day appointed was so extremely foul, that nothing could be done to the honour of the meeting; whereupon he was so displeased and enraged that he commanded all them that had bows to shoot up their arrows at Jupiter, their chief god, as in defiance of him for that rainy weather; which, when they did, their arrows fell short of heaven and fell upon their own heads, so that many of them were very sorely wounded. So all our murmurings, which are as so many arrows shot at God Himself, they will return upon our own pates hearts; they reach not Him, but they will hit us; they hurt not Him, but they will wound us; therefore it is better to be mute than to murmur; it is dangerous to provoke a consuming fire (Heb 12:1-29.). (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring, the mother sin, to be fought against
As the king of Syria said to his captains, Fight neither with small nor great, but with the king of Israel, so say I, Fight not so much against this sin or that, but fight against your murmuring, which is a mother-sin; make use of all your Christian armour, make use of all the ammunition of heaven, to destroy the mother, and in destroying of her, you will destroy the daughters. When Goliath was slain, the Philistines fled; when a general in an army is cut off, the common soldiers are easily and quickly routed and destroyed: so destroy but murmuring, and you will quickly destroy disobedience, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, etc. (T. Brooks.)
Misery of murmurers
Every murmurer is his own tormentor; murmuring is a fire within that will burn up all; it is an earthquake within that will overturn all; it is a disease within that will infect all; it is poison within that will prey upon all. (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring, the parent of other sins
As the river Nile bringeth forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion many serpents at one birth, so murmuring is a sin that breeds and brings forth many sins at once. It is like the monster Hydra–cut off one head, and many will rise up in its room. It is the mother of harlots–the mother of all abominations–a sin that breeds many other sins (Num 16:41; Num 17:10); viz., disobedience, contempt, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, rebellion, cursing, carnality; yea, it charges God with folly, yea, with blasphemy. The language of a murmuring soul is this: Surely God might have done this sooner, and that wiser, and the other thing better. (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring, a time-destroying sin
The murmurer spends much precious time in musing–in musing how to get out of such a trouble, how to get off such a yoke, how to be rid of such a burden, how to revenge himself for such a wrong; how to supplant such a person, how to reproach those that are above him, and how to affront those that are below him; and a thousand other ways murmurers have to expend that precious time that some would redeem with a world. Caesar, observing some ladies at Rome to spend much of their time in making much of little dogs and monkeys, asked them whether the women in that country had no children to make much of. Ah, murmurers, murmurers! you who by your murmuring trifle away so many golden hours and seasons of mercy, have you no God to honour? Have you no Christ to believe in? Have you no hearts to change, no sin to be pardoned, no souls to save, no hell to escape, no heaven to seek after? Oh! if you have, why do you spend so much of your precious time in murmuring against God, against men, against this or that thing?, (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring at joys
I was tired of washing dishes; I was tired of drudgery. It had always been so, and I was dissatisfied. I never sat down a moment to read that Jamie didnt want a cake, or a piece of paper to scribble on, or a bit of soap to make bubbles. Id rather be in prison, I said one day, than to have my life teased out, as Jamie knocked my elbow, when I was writing to a friend. But a morning came when I had one plate less to wash, one chair less to set away by the wall in the dining-room; when Jamies little crib was put away in the garret, and it has never come down since. I had been unusually fretful and discontented with him that damp May morning that he took the croup. Gloomy weather gave me the headache, and I had less patience than at any other time. By and by he was singing in another room, I want to be an angel, and presently rang out that metallic cough. I never hear that hymn since that it dont cut me to the heart; for the croup-cough rings out with it. He grew worse towards night, and when my husband came home he went for the doctor. At first he seemed to help him, but it merged into inflammatory croup, and all was soon over. I ought to have been called in sooner, said the doctor. I have a servant to wash the dishes now; and when a visitor comes, I can sit down and entertain her without having to work all the time. There is no little boy worrying me to open his jack-knife, and there are no shavings over the floor. The magazines are not soiled at looking over the pictures, but stand prim and neat on the reading-table just as I leave them. Your carpet never looks dirty, said a weary-worn mother to me. Oh! no, I mutter to myself, there are no little boots to dirty it now. But my fate is as weary as theirs–weary with sitting in my lonesome parlour at twilight, weary with watching for the arms that used to twine around my neck, for the curls that brushed against my cheek, for the young laugh that rang out with mine, as we watched the blazing fire, or made rabbits with the shadow on the wall, waiting merrily together for papa coming home. I have the wealth and ease I longed for, but at what a price! And when I see other mothers with grown-up sons, driving to town or church, and my hair silvered over with grey, I wish I had murmured less.
Murmuring foolish
Seneca hath his similitude to set out the great evil of murmuring under small afflictions. Suppose, saith he, a man to have a very fair house to dwell in, with very fair orchards and gardens, set about with brave tall trees for ornament; what a most unreasonable thing were it in this man to murmur because the wind blows a few leaves off the trees, though they hang full of fruit. If God take a little and give us much, shall we be discontent? If He take our son and give us His own; if He cause the trees to bring forth the fruit, shall we be angry if the wind blow away the leaves? (J. Venning.)
Murmuring injurious
It is not wise to fret under our trials: the high.mettled horse that is restive in the yoke only galls his shoulder–the poor bird that dashes itself against the bars of the cage only ruffles her feathers and aggravates the sufferings of captivity.
The Lord that healeth thee.—
Jehovah-Ropheka
No human experience is uniformly joyful or sorrowful. A great triumph is succeeded by a great obstacle and sometimes by a great defeat. But there is another equally constant fact to offset this. As we look at this alternation of Elims and Marahs in our life, and recognize it as a law of our human experience, we find it supplemented by something else which is equally a law; and that is the economy of God by which this alternation is happily adjusted. In other words, I mean this: that if it is a law of our life that joy and sorrow succeed each other, it is equally a law of our life that God interposes and keeps the joy from corrupting and the sorrow from crushing us. If sorrow is a part of Gods economy, healing is equally a part. You hear abundance of popular proverbs to the effect that clouds have often silver linings; that calamity usually stops short of the very worst; that time dulls grief; that nature reacts from its depression, and much more of the same sort, all which may be more or less true, but which do not cover the same ground as this blessed name, Jehovah that healeth thee: which throw man for his compensation for sorrow merely upon nature and circumstances. Both are-lawless and accidental, the alleviations no less than the sorrow itself. But there is a radical difference between a grief which is accidental, and a grief which falls in with happier things into an order arranged to make the man purer and more blessed. There is a radical difference between accidental mitigations, and the firm, wise, tender touch of an omnipotent Healer upon a sorrow: and there is a radical difference between that conception of sorrow which makes it an intrusion and an interruption, and a conception which sees both sorrow and healing as parts of one Divine plan, adjusted by that same Divine hand all along the line of mans life. With the alleviations of sorrow which come in what we call the natural order of things, I have therefore nothing to do here. That nature has certain recuperative powers is a familiar fact: that God often uses these or other natural means in His own processes of healing, as a physician uses for medicine the herbs and flowers which he gathers by the roadside, is an equally familiar fact. But we are not concerned with the question of means. Our text leads us back of the means. That to which alone sorrow can grapple securely is not means but God. God, on this occasion, though He uses a branch to sweeten the water, also uses it to direct the attention of the people to Himself. When He gives Himself a name by which they are to know and remember Him all through this desert journey, it is not, the God of the branch, nor the God of the rod, nor the God of the strong east wind, but simply, I am Jehovah that healeth thee. No matter what means I use. If He had called Himself the God of the rod, the people would have despaired of healing in any case where there was not a branch or a rod present. He would have them know that healing was in Him, by any means or by no means as He might choose. And thus it is well for us to bring every bitter experience of life at once to God–directly. The fountain of healing is there, and there is no need of our taking the smallest trouble in seeking any lower source of comfort. God is not like certain great medical authorities who leave all minor maladies to subordinates and hold themselves in reserve merely for consultation on cases of life and death. He wrought the great miracle at Marah, not only to relieve the peoples thirst on that occasion, but to encourage them to seek His help in smaller matters. God sometimes reduces a man to terrible straits so that he may learn that lesson. The branch which he throws in is this: Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. When one is in such confusion and bewilderment, a great deal of the distress is thrown off in the throwing off of all responsibility for the way out. Many years ago, while in Rome, I went down into the Catacombs. I had not gone five feet from the entrance when I saw that if I should try to find my way back, I should be hopelessly lost. Passages opened out on every side, and crossed and interlaced, and my life was literally in the hands of the cowled monk who led the way with his lighted taper. But that was a relief. Having no responsibility for finding the way, and having faith in my guide, I could give myself up to the impression of the place. There is a beautiful passage in the one hundred and forty-second Psalm which brings out this truth. The Psalm is ascribed to David when he was fleeing from Sauls persecution and wandering in a labyrinth of caves and secret paths. When my spirit is overwhelmed within me, Thou knowest my path. Few things are more painful or humiliating than the sense of having lost the way. The sweetening branch then is just this blessed consciousness that Divine omniscience knows the path; that the knowledge is with one who knows just how to use it, who knows the path through, the path out, knows what the trend of the trouble is and what its meaning is. But let us not forget the other great truth of this story, a truth quite as important as the first, and perhaps quite as hard to learn; and that is, that Gods healing is a lesson no less than a comfort. The aim of a physicians treatment is not merely to relieve his patient from pain. It is, further, to get him on his feet for active duty. God did not sweeten the waters of Marah in order that the people might stay there. Marah was only a stage on the way to Canaan; and the draught at the sweetened spring was but to give strength for a long march. And God never heals His people simply to make them easy. If He takes off a load it is that they may walk the better in the way of His commandments. Whatever God may say to us by sickness, when He comes to us as the Lord of healing He says, I will raise thee up that thou mayst do that which is right in My sight; that thou mayst give ear to My commandments and keep My statutes. Healing means more toil and more burdens and more conflict, and these will continue to the end. But let us remember that God never forgets to give rest along the road, and refreshment at the right places to His faithful ones. Even on earth there will be intervals of sweet rest, though the desert lie on beyond. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
The Lord that healeth
It is with healing power in the lowest form of its development, viz., the supplying of bodily wants–the healing of physical diseases–that this precious name is first brought to our notice. And even this is a blessing not to be lightly esteemed. But, if our powers of perception were so adjusted that we could estimate spiritual diseases, as God estimates them; then, we should see, in the walks of daily life, even in the case of those who are said to possess sound minds in sound bodies, sights sadder far than any to be met with in our hospitals and asylums for physical and mental diseases. And the power to heal which the Lord claims when He is pleased to reveal Himself as Jehovah-Ropheka, is this power in its higher form–the power to heal the diseases of the soul.
I. He is an efficient healer. He puts His own Omnipotence into the grace by which He heals; and what can resist that grace? He has fathomed the lowest depths of human depravity, and the chain of His grace has reached even unto that.
II. He is a practical healer. It sometimes happens with earthly physicians that the medicine is mingled with our daily food, and that the food itself of which the patient partakes is made the means of healing. But this is what our heavenly Healer does continually. He connects the process of His healing with the food on which the souls of His people live, and the daily experience of life through which they are passing.
III. He is a universal healer. In many of our hospitals there is a ward for incurables. There are cases which every physician will decline to undertake because he knows that nothing can be done with them. But Jehovah-Ropheka knows no such cases. In the hospital of His grace there is no ward for incurables. There are no limits to the range and operation of His wisdom and power. He has not made a specialty of any particular case. There is no form of spiritual disease that can be incurable to Him.
IV. He is a permanent healer. No earthly physician will undertake both to restore his patient to health, and at the same time to give him the assurance that the disease from which he has suffered shall never return to him. This is a matter quite beyond the reach of ordinary medical ability. But it is not so with our heavenly Healer. He undertakes to make His healing work not only perfect but permanent. Two things show us this.
1. One of these is the state into which Christ introduces the saved soul after death. It is a state in which there will be no sickness, sorrow, or sin. And what that state is, as the healed soul enters into it, it will be for ever. It is a continuing city.
2. And then the state of the soul as it enters that blessed abode will show the same thing. Presented perfect in Christ Jesus (Col 1:28).
V. He is a glorious healer. Most physicians are satisfied if they can restore their patients to the condition in which they were before the disease seized upon them. If they can heal a mans wounds they are satisfied. They will not pledge that in securing this result there shall be no disfiguring scars remaining. But it is different with our heavenly Healer. He restores the sin-sick soul, not to its original state, but to one infinitely better than that. The creation state of the soul was pronounced good, the redeemed state of the soul is declared to be perfect. (R. Newton, D. D.)
The Lord that healeth
Many a time have I been brought very low, and received the sentence of death in myself, when my poor, honest, praying neighbours have met, and, upon their fasting and earnest prayers, I have recovered. Once, when I had continued weak three weeks, and was unable to go abroad, the very day that they prayed for me, being Good Friday, I recovered, and was able to preach and administer the sacrament the next Lords day; and was better after it, it being the first time that ever I administered it. And ever after that, whatever weakness was upon me, when I had, after preaching, administered that sacrament to many hundred people, I was much revived and eased of my infirmities. Oh how often, he writes in his Dying Thoughts, have I cried to Him when men and means were nothing, and when no help in second causes did appear, and how often, and suddenly, and mercifully hath He delivered me! What sudden ease, what removal of long affliction have I had! Such extraordinary changes, and beyond my own and others expectations, when many plain-hearted, upright Christians have, by fasting and prayer, sought God on my behalf, as have over and over convinced me of special providence and that God is indeed a hearer of prayers. And wonders have I seen done for others also, upon such prayer, more than for myself; yea, and wonders for the Church, and for public societies. Shall I therefore forget how often He hath heard prayers for me, and how wonderfully He often hath helped both me and others? My faith hath been helped by such experiences, and shall I forget them, or question them without cause at last? (Richard Baxter.)
Elim.—
The pilgrims pathway
I. That, in lifes pilgrimage, God crowns His people with constant blessings and diversified tokens of His goodness. These blessings, as here implied, are of great practical utility; they are–
1. Essential–Water.
2. Refreshing–Palm-trees.
3. Diversified–Wells and palm-trees.
4. Proportionate,–Twelve wells and threescore and ten palm-trees.
II. That, in lifes pilgrimage, Gods blessings should be appropriated and enjoyed. They encamped there.
III. That, in lifes pilgrimage, Elim, with its refreshing shade, is frequently not far from Marah, with its bitter waters. Therefore, as pilgrims, we should not be too much elated or depressed with our camping-places. In the history of the Zion-bound traveller, it should not be forgotten, that it is always better further on.
IV. That, in lifes pilgrimage, we should remember that we are not yet home, only pilgrims on the way. Our immortality would starve to death on the richest oasis this desert world could give us, if we should attempt to make it our abiding home. So, they did not buy the land, or build a city, they only encamped there. (T. Kelly.)
Marah and Elim
I. The varied experience of human life.
1. There are the sorrowful scenes of life. You know well the sources from whence these sorrows arise. There is the sorrow that comes to us from our disappointments. We are constantly deceived and disappointed, partly because we indulge in unreasonable expectations, and partly because things differ so much in their reality from what they are in their outward appearance. Then there is the sorrow that proceeds from physical suffering. Another source of sorrow is our bereavements. A whole generation fell in the wilderness, and as the Israelites travelled onward, they had again and again to pause in their journey and bury their dead. Another source of sorrow is sin. This indeed is the great source of all sorrow, the fountain from whence these bitter waters flow.
2. There are the joys of life. Another days march, and the scene was changed; verdure refreshed the eye, there was Tater in abundance to quench the thirst, and the weary pilgrim could repose under the palm-trees welcome shade. True type again of human life–Weeping endures for a night, joy cometh in the morning. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. The most weary pilgrimage has its quiet resting places, and the saddest heart is not without its joys. God is kind even to the unthankful, for on them He bestows His providential bounties, but the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. He gives to them a peace which passeth understanding, a hope which maketh not ashamed, and a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. Life, then, has a varied experience.
II. But what are the reasons for it? There can be little doubt that if it were left to our choice, we should choose a less chequered course–we should avoid the bitter waters of Marah, and seek the palm-trees of Elim. Why is it that joy and sorrow, hope and fear, health and sickness, blessings bestowed and blessing removed, follow each other in such rapid succession.
1. It is to correct our self-will. Many whose hearts were stubborn enough when they began life, have found life so different to what they expected, that they have at length confessed–It is vain to fight against God; henceforth I place myself under His government–His will, not mine, be done.
2. To develop our character. If the events of life were exclusively sorrowful, then the test of our character would be but partial; so would it be if these events were exclusively joyful; and therefore it is sorrow to-day and joy to-morrow. Thus our whole character is developed.
3. To open our hearts to those sacred influences which soften and purify them. (H. J. Gamble.)
Elim: the springs and the palms
I. Elim rises before us as the representative of the green oases, the spots of sunny verdure, the scenes of heavenly beauty, wherewith God hath enriched, though sparingly, our wilderness world. This world is not all bad; its marches are not all bare. Cursed is the ground for thy sake–and because for thy sake, it is not cursed utterly. It is not all black, bare, lifeless, as the crust of a cold lava flood; a prison-house for reprobates, instead of a training school for sons.
II. The nearness of Elim to Marah opens up to us a deep truth in the spiritual history of man.
1. Had they pushed on instead of murmuring at Marah, they would have found all they sought, and more than they hoped for, at Elim. Ah! the time we waste in repining and rebelling–scheming to mend Gods counsels! How many Elims would it find for us, if employed in courage and faith!
2. How near is the sweetness to the bitterness in every trial! it is but a short step to Elim, where we may encamp and rest. The brightest spots of earth are amidst its most savage wildernesses, and the richest joys of the Christian spring ever out of his sharpest pains. The humbling pains of disappointment tune the soul for the joys which the next station of the journey affords. It is when we have learnt the lessons of the wilderness, and are resolved to press on, cost what it may, in our heavenly path, that springs of unexpected sweetness gush up at our very feet, and we find shade and rest, which give foretaste of heaven.
III. Let us endeavour to discern the principle of this alternate sweetness and bitterness of life. These lights and shadows of nature, this glow and gloom, are caught from a higher sphere. Nature is but the reverse of the medal whose obverse is man. The ultimate reason of the bitterness of Marah is the sin in the heart of Israel and all pilgrims; the ultimate reason of the sweetness and freshness of Elim is the mercy that is in the heart of God. There is a fearful power in the human spirit to make Gods brightest blessings bitter curses. Who was it who wanted to die, because God had found a deliverance for a great city in which were half a million of doomed men? At the door of your own spirit lie all the pangs and wretchedness you have known. You have cursed fate and fortune, and protested that you were the most wronged and persecuted of men. But the mischief lies not in Gods constitution of the world, nor in His government of it, but in your hearts. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Sweetness not far from bitterness
Sorrow is not all a wilderness, even to the most sorrowful. Amid all its bleakness and desolation it has oases of beauty and fertility. It has Elims as well as Marahs, and frequently these Elims are very near the Marahs–if we only knew it. But six short miles separated the twelve wells of water and the threescore and ten palm.trees from the bitter, nauseous well that filled the hearts of the thirsting multitudes with disappointment. And so near in human life is the sweetness to the bitterness in every trial. A few steps will take us through the valley of the shadow of death out into the green pastures and beside the still waters upon which it opens. Had the Israelites of old, instead of murmuring at Marah, pushed on a little further, they would, in two short hours, have found at Elim all they sought and more than they expected. And so the time we waste in repining and rebelling would be better employed in living faith and active duty, for thus would consolation be found. Instead of sitting down to murmur at Marah, let us march in faith under the guidance of our tender Shepherd, who will bring us to the next station, where we may lie down in green pastures and beside still waters. (Christian Age.)
The comparative duration of sorrow and joy
Is there ever a Marah without an Elim near it, if only we follow on in the way the Lord marks out for us through the wilderness? The notice of Elim occupies less than four lines, while there are as many verses in the record of Marah, and a whole chapter following about the wilderness of sin; and we are apt to draw the hasty inference that the bitter experiences were the rule, and the delightful ones the exception. And so it often seems in the checkered life of the tried disciple of the Lord. But look again. The bitter time at Marah was quite short, though it occupies a great deal of space in the history. These four verses tell the story probably of as many hours or less. But the four lines about Elim are the story of three weeks, during which they encamped there by the waters. When troubles come, the time seems long; when troubles have gone, the time seems short; and so many are apt to think that they are hardly dealt with, whereas if they would look more carefully into the Lords dealings with them, they might find that they have far more to be thankful for than to grieve over. Hours at Marah are followed by weeks at Elim. (J. M. Gibson, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. The wilderness of Shur] This was on the coast of the Red Sea on their road to Mount Sinai. See the map.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Shur; so usually called, Gen 16:7; and by the Israelites, Etham, as may be gathered by comparing this place with Num 33:8, for both there and here it is said they went three days in this wilderness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. wilderness of Shurcomprehendingall the western part of Arabia-Petra. The desert of Etham was apart of it, extending round the northern portion of the Red Sea, anda considerable distance along its eastern shore; whereas the”wilderness of Shur” (now Sudhr) was the designation of allthe desert region of Arabia-Petra that lay next to Palestine.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea,…. Or “caused them to journey” a, which some think was done with difficulty, they being so eager and intent upon the spoil and plunder of the Egyptians cast upon the sea shore, the harness of their horses being, as Jarchi observes, ornamented with gold and silver, and precious stones; or as others, they had some inclination to return to Egypt, and take possession of the country for themselves; the inhabitants of it, at least its military force, being destroyed, and their armour in their possession; but the truer meaning of the word is, that Moses, as their general, gave them the word of command to march, and till they had it they stayed at the Red sea refreshing themselves, taking the spoils of the enemy, and singing the praises of God; but when Moses gave them orders to set forward, they proceeded on their journey:
and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; the same with the wilderness of Etham, as appears from Nu 33:8 there might be, as Aben Ezra conjectures, two cities in or near this wilderness, of those two names, from whence it might be called: for, as Doctor Shaw says b, Shur was a particular district of the wilderness of Etham, fronting the valley (of Baideah), from which, he supposes, the children of Israel departed: and Doctor Pocock says c that the wilderness of Shur might be the fourth part of the wilderness of Etham, for about six hours from the springs of Moses (where, according to the tradition of the country, the children of Israel landed, being directly over against Clysma or Pihahiroth) is a winter torrent, called Sedur (or Sdur), and there is a hill higher than the rest, called Kala Sedur (the fortress of Sedur), and from which this wilderness might have its name: and by another traveller d this wilderness is called the wilderness of Sedur: and now it was the wilderness of Etham they were in before they went into the Red sea, which has induced some to believe that they came out on the same shore again; for the solution of which difficulty
[See comments on Ex 14:22],
and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water; which must be very distressing to such a vast number of people and cattle, in a hot, sandy, desert: this doubtless gave occasion to the stories told by Heathen authors, as Tacitus e, and others, that the people of the Jews, under the conduct of Moses, were near perishing for want of water, when, following a flock of wild asses, which led them to a rock covered with a grove of trees, they found large fountains of water: the three days they travelled here were the twenty second, third and fourth, of Nisan, in the beginning of April.
a “et fecit proficisci”, Pagninus Montanus, Drusius “jussit proficisci”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. b Travels. p. 312. c Travels, p. 156. d Journal from Cairo, &c. p. 13. e Hist. l. 5. c. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Exo 15:22-24 Leaving the Red Sea, they went into the desert of Shur. This name is given to the tract of desert which separates Egypt from Palestine, and also from the more elevated parts of the desert of Arabia, and stretches from the Mediterranean to the head of the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea, and thence along the eastern shore of the sea to the neighbourhood of the Wady Gharandel. In Num 33:8 it is called the desert of Etham, from the town of Etham, which stood upon the border (see Exo 13:20). The spot where the Israelites encamped after crossing the sea, and sang praises to the Lord for their gracious deliverance, is supposed to have been the present Ayun Musa (the springs of Moses), the only green spot in the northern part of this desolate tract of desert, where water could be obtained. At the present time there are several springs there, which yield a dark, brackish, though drinkable water, and a few stunted palms; and even till a very recent date country houses have been built and gardens laid out there by the richer inhabitants of Suez. From this point the Israelites went three days without finding water, till they came to Marah, where there was water, but so bitter that they could not drink it. The first spot on the road from Ayun Musa to Sinai where water can be found, is in the well of Howra, 33 English miles from the former. It is now a basin of 6 or 8 feet in diameter, with two feet of water in it, but so disagreeably bitter and salt, that the Bedouins consider it the worst water in the whole neighbourhood (Robinson, i. 96). The distance from Ayun Musa and the quality of the water both favour the identity of Howra and Marah. A whole people, travelling with children, cattle, and baggage, could not accomplish the distance in less than three days, and there is no other water on the road from Ayum Musa to Howra. Hence, from the time of Burckhardt, who was the first to rediscover the well, Howra has been regarded as the Marah of the Israelites. In the Wady Amara, a barren valley two hours to the north of Howra, where Ewald looked for it, there is not water to be found; and in the Wady Gharandel, two hours to the south, to which Lepsius assigned it, the quality of the water does not agree with our account.
(Note: The small quantity of water at Howra, “which is hardly sufficient for a few hundred men, to say nothing of so large an army as the Israelites formed” (Seetzen), is no proof that Howra and Marah are not identical. For the spring, which is now sanded up, may have flowed more copiously at one time, when it was kept in better order. Its present neglected state is the cause of the scarcity.)
It is true that no trace of the name has been preserved; but it seems to have been given to the place by the Israelites simply on account of the bitterness of the water. This furnished the people with an inducement to murmur against Moses (Exo 15:24). They had probably taken a supply of water from Ayum Musa for the three days’ march into the desert. But this store was now exhausted; and, as Luther says, “when the supply fails, our faith is soon gone.” Thus even Israel forgot the many proofs of the grace of God, which it had received already.
Exo 15:25-26 When Moses cried to the Lord in consequence, He showed him some wood which, when thrown into the water, took away its bitterness. The Bedouins, who know the neighbourhood, are not acquainted with such a tree, or with any other means of making bitter water sweet; and this power was hardly inherent in the tree itself, though it is ascribed to it in Ecclus. 38:5, but was imparted to it through the word and power of God. We cannot assign any reason for the choice of this particular earthly means, as the Scripture says nothing about any “evident and intentional contrast to the change in the Nile by which the sweet and pleasant water was rendered unfit for use” ( Kurtz). The word “ wood ” (see only Num 19:6), alone, without anything in the context to explain it, does not point to a “living tree” in contrast to the “dead stick.” And if any contrast had been intended to be shown between the punishment of the Egyptians and the training of the Israelites, this intention would certainly have been more visibly and surely accomplished by using the staff with which Moses not only brought the plagues upon Egypt, but afterwards brought water out of the rock. If by we understand a tree, with which , however, hardly agrees, it would be much more natural to suppose that there was an allusion to the tree of life, especially if we compare Gen 2:9 and Gen 3:22 with Rev 22:2, “the leaves of the tree of life were for the healing of the nations,” though we cannot regard this reference as established. All that is clear and undoubted is, that by employing these means, Jehovah made Himself known to the people of Israel as their Physician, and for this purpose appointed the wood for the healing of the bitter water, which threatened Israel with disease and death (2Ki 4:40).
By this event Jehovah accomplished two things: ( a) “ there He put (made) for it (the nation) an ordinance and a right, ” and ( b) “ there He proved it.” The ordinance and right which Jehovah made for Israel did not consist in the words of God quoted in Exo 15:26, for they merely give an explanation of the law and right, but in the divine act itself. The leading of Israel to bitter water, which their nature could not drink, and then the sweetening or curing of this water, were to be a for Israel, i.e., an institution or law by which God would always guide and govern His people, and a or right, inasmuch as Israel could always reckon upon the help of God, and deliverance from every trouble. But as Israel had not yet true confidence in the Lord, this was also a trial, serving to manifest its natural heart, and, through the relief of its distress on the part of God, to refine and strengthen its faith. The practical proof which was given of Jehovah’s presence was intended to impress this truth upon the Israelites, that Jehovah as their Physician would save them from all the diseases which He had sent upon Egypt, if they would hear His voice, do what was right in His eyes, and keep all His commandments.
Exo 15:27 Elim, the next place of encampment, has been sought from olden time in the Wady Gharandel, about six miles south of Howra; inasmuch as this spot, with its plentiful supply of comparatively good water, and its luxuriance of palms, tamarisks, acacias, and tall grass, which cause it to be selected even now as one of the principal halting-places between Suez and Sinai, quite answers to Elim, with its twelve wells of water and seventy palm-trees (cf. Rob. i. pp. 100, 101, 105). It is true the distance from Howra is short, but the encampments of such a procession as that of the Israelites are always regulated by the supply of water. Both Baumgarten and Kurtz have found in Elim a place expressly prepared for Israel, from its bearing the stamp of the nation in the number of its wells and palms: a well for every tribe, and the shade of a palm-tree for the tent of each of the elders. But although the number of the wells corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel, the number of the elders was much larger than that of the palms (Exo 29:9). One fact alone is beyond all doubt, namely, that at Elim, this lovely oasis in the barren desert, Israel was to learn how the Lord could make His people lie down in the green pastures, and lead them beside still waters, even in the barren desert of this life (Psa 23:2).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Waters of Marah. | B. C. 1491. |
22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 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 called Marah. 24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, 26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. 27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
It should seem, it was with some difficulty that Moses prevailed with Israel to leave that triumphant shore on which they sang the foregoing song. They were so taken up with the sight, or with the song, or with the spoiling of the dead bodies, that they cared not to go forward, but Moses with much ado brought them from the Red Sea into a wilderness. The pleasures of our way to Canaan must not retard our progress, but quicken it, though we have a wilderness before us. Now here we are told,
I. That in the wilderness of Shur they had no water, v. 22. This was a sore trial to the young travellers, and a diminution to their joy; thus God would train them up to difficulties. David, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, reaches forth towards God, Ps. lxiii. 1.
II. That at Marah they had water, but it was bitter, so that though they had been three days without water they could not drink it, because it was extremely unpleasant to the taste or was likely to be prejudicial to their health, or was so brackish that it rather increased their thirst than quenched it, v. 23. Note, God can embitter that to us from which we promise ourselves most satisfaction, and often does so in the wilderness of this world, that our wants and disappointments in the creature may drive us to the Creator, in whose favour alone true comfort is to be had. Now in this distress, 1. The people fretted and quarrelled with Moses, as if he had done ill by them. What shall we drink? is all their clamour, v. 24. Note, The greatest joys and hopes are soon turned into the greatest griefs and fears with those that live by sense only, and not by faith. 2. Moses prayed: He cried unto the Lord, v. 25. The complaints which they brought to him he brought to God, on whom, notwithstanding his elevation, Moses owned a constant dependence. Note, It is the greatest relief of the cares of magistrates and ministers, when those under their charge make them uneasy, that they may have recourse to God by prayer: he is the guide of the church’s guides and to him, as the Chief Shepherd, the under-shepherds must upon all occasions apply. 3. God provided graciously for them. He directed Moses to a tree, which he cast into the waters, in consequence of which, all of a sudden, they were made sweet. Some think this wood had a peculiar virtue in it for this purpose, because it is said, God showed him the tree. God is to be acknowledged, not only in the creating of things useful for man, but in discovering their usefulness. Or perhaps this was only a sign, and not at all a means, of the cure, any more than the brazen serpent, or Elisha’s casting one cruse full of salt into the waters of Jericho. Some make this tree typical of the cross of Christ, which sweetens the bitter waters of affliction to all the faithful, and enables them to rejoice in tribulation. The Jews’ tradition is that the wood of this tree was itself bitter, yet it sweetened the waters of Marah; the bitterness of Christ’s sufferings and death alters the property of ours. 4. Upon this occasion, God came upon terms with them, and plainly told them, now that they had got clear of the Egyptians, and had entered into the wilderness, that they were upon their good behaviour, and that according as they carried themselves so it would be well or ill with them: There he made a statute and an ordinance, and settled matters with them. There he proved them, that is, there he put them upon the trial, admitted them as probationers for his favour. In short, he tells them, v. 26, (1.) What he expected from them, and that was, in one word, obedience. They must diligently hearken to his voice, and give ear to his commandments, that they might know their duty, and not transgress through ignorance; and they must take care in every thing to do that which was right in God’s sight, and to keep all his statutes. They must not think, now that they were delivered from their bondage in Egypt, that they had no lord over them, but were their own masters; no, therefore they must look upon themselves as God’s servants, because he had loosed their bonds,Psa 116:16; Luk 1:74; Luk 1:75. (2.) What they might then expect from him: I will put none of these diseases upon thee, that is, “I will not bring upon thee any of the plagues of Egypt.” This intimates that, if they were rebellious and disobedient, the very plagues which they had seen inflicted upon their enemies should be brought upon them; so it is threatened, Deut. xxviii. 60. God’s judgments upon Egypt, as they were mercies to Israel, opening the way to their deliverance, so they were warnings to Israel, and designed to awe them into obedience. Let not the Israelites think, because God had thus highly honoured them in the great things he had done for them, and had proclaimed them to all the world his favourites, that therefore he would connive at their sins and let them do as they would. No, God is no respecter of persons; a rebellious Israelite shall fare no better than a rebellious Egyptian; and so they found, to their cost, before the got to Canaan. “But, if thou wilt be obedient, thou shalt be safe and happy;” the threatening is implied only, but the promise is expressed: “I am the Lord that healeth thee, and will take care of thy comfort wherever thou goest.” Note, God is the great physician. If we be kept well, it is he that keeps us; if we be made well, it is he that restores us; he is our life, and the length of our days.
