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Exodus Chapter
Fifteen
Exodus 15
Chapter Contents
The song of Moses for the deliverance of Israel. (1-21)
The bitter waters at Marah, The Israelites come to Elim. (22-27)
Commentary on Exodus 15:1-21
(Read Exodus 15:1-21)
This song is the most ancient we know of. It is a holy
song, to the honour of God, to exalt his name, and celebrate his praise, and
his only, not in the least to magnify any man. Holiness to the Lord is in every
part of it. It may be considered as typical, and prophetical of the final
destruction of the enemies of the church. Happy the people whose God is the Lord.
They have work to do, temptations to grapple with, and afflictions to bear, and
are weak in themselves; but his grace is their strength. They are often in
sorrow, but in him they have comfort; he is their song. Sin, and death, and
hell threaten them, but he is, and will be their salvation. The Lord is a God
of almighty power, and woe to those that strive with their Maker! He is a God
of matchless perfection; he is glorious in holiness; his holiness is his glory.
His holiness appears in the hatred of sin, and his wrath against obstinate
sinners. It appears in the deliverance of Israel, and his faithfulness to his
own promise. He is fearful in praises; that which is matter of praise to the
servants of God, is very dreadful to his enemies. He is doing wonders, things
out of the common course of nature; wondrous to those in whose favour they are
wrought, who are so unworthy, that they had no reason to expect them. There
were wonders of power and wonders of grace; in both, God was to be humbly
adored.
Commentary on Exodus 15:22-27
(Read Exodus 15:22-27)
In the wilderness of Shur the Israelites had no water. At
Marah they had water, but it was bitter; so that they could not drink it. God
can make bitter to us that from which we promise ourselves most, and often does
so in the wilderness of this world, that our wants, and disappointments in the
creature, may drive us to the Creator, in whose favour alone true comfort is to
be had. In this distress the people fretted, and quarrelled with Moses.
Hypocrites may show high affections, and appear earnest in religious exercises,
but in the time of temptation they fall away. Even true believers, in seasons
of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret, distrust, and murmur. But in every
trial we should cast our care upon the Lord, and pour out our hearts before
him. We shall then find that a submissive will, a peaceful conscience, and the
comforts of the Holy Ghost, will render the bitterest trial tolerable, yea,
pleasant. Moses did what the people had neglected to do; he cried unto the
Lord. And God provided graciously for them. He directed Moses to a tree which
he cast into the waters, when, at once, they were made sweet. Some make this
tree typical of the cross of Christ, which sweetens the bitter waters of
affliction to all the faithful, and enables them to rejoice in tribulation. But
a rebellious Israelite shall fare no better than a rebellious Egyptian. The
threatening is implied only, the promise is expressed. God is the great
Physician. If we are kept well, it is he that keeps us; if we are made well, it
is he that recovers us. He is our life and the length of our days. Let us not
forget that we are kept from destruction, and delivered from our enemies, to be
the Lord's servants. At Elim they had good water, and enough of it. Though God
may, for a time, order his people to encamp by the bitter waters of Marah, that
shall not always be their lot. Let us not faint at tribulations.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
Exodus 15
Verse 1
[1] Then
sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake,
saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Then sang Moses —
Moses composed this song, and sang it with the children of Israel. Doubtless he
wrote it by inspiration, and sang it on the spot. By this instance it appears
that the singing of psalms, as an act of religious worship, was used in the
church of Christ before the giving of the ceremonial law, therefore it is no
part of it, nor abolished with it: singing is as much the language of holy joy,
as praying is of holy desire.
I will sing unto the Lord — All our joy must terminate in God, and all our praises be offered up to
him, for he hath triumphed - All that love God triumph in his triumphs.
Verse 2
[2] The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my
God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt
him.
Israel rejoiceth in God, as their strength,
song, and salvation - Happy therefore the people whole God is the Lord: They
are weak themselves, but he strengthens them, his grace is their strength: they
are oft in sorrow, but in him they have comfort, he is their song: sin and
death threaten them, but he is, and will be, their salvation. He is their
fathers God - This they take notice of, because being conscious of their own
unworthiness, they had reason to think that what God had now done for them was
for their fathers sake, Deuteronomy 4:37.
