Read Exod. 15
It is easy to understand the children of Israel's distress-the sea stretched before them, shutting them in, and Pharaoh and his host pursuing, so that they were sore afraid and cried unto the Lord, and said to Moses: "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast Thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?" Although they had cried to the Lord, they had not in their hearts counted on His delivering them. It must, therefore, have been a wonderful thing to them when God so publicly manifested Himself to be on their side. So it is with our hearts when surrounded with trial, shut in, as it were, with troubles of one sort or another. So often it is then that our hearts are found buried under the circumstances, instead of trusting on the God who is above them either to sustain us or to deliver us from them.
The Israelites were dealt with in unqualified grace, whatever might be their murmurings, till they reached Sinai, that they might know how entirely God was for them. Afterward, through their folly in putting themselves under the law, which they ought to have known they could not keep, they brought upon themselves a different line of treatment. In the 16th chapter, when they murmured for food, God gave them quails (as well as manna) without any reproach, that Israel might know that God was feeding them on the ground of perfect grace. But afterward, when they again murmured for flesh (being then under law), we read that while it was yet in their mouths, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote them with a very great plague. But God would first have them know how entirely bent He was on doing them good, despite their wickedness.
It is well to distinguish, for our souls' profit, the difference between the Passover and the Red Sea. A person may hear the gospel, receive it with joy, and be rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins; he may see the loveliness of Christ, and have his affections drawn out toward Himself, but if full redemption is not known, as typified by the Red Sea, if he does not see that Christ's death for him delivers him from death and judgment, he is almost sure to lose his joy when temptation comes and he learns his own weakness. The joy of chapter 15 is that God has absolutely redeemed them out of Egypt, and brought them in His strength to His holy habitation. This is a very different thing from the joy of the Passover-being delivered from just and deserved judgment. In the Passover, Jehovah has revealed Himself to them as the God of judgment. The blood on the doorposts screened them from judgment; it kept Him out, and He did not come into their houses to destroy. At the Red Sea it was another thing-it was God coming in strength as their salvation. The Passover delivered them from His judgment, the Red Sea from their enemies. The moment His people are in danger from Pharaoh, He came in. The very sea they dreaded, and which appeared to throw them into Pharaoh's hands, became the means of their salvation. Thus through death God delivered them from death, even as Christ went down into the stronghold of Satan under the power of death, and, rising again from the dead, delivered us from death. Thus there was an end of Pharaoh and Egypt to them forever. The Red Sea was redemption out of Egypt; God Himself was their salvation. He whom they had feared, and justly, as a judge, had become their salvation. They were redeemed. They no longer were hoping for mercy, but were able to rejoice that judgment was past, and to sing His praises for having brought them to His holy habitation-to God Himself-in the light as He is in the light. Furthermore, they were brought there before they had taken one step in the wilderness or fought one battle with their enemies.
There is no proper conflict until redemption is known. They did not attempt to fight with Pharaoh, but only tried to get away from him. They groaned under his yoke, but did not combat against him. How could they? They had to be brought to God first-they had to become the Lord's host before they could fight His enemies or their own. It is the same with an individual soul. I have no power to combat Satan while I am still his slave. I may groan under his yoke and long to be delivered from it, but before my arm can be raised against him, I must have a complete and known redemption. The Israelites were not only happy in escaping the pursuer; it was a full, conscious redemption from Egypt and Pharaoh, and they could count on God's power for all the rest. "The people shall hear, and be afraid.... The inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away." vv. 14, 15. Their joy did not arise from having no enemies, but from God's own divine power taking them up and putting them in His own presence.
"Thou shalt... plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance." v. 17.
This was yet to be done, but they were already with Him in His holy habitation-not theirs but His. We also are in His presence, brought to God, though not yet in the place prepared for us on high. So, in Ephesians 1, the Apostle prays that the believers "may know what is the hope of His calling, and... the glory of His inheritance in the saints." It was God's land that the Israelites were to dwell in, and it is the Father's house in which our home shall be. It is His glory, and He will bring us into it. We do not need to fear the enemies by the way; to faith they are powerless. Full confidence belongs to redemption. Is it then, as men would say, all "smooth sailing" now? No. We, too, are in a wilderness, a dry and thirsty land.
