At the end of 15:27 we are told that the children of Israel “encamped there by the waters.” The word encamped indicates that God’s people had been formed into an army. The flowing and growing life supplies God’s people as His army. When we come to chapter seventeen, we shall see God’s people entering into battle as an army. At Elim they were full of enjoyment of life that made them qualified for fighting. This enabled them to fight to carry out God’s purpose to build His habitation.
At Sinai, God’s people received the heavenly vision related to the building of the tabernacle. The long journey from Egypt to Sinai could not be made without fighting. At first, the people did not do the fighting themselves. God fought for them and defeated Pharaoh and his army by destroying Pharaoh and his chariots in the waters of the Red Sea. After God’s people had crossed the Red Sea and had the experiences at Marah and Elim, they were strengthened as God’s army and qualified to fight for God’s purpose. This was the reason that God did not fight for them in chapter seventeen. They themselves could fight through the flowing and growing life.
If we would be strengthened as God’s army today, we also must firstly experience the flowing of the twelve springs and the growing of the seventy palm trees. We need the perfect and complete flowing life and growing life. Only then shall we be qualified and equipped as an army to fight for God’s purpose. In the Lord’s recovery we have the consciousness of being engaged in spiritual fighting. We are not merely settled in our localities; we are encamped in them. In order to fight, it is not sufficient simply to eat the Passover lamb with the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread. We also need to experience the cross and the resurrection; that is, we must pass through Marah and arrive at Elim.
As we consider the implications of 15:27, we realize that we also need to come to Elim. I have the assurance that, at least to some extent, the churches in the Lord’s recovery are camping at Elim, enjoying the twelve springs and the seventy palm trees. How we thank the Lord for this picture of resurrection life! Have you seen the springs flowing and the palm trees growing? Have you seen that the result of this flowing and growing life is an army strengthened to fight for God’s purpose? Praise Him that we are His army encamped by the flowing and growing life!
In our experience we need not only the sweet water, but also the flowing water. This means that we need the water that has been changed from bitter to sweet and also the water that flows from the twelve springs at Elim. In order to have the flowing water, we must go on from Marah, the experience of the cross, to Elim, the experience of resurrection.
From the time of Madame Guyon and her contemporaries to the time of Mrs. Penn-Lewis, the Lord’s people for the most part were at Marah. Through the ministry of Mrs. Penn-Lewis, the subjective experience of the cross has been recovered in a full way. In the years following Mrs. Penn-Lewis, the Lord has gone on from Marah to Elim. At Elim He cares for His plantation with the twelve springs and seventy palm trees. However, many of those who seek the Lord still appreciate Marah very much and desire to remain there. They have not progressed beyond the writings of Mrs. Penn-Lewis concerning the cross. Instead, they still emphasize the experience of the cross. However, they do not pay much attention to the flowing springs and the growing palm trees. They mainly testify of how their bitterness has been changed into sweetness through the application of the cross. Those who linger at Marah have the healing tree, but not the seventy palm trees growing to express the riches and victory of the divine life. At Marah there is no plantation. There is only one tree cut down and cast into the bitter waters.
It is not my intention to make light of those who have gone before us in the Lord’s recovery. My intention is to point out the need for us to progress from Marah to Elim. We need to go on from the healing tree to the growing and flourishing palm trees. In His recovery today God does not want us to linger at Marah. He needs us to go on to Elim and be strengthened there as His army.
Recently, I received a letter from someone asking for books written by the mystics of three centuries ago, in particular the writings of Madame Guyon and Brother Lawrence. Actually, the autobiography of Madame Guyon is a history of the experience at Marah. The same is true of The Imitation of Christ. Those who emphasized the experience at Marah in the past three centuries did not stress very much the twelve flowing springs and the seventy growing palm trees. Today the Lord wants us to experience the springs that water God’s plantation so that the palm trees may grow to express the riches of His life and victory.
Because at Marah there is no plantation, only the changing of bitterness into sweetness, there is no growth there. But at Elim we enjoy God’s farm and the grove of palm trees to express the riches of the divine life and the complete victory of God’s administration. In our experience the waters that have been changed from bitter to sweet must become the flowing waters in which, by which, and with which we grow like palm trees to express God’s rich life and full victory.