When studying the passage just before this, I suggested when
we hit a wall we need to stop trying to be self-sufficient. Stop crying out to other men. Stop drinking from our Marahs. Our God has not changed. We need to cry out to Him and Him alone. And in this passage, Moses does exactly that
-- in clear contrast to what the Israelites did.
The text says, Moses “cried out to the Lord”. That is the only door to select and open, as difficult
as it may be at the time. And what does
the Lord do? He “showed him a tree”.
Now what we do not know is what else was said between that
phrase and the one right after it, which tells us that Moses “threw
it into the waters”. We do not
know what connected God’s provision with Moses’ action. Did Moses have a hissy fit, which he does not
want to tell us about? Did he say to
himself, as many of us may well ask, “How on earth is a tree going to give us
water?” And thus out of anger, did he
uproot the tree (assuming it was in the ground) and throw it into the water? Or was it more likely that God gave Moses
instructions as to what to do with the tree just as He had in the past with
regards to his staff or the snake that appeared? Alternatively, we can take the text at face
value and just think that Moses was so in tune with God that he knew exactly
what to do with the tree that the Almighty showed him.
A question we can well ask ourselves is this: Do we know
what to do with what God shows us, especially when we hit a wall in our life?
Pick your choice of the options above. Clearly, how Moses got to do what he did is
not the key point of the story right here.
He did it. He threw the tree God
provided into the bitter waters of Marah.
And the Bible says the “waters became sweet”. Let us not for a moment think it was the tree
that turned the bitter waters sweet, any more than it was the wood in the cross
on which Jesus died that saved us. No,
it was the awesome power of God that made the Marah waters drinkable. And it was the grace of God that saved us. Did Moses have any doubt as to the miracle
that took place that day in the desert?
I think not. More important is
the question, “Do we have any doubt of what took place on Calvary the day
Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified?”
The next sentence in our text is also interesting. We are told it was there at Marah that God
made a statute and a regulation for them.
This was the second statute referred to in Scripture but the first
regulation. The first statute was not
made by God but rather by the Patriarch Joseph back in Genesis 47:26. A ‘statute’ in biblical days was a law or
decree passed by a sovereign or God. In
the case of Joseph, his statute had to do with what the Israelites had to give
back to Pharaoh from the produce of their land.
All were subject to it except for priests. But here in Exodus 15, it is God that is
making the statute and in fact, it is also a regulation. Strong’s Lexicon defines ‘regulation’ as an
ordnance, justice, or judgment. So here
was a requirement (statute) with a consequential regulation (a judgment) or
penalty that would follow were the statute not observed. So what exactly was involved?
The ‘statute’ part was simply this: Give heed to the voice
of the Lord your God; do what is right in His sight; give ear to His
commandments; and keep all His statutes.
The ‘regulation’ part was given in the positive: If
you follow the statute in its entirely, you will not be visited by the
diseases which I gave to the Egyptians as this is My way of healing you and
keeping you well. We have to notice the “If you” for without it, the
regulation makes no sense.
As we consider what God is asking us for, we can see some
commonality with what a loving parent asks of a child he/she loves, or for that
matter, a doctor asks of a patient he/she cares for immensely – “Listen to what
I tell you; do what you know I would expect of you; obey my requests; and
follow all of my instructions. Then
you’ll be fine, you’ll be safe. You’ll
get well and stay healthy.” The
conditions of the statute are reasonable.
Of course, to make it all possible, we must be able to recognize God’s
voice, be familiar with His word in a way that we know what He expects of us,
and clearly understand what He considers to be sin.
And while this was God’s first statute and regulation, He
also wanted the children of Israel to keep all the other ones He was going to
give them down the road. God was
basically saying to them, “Look, if I’m your Lord and warrior and all the
things you sang about just a while ago, I need you to be ready to meet my
requests now and in the future. Can you
do that?” Good question. And it’s asked of us as well.
If the children of Israel could do that, their reward was
worth it. Israel would be spared the
diseases that had befallen the Egyptians.
First of all, we need to realize that God was talking about the statutes
that Moses was going to give the Isrealites in the Mosaic Laws he was going to
lay down for them. Chuck Smith talks
about this at length in his commentary.
I quote him here:
There
is a very interesting book called, "None of These Diseases" written
by [two] medical doctor[s], in which [they go] into the law that God gave to Moses, and into especially
the dietary aspects of the law, and into the washing ordinances within the law,
and actually shows that if a person would keep the law of Moses; that it was a
sanitary code among other things. And that by the keeping of the law, following
the laws of sanitation, and diet and so forth, that a person would live a much
healthier life, that there are the rules of health in the law of God. . . . So
the promise being if you keep the law and so forth, then I will keep you.
"I'm the Lord that heals you." But the healing is so often through
preventative measures, of proper diet, proper sanitation and so forth. So as we
get into the law of Moses, we're [going
to] find that much of it deals with just health, and healthy practices. God
wants you to be healthy, and He's given you the rules. – [italics mine]
No matter what, the bottom line is, as God Himself declares – He, the Lord, is our healer. And, God Who had now declared this statute and regulation, did indeed “test them” as the text states. How hard could that be for the children of Israel? I mean they were in strange territory on route to the Promised Land after years of slavery and having just experienced incredible miracles. All they had to do was just satisfy the statute and avoid the penalty of the regulation. But could they do it? Can we do it?
Nevertheless, God Who is all loving, continued to lead them though He knew they would fail Him. He then took them also to Elim where He provided them with not one, but “twelve springs of water”, perhaps one for each tribe of the children of Israel. And if that was not enough, He also showed them “seventy date palms” that they could eat from. Our God is not only a Healer, but a Provider, a Nourisher. And so, the Israelites now with their thirst quenched and their stomachs filled, could rest beside the waters.
If you are grumbling today, may I suggest that you heed
the statute and regulation of God – listen to His voice, do what He expects,
and follow His commandments. And if you
do, you will be given Living Waters to drink, the Bread of Life to eat, and
perfect peace in Him.
[Are you
looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken
is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]
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