Marah Better Than Elim

Marah Better Than Elim

(No. 2301)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 26, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
4, 1889.

"So Moses brought 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. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of
the waters 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 the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree,
which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet:
there He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved
them, and said, If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD
your 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 you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I
am the LORD that heals you." Exodus 15:22-26.

AFTER I had fallen down at Mentone, and was grievously ill, a Brother
in Christ called to me and said, "My dear Friend, you have now come to
Marah." I replied, "Yes, and the waters are bitter." He then said, "But
Marah is better than Elim, for in Elim the Israelites only drank of the
water and ate of the fruit of the palm trees, and that was soon over.
But at Marah we read that God, 'made for them a statute and an
ordinance,' and that was never over. That statute and ordinance stood
fast and will stand fast for Israel as long as they are a nation. There
is much more benefit to be reaped from Marah than from Elim." I thanked
my friend for that good word. I had found it true before. I have found
it true since then and you and I, if we are, indeed, the people of God,
will find it true to the end, that Marah, though it is bitter, is also
better. And albeit that we do not like it, yet in the end there shall
be no bitterness in it, but an unutterable sweetness which shall be
ours through time and eternity!

We have a long record about Marah, have we not? I have read you four
verses concerning Marah. How many verses have we about Elim? Only one.
Does Marah deserve to be talked about four times as much as Elim?
Perhaps it does. Perhaps there is four times as much fruit to be
obtained from the bitter waters of Marah than from the 12 springs of
water, and 70 palm trees at Elim. Who knows? This I know, however, that
we are very apt to talk more about our bitters than about our
sweets–and that is a serious fault. It were well if we had fewer
murmuring words for our sorrows and more songs of thanksgiving for our
blessings. Yet Holy Writ seems, here, to speak after the manner of men,
and to let us have the four verses for the trial, and the one verse for
the delight! Still, as it speaks, also, after the manner of God, I
gather that Marah is, after all, more noteworthy than Elim and, truly,
there does come to God's people something better out of their troubles
than out of their joys.

Certainly one thing is clear, Israel had no miracle at Elim. Wells and
palm trees they had, but they had no miracle, there, no miraculous
change of the bitter into the sweet. And they had no statute, and no
ordinance, and no promise, and no new Revelation of God, and no new
name for Jehovah, there. All that belonged to Marah, "for there He made
them a statute and an ordinance." And there He promised, if they were
faithful and obedient, that He would put none of the diseases of Egypt
upon them. And there He revealed Himself as Jehovah Rophi, "the Lord
that heals you." Oh, yes, there are many virtues and many blessings in
the bitter waters of Marah! Often have we found it true that, "Sweet
are the uses of adversity."

I hope that nobody here thinks that these Israelites experienced a
small trial. We are not accustomed to traveling in the desert, but
those who are, tell us that thirst in the wilderness is something awful
to endure. For all that great host to go three days without water must
have been a very trying experience. You would not like to try that even
in this country,

but what must it be to go three days in the wilderness, beneath a
burning sky, without a drop of water to drink? Then came the bitter
disappointment at Marah. Probably the people knew that there were water
springs ahead, so they hurried up to the place to drink, but when they
stooped to taste the waters, they found that they were bitter. They
could not drink of them and there they stood, in their desperation,
with the long thirst parching their throats, and bitter disappointment
adding to their agony! And they murmured against Moses, saying, "What
shall we drink?" I say not this to excuse them, but lest you should
think that they had only a small trial to bear.

Remember, also, that this was a new form of trial. They never lacked
for water in Egypt–there were plenty of rivers and canals there–and
they could drink as much as they chose. This was an experience to which
they were quite unaccustomed and I should not wonder if they were
greatly surprised at it, for they knew that they were the people of
God. They had just seen the Lord divide the Red Sea and drown their
enemies–and now He has brought them out of Egypt to let them perish of
thirst in the wilderness? They fancied that they were going to have one
long triumphant march right into the Promised Land, or to be always
dandled upon the lap of Providence, and indulged in every way, like
spoiled children. They must have stood aghast at finding that, when the
earth yielded water to slake their thirst, it was such water as they
could not drink!

