We saw in the last chapter that the history of the children of Israel was one of eating. In this chapter we want to see that the history of the children of Israel is not only one of eating but also one of drinking. In Genesis 2 are the tree of life for eating and the river of water for drinking. These two items go together to produce the precious materials which are good for God’s building. From Genesis 2 onward with the history of God’s chosen people there were always the two matters of eating and drinking. These two matters are seen throughout the entire Bible. With today‘s chosen people of God, there must also be the matters of eating and drinking because these are the two main aspects of the maintenance of life. For life we need to eat and drink. Eating and drinking enable us to enjoy and maintain life.
The history of the children of Israel started with the eating of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12. Soon after they had eaten the Passover and crossed the Red Sea to come out of Egypt, they became short of water. Exodus 15:22 tells us that “they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.” They came to Marah, which means bitter, because the waters of Marah were bitter and not good for drinking. It is significant that the journey from the Red Sea to Marah was exactly three days. Their being three days in the wilderness in thirst means that they were buried for three days, that they were in death. The third day may be considered as the day of resurrection since the Lord Jesus was raised on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4). When the children of Israel came to the bitter waters of Marah on the third day, the Lord showed Moses a tree, and when Moses cast this tree into the waters, the waters were made sweet (Exo. 15:25). We may say that the tree is the resurrected Christ because this tree was cast into the bitter waters of Marah after the children of Israel had traveled three days in the wilderness.
Because the children of Israel were short of water and came to a place of bitter waters, they began to murmur and complain. This is a good picture of the people of God when they are short of water. If a local church is short of spiritual water, be sure that there will be fighting, chiding, murmuring, and complaining there. If chiding, complaining, and murmuring are present in a local church, that is a proof of dryness, a proof of thirst. If we had no water to drink for three days, no doubt, many of us would be chiding, fighting, and murmuring because of the shortage of water. We need to realize that we have a living tree, the resurrected Christ. If we would put this resurrected Christ into our bitterness, allowing the resurrected Christ to come into our situation, the bitter waters will become the sweet waters.
At Marah, even before the law was given, the Lord made for the children of Israel a statute and an ordinance (15:25). This signifies that if we have the drinkable, sweet living water among us, out of this living water there will spontaneously be a living statute and ordinance. The more we drink of the living water, the sweet water of the resurrected Christ, the more we are regulated. The statute and ordinance are not of the law of letters but are the living statute and ordinance of the drinking of the living water.
I believe that the statute made at Marah may have been that there was to be no more chiding or murmuring. After the bitter waters were made sweet, the children of Israel may have said that there was no more need for them to chide or murmur so they made a statute to this effect. There is no need to chide or murmur when there is plenty of water and when the waters are sweet. If there is much chiding and murmuring in a local church, there will be much sickness in that church. If we murmur all the time, we will be sick. Murmuring opens the door to the enemy to bring in all kinds of diseases. If we are those who murmur, complain, and chide, we are the same as the Egyptians, the worldly people. In most worldly associations or societies, the people murmur, chide, and even fight with one another. Should we have this kind of situation or condition among the people of God in a local church?
Our chiding or murmuring is a kind of disease. We are sick spiritually, and this spiritual sickness can result even in physical sickness. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul told the Corinthians that many among them were weak and sick and a number were even dead (v. 30) because of their murmuring, chiding, and divisiveness. The Corinthians were against one another because they were short of the sweet water with the resurrected Christ. If we have the resurrected Christ in our situation, our situation will be so sweet with the living water. Then we will have a statute that we would never chide, murmur, complain, or fight with one another. Our ordinance is to praise the Lord and to shout for joy with no chiding and no murmuring. This ordinance is an issue of the sweet waters. If we are enjoying the resurrected Christ in our situation and the sweetness of the living water, we will not have any kind of disease.
If murmuring and chiding can be found in a local church, this proves that there are Egyptian diseases there. If there is an absence of murmuring and chiding, there is a living statute made of the sweet, living water that instructs us not to criticize, chide, murmur, complain, or fight with one another. This statute was not given at Sinai but was made at Marah where the children of Israel had the sweet waters. Exodus 15:26 says, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt 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.” We should not have diseases or illness among us because the Lord is the healer to us, and His healing is in the sweet waters. We have the Lord as our healer.
Following their experience at Marah, the children of Israel came to Elim where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees (Exo. 15:27). The palm tree in the Bible signifies the victory of the evergreen life. We have to praise the Lord for the palm tree, for the victory of life. Seventy is ten times seven. Seven is the number of completion and ten is the number of fullness, so Elim is a place full of victories of life. There were also twelve springs of water at Elim. Twelve is composed of four times three. The number four signifies the creatures, especially mankind, and the number three signifies the Triune God. Therefore, four times three, the number twelve, is the mingling of divinity with humanity. The springs at Elim are for the mingling of divinity with humanity. God as the living water is flowing into His chosen people to be mingled with them. The resurrection life at Elim flows and grows. It flows out of God into us, and through this flowing it grows upward to express the riches and victory of the divine life.
We need Christ as the tree, the resurrected One, to be put into our situation. Then we will have the sweet waters. Out of these sweet waters will issue a statute and an ordinance not to murmur or chide but to praise. Our situation should not be one of murmuring, but one of praising. We need an ordinance of saying, “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah.” Our ordinance and our statute is not to chide, criticize, murmur, or complain, but always to praise. This statute and ordinance was not of the letter of the law, but of the drinking of the sweet waters. Eventually, we are brought to a situation at Elim with twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. This situation is full of the flowing of life for the mingling of divinity with humanity and full of the victories of life for praising the Lord. Elim is a place full of praises coming out of life.
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