Verse 3
[3] The
LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
The Lord is a man of war — Able to deal with all those that strive with their maker.
Verse 4
[4]
Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains
also are drowned in the Red sea.
He hath cast —
With great force, as an arrow out of a bow, so the Hebrew word signifies.
Verse 7
[7] And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that
rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as
stubble.
In the greatness of thine excellency — By thy great and excellent power.
Verse 8
[8] And
with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods
stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the
sea.
With the blast of thy nostrils — By thine anger: The depths were congealed - Stood still, as if they had
been frozen: In the heart of the sea - The midst of it.
Verse 9
[9] The
enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust
shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
My lust — My
desire both of revenge and gain.
Verse 11
[11] Who
is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
The gods — So
called: Idols, or Princes: Glorious in holiness - In justice, mercy and truth:
Fearful in praises - To be praised with reverence.
Verse 12
[12] Thou
stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
The earth swallowed them — Their dead bodies sunk into the sands on which they were thrown, which
sucked them in.
Verse 13
[13] Thou
in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.
Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the People — Out of the bondage of Egypt, and out of the perils of the Red-sea.
Thou hast guided them to thy holy habitation — Thou hast put them into the way to it, and wilt in due time bring them
to the end of that way.
Verse 17
[17] Thou
shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in
the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary,
O Lord, which thy hands have established.
Thou shalt bring them in — If he thus bring them out of Egypt, he will bring them into Canaan; for
has he begun, and will he not make an end? Thou wilt plant them in the place
which thou hast made for thee to dwell in - It is good dwelling where God
dwells, in his church on earth, and in his church in heaven.
In the mountains — In
the mountainous country of Canaan: The sanctuary which thy hands have
established - Will as surely establish as if it was done already.
Verse 18
[18] The
LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever — They had now seen an end of Pharaoh's reign, but time itself shall not
put a period to Jehovah's reign, which like himself is eternal.
Verse 20
[20] And
Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all
the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
Miriam (or Mary, it is the same name)
presided in an assembly of the women, who (according to the common usage of
those times) with timbrels and dances, sung this song. Moses led the psalm, and
gave it out for the men, and then Miriam for the women. Famous victories were
wont to be applauded by the daughters of Israel, 1 Samuel 18:6,7, so was this. When God brought
Israel out of Egypt, it is said, Micah 6:4, he sent before them Moses, Aaron, and
Miriam; though we read not of any thing remarkable that Miriam did but this.
But those are to be reckoned great blessings to a people, that go before them
in praising God.
Verse 21
[21] And
Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
And Miriam answered them — The men: They sung by turns, or in parts.
Verse 23
[23] And
when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they
were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
The name of it was called Marah — That is, Bitterness.
Verse 25
[25] And
he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast
into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute
and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
And he cried unto the Lord — It is the greatest relief of the cares of magistrates and ministers,
when those under their charge make them uneasy, that they may have recourse to
God by prayer; he is the guide of the church's guides, and to the chief
shepherd, the under shepherds must on all occasions apply themselves: And the
Lord directed Moses to a tree, which he cast into the waters, and they were
made sweet - Some think this wood had a peculiar virtue in it for this purpose,
because it is said, God shewed him the tree. God is to be acknowledged, not
only in the creating things useful for man, but in discovering their
usefulness. But perhaps this was only a sign, and not a means of the cure, no
more than the brazen serpent.
There he made a statute and an ordinance, and
there he proved them — That is, there he put them upon trial,
admitted them as probationers for his favour. In short he tells them, Exodus 15:26, what he expected from them, and
that was, in one word, obedience. They must diligently hearken to his voice,
and give ear to his commandments, and must take care, in every thing, to do
that which was right in God's sight, and to keep all his statutes. Then I will
put none of these diseases upon thee - That is, I will not bring upon thee any
of the plagues of Egypt. This intimates, that if they were disobedient, the
plagues which they had seen inflicted on their enemies should be brought on
them. But if thou wilt be obedient, thou shalt be safe, the threatening is
implied, but the promise is expressed, I am the Lord that healeth thee - And
will take care of thee wherever thou goest.
──
John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Exodus》
15 Chapter 15
Verse 1
Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel.