III. That at Elim they had good water, and enough of it, v. 27. Though God may, for a time, order his people to encamp by the waters of Marah, yet that shall not always be their lot. See how changeable our condition is in this world, from better to worse, from worse to better. Let us therefore learn both how to be abased and how to abound, to rejoice as though we rejoiced not when we are full, and to weep as though we wept not when we are emptied. Here were twelve wells for their supply, one for every tribe, that they might not strive for water, as their fathers had sometimes done; and, for their pleasure, there were seventy palm-trees, under the shadow of which their great men might repose themselves. Note, God can find places of refreshment for his people even in the wilderness of this world, wells in the valley of Baca, lest they should faint in their mind with perpetual fatigue: yet, whatever our delights may be in the land of our pilgrimage, we must remember that we do but encamp by them for a time, that here we have no continuing city.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 22-26:
The text does not tell how long Israel remained by the Red Sea before resuming their journey. When the cloud moved, they moved, journeying southeast, through the arid, waterless waste of the “Wilderness of Shur.” This is called “Etham” in Nu 33:8. It apparently extended from Lake Berbonis (north) across the isthmus to the Red Sea, as far as Wadi Ghurundel. What water does exist in that region is extremely bitter.
The Israelites likely carried a supply of water with them, but it was insufficient for both them and their livestock. After a three days’ journey, the water supply was exhausted. The people then cried to Moses for relief.
“Marah” means “bitter.” In this instance, the term denotes a site which is unknown today. Here Israel found water, but it was too bitter for them to drink. The Lord showed Moses a tree, which when it was cast into the waters, made them “sweet” and palatable. The description of this “tree” is not given. There are no such plants in that region today which are capable of sweetening the bitter water found there.
The experience at Marah was a test by which Jehovah “proved” Israel’s faith. Other tests where yet to come.
Moses gave Jehovah’s promise that for obedience to His laws, He would not permit the diseases that ravaged Egypt to come upon them. There is no list of what these diseases were. It is suggested that the dietary laws God gave later were designed to guard against such diseases.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. So Moses brought. Moses now relates that, from the time, of their passage through the sea, they had been suffering for three days from the want of water, that the first they discovered was bitter, and that thence the name was given to the place. This was indeed no light temptation, to suffer thirst for three days in a dry land, and nowhere to meet with relief or remedy. No wonder, then, that they should have groaned with anxiety; but grief, when it is full of contumacy, deserves no pardon. In such an emergency, they should have directed their prayers to God; whereas they not only neglected to pray, but violently assailed Moses, and demanded of him the drink which they knew could only be given them by God. But because they had not yet learnt to trust in Him, they fly not to Him for aid, except by imperiously commanding Him, in the person of His servant, to obey their wishes; for this interrogation, “What shall we drink?” is as much as to say, “Arrange with God to supply us with drink.” But they do not directly address God, of whose assistance they feel that they have need, because unbelief is ever proud.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
FROM THE SEA TO MOUNT SINAI
Exo 15:22 to Exo 40:38
So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water (Exo 15:22).
For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (Exo 40:38).
WE concluded our last study with the song of victory started by Moses, joined in by the Children of Israel and completed by Miriam.
One could easily imagine that after the experience of such a miracle as all Israel had witnessed, further confidence in God would be easy and constant, but alas for changing circumstances and the shift of human emotions! The very opening verse of this study holds a hint of trouble!
They went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. The verses that follow, Exo 15:23-26, report the murmurings of the people against Moses, and the necessity of a new miracle from God to silence their complaint. And yet, when one understands all the circumstances incident to this complaint, while he may not justify the Israelites, his condemnation of them will surely be softened. Burton, in his third edition of Meccal! (145), speaking of the atmosphere in this vicinity, says, At dawn it is mild and balmy as an Italian spring, and inconceivably lovely in the colors it sheds on earth and sky; but presently the sun bursts up from the sea, a fierce enemy that will force every one to crouch before him. For two hours his rays are endurable, but after that they become a fiery ordeal. The morning beams oppress you with a feeling of sickness. Their steady glow blinds your eyes, blisters your skin and parches your mouth, till you have only one thought: When will evening come? At noon the heat, reverberated by the glowing hills, is like the blast of a lime-kiln. The wind sleeps on the reeking shore; the sky is white; men are not so much sleeping as half senseless. They feel that a few more degrees of heat would be death. It is easy to see, therefore, how two or three millions of people, encumbered in travel by great herds and many little children, seeing the supply of water fail utterly from the skin-bottles, and nothing ahead but a parched plain and scorching mountains, should wonder how life could long be sustained, and even ask what profit to escape from Egyptian oppression and witness Pharaohs overthrow, if we are so soon to perish?
This is the beginning of the journey from
THE SEA TO SINAI
And this is only the beginning of Israels trials. They are thirsting for water now. Shortly they will be in want of bread, and as hunger grows, cry out,
Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger (Exo 16:3).
And, again at Rephidim, they will be without water, murmuring against Moses and saying,
Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst (Exo 17:3)?
But it is only in our hours of extremity that we learn the most valuable lessons; and out of these experiences Israel learned that meat and drink is from the Lord. At Marah the Lord directed Moses to cast a certain tree into the waters and they were made sweet (Exo 15:25), and from Marah they removed to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters (Exo 15:27). When, some six weeks later, they cried for bread, the Lord said unto Moses,
Speak unto them saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall he filled with bread (Exo 16:12). * * And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round about the host (Exo 16:13).
To this day it is not an unusual thing for quails to be found migrating in that country in enormous numbers, and being birds of low and heavy flight, they become easily exhausted in their migrations and can be picked up by those in need of them. An edible lichen is often blown from the spots where it grows and carried by the winds to the valley below and showered there inches deep, and some have argued that God fed them by natural means, but when it is remembered that this manna was continued along the course of their travel from Egypt to Canaan through the entire forty years, it is seen to have been a miraculous gift from God. We have been taught to pray, Give us this day our daily bread, and God has answered the prayer for those of us living in this land by means so natural and so abundant, that even His own people almost forget that every good and every perfect gift comes from Him.
We are in danger from the very abundance of our blessing of bearing the mark of Gentile corruption, of which Paul speaks, when of them he says, When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. It is when one is brought into the severest straights; it is when one has reached the end of human ingenuity, that God can best reveal Himself to him as the giver of all good.
Henry M. Stanley, giving an account of his relief expedition in his search of Emin Pasha, speaks of a time when he and his comrades, after the utmost economy in their diet, were out of food and ready to perish. In their extremity they made their appeal to God, and lo, there was a sound as of a large bird whirring through the air, and just as they looked it dropped in their midst, and the little fox-terrier snapped the prize and held it fast as in a vice of iron; and when they had discovered that it was a fine, fat guinea-fowl, sufficient in flesh to meet all the immediate demands, they agreed that the God who sent quails and manna to Israel, and fed Elijah with the ravens at the Brook Cherith, was still able and willing to care for them who put their trust in Him.
But when God causes the dry rock in Horeb to gush forth a refreshing stream, He has not put an end to all of Israels troubles. In our times of trial, we are prone to think, If only God would do for me this greatly needful thing, I would never be in such want again. But no man knows what a day may bring forth. There are enemies more dangerous than hunger and thirst.
The rise of Amalek represents a greater need.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim (Exo 17:8).
It is easy to imagine how unfit for war Israel was at this time. The march had been a weary one; the intense heat and the want of water had exhausted them, and it would seem an easy thing for this Bedouin chief and his followers to strike them a blow that would mean little less than a slaughter of the whole company. That Joshua was able to discomfit him and his people with the edge of the sword prevailing, while Moses hands were held up in prayer, gave good occasion for the adoption of the new battle cry, Jehovah-nissi (Jer 17:15)Jehovah is my banner. And, when one remembers that Amalek was likely a grandson of Esau, and so a fit representative of the flesh, he is encouraged to hope for victory against all the lusts that would defeat the progress of the Christian on his way to the promised land. And when the Church remembers that the flesh is also her greatest enemy, this bit of ancient history ought to come as an encouragement to victory through the intervention of the same mighty God.
Arthur Pierson, in The Miracles of Missions, calls attention to the fact that when, in 1851, the king on the throne, ruling over Siam, was a foe to missions, and the thirty-three years of work which Christians had done in that country seemed threatened with defeat by him, suddenly on April 3rd the king died. And do you remember also that in 1850 the outlook for missions in Turkey was dark indeed, because the Sultan had issued a decree that all missionaries were to leave the land and the missions were to be closed? It is related that when one of our American missionaries, having failed to get the decree revoked, called on a brother laborer and told him the final decision, the brother replied, The Sultan of the universe can reverse it, and the next morning the tyrannical Mahmud was dead, and his successor in office favored the continuance of the work.
But where in the annals of history has there occurred a more marked intervention of this same Jehovah than that reported in connection with the siege of Pekin in the Boxer movement. You will remember that as the weary days wore on, and the native Christians and allies were cooped up in the English Compound, they longed for a loaded cannon, knowing full well that to fire once upon the cowardly enemy would be to fill them with fear lest arms had been secretly smuggled to the allies. It fell out just then that an old rusty gun was discovered in the French Quarters. It had not been loaded for thirty years and it was hardly known whether it would stand the strain of a single fire. They were also embarrassed by the want of ammunition. But suddenly some of the Russian soldiers remembered to have brought with them a little powder and some balls, and when they were brought, the ball fitted perfectly to the cannon. Then a young man from America volunteered to touch it off, expecting that the gun would explode and that he might lose his life in the act. But, knowing the importance that might possibly attach to it, he stood ready to make the sacrifice. Imagine the surprise and joy, therefore, of the besieged when they saw the gun act perfectly. The ball went crashing through the Chinese quarters, killing one or two and striking terror to the multitude of the besiegers. In the confusion the Chinese exploded a sunken mine, blew up their own building, killed many of their soldiers, and created the universal impression that the allies had been reinforced and supplied with fire-armsJehovah is my banner. If Israel had a right to that as a watchword in her war with Amalek, the Christian, conquering through Jesus Christ and the Church, seeing enemy after enemy overthrown, has repeated occasion to employ the same term.
Passing over the 18th chapter, which contains the return of Moses wife and children to him, and Jethros counsel resulting in the appointment of the seventy judges, we are brought to Sinai, and are ready for
THE GIVING OF THE LAWS
It ought to be remembered that Sinai is the southernmost point in this journey to Canaan, and it is of interest to get in mind the physical features of the land.
George Dana Boardman speaks of the plain lying at the foot of this mountain as a sandy plateau some 4000 feet above the Mediterranean, two miles long and half a mile wide, while Cunningham Geikie makes claim for a still larger open space. The mountain that rises out of it about 2200 feet high, is made up of granite deeply fissured, and presents an august mien. It was upon this imposing mount that the Lord descended, and the Psalmist, centuries afterwards, pictures with an inspired pen the wonderful phenomena associated with Gods visit to the earth.
The earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken. * * He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea,
He did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies (Psa 18:7-11). The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel (Psa 68:8).
He first voices the Ten Commandments. Those commandments have remained to this hour the divinest of all moral laws. They oppose polytheism; they put an injunction on idolatry; they render sacred the Name of Jehovah; they set aside one-seventh of time for rest; they honor age and parenthood; they insist upon the sacredness of human life; they demand chastity; they protect property; they call for the truth and they inveigh against covetousness. Truly, as Joseph Parker has said, The old world has no need of new commandments, for we know that there are none better than those delivered millenniums gone to Moses. If it were not for the fact that we are to give a series of nine sermons to the Ten Commandments, this chapter would not suffice to attempt even a brief exposition of each; but I am not content to pass the subject of the Decalogue without calling attention to the wonderful way in which it was given.
First of all, God spake all these words (20:1). No wonder that after having heard His voice, the people were filled with fear and said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die (Exo 20:19). A little later God writes with His own finger these Ten Commandments on two tables of stone, but Moses breaks these, and in the 34th chapter, verse 1 (Exo 34:1), we find God renewing them.
It has ever been the custom of God to give His laws clearly, to choose the very words in which they should be expressed, and then to preserve them in a supernatural way. George E. Merrill, in The Parchments of the Faith, speaking of the wonderful way in which the scribes copied the sacred Scripture, declares that any manuscripts which contained mistakes were destroyed, saying, Very slight mistakes were enough to vitiate a synagogue roll. Three errors of a scribe upon a single sheet, the blurring of letters * * any mutilation of the text by ordinary wear, and many other causes, condemned a document. There are people who are troubling themselves these days to know whether what we have is the Word of God. If all such spent their time instead in familiarizing themselves with the sacred pages of the Bible, God would be speaking His commandments afresh, yea, even writing them upon the tablets of their hearts, and they might be the medium to the world of the best expression of Gods Word to man.
Following the giving of the Law is Gods legislation for social order. No man can read the 21st, 22nd and 23rd chapters of Exodus without being impressed with the fact that God is here providing for a nation, and it would be difficult, also, to enact statutes that represented more of wisdom and of justicelaws for servants, laws for murder, ill-treatment of parents, injury to ones fellows, theft, trespasses, borrowing, uncleanness, idolatry, the poor, slander, charity, Sabbath, feasts, in fact, everything that would likely arise in the life of this young nation. And, as we have studied this bit of legislation together with that which comes at a later time in the Pentateuch, we have been constrained to feel that a state built upon it would be beautiful and strong and free from the very evils that now threaten the overthrow of the most advanced governments of the world. If the social order here suggested had prevailed, slavery would have been impossible; the saloon would never have risen; trusts and corporations could never have occurred; or, if they had, would have been dissolved utterly every fifty years, and the wealth thus combined so scattered that an absolutely new start by new people would have been the result. Under this legislation, war would have had no occasion, and if it had occurred with the people who would not regard God, it could never have been waged for greed of gain.
There are able interpreters of the Bible who believe that in the Millennium every legislation will be regnant, and that for the first time the world will behold a Christian state. If one would take the pains to trace the sayings of Jesus that relate to social order, he would see that they did not oppose this legislation, but simply interpreted it, and plead its need. And we are among those who believe that many of the revolutions of the past, some of the uprisings of the present, and certain of those that will characterize the future, are all ordained of God, and are the Divine effort to bring back men from legislation that has been unjust, oppressive, immoral, to the statutes of Him who never spake other than a sacred law.
Exo 24:1 to Exo 33:23 take us from the subject of social legislation to that of the Tabernacle, and the apostasy of Israel, which might be stated as the Pattern in the Mount, and Apis on the plain!
You remember God called Moses into the mount to give him the pattern of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle expressed Gods purpose to dwell in the midst of His people. And yet, while He was talking with Moses, out-lining in minutia every single particle of that wonderful tent in which Jehovah Himself was to dwell, the people on the plain were pleading with Aaron, Up, make us gods (Exo 32:1)! According to tradition, Hur opposed this appeal, and perished at the hands of the would-be idolators. Aaron yielded to it, and while he saved himself, he brought about the slaughter of 3000 of his brethren (Exo 32:28), disannulled the covenant of Gods grace, and for a time, at least, threw the whole camp of Israel outside Gods saving and keeping power. How often we may miss the very blessing that God has planned for us, and is in the act of providing in our behalf, by turning to worship before some idol, who can tell? And how easy it is to let our affections turn back to some object that fascinated us when we were in Egyptian bondageunregeneracy, and thereby lose the favor of the King Himself, forfeit the wisdom of His counsels, and render inoperative His most beneficent purposes. It is not easy for a modern believer to hear Moses cry, as he beseeches the Lord to forgive this sin, and take Israel to His heart again, without remembering that many a time he has had occasion to say with William Cowper,
O for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!
Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word?
What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.
Return, O Holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
And drove thee from my breast.
The dearest idol I have known,
Whateer that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.
A few words then on the
TABERNACLE AND THE PRIESTHOOD
by way of a hasty glance through the remaining chapters. We shall not attempt a description of the tabernacle. That would require many discourses. But no student of Scripture ought to be satisfied until he has made a close study of its every part and appointment, aided by some such exposition as Geikies Hours with the Bible. It was about 15 feet high, 15 feet in width and 45 feet in length. The Holy of Holies was a 15-foot cube, while the Holy Place was 15 by 30, and the whole was located in an open court 75 by 150 feet, enclosed by curtains seven and a half feet high.
It was to be provided by a free-will offering from the people. If one imagines it an inexpensive building, he need only read of the talents that were invested (Exo 38:24-30). The building in which we now worship did not cost so much, and yet this people, without a foot of land, with herds and flocks insufficient to satisfy the hunger incident to their journeys, and yet leave seed and sacrifices, rose in response to Gods appeal, and made an offering that ought to be at once an inspiration and an example to present-day followers of Jesus Christ. Here is the record of it,
And, they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers skins, brought them. Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lords offering; and every man with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service, brought it. And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats hair. And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate; And spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense. The Children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses (Exo 35:22-29).
And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made; And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much (Exo 36:4-7).
It was to be planned after the pattern shown in the mount. Three times in this Book, God reminds Moses of that fact: Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30; Exo 27:8.
Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, refers to this fact, and quotes, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount.
There are two suggestions in this worthy our consideration. First, let men be slow to change from the Divine order, or dissent from the Divine Word. It is written, Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. The temptation in this time is to do to suit ourselves, and to frame philosophies of life that correspond to conduct rather than follow the letter of Gods Word. Men have even gone so far as to brave the Divine challenge.
If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are in this Book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE JOURNEY FROM THE RED SEA TO ELIM.
(22) So Moses brought Israel.Rather, And Moses brought Israel. The regular narrative is here resumed from Exo. 14:31, and the Israelites are brought two stages upon their journey towards Sinai (Exo. 3:12)first to Marah (Exo. 15:23), and next to Elim (Exo. 15:27). It is uncertain at what exact point of the coast they emerged from the sea-bed, but it can scarcely have been at any great distance from the modern Suez. The springs of Moses, Ayun Musa, which are about seven miles from Suez, may well have been the halting-place where the Song was composed and sung. At this spot there is considerable vegetation, and a number of wells, variously reckoned at seven, seventeen, and nineteen.
The wilderness of Shur is the arid tract extending from Lake Serbnis on the north to Ain Howarah towards the south. It seems to have been called also the wilderness of Etham (Num. 33:8). The Israelites traversed only the southern portion, which is an actual desert, treeless, waterless, and, except in the early spring, destitute of herbage.
They went three days.From Ayun Musa to Ain Howarah is a distance of about thirty-six miles, so that, if Howarah is Marah, the average of a march can have been no more than twelve miles. This, however, is quite likely with so large a multitude, and when there was no reason for haste.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 15:22-27 . INTRODUCTORY .
DIVINE ADOPTION OF ISRAEL.
1. PREPARATORY PERIOD.
March from the Red Sea to Sinai. First Contact with Friends and Foes in the Desert. Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 .
The Wilderness of Shur. Shur signifies a wall, and is certainly perfectly applicable to the long, white, flat-topped limestone wall of the Jebel (Mountain) or Rahah, which now stretched along the left flank of the host of Israel as they faced towards Sinai. This mountain range ran southeast, far beyond the limit of their vision, thus giving name and character to the wilderness, which is here an undulating gravelly plain, twelve to fifteen miles wide between this white wall and the blue waters of the Gulf of Suez. It is also called “the wilderness of Etham,” in Num 33:8, from the station Etham, in the edge of the wilderness, near the head of the Gulf, where Israel encamped before the passage of the Sea. Exo 13:20.
Israel is now fairly in the “wilderness,” and we therefore give here a general idea of the country in which they spent the ensuing forty years, gathered from the observations of recent travellers, and the Report of the “Sinai Survey Expedition” of 1868-69.
The Mountain of the Law, or the Sinai of Exodus, is a peak of the great cluster of naked, steep, granite mountains in the southern part of the triangular peninsula of Sinai, which lies like a wedge between the Gulfs of Suez and Akabah. The apex of this triangle is at Ras (Cape) Mohammed, which stretches on the south into the Red Sea, and its base lying along the twenty-ninth parallel of north latitude; and it measures about one hundred and ninety miles along the Gulf of Suez, one hundred and thirty miles along the Gulf of Akabah, and one hundred and fifty miles from gulf to gulf. North of the Sinai peninsula is the desert of et Tih, an arid limestone table-land, with isolated mountain groups, which rise above plains of gravel, sand, and flint. This plateau is bounded generally by steep, flat-topped cliffs, and it projects wedge-wise into the Sinai desert on the south, and on the northeast joins the plateau of the Negeb, or “South Country” of Palestine. The Tih table-land is a fearful waste, almost wholly waterless; the valleys or wadies, along which the water runs in the wet season, marking the white or gray gravel with scanty lines of “sickly green.” The white range of cliffs which forms the western wall of this plateau of the Tih is called Jebel (Mount) Rahah on the north, and Jebel et Tih on the south; and it was along this wall, as seen above, that the Israelites commenced their desert march, the desert of Shur or Etham being the narrow strip between the mountains of Shur and the Gulf. Between the granitic cluster of Sinai and the southern limestone escarpment of the Tih is a broad belt of low sandstone hills, reaching nearly from shore to shore. These hills have flat tabular summits, and are often most fantastic in shape, and coloured gorgeously in various shades of yellow and red. Among these hills are broad, undulating plains, the chief of which is the Debbet er Ramleh, or Sandy Plain, which skirts the southern wall of et Tih. This sandstone formation contains many rich veins of iron, copper, and turquoise, which were worked by the ancient Egyptians on an extensive scale. At Maghareh and Surabit el Kadim, in this district, are found hieroglyphic tablets recording the names of the kings under whose auspices these mining operations were carried on. At the latter place are the ruins of two temples, one of hewn stone, the other excavated in the rock, and inscriptions which show, according to the translation of Lepsius, that these temples were constructed for the use of the miners and the troops stationed there for their protection. These inscriptions range in date from the third Memphitic dynasty, (about 2,500 B.C.,) to Rameses IV. of the twentieth dynasty, (about 1200 B.C.) Cheops, or Shufer, the builder of the Great Pyramid, has a tablet here. Here are also numerous evidences of immense smelting operations, piles of slag and remains of furnaces, which show that vast quantities of fuel must have been consumed here by the ancient Egyptians. Palmer and others hence infer that the country was once much more plentifully supplied with vegetation, and, therefore, had a more copious rainfall than now. ( Desert of the Exodus, i, p. 235.)
The mountains of Sinai are a “rugged, tumbled chaos” of dark granite, variegated porphyries, and mica schist, with veins of green stone and variously shaded feldspar, often displaying a great variety of brilliant tints in the bright sun under the clear desert sky. There are three principal groups of these mountains: the central group of Jebel Musa, (Mount of Moses,) of which Mount St. Katharine is the highest peak, and the crown of the peninsula, standing seven thousand three hundred and sixty-three feet above the sea level; Serbal, whose smooth granite dome rises on the northwest; and Um Shomer, which lifts its jagged peaks in the southeast. There is a strip of broad gravelly plain called el Ga’ah, (or el Ka’a,) “the Plain,” which runs down along the Gulf of Suez between the mountains and the sea, and a narrower strip of a similar character along the Gulf of Akabah, which disappears here and there as the mountain spurs come down to the water. With the exception of the Debbet er Ramleh, or Sandy Plain, above mentioned, the plains and valleys are usually floored with gravel, dark in the granitic districts, and white and black in the limestone regions. The wadies, or dry rivers as they are sometimes called, are the water-courses of the desert, along which the torrents from the mountains find their way to the sea. These are the permanent natural roads through the mountains. Most of them are dry for the greater part of the year, and in the wet season destructive floods sweep through them, tearing out the scanty soil where it is not fastened down by large shrubs or trees, and often scattering boulders from the craggy walls along their course. These wadies must always have determined the lines of travel, for it is impossible to pass the mountains except in their beds; and in these only is there water and herbage for man and beast. It is this fact that makes it possible to determine with a high degree of certainty the route of the Israelites through these mountains; at least, we can be sure that we know all the alternatives that were before them in choosing their course.
On leaving the white glare of the desert plain, and rising through the mountain passes into the granite region, the traveller finds a cool, genial climate and refreshing breezes. A few perennial streams flow down from the mountains, along which are considerable tracts of vegetation. The trees are chiefly the acacia, or shittah, from which distils the gum arabic of commerce; the tamarisk, with its long feathery leaves and manna-dropping twigs; and the juniper, or broom, “with its high canopy and white blossoms;” while the palm is scattered along the more fertile wadies, and stands in fine groves at Tor and Feiran. The bright green caper plant often hangs along the face of the crags, and here and there are olive groves, or scattered olive trees, the relics of ancient monkish plantations. Game is occasionally found in the mountains the ibex, or wild goat of Scripture, the gazelle, and the hare, while more rarely partridges and quails are seen. The productiveness of these fertile spots would be vastly increased by cultivation; then what are now bare rocks or gravelly torrent beds would be turned into gardens. It is well known that the amount of rain which falls upon a district depends to a high degree upon the evaporating surfaces furnished by the forests; and the forests of this region have for centuries been diminishing, having been destroyed, firstly, for fuel, as shown above, in the mining operations of successive centuries; and, secondly, for the manufacture of charcoal, which is the chief and almost sole export of the peninsula. These facts make it probable that this desert, at the time of the Exodus, was capable of sustaining quite a large population, and of furnishing water and pasturage to their cattle and flocks.
The desert of the Tih is much more barren. It is drained by the Wady el Arish, or “river of Egypt,” into the Mediterranean; but it is a white wilderness of chalk and limestone, yet sprinkled over with a brown, dry herbage, which bursts into a sudden and transitory green after the autumnal rains. Yet the Tih bears traces of ancient, perhaps pre-historic, inhabitants, in the stone cairns and fenced inclosures which were reared by some primeval pastoral people. In the “South Country” of the Pentateuch and Joshua, northeast of the Tih plateau, are found deep ancient wells, remains of ruined cities, gardens, and vineyards; and also abundant traces of roads, which were once the pathways of civilization. It was through the arid and dreary Tih that Jacob went down into Egypt; and through the same wilderness Joseph and Mary fled with the infant Jesus.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
MARCH TO MARAH AND ELIM, Exo 15:22-27.
22. And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water The springs regulate the movements and fix the halting places of the caravans now as in the time of Moses, and it is probable that the first resting-place of Israel after the passage of the Red Sea was the oasis which the Arabs call Ayun Musa, the “Springs of Moses,” two miles from the shore, and about six hours’ travel from Suez . There Robinson found seven fountains, one of massive ancient masonry; yet previous travellers describe many more, some mentioning twenty. The water is dark coloured and brackish, depositing a hard, calcareous sediment as it rises, which forms mounds around the springs, over which the water flows into the sands and disappears. About twenty palm bushes now grow around the springs, and there is a small patch of grain and a vegetable garden cultivated by people from Suez. There are fragments of tiles and pottery, indicating that there were once habitations near these springs. It was probably from this spot that Israel started on the three days’ journey in the wilderness of Shur.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Beginning of the Long March: Water Shortage Followed By Provision ( Exo 15:22-27 ).
a
b They went three days in the wilderness and found no water (Exo 15:22 b).
c Arriving in Marah they could not drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter (Exo 15:23).
d The people murmur as to what they are to drink (Exo 15:24).
e Moses cries to Yahweh and He shows him a tree which will make the water sweet (Exo 15:25 a).
e There Yahweh made for them a statute and an ordinance (Exo 15:25 b).
d And there He proved them (Exo 15:25 c).
c They are promised that if they will fully obey Him they will not suffer any of the diseases that come on the Egyptians because He is ‘Yahweh Who heals them’ (Exo 15:26).
b They come to Elim where there is food and water aplenty (Exo 15:27).
a They take their journey and come to the Wilderness of Sin (Exo 16:1).
Note the interesting parallels. In ‘a’ they leave the wilderness of Shur and in the parallel arrive at the Wilderness of Sin. In ‘b’ they find no water in the parallel they find abundance of water. In ‘c’ the waters of Marah were bitter, and in the parallel Yahweh promises that if they obey Him life will not be bitter through diseases. In ‘d’ the people murmur as to what they are to drink, and in the parallel Yahweh ‘proves them’. In ‘e’ Yahweh makes provision for them by making the water sweet and in the parallel He makes provision for them by giving them statutes and ordinances which will make life sweet
Exo 15:22
‘And Moses led Israel onward from the sea of reeds and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.’
It was now that they begin to learn the hardships of the way. Taking a wilderness route through the wilderness of Shur they travelled for three days through the hot sun and found no water. They had their first lesson that things would not be easy even though they were free.
“The wilderness.” The term wilderness can cover a number of types of ground from desert, to scrub land, to reasonable pasturage, and in many parts of the Sinai peninsula the water table is not far below the ground. Furthermore sheep and goats that have been well pastured can provide milk for some considerable time. So the children of Israel on their journey would pass over many types of ground and would usually be able to feed their cattle and flocks and to find water, substituting it where necessary with milk. But this area was clearly particularly difficult.
“The wilderness of Shur.” Passing through the wilderness of Shur, which stretched eastward from the coast, was ‘the way of the land of the Philistines’, guarded by a chain of Egyptian forts, which led northward along the coast, and the ‘way of the wilderness of Shur’ which led northward to Kadesh. This wilderness was the starting point as you leave Egypt. But ‘the way of the land of the Philistines’ was forbidden to the children of Israel, and they were in any case concerned to keep away from routes where they might be followed. They thus took another route which would lead them into the wilderness of Sinai, probably the road used by the Egyptians to the copper and turquoise mines of Sinai, which they worked mainly during January to March when Egyptian troops would be there. But by this time (early April) they would be absent. This led along by the Gulf of Suez. But one problem with this route was the shortage of water for the cattle and flocks.
An interesting discovery at these turquoise mines were the “proto- Sinaitic” inscriptions of the early 15th century B.C. which were just informal dedications, worknotes and brief epitaphs (for offerings) by Semitic captives from the Egyptian East Delta (or Memphis settlements) employed in the mines. They illustrate free use of that script by Semites under Egyptian rule before the time of Moses.
“Three days.” Possibly meaning ‘a few days’. During this period all attempts to find water failed.
Exo 15:23-25 a
‘And when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah because they were bitter. That is why the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh showed him a tree and he cast it into the waters and the waters were made sweet.’
