“Then Moses led 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.” (Exodus 15:22).
Have you ever been on foot in a desert without water? Have you ever gone even one whole day without water? A desert is a beautiful place to be and can be very enjoyable if you have water and food and shade. You can take a trip on foot across a desert if you go prepared with water and other supplies. But as you journey on foot you are always acutely aware that there is only a fine line between success and failure in your journey. Should some catastrophe occur to postpone the completion of your journey, your limited water supply will run out. And only a day or two without water and you will die.
The Israelites must have had some water with them as they departed from the shore of the Red Sea and advanced three days into the desert. But with all the people and all the animals they had, after three days they were probably nearing the end of their water reserves. Many were probably beginning to be thirsty and to realize that it was vital that a water supply be found.
“And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therfore it was named Marah.” (Exodus 15:23).
Three days in the desert without replenishing their water supply and now at the crucial time as their water had run out, they had come to Marah where there was water. But, they found that they couldn’t drink the water because it was bitter (poisoned).
I think that many of the Israelites then began to feel again as they had felt when they had been trapped at the Red Sea by the advancing Egyptian Army, that is, they felt that all was lost. They thought they must have been foolish to allow themselves to get into another predicament like this. Moses said follow him with faith in the Lord, but we have taken this faith thing too far, and now we’re going to perish! Better we had stayed back there in Egypt. Even though we were slaves, we were alive!
“So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.” (Exodus 15:24-25).
That tree had been there all along. The Lord knew how He had been going to care for His people. Again the Lord pulled them through. There never had been any question about it in the mind of the Lord. It was fully within His power to care for them and He had made all the necessary provisions. And the Lord had brought it about. There really had been no problem — except lack of faith by the people.
“There He (the Lord) made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. And He said, ‘If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer!’” (Exodus 15:25-26).
The Lord clearly demonstrated to them how He would take them through the trying times — how, indeed, He would deliver them from the dangers that they, by themselves, were powerless to overcome — and finally sit them down in the promised land where the trials of the desert would no longer plague them.
Then comes a statement in the narrative which I think is most remarkable. It has become one of my favorites:
“Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.” (Exodus 15:27).
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This is the kind of detail we often skip over in our reading without much notice. But the Holy Spirit saw fit to record it for our benefit. One day as I read this passage and thought about the Israelites and their entrance into the wilderness, as we have just been reading, this verse appeared as though for the first time, and meaning and insight began to dawn upon me. Have you ever had that experience? At such a time I feel as if I am walking on holy ground, a place on which I am privileged to be, and a place where I am scarcely equipped to be. If called upon to speak at that time, I would have difficulty doing so — for a truth is being impressed upon me.
“Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.” From 3500 years out of the past we know exactly how many springs of water, how many tress, and what kind of trees they were, and that God led His people there after a long thirsty march through the desert. After their fear that they would perish from lack of water, they now have enough water for all the people and all the animals — and enough to bathe and wash the dust from their skin and even to wash their clothes. And there is shade from the sun under the trees and there is sweet fruit to eat. And they have not even arrived at the promised land as yet. Could the promised land be sweeter than this?
The promised land is somewhere there out of sight. But Elim is sweet. There the Israelites can relax and notice that even the desert is beautiful to behold when they have entrusted themselves to the Lord’s care. The Lord prepared Elim and led them there to enjoy its sweetness even as He led them across the desert towards the greatest of all lands, the promised land.
Isn’t our journey through life like that? We have been freed from the Egyptian bondage of sin. God has set us free and has set us on a journey toward the promised land of a new heaven and a new earth. The desert of sin is all around us as we journey. Sometimes we come to crises that make us question why we ever started on the journey. But the fear is due to our weak faith. The Lord is our protector and our healer. We have not yet arrived at the promised land. But we have arrived at Elim. It isn’t the promised land, but it is sweet. We don’t have a surplus, but we have all we need.
We were once all people of the world, Israelites and Egyptians alike. This world is the only land we had at first, and it has no future. The Lord invites all to became Christians. Christians have given up the world to go on a journey to a better land, a land with an eternal future. God cares for Christians every step of the way. Christian happiness in this world is like to a sojourn in Elim. The Lord invites you to become a Christian.
With Love, F. M. Perry.