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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" (Exod. 15: 26).
Here is revealed the second of the Jehovah titles:
The first is JEHOVAH-HIREH (Gen. 22: 14).
The second is JEHOVAH-ROPHEKA (Exod. 15: 26).
The great dispensational miracle of Acts 3: looks to the same end:
"Neither is there the healing (salvation) in any other" (Acts 4: 12).
None of the Lord's dealings are arbitrary, all is for His glorious purpose. As soon as
the lesson of Marah had been given, and the people `proved', as soon as they realized
that the waters of the wilderness must ever be bitter apart from the Lord their Healer, then
the burning sand is exchanged for the delightful shade of Elim's palm trees and the wells
of Elim take the place of the bitterness of Marah. Here is completeness, twelve wells,
one for each tribe. They can now anticipate the day when they shall:
"draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Isa. 12: 3).
So then, fellow pilgrims, remember that He who leads to Marah can also lead to Elim,
and if it be that Marah shall be our experience, its bitterness shall become sweet if it but
reveals, in Christ, the "Lord that healeth". The Lord who knows the bitterness of Marah
knows that:
"no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but rather grievous,
NEVERTHELESS AFTERWARD" (Heb. 12: 11).
If we could but remember those words `nevertheless afterward' our Marahs would
speedily give place to Elims, and the initial lesson of the wilderness would be ours. May
we have grace at every Marah to look for the tree, which when cast in the waters makes
them sweet.
The necessities of this life are frequently summed up under the phrase `bread and
water', to which we must add `raiment' (I Tim. 6: 8). It will be found that in the
pilgrimage of Israel, type of the earthly walk of all the Lord's redeemed people, these
three items come before us with some degree of prominence.
Water figures at Marah in Exod. 15:, and again at Rephidim in chapter 17: The
question of the provision of bread for the pilgrimage occupies the whole of the
intervening chapter 16: The murmurers remember the flesh pots of Egypt and that they
then did eat `bread to the full' (16: 3), but the bread of Egypt must give place to the
`bread of heaven' for all those who walk the pilgrim's way. It will be remembered that
the hasty departure of Israel out of Egypt led to the institution of a new kind of bread:
"And the people took their dough before it was leavened" (Exod. 12: 34),