Does this make redemption uncertain? Not at all. Yet it is a dreadful thing to have no water; it was certain death in those countries. Had He then brought them through the Red Sea and unto Himself to kill them with thirst? When at length they did find water, it was bitter. But this was to prove them and to bring out what was in their hearts. The bitter water did not show what was in God's heart (redemption had shown that); but in their hearts lay much that had to be manifested and corrected. Being redeemed forever, they must learn that there is nothing for us in the wilderness. All supply must come from God Himself. This is the very effect of redemption, and there is much in us to be brought out and corrected. He, however, makes the water sweet.
We must all learn in a practical way about death (being redeemed, we have life) and it cannot be learned in Egypt. They had no Marah in Egypt. It is a wilderness experience. Redemption must be known first, and the practical effect will be death to sin, to selfishness, to one's own will; all this is very trying. A person might be tempted to say, All this trial comes upon me because I have not redemption. Not so; it is just because you are redeemed: We may seek to avoid the bitter waters of Marah, but God will bring us to them. He must break down all that is of the old man, and then, in His own good time, He will put in that which sweetens all. But because God has brought me to Himself, He is putting His finger on everything (whether it be love of the world, setting up self, my own will) that hinders complete dependence on Him, or my soul's full enjoyment of Himself. But count it not strange, though it be a fiery trial which is to try you, for as surely as you are redeemed, so He will break down your own will. God will make you drink of the very thing (death) that redeemed you.
And now Israel is going on with God, and He is dealing with them. He gave them statutes, etc. This He did not do before He had redeemed them. They had been troubled before by Pharaoh, but now it was from God. In having to do with God, they learn God in a new character-"the Lord that healeth." This is a different thing from His promise, that if they were obedient He would bring none of the diseases of Egypt upon them. They were exercised by God, so that they might know Him as the Healer. This is the same reason that the whole heart has to be brought out before God. We cannot escape it. He will so order circumstances as to bring it about. If we have been seeking to magnify self, then we may have to be humbled before men, and this is very trying, very bitter water. But as soon as the tree (the cross) is in the waters, they become sweet and refresh the soul. This is joy in tribulation. Joy in redemption comes first, but now there is refreshment in the healing. First, God makes us to sing in the knowledge of redemption, and then, if we are to have the practical effect of redemption which is the enjoyment of God Himself in our souls, the flesh which would always hinder this must be broken down in whatever form it works. God knew what was in the Israelites' hearts, but they did not, and they had to learn it.
After this they came to Him. Once humbled, they were able to experience the natural consequences of being with God-the full streams of refreshment-but the humbling process had to occur first. Had Elim come first, there would have been no sense of their dependence on the Lord for everything, and their wills would have remained unbroken. But trial produces dependence, and dependence, communion. It is only for this that He delays, for He delights in blessing His people. The numbers 12 and 70 are different figures of perfection: perfect refreshment and perfect shelter. All this took place in the wilderness, and then they had rest.
They had to be exercised at Marah, that they might fully know and enjoy Him at Elim. Redemption brought them indeed to God, but now it is joy in God. So it is with us. Although we are redeemed, we cannot have these springs from God Himself flowing through our souls, with unbroken flesh. But whatever trial we are in, however deeply we may have to drink into death, there is resurrection as well as death, and when we see God's hand in it-when we see the cross of Christ in the bitter waters-we understand God's mind and purpose in them, and they become sweet to us. We cannot walk a path of faith without having faith, so we must be put to the test. Not that tribulation seems joyous for the present, but grievous, but afterward it yields the peaceable fruits unto them that are exercised thereby. Confidence in the flesh is not faith. If I lose my trust in God for one minute, that very minute the flesh comes in under some form or other. Whenever I feel perplexed, the eye is not single. If the eye were single, the whole body would be full of light. Perhaps there is something yet to be detected in us, something we have not yet found out in our own hearts. It may not be willful sin, but there is something He will exercise our hearts about, something as to which He will manifest Himself as Jehovah-Rophi. Thus we learn to rejoice in tribulation also, and then to rejoice in God, finding springs of joy refreshing us in the wilderness in God who brought us there. Let us then not count trial a strange thing, for we know its purpose, even that we may joy in God Himself.