The Song of Moses at the Red Sea
Unwonted interest attaches to this song--the earliest on record of
all the sacred odes, and the very foremost in the annals of Hebrew anthology.
To the Jewish people themselves, it is what they have long called it, “The
Song”; a designation to which it is entitled, alike from its inherent
pre-eminence and its unrivalled associations.
1. It is Israel’s natal song. For, in crossing the Red Sea, they
passed through the birth-throes of their national existence, and from this
epoch dates a new chronology in Israel’s calendar. The oppressed tribes have
become a commonwealth; and a commonwealth of the free.
2. It is Israel’s emancipation song, or song of liberty. It
signalises a triple deliverance; marking the supreme moment of rescue from the
threefold evils of domestic slavery, political bondage, and religious thraldom.
3. It is Israel’s first National Anthem and Te Deum in one. The
Exodus was not a mere effort on the part of the Hebrew race to achieve their
independence and realize their aspirations after a separate nationality. The
spirit of even this idea had yet to be created within them; but everything
depended on their being first delivered from the corrupting influences of
Egyptian fetichism and idolatry, no less than from the yoke of Egyptian
bondage. Not that the mass of them could at all appreciate the full meaning of
the grand event as a mighty religious movement, repeating on a larger scale the
migration of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and breaking away from idolatrous
and debasing superstitions, to find a home for the free development of a higher
creed and worship. But the eye of their great leader descried this Divine
purpose; and he had gone with this first tentative proposal to Pharaoh from God
“Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness.” It is Israel’s Te
Deum, or song of thanks and praise to God. An overwhelming sense of the Divine
interposition is the predominant sentiment in the song from first to last. It
is no mere secular ode; no mere war-song or outburst of patriotic triumph; no
exultant shriek of insult over a fallen foe; but an anthem of blessing and
gratitude for a great deliverance, a devout and solemn psalm before God, to
whom, of whom, and for whom it is sung. This high and sacred intent keeps it
from degenerating into a wild strain of vindictiveness or vainglory.
4. It is Israel’s Church-song; the type of all songs of redemption
and salvation. The very words “redemption” and “salvation” are first introduced
in connection with this great deliverance. “I will redeem you with an
outstretched arm”; and again, “Fear ye not; stand still, and see the salvation
of the Lord.” The people had become unified into a worshipping assembly. It is
Israel’s triumph-song of deliverance. The note is that of joy and victory; and
is prophetic of the success of every battle and struggle for the Lord’s cause
and kingdom, fought in the Lord’s name and in His strength. This triumph is the
precursor especially of that final and glorious one at the end of the ages,
when the spiritual Israel, which no man can number, from every people, and
tribe and language, “having gotten the victory over the beast, and over his
image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,” shall take up a
position like their prototypes of old not, however, by the shore of the Red
Sea, with the mere emblem of God’s presence before them--but as John saw them
in apocalyptic vision, standing by the sea of glass mingled with fire; no
longer led merely by Miriam and her chorus, but all of them having the harp of
God in their hand, singing, not only “the Song of Moses, the servant of God,”
but “the Song of the Lamb.”
