It is easy to understand Israel’s distress: the sea before, shutting them in, and Pharaoh and his host pursuing. They were 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 truly reckoned on His delivering them. It must have been a wonderful thing to them when God was so publicly manifested to be on their side. So is it with our hearts, when thus tested with trial on every side; our hearts are often found buried under the circumstances, instead of calculating upon the God who is above them, either to sustain us under them or deliver from them.
Israel was 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 sixteenth chapter of Exodus, 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, bad as they might be.
The Passover and the Red Sea
It is well to distinguish, for our souls’ profit, the difference between the Passover and the Red Sea, for 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 towards Him. But if full redemption is not known, as typified by the Red Sea, if he does not know himself to be risen with Christ on the other side of death and judgment, he is almost sure to lose his joy when temptation comes and he feels his own weakness. The joy of Exodus 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 had made Himself known 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 — 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 comes in. The very sea they dreaded and which appeared to throw them into Pharaoh’s hands becomes the means of their salvation. Thus, through death God delivered them from death, 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 was there an end of Pharaoh and Egypt to them forever. The Red Sea is redemption out of Egypt; God Himself is their salvation. He whom they had feared as a Judge is become their salvation. They are redeemed, to sing His praises for having brought them to His holy habitation, before they had taken one step in the wilderness or fought one battle with their enemies.
Conflict
There is no conflict properly till redemption is known. They did not attempt to fight with Pharaoh, but only to get away from him. They groaned under his yoke, but did not fight against him. How could they? They must be brought to God before they can fight His enemies or their own. And so it is with an individual soul. I have no power to combat Satan while I am still his slave. I may groan under his yoke and sigh to be delivered from it, but before my arm can be raised against him, I must have a complete and known redemption. The Israelites are not only happy in escaping the pursuer: It is a full, conscious redemption from Egypt and Pharaoh, and they can count on God’s power for all the rest. “The people shall hear and be afraid. ... The inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away” (vss. 14-15). Their joy does not arise from having no enemies, but from God’s own divine power taking them up and putting them in His own presence.
Marah
We must all learn death (being redeemed, we have life) and it cannot be learned in Egypt. They had no Marah in Egypt; it is wilderness experience. Redemption must be known first, and the effect will be death to sin, to selfishness, to one’s own will; all this is very trying. A person might say, “All this trial comes upon me because I do not have 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 (be it love of the world, setting up self, my own will, or whatever it may be) that hinders complete dependence on Him or my soul’s full enjoyment of Himself. But count it not strange that there be a fiery trial which is to try you, for as surely as you are redeemed, so will He break down your own will. Yes, beloved, God will make you drink of the very thing (death) that redeemed you. 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. It was to prove them. God knew what was in their hearts, but they did not, and they must learn it.
Elim
After this they come to Elim. Now they experience the natural consequence of being with God — the full streams of refreshment — as soon as they were really broken down. Had Elim come first, there would have been no sense of their dependence on the Lord for everything, and nature would have been 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 twelve and seventy are different figures of perfection: perfect refreshment, perfect shelter, and all this in the wilderness, and rest then.
They must be exercised at Marah, that they may fully know and enjoy Him at Elim. Redemption brought them indeed to God, but now it is joy in God.
Adapted from J. N. Darby