After the period without water they came to the oasis at Marah, but the waters were too bitter to drink. Marah may well be the modern ‘Ayin Hawarah. This is a solitary spring of bitter water which now has stunted palm trees growing near it, although the quality of the water varies from time to time. When they saw water the children of Israel were no doubt ecstatic, but the desert waters were bitter compared with the sweet waters of the Nile valley and while their cattle and flocks may well have drunk of it the people themselves found that they could not stomach it. Their joy turning to disappointment they immediately turned on Moses. This led him to pray to Yahweh who directed him to a bush which was probably a kind of barberry, which is known to have the qualities described. And when this was thrown into the waters it was made sweet, that is, the bitterness was softened.
It may be that from his life in the wilderness with the Midianites he had learned the usefulness and effectiveness of this bush on such occasions, and that his prayer to Yahweh was for help in finding such bushes, a cry which was rewarded by Him showing him where he could indeed find some.
Note the contrast between Egypt with the sweet-water Nile made bitter, and the bitter water here made sweet. He Who had brought judgment on Egypt could in a similar way bring provision to Israel. And in the next verse this provision will include His statutes and His ordinances.
This the first of many times that we are told that the people murmured. We see immediately their slave conditioning. A few days before they had beheld a deliverance that would be remembered for generations to come, but now because of shortage of water they have already forgotten it. While it would certainly be hot, and the journey difficult, there had not really been time for the position to become desperate. The fact was that they had expected to find water, but had not. They were not used to not having water at hand. The Nile had always been near. They were not yet aware of what could be expected in wilderness conditions, and of trek discipline, and had been caught out. And immediately their buoyant spirits slumped.
The emphasis on the water shortage is a sign of genuineness. This above all would be what such a large group would immediately notice in the wilderness. The provision by natural means is also a sign of genuineness, and reminds us that God keeps his miracles (and Moses’ staff) for important occasions.
Exo 15:25 b
‘There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them. And he said, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, and will do what is right in his eyes, and will give ear to what he commands, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I am Yahweh your healer.” ’
“There he made for them a statute and an ordinance.” Here also is an attempt to make life sweet. We may see in this the first attempt of Moses, at the command of Yahweh, to lay down some pattern of behaviour by which the conglomerate peoples now making up ‘the children of Israel’ could be governed on their wilderness journey. The accompaniment by the mixed multitude had been an unexpected event and clearly some kind of agreement had to be reached about behaviour now that they were part of the children of Israel, so that all could be aware of their responsibilities and what was expected of them. They would not have the same customs as the original children of Israel. It was therefore necessary to lay down certain laws to be observed by all. This would enable the smooth running of the camp.
Humanly speaking these would be taken from his own experiences, his knowledge of Egyptian and Midianite laws, and the customs of his own people formulated under the wise guidance of the fathers. They would be written down to form a guide and pattern. This is then confirmed by Yahweh with the promise that obedience will result in good health. Such an attempt would be required in view of the inexperience of the people in living under such conditions and their wide differences in customs (the mixed multitude). The corollary is that if they did not obey they would come under judgment.
From Moses later behaviour we can presume that these also were put down in writing and read out to the people. They were a primitive beginning to the later laws. They were then no doubt put into the primitive Tent of Meeting as part of ‘the Testimony’ (see on 16:34).
“There he proved them.” This is Moses’ response to their murmuring. The verb was used of the testing of Abraham (Gen 22:1). This may refer to the testing of the people by the bitter waters, a test which they failed. Or it may refer to the fact that He laid down these regulations described above through Moses and ‘proved’ them by seeing whether they were willing to respond to them by accepting them as the binding requirements of Yahweh. In view of the words that followed the latter seems more likely, although there may be a play on the two situations. It should be noted that Yahweh is said to ‘prove’ His people three times, here, in Exo 16:4 and in Exo 20:20. He is building up to Sinai.
However, in view of the words that follow where the second part at least is in the words of Yahweh, we may take the ‘He made for them’ and ‘He proved them’ words speaking about Yahweh. He had made the waters sweet, now He provided the guidance and laws which would enable life to go on sweetly. And He did it to test out whether, in spite of their murmurings, they were ready to be faithful to Him.
“If you will diligently hear and obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and will do what is right in his eyes — I will –.” These are the direct words of Yahweh through Moses. The change from the third person to the first person occurs on a number of occasions in the Old Testament in words of Yahweh, reflecting the composite nature of God. The reward for obedience will be good health. Instead of bitterness there will be sweetness. He had healed the waters and he would heal them. The corollary was that flagrant disobedience would lead precisely to such diseases. It is in fact unquestionable that some of the provisions of the Law would enhance their physical wellbeing.
“Diseases.” They were to be kept from the diseases common in Egypt such as ophthalmia, dysentery, and a variety of skin diseases (see Deu 28:27). In the context this mention of diseases links with the bitterness of the water. If Israel are obedient they will be delivered from diseases, if they are not they will drink bitter water.
Exo 15:27
‘And they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees and they encamped there by the waters.’
Their reward for their response was to arrive at an abundant oasis, a sign of Yahweh’s pleasure in it. ‘Twelve’ and ‘seventy’ are probably not to be taken literally. They probably indicate sufficiency, the ‘twelve’ springs of water indicating ample sufficiency of water for the twelve sub-tribes, and the ‘seventy’ palm trees indicating the divine sufficiency of the provision of palm trees with their fruits and shelter (what are a literal seventy palm trees among so many?), or even sufficiency for the clans of the seventy elders.
As with all the stops on the journey identification is uncertain but the Wadi Gharandel, a well-known watering place complete with tamarisks and palms, has been suggested.
The whole area is a comparatively fertile one, and contains three fertile wadis which have water most of the year, and many springs of water. The pasturage is fairly good, sometimes rich and luxuriant and there are an abundance of tamarisks, and a number of palm trees. After the dryness of the way it must have been a joy to behold, and they would be able to spread out to the other wadis and ensure that their flocks and herds were able to make up for the hard times that they had experienced.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Exo 15:22-27 Israel Encamps at Marah and Elim Exo 15:22-27 records Israel’s journey immediately after their deliverance from the Egyptian army in the crossing of the Red Sea. This pericope takes the children of Israel from the shores of the Red Sea to Elim.
1. Israel Encamps at Marah ( Exo 15:22-26 ) Israel’s first test of faith takes place at Marah, which means “bitter,” located in the Wilderness of Shur (meaning “journey”) where they become thirsty after three days of following the Lord through the wilderness. In the midst of their labours, they come to a spring of water, but find the waters bitter. Moses cuts down a tree and throws it into the water to make it sweet. The Lord then gives them a statute to obey His Word as an opportunity for them to prove their love and devotion towards Him. God had blessed the Israelites with prosperity and health as they departed Egypt. His statute promised them that if they would obey God’s Word, they would be able to walk in the blessings continually. This event could symbolize the first trial that a child of God experiences in which he must put his faith in obedience to God’s Word. Their choices would make life bitter or sweet. God gave them the choice. As God’s children, the things of this world no longer have to be bitter, for in obedience to Christ Jesus, He makes everything sweet. From the first day we believed in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, there is not a situation that we face alone. If we will seek the Lord, He will give us wisdom to deal with every difficult, bitter situation so that it becomes sweet, a blessing to us and others.
Illustration – The Lord spoke to me the night of 18-29 January 2005 and said, “The bitter and the sweet are all used by God to mould and shape your life.” This word came the same day that my sister-in-law Dyan was told by her Muslim “husband” called Nabal to leave her home and was only allowed to take one of her two children with her. It was “sweet” news for us that she has decided to leave this environment for the sake of her eternal salvation, but it is “bitter” news to know that her oldest child is being left behind. However, I know that God will work in her life in the midst of this heartache to draw her to Him and to work miracles for her as she learns to trust in Him. The following night the Lord spoke to me saying, “Be patient and you will see Me working in the midst of this situation.”
2. Israel Encamps at Elim ( Exo 15:27 ) The children of Israel found twelve springs and seventy palm trees when they encamped at Elim, which means, “trees.” In the Scriptures, trees can symbolize men, and leadership among men (Jdg 9:7-15), and wells are symbolic of the anointings of the Holy Spirit (Joh 7:38, 2Pe 2:17). These twelve springs may represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb and the seventy trees the first seventy disciples upon which the early Church in Jerusalem was founded in the upper room. This symbolizes the need for the new believer to join the body of Christ in order to continue his life of being refreshed by the Holy Spirit and walking in freedom and liberty from this world. It is in the local fellowship that a believer will find times of refreshing, in the midst of worship, the teaching of God’s Word, and genuine love from the brethren.
Jdg 9:8, “The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.”
Joh 7:38, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
2Pe 2:17, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.”
Exo 15:22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
Exo 15:22
Scripture References – Note other references to the place named Shur in Scripture:
Gen 16:7, “And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur .”
Gen 25:18, “And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur , that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.”
Exo 15:22 Comments – Once leaving Egypt, the children of Israel had to take the pilgrimage by faith in God. We also walk a spiritual pilgrimage as we enter a journey with salvation.
Exo 15:23 Word Study on “Marah” – PTW says the Hebrew name “Marah” means, “bitter.”
Exo 15:23 Comments – Examples of bitterness in the Holy Bible:
1. Naomi called herself Mara, meaning “bitterness,” because she lost her husband and two sons. The family name was cut off.
Rth 1:20, “And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.”
2. Hebrews had had led bitter lives in Egypt and needed healing.
Exo 1:14, “And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.”
3. Bitter water causes death.
Rev 8:10-11, “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”
4. 2Ki 2:19-22 – Salt healed waters.
2Ki 2:21, “And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.”
5. 2Ki 4:38-41 – Death in pot, Meal heals pot.
6. If a believer drinks any deadly thing, will not harm him.
Mar 16:18, “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
7. Num 5:11-31 – Jealously, so a woman drinks bitter water.
8. Affliction brings bitterness.
2Ki 14:26, “For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.”
9. Job’s complaint was bitter.
Job 23:2, “Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.”
10. A strange woman’s end is bitter and sharp.
Pro 5:4, “But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.”
11. To the hungry, every bitter thing is sweet.
Pro 27:7, “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”
Exo 15:25 “And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet” – Comments – Why was a tree used the heal the bitter waters? The tree was figurative of life in a desert, and symbolises healing. The tree was symbolic of Jesus, who makes the bitterness in our lives sweet. When we apply the Cross of Calvary to our lives, it causes every bitter circumstance in life to be made sweet. Jesus tasted the bitter cup of suffering so that we might be free from the bitterness of life. See:
Deu 20:19, ”When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down ( for the tree of the field is man’s life ) to employ them in the siege.”
A tree represents healing. This tree had to die or be cut off for their healing Jesus died for us to have access to God is healing.
Note similar stories:
2Ki 2:21, “And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.”
2Ki 4:41, “But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.”
“there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them” – Comments God proved the children of Israel’s obedience by giving them their first charge. He was testing them in proving their obedience and devotion towards Him. God has brought Moses into the wilderness forty years in order to prepare him as a leader over His children Israel. Moses had been humbled during his forty-year exile and he had learned to obey the Lord. Now God had to bring the children of Israel into this same season of training.
God was also testing their faith in Him, as He tested Abraham (Gen 22:1). God had to teach them how to walk by faith in Him and not to lean on their own senses and will. They were going to have to walk by faith in order to conquer giants and take the Promised Land.
Gen 22:1, “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.”
In a similar manner, God tested Adam’s love and devotion towards Him by giving him a charge to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. How can a person prove his love towards someone except he be given rules by which love can be genuinely proved?
Exo 15:26 Comments – Exo 15:26 records the first statute and ordinance that God gave to Israel, which says that obedience to God in general will deliver them from all the sickness that they saw in the land of Egypt. This is not only a reference to the terrible plagues they had just seen. The Lord had brought them into a new life and is now trying to renew their minds, trying to teach them about divine health so that they would have strength to serve God. The Lord once spoke to Norvel Hayes and told him that people are rewarded in two ways if they will serve the Lord. They will receive health and prosperity in this life. The Lord then referred him to 3Jn 1:2. [73] God had given the children of Israel prosperity through favor with the Egyptians (Exo 12:36). He then gave them healing through the atonement of the Passover lamb, which meal was a miracle of healing so that none who left Egypt were feeble (Psa 105:37). A teaching on divine health should be one of the first teachings taught to newborn Christians, since this is the first teaching that the Lord gave the children of Israel. When a child of God has sickness in his body, there is a cause and a cure in God’s precious Word, for He promises His children health when they obey His Word.
[73] Norvel Hayes, “Sermon,” Word of Faith Family Church, Dallas, Texas 1989-99; Norvel Hayes, Financial Dominion: How To Take Charge Of You Finances (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, c1986), 9-17.
3Jn 1:2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
Psa 105:37, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.”
Exo 12:36, “And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.”
Exo 15:27 Word Study on “Elim” Strong tells us the word “Elim” ( ) (H362) means, “trees.” PTW says this word means, “oaks.”
Comments After Israel’s first test, God gives them a season of rest until the next test of faith. God will give us seasons of rest as well along our spiritual journey.
Elim is also mentioned in Num 33:9-10. So, Elim was in the Wilderness of Ethan.
Num 33:9-10, “And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they pitched there. And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red sea.”
The tree is considered the man’s life (Deu 20:19).
Deu 20:19, ”When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down ( for the tree of the field is man’s life ) to employ them in the siege.”
Perhaps the twelve wells represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb which first took the Gospel Israel, then to the nations, and the seventy palm trees represent the seventy that Jesus sent out, being the earliest congregation of disciples of Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Exo 15:22 – Exo 18:27 The Journey to Mount Sinai Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 records Israel’s journey from the shores of the Red Sea to Mount Sinai. This journey contains symbolisms of the Christian’s early journey immediately after water baptism as God divinely provides for his needs, guiding him to a place of greater spiritual maturity through the knowledge of His Word.
1. Israel Encamps at Marah ( Exo 15:22-26 ) Exo 15:22-27 records Israel’s journey immediately after their deliverance from the Egyptian army in the crossing of the Red Sea. This pericope takes the children of Israel from the shores of the Red Sea to Elim.
Israel’s first test of faith takes place at Marah, which means “bitter,” located in the Wilderness of Shur (meaning “journey”) where they become thirsty after three days of following the Lord through the wilderness. In the midst of their labours, they come to a spring of water, but find the waters bitter. Moses cuts down a tree and throws it into the water to make it sweet. The Lord then gives them a statute to obey His Word as an opportunity for them to prove their love and devotion towards Him. God had blessed the Israelites with prosperity and health as they departed Egypt. His statute promised them that if they would obey God’s Word, they would be able to walk in the blessings continually. This event could symbolize the first trial that a child of God experiences in which he must put his faith in obedience to God’s Word. Their choices would make life bitter or sweet. God gave them the choice. As God’s children, the things of this world no longer have to be bitter, for in obedience to Christ Jesus, He makes everything sweet. From the first day we believed in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, there is not a situation that we face alone. If we will seek the Lord, He will give us wisdom to deal with every difficult, bitter situation so that it becomes sweet, a blessing to us and others.
Illustration – The Lord spoke to me the night of 18-29 January 2005 and said, “The bitter and the sweet are all used by God to mould and shape your life.” This word came the same day that my sister-in-law Dyan was told by her Muslim “husband” called Nabal to leave her home and was only allowed to take one of her two children with her. It was “sweet” news for us that she has decided to leave this environment for the sake of her eternal salvation, but it is “bitter” news to know that her oldest child is being left behind. However, I know that God will work in her life in the midst of this heartache to draw her to Him and to work miracles for her as she learns to trust in Him. The following night the Lord spoke to me saying, “Be patient and you will see Me working in the midst of this situation.”
2. Israel Encamps at Elim ( Exo 15:27 ) The children of Israel found twelve springs and seventy palm trees when they encamped at Elim, which means, “trees.” In the Scriptures, trees can symbolize men, and leadership among men (Jdg 9:7-15), and wells are symbolic of the anointings of the Holy Spirit (Joh 7:38, 2Pe 2:17). These twelve springs may represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb and the seventy trees the first seventy disciples upon which the early Church in Jerusalem was founded in the upper room. This symbolizes the need for the new believer to join the body of Christ in order to continue his life of being refreshed by the Holy Spirit and walking in freedom and liberty from this world. It is in the local fellowship that a believer will find times of refreshing, in the midst of worship, the teaching of God’s Word, and genuine love from the brethren.
Jdg 9:8, “The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.”
Joh 7:38, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
2Pe 2:17, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.”
However, these twelve springs and seventy trees may better represent the times of refreshing that God provides each of His children. Along our spiritual journey, the Lord leads us in paths of rest and peace, as described in Psalms 23. These times of refreshing follow seasons of trials.
3. Israel Encamps in the Wilderness of Sin ( Exo 16:1-36 ) In the wilderness of Sin, which means, “bush,” the children of Israel are given manna from Heaven and quail to eat. The manna symbolizes the daily word that God speaks to every one of His children as a part of His fellowship with them. God speaks to His children each day if he will just take the time to listen. The quail represent the stronger meat that God can give to those who are mature in Christ (Heb 5:12-14).
Illustration – As a young Christian in 1980, the Lord gave me a dream in which I saw an old, wooden, screen door with the familiar, metal sign “Colonial is Good Bread” fastened to the center of this door. This sign became famous because it was found on the wooden screen doors of so many country stores across the United States. The makers of Colonial Bread invested in an advertising campaign using these signs because they wanted everyone to buy a loaf of their bread when they entered the grocery store. This metal sign was not just fastened in the center of the screen door as a push plate to prevent damaging the screen; the message on this sign became embedded into the mind of every customer that entered the store to buy groceries. The Colonial Bread Company wanted everyone to partake of their bread. The unique aspect of this dream is that the metal sign on this old, wooden screen door did not read, “Colonial is Good Bread,” but rather, “The Bread of Life.” As a young Christian I interpreted this dream to mean that the Lord wanted me to open this door in my spiritual journey and partake of that bread that comes from heaven. He wanted me to read and study His Holy Word diligently, and on a daily basis.
4. The Water from the Rock ( Exo 17:1-7 ) Exo 17:1-7 records the story of God providing the children of Israel water from the rock. During Israel’s encampment at Rephidim, which means “support,” Moses struck the rock and water poured forth to refresh the children of Israel. The striking of the rock represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and it symbolized the fact that God used men to crucify Jesus on the Cross (1Co 10:4). God, through man, brought about this act. God struck Jesus once for all that we might have living water. In Num 20:8 God told Moses to speak to the rock. When Moses struck the rock the second time out of anger (Num 20:11), it was a type of crucifying the Son of God a second time (Heb 6:6).
The water represents the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues that is available for every believer who desires more of God’s presence in his/her life. It also represents the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit that every child of God can experience by praying in tongues and worshipping the Lord (Eph 5:18-19). God sends His children the gift of speaking in tongues to support and strengthen the believer.
1Co 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
Num 20:11, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
Heb 6:6, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
Now man can speak to Jesus, call upon his name, so that we may have living water (eternal life).
Illustration – Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays of 1986, work was slow. Therefore, I spent extra time praying. One morning the Lord as I awoke, the Lord said to me, “You will never walk in victory in your life unless you spend two hours a day praying in tongues.” During this time, I had become concerned and was asking Him why my life lacked so much victory, peace and joy. So the Saturday after New Year’s day, while praying in tongues at the church altar, I was led to turn to Eph 6:10-18. Immediately the Lord showed me that I would never have the total, abiding victory as a Christina unless I spend time daily, constantly praying in the spirit. I began doing this two hours a day then. And a heaviness lifted and peace and joy came from within, all day long.
5. Israel’s Battle with the Amalekites ( Exo 17:8-16 ) Exo 17:8-16 records the story of Israel’s first battle, which took place at their encampment of Rephidim with the Amalekites. The Lord allowed the children of Israel to be refreshed with a continual source of fresh water from the rock that Moses struck (Exo 17:1-7) prior to their attack. The water of Marah was symbolic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. The water from the rock struck by Moses is symbolic of the continual filling of the Holy Spirit through a lifestyle of praying in the Spirit (Eph 5:18).
Eph 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;”
The Amalekites could symbolize the flesh or the demonic realm that comes against the children of God on their spiritual journey. The lifting up of the rod of God in the hands of Moses could represent a believer’s declaration of the name of Jesus in taking dominion over the powers of darkness. As Moses held up the rod of God, which symbolizes the authority of the name of Jesus, the enemy was defeated. God’s children must learn to use the name of Jesus when Satan attacks the body of Christ. Had Israel remained in Egyptian bondage, the Amalekites would not have attacked them. Neither would Satan attack God’s children if they would return back into the world. The Lord once spoke to a friend of mine, saying, “A king does not fight against a city he has already conquered.”
Illustration The Lord gave me a three-part dream, which opened my eyes and taught me how to exercise the authority of the name of Jesus in every area of my life. I had learned how to pray and make my requests to the Lord known using Jesus’ name. Now, I was going to learn to use His name to take authority over Satan. The first part of the dream was a vision of a pastor friend of mine sitting in his house peacefully reading his Bible in a chair. I still remember how peaceful and tranquil the scene appeared. Then, the Lord spoke these words to me, “There is peace in a home when there is dominion in that home.” Finally, the Lord brought the words “Luk 11:21 ” to my mind. I had no idea how that verse read nor if it applied to the dream. I woke up and read this passage, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.” I knew immediately that this dream was from God. Through the next few months, I began to study the Bible and learn how to use the name of Jesus to set my household at peace. (4 July 1988)
6. Moses Honours Jethro ( Exo 18:1-12 ) In Exo 18:1-12 Moses encamps at Mount Sinai, while the children of Israel are still at Rephidim. While Moses was encamped at the mountain of God, he honours Jethro, his father-in-law. Jethro offers the sacrifice and they eat together. Jethro’s visit to Moses could symbolize Jesus Christ as He offers His blood at the Father’s throne. Perhaps the fact that he went ahead of the encampment symbolizes that fact that Jesus went before us to God’s throne to offer His atoning sacrifice in our behalf. There he met his father-in-law, who made a sacrifice unto God. This may symbolize God the Father receiving Jesus’ sacrifice, which was actually a sacrifice that God gave to mankind for his salvation.
7. Jethro Advises Moses ( Exo 18:13-27 ) – Exo 18:13-27 records the incident in which Jethro advises Moses on how to delegate judges to assist him in judging the matters of the people. After Moses honours Jethro, his father-in-law gives Moses wisdom regarding organizing leadership among the children of Israel so that all of them can receive wisdom and ministry. This event symbolizes High Priesthood of Jesus Christ, seen in Jethro’s comment to Moses, “You be for the people an advocate before God, and you bring the problems to God.” [71] (Exo 18:19). The ordaining by Moses of leaders over the people represents church order and service. Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand to judge His church, while sending forth the Holy Spirit to anoint the five-fold ministry and give the gifts of the Spirit to the body of Christ (Eph 4:8-13). If a child of God will submit himself to the leadership of a local fellowship, he will be able to experience the gifts and anointings of the Holy Spirit and join in the ministry of helps.
[71] Translation by John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), translation of Exodus 18:19.
8. Indoctrination ( Exo 20:1 to Exo 24:8 ) – The next phase of a believer’s life after regeneration is called indoctrination. The giving of the Law and statutes (Exo 20:1 to Exo 24:8) represents this phase in the Christian life. It is important to note that God guided them to Mount Sinai and throughout their entire forty-year wilderness journey with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21). This divine guidance symbolized the fact that every child of God must learn to be led by the Holy Spirit throughout his spiritual journey.
Exo 13:21, “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:”
Motifs found within Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 – John Durham notes a number of contrasts within this passage of Scripture. (a) Israel’s Need verses God’s Abundance Supply The children of Israel entered the wilderness journey totally dependent upon God’s provision for their every need. Time and again God reveals Himself as having more than enough to supply their needs. (b) Thirst verses Abundance of Water This passage of Scripture opens with Israel in desperate need of water, only to find bitter water; and the passage closes with Israel encamped at Elim, where there was an abundance of water and trees. Understanding that God was leading them with a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21-22), it is easy to conclude that God was testing His children. (c) Israel’s Grumbling verses God’s Loving Patience An underlying motif found in Israel’s forty-year wilderness journey is Israel’s constant grumbling and complaining, beginning in this passage, being met with God’s continual intervention to meet their need. (d) Health verses Sickness – Another contrast is made between Israel’s promise of health and healing against the backdrop of the Ten Plagues of Egypt (Exo 15:26). (e) Disorder verses Order The multitude of Israelites began this journey in an awkward manner, in their encampment, in their travelling, in their lifestyles, so that Moses was overwhelmed with their problems. God sends Jethro with the wisdom to begin setting their lives in order. These contrasts reveal that God was gradually guiding them into an orderly lifestyle of faith and obedience to Him, a lifestyle that would meet their daily needs. However, the multitude of the Israelites were grumbling against change because it clashed with their old habits and customs. [72]
[72] John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), explanation of Exodus 5:22-27.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
In the Wilderness of Shur
v. 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; v. 23. And when they came to Marah, v. 24. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? v. 25. And he cried unto the Lord, v. 26. and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee. v. 27. And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE JOURNEY FROM THE RED SEA TO ELIM. After a stay, which cannot be exactly measured, but which was probably one of some days, near the point of the Eastern coast of the Gulf of Suez, at which they had emerged from the sea-bed, the Israelites, under the guidance of the pillar of the cloud, resumed their journey, and were conducted southwards, or south-eastwards, through the arid tract, called indifferently “the wilderness of Shut” (Exo 15:22), and “the wilderness of Etham” (Num 33:8), to a place called Marah. It is generally supposed that the first halt must have been at Ayun Musa, or “the springs of Moses.” This is “the only green spot near the passage over the Red Sea” (Cook). It possesses at present seventeen wells, and is an oasis of grass and tamarisk in the midst of a sandy desert. When Wellsted visited it in 1836, there were abundant palm-trees. It does not lie on the shore, but at the distance of about a mile and a half from the beach, with which it was at one time connected by an aqueduct, built for the convenience of the ships, which here took in their water. The water is regarded as good and wholesome, though dark-coloured and somewhat brackish. From Ayun Musa the Israelites pursued their way in a direction a little east of south through a barren plain where sand-storms are frequentpart of the wilderness of Shurfor three days without finding water. Here their flocks and herds must have suffered greatly, and many of the animals probably died on the journey. On the last of the three days water was found at a spot called thenceforth “Marah,” “bitterness,” because the liquid was undrinkable. After the miracle related in Exo 15:25, and an encampment by the side of the sweetened spring (Num 33:8), they proceeded onward without much change of direction to Elim, where was abundance of good water and a grove of seventy palm-trees. Here “they encamped by the waters,” and were allowed a rest, which probably exceeded a fortnight (See the comment on Exo 16:1.)
Exo 15:22
So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. There is no such connection between this verse and the preceding narrative as the word “so” expresses. Translate “And Moses brought.” The wilderness of Shur, called also that of Etham (Num 33:1-56.8) appears to have extended from Lake Serbonis on the north, across the isthmus, to the Red Sea, and along its eastern shores as far as the Wady Ghurundel. It is almost wholly waterless; and towards the south, such wells as exist yield a water that is bitter in the extreme. Three days. The distance from Ayun Musa to Ain Howarah, the supposed representative of Marah, is not more than about 36 miles; but the day’s march of so large a multitude through the desert may not have averaged more than twelve miles. And found no water. No doubt the Israelites carried with them upon the backs of their asses water in skins, sufficient for their earn wants during such an interval; but they can scarcely have carried enough for their cattle. These must have suffered greatly.
Exo 15:23
And when they came to Marah. It is not clear whether the place already bore the name on the arrival of the Israelites, or only received it from them. Marah would mean “bitter” in Arabic no less than in Hebrew. The identification of Marah with the present Ain Howarah, in which most modem writers acquiesce, is uncertain from the fact that there are several bitter springs in the vicinityone of them even bitterer than Howarah. We may, however, feel confident that the bitter waters of which the Israelites “would not drink” were in this neighbourhood, a little north of the Wady Ghurundel.
Exo 15:24
And the people murmured against Moses. As they had already done on the western shores of the Red Sea (Exo 14:11, Exo 14:12), and as they were about to do so often before their wanderings were over. (See below, Exo 16:2; Exo 17:3; Num 14:2; Num 16:41; Deu 1:27, etc.) “Murmuring” was the common mode in which they vented their spleen, when anything went ill with them; and as Moses had persuaded them to quit Egypt, the murmuring was chiefly against him. The men who serve a nation best are during their lifetime least appreciated. What shall we drink? Few disappointments are harder to bear than that of the man, who after long hours of thirst thinks that he has obtained wherewith to quench his intolerable longing, and on raising the cup to his lips, finds the draught so nauseous that he cannot swallow it. Very unpalatable water is swallowed when the thirst is great. But there is a limit beyond which nature will not go. There “may be water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink.”
Exo 15:25, Exo 15:26
The Lord shewed him a tree.Several trees or plants belonging to different parts of the world, are said to possess the quality of rendering bitter water sweet and agreeable; as the nellimaram of Coromandel, the sassafras of Florida, the yerva Caniani of Peru, and the perru nelli (Phylanthus emblica) of India. But none of them is found in the Sinaitic. peninsula. Burckhardt suggested that the berries of the ghurkud (Peganum retusum), a low thorny shrub which grows abundantly round the Ain Howarah, may have been used by Moses to sweeten the drink; but there are three objections to this.
1. Moses is not said to have used the berries, but the entire plant;
2. The berries would not have been procurable in April, since they do not ripen till June; and
3. They would not have produced any such effect on the water as Burckhardt imagined. In fact there is no tree or shrub now growing in the Sinaitic peninsula, which would have any sensible effect on such water as that of Ain Howarah; and the Bedouins of the neighbourhood know of no means by which it can be made drinkable. Many of the Fathers believed that the “tree” had no natural effect, and was commanded to be thrown in merely to symbolise the purifying power of the Cross of Christ. But to moderns such a view appears to savour of mysticism. It is perhaps most probable that there was some tree or shrub in the vicinity of the bitter fountain in Moses’ time which had a natural purifying and sweetening power, but that it has now become extinct. If this be the case, the miracle consisted in God’s pointing out the tree to Moses, who had no previous knowledge of it. The waters were made sweet. Compare the miracle of Elisha (2Ki 2:19-22). There he made for them a statute and an ordinance. See the next verse. God, it appears, after healing the water, and satisfying the physical thirst of his people, gave them an ordinance, which he connected by a promise with the miracle. If they would henceforth render strict obedience to all his commandments, then he would “heal” them as he had healed the water, would keep them free at once from physical and from moral evil, from the diseases of Egypt, and the diseases of their own hearts. And there he proved them. From the moment of their quitting Egypt to that of their entering Canaan, God was ever “proving” his peopletrying them, that isexercising their faith, and patience and obedience and power of self-denial, in order to fit them for the position which they were to occupy in Canaan. He had proved them at the Red Sea, when he let them be shut in between the water and the host of the Egyptianshe proved them now at Marah by a bitter disappointmenthe proved them again at Meribah (Exo 17:1-7); at Sinai (Exo 20:20); at Taberah (Num 11:1-3); at Kibroth-hattaavah (Num 11:34); at Kadesh (Num 13:26-33), and elsewhere. For forty years he led them through the wilderness” to prove them, to know what was in their heart” (Deu 8:1-20.), to fit them for their glorious and conquering career in the land of promise All these diseases. See Deu 7:15; Deu 28:27. Kalisch correctly observes that, though the Egyptians had the character in antiquity of being among the healthiest and most robust of nations (Herod. 2.77), yet a certain small number of diseases have always raged among them with extreme severity He understands the present passage of the plagues, which, however, are certainly nowhere else called “diseases.” There is no reason why the word should not be taken literally, as all take it in the passages of Deuteronomy above cited.