I. Introduction:
or the triple aim of the song (verses 1, 2). Thus the song is, first of all,
inscribed and offered to the Lord. He also is its great theme or subject; and
it is His exaltation that constitutes its one and expressly avowed aim. To God, of
God, for God--these are the three pivot-thoughts regulating and determining the
movement of the opening strophe, and, indeed, of the entire hymn. Here, as not
infrequently with later psalms, we have the whole song concentrated in the
first verse. The occasion of the song, its subject, its design, are all
indicated. First, there is here a singing to the Lord. The simplest idea we can
attach to the opening words, “I will sing to the Lord,” is this--I will bring
myself into the immediate and felt presence of Jehovah, and will address and
offer my song to Him! How near has He been to us during the eventful and
stupendous transactions of the night! Under a realizing sense of that Dearness
I will direct my song to Him. To what a pitch of solemnity this conception
raises the singer I But, while this idea of singing to the Lord is expressive
of the singer’s attitude as immediately before the very face of the Supreme, it
no less indicates that the song is an acceptable offering and oblation to the
Lord. It is no self-pleasing exercise of gift and faculty, but “a sacrifice to
the Lord, the fruit of the lips.” “Singing,” says one, “is as much the language
of holy joy as prayer is the language of holy desire.” How sublime a sight! The
whole of a people singing before the one invisible God, and consciously
realizing more or less their direct relation to the Eternal, under no outward
form or image or material symbol! Secondly, the Lord is the subject or theme of
the song. Underlying all is the sense of the Divine personality. Nothing but this
could have kindled the soul to song. If God is to be the subject of hymning
praise, it must needs be the thought of a living, personal One, to evoke the
spirit of glorying in and praising His name. Thirdly, there is here a singing,
not only to the Lord and of the Lord, but for the Lord. To extol and exalt the
Lord is declared to be the ultimate end and aim of this song. And indeed this
is the highest reach and the final purpose of all praise--to manifest and
express the Divine character, the Divine working and ways, the Divine glory and
honour. We are taught to pray for God as well as to Him; and to put this ever
in the foreground of our prayers, as of all things the first, the best, the
supremely desirable. “Hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be
done”--these petitions have the precedence over any for either ourselves or
others. But not only to do this, but also to express it and set forth our
purpose to do it--this is the special aim and function of praise, of which
“Doxology,” or the ascription of power, blessing, dominion, and every
excellency, is the highest climax. It is the very anticipation of heaven itself
and of all its worship.
II. The body, or
subject-matter of the song (verses 3-13). The third verse seems to be designed
for a great chorus--probably meant to be re-echoed by a body of deep-voiced
warriors. It marks a transition from the declarative style of the introduction,
to the alternation of recitative and ascriptive portions in the main body of
the song. It forms also a suitable link between the two, being a fit climax to
what precedes, because it sets forth why and in what character the Lord is to
be exalted--“the Lord is a Man of War”--and a fit index to what follows,
because it suggests, so strikingly, the nature of His triumph which is now
about to be celebrated; a triumph involving struggle and conflict. He is “a Man
of War” in accordance always with His sublime and sacred name Jehovah. The song
proceeds to develop the three great qualities of the Jehovah-warrior, the
Warrior who is Divine.
1. He is in power resistless. This power is seen first in the
magnitude of the scale on which it operates--the sense of this being enhanced
by the detail of particulars in verse 4. Pharaoh’s chariots, and his host, and
his chosen captains. Then, again, in the ease with which it effects its object
as He “casts” them into the sea--it is as if He had caught up the whole host in
His hand, and slung it like a stone into the deep; and finally, in the
completeness of the overthrow and the irreversible and irretrievable nature of
the result. Having thus signalized the catastrophe, the poet’s inspiration
seems to catch a new afflatus. The style suddenly changes in verses 6, 7, and
8; it ceases to be merely descriptive, and becomes directly ascriptive. The
tone is now lofty and devout, God being addressed immediately in the second
person, and the whole event being attributed to the interposition and
miraculous operation of His power alone.
2. He is in equity and righteousness unchallengeable. The “equity and
righteousness” is as manifest as the power. We are taught in verse 7 to regard
the whole situation as intended for a display of “the Divine excellency”: so
true, so timely, and so exemplary it is in its manifestation. With consummate
ease, but with no less consummate justice, the dread penalty is enacted; to
show how “He is glorious in holiness and fearful in praises” while “doing
wonders.” For it is intimated that Egypt, in what it was doing, was not only
“the enemy” of Israel, but it was “of them that rose up against Thee”; fighting
against the Almighty and violating the first principles of Divine justice,
truth, and mercy. The victims of the catastrophe were the fit subjects of a
retributive and self-vindicating economy. Moreover, it was so well-timed. They
were taken, as it were, red-handed, in the very act; at the very moment they
were anticipating their revenge and gloating in its gratification. While they
were intoxicated with insolence and pride: while they were breathing out
threatening and cruelty, the Lord speaks to them in wrath; the Lord holds them
in derision.
3. Yet, finally, He is in mercy plenteous. We have to note the goodness, no less than
the severity, of God here. The reiteration in verse 12 of what has been said
before, seems designedly made to enhance the sublime and suggestive contrast.