Well, now, this kind of surprise happens to many who have set out on
the way to Heaven. God has been very gracious to them–their sins are
washed away and they think that the great joy which they have lately
experienced will never be taken away from them and will never be even
diminished. They reckon upon a long day without a cloud. God has
favored them so much that they cannot imagine that they shall have any
trial or any bitterness. It is not so, Beloved! A Christian is seldom
long at ease! No sooner does he start out on pilgrimage to Heaven than
he meets with difficulty and, as he goes on, he finds out that the way
to Heaven is not a rolled pathway–it is up hill and down dale–through
the mire and through the slough, over mountain and through the sea! It
is by their trials and afflictions that the people of God are proved to
be His children! They cannot escape the rod, whoever may–yet this
experience does, at first, come as a very great surprise to them, so I
want to talk, tonight, to some who have been lately brought to rejoice
in the Lord's pardoning mercy, but are now staggered because they have
come to an encampment in the wilderness where their thirsty mouths are
filled with bitterness.

I begin my discourse by saying that this experience was a great gain to
Israel. Marah, with all its trials, was no loss to them. They made a
decided advance in three things through having to endure this trial.
They were gainers, first, by examination. Next, by experience. And,
thirdly, by education.

I. First, Israel's trial at Marah was a gain to them by EXAMINATION. It
was to that end that they were brought there, that they might be
examined by the Lord–"There he proved them."

Speaking of Israel at Marah, let me say, first, that they were in a new
position. They were no longer slaves, they were not in Egyptian
territory. The Red Sea rolled between them and their former lives and
their former masters. But it is evident from their conduct that they
were not altogether a new people. They had brought a great deal of evil
out of Egypt with them. When you heard them sing, you said, "It is
strange that those poor slaves can sing such a jubilant song. Those
women, so accustomed to carry heavy burdens of earth, how merrily they
dance! How joyfully they strike the timbrels! Israel has certainly
become a new race. What a grand choir they make! What singing is
theirs! Who would have dreamt that those who cried by reason of their
taskmasters would ever sing like that?" Yes, but when they were tried
and tested, it was found that the old stuff was still in them–they
murmured just as they had often done before when, in the land of Egypt,
they had blamed Moses because their burdens were increased.

We, too, have entered quite a new state. Some of you, perhaps, have
lately become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Between you and your old
sins there rolls a deep, impassable sea–you will never go back to them
again. Ah, but do not begin to flatter yourselves that you have left
behind you all your old selves! There remains, still, even in the
regenerate, the old lusts of the flesh! They have had their heads
broken, but they still live! They have been crucified, their hands and
feet are fastened to the wood, crucified with Christ–but they live for
all that! And they struggle on the Cross and you must not marvel, if,
when you are tried and proved, you find that you are like these
Israelites at Marah.

Notice, next, that the trial to which Israel was subjected was the
Lord's own test, which is searching and accurate– "He proved them." We
sit down and practice self-examination, which is a very proper thing.
Beware, I pray you, of a faith that will not stand self-examination! If
you dare not look into your own heart, it must be because there is
something

rotten there. The tradesman who is afraid to inspect his books, or
examine his stock, is going to the bad, rest assured of that. We are
bound to examine ourselves very carefully, but, after all, our
examinations are very superficial, very partial, and we are very apt to
make a mistake. In the case of Israel, the Lord proved them by that
thirst in the wilderness and that great agony on finding that the water
they looked for was undrinkable. "He proved them." The Lord may be
bringing some of you into deep waters and great trials because He is
proving you. When the fan is in His hand, then does He thoroughly purge
His floor. When He sits as a Refiner of silver, believe me, it is no
child's play to be in the crucible! The Lord took Israel to those
waters on purpose to prove them. Have you never prayed, "Search me, O
God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts"? The Lord may
answer you in a way of which you little dream–He may conduct you to
some waters of Marah that He may test you and prove you.