Exo 15:27
They came to Elim. Elim was undoubtedly some spot in the comparatively fertile tract which lies south of the “wilderness of Shur,” intervening between it and the “wilderness of Sin”now E1 Murkha. This tract contains the three fertile wadys of Ghurundel, Useit, and Tayibeh, each of which is regarded by some writers as the true Elim. It has many springs of water, abundant tamarisks, and a certain number of palm-trees. On the whole, Ghurundel seems to be accepted by the majority of well-informed writers as having the best claim to be considered the Elhn of this passage Twelve wells. Rather “springs.” The “twelve springs” have not been identified; but the Arabs are apt to conceal the sources of their water supplies. A large stream flows down the Wady Ghurundel in the winter-time (ibid.), which later becomes a small brook, and dries up altogether in the autumn. The pasture is good at most seasons, sometimes rich and luxuriant; there are abundant tamarisks, a considerable number of acacias, and. some palms. Three score and ten palm trees. The palm-trees of this part of Arabia are “not like those of Egypt or of pictures, but either dwarfthat is, truntdessor else with savage hairy trunks, and branches all dishevelled”. There are a considerable number in the Wady Ghurundel, and others in the Wady Tayibeh. They encamped there. It has been observed that the vast numbers of the host would more than fill the Wady Ghurundel, and that while the main body encamped there, others, with their cattle, probably occupied the adjacent wadysUseit, Ethal, and even Tayibeh or Shuweikahwhich all offer good pasturage
HOMILETICS
Exo 15:23-27
The trials and vicissitudes of life.
Israel in the wilderness is a type of our pilgrimage through life.
I. MONOTONY. The long weary sameness of days each exactly resembling the last (Exo 15:22)the desert all around usand no water! No refreshing draughts from that living spring, which becomes in them that drink it “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Joh 4:14). Israel was afflicted by want of earthly water for three days. Many poor pilgrims through the wilderness of life are debarred the spiritual draughts of which Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman for twenty, thirty, forty years] Debarred, it may be, by no fault of their own, born in heathenism, bred up in heathenism, uneducated in what it most concerns a man to know. How sad their condition! How thankful those should be who may draw of the water of life freely
(a) from the written word;
(b) from the Living and Eternal Word who has said”if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink!”
II. DISAPPOINTMENT. Hopes long cherished seem about, at last, to be satisfied. The long sought for treasureof whatever kind it may beis announced as found. Now we are about to enjoy ourselves, to take our fill of the delight long denied us. Alas! the dainty morsel as we taste it proves to be
“As Dead Sea fruit, which, fair to view,
Yet turns to ashes on the lips.”
The delicious draught, as we expected it to be, is “Marah,” “bitterness.” Most of life is to most men made up of such disappointments. Men crave happiness, and expect it here, and seek it through some earthly, some temporal meanswealth, or power, or fame, or a peaceful domestic life, or social success, or literary eminenceand no sooner do they obtain their desire, and hold it in their grasp, than they find its savour goneits taste so bitter that they do not care to drink. Then, how often do they turn to vent the anguish of their heart on some quite innocent person, who, they say, has led them wrong! Their disappointment should take them with humbled spirits to God. It actually takes them with furious words to the presence of some man, whom it is a relief to them to load with abuse and obloquy. They imitate the Israelites, not Mosesthey murmur, instead of crying to the Almighty.
III. UNEXPECTED RELIEF. God can turn bitter to sweet. Often, out of the bitter agony of disappointment God makes gladness to arise. Sometimes, as in the miracle of Marah, he reverses the disappointment itself, turning defeat into victory, giving us the gratification of the desire which had been baulked of fruition. But more often he relieves by compensating. He gives something unexpected instead of the expected joy which he has withheld, lie makes a temporal evil work for our spiritual good. He takes away the sting from worldly loss, by pouring into our hearts the spirit of contentment. lie causes ill-success to wean us from the world and fix our thoughts on him.
IV. A TIME OF REFRESHMENT. Marah led to Elim. If there are times of severe trial in life, there are also “times of refreshing from the Lord” (Act 3:19)times of enjoymenteven times of mirth (Ecc 3:4; Psa 126:2). But lately toiling wearily through an arid wilderness, only to reach waters of bitterness, on a sudden the Israelites found themselves amid groves of palms, stretched themselves at length on the soft herbage under the shadow of tall trees, and listened to the breeze sighing through the acacias, or to the murmur of the babbling rill which flowed from the “twelve springs” adown the dale. ‘Encamped there by the waters” (Exo 15:27) they were allowed to rest for a while, secure from foes, screened from the heat, their eyes charmed by the verdure, their ears soothed by gentle sounds, their every sense lapped in soft enjoyment by the charms of a scene which, after the wilderness, must have appeared “altogether lovely.” And so it is in our lives. God does give us, even here in this world, seasons of repose, of satisfaction, of calm content. It were ingratitude in us not to accept with thankfulness such occasions when they arise, lie knows what is best for us; and if he appoints us an Elim, we were churlish to withdraw ourselves from it. The Church has its festivals. Christ attended more than one banquet. “Times of refreshing” are to be received joyously, gratefully, as “coming from the Lord,” and designed by him to support, strengthen, comfort us. They are, as it were, glimpses into the future life.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 15:22-27
Marah and Ellim.
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, anti they went out into the wilderness of Shur,” etc. The main topics here are
I. THE SWEET FOLLOWED BY THE BITTER. Singing these songs of triumph, and praising God with timbrel and dance, on the further shores of the Red Sea, the Israelites may have felt as if nothing remained to them but to sing and dance the rest of their way to Canaan. They would regard their trials as practically at an end. It would be with regret that they broke up their pleasant encampment at the Red Sea at all. Their thought would be, “It is good for us to be here, let us make here tabernacles” (cf. Mat 17:4). But this was not to be permitted. The old call comes”Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward” (Exo 14:15), and the halcyon days of their first great exuberant joy are over. Their celebration of triumph is soon to be followed by sharp experience of privation.
1. The Israelites were conducted by the wilderness of Shur. There they went three days without water. God might, as afterwards at Rephidim (Exo 17:6), have given them water; but it was his will that they should taste the painfulness of the way. This is not an uncommon experience. Every life has its arid, waterless stretches, which may be compared to this “wilderness of Shur” “There are moments when the poet, the orator, the thinker, possessed, inspired with lofty and burning thoughts, needs nothing added to the riches of his existence; finds life glorious and sublime. But these are but moments, even in the life of genius; and after them, and around them, stretches the weary waste of uninspired, inglorious, untimeful days and years” (Dr. J. Service). It is the same in the life of religion. Seasons of spiritual enjoyment are frequently followed by sharp experience of trial. We are led by the wilderness of Shur. Spiritual comforts fail us, and our soul, like Israel’s at a later period, is “much discouraged because of the way” (Num 21:4). We are brought into “a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Psa 63:1). A certain sovereignty is to be recognised in the dispensation of Divine comforts. God leaves us to taste the sharpness of privation, that we may be led to cry after him (Psa 119:81, Psa 119:82).
2. They came to Marah, where the waters were bitter. This was a keen and poignant disappointment to them”sorrow upon sorrow.” As usual, it drove the people to murmuring, and Moses to prayer. Bear gently with their infirmity. Do them the justice of remembering that there is no record of their murmuring during the three past days of their great privation in the wilderness. It was this disappointment at the well of Marah which fairly broke them down. Would many of us have borne the trial better? It is easy to sing when the heart is full of a great fresh joy. But let trial succeed trial, and disappointment follow on disappointment, and how soon do the accents of praise die away, to be replaced by moaning and complaint! The “Song of Moses,” which was so natural on the banks of the Red Sea, would have had a strange sound coming from these dust-parched throats, and fainting, discouraged hearts. The note of triumph is not easily sustained when the body is sinking with fatigue, and when the wells to which we had looked for refreshment are discovered to be bitter. Take Marah as an emblem
(1) Of life‘s disappointments. Our life-journey is studded with disappointments. Hard to bear in any case, these are doubly bitter to us, when they come on the back of other trials, and cheat us of an expected solace. When friends, e.g; turn their backs on us in time of need, or come with cold comfort when we expected ready help, or give chiding instead of sympathy; when trusted projects fail, or fond anticipations are not realised; most of all, when God himself seems to desert us, and grants no answer to our prayers; the waters given us to drink are bitter indeed.
(2) Of life‘s bitter experiences generally. “Call me not Naomi,” said the mother-in-law of Ruth, “call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (Rth 1:20). The only wells that never become bitter are the “wells of salvation” (Isa 12:3)the waters of Divine consolations (cf. Joh 4:14). The waters of our creature-comforts admit of being very easily embittered. Relationships, friendships, possessions, business, social positionsweet to-day, any or all of these may be made bitter to us to-morrow. The life of Israel was made “bitter” by bondage (Exo 1:14). God dealt “bitterly” with Naomi in taking husband and sons from her, and reducing her to poverty (Rth 1:21). Hannah was “in bitterness of soul” because she had no child, and “her adversary provoked her sore, for to make her fret” (1Sa 1:6-10). Job was embittered by his afflictions (Job 7:11; Job 9:18; Job 10:1). The tears of the Psalmist were his meat day and night, while they continually said unto him, where is thy God? (Psa 42:3). Mordecai cried, when the decree went forth against his nation, “with a loud and bitter cry” (Est 4:1). Bitter waters there are, too, in our own hearts, and in society, engendered by sinby the presence of envy, jealousy, strife, hatred, malignity, and revengefulness. No scarcity, then, of Marah experiences, no want of wells that stand in need of the healing tree being cast in to sweeten them.
3. God‘s ends in permitting Israel to suffer these severe privations. We do not ask why God led the Israelites by this particular way, since probably there was no other way open by which they could have been led. But we may very well ask why, leading them by this way, God, who had it in his power to supply their wants, permitted them to suffer these extreme hardships?
(1) We may glean one hint in reply from Paul’s experience in 2Co 12:1-21; “Lest,” he says, “I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2Co 12:7).
(2) A second hint is to be drawn from verse 25″There he proved them” Cf. Deu 8:2“To humble thee, and prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” We do not know what unbelief, what rebellion, what impatience there is in our hearts, till trial comes to draw it out.
II. THE BITTER CHANGED INTO THE SWEET. Moses, we read, “cried unto the Lord, and he showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet” (verse 25). Observe,
1. The agency employed. The tree had probably some peculiar properties which tended in the direction of the result which was produced, though, of itself, it was incompetent to produce it. The supernatural does not, as a rule, contravene the natural, but works along the existing lines, utilising the natural so far as it goes.
2. The spiritual meaning. That God intended the healing of these bitter waters to be a “sign” to Israela proof of his ability and willingness to heal them of all their natural and spiritual diseases, is abundantly plain from verses 25, 26. The lesson God would have them learn from the incident was”I am Jehovah that healeth thee.” His Jehovah character guaranteed that what he had shown himself to be in this one instance, he would be always, viz; a Healer. As Jehovah, God is the Being of exhaustless resource. As Jehovah, he is the Being eternally identical with himselfself-consistent in all his ways of acting; so that from any one of his actions, if the principle of it can but be clearly apprehended, we are safe in inferring what he always will do. God sweetens, or heals, the bitter waters of life
(1) By altering the outward conditionse.g; by removing sickness, sending aid in poverty, taking away the cause of bitterness, whatever that may be. He healed Naomi’s bitterness by the happy marriage of Ruth (Rth 4:14, Rth 4:15); Hannah’s by giving her a son (1Sa 1:20); Job’s by restoring his health and prosperity (Job 47:10), etc. The tree here is whatever agency God employs to accomplish his purpose.
(2) And this is the diviner art, by infusing sweetness into the trial itself. He makes that which is bitter sweet to us, by adding himself to it. This Divine change in our experiences is accomplished by means of a very simple but potent secretas simple as the casting of the tree into the waters, as potent in its efficacy. Would we know it? It is simply thisdenying our own natural will, and taking God’s instead. “Not my will but thine be done” (Luk 22:42). This it is which will make even the bitterest of trials sweet. Call it, if you will, the taking up of the cross; it is, at all events, the spirit of the cross which is the sweetening, heavenly element in all afflictionthe tree that heals. It is invaluable to bear this in mind, that be our trial, our grief, what it may, half its pain has departed the moment we can bring ourselves to embrace God’s will in it. Heavenly consolations will sweeten what remains. Mediaeval mystics, like Tauler, dwelt much on this thought, and it is the true and all-important element in their teaching. With God at hand to bless, “Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;” or as another “sweet singer” expresses it
“Just to let thy rather do
What he will.
Just to know that he is true,
And be still.
Just to let him take the care,
Sorely pressing,
Finding all we let him bear
Changed to blessing.
This is all! and yet the way,
Marked by him who loves thee best!
Secret of a happy day,
Secret of his promised rest.”
FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.
(3) By removing the cause of all evil and bitternesssin itself. It is as the God of Redemption that Jehovah reveals himself pre-eminently as the Healer. His Gospel goes to the root of the matter, and strikes at the malum originale of the bitterness in us, and around us. From this point of view, it is not fanciful to trace an analogywe need not allege a direct typical relationbetween this tree cast in to sweeten the bitter waters, and the Cross of the Redeemer. God through Christ; Christ through what he has accomplished by this Cross; the Cross, by being made the object of faith, and again, by being set up in men’s hearts, effects this sweetening of the waters. We have but to compare ancient with modern civilization, to see how much the Cross of Christ, cast into the bitter waters of society, has already done to sweeten them. Trusted in for salvation, it renews the heart in its inmost springs, and so heals the bitter waters there; while, as the power of God unto salvation, it will ultimately heal the world of all its woes, abolishing even death, from which already it extracts the sting and bitterness.
III. THE RIGHT IMPROVEMENT OF MARAH EXPERIENCES (verse 26). We should accept them,
1. As a motive to obedience. If God has healed us that is a new reason for loving, trusting, and obeying him (Psa 116:1-19.). Accordingly, consequent on this healing of the bitter waters, God made “a statute and an ordinance” for Israel, taking them bound to serve him, and promising them new blessings, if they should prove obedient, This “statute and ordinance” is the comprehensive germ of the subsequent covenant (Exo 24:3-9).
2. As a pledge. The sweetening of the waters, as already seen, was a revelation of Jehovah in his character as Healer. It pledged to Israel that he would, if only they obeyed his statutes, exempt them from such plagues as he had brought upon the Egyptians, and, by implication, that he would heal them of whatever diseases were already upon them. He would be a God of health to them. The healthy condition of body is one which not only throws off existing disease, but which fortifies the body against attacks of disease from without. Natural healing, as we see in the New Testament, and especially in the miracles of Christ, is a symbol of spiritual healing, and also a pledge of it. In the gospels, “to be saved,” and “to be made whole,” are represented by the same Greek word. We may state the relation thus:
(1) Natural healing is the symbol of spiritual healing.
(2) Spiritual healing, in turn, is a pledge of the ultimate removal of all natural evils (Rev 21:4).
(3) Each separate experience of healing is a pledge of the whole. It is a fresh testimony to the truth that God is a healer (cf. Psa 103:1-4). Every recovery from sickness is thus, in a way, the preaching of a gospel. It pledges a complete and perfect healingentire deliverance from natural and spiritual evilsif only we will believe, obey, and use God’s method.
IV. ELIM (verse 27).
1. An illustration of the chequered experiences of life. The alternation of gladness and sorrow; of smiles and tears; followed again by new comforts and seasons of joy.
2. There are Elim spotsplaces of cool shade, of abundant waters, of rest and refreshment provided for us all along our way through life. In the times of hottest persecution, there were intervals of respite. The Covenanters used to speak of these as “the blinks.”
3. These Elim-spots should not lead us to forget that we are still in the wilderness. The prevailing aspect of life, especially to one in earnest, is figured by the wilderness, rather than by Elim. Our state here is one of trial, of discipline, of probationno passing snatches of enjoyment should cause us to forget this.J.O.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exo 15:22-27
The want of water and the want of faith-Marah and Elim.
It will be noticed at once how the interest of this passage is gathered round that great natural necessity, water. It is a necessity to man in so many ways. He needs it for drinking, for cleansing, for cooking, and for helping to renew the face of the earth. We may note also that Israel was soon to discover the necessity of water in ceremonial duties. A great deal of water had to be used in the tabernacle service. (Exo 29:4; Exo 30:18-21; Le Exo 6:27, Exo 6:28; chaps, 13-17.) Hence it is no wonder that the very first thing Jehovah does after delivering the Israelites finally from Pharaoh, is to bring them face to face with this great want of water. We see them passing in a short time through a great variety of experiences with regard to it. First, they go three days in the wilderness and find no water; next they come to the waters of Marah and find them undrinkable; then these waters are suddenly made sweet; and lastly, they journey on to the abundant supplies, and therefore inviting neighbourhood of Elim.
I. THE ISRAELITES EXPERIENCE THE WANT OF WATER, There is here a curious contrast between the fate of the Egyptians and the want of the Israelites. Water proved the ruin of Pharaoh and his host, while the want of water led Israel rapidly into murmuring and unbelief. Thus we have another illustration of how temporal thingseven the very necessities of life from a natural point of vieware only blessings as God makes them so. He can turn them very rapidly and easily into curses. We call to mind the grotesque words of Laertes over his drowned sister:”Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia.” So the Egyptians had too much of water, and the Israelites could not get any at all. God was immediately beginning to teach and test his own people according to the explanation of Moses in Exo 15:25, Exo 15:26. They were to learn faith in Jehovah for support as well as deliverance; and the first lesson was to be taught by a three days’ deprivation of water. If they had had the believing spirit in them this was an opportunity to say, “Assuredly such an awful deliverance has not been wrought that we may straightway perish of thirst.” Notice also how the reality of the wilderness life is at once brought before us by these three days of waterless wandering. So short a time had they been out of Egypt, and so little distance had they got away; and yet they are as it were in the very worst of wilderness experiences. Thus even the moment they became effectually clear of the external bondage of Egypt, the truth was impressed upon them that they were without a home. There was no swift exchange from one storehouse of temporal comforts to another. For remember, Egypt with all its misery was a sort of home; there the Israelites had been born and trained; there they had got into a bondage of habits and traditions which was not to he removed in a day. And now Jehovah would have them understand that to be free and able to serve him meant that they must endure with these privileges the privations of the wilderness. We cannot have everything good all at once. If we would be clear of the bondage of this world’s carnal ways, we must be ready for certain consequent and immediate privations. We cannot get away from Egypt and yet take with us the pleasant waters of Egypt. Unless our springs be in God, and heaven begun in the heart, the needful change of external associations may bring little but pain. External circumstances, and to some extent external companionships, may remain the same; the new home feeling must be produced by the change within.
II. WHEN THE ISRAELITES FIND WATER IT IS BITTER. Imagine, when they see the water after three days privation, how they run to it. But taste does not confirm sight. The water is not drinkable. Possibly this was a just complaint; although it may rather be suspected that the water, even if bitter, was not so bitter but that it could have been drunk by thirsty people. The Israelites, however, were thinking of the sweet waters of Egypt. A little longer privation and they might have found sweetness even in bitter waters. Still one cannot but consider how it is there should be this difference between the bitter waters and the sweet, between Marah and Elim. And then we are at once reminded that bitterness is no essential part of water, but comes from foreign and separable matters. So the comforts and resources flowing from God get mixed on the way with human and embittering elements, and these elements are so strong and disturbing that we utterly forget the sweet Divine part because of the discomforts of the bitter human one. We are ready to cast all away as if the nauseous could not be expelled. When Jesus told his disciples certain things which required a changed mind, and the creation of spiritual perceptivity in order to lay them to heart, they called these things hard sayings; not considering that hardness might be made easiness. In our early experiences of religion there is sure to be something of the bitter. The exhortation, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” is a serious and experimental one, yet many on their tasting find bitterness. The water of life has flowed through nauseating channels. Moses had his Marah: he got a taste of it even here, and he had full draughts afterwards. (Exo 32:19; Num 11:10-15; Num 12:1; Num 14:5; Num 16:3.) David also had his Marah. (Psa 42:3; Psa 80:5; Psa 102:9.) One can see a good deal of Marah even in the letters of the Christian Paul to his brethren in Corinth and Galatia. He had expected great things from the gifts of the Spirit, and correspondingly bitter would be his disappointment. We must have our Marah water to drink. Water may fail altogether for a while, and then when it does come it may seem worse than none at all.
III. GOD QUICKLY MAKES THE WATER PALATABLE. Note the request of the people. They do not stop to consider even for a moment whether this water, bitter as it is, may be made palatable. They turn from the whole thing in disgust and despair. “What shall we drink?” If Moses had straightway replied, “Ye shall drink of Marah,” they would have counted him a mocker; yet his reply would have been correct. In the very things from which we turn as obviously useless, we may be destined to find an ample and satisfying supply. Moses himself knew not at the moment what they were to drink, but he takes the wise course and cries to Jehovah. More and more does his now habitual faith come out in contrast with the unbelief of the people. With regard to the casting in of the tree, it may have been that the tree had in itself some salutary effect; but the probability rather is that Moses was asked for another pure act of faith. This is more in harmony with the miraculous progression observed hitherto. When we remember the multitude that had to be supplied from these waters, there is something ludicrously inadequate in the supposition that the branches gathered to themselves the saline incrustations. The casting in of the tree was rather a symbolic channel for the sweetening than the actual cause of it.
IV. GOD SEIZES THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW ISRAEL WHEREIN THEIR SAFETY LIES. “He proved them” (verse 25). He points out, as it were, that they have been subjected to a test and have failed. At Marah they are shown forth as inattentive to past experiences, forgetful as to how God had remembered them and delivered them. Being now free from the bondage of Egypt, they must no longer blame outward constraints, but look earnestly on inward defects, for these are about to prove their greatest hindrance and danger. Yet this was not a time to speak sternly, even though unbelief had put forth its baleful front; they were but at the beginning of the journey, and gentle admonition was more proper than stern reproach. Therefore he counsels them
1. To listen steadily to his voice;
2. To make his will, as expressing most clearly that which is right, the rule of their conduct;
3. To carry out all his commandments and statutes, some of the most important of which had already been laid before them in connection with their departure from Egypt. Let them attend to all this, and they will be free from Egypt’s calamities. Notice the negative aspect of this promise. God promises exemption from suffering rather than attainment of good. It was well thus to make Israel give a backward look, not only towards the Red Sea, but across it, and into Egypt, where so many troubles had come on their recent oppressors. It would almost seem as if already the hearts of many were filling with the expectation of carnal comforts. They were thinking, eagerly and greedily, of what they were to get. But God speaks out very plainly. He demands obedience; and the most he has to say is that if obedience is given, there will be exemption from suffering. The positive element is left out, and doubtless there is wisdom in the omission. That element will come in due time. Yet of course it is there even now, for the devout and discerning, who can penetrate below the surface. The keeping of Jehovah’s commandments is, infallibly, the attaining of the highest and purest blessedness.
V. AFTER MARAH HAS DONE ITS WORK, THE ISRAELITES COME TO ELIM. The pillar of cloud doubtless led them to Marah purposely before Elim, and to Elim purposely after Marah. Thus the people got a rest before coming to another trial of their faith and submissiveness; God did not take them straight from the difficulty with regard to the water to the next difficulty with regard to the bread. It is easy to understand that there were many attractions at Elim which would make them wish to linger there; but at Elim they could not stay. It had water in abundance; but water, great blessing as it is, is not enough. Pleasant it was to rest for awhile at these wells and seventy palm-trees; but before them lay a still better land where they would have, not only brooks of water and fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, but also wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; and all the rest of the good things mentioned in Deu 8:7-9. The great lesson of Elim is that we must not make a resting-place, however attractive, into a home.Y.
HOMILIES BY G. A. GOODHART
Exo 15:22-27
I will hear what God, the Lord, will say.
There is no reason why a powerful sermon should not be preached from a seemingly strange text. All depends on how the text is treated. God himself is the greatest of all preachers. See what sort of a sermon he preached from a text which most would have thought unpromising.
I. THE TEXT (Exo 15:22-25).
1. What it was. Israel three days without water; at length “a large mound, a whitish petrifaction,” from which flowed a fountain. Eagerness followed by disgust. The water bitter, loathsome, undrinkable. “Marah.” The people murmured against their leader. A bitter fountain and an embittered murmuring people. Such the text.
2. How treated. The text was improved by applying to it the context. Many other texts might be best improved in like manner. “The Lord showed him a tree,” etc. (Exo 15:25). Clearly somewhere close at hand. The bitter waters made sweet. Discontent changed to satisfaction.
II. THE SERMON (Exo 15:25, Exo 15:26). Israelites too much like the bitter water. When God looked to refresh himself by their confidence and gratitude, he was met by murmuring and distrust. They, too, must learn not to fix attention wholly on disagreeables, hut to take the bitter out of them by considering the never-absent context. God himself is the context to every incident which could befall them, but they must apply his help by obedience and simple trust. Obey him and no bitter, in the heart or out of it, but his presence would sweeten. “I am the Lord that healeth thee,” even as I have healed the waters. Notice:
1. The sermon does not dwell upon the text, though it springs out of it quite naturally. Exceedingly plain and simple, so that a child can understand it.
2. The text (the ordinance) illustrates the sermon (the statute). Yet the illustration is not forced; not even strongly emphasized; just allowed to speak for itself. Some preachers make so much of an illustration, that that which it illustrates is forgotten. [You may drive a brass-headed nail so “home,” that while it is fixed nothing will hang upon it.]
III. A RETREAT FOR MEDITATION AFTERWARDS (Exo 15:27). Some excellent sermons are forgotten directly in the hurry and bustle that succeeds them. To gain by sermons we must recollect them; and to recollect them we must have time and place for recollectedness. This God gave to the Israelites at Elim; yet, even so, they failed to profit by it. Had they used their time for meditation better, much after trouble, caused by forgetfulness, would have been saved.
Application. “A sermon for preachers!” Yes, but a sermon for people also. If God’s sermons can be so soon forgotten, even when he gives time for pondering them, how much sooner those we preach! Everything does not rest with the preacher. If the people will not take pains to rememberto ponder, meditate, inwardly digestthe best of preachers, even God himself, may preach home to them, and the result be nil.G.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
Exo 15:22-27
Trial and Blessing.
I. THE CLOUD AND SUNSHINE OF THE PILGRIM LIFE. The weariness of the wilderness journey, the disappointment of Marah, and the comforts of Elim, all lie along the appointed way.
II. A HEAVY TRIAL BADLY BORNE. The wilderness thirst had been endured without a murmur; but when in addition they were mocked by the bitter springs of Marah their spirit broke.
1. The end of a prayerless faith is soon reached. If we have not learned to cast burdens upon God and to wait upon him, but expect him to fill our life with ease and pleasure, we shall soon be offended.
2. A spirit with such a faith speedily turns away from God and breaks into complaint against man.
III. FAITH‘S TRIUMPH IN DIFFICULTY (25).
1. Moses “cried unto the Lord.” The need of the time was rightly read. It was a call to prayer. In times of difficulty and reproach our first recourse should be to God.
2. In answer to believing prayer the bitter waters are sweetened, and the soul finds God in the gift as without the previous disappointment he could not be manifested.
IV. GOD‘S COVENANT TIME.
1. In the full experience of his mercy. We must know God’s love in Christ before his covenant of service and blessing can be made with us.
2. In the midst of self-knowledge and repentance. At the sweetened waters the faithless ones knew themselves and were ashamed.
3. The nature of the covenant. If they cleave to and serve him, there may be affliction, but there shall be no judgment.
4. How God will be known in Israel. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Note:When God’s goodness has rebuked our unbelief, he means us to listen to the assurance of his love and to renew our vows.U.
HOMILIES BY H. T. ROBJOHNS
Exo 15:22-26
The well of bitterness.
“For I am Jehovah that healeth thee” (Exo 15:26). A new chapter of history now opens, that of the wandering; it comprises the following passages.
1. Two months to Sinai.
2. Eleven months at Sinai.
3. Thirty-eight years of virtual settling down in the wilderness of Paran.
4. March upon Canaan in the last year.
Introductory to this sermon give description of the journey from the sea to Marah, keeping prominent these points, the first camp probably at “The Wells of Moses,” the road thence varying from ten to twenty miles wide, the sea on the right, the wall-looking line of mountain on the left for nearly all the waythis the wilderness of “Shur,” i.e; of “the wall.” There may indeed have been a city called “Shur,” but the wall of mountain may have given name both to city and desert. (On the line of the Roman wall in Northumberland is a village “Wall.”) The route here quite unmistakable. More than forty miles. No water. The modern caravan road marked by bleached camel bones. Num 33:8, gives the impression of a forced march. At length Marah, to-day a solitary spring of bitter water with stunted palm-tree beside it. Here too is the place to point out, that Israel’s wanderings are not so much allegorical, but tautegorical. The phenomena of spiritual life and those of Israel’s desert history are net so much two sets of thingsone pictorial the other real, but one and the same. This truth lies at the base of all successful practical homiletic treatment.
I. MAN MAY NOT LIVE IN THE PAST. “And Moses brought [forced away] Israel from the Red Sea.” Note:
1. Henceforth Moses is supreme leader. Aaron and Miriam sink to subordinate places. Besides these, the entourage of Moses consists of Hut, Miriam’s husband; Jethro for guide; and Joshua, a sort of body servant. All over the desert are names witnessing to this hour to the sole supremacy of Moses.
2. Divine Guidance did not impair his individuality. Inspiration and the “Cloud and Fire” did not so lead as to leave no room for the exercise of judgment or the spontaneity of consecrated genius. Lesson:God does not crush individuality, but develops it into fulness and power.
3. Moses brought Israel quickly from proximity to Egypt, and even from the scene of victory. [See Hebrews verb, to cause the camp to remove.] The last cadences of the song, the last sound of dancing had hardly died away; Miriam’s timbrel was scarcely out of her hand, before “Forward!” Out of this, two lessons. Leave behind:
1. The memory of Egypt; of old sins, of old sorrows.
2. The memory of victory. As in common life, so in spiritual, e.g; the schoolboy. (John Singleton Copley, a painter’s son, had for motto “Ultra pergere,” and became Lord Lyndhurst.) Graduate at University. Young tradesman. So with things spiritual, each victory the point of a new departure, even with the aged. “Christian progress by oblivion of the past.” Php 3:13, Php 3:14.
II. FIRST STAGES IN NEW CHAPTERS OF LIFE‘S HISTORY ARE TEDIOUS. Look here at:
1. The experience of Israel. They had left behind many sights, they, even though slaves, would greatly miss; the Nile and its green line of fertility; cities in all their splendour; life in all its rich variety. Now, the hardship and silence of the desert, only trumpet-broken at morn and eve. And this first stage was terrible. Nothing so bad as this further onfurther on oases, wells, filmy streams, tamarisk, palm, mountain shadows, and even cultivated regions. Excitement perhaps of the first day, the experience novel, the sea in view; but on the second and third, plodding, fainting, and disgust.
2. The present reality. So is it with all new chapters in life; the first steps are tedious, e.g; child going to school; boy to college; first steps in business; so with every serious break-up and change in life’s pilgrimage. The first steps are arduous. And so too is spiritual lifeto break with sin, to stand ridicule, to keep advancing in spite of comparative ignorance, etc.
3. The temptation. Many fail to stand it. Young men yield and go back to the fleshpots of Egyptloneliness with duty and God does not suit them. If we can march from the sea to Marah, all may be well.
4. The encouragement. To say nothing of truths like these, that the way was right, the guidance sufficient, the land of Promise was before them; there was a nearer benediction. “The far horizon in front was bounded, not by a line of level sand, but by sharp mountain summits, tossing their peaks into the sky in wild disorder, and suggesting irresistibly the thought of torrents and glens, the shadow of great rocks, and groves of palms.” The view was of the range of Sinai, and there Israel was to have nearly a year of high communion with God.
III. DISAPPOINTMENT WAITS US ON OUR WAY. The high-wrought expectation of the people: and lo! the spring is bitter. So with life. So much is this the case, that men of genius have described life as one long illusion. Things are never what they seemed. Neither school nor college, courtship nor marriage, home nor church, business nor pleasure. So much the worse for those who have ideality large.