III. The threefold
issues (verses 14-18). In this third and last wave of the anthem, the Divine
mercy in the redemption of Israel is illustrated. The song becomes prophetic;
and three grand issues are described and anticipated, an immediate, an
intermediate, and a final one.
1. The immediate influence of the Exodus and passage of the Red Sea,
on the tribes and peoples around, verses 14-16. A striking gradation is
observed in describing the various effects: there is first a widespread panic
and commotion in general, then the chiefs or “phylarchs” of Edom are paralyzed
with terror; the mighty men of Moab tremble with uncontrollable fear; and
finally the Canaanites melt away in despair.
2. There is an intermediate or remoter influence on the ultimate
settlement and final destiny of Israel. So great an initial triumph was a happy
augury and a sure prognostication of coming success. It was to be accepted as a
Divine pledge of all needful aid and succour, until at length they should be
firmly established in the promised land, as a nation, a race or family, and a
Church. For in verse 17 we have a climax with three particulars, in which
Israel is presented in three aspects, and their land is set forth in the triple
character of an inheritance, a home, and a sanctuary, awakening the chords of
patriotism, ancestry, and worship.
3. There is the last great issue of all, “The Lord shall reign for
ever and ever.” The prophecy of this song reaches thus onward to the end of all
things; for the deliverance of Israel was not merely typical of, but actually a
part and instalment of, the final redemption. And therefore, this song of Moses
is not only the key-note and inspiration of the songs of the Old Testament
Church, but a song of the Church in every age, celebrating as it does an event
and deliverance not only pledging but vitally contributing to the last great
acts in the onward triumph of Christ’s complete redemption. (A. H. Drysdale,
M. A.)
The Song of Moses
I. The history
which the song celebrates.
II. The reflections
which the history thus celebrated suggests.
1. The history affords an awful instance of persevering rebellion
against God, notwithstanding the infliction of repeated and awakening
chastisements.
2. The tendency of the human mind to forget past mercies, when we are
involved in present afflictions.
3. The duty of yielding obedience to God, even when His commands seem
to be opposed to our interests and our happiness.
4. The certainty that God will appear on behalf of His people,
however long His interposition may be delayed.
5. The history reminds us of a nobler deliverance which God has
effected for His people by Jesus Christ.
6. We may learn from the history with what grateful joy the disciples
of Christ will celebrate His power and grace, when they have crossed the river
of death. (J. Alexander.)
Jubilate
I. It will be
instructive to notice the time of the singing of this song. To everything there
is a season: there is a time of the singing of birds, and there is a time for
the singing of saints. “Then sang Moses.”
1. It was first of all at the moment of realized salvation. When we
doubt our salvation we suspend our singing; but when we realize it, when we see
clearly the great work that God has done for us, then we sing unto the Lord who
hath for us also triumphed gloriously. How can our joy of heart any longer be
pent up?
2. So is it also in times of distinct consecration. I would remind
you that the apostle assures us that all Israel were “baptized unto Moses in
the cloud and in the sea.” That passage through the Red Sea was the type of
their death, their burial, and their resurrection to a new life; it was their
national baptism unto God: and therefore they sang as it were a new song. It is
the happiest thing that can ever happen to a mortal man, to be dedicated to
God.
3. It was also a day of the manifest display of God’s power.
4. But this song may be sung at all times throughout the life of
faith. Let your hearts begin to ring all their bells, and let not their sweet
chimes cease for evermore.
II. The tone of
this song.
1. Note, first, that the tone is enthusiastic.
2. The tone is also congregational, being intended for every
Israelite to join in it. Though Moses began by saying, “I will sing unto the
Lord,” yet Miriam concluded with, “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed
gloriously.” This is a hymn for every child of God, for all that have come out
of Egypt. Let the
song be enthusiastic and unanimous.
3. Yet please to notice how very distinctly personal it is. “I will
sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my
strength and song, and He is become my salvation; He is my God, and I
will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”
Do not lose yourself in the throng.
4. Note, again, the tone of this song is exceeding confident. There
is not a shadow of doubt in it: it is all the way through most positive in its
ascriptions of praise.