Well, now, under the test, see what happened to Israel. Their faith in
God evaporated. That question, "What shall we drink?" has not a trace
of faith in it! I hear it shouted, in different tones, by men, women
and children–and it all comes to the same thing, "We hoped to quench
our thirst here, but we cannot drink this water, and now, what shall we
drink?" As if God could not, having dried up the sea, turn the earth
into a fountain of water! He that made them a path through the midst of
the deep waters could make a path for waters to come to them! There was
no trace of faith in the murmurers at Marah. They seemed full of faith
at the Red Sea, did they not? Many dancers, but no doubters! Many
singers, but no unbelievers! Yet the whole company had not more than a
pennyworth of faith among them. Moses was the only one who truly
believed God–but as for the faith of the rest of them, it was mere
gilt–veneer of faith covering a solid mass of unbelief!

Not only did their faith fail, but their love to God was very feeble.
Did you not hear them three days ago? Why, you can almost hear the
strain of their jubilant song, "He is my God and I will prepare Him an
habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." Oh, how they love
Jehovah, do they not? They were in the love of their espousals! They
went after Him into the wilderness. But now the cry is, "What shall we
drink?" And they murmured against Moses. Theirs was a cupboard love,
like yours and mine often is. They loved God very much for what they
got out of Him and if He would not give them water to drink, what cared
they for Him? If He would divide the Red Sea for them, then He would be
their God and they would prepare Him a habitation. But if He let them
suffer the pangs of thirst, there should be no blessings for Him on
their lips! Ah, me, how like ourselves were these people! When we test
ourselves, we say, "Lord, You know all things, You know that I love
You." And I hope that that is correct. But when the Lord proves us, and
we are very sharply tested, we are apt to say, "Nobody was ever tried
as we are! Nobody ever had the peculiar difficulties that surround us!"
And then we begin murmuring. When we are thinking of how much we love
God, it might be more profitable to consider how very little we really
love Him, after all.

And see, Brothers and Sisters, these people were ready to break away
from their God. They murmured against Moses because Moses was visible
in their midst–but the real murmuring was against God, Himself! They
might ask, as long as they liked, "What shall we drink?" but they could
not get a drop of water by repeating that question a thousand times.
Would they go back to Egypt? How would they cross the sea? What would
Pharaoh and the Egyptians think of them if they did go back? Could they
force their way forward through that terrible wilderness? There they
stood, entirely dependent upon God, and yet with scarcely a particle of
faith in Him! And their love all shriveled up–and all that within
three days! O Israel, it is early days to be falling out with your new
Husband! They had just been married to the Lord by a new Covenant and
baptized in the cloud and in the sea–yet within three days they are
ready to fling it all up and to say, as they did in their
hearts–"Would to God that we had remained in the land of Egypt!" Oh,
what poor, faithless, treacherous, deceitful creatures we are! It is
only Divine Grace that makes us anything worth having. It is a wonder
of mercy that the Lord puts up with us.

This, then, was Israel's examination. "Well," you say, "did they gain
much by that?" Oh, yes! It is always a gain to a man to know the truth
about himself. A captain must find his longitude and latitude, that he
may know whereabouts his vessel is upon the sea. And this, I believe,
is one of the things God would have His people do. The Lord does not
wish His children to live in a fool's paradise and to fancy that they
are rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, when they
are naked, and poor, and blind, and miserable! He sends us our Marahs,
just to blow away our shams and get rid of our pretences, that we may
build our house on the Rock, that what is built may be founded on real
granite and may endure even to the end.

So much for the examination of the children of Israel at Marah.

II. But now, beloved Friends, these people gained much by EXPERIENCE.
Experience cannot be the property of the beginner–he must acquire it.
Now what did the children of Israel experience?

First, they learned that the wilderness was the same to them as it was
to other people. It is well that young converts should know that this
world is an evil world even to the man who is saved by Divine Grace.
You are new, but the world is not. You love holiness, but the world
neither loves you, nor loves holiness. You are in a wilderness–you are
in the enemy's country–you have not yet come into your rest. If you
have not learned this fact, yet, you will have to learn it.

