MARAH AND ELIM
Michael J Klassen
Exodus 15: 22-27
Romans 8: 12-14
I might just say a little in relation to the Red Sea, where we see that the people of Israel are brought through on dry ground. As we mentioned in the reading, there is the wall there for protection and there is the cloud above. We see every divine feature represented there in deliverance. It is in relation to baptism, Christ’s death for us. Then they come to the edge of the sea, and the sea closes back in and the enemy is defeated - all of that the work of God. They stand there at the sea-shore and they praise God, a wonderful effect that deliverance had upon them. What a great work had been wrought in their souls. We each go through those experiences as we move through life and we find that one building block upon another would help to lead us to a greater understanding of this blessed Man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now they come out into the wilderness for three days and find no water; they had just gone over the Red Sea, come through the Red Sea - it seemed the deliverance that God was able to bring. But then they go wrong; they did not understand that there was more power available. Not only is Christ a Deliverer, but then there is the power of the Spirit of God, in the delivery of the water. They did not see it; they came to Marah and they found no water. What was the commandment that God gave them before they went over the Red Sea? “Jehovah said to Moses … Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”, Exod 14: 15. You cannot go, cannot be satisfied, in just being delivered.
When you come out of the Red Sea, then you see everything that was opposed to God has been put to death. Are you going to just stop there? Amazing praise is given to God on the banks of the Red Sea. Then the children of Israel go out into the wilderness and into the bitterness of what there is in relation to our walk and way as a believer. We are not speaking about one who does not have salvation now; we are speaking about believers. We find out that they come into this wilderness and they stop straight away. Is it not important in Christianity to know that God has given power to the believer? God is offering to you the power of the Spirit of God. Have you stopped short? How many times I have. Life as a believer is not always easy; as a matter of fact it might be hard a lot of the time. Why is that? It is because believers stop short, “found no water”, Exod 15: 22. You might say there were failures, and then they come to a place called Marah and there was water. Inasmuch as they had gone through the Red Sea, inasmuch as they had seen the deliverance of Christ, inasmuch as they had enjoyed that precious path, they did not have a lot of respect, as it were, for the presentation of Christ by the Spirit. How many times do we find that in our own lives? I come in a bitterness of spirit as to Christ, because I am afraid to submit myself to the will of God; I am afraid that if I fully commit all to the Lord I am going to lose something in this world. As we go on through the history, we see how many times they wanted to go back into Egypt. How quickly we forget the deliverance wherewith we have been delivered.
Moses shows a beautiful feature of an established believer, meekness, because they murmured against him; and he turns to Jehovah. I have thought about how Moses was able to keep his composure. Every one of us will pass through trials, and a lot of them come from the saints. These are the people of God and they are murmuring against Moses. And Moses knows exactly what to do: he cried to Jehovah. This is a wonderful feature of the believer as having come through the waters of Marah: in the midst and the bitterness of life, he turned to Jehovah. How many times do I turn to my own devices with which I might seek to find my way through? Peter gives us so many great examples, as does Jacob, of trying to find their own way. Maybe I will just get the birthright; I know it is mine so I will just go about it my own way. Maybe I will take a few of the sheep because I know they are mine anyway. Maybe I will figure out a way to make them streaked and striped and speckled, and then I can have them. It is not God’s way. Does God allow for those things, our shortcomings? It does not change the sovereignty of God; thankfully that is true. But it also does not change the bitterness of soul that Jacob had to go through. You think of how afraid he was of his brother Esau. If he had allowed God’s way, he would have had peace about it, but he went about it his own way. God allowed for it, but it was for his exercise. As we do things our own way sometimes, God allows for that. In spite of my own shortcomings God may still bring in blessing. It is in spite of me, not because of me. We see what a wonderful feature that is through the grace of God.
Now God tells Moses, to cast in the wood, which is a picture of Christ. As we come to the area where the activity of the Spirit of God is, the Spirit of God would say, ‘I understand you are going through bitterness of life, I understand that the time you are going through is deep and bitter, but I will tell you how to sweeten this’. It is Christ: He has a way through everything that you will ever need in your life. He has been in every situation of life like unto us, sin apart. Think of that! - you cannot say that you have been through one trial in your life that Christ has not been through. He has met every single thing that the world could throw at us. He was there without food, without support; even the Spirit of God led Him for a time there in the wilderness, and what did He do? He was marked by perfection, being tempted in every point possible. There was no weakness in Christ. Where are you going to go in your bitterness of soul? You must go to the One that knows the way through. Drink of the waters of Marah, after the wood has been put in. As the Spirit of God presents things to us, understand that it is Christ, that He has drawn us to be attracted to. There is not one thing that we can say that Christ does not understand.
We see that, once they had taken on this water; once they had drunk of these sweet waters, then He tests them, with statutes and ordinances, with commandments. The Lord knows, God knows, that I cannot meet any of the commandments or any of the statutes without having the power of the Spirit of God and having perfect confidence in Christ. Now, He is available; now, He can show us the commandments and ordinances; now, they are not onerous to us. How we try to meet some of those commandments and some of those ordinances outside of this kind of power! - it is, beloved, impossible. But by the grace of God, He has given us the power of the Spirit of God to meet the need; and who does the Spirit present? He presents Christ. Through these things now we can walk in these ordinances and in these commandments.
And then we come to verse 27, “And they came to Elim; and twelve springs of water were there, and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters”. You think of an area like that that has been provided. If I might say, these twelve springs of water might be representative of the ministerial work of the Spirit of God, that He has provided everything in order that we might have satisfaction and might have rest. These seventy palm trees might be the work of God in the saints, and we see that, in every blood-bought saint, there is something there representative of the work of God that would overshadow everything that was opposed to us. I might go through a trial today and it might be this brother that helps me: it might be that palm tree; I might go through a trial another day, and it would be a different brother or sister, another palm tree. This seventy is an interesting number because the Lord says to Peter to forgive seventy times seven. I think there are enough saints to go round to meet every one of our trials. Certainly, we go to Christ, but we see the work of Christ in the saints and each one has passed a different way, but this time it might be that one that can help me meet the trial that I am facing. I do not want to make it seem as though we just go through trials. What I seek to bring before you is that, in this place, there is rest because God has not only provided by the Spirit of God and by the Person of Christ, but He has provided a resting place whereby we might have fellowship and enjoy the love of our Lord Jesus.
I will just touch on that scripture in Romans 8: “So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to flesh; for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die”: that is the area that we lived in outside of Christ. What hope does an unbeliever have? “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are the most miserable of all men”, 1 Cor 15: 19. I do not know of anything, I do not know of any person, who does not face death because of sin. Sin has come in and it has destroyed what God had in mind in relation to life. God was not sold short; what God had in mind was life, and He has brought in a Man who came in; and He died to set aside all that we know in this world - everything, whether it is the trees that maybe live a long time, we still know they die. But God has brought in a Man that died in order that He might bring in life, and here Paul says, “but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live: for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. Think of that as the seventy palm trees: those who are “led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. What a place to come to, to realise that there is now a life that cannot be touched by death. It is such an important feature for the believer, a life that cannot be touched by death, and God has brought that in by the power of the Spirit from the very moment that the Spirit of God worked in your soul. The thought was God’s that He might bring in life and bring it in abundantly, that God might be glorified.
May it be so for His Name’s sake.
Calgary
17th February 2024