5. And this song is exceeding comprehensive. It sings of what God has
done, and then of what God will do in bringing His people into the Promised
Land; nor does it finish till it rises to that loftiest strain of all: “The
Lord shall reign for ever and ever.”
6. Note, too, all through, that this song is immeasurably joyous. The
Israelites were slaves enjoying new liberty; children let out to play. They did
not know how to be glad enough. Let us give to God our unlimited joy.
7. Yet I must say, however enthusiastic that song was, and however
full of joy it was, it was only such a song as was due unto the Lord.
III. The first
clauses of this song. “The Lord is my strength and my song,” etc.
1. Notice, the song is all of God: there is not a word about Moses.
Let us forget men, forget earth, forget time, forget self, forget this mortal
life, and only think of our God.
2. Observe, the song dwells upon what God has done: “The horse and
his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” Let us trace all the mercies we get to
our God, for He hath wrought all our works in us; He hath chosen us, He hath
redeemed us, He hath called us, He hath quickened us, He hath preserved us, He
hath sanctified us, and He will perfect us in Christ Jesus. The glory is all
His.
3. The song also declares what the Lord will yet do. We shall conquer yet in
the great name of Jehovah. Take up the first note: “The Lord is my strength.”
What a noble utterance! Poor Israel had no strength! She had cried out by
reason of her sore bondage, making bricks without straw: The Lord is my
strength when I have no strength of my own. It is well to say, “The Lord is my
strength” when we are weak and the enemy is strong; but we must mind that we
say the same when we are strong and our enemies are routed. The next is, “The
Lord is my song,” that is to say, the Lord is the giver of our songs; He
breathes the music into the hearts of His people; He is the Creator of their
joy. The Lord is also the subject of their songs: they sing of Him and of all
that He does on their behalf. The Lord is, moreover, the object of their song:
they sing unto the Lord. Their praise is meant for Him alone. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The Song of triumph
The Song of Moses has never been surpassed for the poetical beauty
of its imagery and its expressions. It is, besides, so full of holiness and
adoration, as to render it incomparable.
I. Let us recount
all the causes for gratitude which are enumerated in it.
1. The Israelites had been delivered from a terrible danger. The
enemy had said, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; I
will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.”
2. They had been delivered from inevitable danger. None could save
them but God only. Before them was the sea; behind them were Pharaoh and his
host.
3. They had been delivered from universal danger. Not the lives of a
thousand only, or even of ten thousand, among them had been threatened; all,
old and young together, were to have been slain.
4. They had been delivered by most glorious miracles; the strong east
wind, the pillar of light, the sea changed, as it were, into walls of ice.
5. They bad been delivered notwithstanding their sins. Oh, what an
example of the free grace of God! They had scorned His words, had murmured; it
was, so to speak, in spite of themselves that God had saved them.
6. They had been delivered altogether, not one was missing, not one
had perished, not even the youngest child. No mourning marred their triumph, as
often happens to the nations of the earth when they are celebrating a great
victory.
7. They had been saved by the power of God alone. It was not their
work, it was that of the Lord, who had said to them, “Stand still, and ye shall
see the salvation
of the Lord; the Lord shall fight for you.”
8. Lastly, their deliverance was accompanied by promises for the
future. God had brought them out of Egypt, but it was to lead them to Canaan.
II. If we are true
believers, and if Jesus is our Saviour, we have the same reasons that the
Israelites had for singing the song of praise.
1. Like them, we have been delivered from a terrible danger. It was
the danger of death,--not of the body, for that is comparatively nothing, as
our Lord has said, but of the soul; that is to say, condemnation, alienation
from God, a whole eternity passed “in outer darkness, where there is weeping
and gnashing of teeth.”
2. Like the Israelites, we have been delivered from inevitable
danger. There is no way of escape--no salvation in any other than in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
3. We have been delivered from a universal danger. Indeed, we are all
by nature under condemnation. “There is no difference: for all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God.”
4. We have been delivered by most glorious marvels. “Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God,” exclaims the apostle John. These things are so sublime, that the
angels desire to look into them.
5. We have been delivered notwithstanding our sins; for “God
commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.”
6. Like Israel, we have been delivered altogether. Not one of the
chosen people of God will be missing; the youngest child, the most despised,
the most forgotten of men, if he has put his trust in the Lord, will not
perish.