They were to learn, next, that they were wholly dependent upon God.
When they stood at the brink of the Red Sea, they saw that they were
so, and that only God could lead them through the sea. But after that,
they were just as dependent. They could not live longer without water,
they must perish of thirst unless God supplied them. It is a blessed
lesson for us to learn that we are entirely dependent upon God for all
things, but especially for spiritual things. You will not pray unless
He gives you the Spirit of supplication. You will have no tenderness of
heart unless He works repentance in you. You will have no more faith
unless faith is constantly bestowed by God. We are just like these
gaslights–a candle may depend upon its own resources, but this light
cannot. Only cut the connection between it and the reservoir of gas
and, straightway, out it must go. We depend upon God every instant as
much as we did at first and all our old experience, all that we have
learned, and known, and taught, will stand us in no stead whatever
unless we continue perpetually to receive from God. That was the lesson
Israel had to learn.

They also learned that God and God, alone, would provide. They might
have to go very short of supplies at times and they might have a long
thirst, but the Lord would not let one of them die of thirst. There is
no record that even the tiniest babe in the camp, or even a sheep or
goat in that mighty throng, perished for lack of water! God did
provide. He does not promise that there shall always be a dinner ready
when the dinner bell rings. You have not such an appetite as you would
afterwards have if you waited another hour and, sometimes, the Lord may
keep you waiting for His supplies that you may enjoy them all the
better when they do come. He never is before His time, but He never is
behind His time, though He may be behind your time. God will provide.
That day Israel began to understand that word of their father Abraham
when He said to Isaac, as you remember, "My son, God will provide." Now
it began to come home to the children of the tribes that God would
surely provide–and He did provide for them this great necessary gift
of water when they were in the wilderness. That is something to learn.
Some of you people of God, here, have learned that lesson, for you have
been in great straits and you have been fed by the constant provision
of God.

The Israelites were also to learn, in the next place, that God could
make their bitters into sweets, and He could do that in a very simple
way. But He could do it–and He could bring good out of evil, and
satisfy them by that which formerly nauseated them. Have you learned
that lesson? Some of you people of God, when you get bitter waters,
want to throw them away. Do not throw a drop of it away, for that is
the water you have yet to drink. Accept your afflictions! They are a
part of your education. Accept your afflictions. When Job could say,
"The Lord gave," it was easy to add, "and blessed be the name of the
Lord." But he also added, "and the Lord has taken away." That was the
bitter water, but he drank it, and it was sweet to his taste, and he
blessed the name of the Lord for the taking as well as for the giving!
God means to bless some of you by the enemy's curse. Though you do not
know it, you are to be lifted up by those who are trying to pull you
down. I noticed some of the papers writing unkindly of our dear friend,
John McNeill, and saying all manner of hard things of him–and I
rejoiced in my heart! I hoped that they would go ahead at that work. I
remember how they did it to me–all the bitterness they could invent,
in years gone by. Every form and fashion of abuse was heaped upon
me–and what a wonderful advertisement it was! What a kindness they
were doing me without intending it! Let them alone and, depend upon it,
God will make the wrath of man to praise Him and the remainder of that
wrath He will restrain.

Next, notice, that God works by His own means. The Lord showed Moses a
tree and when he cast that tree into the waters, they became sweet. I
think, if I had been there, I should have suggested that Moses should
use that rod of his. Did he not divide the Red Sea with it? Why not
just put his rod into the water and stir it up, and make it sweet? Oh,
yes, you know, we are always for running to old methods! But God is a
Sovereign and He will work as He pleases. There was a tree growing
there, perhaps the wood of it was bitter, certainly it had no efficacy
for making bitter water sweet, but God bade Moses cast that tree into
the waters–and as soon as it was done the waters were made sweet!

Now, you have just to believe that God will help you. You do not know
how He will do it and, perhaps, He will not help you in the old way. Do
not despair because Moses does not bring out his rod, for the Lord can
relieve you without that! That dear friend who has helped you so many
years is gone. Well, but God is not gone and He is not dependent upon
that one person, nor upon any other! Therefore leave God as a King to
do as He pleases, for His pleasure is the wis-est–and let His pleasure
be your pleasure.