IV. INTO DISAPPOINTMENT COMES HEALING. All through nature, it is probable, that every poison has its antidote, every evil its corrective, every disappointment its compensation. “Dr. Johnston, in his ‘Chemistry of Common Things,’ explains at length how the bark of a certain tree has power to precipitate the mineral particles, which embitter the waters, and to make them sweet and clear.” Did God “show” this secret thing to Moses? Let every man examine his own life, and he will find by the side of every disappointment a compensating mercy; and more, that out of every such has come a lesson to sweeten life. It is as when (to take the most striking illustration of all) the Saviour came down into human nature, turned to bitterness by sin, and made the bitter sweet.
V. LIFE IS ONE LONG PROBATION. This is a truth illustrated by the journey to, and by the incidents at Marah. There God laid down a Fixed Principle [], and one that was absolutely Righteous. [].
1. Israel was to hear (i.e. believe) and do.
2. And then Jehovah would be to Israel, what the “wood” had been to the water, their Healer.R.
Exo 15:27
Elim.
“And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water,” etc. (Exo 15:27). Describe locality, and point out the great change from Marah, and the miserable preceding three days in the desert. And then note the following suggestions as to the pilgrim path of a human soul.
I. OUR PILGRIMAGE LIES THROUGH EVER–VARIED SCENERY. The changes here are so great that they cannot fail to suggest the corresponding truth, e.g; fear on the west of the Red Sea, deliverance, triumph, three days’ march, disappointment and healing at Marah, Elim.
II. THE SCENERY WILL INCLUDE “ELIMS.” In dark days we believe no bright will dawn, and vice versa]. So the sorrowful must be reminded of Elims to come. Many oases for Israel; so to-day even in Sahara. Our Elims.
1. Lift the mind to their Giver.
2. Are earnests of the Better Land.
III. “ELIMS” ARE THE CREATIONS OF TRUTH. Imagine all the beauty of Elim, and ask, what made it? It was the water that made the Paradise. Now, note the place of water in the economy of nature; as a constituent of the human body, in vegetation; as the chief element in all food, medicine, drink; as the universal solvent and purifier; as an agent in all dyes, gorgeous and homely; as “the eye” in every landscape, etc. It is no wonder then that water in Scripture is so often the emblem of truth, for which the soul thirsts, which is given as “water of life” from the throne of God and the Lamb. Doctrine “distils as the dew.” God “pours clean water upon us that we may be clean.” Note the analogy between truth and water implied in Mat 28:19.. And is it not new discovery of truth at crises in our lives, that make our “Elims”? Not at all anything external to the soul; but internal uncoverings of the goodness, grace and glory of our Heavenly Father, etc; etc. [Develop and illustrate.] Will it be considered fanciful to add, that:
IV. OUR “ELIMS” HAVE AN INDIVIDUAL IMPRESS. “Twelve wells,” as many as tribes of Israel. “Seventy palms,” for the tent of each elder a palm. There is any way a speciality in our Father’s mercies, which marks them as for us, and reveals to us his personal love.
V. THE “ELIMS” OF OUR PILGRIMAGE ARE NOT FAR FROM OUR “MARAHS.” Only some eight or ten miles is that journey of Israel. Then:
1. At Marah let us hope for Elim.
2. From Marah push on for Elim. Never good to lie down and nurse sorrows and disappointments. Push “forward” along the pilgrim path of duty.
3. Marah prepares for the delight of Elim.
VI. “ELIM” IS ONLY FOR ENCAMPMENT. “They encamped there by the waters;” did not dwell, or build a city there.
VII. THE CHANGING SCENERY LEADS TO CANAAN. All the succeeding transformations of life are intended to prepare for the heavenly stability and rest.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
FIFTH SECTION
The journey through the wilderness to Sinai. Want of water. Marah. Elim. The Wilderness of Sin. Quails. Manna. Rephidim (Massah and Meribah). The Amalekites. Jethro and his advice, a human prelude of the divine legislation
Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27
The stations as far as Sinai
1. Marah
Exo 15:22-26
22So [And] Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the [drink the] waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25And he cried unto Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree, which, when he had cast [and he cast it] into the waters, the [and the] waters were made sweet: there he 26made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved [tried] them, And said, If thou wilt diligently [indeed] hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these [the] diseases upon thee, which I have brought [put] upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah that healeth thee.
2. Elim. Exo 15:27
27And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells [fountains] of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
3. The Wilderness of Sin. (The Manna and the Quails.)
Exo 16:1-36
1And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God [Would that] we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and [flesh-pots,] when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with 4hunger. Then said Jehovah [And Jehovah said] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate [a daily portion] every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no [not]. 5And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 6And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then shall ye know that Jehovah hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. 7And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of Jehovah; [since] he heareth your murmurings against Jehovah: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8And Moses said, This shall be, when [And Moses said, Since] Jehovah shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that [since] Jehovah heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him, and [against him,] what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah. 9And Moses spake [said] unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before Jehovah: for he hath heard your murmurings. 10And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the 11glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 12I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God. 13And it came to pass that at even [at even that] the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host [camp]. 14And when the dew that lay [the layer of dew] was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay [the wilderness] a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna [What is this?],7 for they wist [knew] not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the 16bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat [for food]. This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man [a head], according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which [that] are in his tents [tent]. 17And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 18And when they did mete [And they measured] it with an [the] omer, he [and he] that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. 19And Moses said [said unto them], Let no man leave of 20it till the morning. Notwithstanding [But] they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them [and some] left of it until the morning, and it bred worms,8 and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. 21And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. 22And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man [each man]: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23And he said unto them, This is that which Jehovah hath spoken, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath [is a day of rest, a holy sabbath] unto Jehovah: bake that which ye will bake to-day [bake], and seethe [boil] that [that which] ye will seethe [boil]; and that which [all that] remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto Jehovah: to-day ye shall [will] not find it in the field. 26Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the [onthe seventh day is a] sabbath, in [on] it there shall be none. 27And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to [day to] gather, 28and they found none. And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 29See, for that Jehovah hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30So the people rested on the seventh day. 31And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made [like cake] with honey. 32And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah commandeth, Fill an omer of it [An omer full of it] to be kept for [throughout] your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. 33And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot [basket], and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay 34it up before Jehovah, to be kept for [throughout] your generations. As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35And the children of Israel did eat manna [the manna] forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna [the manna], until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. 36Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
4. Rephidim. The place called Massah and Meribah
Exo 17:1-7
Exo 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys [journey by journey], according to the commandment of Jehovah, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the 2people to drink. Wherefore [And] the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt Jehovah? 3And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast [Wherefore hast thou] brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4And Moses cried unto Jehovah, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to [a little more, and they will] 5stone me. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go on [Pass on] before the people, and take with thee of the elders of the people; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine [thy] hand, and go. 6Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that [and] the people may [shall] drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not?
5. Amalek. The dark side of heathenism
Exo 17:8-16
8Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to-morrow I will 10stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine [my] hand. So [And] Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses hands were heavy: and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge 14of the sword. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a [the] book, and rehearse [lit. put] it in the ears of Joshua: for [that] I will utterly put 15[blot] out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an 16altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: For [And] he said, Because Jehovah hath sworn that [For a hand is upon the throne of Jah;9] Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
6. Rephidim and Jethro. The bright side of heathenism
Exo 18:1-27
1When [Now] Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and [how] that Jehovah had brought Israel out 2of Egypt; Then [And] Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses wife, after he had sent her back [after she had been sent away], 3And her two sons; of which [whom] the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien 4[a sojourner] in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine [my] help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: 5And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped [was encamped] at the mount of God: 6And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her. 7And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. 8And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israels sake, and [sake] all the travail [trouble] that had come upon them by the way, and how Jehovah delivered them. 9And Jethro rejoiced for [over] all the goodness [good] which Jehovah had done to Israel whom he had delivered [in that he had delivered them] out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all [all the] gods: for [yea], in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above [dealt proudly against] them. 12And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God. 13And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. 14And when Moses father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? 15And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God: 16When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make 17[I make] them know the statutes of God, and his laws. And Moses father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. 18Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this [the] thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself [able to do it] alone. 19Hearken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel, and God shall be [God be] with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward [before God], that thou mayest bring [and bring thou] the causes [matters] unto God: 20And thou shalt teach [And teach] them ordinances and laws [the statutes and the laws], and shalt shew [and shew] them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. 21Moreover [But] thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness [unjust gain]; and place such over them, to be [as] rulers of thousands, and [thousands,] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: 22And let them judge the people at all seasons [times]: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they [they themselves] shall judge: so shall it be [so make it] easier for thyself, and they shall [let them] bear the burden with thee. 23If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt [wilt] be able to endure, and all this 24people shall also [people also will] go to their place in peace. So [And] Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in-law, and did all that he had said. 25And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26And they judged the people at all seasons [times]: the hard causes [matters] they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 27And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went his way into his own land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo 16:15 . Gesenius and Knobel derive from , to apportion; Frst (Concordance) from the Sanscrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard as the Aramaic equivalent of . Even Frst so renders it in his Illustrirte Pracht-Bibel. Comp. Michaelis, Supplementa ad Lexica Hebraica.Tr.].
[Exo 16:20. And it bred worms: . The Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of defectively written, and therefore to mean: rose up into (or with) worms. Kalisch says, that the form is used instead of to show that it comes from (?) in the sense of putrefy. So Maurer and Ewald (Gr., 281, d). But it is doubtful whether (assumed as the root from which comes worm) really means putrefy at all. Frst defines it by crawl. Moreover, it would be inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna became putrid with worms; the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the putridness. Rosenmller, Frst, Arnheim and others render by swarm, abound, but probably as a free rendering for rose up. De Wette: da wuchsen Wrmer. The A. V. rendering may stand as a substantially correct reproduction of the sense.Tr.].
[Exo 17:16. We have given the most literal rendering of this difficult passage. But possibly , instead of meaning for (or because), may (as often in Greek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient authorities, takes it as an oath; but for this there is little ground. Keil interprets: The hand raised to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Jehovahs war against Amalek, i.e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towards Jehovahs throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: Because a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is against the throne of Jah, therefore Jehovah will forever have war with Amalek. This interpretation has the advantage over Keils of giving a more natural rendering to , which indeed in a few cases does mean up to, but only when it is (as it is not here) connected with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps the majority of modern exegetes) would read (banner), instead of (throne), and interpret: The hand upon Jehovahs banner; Jehovah has war, etc. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, inasmuch as the name of the altar, Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner), seems to require an explanation, and would receive it if the reading were , instead of Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
General Survey of the Section. Israels journey from the shore of the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai. The host enters the wilderness of Shur (the same as the wilderness of Etham), and its first camping-place is by the bitter waters of Marah. The second is Elim. Next comes the encampment on the Red Sea recorded in Numbers 33. Still later the entrance into the wilderness of Sin, and the encampment in it. With this is connected the sending of the manna and of the quails. Then follows the stay in Rephidim with three leading events: the water from the rock, the victory over Amalek, and Jethros advice concerning an orderly judicial system. According to Numbers 33 it must be assumed that the people encamped on the Red Sea just as they touched the wilderness of Sin; for it was not till after this that they entered the wilderness (Exo 16:11), as they also at the first entered the wilderderness of Shur, on the borders of which they found themselves at the very outset. Between the encampment on the Red Sea and that in Rephidim we find in the Book of Numbers Dophkah and Alush; and it is said that they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah. Knobel observes that these two stations, not mentioned in Exodus, are omitted because nothing of historical importance is connected with them. Also about this journey from Ayun Musa to Sinai there has been an immense deal of discussion, as well as about the journey from Raemses to the Red Sea. Vid. Robinson I., p. 90, Brm, Israels Wanderung von Gosen bis zum Sinai (Elberfeld, 1859); Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha, p. 124; von Raumer, Palstina, p. 480; Tischendorf, Aus dem heiligen Lande, p. 23; Kurtz, History of the Old Covenant III., p. 15 sqq.; Bunsen V., 2, p. 155; and the commentaries.
There is general agreement as to the locality of the first stations. It is assumed that Israel, after the passage of the sea, encamped at Ayun Musa (the Wells of Moses), opposite the high mountain Atakah, on the other side of the Red Sea. The next camping-place, Marah (Bitterness), is found about sixteen and a half hours, or a three days journey beyond, by the well Howara or Hawara, of which Robinson says: The basin is six or eight feet in diameter, and the water about two feet deep. Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter. The Arabs consider it as the worst water in all these regions (Pal. II., p. 96). Cf. Seetzen III., p. 117, and Keil II., p. 58, who quotes divergent opinions of Ewald and Lepsius.The next camping-place, Elim, is two and a half hours further south, in what is now the Wady Ghurundel, with a beautiful vegetation consisting in palms, tamarisks, acacias, and tall grass,a prominent stopping-place on the way from Suez to Sinai. The way from Howara to this place is short, but the camping-places of an army in march, like that of the Israelites, are always determined by the supply of water (Keil). The fourth stopping-place, called in Num 33:10 the one on the Red Sea, is found at the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh (Robinson I., p. 105), eight hours beyond Wady Ghurundel. From this point the route becomes less easy to fix. In Num 33:11 we read: They removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.10 Here in Exodus it is said that the wilderness lies between Elim and Sinai. This addition seems designed not only to give the general direction (since that would be quite superfluous), but to designate the middle point between Elim and Sinai. The chief question here is, whether the wilderness of Sin as traversed by the Israelites, is to be located further south on a sea coast, where the plain is for the most part a good hour wide, as is assumed by many (not all, as Brm says), or whether the high table land el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb, with its red sand and sand-stones, is to be taken for the Wilderness of Sin (Knobel). Accordingly, there are two principal routes, of which the first again branches into two. By the coast route one can go along the coast as far as Tur (Ewald), and from that in a northeast direction come to Sinai; or more directly (i.e., at first in an inland direction from the fountain Murkha) enter through the wadies Shellal and Badireh (Butera) into the wadies Mukatteb and Feiran, and reach Mt. Horeb (de la Borde, von Raumer, and others).11 The other route, the mountain or highland route (Burckhardt and others) turns from Taiyibeh southeast through Wady Shubeikah over a high table-land, with the mountain Sarbut el Jemel, then through Wady Humr upon the wide sandy plain el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb (Keil), and on through several wadies directly to Horeb. For and against each of these routes much may be said. Cf. Knobel, p. 162 sqq.; Keil II. p. 61. According to the latter view, advocated by Knobel and Keil, the camping-place in the wilderness of Sin is to be sought in Wady Nasb, where among date-palms a well of ample and excellent water is to be found. The second seacoast route was taken by Strauss and Krafft (Sinai und Golgotha, p. 127). Also the last time by Tischendorf (Aus dim heiligen Lande, p. 35). The same way is preferred by Brm in his work Israels Wanderung, etc. Likewise Robinson regards this as the course taken by the Israelites, though he himself took the one on the table-land. To decide is not easy, and is of little importance for our purpose. But the following observations may serve as guides: (1) If, as is most probable, the names Sin and Sinai are connected etymologically, this is an argument for the table-land route, especially as it also seems to lie more nearly midway between Elim and Sinai; (2) the water seems here to be, though less abundant, yet better, than in most of the salty fountains on the seacoast, whose turbidness also is easily to be explained by its situation on the coast (vid. Robinson, p. 110); (3) on the table-land, in the depressions of which vegetation was everywhere found, there was certainly better provision for the cattle than on the seacoast, where they were often entirely separated from pasture land by mountain barriers; (4) if the encampment in the wilderness of Sin was also an encampment on the Red Sea, the preceding encampment could not, without causing confusion, be designated by the term on the Red Sea. So much for the mountain route. Ritter has argued against the view that the journey was made on the table-land through Wady Nasb, in the Evangelischer Kalender. Vid. Kurtz III., p. 61. For the rest, each way had its peculiar attractions as well as its peculiar difficulties. The mountain route allowed the host to spread itself, as there was much occasion for doing; it presented grand views, and prepared the people for a long time beforehand for its destination, Sinai. It is distinguished by the singular and mysterious monuments of Surabit el-Khadim (Robinson I., p. 113; Niebuhr, p. 235). By the way which runs half on the seacoast, half through the mountains, we pass through the remarkable valley of inscriptions, Mukatteb, and through the grand valley Feiran, rich in tamarisks, in whose vicinity lies the lofty Serbal, regarded by Lepsius as the mountain on which the law was given. On the inscriptions on the rocks and cliffs in the valley Mukatteb, see Tischendorf, Aus dem h. Lande, p. 39 sqq.; Kurtz III., p. 64. By these they are ascribed for the most part to Nabatan emigrants and to pilgrims going to attend heathen festivals. On the rock of inscriptions see also Ritters reference to Wellsted and von Schubert, Vol. XIV., p 459. On the former city Faran in Feiran, see Tischendorf, p. 46. The camping-place in the wilderness of Sin is, as follows from the above, variously fixed; according to some it is the plain on the sea south of Taiyibeh, which, however, must then be called the wilderness of Sin up to the mountain range, if the camping-place is to be distinguished from the one on the Red Sea; according to Bunsen and others, the camping-place was in the place called el Munkhah. According to others, it is the large table-land el Debbe or Debbet en Nasb. The camping-places in the wilderness of Sin being indeterminate, so are also the two following ones at Dophkah and Alush (Num 33:12). Conjectures respecting the two stations beyond the wilderness of Sin are made by Knobel, p. 174, and Bunsen, p. 156. The last station before the host arrives at Sinai is Rephidim. This must have been at he foot of Horeb, for Jehovah stood on the rock on Horeb, when He gave water to the people encamped in Rephidim (Exo 17:6), and at the same place Moses was visited by Jethro, who came to him at the mount of God (Knobel). This is a very important point fixed, inasmuch as it seems to result from it, that Serbal is to be looked for north of, or behind, Rephidim and Horeb, but the Mt. Sinai of the Horeb range in the south.12 The great plain at the foot of Horeb, where the camp of the Israelites is sought, is called the plain er–Raha (Knobel derives , breadth, surface, plain, from , to be spread).13 For a refutation of Lepsius. who finds Rephidim in Wady Feiran, and Sinai in Serbal, see Knobel, p. 174. On Serbal itself (Palm grove of Baal) vid. Kurtz III., p. 67. Between Serbal and the Horeb group lies Wady es-Sheikh. From the mouth of this wady towards Horeb the plain of Rephidim is thought to begin. Other assumptions: The defile with Moses seat, Mokad Seidna Musa, or the plain of Suweiri. Perhaps not very different from the last mentioned (vid. Keil II., p. 79; Strauss, p. 131). The most improbable hypothesis identifies Rephidim with Wady Feiran (Lepsius).14
1. Marah. Exo 15:22-26
On the wilderness of Shur, vid. Keil II., p. 57. Particulars about Howara [Hawara (Robinson), Hawwara (Palmer)], Knobel, p. 160.The bitter salt water at Marah.15 The miracle here consists in great part in the fact that Jehovah showed Moses a tree by which the water was made drinkable. That the tree itself was a natural tree is not denied by the strictest advocates of a literal interpretation. A part of the miracle is to be charged to the assurance of the prophetic act, and the trustful acceptance of it on the part of the people. Various explanations: The well was half emptied, so that pure water flowed in (Josephus); the berries of the ghurlud shrub were thrown in (Burckhardt). According to Robinson, the Beduins of the desert know no means of changing bitter salt water to sweet. In Egypt, as Josephus relates, bad water was once purified by throwing in certain split sticks of wood (Brm). This leads to the question, how far the salt water might have been made more drinkable by Moses dipping into it a crisp, branchy shrub, as a sort of distilling agent. For this the numerous clumps of the ghurkud shrub which stand around the well, and whose berries Burckhardt wished to make use of, are very well suited. The distillation consists in the art of separating, in one way or another, salt, from water, especially by means of brushwood; generally, for the purpose of getting salt; but it might be done for the opposite purpose of getting water. In proportion as a bunch of brushwood should become incrusted with the salt, the water would become more free from the salt. For the rest, Robinson observes, concerning the water of the fountain Hawara, Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter; but we could not perceive that it was very much worse than that of Ayun Musa. It must further be considered that the Jews had the soft, agreeable Nile water in recollection. Kurtz has even found an antithesis in the fact that Moses made the undrinkable water at Marah drinkable, as he had made the sweet water of the Nile un-drinkable. We are here also to notice that the effect of Moses act was not permanent, but consisted only in the act itself, the same as is true of the saving effect of the sacraments in relation to faith. Here, too, is another proof that Moses had a quite peculiar sense for the life of nature, a sense which Jehovah made an organ of His Spirit. With the curing of the well Jehovah connected a fundamental law, stating on what condition He would be the Saviour of the people. Brm (p. 114) points out, with reason, that the Israelites, in drinking salty water, which has a laxative effect, might well apprehend that the much-dreaded sicknesses of Egypt, the pestilence, the small-pox, the leprosy, and the inflammation of the eyes, caused by the heat and the fine dry sand, together with the intense reflection of light, might attack them here also in the wilderness, the atmosphere of which otherwise has a healing effect on many diseased constitutions. Therefore, in curing that well, Jehovah established the chief sanitary law for Israel. It is very definite, as if from the mouth of a very careful physician well acquainted with his case. General rule: perfect compliance with Jehovahs direction! Explanation of it: if thou doest what is right in His eyes, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes (in reference to the means of spiritual recovery, dietetics), then I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians, for I am Jehovah, thy physician.But how can it be added, and there he proved them? The whole history has been a test of the question, whether the people would obey the directions of Jehovah given through Moses, and particularly whether, after the singular means employed by Moses, they would drink in faith. Every test of faith is a temptation for sinful man, because in his habituation to the common order of things lies an incitement not to believe in any extraordinary remedy, such as seems to contradict nature. But out of the actual temptation which the people had now passed through, proceeded this theocratic sanitary law, as a temptation perpetually repeating itself. There is even still a temptation in the principle of the theocratic therapeutics, that absolute certainty of life lies in absolute obedience to Gods commands and directions. According to Keil, the statute here spoken of does not consist in the divine utterance recorded in Exo 15:26, but in an allegorical significance of the fact itself: the leading of the Israelites to bitter water which the natural man cannot and will not drink, together with the making of this water sweet and wholesome, is to be a , that is, a statute and a law, showing how God at all times will lead and govern His people, and a , that is, an ordinance, inasmuch as Israel may continually depend on the divine help, etc. If this is so, then the text must receive an allegorical interpretation not obviously required.
Furthermore, it is a question whether, after the tremendous excitements through which the people had passed, bitter and salty water like that at Marah, might not have been more beneficial than hurtful to them. Salt water restores the digestion when it has been disturbed by excitement. Notice, moreover, the stiff-neckedness or stubbornness peculiar to the disposition of slaves just made free, as it gradually makes its appearance and increases. It was in their distress at Pi-hahiroth that they first gave utterance to their moroseness; true, they cried to Jehovah, but quarrelled with Moses. They seemed to have forgotten the miracle of deliverance wrought in the night of Egypts terror. Here they even murmur over water that is somewhat poorer than usual. The passage through the Red Sea and the song of praise seem to be forgotten. In the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation murmurs against Moses and Aaron, i.e., their divinely appointed leaders, from fear of impending famine, probably because the supplies brought from Egypt were running low;the ample refreshment enjoyed at Elim seems to be forgotten. In Rephidim they murmur on account of want of water;the miraculous supply of manna and quails seems to be forgotten. On the other hand, however, the wise augmentation of severity in the divine discipline becomes prominent. At Marah nothing is said of any rebuke uttered by Jehovah, as is done later, Num 11:14; Num 11:20. Especially noticeable is the great difference between the altercation at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, and the mutiny at Kadesh, Numbers 20. The altercation there is expressly called a striving with Jehovah, Exo 15:13.
2. Elim. Exo 15:27
A fine contrast with Marah is afforded here, both in nature, and in the guidance of the people of God, and in the history of the inner life. In Elim, Baumgarten and Kurtz find a place expressly prepared for Israel, inasmuch as by the number of its wells and palm trees it bears in itself the seal of this people: every tribe having a well for man and beast, and the tent of each one of the elders of the people (Exo 24:9) having the shade (according to Baumgarten, the dates) of a palm-tree. Even Keil finds this too supernaturalistic; at least, he observes that, while the number of the wells corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel, yet the number of the palm trees does not correspond to that of the elders, which, according to Exo 24:9, was much (?) greater. On neither side is the possibility of a symbolical significance in the numbering thought of; without doubt, however, the emphasis given to the number seventy is as significant as that given to the number twelve. Keils allusion to the 23d Psalm is appropriate. See particulars about Elim in Knobel, p. 161; Tischendorf, p. 36.16
3. The Wilderness of Sin. Chap. Exo 16:1-36
Notice first the aggravated character of the murmuring. Now the whole congregation murmurs. And not against Moses alone, but against Moses and Aaron, so that the murmuring is more definitely directed against the divine commission of the two men, and so against the divine act of bringing them out of Egypt, that is, against Jehovah Himself. Moreover, the expression of a longing after Egypt becomes more passionate and sensual. At first they longed resignedly for the graves of Egypt, in view of the danger of death in the desert. The next time, too, they say nothing about their hankering after the Nile water in view of the bitter water of Marah. But now the flesh-pots of Egypt and the Egyptian bread become prominent in their imagination, because they conceive themselves to be threatened with famine. Corresponding to the aggravation of the murmuring are the beginnings of rebuke. Says Knobel, What the congregation had brought with them from Egypt had been consumed in the thirty days which had elapsed since their exodus (Exo 16:1), although the cattle brought from Egypt (Exo 12:38) had not yet all been slaughtered or killed by thirst (?), since after their departure from the wilderness of Sin they still possessed cattle at Rephidim, which they wished to save from thirsting to death (Exo 17:3). For the herds had not been taken merely to be at once slaughtered; and meat could not take the place of bread. In their vexation the people wish that they had died in Egypt, while filling themselves from the flesh-pots, by the hand of Jehovah, i.e., in the last plague inflicted by Jehovah upon Egypt, rather than gradually to starve to death here in the wilderness. In the verb used ( Niph.) is expressed a murmuring just passing over into contumacy. Yet here too Jehovah looks with compassion upon the hard situation of the people, and hence regards their weakness with indulgence.
The natural substratum of the double miracle of feeding, now announced and brought to pass, is found in the food furnished by the desert to nomadic emigrants. The manna is the miraculous representative of all vegetable food; the quails denote the choicest of animal prey furnished by the desert. The first element, in the miracle is here too the prophetic foresight and assurance of Moses. The second is the actual miraculous enhancement of natural phenomena; the third is here also the trustful acceptance of it: the miracle of faith and the religious manifestation answering to it. The ultra-supernaturalistic view, it is true, is not satisfied with this. It holds to a different manna from that provided by God in nature, and ought, in consistency, to distinguish the quails miraculously given from ordinary quails.
In this case, too, the trial of faith was to be a temptation (Exo 16:4), to determine whether the people would appropriate the miraculous blessing to themselves in accordance with the divine precept, and so recognize Jehovah as the giver, or whether they would go out without restraint I and on their own responsibility to seize it, as if in a wild chase. Here, therefore, comes in the establishment of the fundamental law concerning the healing of life; and this is done by the ordaining of the seventh day as a day of rest, the Sabbath. As man, when given over to a merely natural life, is inclined to seek health and recuperation without regarding the inner life and the commandments of God, so he is also inclined to yield himself passionately and without restraint to the indulgence of the natural appetite for food, and, in his collection of the means of nourishment, to lose self-collection, the self-possession of an interior life. As a token of this the Sabbath here comes in at the right point, and therefore points at once from the earthly manna to the heavenly manna, (vid.John 6).17
The announcement of the miracle. I will rain. The first fundamental condition of the feeding: recognition of the Giver, comp. Jam 1:17.From heaven. Though this in general might also be said of bread from the earth, yet here a contrast is intended. From the sky above, i.e., as a direct gift.The people shall go out and gather. A perpetual harvest, but limited by divine ordinance.A daily portion every day. Reminding one of the petition, Give us this day, etc. An injunction of contentment.On the sixth day. They will find, on making their preparation of the food, that the blessing of this day is sufficient also for the seventh.At even. A gift of flesh was to precede the gift of manna. Thereby they are to understand that Jehovah has led them out of Egypt, that He has provided for them a substitute for the flesh-pots of Egypt. But on the next morning they shall see the glory of Jehovah, i.e., they shall recognize the glorious presence of Jehovah in the fact that He has heard their murmuring against Moses and Aaron, and has applied it to Himself, in that He presents them the mannaFor what are we? Thus do the holy men retire and disappear behind Jehovah.But the people also must come to this same conviction, must repent of their murmurings, and feel that they have murmured against Jehovah, not against His servants. Thus with perfect propriety is a sanction of the sacred office interwoven into the same history into which the history of the Sabbath is interwoven. Hence it follows also that the true sacred office must authenticate itself by miraculous blessings. Both are sealed by a specially mysterious revelation. It is significant that in this connection Aaron must be the speaker (Exo 16:9), that he must summon the people before Jehovah to humble themselves before His face on account of their murmuring. Equally significant is it, that the congregation, while Aaron speaks, sees the manifestation of Jehovahs glory in the cloud. Especially significant, however, is it, that they see this glory rest over the wide wilderness, as they turn and look towards it. A most beautiful touch! With the wilderness itself the way through the wilderness is transfigured at this moment. If we assume (with Keil) that the summons to appear before Jehovah is equivalent to a summons to come out of the tents to the place where the cloud stood, then it must be further assumed, that the cloud suddenly changed its position, and removed to the wilderness, or else appeared in a double form. Neither thing can be admitted. Hereupon follows the last solemn announcement of the miraculous feeding, as the immediate announcement of Jehovah Himself.
The double miracle itself.The quails came up.This narrative has its counterpart in the narrative of the quails in Num 11:4 sqq., just as the chiding on account of want of water at Rephidim has its counterpart in the story of the water of strife (Meribah), distinctively so-called in Numbers 20. The relation of the narratives to one another is important. The murmuring of the people in the beginning of their journey through the wilderness is treated with the greatest mildness, almost as a childs sickness; but their murmuring towards the end of the journey is regarded as a severe offence, and is severely punished; it is like the offence of a mature man, committed in view of many years experience of Gods miraculous help. At the water of strife even Moses himself is involved in the guilt, through his impatience; and the gift of quails in abundance is made a judgment on the people for their immoderate indulgence. Another difference corresponds to the natural features of the desert: the quails do not keep coming; but the people find themselves accompanied by the manna till they are tired of eating it.Came up.. The coming on of a host of locusts or birds has the optical appearance of a coming up., with the article of a word used collectively of a class (Keil). LXX. , Vulg. coturnices. Large quails, whose name in Arabic comes from their fatness, fat. Says Knobel: They become very fat, increase enormously, and in the spring migrate northward, in the autumn southward. Here we are to conceive of a spring migration. For the events described took place in the second month, i.e. about our May (Exo 16:1; Num 10:11), and the quails came to the Israelites from the south-east, from the Arabian Gulf (Psa 78:26 sq.; Num 11:31). In his journey from Sinai to Edomitis in March, Schubert (II., p. 360 sq.) saw whole clouds of migratory birds, of such extent and denseness as never before; they came from their southern winter-quarters, and were hastening toward the sea-coast (?). Probably they were quails, at least in part. Further particulars on the abundance of quails in those regions, see in Knobel (p. 166) and Keil (II., p. 66). They are sometimes so exhausted that they can be caught with the hand (Keil). Some identify the fowl with the kata of the Arabs [a sort of partridge]. Of course it must be assumed that the Israelites in the wilderness were no more confined to the quails for meat than to the manna for bread.