7. God has saved us without any strength of our own, for we were
incapable of doing anything. “I have trodden the winepress alone,” saith the
Saviour by the mouth of Isaiah. He obeyed for us, He has borne our sins, He has
accomplished all the work of our salvation.
8. Lastly, our deliverance has been accompanied, like that of the
Israelites, with glorious promises. The Lord will guide us with His counsel,
and afterwards He will receive us to glory. He will be our strength, because He
has been our Saviour. (Prof. Gaussen.)
Manly gratitude
Among the mass of men how little there is of that frank, manly
gratitude, that openly, and in the sight of a scoffing world, acknowledges the
delivering, saving hand of God. Amid such wide-spread forgetfulness of the hand
of an overruling Providence, it is a satisfaction to record the case of a
thankful British seaman, a fine young man in the naval service on board Her
Majesty’s ship, Queen. They were cruising off Cape Finisterre. The hands
had been turned up to reef top sails for the night; the work was just finished,
when the young captain of the mizzen top overbalanced himself and fell. He came
down a distance of a hundred feet or more, and would have fallen on the deck,
where no doubt he would have been instantly killed or seriously injured; but as
he fell he clutched the foot-brail of the mizzen--this threw him against the
sail, which broke his fall, and he was saved! And as he touched the deck he
knelt down in the sight of the throng of officers and men who composed the
crew, and offered up his thanks to Almighty God for his safe deliverance,
during which time the silence and discipline was such one might have heard a
pin drop on the deck.
After deliverance there should come a song
Gratitude is an imperative duty; and one of its first and finest
forms is a hymn of thanksgiving and praise. It is true that it will not be
worth much if it expends itself only in song; but wherever the psalm is
sincere, it will communicate its melody also to the life. Too often, however,
it does not even give a song. You remember how only one of the ten lepers
returned to thank the Lord for His cleansing; and, perhaps, we should not be
far wrong if we were to affirm that a similar proportion prevails to-day
between the thankful and the ungrateful. Yet it would be wrong if we were to
leave the impression that such gratitude as this of Moses is almost unknown. On
the contrary, the pages of our hymn-books are covered with songs which have
been born, like this one, out of deliverance. Many of the finest of David’s
psalms are the utterances of his heart in thanksgiving for mercies similar to
those which Moses celebrated; and some of the noblest lyrics of Watts and
Wesley, of Montgomery and Lyre, have had a similar origin. Nor is this all; we
can see that in all times of great national revival there has been an outburst
of song. At the Reformation, no result of Luther’s work was more remarkable
than the stimulus it gave to the hymnology of the Fatherland. In fact, that may
be said to have been as good as created by the Reformation; and in our own
country each successive revival of religion has had its own special hymn. But
we have not all the genius of Wesley, or the inspiration of Moses, or of David;
and what shall we do then? We can at least appropriate the lyrics of those who
have gone before us, and use them in so far as they meet our case; and I can
conceive no more pleasant or profitable
occupation for the household than the singing of those hymns which have become
dear to us because of the personal experiences which we can read between the
lines. But we can do better still than that; for we can set our daily deeds to
the music of a grateful heart, and seek to round our lives into a hymn--the
melody of which will be recognized by all who come into contact with us, and
the power of which shall not be evanescent, like the voice of the singer, but
perennial, like the music of the spheres. To this hymnology of life let me
incite you; for only they who carry this music in their hearts shall sing at
last on the shore of the heavenly land, that song of “pure concert” for which
John could find no better description than that it was” the song of Moses, the
servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.” But to sing of deliverance, you must
accept deliverance. Open your hearts, therefore, for the reception of
salvation. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The Lord is my strength
and my song.--
The citadel and the temple
I. What the Lord
is to his people.
1. “The Lord is my strength,” sang the enraptured host, when they saw
how He had “triumphed gloriously” for them--and this has ever been the song of
God’s people as they have passed through dangers and tribulations in their way
to the heavenly Canaan (Isaiah 26:4).
2. But if the Lord be the strength of His people, it must imply that
they themselves are weak.