Israel also learned by experience that God Himself was to be looked to,
and nobody else. If there were waters beneath their feet, they were of
no value until God spoke sweetness into them. If Moses, himself, stood
there, he could do nothing but pray to the Lord. God, Himself, must
come and, by a miracle, must make the water fit to drink. Brothers and
Sisters, it is always a gain to us in our experience when we get
farther and farther away from every dependence but the Lord! You may
have friends forsaking you and they who used to praise you may now be
speaking evil of you. And you may come, at last, to feel that you have
nothing but God to depend upon–then is the time that faith really
comes into exercise! I could not help laughing when I read the story of
a good Christian lady who spoke of our friend, Mr. Hudson
Taylor–"Why," she said, "there is no Society to take care of him! Poor
man, he has nobody but God to depend upon!" You may well smile. "Nobody
but God to depend upon"–but that is everybody to depend upon! Oh, if
we could only be brought to that experience, Marah's waters would,
indeed, be a heavenly tonic to us! The child of God who has learned
this Truth of God, experimentally, can say, "My soul is weaned from all
the nether springs, but she drinks from the upper spring that flows
from beneath the Throne of God, and she finds every drop to have a
heavenly sweetness in it."

Thus Israel gained by experience as well as by examination.

III. Now comes the third point–Israel gained by EDUCATION. The Lord
was not going to lead a mob of slaves into Canaan to go and behave like
slaves there! They had to be tutored. The wilderness was the Oxford and
Cambridge for God's students. There they went to the University and He
taught and trained them, and they took their degree before they entered
into the promised land. There is no University for a Christian like
that of sorrow and trial.

Now the Israelites were educated by Marah, first, in self-distrust. How
could they ever trust themselves, again, when, three days after singing
that jubilant song, they caught themselves murmuring against Moses? If
they had been intelligent, as they were not, they would, each one, have
said to his fellow, "Behold the boastfulness of our evil hearts." What
a terrible drop it is from "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously: the horse and His rider has He thrown into the
sea," to, "What shall we drink?" That is just how you and I come down
when we are left to ourselves. Thus Israel learned self-distrust.

Next, they learned, as I have told you before, daily dependence. They
learned that they must depend upon God even for a drop of water. That
is the dependence of a Christian. He has nothing and he can do nothing
without his God. We have no bread, no water, no anything except as God
shall give it to us. A blessed lesson was this for Israel. They were
educated well at Marah.

Next, they learned the power of prayer. Will you kindly fix your eyes
upon those two verses, 24 and twenty-five? "And the people murmured
against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord." Moses did not answer them. He did not upbraid them. He did not,
even, begin to argue with them. But he cried unto the Lord and, thus,
the people learned the power of prayer. They might have gone on
murmuring until now if they could have lived so long– and the waters
of Marah would have been as bitter as ever. But Moses cried unto the
Lord and that prayer did what all the murmuring could not do! Were half
the breath we vainly spend in going round to our neighbors, asking
their sympathy, spent in going directly to God in prayer, we should
sooner get out of our troubles! "Straightforward makes the best
runner," and he that runs straight to God in every time of adversity
shall soon find relief.

Again, at Marah the Israelites began to learn their separateness from
Egypt. The Egyptians never drank these bitter waters but the Egyptians
had foul diseases and terrible plagues. Now, the Lord tell His people
that He will not put upon them any of the diseases of Egypt. God turned
the rivers of Egypt into blood, but here He turns the bitter waters
into fresh streams. His miracles were for Israel and against Egypt–and
they began to clearly perceive that they had nothing to do with the
Egyptians. They were a separated people. It is a valuable piece of
education for a young Christian to find out that he does not belong to
the world. The tendency is to think that, though you are in the Church,
you can be in the world, too, and that you belong, in a measure, to
both. That will never do! The Lord means to fetch His people right out
of the world–and He will have them out! And if any of you try to be
like the mouse behind the wainscot and only come

out and feed in the dark–I mean that you come to Christ for a little
food when nobody sees you and then go and hide away with the
world–there will be a black cat after you before long! Some trouble or
other will happen to you. That game will never please God and never
profit you. Therefore drop it, I pray you, or else some bitter Marah
will teach you that you are not of the world.

Israel had next to learn the position of obedience. Will you kindly
notice this? God did not say, "Do this and I will bring you out of
Egypt." No, but after He brought them out, He said, "Hearken to My
commandments, and keep My statutes." Salvation comes first and then
obedience! Saved first, brought through the Red Sea with the high hand
of God's gracious power and, after that, become His obedient people!
Obedience follows after redemption and deliverance. First the blood of
sprinkling on the doorposts and after that you shall give ear unto the
voice of the Lord your God, and diligently hearken to Him.

