Exodus 15:22-26

THE BITTER WATERS OF MARAH

"And Moses led Israel onward 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. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the watars of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them; and he said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, and wilt give ear unto his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah that healeth thee."

Just as trials in the Christian life come early, this distressing episode followed very quickly upon the triumphant rejoicing in the Song of Moses. Three days earlier they were indeed flying high: delivered from slavery, their foes drowned in the sea, they were already anticipating the entry into the land of Canaan; and then, they ran out of water! When they found water, it was too bitter to drink. So what did Israel do?

What they did here must be hailed as an eloquent commentary on what not to do in an emergency. Did they call a council, resort to prayer, appoint a committee to look for water, or even attempt to dig a well, or call a prayer meeting to pray for rain? Oh no, they MURMURED!

"The people murmured against Moses ..." The specific word for "murmur" is found in seven chapters of the O.T.: "It occurs in Exodus 15; Exodus 16, and Exodus 17; in Numbers 14; Numbers 16, and Numbers 17; and in Joshua 9:18."[44] This reaction to conditions which Israel did not like was to continue throughout the period of their probation and would eventually be the reason why most of them would never enter Canaan.

"Jehovah showed Moses a tree ..." The word here rendered "tree" actually means "a piece of wood."[45] It is very similar to the word used for the Tree of Life, and this, coupled with the fact of Jesus' both entering and leaving our world "in the wood" (of the manger and of the cross), has led many to see in this a type of the Christ who makes life's bitter waters sweet. Certainly, we may reject out of hand the notion that, "Moses, a man of long experience in wilderness survival, had learned in Midian the formula for sweetening bitter water, and applied it now!"[46] No! It was the Lord who actually healed the waters, despite the fact of its having been contingent upon Moses' casting that "tree" into the waters.