The manna. Exo 16:13-14. A layer of dew. A deposit or fall of dew.A dust, i.e. an abundance of small kernels. If the . is explained simply according to the verb , to peal off, scale off, we get the notion of scaly or leaf-shaped kernels, but not that of coagulated kernels. But perhaps the notion of shelled kernels of grain is transferred, in accordance with appearance, to these kernels. According to Exo 16:31 and Num 11:7, says Knobel, the manna resembled in appearance the white coriander seeds (small, round kernels of dull white or yellowish green color) and the bdellium (resin). Again he says: According to the Old Testament, the dew comes from heaven (Deu 33:13; Deu 33:28; Pro 3:20; Zec 8:12; Hag 1:10); with it the manna descended (Num 11:9); this seems therefore like bread rained down from heaven, and is called corn of heaven, bread of heaven (Psa 78:24; Psa 105:40). Further on Knobel relates that the ancients also supposed, that honey rained down from the air; hence he should more exactly distinguish between the notions of atmosphere and of heaven as the dwelling-place of God, comp. Joh 6:31-32.Man hu.The explanation that is to be derived from , to apportion, and that this expression therefore means: a present is that (Kimchi, Luther, Gesenius, Knobel. Kurtz), does not suit the context, which would make Moses repeat what the people had said before him, to say nothing of the fact that the derivation of the notion present from the verb is disputed. On the contrary, the interpretation of the LXX., Keil and others, , perfectly accords with the connection. They said: What is that? because they did not know what it was. for belongs to the popular language, and is preserved in Chaldee and Ethiopic, so that it is indisputably to be regarded as an old Shemitic form (Keil).
The natural manna and the miraculous manna.Comp. the articles in the Bible Dictionaries. Keil says: This bread of heaven was given by Jehovah to His people for the first time at a season and in a place where natural manna is still found. The natural manna is now found in the peninsula of Sinai usually in June and July, often even as early as in May, most abundantly in the vicinity of Mt. Sinai, in Wady Feiran and Es-sheikh, but also in Wady Ghurundel and Tayibeh (Seetzen, Reisen, III., p. 76, 129), and some valleys south-east of Mt. Sinai (Ritter, XIV., p. 676), where it in warm weather oozes by night out of the branches of the tarfa-tree, a sort of tamarisk, and in the form of small globules falls down upon the dry leaves, branches, and thorns which lie under the trees, and is gathered before sunrise, but melts in the heat of the sun. In years when rain is abundant, it falls more plentifully for six weeks; in many years it is entirely wanting. It has the appearance of gum, and has a sweet, honey-like taste, and when copiously used, is said to be a gentle laxative (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 600; Wellsted in Ritter, p. 674). There are thus presented some striking points of resemblance between the manna of the Bible and the tamarisk manna. Not only is the place where the Israelites first received manna the same as that in which it is obtained now, but the time of the year is the same, inasmuch as the 15th day of the second month (Exo 16:1) falls in the middle of our May, or even still later. Also in color, form and appearance the resemblance is unmistakable, since the tamarisk manna, though of a dull yellow color, yet when it falls upon stones is described as white; the resemblance is likewise seen in the fact, that it falls in kernels upon the earth, is gathered in the morning, melts in the sun, and tastes like honey. While these points of agreement indubitably point to a connection between the natural and the Biblical manna, yet the differences which run parallel with all of the resemblances indicate no less clearly the miraculous character of the heavenly bread. Thus Keil leaves the matter, without reconciling the two positions. The miraculous manna, he says, was enjoyed by the Israelites forty years long everywhere in the wilderness and at all seasons of the year in quantity equal to the wants of the very numerous people. Hengstenbergs theory (Geschichle des Bileam, p. 280) that the natural manna which is formed on the leaves of the tarfa-bush by the sting of an insect (according to a discovery of Ehrenbergs), is the natural substratum of the miraculous abundance of manna, is combated by Kurtz III., p. 34. Kurtz can conceive that the people lived at Kadesh thirty-seven years in apostasy, and that nevertheless during all this time they received regularly their portion of manna for every man. By this method of distinguishing the miraculous from the natural manna, we come to the hypothesis, that the people of Israel were fed with two kinds of manna; for it will certainly not be assumed that the natural fall of manna during all this time was supernaturally suspended, as in a similar manner Keil on Exo 16:10 makes out two pillars of cloud. Von Raumer and Kurtz, we may remark, go as much beyond Keil, as Keil does beyond Hengstenberg. Vid. Keil, p. 72, and the note on the same page. Between the baldly literal interpretation and the embellishments of wonder-loving legends the view above described recognizes nothing higher; it does not understand the symbolic language of the theocratic religion, nor see how an understanding of this lifts us as much above the mythical as the literal interpretation. The defect of the latter consists, as to substance, in the circumstance that it identifies the conception of nature with that of the common external world raised by a Providential government only a little above a material system; as to form, it is defective in that it identifies the word and the letter, and cannot understand and appreciate the specific difference between the heathen myth and the symbolical expression of the theocratic spirit as it blends together ideas and facts. Kurtz refers to the miracle in John 2, without clearly apprehending that this miracle would be the merest trifle, if his notion of the miracle of the manna is the correct one, to say nothing of the evident conflict of this with Joh 6:32. Knobel, whose learned disquisition on the manna (p. 171 sqq.) should be consulted, thus states the distinctive features of the miraculous manna, which he regards as a legendary thing: (a) The manna, according to the Biblical account, comes with the mist and dew from heaven (Exo 16:14);so Kurtz III., p. 28. But since the mist does not come down from the throne of God, the meaning is simply that it comes from above, not from below. (b) It falls in such immense abundance that every person of the very numerous people daily receives an omer (Exo 16:16; Exo 16:36). The omer, however, is a very moderate hand measure, the tenth part of an ephah, originally hardly a definite quantity, vid. Keil II., p. 74. (c) Furthermore, those who gather the manna collect always only just what they need, no more and no less. This is clearly to be symbolically explained of contentedness and community. (d) The manna falls only on the six working-days, not on the seventh day, it being the Sabbath (Exo 16:26 sq.). On this is to be observed that this extraordinary fact was needed only once, in order to sanction the Sabbath; the fact may also be explained by the circumstance that on the day before an extraordinary, double fall of manna took place. (e) The manna which is kept over from one working-day to another becomes wormy and offensive (Exo 16:20), whilst that preserved from the sixth day to the seventh keeps good (Exo 16:24), for which reason, except on the sixth day, the manna must always be eaten on the day when it is gathered. This too is a singular, enigmatical fact; but it is cleared up by looking at it in its rich ideal light. The supply which heathen providence heaps up breeds worms, decays, and smells offensively: not so the supply required by the Sabbath rest, sacred festivities, and divine service. (f) It is ground in the hand-mill, crushed in the mortar, and cooked by baking or boiling, made e.g. into cakes (Exo 16:23, Num 11:8). (g) It appears in general as a sort of bread, tasting like baked food (Exo 16:31, Num 11:8), and is always called , even (vid. Exo 16:15), to say nothing of the miraculous doubling of the quantity (Exo 16:5; Exo 16:22). This latter feature comes at once to nothing, if we assume that on the sixth day there was a double fall of manna.18 How far the manna, which contains no farinaceous elements, but only glucose, was mingled with farinaceous elements, in order to be used after the manner of farinaceous food, we need not inquire; at all events the Israelites could not afterwards have said, of a properly farinaceous substance, and that too of a superior kind, Our soul loatheth this light food. The splendor with which faith, wonder, and gratitude had invested the enjoyment of the miraculous food had vanished. According to Keil, the connection of the natural manna with the miraculous manna is not to be denied, but we are also not to conceive of a mere augmentation, but the omnipotence of God created from the natural substance a new one, which in quality and quantity as far transcends the products of nature as the kingdom of grace and glory outshines the kingdoms of nature. But Christ, in John 6, speaks of a manna in the kingdom of grace and glory, in contrast with the Mosaic manna.According to Kurtz, who, especially in opposition to Karl Ritter, follows the opinion of Schubert, the manna was prepared by a miracle of omnipotence in the atmosphere; according to Schubert, that tendency to the production of manna which at the right time permeated the vitalizing air, and with it all the vital forces of the land, has propagated itself still, at least in the living thickets of the manna-tamarisks. The natural manna, then, is a descendant of the Biblical manna, but a degenerate sort, developed by the puncture made by the cochineal insect in the branches of the tarfa-shrub !
We are specially to consider further (1) the preservation of a pot, containing an omer of manna, in the sanctuary; (2) the specification of the time during which the use of manna by the Israelites lasted. As to the first point, the object was to preserve the manna as a religious memorial; hence the expression of the LLX., , is exegetical. The historian here evidently anticipates the later execution of the charge now given. Comp. Hengstenberg, Pentateuch II., p. 169 sqq. (Kurtz). As to the second point, it is expressively said that Israel had no lack of the miraculous manna so long as they were going through the wilderness; but Kurtz infers from Jos 5:11-12, that the Jews did not cease to eat manna till after the passover in Gilgal, though they had other food besides. The correct view is presented in the Commentary on Joshua, Exo 5:12, where stress is laid on the contrast between Jehovahs immediate preservation of the food of the wilderness, on the one hand, and the historical development that took the place of this, on the other hand, i.e., the natural order of things which belongs to civilized life; corresponding to the fact that the ark took the place of the pillar of cloud and fire, as leader of the people.
The question whether in this narrative the Sabbath is instituted for the first time (Hengstenberg), or again renewed (Liebetrut), is thus decided by Kurtz (III., p. 42): The observance of the Sabbath was instituted before the law, may even in Paradise, but the law of the Sabbath first received a legal character through the revelation on Sinai, and lost it again through the love which is the fulfilling of the law, in the new covenant (Col 2:16-17). In the fulfilment nothing indeed is lost, but every law becomes a liberating principle. It is noticeable how in the history of Moses, patriarchal customs, to which also probably the Sabbath belonged, are sanctioned by miraculous events and receive a legal character; as has already been seen in various instances (festivals, worship, sanitary laws, official rank, the Sabbath).
4. Rephidim
a. Rephidim and the place called Temptation and Strife.
Following the route of the mountain road the Israelites now came out of the region of the red sandstone into that of porphyry and granite (Knobel, p. 174). They came thither according to their days journeys, i.e., after several days journeys. In Num 33:12 the two stations Dophkah and Alush are mentioned. On the conjecture of Knobel (p. 174) concerning these places, vid. Keil II., p. 76.
According to Knobel (p. 176), popular tradition transfers the occurrence here mentioned to Kadesh, therefore to a later time, (Num 20:8). It is a universal characteristic of modern scientists that, not being free from the propensity to give predominant weight to sensible things, they are easily carried away with external resemblances, hence with allegories, and so may disregard the greatest internal differences of things. Thus as the external resemblance of man to the monkey is more impressive to the naturalist than the immense inward contrast, so Biblical criticism often becomes entangled in this modern allegorizing; even Hengstenberg pays tribute to it in identifying the Simon of Bethany with the Pharisee Simon on the Lake of Galilee, and so, the Mary of Bethany with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus.
As the sending of the quails in Num 11:5 sqq., forms a companion-piece to that in Exodus 16, so the water of strife in Num 20:2 sqq., to the water of strife in Rephidim. There is a resemblance even in the sounds of the names of the deserts Sin ( thorn?), and Zin ( low palm). So also the want of water and the murmurs of the people, and in consequence of this the seemingly identical designation of the place; also the giving of water out of the rock. Aside from the difference of time and place, the internal features of the two histories are also very different; even the difference in the designations is to be observed, the place Massah and Meribah (temptation and strife), and the water Meribah, over which the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, and He was sanctified (shown to be holy) among them. In the first account Jehovah is only tempted by the people; in the second, He is almost denied. In the one, Moses is said to smite the rock, away from the people, in the presence of the elders; in the other, he and Aaron are said to speak with the rock before all the people. Also the summary description of the journey in Deu 1:37, leaves no doubt that the second incident is entirely different from the first. Likewise in Deu 33:8, two different things are mentioned, and the temptation at Massah is distinguished from the strife at the water of strife, (comp. Psa 95:8). It lies in the nature of the case that the religious mind would celebrate in a comprehensive way its recollection of the most essential thing in the two events, viz., the miraculous help of Jehovah, Deu 8:15, Isa 48:21, Psa 78:15; Psa 78:20; Psa 105:41; Psa 114:8, Neh 9:15. Why chide ye with me?The true significance of this chiding with him Moses at once characterizes: it is a tempting of Jehovah. This he could do after what he had affirmed in Exo 16:8-9. After the giving of the quails and the manna, designed to confirm the divine mission of Moses and Aaron, they had now to do with Jehovah, when they quarrelled with Moses. But how far did they tempt Jehovah? Not simply by unbelieving doubt of the gracious presence of the Lord (Keil). They sinfully tested the question whether Jehovah would again stand by Moses, or would this time forsake him. Hence their reproach against Moses reaches the point of complaining that he is to blame for their impending ruina complaint which might well have been followed by stoning. Jehovahs command corresponds with this state of things. Moses is to go confidently away from the people to the still distant Horeb, but to take with him the elders of the people as witnesses, and there to smite the rock with his rod. But Jehovah is to stand there before him on the rock. Does this mean, as Keil represents, that God humbles Himself like a servant before his master? He rather appears as Moses visible representative, who rent the rock and produced the miraculous spring. The rock that followed them, says Paul, was Christ (1Co 10:4). Thence again is seen the divine human nature of the miracle, a mysterious synthesis of natural feeling and prophecy of grace. On Tacitus invidious narrative of Moses having discovered a spring of water by means of a drove of wild asses, see Kurtz III., p. 48.
b. Rephidim and Amalek. Hostile Heathendom.
As in the account of Amalek we see typically presented the relation of the people of God to the irreconcilably hostile heathendom; so in that of Jethro their relation to heathendom as manifesting a kindly disposition towards the theocracy.
Exhaustive treatises on the Amalekites may be found in the dictionaries and commentaries, especially also in Hengstenberg (Pentateuch II., p. 247 sqq., and Kurtz III., p. 48). In the way nations used to be formed, Amalek, a grandson of Esau, might quite well have become a nation by Moses time (vid. Genesis 36), Edomite leaders forming a nucleus around which a conglomerate multitude gathered. The Edomite tendency to barbarism was perpetuated in Amalek, and so in his descendants was developed a nation of Bedouin robbers, who might have spread from Idumea to Sinai, and perhaps in their capacity as waylayers had come to give name to a mountion of the Amalekites in the tribe of Ephraim (Jdg 12:15). Thus might a little people, which was kindred to Israel in the same way as Edom was, after Israel was regenerated to be the people of God, be the first to throw themselves hostilely in their way, and thus become the representative of all hostile heathendom, as opposed to the people and kingdom of God. In accordance with this was shaped the theocratic method of warfare against Amalek. and the typical law of war (see Keil II., p. 77). It is significant that the Midianites in the branch represented by Jethro should present heathendom on friendly terms with Israel, although the relationship was much less close. On the denial of the identity between the Amalekites and the above-mentioned descendants of Esau, see Kurtz III., p. 49. The descendant of Esau might, however, have received his name Amalek by transfer from the Bedouin horde which became subservient to him.
Then came Amalek. According to Deu 25:18, the attack of the Amalekites was a despicable surprise of the feeble stragglers of the Israelites. We have to conceive the order of the events to be about as follows: The murmuring on account of want of water and the relief of that want took place immediately after the arrival at Rephidim of the main part of the host which had hurried forward, whilst the rear, whose arrival had been delayed by fatigue, was still on the way. These were attacked by the Amalekites (Kurtz). The several features in the contest now beginning are these: Joshua with his chosen men; Moses on the mountain; the victory; the memorial of the fight; the altar Nissi and its typical significanceeternal war against Amalek!
Joshua. Jehovah is help, or salvation. Thus, according to Num 13:16, his former name, Hoshea (help, or salvation) was enriched; and perhaps the present war and victory occasioned the change.Choose us out men. It was the first war which the people of God had to wage, and it was against a wild and insidious foe. Hence no troops of doubtful courage could be sent against the enemy, but a select company must fight the battle, with Joshua at the head, whose heroic spirit Moses had already discovered. Precipitancy also was avoided. They let the enemy remain secure until the following day. The host of warriors, however, had to be supported by the host of spirits in the congregation interceding and blessing, as represented by Moses in conjunction with Aaron and Hur. See my pamphlet Vom Krieg und vom Sieg.
The completed victory was to be immortalized by the military annals (the book) and by the living recollections of the host (in the ears of Joshua).The altar Nissi (Jehovah my banner), however, was to serve the purpose of inaugurating the consecration of war by means of right military religious service. Accordingly, the two essential conditions of the war were, first, Jehovahs summoning the people to the sacred work of defense, secondly, Jehovahs own help. And also the war against Amalek is perpetuated until he is utterly destroyed only in the sense that Amalek typically represents malicious hostility to the people and kingdom of God.
Hur comes repeatedly before us (Exo 24:14, Exo 31:2) as a man of high repute, and as an assistant of Moses. Josephus (Ant. III. 2, 4), following a Jewish tradition, of the correctness of which there is much probability, calls him the husband of Miriam, Moses sister (Kurtz). According to Exo 31:2, he was the grandfather of Bezaleel, the architect of the tabernacle, of the tribe of Judah, and the son of Caleb (Chron. Exo 1:17.)
It is clear that the transaction with the rod of Moses was in this case too a symbolic and prophetic, a divine and human, assurance of victory. Therefore the rod must be held on high, and inasmuch as Moses hands cannot permanently hold it up, they must be supported by Aaron and Hur. In the holy war the priesthood and nobility must support the prophetical ruler. Thus is produced an immovable confidence in Jehovah Nissi, afterwards called Jehovah Sabaoth (of hosts). From His throne, through Moses hand, victorious power and confidence flow into the host of warriors. The book begun by Moses, in which the victory over Amalek is recorded, is important in reference to the question concerning the authority of the Bible. When Jehovah further commands Moses to intrust to Joshua the future extirpation of Amalek, it becomes evident even now that he is destined to be Moses successor (Kurtz). A conjecture about the hill where Moses stood may be found in Knobel, p. 177; Keil, II., p. 79. Subsequent wars waged against Amalek by Saul and David are narrated in 1 Samuel 15, 27, 30. Kurtz regards the elevated hand of Moses not as a symbol of prayer to Jehovah, but only of victorious confidence derived from Jehovah, III., p. 51. Keil rightly opposes the separation of the bestowment of victory from prayer, p. 79, but goes to the other extreme when he says, The elevated rod was a sign not for the fighting Israelites, since it cannot even be made out that they, in the confusion of battle, could see it, but for Jehovah. In all human acts of benediction prayer and the impartation of the blessing are united.
c. Jethro, and heathendom as friendly to the people of God.
Inasmuch as chap. 19 records the establishment of the theocracy, or of the typical kingdom of God, it is in the highest degree significant that the two preceding sections fix the relation and bearing of the people of God towards heathendom. Out of one principle are to flow two opposing ones, in accordance with the twofold bearing of heathendom. The heathen, represented by Amalek, who are persistently hostile, wage war against Jehovah Himself; on them destruction is eventually to be visited. The heathen, however, represented by Jethro, who are humane and cherish friendship towards the people of God, sustain towards Christianity, as it were, the relation of catechumens. The people of God enter into commercial and social intercourse with them under the impulse of religion and humanity; similarly James defines the relation of Christianity to Judaism. [There is nothing about this in his Epistle. Is the reference to Act 15:20-21?Tr.]
(i.) The pious heathen as guest, relative, and protector of Moses family, and as guardian of the spiritual treasures of Israel. Exo 18:1-4.
It seems like too legal a conception, when Keil calls Jethro the first-fruits among the heathen that seek the living God, and incidentally adduces his descent from Abraham. Jethro did not become a Jew, but remained a priest in Midian, just as John the Baptist did not become, properly speaking, a Christian, but remained a Jew. It is more correct, when Keil says that Amalek and Jethro typify and represent the two-fold attitude of the heathen world towards the kingdom of God. In opposition to the special conjectures of Kurtz and Ranke, especially also the assumption that there was not time enough in Rephidim for this new incident, see Keil, II. p. 84.19
(ii.) The pious heathen as sympathetic friend of Moses and of the people of God in their victories. Exo 18:5-9.
Notice the delicate discretion which both men observe, with all their friendship towards each other. Jethro does not rush impetuously forward; he sends word of his approach. Moses receives him with appropriate reverence, but first leads him into his tent; for whether and how he may introduce him to his people, is yet to be determined.
(iii.) Religious song and thank-offering of the pious heathen. Exo 18:10-12.
The lyrical,20 festive recognition of the greatness of Jehovah in His mode of bringing the Egyptians to confusion through their very arrogance does not involve conversion to Judaism; neither does the burnt-offering and the thank-offering: but they do indicate ideal spiritual fellowship, aside from social intercourse.
(iv.) The religious and social fellowship of the people of God, even of Aaron the priest, and of the elders, with the pious heathen. Exo 18:12.
A proof that the religious spirit of the Israelites was as yet free from the fanaticism of the later Judaism is seen in the fact that Aaron and the elders could take part in a sacrificial feast with Jethro. Common participation in the Passover meal would have been conditioned on circumcision.
(v.) The political wisdom and organizing talent of the pious heathen thankfully recognized and humbly used by the great prophet himself. Exo 18:13-26.
Jethros advice given to Moses, like political institutions and political wisdom, is not a gift of immediate revelation, but a fruit of the sensus communis. But observe that Jethro acknowledges the prophetic vocation of Moses, and Jehovahs revelation in regard to all great matters (questions of principle), just as Moses acknowledges the piety of his political wisdom. Moses and Jethro came nearer together than the medival church and ordinary liberalism. Exo 18:17-18 contain very important utterances concerning the consequences of such a hierarchy. On the distribution of the people according to the decimal system, see Keil, II., p. 87. The decimal numbers are supposed by him to designate approximately the natural ramifications of the people [ten being assumed to represent the average size of a family]. A further development of the institution (comp. Deu 1:9) took place later, according to Num 11:16.
(vi.) Distinct economies on a friendly footing with each other. Exo 18:27.
Analogous to this occurrence is the covenant of Abraham with Abimelech; the friendly relations maintained by David and Solomon with Hiram, king of Tyre, the queen of Sheba, etc.
Footnotes:
[7][Exo 16:15 . Gesenius and Knobel derive from , to apportion; Frst (Concordance) from the Sanscrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard as the Aramaic equivalent of . Even Frst so renders it in his Illustrirte Pracht-Bibel. Comp. Michaelis, Supplementa ad Lexica Hebraica.Tr.].
[8][Exo 16:20. And it bred worms: . The Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of defectively written, and therefore to mean: rose up into (or with) worms. Kalisch says, that the form is used instead of to show that it comes from (?) in the sense of putrefy. So Maurer and Ewald (Gr., 281, d). But it is doubtful whether (assumed as the root from which comes worm) really means putrefy at all. Frst defines it by crawl. Moreover, it would be inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna became putrid with worms; the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the putridness. Rosenmller, Frst, Arnheim and others render by swarm, abound, but probably as a free rendering for rose up. De Wette: da wuchsen Wrmer. The A. V. rendering may stand as a substantially correct reproduction of the sense.Tr.].
[9][Exo 17:16. We have given the most literal rendering of this difficult passage. But possibly , instead of meaning for (or because), may (as often in Greek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient authorities, takes it as an oath; but for this there is little ground. Keil interprets: The hand raised to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Jehovahs war against Amalek, i.e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towards Jehovahs throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: Because a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is against the throne of Jah, therefore Jehovah will forever have war with Amalek. This interpretation has the advantage over Keils of giving a more natural rendering to , which indeed in a few cases does mean up to, but only when it is (as it is not here) connected with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps the majority of modern exegetes) would read (banner), instead of (throne), and interpret: The hand upon Jehovahs banner; Jehovah has war, etc. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, inasmuch as the name of the altar, Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner), seems to require an explanation, and would receive it if the reading were , instead of Tr.].
[10]Inasmuch as Pelusium, as being a marshy city, is culled Sin, and Sinai, being a rocky mountain, is just the opposite, the question arises: What is the common feature of a marshy wilderness, and of a rocky mountain range? Possibly, the points and denticulations of the thorn-bush. An old interpretation calls Sinai itself a thorn-bush, from the thorn-bush () in which Jehovah revealed Himself to Moses. The stony wilderness may have the thorn-bush in common with the marshy fens.
[11][Lange omits another way which might have been taken, viz., from el-Murkhah along the coast, and thence up Wady Feiran, instead of the more direct way through the wadies Shellal and Mukatteb into Wady Feiran. This is the course which the members of the Sinai Survey Expedition unanimously decided to be the most probable, inasmuch as the road over the pass of Nagb Buderah, between the wadies Shellal and Mukatteb, must have been constructed at a time posterior to the Exodus (E. H. Palmer: The Desert of the Exodus, p. 275). Robinson also mentions this route as at least equally probable with the other (I., p. 107). Palmer is quite decided that no other route afforded facilities for a large caravan such as that of the Israelites.Tr.]
[12][This is not perspicuous. Inasmuch as Serbal is not mentioned in the Bible, no inference can be drawn from these circumstances respecting its location. Moreover, Serbal is not north of Sinai (Jebel Musa), but nearly easta little north only. And why is north called behind? The hinder region, according to Hebrew conceptions, is in the west.Tr.]
[13][The theory that Rephidim is to be sought in er-Raba (advocated by Knobel, Keil, Lange, and others), is certainly open to the objection that that plain is close by Mt. Sinai itself, and is in all probability the camping-place before the mount, mentioned in Exo 19:1-2. Palmer (p. 112) and Robinson (I., p. 155) are emphatic in the opinion that the plain of Sebaiveh, south-east of Jebel Musa, is quite insufficient to have accommodated the Israelitish camp. Rephidim, therefore, being (according to Exo 19:2) at least a days march from the place whence Moses went up to receive the law, cannot well have been er-Raha. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, p. 40) and Palmer defend the old view that it is to be looked for at Feiran, near Mt. Serbal. Palmer argues that the distance, apparently much too great to have been traversed in a single day, is no insuperable objection, provided that by the wilderness of Sinai we understand the mouth of Nagb Hawa, which may have been reached in a single day by the direct route from Feiran.Tr.]
[14][On this point see the last note. A good map of the whole peninsula is to be found in Smith and Groves Atlas of Ancient Geography.Tr.]
[15]The Arabs call the well exitium, interitus, probably in accordance with the notion that that which is bitter is deadly (2Ki 4:40). Knobel. The Arabs may make humorous remarks about bad wells of water, like the Germans on bad wines, in hyperbolical expressions which are not to be taken literally.
[16][Wilson, (Lands of the Bible, Vol. I., p. 174), would identify with Elim, not Wady Ghurundel, but Wady Waseit (Useit), five or six miles south of Wady Ghurundel.Tr.].
[17]Further on follows the fundamental law of warfare in self-defence against heathen enemies, as well as the fundamental law for the unhesitating appropriation of heathen wisdom.
[18][This reply, apparently not very clear, is the same as the one made above to specification (d) of Knobel. Lange distinguishes between a miraculous fall and an extraordinary fall, and supposes besides that the extraordinary (double) fall may have been limited to one occasion.Tr.]
[19][Kurtzs conjecture is that what led Jethro to visit Moses was the report of the victory of the Israelites over Amalek; to which the reply is that nothing is said of this, but, on the contrary, that it was the report of the deliverance from Egypt that occasioned the visit. Rankes conjecture is that Jethros visit took place after the giving of the law, on the ground that the stay at Rephidim was too short; to which it is replied that, if (as is assumed from Exo 16:1 and Exo 19:1) half a month intervened between the arrival at the wilderness of Sin and the arrival at the wilderness of Sinai, ample time is afforded for all that is recorded in Exodus 18.Tr.]
[20][Lange regards Exo 18:10-11 as poetic in form.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Shur over against Egypt. Gen 25:18 . There is somewhat worthy remark in those three days travelling. You will find similar examples in other parts of scripture. Num 10:33 . So they were commanded at first, to obtain leave from Pharaoh. See Exo 3:18 . And is not this, in a spiritual sense, sometimes the case of the seeking soul? They found no water.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Moses At Marah
Exo 15:23-25
The children of Israel had just concluded their song of thankfulness for deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh and his hosts. A very wonderful song too had they sung. It might have had the thunder for an accompaniment, so solemn was it and so majestic. It rises and falls like the great billows of the sea. Now it roars by reason of its mightiness, and presently it subsides into a tone of tremulous pathos. The children of Israel had been made “more than conquerors”; they had not simply conquered by the expenditure of every energy as is sometimes done in hotly contested fields, they had actually stood still, and in their standing had seen the salvation of God. Their references to Pharaoh and his hosts were made in a tone of derisive victory. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.” “Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” “Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea,” thrown, as a child might throw a pebble into the deep! After singing such a song, Israel will never again know the meaning of doubt or fear. The singing of such a song marks an epoch in the history of life. In the presence of difficulty Israel will remember this hour of holy triumphing, and under the inspiration of such a recollection will surmount every obstacle. Is not this a reasonable supposition? Will not the greatest event in life rule all secondary events, and determine all subordinate considerations? Surely, if this hour could be forgotten, the fear of death might return upon those who have already conquered the grave. Alas! we soon find how much difference there is between singing a hymn and living a life. The people had not gone more than three days into the wilderness of Shur when they showed the fickleness of the most intensely religious passion, and the inconstancy of the profoundest religious homage.
1. “They could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter,” so the greatest triumphs of life may be succeeded by the most vexatious inconveniences. God had divided the Red Sea for his people, yet he suffered them to go into places where there was no water to drink! For their sakes he had destroyed Pharaoh and his hosts, yea, his chariots and his chosen captains, yet he allowed them to suffer the pain of thirst! It is specially to be observed that the children of Israel were actually in the right way when they found themselves exposed to this inconvenience. Could we have learned that the people had strayed but one yard from the appointed path, we should have found in that fact an explanation of this trial. We should have exclaimed as men who have suddenly discovered the key of a great difficulty “See what comes of disobedience to the Divine voice! If the people had walked in the way marked out for them by the Almighty, their bread and their water would have been sure, but now that they have taken the course into their own hands, they come to bitter streams which they cannot drink!” The contrary, however, is the fact of the case. The people marched along the very road which God intended them to occupy, and in that very march they came upon waters that were bitter. Is it not often so in our own life? We have been delivered from some great trial, some overwhelming affliction which brought us to the very gates of death, some perplexity which bewildered our minds and baffled our energies, and then we have lifted up our hearts in adoring songs to the Deliverer of our lives, and have vowed to live the rest of our days in the assured comfort arising from the merciful interposition and gracious defence of God; yet we have hardly gone three days’ march into the future before we have come upon wells which have aggravated the thirst we expected them to allay. Compared with the great deliverance, the trial itself may seem to be trifling, yet it becomes an intolerable distress. Suffer not the tempter to suggest that the trial has befallen you because of disobedience. History has again and again shown us that the field of duty has been the field of danger, and that the way which has conducted directly from earth to heaven has been beset by temptations and difficulties too great for human strength. You may be right, even when the heaviest trial is oppressing you. You may be losing your property, your health may be sinking, your prospects may be clouded, and your friends may be leaving you one by one, yet in the midst of such disasters your heart may be steadfast in faithfulness to God. If, however, we are able to trace our trial to some outward or inward sin, then indeed it well becometh us to bow down before the God of heaven and to utter the cry of penitence at the Cross of Jesus Christ, if haply we may be forgiven.
2. “The people murmured against Moses,” so the greatest services of life are soon forgotten. Instead of saying to Moses, “Thou art our leader, and we will trust thee; we remember thy services in the past, and we believe thee to be under the inspiration of God,” the children of Israel turned round upon Moses and openly treated him as incapable, if not treacherous. Where was their recollection of the overthrow of Pharaoh? Where was the memory of the thunderous and triumphant song which they sang when the sea covered the chariots and horsemen of the tyrant king? The people murmured and whimpered like disappointed children, instead of bearing their trial with the fortitude of men and the hope of saints. So soon do we forget the great services which have been rendered by our leaders. Moses was the statesman of Israel, yet see how he was treated when he came upon difficulties over which he had no personal control! It is so that we deal with our own patriots: they think for us, they scheme for us, they involve themselves in the most exhausting labour on our account; so long as they repeat our sentiments, and give effect to our wishes, we laud them and write their names upon the bright banner, but let them turn round and utter a conviction with which we cannot sympathise, or propose a scheme with which we are but ill-fitted to grapple, so comprehensive is its scope and so numerous its details, and in a moment we strike them in the face and trample their reputation in the dust. We do the same with our preachers. We want our preachers to be but echoes. So long as they will say from the pulpit the things which we have been saying with cuckoo-like regularity for many years, we call them excellent preachers, and pay them their paltry dole with as much enthusiasm as small natures can feel; but if they attempt to lead us into unwonted tracks, if they do but suggest in the most remote and delicate manner that possibly there are some truths which we have not yet mastered, the probability is we shall in an hour forget the pastoral solicitude and the ministerial zeal of years, and treat as enemies the men who have been our wisest and gentlest friends.
