CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 15:27. Elim.]—Probably = “palms,” Ges. Fü. Dav. By many identified with Wadi Gharendel, “situated 2½ miles S. of Howarah, and 2 miles N. of Tor, in a very beautiful valley of almost one English mile in length, and abounding in good water. Even according to the most recent travellers, excellent fountains, and a great number of trees, especially tamerisks and palm-trees, are still found in that valley, so that it is generally chosen as one of chief stations on the journey to Sinai.”—Kalisch.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 15:23-26
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF HUMAN LIFE
The children of Israel are now in joyful mood. God has won for them a great, and, as it would appear, a final victory over their inveterate enemy. They appreciate the deliverance, and have celebrated it in song. The last notes of the hymn have died away. The Israelites are now travelling onwards. But new needs arise. They require water to quench their thirst. Life is not a long-continued song of triumph, it soon turns to want again. The experiences of life are varied and changeful, and soon pass from joy to sorrow.
I. That the disappointments which men experience frequently occur in connection with the apparently trivial things of life. “They could not drink of the waters of Marah.” The Israelites had passed three days in the wilderness without finding water. The march long. The climate hot. The fatigue great. And so men have frequently to pursue life for a time in the absence of needful things. This shows them their dependence upon God. If man never lacked any good thing, he would imagine that life was self-supporting, and that he could do without the aid of heaven. The absence of needful good teaches men to value its return. In this country we have plenty of water, it comes to us through unnumbered channels. If we were called to journey without it we should prize it more. The common gifts of God are beyond price. Israel, no doubt, watched eagerly for water. Men soon become anxious when the temporal supplies of life fail. Now it is found. What joy in the camp, as the news is conveyed from one rank to another. But the water is bitter! We cannot judge of earthly things according to their appearance. The water looked all right. It tasted bitter. Many things in the world look well, but experience proves them bitter to the taste. The world itself appears as though it would quench the moral thirst of man, he welcomes it with song, but soon finds it bitter to his soul. It is well that some things are bitter, or men would take them in poisonous draughts. All the waters of life are embittered by sin. They look well, but are vanity and vexation of spirit. Thus we see that men are disappointed in reference to the ordinary things of daily life. We are not often disappointed in great things. Life has not many great occasions in it. Little things fret and perplex us. We are disappointed by the appearance of things; the business, the friendship, and the pleasure looked well, but taste badly. Sin looks well; but tastes bitter. Men are deceived in the commonest things of life. Israel did not expect trial, they had only just finished singing their hymn of praise. Disappointment comes soon upon joy. It is the way of God thus to exercise the faith and patience of His people. At Marah the cloud was before Israel. God is with the good in their sorrows.
II. That the disappointments of life seem far more frequently to lead men to murmuring than to prayer. “And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” Thus the Israelites gave way to murmuring; only one man amongst them prayed. And in the disappointments of life only one man in a crowd will seek communion with Heaven. Grumbling is more natural than prayer. The former is folly. The latter is healing. Man likes to have all his own way. He ought to submit to the will of God. The best servants of God are complained against. The healing ministries of life are revealed to the praying spirit. When men murmur they are deaf to the voice of God; they are blind to the remedy He would disclose to them. Prayer will sweeten bitter waters more quickly than aught else. Men murmur at the disappointments of life, recall not the desponding memories of past help. Men soon murmur when they are displeased. Would it not have been wiser if these Israelites had called to mind the deliverance which God had wrought out for them in the past? Had He not brought them out of Egypt, and through the waters of the Red Sea as on dry land, and saved them from life-long enemies? Had He done this that He might destroy them with thirst a few days afterwards? Certainly not. But unbelief views things on the dark side. It only looks at the bitter waters it cannot sweeten. And shall we murmur at the disappointments of life, when we remember the Divine mercies of the past? Men often murmur about the disappointments of life to those who are the least to blame for them, and who perhaps are likewise suffering from them. The Israelites murmured at Moses. He was a good man. He was their best friend. He had not made the waters bitter. He was as thirsty as any of them. How cowardly. How cruel. How discouraging. But Moses was a true man, and found his refuge in prayer. Ministers should imitate his example. Crowds are fickle in their moods.