Israel also learned the nature of obedience. Obedience does not merely
do what it knows it should do, but it finds out what it ought to do.
Oh, you Christian people, do you make a practice of reading God's Word
to see what He would have you do? I am afraid that there are some who
make a point of not seeing some of the duties which are not pleasing to
them. There are some who half shun portions of Scripture because they
would trouble their consciences. Let it not be so with any of us, but
let us listen diligently to the voice of the Lord our God. If you are
saved, the kind of obedience that you are bound to render is that of a
willing heart, which cries like Saul, "Lord, what will You have me to
do?"

Then, Israel learned the promise made to obedience–"If you will
diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, your 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 you,
which I have brought upon the Egyptians." For you there shall be no
plagues. God may try you, yet it will be not in anger, but in His dear
Covenant love. Everything shall be changed for you. If sickness comes,
it shall be overruled for your spiritual health. When death comes, it
shall only introduce you to eternal life. The Lord will be very
gracious to you. He that forgives our sins also heals all our diseases.
His name is Jehovah Rophi! What an education it is for us when we feel
that the God that healed the waters, heals us, and heals everything
that has to do with us! It changes the aspect of all things about us,
takes the sting out of the wasp and turns it into a bee. It takes away
the venom from the serpent and gives us its wisdom, that we may be wise
as serpents, and harmless as doves! Oh, the wonderful cure-alls of God,
the heavenly catholicon of the Cross, the universal remedy of a dying
Savior! May our experience educate us in the knowledge of that gracious
healing!

The hour has struck and I must, therefore, cease. Only I must say that
this is the one lesson of tonight–dear people of God, trust your God.
Trust your God not only when your mouth is full of honey, but when it
is full of gall. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," for He
in whom you trust will bless you. But if you are not trusting Him, then
shall plagues, like those of Egypt, come upon you. Darkness and all
manner of evils shall waylay you, till, at last, there shall be heard
in your house a bitter cry, for the Destroying Angel will overtake you,
and plunge his avenging sword into your guilty hearts. God save you
from that terrible doom, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. EXODUS 15; JEREMIAH 7:21-26.

Exodus 15:1. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto
the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for He has
triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the
sea. Note, that they were singing, singing a very loud and triumphant
song, and you would have thought that they would have kept on singing
for the next 40 years! It was such a triumph, such a deliverance, God's
arm was made so bare before their eyes that you would have thought that
their jubilation would have lasted throughout a lifetime, at the least.
On the contrary, it lasted a very little while. Yet what a song it was
that they sang! "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed
gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." What a
song of triumph that is which is sung by souls saved from sin, death
and Hell by the great atoning Sacrifice of Christ! Oh, when we first
realize that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we do,
indeed, "feel like singing all the time," for our sins are washed away
and we have a notion that we shall always keep on singing till we join
in the song of the glorified in Heaven! So it ought to be, but, alas,
from sad experience we know that it is not so! However, the song of
Moses and the children of Israel goes on.

2. The LORD is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He
is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I
will exalt Him. The heart is prompted by gratitude to think of doing
something for God. It thinks of preparing Him a habitation, but what
habitation shall we prepare for Him whom the Heaven of heavens cannot
contain? All that we can possibly do is too little for the greatness of
His Grace and His Glory. "You did well that it was in your heart," said
the Lord to David, though He might not prepare God a habitation. It is
well that it is in our heart, today, to do some little thing for the
Glory of God. As an old Puritan says we give for love-tokens a cracked
sixpence, or a flower that soon fades. It is accepted as a love-token,
not for its intrinsic value, but as an emblem of what our heart feels
and would do if it could. Even so it is with the Lord and the service
His people seek to render to Him. He takes our trifles and makes much
of them.

3-5. The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name. Pharaoh's chariots
and His host has He cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into
the bottom as a stone. And this is what has happened to all the powers
that were against us. Our sins, where are they? Has not the Lord cast
them into the depths of the sea? Yes, blessed be His name forever! We,
like Israel on the other side of the Red Sea, praise the Lord that we
have escaped out of the hand of the oppressor and that Pharaoh holds us
as servants no longer. To the Lord, alone, is due the glory of our
deliverance.

