Exodus 15:26

26. For I am the Lord that healeth thee For I, JEHOVAH, am thy Healer, Physician . This first trial and miracle of the desert is made the occasion of great spiritual lessons, such as may ever come from great trials . They had seen Egypt’s blessings turned to curses because of the sins of the Egyptians, and the same God would not only save them from these dreadful judgments, but would turn all life’s bitterness to sweetness if they would but keep his law . Jehovah the Physician can heal all the Marahs of life if man but obeys and submits, whether he comprehends God’s dealings or not. Here, also, they were clearly taught that continued obedience was essential to their continued election as God’s covenant people. They were not to be presumptuous because of the wonderful manifestations in Egypt and at the Red Sea. If they sinned like the Egyptians they would also be punished like the Egyptians. But the great lesson here emphatically impressed is, that it is not ritual or outward obedience of any kind not the offering of sacrifices or of bodily services merely but the doing that which is right in his sight the sacrifice of the heart, the offering of the self, that Jehovah demands. Jeremiah, centuries afterwards, refers to this transaction and this solemn spiritual lesson thus: “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.” Jeremiah 7:22-23. This “statute and ordinance” coming just before the Levitical economy just before the first altar was reared in the wilderness is most valuable as setting forth the real nature and spirit of the Levitical ordinances.