3. “And Moses cried unto the Lord!” so magnanimous prayer is better than official resignation. Think what Moses might have said under the circumstances! With what indignation he might have answered the murmuring mob! “Am I God that I can create wells in the desert? Are we not moving under the express command of Heaven, and has not God some purpose in leading us this way? Do I drink at a secret well of pure water, and leave you to be poisoned by waters that are diseased Avaunt, ye unreasoning and ungrateful reptiles, and learn the elements of civility and the first principles of morality.” Instead of speaking so, what did Moses do? He cried unto the Lord! All great leaderships should be intensely religious, or they will assuredly fail in the patience without which no strength can be complete. The question was not between Moses and Israel, it was between Moses and the Almighty One, revealed by the gracious names of the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; hence to that Almighty One Moses directed his appeal. Did the chief relations of life subsist wholly between the human parties involved, there might be a ready way of escaping from difficulty and vexation; such however is not the fact; the relation of parent and child, or of pastor and church, or of strong and weak, is not a relation complete in itself, it has a religious basis, and it involves religious responsibility. What then are men to do when they are assailed by murmuring and distrust from those who are under their care? They are not to take the high and mighty plan of standing on their so-called dignity, nor are they at liberty to enter the chariot of their own proud indignation, that they may pass away into quieter realms; they must take the case to him who is Lord and Master, and must wait the indication of his will. I cannot think of the patience of Moses, or of any man or woman who has ever been concerned in the best training of life, without seeing in such patience a faint emblem of that higher patience which is embodied in the life and ministry of the Saviour of mankind! Were he not patient with us beyond all that we know of human forbearance and hope, he would surely consume us from the face of the earth, and so silence for ever the voice of our petulant and unreasoning complaint; but he cares for us, he yearns over us; when we strive most vehemently against him, when we smite his back and pluck the hair from his cheek, he inquires with agony of wounded love, “How shall I give thee up?”
Parents, instead of resigning the oversight of your children, pray for them! Pastors, instead of resigning your official positions, pray for those who despitefully use you! All who in anywise seek to defend the weak, or lead the blind or teach the ignorant, instead of being driven off by every unreasonable murmuring, renew your patience by waiting upon God!
4. “And the Lord shewed him a tree,” so where there is a bane in life, there is also an antidote. The water was bitter, but there was a tree of healing at hand! Things are never so bad in reality as they often appear to be. Undoubtedly there are bitter experiences, but quite as undoubtedly there are remedies precisely adapted to these experiences. The tree was not created in order to meet the case: it was actually standing there at the time of the complaint. The cure is often much nearer us than our irrational distrust will allow us to suppose. Remember that the tree was not discovered by Moses himself: it was specially pointed out by the Lord. God is the Teacher of true methods of healing the body, as well as the only source of spiritual salvation. We may divide the spheres amidst which we live, and may for the sake of convenience call one Agriculture, another Medicine, another Architecture, and others by distinguishing names, but, regarded profoundly and truly, human life is still under a Theocracy. Theology contains all that is true in art and in science, as well as the doctrines which apply to our highest capabilities and aspirations. An ancient saint looking upon the ploughman and upon the sower, and observing how they prepared the earth to bring forth and bud, that there might be bread for the world, exclaimed, “This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.” The true physician is inspired of Heaven; so is the true poet; so is the true painter; so also is the true preacher. We must not narrow theology until it becomes a sectarian science; we must insist that within its expansiveness are to be found all things and all hopes which minister to the strength and exalt the destiny of human life.
Hast thou come, my friend, in thy wilderness way, to the place of bitter waters? Canst thou not drink of the stream, even though thy thirst be burning and thy strength be wasted? Know thou, there is a tree the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations! A tree? Truly so; but a tree as yet without a leaf, a tree bare as the frosts and the winds of winter can make it, the great, grim, dear, sad, wondrous Cross of the Son of God! Some have sought to touch the wells of life with other trees, but have only aggravated the disease which they sought to cure. By the grace of Heaven others have been enabled to apply the Cross to the bitter wells of their sin and grief, and behold the waters have become clear as the crystal river which flows fast by the throne of God!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
X
FROM THE RED SEA TO SINAI
Exo 15:22-16:36
1. What notes of time and how long the period?
Ans. Exo 12:6-51 , shows that they started from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month. Exo 15:22 , the beginning of our lesson, shows that they go three days in the wilderness. Exo 16:1 , shows that they enter into the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month, and Exo 19:1 , shows that they arrived at Sinai on the same day of the third month. So that the period covered by this lesson was about two months.
2. What scripture gives all the camping stations?
Ans. Num 33:8-15 .
3. Explain methods of travel and stops, giving average distance per day including stops.
Ans. – (a) As the multitude was very great and included women and children, and as they were accompanied by flocks and herds that must be grazed, they necessarily moved slowly. Even large armies, however well disciplined, move slowly. How much more such a multitude of untrained women and children as were here. (b) They did not travel every day, sometimes remaining quite a while at a convenient stopping place. While the cloud stood still they stayed, (c) They averaged on this part of the journey about a mile a day including stops.
4. What was the starting point, what wildernesses are mentioned and what are the stopping places?
Ans. The starting point was the Red Sea; the wildernesses mentioned are the Wilderness of Etham, the Wilderness of Sin and the Wilderness of Sinai; and the stopping places are Marah, Elim, etc. (See Num 33:8-15 .)
5. What are the great events of this journey?
Ans. (1) The healing of the bitter water at Marah; (2) The good times at the many waters of Elim; (3) The coming of the manna and quail; (4) The sabbath marked and observed; (5) Water from the smitten rock at Rephidim; (6) The deliverance in battle at Rephidim.
6. What are the great lessons of these events?
Ans. (1) The checkered vicissitudes of an earthly pilgrimage; (2) God’s safe guidance of his people “Where he leads we will follow”; (3) God’s provision of competent human leaders; (4) God’s provision against sickness, thirst, hunger, nakedness, heat, and darkness; (5) God’s provision for regular worship; (6) The Lord is the banner of his people in battle; (7) The sin of murmuring when under God’s leadership; (8) All together his marvelous methods of training a nation by proving and discipline and healing and delivering.
7. What three instances of provision against thirst?
Ans. When the water was bad, when it was good and abundant, and when there was no water.
8. State the lesson of Marah?
Ans. (1) They were brought to this bad water to prove them, to afford them an opportunity of trusting God under difficult conditions. (2) It is distinctly a lesson of healing. Whatever the way, the water was diseased, poisoned by some unwholesome ingredient. It is quite possible that this poison came from stagnation. A flowing stream disposes of its poison. In Eze 47 , where we have an account of the marvelous water of life flowing from the sanctuary, it is stated in the paragraph, Eze 47:7-11 , that where the water flowed into a depression whence there was no outlet it became a salt marsh. As water must flow to be healthful, so a Christian must move forward or backslide. (3) The purpose of the miracle of healing the water was to suggest that God is able to prevent or to cure all the diseases of his people. (4) Therefore this healing was made the occasion of a statute requiring obedience as a condition of the divine blessing upon the pilgrims, followed by a glorious promise that he would put upon them none of the diseases to which the Egyptians were subject. (5) It is quite probable that the spiritualizing interpreters are right in seeing in the tree used as an instrument of healing a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. It is certain that the way of life necessarily finds some hard places, leads to some painful experiences and afflictions. Indeed this is necessary to discipline, and this whole lesson teaches that when we come to these afflictions or other trials that may be bitter, the cross will sweeten them so as to make them bearable, converting the bitter into sweet. A splendid commentary on the lesson is J. G. Holland’s great poem, “Bittersweet.” If you have not read it) read it, and there learn the lesson of Marah.
9. What is the lesson of Elim?
Ans. As Marah shows that life’s pilgrimage must come to some hard places, Elim shows that there are alternations of most pleasant places. Here were twelve flowing springs and abundant pasturage, and the palm tree for shade. The providence of God does not lead us always to climbing hills and to sufferings from sickness. It brings us now and then to Beulah lands. It is quite probable that they remained at Elim several days until man and beast were refreshed. Compare Job in his reflections.
10. What are the great lessons of the manna?
Ans. (1) From pleasant Elim they go into the horrible desert of Sin and now, their supplies brought from Egypt having been consumed, the people are suffering from the keenest pangs of hunger. The bread and meat question in all human history has been one to try the souls of the people. What shall we eat and what shall we drink? is the fruitful source of needless anxiety, as we learn from the Sermon on the Mount. If the high cost of living at the present time oppresses the poor and puts them on the danger line of desperate deeds, how sore must have been this trial to these people in this dreadful wilderness when there was no food at all! It was a time for great faith in God. They were not equal, however, to the occasion. (2) They not only murmured against the earthly leaders whom God had appointed, but they looked back longingly to the flesh-pots of Egypt. They preferred abundant food in Egypt with slavery to hunger in the wilderness with liberty. How Patrick Henry’s voice would have sounded there: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” (3) Jehovah now announces that he will rain bread from heaven but in such a way as that their dependence on him shall be day by day, and that he is able to set a table before them in the wilderness, not only by supplying bread in the morning but causing quail by the thousands to light in the camp in the evenings.
11. Describe the coming of the manna, its appearance and taste.
Ans. (1) It came as dew. (2) It looked like coriander seed. (3) It tasted like honey and wafers.
12. What was the occasion of its name?
Ans. When the people looked upon something like hoarfrost on the ground and were informed that this was their bread from heaven, all over the camps the question spontaneously came: “What is it?” What a fine text for a sermon. “What is it?” That is the meaning of manna. They saw the bread thus spread on the ground, and said, “Manual” meaning, “What is it?”
13. What was the law of its coming so as to mark the sabbath?
Ans. On the sabbath day no manna fell; it was God’s calendar. If the people in the monotony of their life should forget, once every week when they looked out and found the ground bare, that said, “Today is the holy sabbath of the Lord.” For many long years the absence of manna on the seventh day served the purpose of a church bell.
14. What of the Law of when and how much to gather?
Ans. It was to be gathered every morning that it appeared. A definite quantity must be gathered for each one, just a sufficiency. On every Friday they must gather twice as much as on the other secular days of the week, because none would come on the sabbath day. This remarkable supply and its method taught the lesson later inculcated in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” or “Give us our bread day by day.” It also calls up that remarkable prayer of Agur: Two things have I asked of Thee; Deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lies; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is needful for me; Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? Or lest I be poor, and steal, And use profanely the name of my God.
Pro 30:7-9
15. How was disobedience of this law discoverable in three particulars?
Ans. (1) If on Friday, they forgot that the morrow was the sabbath, or if remembering, they trusted to find enough on the sabbath to satisfy for that day, then they must starve that day. Others could not supply them, for each one had just enough for himself. (2) If when they gathered it in the morning they provided more than the allowance, it shrank to the measure of the omer. (3) If doubting that it might come the next day they preserved a part of one day’s supply for the next day, it stank and bred worms. And some of the people were caught on all these points.
16. What, then, was the purpose of this marvelous miracle?
Ans. Its purpose was threefold: (1) To make the people see and feel their dependence upon God; (2) to make them feel this dependence day by day; (3) to mark in the most marvelous way the necessity of setting apart one-seventh of their time, not merely to freedom from work but to worship God and thus keep them from straying too far from the Lord.
17. What scriptures show how long this miracle lasted?
Ans. Jos 5:10-12 , and Exo 16:35 , show that at Gilgal after the Passover following the circumcision, they did eat of the old corn of the land and the manna ceased. Just forty years from the time that they had left Egypt.
18. What was the memorial of the manna?
Ans. A pot of the manna, a day’s allowance, was laid up before the Lord, like Aaron’s rod that budded, and kept for a memorial unto all generations.
19. Where do we find an elaborate discussion of the antitype of the manna?
Ans. The whole of Joh 6 , is devoted to a discussion of this subject, and we cannot understand the fulness of the lesson on the manna until we have mastered that chapter.
20. What further New Testament scripture refers to this antitypical lesson?
Ans. Rev 2:17 , to the church at Pergamos, Jesus says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.” The hidden manna may refer to the preserved pot of manna kept later in the ark, or it may refer to its spiritual signification, that is, faith daily feeding on the Lord.
21. What name does Paul give to the manna?
Ans. 1Co 10:3 : “And did all eat the same spiritual meat.”
22. In what later scripture does Moses show that God provided at this time against nakedness as well as against hunger and thirst?
Ans. In Deu 29:5-6 : “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxed old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxed old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink’ that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God.”
23. In what way during this part of the pilgrimage, and all the rest of it, did Jehovah provide against heat by day and darkness by night?
Ans. The pillar of cloud spread over them as a shade by day, and illuminated their camps at night.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Exo 15:22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
Ver. 22. And found no water. ] Thirst and bitterness was their first bad omen on their journey.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Shur. Name given from the great wall built to protect Egypt from Asia, with its great Migdol, or fortress. See note on Exo 14:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
II. THE JOURNEY TOWARDS THE PROMISED LAND AND ISRAEL AT SINAI
1. The Experiences in the Wilderness
CHAPTER 15:22-27 In the Wilderness of Shur
1. Marah (Exo 15:22-26)
2. Elim (Exo 15:27)
They went out into the wilderness of Shur. Shur was a great wall of protection which Egypt had erected. The surrounding country was called by that name. The trials of the wilderness journey at once begin; typical of our passage as redeemed ones through this world. Redemption has for a consequence the wilderness. We are in Christ crucified unto the world and the world unto us. The bitter waters are the first wilderness experience of the nation. It is a hint of what their subsequent history would be. Naomi in the book of Ruth called herself Mara. Marah, the bitterness, is the perfect picture of the world under sin and death. Then came the first wilderness murmuring. Six more are reported in Exodus and Numbers: Exo 16:2; Exo 17:2-3; Num 11:33-34; Num 14:2; Num 16:41; Num 21:5. God had a remedy. The tree is typical of the cross. The tree was not discovered by Moses, but by Jehovah. Christ went into the deep, dark waters of death; by Him the waters were made sweet for those who believe on Him. Now the bitterness of death is passed, and if we find the bitterness in the world through which we pass as pilgrims and strangers and we follow the path which He went while in the world, then murmuring will be forever excluded if the heart sees Christ and following in His steps, looks upon every bitter experience as the fellowship of His sufferings. Compare the tree for healing with Rev 22:2.
In Exo 15:26 Jehovah speaks of Himself as Jehovah Ropheka, the Lord thy Healer. The bitter waters showed them that they needed Jehovah in the wilderness as much as they needed Him in their deliverance from Egypt and Pharaohs power. And now He offers Himself as their healer. He takes gracious care of His people while they follow Him in the path of obedience. Some have pressed this promise to such an extent that they say sickness in a Christian is the result of direct disobedience; a Christian has no need of being sick, etc. This is wrong, and has led into theories which are far from sane and scriptural.
Marah is followed by Elim with its twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. A beautiful oasis in the desert, giving them a foretaste of Canaan . What a place of refreshing and peace it must have been. So in our experience many a Marah is followed by an Elim, as the cross is followed by the crown. Elim means trees, and they must have been of luxuriant growth, planted by the wells of waters. So Israel after their Marah experience, when Jehovah has forgiven their sins and healed all their diseases, in the day of their future blessing and glory, will be like trees planted at the water brooks and will draw water out of the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3).
Exo 16:1-36
CHAPTER 16 In the Wilderness of Sin
1. The renewed murmuring (Exo 16:1-3)
2. The bread from heaven promised (Exo 16:4-10)
3. The promise fulfilled and the quails and bread given (Exo 16:11-14)
4. Instructions concerning the gathering (Exo 16:16-18)
5. The manna corrupted (Exo 16:19-21)
6. The manna and the Sabbath (Exo 16:22-31)
7. The manna kept for a memorial (Exo 16:32-36)
After they removed from Elim, they encamped by the Red Sea (Num 33:10). They came into the wilderness of sin. The Hebrew word means thorn, the bush in which Jehovah had appeared to Moses in the Hebrew is Sineh, a thornbush. The second murmuring takes place. This gives a deep glimpse into the desperately wicked condition of the human heart. God had brought them out of the house of bondage; they wished themselves back. God had sheltered them beneath the blood; they wished the judgment might have carried them away. They were ready to leave the ground of redemption, guided by Jehovah, and turn back to Pharaoh to become slaves once more. What infinite patience and grace the Lord manifested toward them. All this is repeated in the lives of many believers. It need not to be so and it will not, if Christ and the redemption we have in Him as well as our glorious inheritance which is before us, is a reality in our lives.
Heaven offers now to minister to the daily need of such a people. The glory of the Lord was seen again out of the cloud (Exo 16:7; Exo 16:10). The bread from Heaven was given. It is described as small in size, round, white like coriander seed, like wafers made with honey and hard. Rationalists have tried to explain the giving of this bread in a natural way. In a certain part of the desert is found a tree from which exudes at certain times an eatable gum and falls to the ground in the form of small cakes; this, it is claimed, explains the manna. But they do not explain how it is that the Israelites received the manna in every part of the desert, that they received it in such immense quantities that the hundred thousands were fed by it and it lasted for forty years. It ceased as miraculously as it was given (Jos 5:12). The word manna is from the Hebrew Man-hu, the question, What is that? It is designated as the bread from heaven (Psa 78:24; Psa 105:40). Our Lord speaks of it as the bread from heaven in John 6, a chapter which is of importance in connection with the typical meaning of the manna. But quails were given first and in the morning dew, and after it arose, the manna. The quails and the manna are both the types of Christ, the food for Gods people. The dew after which the manna is seen, speaks of the Holy Spirit, who ministers Christ. Each gathered the bread which had come down according to his eating. Each got what he wanted, and not more. So Christ meets the need we have of Him if only our need of Him were greater and felt more.
It could not be hoarded up, but had to be gathered every morning. We must feed on Christ daily in living faith. Yesterdays experience and enjoyment cannot feed us today. We must gather afresh, and let the dew, the Holy Spirit, minister to our hearts. Many live on past experiences, and become puffed up. Stagnation and corruption follow. The Sabbath is mentioned in connection with the manna and it is the first time that the Sabbath for Israel as a nation is spoken of. To feed on Christ, the bread from heaven, means rest for the soul. The keeping of the manna in the golden pot (Heb 9:4) tells us of what our Lord said concerning the bread from heaven, He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. The true manna endureth to eternal life and we shall eat in His own presence in glory the hidden manna (Rev 2:17).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
wilderness of Shur: This lay on the eastern shore of the Heroopolitic gulf of the Red Sea, and is still called the desert of Shur, according to Dr. Shaw. Gen 16:7, Gen 25:18, 1Sa 15:7
three days: Exo 3:18
Reciprocal: Gen 21:15 – the water Gen 22:4 – third Exo 18:8 – and all the Num 33:8 – departed 1Sa 27:9 – left neither 2Ki 3:9 – no water Psa 136:16 – General Eze 20:10 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Subdivision 4. (Exo 15:22-27; Exo 16:1-36; Exo 17:1-16; Exo 18:1-27.)
Wilderness-grace.
Israel is, however, as yet but brought into the wilderness. We have now, therefore, -not the proper history of the wilderness (that we find in Numbers), but -the grace which meets the need of the wilderness, -how their bread is given them and their water is made sure. The meaning of their being brought here is evidently to wean them from all other dependencies, and to cast them upon God; to manifest His truth and trustworthiness in all the minutiae of daily care. His was the responsibility of bringing this multitude through to the land He had promised them, and He charges Himself with it, that we, no less than they, may learn to find Him in the smallest details, and most familiar and homely matters of common life. In the deliverance from Egypt He had shown Himself for them on a great occasion; and there are many who seem only to look for His interference upon great occasions. But our life is not made up of such, and from how much of it must He be banished if we are only to find Him there! Thank God, it is not so: He is about our path and about our bed, serving us ever in the perpetual need we have of Him.
But again, as types, what happened to them reveals to us deeper than physical needs, and a much more marvelous provision. As types, they must have anti-types greater than themselves; and with these, therefore, must be our main occupation, as continually through these books.
1. To be in the wilderness is not failure, but the consequence of redemption. The world is not for sense a wilderness: it is Egypt, -fruitful and fair enough, though storms may sweep through it. But for faith, yearning after the inheritance beyond, all is changed. He who learns to glory in the cross of Christ has to say, “By which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.” The place of Christ’s cross can be but barren ground -a wilderness.
But this truth of the wilderness is not in itself a pleasant, but a bitter, thing. The good of it is in the necessity which brings God in. A place of the most wonderful display of divine power and love, it is the necessity of the people which occasions this display. Had the desert brought forth bread for them, there would have been no bread from heaven. Had it produced water, there would have been no need for the water from the rock. God’s supplies are, we must not say, proportioned to the necessity (they are over-abundant), but they are occasioned by it.
Marah, as the introduction to the desert, is just the symbol of what the desert is. It was its proximity to the sea that made the waters bitter. Lying low by the shore, the saltness of the sea made (and still makes) the waters brackish. If the sea speak of death, then Marah shows the wilderness as the place of death, where not merely is nothing given for our thirst, but what is there is the very provocative of thirst.
Naturally, we shrink from this. Marah, in itself, is never pleasant. The Christian spirit with regard to all the sorrow and sin that are in the world is never apathy, -never indifference. It is as redeemed we come to Marah; redemption places in the very position in which to feel the bitterness of the world. Brought dry-shod through the sea, we are then made to drink of it.
But if the flesh shrinks from Marah, God has a remedy, and though we do not know the tree which God showed Moses, we know its antitype. It is the cross of Christ, -the fellowship of His sufferings, and the knowledge of its being that, what suffering can it not sweeten? We are sharing His experiences who gives us therein to realize the wonderful place which He has taken for us, -the path in which divine love led Him for our sakes. We have communion with Himself in such a way as we could not else enjoy; and nothing brings hearts together like sharing a common lot of toil and sorrow.
Atonement was Christ’s work alone: here none could be with Him. But in other aspects even of the cross itself we may find that which, linking itself with the glory at the end, characterizes our path. We follow a rejected Master, and are made partakers of His sufferings. This bitterness of death in the wilderness is not the experience which falls to the common lot of men. It is not simply, as in the body, enduring the ills which they say flesh is heir to. It is what results from being linked with Christ in His path of suffering, and in spirit with Him to whom the spirit of the world was only that. “If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.” But if with Him we suffer, Marah is no longer Marah; “the valley of Baca (of tears) becomes a well;” the tree is in the waters.
And here is God’s standing ordinance for us, and by which He proves us. God. is our Healer; He maketh whole and from the diseases of Egypt He will exempt us, if only we endure the test. If we will accept of the path of sorrow and trial which the Lord gives us here, we shall escape the afflictions which are His judgments on the world, and which come on those also who take their place with the world. Those who do not suffer for Christ, or with Christ, do not by their unfaithfulness escape suffering. They only suffer with the Egyptians.
This is what divine love -what He who has redeemed us to Himself says to us as His redeemed. Love itself cannot give us escape from the necessity of conforming to these conditions. It would not be love to do so. We shall find at last how in fact we have entered in this way, -as only by it we could enter, -into some of the deepest secrets of the heart of God. It is here in this scene of sin and sorrow that we are learning Christ -the Christ we are to enjoy forever. Even in the glory we could not learn what we learn here on earth. But to learn the Man of Sorrows, we must learn sorrow which yet is lost in the infinite joy of being made like Him, and linked with Him, and in Him learning that which is to be our possession forever.
From Marah now, too, we reach Elim, and here is divine and abundant refreshment for a thirsty people. When we are conformed to God’s conditions we find that the water is not always and merely water that must be sweetened for us. There is water which is in itself sweet, -pure, unalloyed satisfaction and joy, which has no sorrow in it.
The twelve springs answering to the twelve tribes, seem to point to a provision for those under the manifest government of God -an obedient people. We must have been at Marah to find Elim. The sweet water must be tasted after the bitter. When we have stooped to drink the bitter water we shall have the sweet.
Elim means “trees,” implying strong trees, clearly referring to the growth nourished by its flowing springs. The living water of the Spirit nourishes the “trees of the Lord,” which “are full of sap” and the palm-tree is the figure of the righteous, -upright, and every way profitable, -bringing forth fruit still in old age (Psa 92:12; Psa 92:14) perennial as the streams that nourish them.
2. And now we come to the manna, -the bread with which God sustains His people in the wilderness. Here we cannot be at a loss for the interpretation. Christ is the true bread from heaven, given of the Father, the food of His people, -the meat which, though we find it in the wilderness of this world, nevertheless endures unto eternal life. It is Christ in His humiliation “coming down from heaven,” but which will be the sustenance of the soul in heaven itself. The story is told in eight subsections, which carry us on, therefore, to the land of promise.
(1) It is in the wilderness of Sin where the manna falls for the first time, and the numerical stamp seems to emphasize its meaning. “Sin” is connected with seneh, a “thorn-bush,” the word used for that in which God revealed Himself to Moses. We are familiar already with the thorn as the sign of the ground cursed for man’s sake, and we must not surely forget it here. Yet here both the numerical place and the lesson of the whole chapter seem to insist upon another character of a “wilderness of thorn.” Of Palestine in its present state Tristram says, “The combined heat and dryness of the climate seem to develop a tendency to form thorns, even in groups like the astragalus, where we should least expect them. All plants become more spiny in rocky and parched situations, the expansive effort which under moister conditions would develop a bough with leaf or blossom being arrested, and forming merely a barren thorn or spine. “No picture could be more striking than this: the sun smiting, the genial heavenly influence become a scorching heat, water -the type of the Spirit -withheld, the barren soil with its vegetation running into weapons of offense: such is the world as the place of need into which the Son of God came as Son of man.
(2) The people again break out into murmuring: an unhumbled spirit can take God’s grace as a thing of course, but resents whatever reminds it that God is not its debtor. How beautiful the grace that can meet this return for so mighty a deliverance with the assurance of new and continual mercy! Heaven will bestow what no labor of their own can get; giving, indeed, in such a way (“the day’s portion in its day”) that dependence shall be maintained; for thus the blessing is more than doubled; and providing also that human activity shall be required in its place, for what is given them they must gather. On the sixth day the amount is twice as much as usual; for the sixth day is the day of discipline which is also the day of spiritual harvest.
(3) In the manna, Jehovah manifests Himself afresh as the Deliverer out of Egypt, and His glory appears in the cloud as they look toward the wilderness. There is little need to interpret this: it is by Christ we believe in God (1Pe 1:21); and it would be loss indeed to stop short of this. “I and my Father are one” leads into the innermost sanctuary of wonder and worship. There is no hidden God any more, save as in the light, -not darkness, -in which He dwells, there are, indeed, inaccessible depths of glory (1Ti 6:16). This is only to say that the God who is perfectly revealed is of course God.
(4) Now we are made to see what the manna is like. A flight of quails precedes it in the evening, which furnish the people with the flesh that had been promised them. And as we know abundantly what this death as the food of life means, we can have no difficulty as to it here. The Lord Himself, in His sermon on this text of manna (Joh 6:1-71), assures us that we must not only eat His flesh, but drink His blood, or we have no life in us. His person and His work are both necessary to us; and in fact His sacrifice must precede, as in the blood-sprinkled house alone they could feed on the lamb. So the quails come first, and in the evening. In the morning, the dew exhales and leaves the manna, as the Spirit of God ministers Christ.
It is upon the ground, so that they must stoop to gather it, -on the face of the wilderness, -something fine, as if pounded to pieces, -fine as the hoar-frost on the ground. This is as the people see it, who have not yet tasted it, and know not what it is. It evidently does not look much, -has upon it marks as if of rough usage; it reminds us of the prophet’s words, “No beauty in Him that we should desire Him.” “What is it?” they say; for they wist not what it was. “The world knew Him not.”
There is a natural manna which on account of its likeness to this has been used to discredit the miracle. But it is not properly a food, but a drug, -an exudation from a tree that an insect has pierced, wholly impossible to confound, one would say, with the divine gift: yet men do often confound it. And there are multitudes who confound Christ with common men: but who else could say and prove it, “He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me”?
(5) As to the gathering of the manna, we have a striking and solemn thing. Every man, it was found, gathered according to his eating. There was no lack for any: each got what he wanted, and not more than he wanted. Does not Christ meet the need we really have of Him? He does: but how much, then, is that need with each of us?
(6) The manna was not to be hoarded, but gathered (with one exception) morning by morning, and eaten on the day it fell. Hoarded, it bred worms, and stank. So must a living faith draw continually for continual need. We cannot live to-day upon yesterday’s enjoyment! Our past experiences will in this case only turn into corruption: they will feed pride; they will be knowledge that puffs up.
(7) And now, along with the manna, the Sabbath appears. In the double measure of the sixth day, it is provided for before it is enjoined: they rest not as mere duty, but as privilege; and in the gospels we find this rest connected in the most striking way with the reception of the Lord Himself. He is Lord of the Sabbath. They could not reject Him and have a Sabbath. With Christ known and fed upon, rest follows necessarily; found as we realize a love which has stooped so low as to give us the joy of companionship with Himself, and to bring us near, in Himself, to God. Away from God, Cainlike, we are but fugitives and vagabonds upon the earth. Nor can circumstances make peace for us; nay, while He says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” He adds directly, “but in Me ye shall have peace.”
In connection with this, we find for the first time what the manna is really like, for those who had tasted it. “It was like coriander-seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafer-cakes with honey.” It was white -absolute purity, and more: of the color which speaks of the reflection of the full ray of light, and God is light. Its taste was like honey. Honey is the type of natural sweetness, able to yield refreshment if tasted by the way, as with Jonathan in the wood, but needing the wise man’s caution in its use (Pro 25:16), and unfit for the fire which tries the offering of the Lord. But the manna only resembles honey in its sweetness: it can abide the fire; and the fire prepares it for the people’s food. In Christ is all the sweetness of human affection, -of a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother; but a nature pure, unfallen, incorruptible: the reality of manhood which invites us to intimacy, yet upon which God can put the seal of His Spirit in perfect approbation of it all.
(7) Thus of necessity this food “endureth to eternal life,” as Christ Himself has told us. The enjoyment of it is not for the present only. And so the manna, though it could not be kept for one day’s need in the wilderness, could be kept for the land. The golden pot speaks of how God is glorified in what is here made ours, and perhaps of that glorified One Himself who retains forever the memory of the past, and the gracious heart of the Son of Man also. And we shall not only “see,” as Israel might, but “eat” of the “hidden manna” (Rev 2:17), in the heavenly land to which He is bringing us. It is then in fact, when we come to be there, that we shall have the full enjoyment, -knowing as we are known, -of all the experiences which though they be of the wilderness, yet wait for the land to which we are hastening to find their full interpretation and blessing. The meat endures to everlasting life. We are now enjoying that which we shall enjoy for eternity. We feed on that which shall he eternally our food.