6-8. Your right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: Your right
hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of
Your excellence, You have overthrown them that rose up against You: You
sent forth Your wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the
blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods
stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of
the sea. What cannot God do? The liquid becomes solid! Nature, itself,
changes when the God of Nature puts forth His power. Trust in God and
He will do wonders for you, also, as He did for His ancient people
Israel.

9. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the
spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my
hand shall destroy them. How the powers of darkness rage and rave! What
a flurry they are in! What big words they speak! What cruel designs
they harbor against God's people. See how still and calm is the Lord
amid all their raging!

10. You did blow with Your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as
lead in the mighty waters. God has only to use His breath to blow upon
them and away they go, and all their boastings, too! One word from the
mouth of God can destroy all our doubts and fears. The breath of His
Spirit can sink all our enemies and make us sing for joy of heart at
our great deliverance.

11-13. Who is like unto You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched
out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy have
led forth the people which You have redeemed: You have guided them in
Your strength unto Your holy habitation. The song becomes prophetic.
All joy gets to be prophetic–at least, the joy of earth when once it
is touched with the live coal from off the heavenly altar. We begin to
praise God, "for all the Grace we have not tasted yet," as Israel here
does. They praise the Lord for leading His people through the
wilderness and bringing them unto His holy habitation, even while they
are only at the beginning of their journey.

14. The people–That is, the Canaanites–

14, 15. Shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the
mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the
inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. When they hear of the great
things that Jehovah has done for His people, they shall feel that the
day of their doom is come. Who can stand against so mighty a God? Yet
there are some, in our day, whose hearts are stouter and harder than
the hearts of the dukes of Edom and the mighty men of Moab. They hear
of God's judgments upon the wicked and of the terrible doom of the
ungodly, and yet they dare to defy the Lord and to continue in their
evil ways!

16-18. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Your
arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Your people pass over, O
LORD, till the people pass over, which You have purchased. You shall
bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in
the place, O LORD, which You have made for You to dwell in, in the
Sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. The LORD shall
reign forever and ever. How grandly that last note must have pealed

forth from the hundreds of thousands of male voices! The women must
also have sung it with the utmost conceivable joy as they struck their
timbrels and danced before the Lord.

19-22. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his
horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea
upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of
the sea. And Miriam the Prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel
in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and
with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing you to the LORD, for He has
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the
sea. So Moses brought 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.

At first, they were afraid of too much water, from the waves of the
sea. Now they are afraid of too little. Will their songs be over in
three days? Ah, yes! At the end of the third day they came to some
springs of water, but they were brackish or bitter.

23, 24. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters
of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called
Marah. And the people murmured–Ah, these singers had sadly changed
their notes! Where are the timbrels now? "The people murmured"

24-27. Against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto
the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into
the waters, the waters were made sweet: there He made for them a
statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said, If you
will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your 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 you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am
the LORD that heals you. And they came to Elim. They did not stay long
at Marah, probably only a few hours.

27. Where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees
and they encamped there by the waters. That Elim must have been
prepared on purpose for Israel. Twelve springs of water–that was the
number of the tribes. Threescore and ten palm trees–that was the
number of the elders. I do not wonder that Moses noted these numbers.
It must have seemed remarkable that, long before they came there, there
were the wells and there were the palm trees all ready for their
encampment! It was most significant that these things should have been
prepared according to the number of the children of Israel, but
everything else is arranged by the same rule. When the Lord divided the
people, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the
children of Israel. It is by this line that He still builds His Church.
It is according to His thoughts of His own people that He rules
everything in His Providence.

There are a few verses in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, at the
seventh chapter, which we will read concerning this subject.

Jeremiah 7:21, 22. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Put
your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spoke
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. You have heard what God said to them when they came out of
Egypt.

23-26. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I
will be your God, and you shall be My people: and walk you in all the
ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they
hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and
in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not
forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of
Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all My servants the
Prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened
not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did
worse than their fathers. God grant that these words may never be a
truthful description of us! Oh, may we keep the Covenant of our God and
walk before Him with a holy, reverent fear, and serve Him all our days!
Amen.