III. That the disappointments of life are often removed and made a blessing to them by the kindly aid of Heaven. “And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into “the waters, the waters were made sweet.” Moses prayed when the people murmured. He did not hold an altercation with them. In answer to prayer the remedy was revealed, and the waters became all the sweeter for having been bitter. The tree had no healing virtue in it. It was the means used by God, and shows His rule over all the things of His universe. We must not abuse a single tree in God’s universe, it contains sacred possibilities. Men must employ secondary causes to heal their disappointments. Prayer shows where they are to be found. God can make a way out of the greatest trial. We must do as Heaven tells us in the hour of grief, for if we refuse to cast the tree into the bitter waters they will not be sweetened.
IV. That when the disappointments of life are removed, then God admonishes men in reference to their future conduct. “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will 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.”
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 15:23-24. After worship done in memory of mercies, the Church must go on its pilgrimage.
Monuments of trial God sometimes sets up in the names of places for posterity.
Carnal Israelites soon exchange worship for discontent.
Foolish unbelieving creatures are running to creatures for drink rather than to God.
Exodus 15:25-27. When unbelievers are murmuring under trial, God’s servants are praying.
God’s faithful ones shall never seek His face in vain.
God will show His servants how to turn bitter into sweet, when they truly seek Him.
Obedience must use the appointed means to receive the desired issue.
Where God gives mercies to His people, He also gives laws and judgments.
Marah and Elim. The alternating experiences of human life.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Marah-waters! Exodus 15:23. Captain Palmer says that for three days’ journey southward along the coast, the desert plain is, practically speaking, waterless, there being only a few wretched brackish springs, about one in every hundred square miles, of which the water is unfit for use. It was after three days that the minstrels became murmurers for water. The sensation which we call thirst is no more like the mad and raging fever-thirst of the desert, than our cool and verdant plains are like the baked and blistering rocks of that burning wilderness. So that Israel might well be bitter in their spirit when they came upon a bitter spring. There is still a salt and bitter fountain here. The “Speaker’s Commentary” says that Wellstead tasted the waters and muttered the word “Marah!” whereon his Bedawin guide exclaimed, “You speak the word of truth; they are indeed marah.” The early Christian Church met with their marah as they first entered on the pilgrim-way. That marah is still in the wilderness-life of the Church, so that her successive members taste and cry, “Marah!” But there is a tree whose leaves drop sweetness, and whose taste is balm. Bedawin had no tree to cast into Wellstead’s marah, but the Christian has. Jesus, the Tree of Life, extends His bending branches to the anxious touch, making each stagnant marsh a rivulet of health, turning the bitterest brook into a fountain of living waters—
“The Cross on which the Saviour died
And conquer’d for His saints,
This is the tree, by faith applied,
Which sweetens all complaints.”
Marah-bitterness! Exodus 15:25. Pure, cool, and pellucid Water is the gift of God. As it comes from heaven, it is always clear and uncontaminated. It is only in earth’s reservoirs that it sometimes gets muddied. There are salts of copper in the soil through which the current percolates—the smoke and soot of city-life defile its excellence—the manchineel sheds its deadly fruits into the fountain. Adam’s life was a pure gift from God; but he defiled it. Man sullies the purity of God’s blessing—turns them into Marah-bitterness. The blessing was good enough till once it came to man; but the bitter soil made the fountain bitter. If the cup which catches the morning shower was clear as crystal, and if the atmosphere were not already contaminated by the smoke and soot of human desires, the blessings would remain pure. But man makes them marah.
“Yet there’s a wonder-working wood,
I’ve heard believers say,
Can make those bitter waters good,
And take the curse away.”
Elim—Symbolism! Exodus 15:27. This is now called “Gharandel.” It is still a pleasant place, having water in abundance, grass, and palm-trees. Kalisch beautifully applies Elim to the Lord’s-day. The traveller, on a rough and dusty road, when from time to time he finds by the wayside a quiet green resting-place, from which he may look back on the way he has come, and also forward to the end of his journey, will surely stop at it for a little with thankfulness. And what are Thy Sabbaths, O Lord, with their sweet services and their solemn hours, but fresh and peaceful oases such as these, inviting me to put away for a moment the troubles and the fatigues of the highway of life, that I may breathe awhile and gather new strength for my journey. Ye giddy crowd, who run and run on, without looking round, until ye slide into the grave, Oh! look at these oases provided for you by God, who pities you more than you do yourselves: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning!” says the Psalmist. And “let my right hand forget its cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,” if I ever forget you, ye solemn, holy hours prepared for me by God in the place where His glory dwells, and where He invites me to enjoy His own rest!
“Elim I sweet foretaste of rest and of blessing,
Soon must be left for the lengthening way;
But it is well that Thy pilgrims should gather
Courage and strength for the wearisome day.”