Exodus 15:22-27: a reflection

22Moses led Israel onward 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. 23When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah. 24The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25Then he cried to the LORD. The LORD showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. 26He said, “If you will diligently listen to the LORD your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.” 27They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They encamped there by the waters.

Just three days after the triumph at the Red Sea, Israel comes to Marah and finds the water bitter, undrinkable. The people murmur, and Moses cries out to God, who shows him a tree to throw into the water, and the bitter waters become sweet. There God reveals himself with a name: I am the LORD who heals you. And just beyond Marah lies Elim, with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees, a place of refreshment. The bitter place came first, but God made the bitter sweet, and the springs were not far off.

Notice what God did with the bitterness. He did not simply remove Israel from Marah; he transformed the bitter waters themselves, making them sweet, through a tree cast into them. And he revealed himself, in that place of bitterness, as the LORD who heals. The bitter experience became the occasion for God to show himself as healer, and to turn the bitterness itself to sweetness.

That is a hope worth holding in our own bitter places. Life brings us to its Marahs, bitter experiences, disappointments, sorrows that seem undrinkable. And God is able, not always to remove them, but to transform them, to cast something into the bitterness that makes it sweet, and to reveal himself, even there, as the God who heals. Christians have long seen in the tree cast into the water a picture of the cross, which transforms our deepest bitterness. When you come to a bitter place, cry out to God as Moses did, and trust him to work the transformation only he can, making the bitter sweet, and showing himself, even in the bitterness, as the LORD who heals you.

Lord, when Israel found the waters of Marah bitter, you did not merely remove them but transformed the bitterness itself, casting in a tree to make the waters sweet, and revealed yourself as the LORD who heals. When I come to the bitter places of life, the disappointments and sorrows that seem undrinkable, help me cry out to you as Moses did. You are able, not always to remove my bitterness, but to transform it, and to show yourself, even there, as my healer. Thank you that the tree cast into the water points to the cross, which transforms my deepest bitterness. Meet me in my Marahs, make the bitter sweet, and be the LORD who heals me.