3. We have now a familiar type of the Spirit -the living water from the smitten rock; and, as an appendix to it, a necessary one, but still only that, in Amalek, the picture of the fleshly lusts which, in opposition to the Spirit, war against the soul. The numerical structure is here peculiarly significant: for the number of the section, while it is plainly that of the Spirit, says nothing of the strife that follows; nor could it come in very well as a fourth section, which the first part of the eighteenth chapter, moreover, plainly is. On the other hand, the number characterizes it exactly, if coming in as an appendix merely to the third section, unnoticed in the designation of the section itself, and yet finding its prepared place in connection with it. How clearly the spiritual meaning reigns in all this! and how it is brought out by the very arrangement! What connection has the conflict with Amalek with the water from the rock, other than a spiritual one? It comes in the historical order, no doubt. Yes, because “all these things happened unto them for types.” The connection is spiritual, it is grounded on this, that if we have the Spirit, “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.” And yet this is but incidental, not to be put upon a level with the glorious reality of the gift of the Holy Ghost itself, which is permanent and eternal blessing. Moreover, as the meaning of all this subdivision is to show the divine furnishing in grace for the wilderness, the struggle with Amalek necessarily could only have a subordinate place.
(1) “Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure,” says the prophet of salvation. We have seen how the first part of this was fulfilled to delivered Israel; we are now to see the fulfillment of the rest. Again, as sent in answer to the murmuring of the people, the stamp of divine grace is upon the gift. Grace is a mightier triumph over sin than judgment. If the sixth chapter of John’s gospel interprets the manna for us, the seventh chapter interprets here. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Thus, if the manna shows forth the Lord upon earth in humiliation and rejection, the living water as a gift depends upon His exaltation and glory. If men are to be the recipients of the Holy Ghost, the work must be accomplished for them which alone can enable them to receive or God to give this unspeakable gift. In view of this, the scene in Exodus becomes easy enough to interpret. Horeb is “the dry place,” but it now yields water. Against nature, “contrary to nature,” is the Lord’s working; and the Lord -it is specially noted -is Himself there. He stands upon the rock which is to display at once His power and His grace. The rod which had smitten the river smites it, -the rod of power in behalf of the people; and the streams gush out, an abundant supply for all the thirsty multitude. The smiting of the Rock for us has created a spring of refreshment and satisfaction as inexhaustible as the eternal source from which it comes; and its source is in God Himself -in the love of Him whose name is Love.
The type of water is pregnant with instruction, as it is that which supplies one of man’s deepest cravings and strongest necessities. Thirst unsatisfied kills sooner far than hunger, nor can hunger itself be really satisfied where thirst is not, at least in measure, really met. A glance at the need to which water ministers will enable us to understand this.
The soil otherwise most fruitful, without water, is unable to yield nourishment to the rootlets of the plant, which will die of drought in the midst of abundance. Water alone dissolves the nutriment, and supplies it in a shape suited to be taken up and assimilated into sap and juice. In the plant, and in the animal body, every constituent part is saturated with water, which alone enables it to fulfill its function and take its place in living relation to the whole. How perfect and beautiful an expression of that constant ministry of the Spirit with which for due and healthy life we must be “filled,” and by which alone we are enabled to absorb and digest all spiritual food!
Every one who has preceded us upon the path of faith has been sustained of the Spirit, as born of the Spirit at first. This is not, of course, peculiar to Christian times. But the streams from the smitten Rock have in them that which is peculiar. All streams carry with them the witness of the soil through which they flow, -of the fountain-head in which they originate. The Spirit of God, come down to us as the fruit of accomplished redemption and of Christ’s accepted work, is to our hearts the witness of our acceptance and the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. A new and settled relationship to God, in and through His Beloved, such as before could not have been known or dreamt of is now made consciously our own.
At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” Thus the Spirit ministers Christ, and with Him the knowledge of the Father; communion with the Father and the Son becomes our portion, and herein fullness of joy.
(2) The appendix to this has how different a tale to tell! Amalek is the grandson of profane Esau, whose name Edom, earned by his actions, is almost identical with Adam. Amalek’s own name has no determined significance. It has been thought to be composed of am and laq, and thus to mean “a people that licks up,” or “exhausts.” This would be appropriate enough, but Scripture points rather to a derivation from Amal and laq, which would give us the thought of “labor that exhausts.” The first of these words is found in Balaam’s blessing of the people the second time, as Amalek appears in the third and fourth. “He hath not seen
perverseness in Israel is literally, “He hath not seen amal,” -the wearisome labor which one’s own will involves; that “labor” from which the Lord calls men off to the “rest” of His easy yoke. Amal is thus connected with the will or lust of the flesh, and Amalek may well be the offspring of the old man, Edom. Amalek appears plainly in the third blessing: “His king shall be higher than Agag” -king of the Amalekites. And in the fourth, where the star rises out of Jacob -where Christ’s coming is seen, -then it is that Amalek perishes forever.
Put these together, and they read consistently enough as typical of the old nature and its fruits. The first thing for blessing is, “God hath not seen it”-it is not imputed. Next, Christ, Israel’s king, is strong above Agag: we are delivered from its actual supremacy. Thirdly, when Christ comes, Amalek perishes forever.
Again, if we compare the present chapter with the twentieth of Numbers, we shall find a strikingly similar scene in the first part of each: -the murmuring of the people in their thirst, the name “Meribah” given in each case to the place, the water brought from the rock to supply their thirst; and while here the conflict with Amalek follows, in Numbers follows correspondingly a scene with Edom.
Amalek thus seems to represent the flesh’s will or lust, and the apostle Peter may well refer to this very place when he speaks of “fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
“The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye should not do the things that ye would.” (Gal 5:17.) It is not “cannot” do, as in the common version: the tendency of the constant opposition between “flesh” and “Spirit,” essential in their very natures, is, to hinder the man who has the Spirit from doing what he would. If it said “cannot,” this would deny the power of the Spirit to control the flesh. On the contrary, the apostle says, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” But the flesh is there as this implies, and ready ever to assert itself. How solemn to find, in this way, after the water from the rock, the conflict with Amalek!
Yet though it is all right, and needful to assert in this connection, we must mark just how Scripture connects this attack of the foe. “He called the name of the place ‘Massah’ and ‘Meribah, ‘ on account of the striving of the children of Israel, and on account of their tempting Jehovah, saying, ‘Is Jehovah in the midst of us, or not?’ Then came Amalek.” That is, the moral link, as given thus, seems to be, not between the gift of the water and Amalek’s onset, but between the unbelief of the people and this attack.
Another thing which is very evident, let us at the same time particularly note: that Amalek assaults Israel, not Israel Amalek. God did not call to this conflict. He did not say, Seek out and destroy Amalek; it is Amalek seeks out Israel; and Israel’s unbelief exposes them to the attack.
And so the apostle: he does not say, “Fight against fleshly lusts,” but “abstain,” “hold off from,” them, -which if it were done, no war were possible. This sort of conflict is not a necessity of God’s imposing, but the result of faith not having been in due exercise. Did we “hold off from” the lusts of the flesh by the whole length of being dead with Christ to sin, -were we always reckoning ourselves dead, as we are entitled and bound to do, conflict of this kind would be impossible: dead men no more fight than they are allured. And this is no undue insisting upon the Scripture term; for the apostle similarly presses the force of it, where he urges “for he that is dead is freed (or rather, justified) from sin.” (Rom 6:7.) That is, you cannot charge lusts, for instance, on a dead man: he has none. This, of course, is only faith’s reckoning; but it is true, or it could not be faith’s, and just as simple for the argument here as in the very similar one that the apostle urges. He who, because Christ died to sin for him once, reckons himself dead, cannot be seduced, nor even fight with seduction. But are we always practically in the faith of this? Would that we were! But when we are not, we are shorn Samsons, most accessible, and without strength.
Conflict of this kind, then, comes from faith’s failure; and when entangled -if our eyes have been upon the world, and have affected our hearts, then we must indeed fight in order to be free.
Note, then, that in the field Joshua is the leader. Joshua is Jesus: the names are the same, and Christ acting by the Spirit is distinctly what he represents to us, -the Captain of our salvation, who leads us into practical apprehension of the heavenly places into which He is gone. We want, as this means, the positive enjoyment of what is ours in the heavenlies, in order to be free from entanglement, and really pilgrims and strangers on the earth.
But even Joshua’s success is dependent, as we see directly, upon Moses being on the hill-top before God, and the holding up of the rod of power before Him. If Moses’ hands are up, Israel prevails; but if Moses’ hands are down, Amalek prevails. Moses is here another type of Christ, but as gone in to God, presenting before Him the value of that work in which, on the part of His people, divine power has acted. And the supporters of Moses’ hands figure, surely, that in Him (not, of course, external to Him,) which keeps Him, so to speak, in the place He has taken for us. On the one hand, Aaron seems to represent His priestly character, as touched with the feeling of our infirmities, gracious and compassionate; on the other, Hur, “white,” speaks as the manna did, of One who fully reflects the light which God is. Here, then, is mercy toward man, righteousness toward God, -an “Advocate with the Father;” and also “Jesus Christ the righteous.”
Real dependence on the one hand, thorough subjection to the word of God on the other -for it is by the edge of the sword that Joshua discomfits their enemies, -these things, with one who knows redemption and acceptance in the Beloved, are what will carry him safe and victorious through all opposition and hindrances. But though Amalek is beaten off, Amalek is not destroyed. Israel has gained nothing by the conflict; and by the victory, only a free and unobstructed road. The battle with Amalek was but an episode in their history, not, as so many find the inward struggle, a daily experience. In the epistle to the Philippians, -the rehearsal of Christian experience, -the flesh is only mentioned to say we have no confidence in it: and these are “the true circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” May we be more fully such!
4. The deliverance is complete: the grace which begins perfects the work. Nothing more is needed as to this. But the effect of the work is yet to be seen, for God’s way is ever to make the blessing of one the means of blessing to others also. Thus it will be when the final salvation of Israel is accomplished, it will be to the world, says the apostle, “as life from the dead.” (Rom 11:15.)
In the present time, God is making the recipients of His salvation a testimony by which He works on others, -a thing that needs no insisting on, and which we find illustrated in the case of Jethro in a way so clear that it may be left to speak for itself.
5. The fifth and last section has more difficulty, and yet there need not be much doubt as to the general meaning. According to the number we have before us, as it would seem, those governmental ways of God, by which the “way” leads to the “end,” an end which is its righteous (while it may be gracious) recompense. In the history, we find Moses acting under the counsel of his father-in-law, sharing with chosen men of ability in Israel the service of rule over the people. It can scarcely fail to connect itself in our thoughts with that of which it may well be typical, -the day on which Christ (of whom all through Moses speaks to us) shall give according to the will of His Father (Mat 20:23) His people to share His throne as Son of Man (Rev 3:21). This is surely a fitting and beautiful close of this series of types, which has given us thus in wonderful completeness and reality the history of redemption. Grace ends not with us till the reward of grace is given, and it shines at last in glory. Beyond this these types could not go, and a new series must begin with that which follows.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Exo 15:22. They went three days and found no water Here we see that deliverances, however great, do not exempt from future difficulties and trials. Never was a greater deliverance, of a temporal nature, wrought out for any people than that of the Israelites from Pharaoh and from Egypt. It is the most wonderful act of Gods almighty power, next to the creation of the world, and its destruction by, and subsequent restoration from the flood, which we read of in the Old Testament: or rather, it is a series of acts, each more wonderful than the other. And yet the very people, thus delivered, find themselves, immediately on their deliverance, with their numerous flocks, and herds, and little ones, in danger of perishing with thirst! And when, after three days of distress on this account, they found water, could not drink of it because it was bitter. But this was for the trial of their faith and patience; and after the wonderful things God had done for them, they were perfectly inexcusable in murmuring against Moses, which was, in effect, murmuring against God. How marvellous was the patience of God with this people!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 15:22-27. Bitter Waters made Sweet (Exo 15:22-25 a J, Exo 15:25 b E, Exo 15:26 Rje, Exo 15:27 J).The wilderness of Shur stretched E. of the present Suez Canal. No very plausible site for Marah, three days journey E., can be suggested on the ordinary theory; but Gressmann finds Mara, along with Massa and Meriba, among the high ground near Petra, beyond the Gulf of Akaba, which he takes for the Reed-sea. There are three springs, the spring of Kadesh and two others. The brackish water was undrinkable, and set the people murmuring. This constant feature, so unflattering yet so true to the experience of a big caravan over desert ground, and so testing to the capacity of the leader, is one that illustrates the faithfulness of the tradition. Yahweh showed Moses a tree, or taught him (the healing properties of) wood. No tree has been found with this power; but a later compiler (Exo 15:26) has based on the story the beautiful conception of Yahweh as the Physician of His people.
Exo 15:25 b E seems to belong to Es story of Massah (proving), cf. Exo 17:2-7. Its proximity to the Marah story here favours Gressmanns view.Some delightful oasis is denoted by Elim (sacred trees), but its locality is uncertain.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
15:22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of {m} Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
(m) Which was called Etham, Num 33:8.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
II. THE ADOPTION OF ISRAEL 15:22-40:38
The second major section of Exodus records the events associated with God’s adoption of Israel as His chosen people. Having redeemed Israel out of slavery in Egypt He now made the nation His privileged son. Redemption is the end of one journey but the beginning of another.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Events in the wilderness of Shur 15:22-27
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A. God’s preparatory instruction of Israel 15:22-18:27
The events in this section of the text record God’s preparation of His people for the revelation of His gracious will for them at Mt. Sinai.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The wilderness of Shur was a section of semi-desert to the east of Egypt’s border. It occupied the northwestern part of the Sinai Peninsula, and it separated Egypt from Palestine (Exo 15:22).
". . . wilderness does not imply a waste of sand, but a broad open expanse, which affords pasture enough for a nomad tribe wandering with their flocks. Waste and desolate so far as human habitations are concerned, the traveller [sic] will only encounter a few Bedouins. But everywhere the earth is clothed with a thin vegetation, scorched in summer drought, but brightening up, as at the kiss of the Creator, into fair and beautiful pastures, at the rainy season and in the neighbourhood of a spring." [Note: Meyer, p. 178.]
This area has not changed much over the years.
Moses had asked Pharaoh’s permission for the Israelites to go a three-day journey into the wilderness (Exo 3:18; Exo 5:3; Exo 8:27), but now, having gone three days, the people found no water suitable for drinking. The water at the oasis later called Marah was brackish (Exo 15:23-24). This condition made the people complain again (cf. Exo 14:11-12). In three days they had forgotten God’s miracles at the Red Sea, much less the plagues. This should prove that miracles do not result in great faith. Rather great faith comes from a settled conviction that God is trustworthy.
"When the supply fails, our faith is soon gone." [Note: Martin Luther, quoted by Keil and Delitzsch, 2:58.]
". . . we may in our journey have reached the pools that promised us satisfaction, only to find them brackish. That marriage, that friendship, that new home, that partnership, that fresh avenue of pleasure, which promised so well turns out to be absolutely disappointing. Who has not muttered ’Marah’ over some desert well which he strained every nerve to reach, but when reached, it disappointed him!" [Note: Meyer, p. 181.]
Some commentators have seen the tree cast into the water as a type of the cross of Christ or Christ Himself that, applied to the bitter experiences of life, makes them sweet. What is definitely clear is that by using God’s specified means and obeying His word the Israelites learned that God would heal them (Exo 15:25). Throwing the wood into the water did not magically change it. This was a symbolic act, similar to Moses lifting his staff over the sea (Exo 14:16). God changed the water. He is able to turn bitter water into sweet water for His people.
The "statute and regulation" that God made for Israel were that He would deliver them from all their troubles. Therefore they could always count on His help. God’s test involved seeing whether they would rely on Him or not (cf. James 1).
The words of God in Exo 15:26 explain the statute and regulation just given. The Israelites would not suffer the diseases God had sent on the Egyptians (i.e., experience His discipline) if they obeyed His word as they had just done. They had just cast the tree into the pool.
God was teaching His people that He was responsible for their physical as well as their spiritual wellbeing. While doctors diagnose and prescribe, only God can heal. [Note: See Jay D. Fawver and R. Larry Overstreet, "Moses and Preventive Medicine," Bibliotheca Sacra 147:587 (July-September):285.]
"We do not find Him [God] giving Himself a new name at Elim, but at Marah. The happy experiences of life fail to reveal all the new truth and blessing that await us in God [cf. Gen 15:1; Exo 17:15]." [Note: Meyer, pp. 183-84.]
This is one of the verses in Scripture that advocates of the "prosperity gospel" like. They use it to prove their contention that it is never God’s will for anyone to be sick (along with Exo 23:25; Psa 103:3; Pro 4:20-22; Isa 33:24; Jer 30:17; Mat 4:23; Mat 10:1; Mar 16:16-18; Luk 6:17-19; Act 5:16; Act 10:38). One advocate of this position wrote as follows.
"Don’t ever tell anyone sickness is the will of God for us. It isn’t! Healing and health are the will of God for mankind. If sickness were the will of God, heaven would be filled with sickness and disease." [Note: Kenneth Hagin, Redeemed from Poverty, Sickness and Death, p. 16. For a critique of this view, see Ken L. Sarles, "A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel," Bibliotheca Sacra 143:572 (October-December 1986):329-52.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
SHUR.
Exo 15:22-27.
From the Red Sea the Israelites marched into the wilderness of Shur–a general name, of Egyptian origin, for the district between Egypt and Palestine, of which Etham, given as their route in Numbers (Num 33:8), is a subdivision. The rugged way led over stone and sand, with little vegetation and no water. And the “three days’ journey” to Marah, a distance of thirty-three miles, was their first experience of absolute hardship, for not even the curtain of miraculous cloud could prevent them from suffering keenly by heat and thirst.
It was a period of disillusion. Fond dreams of ease and triumphant progress, with every trouble miraculously smoothed away, had naturally been excited by their late adventure. Their song had exulted in the prospect that their enemies should melt away, and be as still as a stone. But their difficulties did not melt away. The road was weary. They found no water. They were still too much impressed by the miracle at the Red Sea, and by the mysterious Presence overhead, for open complaining to be heard along the route; but we may be sure that reaction had set in, and there was many a sinking heart, as the dreary route stretched on and on, and they realised that, however romantic the main plan of their journey, the details might still be prosaic and exacting. They sang praises unto Him. They soon forgat His works. Aching with such disappointments, at last they reached the waters of Marah, and they could not drink, for they were bitter.
And if Marah be indeed Huwara, as seems to be agreed, the waters are still the worst in all the district. It was when the relief, so confidently expected, failed, and the term of their sufferings appeared to be indefinitely prolonged, that their self-control gave way, and they “murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” And we may be sure that wherever discontent and unbelief are working secret mischief to the soul, some event, some disappointment or temptation, will find the weak point, and the favourable moment of attack, just as the seeds of disease find out the morbid constitution, and assail it.
Now, all this is profoundly instructive, because it is true to the universal facts of human nature. When a man is promoted to unexpected rank, or suddenly becomes rich, or reaches any other unlooked-for elevation, he is apt to forget that life cannot, in any position, be a romance throughout, a long thrill, a whole song at the top note of the voice. Affection itself has a dangerous moment, when two united lives begin to realise that even their union cannot banish aches and anxieties, weariness and business cares. Well for them if they are content with the power of love to sweeten what it cannot remove, as loyal soldiers gladly sacrifice all things for the cause, and as Israel should have been proud to endure forced marches under the cloudy banner of its emancipating God.
As neither rank nor affection exempts men from the dust and tedium of life, or from its disappointments, so neither does religion. When one is “made happy” he expects life to be only a triumphal procession towards Paradise, and he is startled when “now for a season, if need be, he is in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Yet Christ prayed not that we should be taken out of the world. We are bidden to endure hardness as good soldiers, and to run with patience the race which is set before us; and these phrases indicate our need of the very qualities wherein Israel failed. As yet the people murmured not ostensibly against God, but only against Moses. But the estrangement of their hearts is plain, since they made no appeal to God for relief, but assailed His agent and representative. Yet they had not because they asked not, and relief was found when Moses cried unto the Lord. Their leader was “faithful in all his house”; and instead of upbraiding his followers with their ingratitude, or bewailing the hard lot of all leaders of the multitude, whose popularity neither merit nor service can long preserve unclouded, he was content to look for sympathy and help where we too may find it.
We read that the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. In this we discern the same union of Divine grace with human energy and use of means, as in all medicine, and indeed all uses of the divinely enlightened intellect of man. It would have been easy to argue that the waters could only be healed by miracle, and if God wrought a miracle what need was there of human labour? There was need of obedience, and of the co-operation of the human will with the divine. We shall see, in the case of the artificers of the tabernacle, that God inspires even handicraftsmen as well as theologians–being indeed the universal Light, the Giver of all good, not only of Bibles, but of rain and fruitful seasons. But the artisan must labour, and the farmer improve the soil.
Shall we say with the fathers that the tree cast into the waters represents the cross of Christ? At least it is a type of the sweetening and assuaging influences of religion–a new element, entering life, and as well fitted to combine with it as medicinal bark with water, making all wholesome and refreshing to the disappointed wayfarer, who found it so bitter hitherto.
The Lord was not content with removing the grievance of the hour; He drew closer the bonds between His people and Himself, to guard them against another transgression of the kind: “there He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them.” It is pure assumption to pretend that this refers to another account of the giving of the Jewish law, inconsistent with that in the twentieth chapter, and placed at Marah instead of Sinai.[30] It is a transaction which resembles much rather the promises given (and at various times, although confusion and repetition cannot be inferred) to Abraham and Jacob (Gen 12:1-3, Gen 15:1, Gen 15:18-21, Gen 17:1-14, Gen 22:15-18, Gen 28:13-15, Gen 35:10-12). He said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His eyes, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and wilt keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord which healeth thee.” It is a compact of obedient trust on one side, and protection on the other. If they felt their own sinfulness, it asserted that He who had just healed the waters could also heal their hearts. From the connection between these is perhaps derived the comparison between human hearts and a fountain of sweet water or bitter (Jam 3:11).
But certainly the promised protection takes an unexpected shape. What in their circumstances leads to this specific offer of exemption from certain foul diseases–“the boil of Egypt, and the emerods, and the scurvy, and the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed” (Deu 28:27)? How does this meet the case? Doubtless by reminding them that there are better exemptions than from hardship, and worse evils than privations. If they do not realise this at the spiritual level, at least they can appreciate the threat that “He will bring upon thee again all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of” (Deu 28:60). To be even a luxurious and imperial race, but infected by repulsive and hopeless ailments, is not a desirable alternative. Now, such evils, though certainly not in each individual, yet in a race, are the punishments of non-natural conditions of life, such as make the blood run slowly and unhealthily, and charge it with impure deposits. It was God who put them upon the Egyptians.
If Israel would follow His guidance, and accept a somewhat austere destiny, then the desert air and exercise, and even its privations, would become the efficacious means for their exemption from the scourges of indulgence. A time arrived when they looked back with remorse upon crimes which forfeited their immunity, when the Lord said, “I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword” (Amo 4:10).
But it is a significant fact that at this day, after eighteen hundred years of oppression, hardship, and persecution, of the ghetto and the old-clothes trade, the Hebrew race is proverbially exempt from repulsive and contagious disease. They also “certainly do enjoy immunity from the ravages of cholera, fever and smallpox in a remarkable degree. Their blood seems to be in a different condition from that of other people…. They seem less receptive of disease caused by blood poisoning than others” (Journal of Victoria Institute, xxi. 307). Imperfect as was their obedience, this covenant at least has been literally fulfilled to them.
It is by such means that God is wont to reward His children. Most commonly the seal of blessing from the skies is not rich fare, but bread and fish by the lake side with the blessing of Christ upon them; not removal from the desert, but a closer sense of the protection and acceptance of Heaven, the nearness of a loving God, and with this, an elevation and purification of the life, and of the body as well as of the soul. Not in vain has St. Paul written “The Lord for the body.” Nor was there ever yet a race of men who accepted the covenant of God, and lived in soberness, temperance and chastity, without a signal improvement of the national physique, no longer unduly stimulated by passion, jaded by indulgence, or relaxed by the satiety which resembles but is not repose.
From Marah and its agitations there was a journey of but a few hours to Elim, with its twelve fountains and seventy palm trees–a fair oasis, by which they encamped and rested, while their flocks spread far and wide over a grassy and luxuriant valley.
The picture is still true to the Christian life, with the Palace Beautiful just beyond the lions, and the Delectable Mountains next after Doubting Castle.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Wellhausen, Israel, p. 439.
CHAPTER XVI.
MURMURING FOR FOOD.
Exo 16:1-14.
The Israelites were now led farther away from all the associations of their accustomed life. From the waters and the palms of Elim they marched deeper into the savage recesses of the desert, haunted by fierce and hostile tribes, such as presently hung upon their rear-guard and cut off their stragglers (Deu 25:18). Nor had they quite emerged from the shadow of their old oppressions, since Egyptian garrisons were scattered, though sparsely, through this district, in which gems and copper were obtained. Here, cut off from all natural modes of sustenance, the hearts of the people failed them. Such is the frequent experience of renewed souls, when privilege and joy are followed by trouble from without or from within, and the peace of God is broken by the strife of tongues, by mental perplexities, by temptations, by physical pain. It is quite as wonderful that paltry disturbances should mar for us the life divine, when once that life has become a realised experience, as that men who moved under the shadow of the marvellous cloud could be agitated by fear for their supplies. And of this our experience, what befel Israel is not a mere type or symbol, it is a case in point, a parallel example. For it also meant the breaking-in of the flesh upon the spirit, the refusal of fallen nature to rise above earthly wants and cravings even in the light of trust and acceptance, the self-assertion of the baser instincts, and the sacrifice to them of the higher life. We recognise the herd of slaves, from whence it must perplex the unbeliever to remember that the seed of immortal heroism and prophetic insight and apostolic service was yet to ripen, in their poor desire, if they must perish, to perish well fed rather than emancipated (Exo 16:3). Most people, we may fear, would choose to live enslaved rather than to die free men. But there is a special meanness in their regret, since die they must, that they had not died satiated, like the firstborn whom God had slain: “Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots and when we ate bread to the full, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” And today, among those who scorn them, how many are far less ambitious of dying holy and pure than rich, famous or powerful, having glutted their vanity if not their appetite. In the sight of angels this is not a much loftier aim; and the apostle reckoned among the works of the flesh, emulation as well as drunkenness (Gal 5:19-21).
Tertullian draws a striking contrast between Israel, just now baptized into Moses, but caring more for appetite than for God, and Christ, after His baptism, also in the desert, fasting forty days. “The Lord figuratively retorted upon Israel His reproach” (Baptism, xx.)
We are not to suppose that but for their complaining God would have suffered them to hunger, although Moses declared that the reason why flesh should be given to them in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full, is “for that the Lord heareth your murmurings.” But there would have been some difference in the time of the grant, to ripen their faith, some more direct manifestation of His grace, to reward their patience, if unbelief had not precipitated His design. Thus the disciples, when they awakened Jesus in the storm, received the rescue for which they clamoured, but forfeited some higher experience which would have crowned a serener confidence: “Wherefore did ye doubt?” Israel receives what is best in the circumstances, rather than the ideal best, now made unsuitable by their impatience and infidelity. But while the Lord discontinued the test of need and penury, which had proved to be too severe a discipline, He substituted the test of fulness. For we read that the removal of their suspense and anxiety by the gift of manna from heaven was “to prove them whether they will walk in My laws or no” (Exo 16:4). And in so doing it was seen that worldly and unthankful natures are not to be satisfied; that the disloyal at heart will complain, however favoured. For “the children of Israel wept again and said, Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt for nought, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlick: but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all: we have nought save this manna to look to” (Num 11:4-6). Onions and garlick were more satisfactory to gross appetites than angels’ food.
At this point we learn that what is called prosperity may indeed be a result of spiritual failure; that God may sometimes abstain from strong measures with a soul because what ought to mould would only crush; and may grant them their hearts’ lust, yet send leanness withal into their souls. Perhaps we are allowed to be comfortable because we are unfit to be heroic.
And we also learn, when prosperous, to remember that plenty, equally with want, has its moral aspect. The Lord tries fortunate men, whether they will be grateful and obedient, trusting in Him and not in uncertain riches, or whether they will forget Him who has done so great things for them, and so perish in calm weather–
“Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity.”
There is an experiment being tried upon the soul, curious, slow, little-suspected, but incessant, in the giving of daily bread.
In promising relief, God required of them obedience and self-control. They were to respect the Sabbath, and make provision in advance for its requirements. And this direction, given before the Mount of the Lord was reached, has an important bearing upon the question whether the Fourth Commandment was the first institution of a holy day–whether, except as a Church ordinance, the duty of sabbath-keeping has no support beyond the ceremonial law. “For that the Lord hath (already) given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days” (Exo 16:29).
While conveying the promise of relief, Moses and Aaron rebuked the people, whose murmurs against them were in reality murmurs against God, since they were but His agents, and He had been visibly their Leader. And the same rebuke applies, for exactly the same reason, to many a modern complaint against the weather, against what people call their “luck,” against a thousand provoking things in which the only possible provocation must come directly from heaven. It is because our religion is so shallow, and our consciousness of God in His world so dim and rudimentary, that we utter such complaints idly, to relieve our feelings, and hear them spoken without a shock.
Such dulness is not to be removed by sounder views of doctrine, but by a more vivid realisation of God. The Israelites knew by what hand they should have fallen if they had died in Egypt; yet in fact they forgot their true Captain, and upbraided their mortal leaders. So do we confess that afflictions arise not out of the ground, yet lose the impress of divinity upon our daily lives, while we ought, like Moses, to “endure as seeing Him who is invisible.”
As our Lord was in the habit of asking for some confession, or demanding some small co-operation from those He was about to bless, so the smoking flax of Hebrew faith is tended: it is a promise, and not the actual relief, which calms them. There is a curious difference in the manner of the communications now made to the people. First of all the two brothers unite their energies to hush their outcries: “At evening ye shall know that Jehovah is your leader from Egypt, and in the morning ye shall behold His glory; and what are we, that ye murmur against us?” Then Moses affirms, with all the energy of his chieftainship, that in the evening they shall eat flesh, and in the morning bread to the full. Again he asks them “What are we?” and more sternly and directly charges them with murmuring against Jehovah. And this is a good example of the true meaning of his “meekness.” He is fiery enough, but not for his own greatness; rather because he feels his littleness, and that the offence is entirely against God, does he resent their conduct; absence of self-assertion is his “meekness,” and thus we read of it when Miriam and Aaron spake against him, declaring that they were commissioned as well as he (Num 12:3). Finally, when order was restored, and some mysterious manifestation was at hand, he resumed the solemn and formal usage of conveying his orders through his brother, and in cold, compact, impressive words, said unto Aaron, “Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for He hath heard your murmurings.” All this is very dignified and natural. And so is–what after ages could scarcely have invented–the impressive reticence of what follows. “They looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.”
Were they not then intended to “come near”? and was it as they turned their faces to draw nigh that the Vision revealed itself and stopped them? And what was the untold sight which they beheld? The narrative belongs to a primitive age; it is quite unlike the elaborate symbolisms of Ezekiel and Daniel, or even of Isaiah, but yet this undescribed, mystic and solitary glory is not less sublime than the train which covered the Temple-floor, while, hovering above it, reverent seraphim veiled their faces and their feet, or the terrible crystal and the wheels of dreadful height, or the throne of flame whence issued a fiery stream, and before which thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads stood (Isa 6:2; Eze 1:22, Eze 1:18; Dan 7:9-10). But the point to observe is that it is different, more primitive, an undefined and lonely vision of awe well fitted for the desert wilds and for the gaze of men whose hearts must not be misled by the likeness of anything in heaven or earth; the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud (most probably, but not of necessity, the cloud which guided them), and in the direction whence they were so fain to turn away.
No later inventor would have known how to say so little, much less to make that little harmonise so exactly with the lessons meant to be suggested by the wild and solemn solitudes into which they were now plunged.
And now the Lord Himself repeats the promise of relief, but first solemnly announces that He is not heedless of their ill-behaviour while He tolerates it. The question is suggested, although not asked, How long will His forbearance last?
Well for them if they learn the lesson, and “know that I am Jehovah your God,” mindful of their needs, entitled to their fealty. In the evening, therefore, came a flight of quails; and in the morning they found a small round thing, small as the hoar-frost, upon the ground.