3. But the Lord is our strength; and if the Church be likened unto
things which are weak, the figurative language of the Bible is equally strong
in setting forth the Lord as her strength (Proverbs 28:10; Psalms 18:2). The Lord Jesus is called
the Captain of her salvation, her Deliverer, Governor, Guide.
4. But the Lord is not only the strength of His people, but also
their song. He is a very present help in trouble, and He sometimes raises the
head, and cheers the heart, even in the midst of sorrows and trials (Habakkuk 3:17-19).
5. The Lord is also the salvation of His people. He sometimes saves
them, in a miraculous manner, from temporal evils.
6. He is their God: and this is everything. Infinite power, wisdom,
mercy, goodness, love, pity, truth, justice, are all exerted in their behalf;
for, in one delightful word, He is their God--yea, and He will be their God for
ever and ever, and their Guide even unto death.
II. The resolutions
which a sense of His goodness leads them to make.
1. “I will prepare Him an habitation,” alluding, probably, to the
Temple which the Jews afterwards built. But it is in the humble, contrite heart
that the Lord delights to dwell; and we prepare Him a habitation when we open
our hearts to receive Him, when we devote them entirely to Him, and when we
make Him the principal object of our desires.
2. “My father’s God”--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of
all our pious ancestors--“and I will exalt Him.” With my tongue will I praise
His name, and my soul shall exalt in Him. (B. Bailey.)
My father’s God.--
The pathos of theology
A song is the proper conclusion of a victory. Fasting is the
worship of sorrow; singing is the worship of joy. The words specially chosen
for meditation show that the victory did not end in itself; it touched the holy
past; it consummated the promises and hopes of ages.
I. “My father’s
God.” Then religion was no new thing to them. They were not surprised when they
heard the name of God associated with their victory. Religion should not be an
originality to us; it should not be a novel sensation; it should be the common
breath of our daily life, and the mention of the name of God in the relation of
our experience sought to excite no mere amazement.
II. “My father’s
God.” Then their father’s religion was not concealed from them. They knew that
their father had a God. It is possible not to suspect that a man has any regard
for God until we see his name announced in connection with some religions
event. We cannot read this holy book without being impressed with the fact that
the men who made the history of the world were men who lived in continual
communion with the spiritual and unseen.
III. “My father’s
God.” Yet it does not follow that the father and the child must have the same
God. You have power deliberately to serve the connection between yourself and
the God of your fathers. It is a terrible power!
IV. “My father’s
God.” Then we are debtors to the religious past. There are some results of
goodness we inherit independently of our own will. This age inherits the
civilization of the past. The child is the better for his father’s temperance.
Mephibosheth received honours for Jonathan’s sake. The processes of God are not
always consummated in the age with which they begin. Generations may pass away,
and then the full blessing may come. Practical questions:
1. Your father was a Christian,--are you so much wiser than your
father that you can afford to set aside his example? There are some things in
which you are bound to improve upon the actions of your father; but are you
quite sure that the worship of the God of heaven is one of them?
2. Your father was a holy man--will you undertake to break the line
of a holy succession? Ought not the fame of his holiness to awaken your own
religious concern?
3. Your father was deeply religious,--will you inherit all he has
given you in name, in reputation, in social position, and throw away all the
religious elements which made him what he was?
4. Your father could not live without God,--can you? (J. Parker,
D. D.)
A noble ancestry and a glorious resolution
I. A noble
ancestry. “My father’s God.” Who are the men who have the most illustrious
ancestry? The men who honoured, served, and trusted the one true and living
God. The same God does for all ages; His character commends itself to the
adoration of all souls. It is natural to value anything our loving fathers
love. We value their favourite books, but how much more their God, the totality
of goodness, the fountain of all blessedness?
II. A glorious
resolution. “I will exalt Him.” How can we “exalt Him?” Enthrone Him in our
affections as Lord of lords, and King of kings, ruling all thoughts, animating
and directing all activities. (Homilist.)
The living God
I. Who was the God
of our fathers?
1. A pure Being, not the “chance” of the atheist.
2. A conscious Being, not the “mere law” of the deist.
3. A personal Being, not “the all” of the pantheist.
4. A perfect Being, as revealed in the Bible.
5. An emotional Being, as manifested in Christ.
6. A communicative Being, as imparted by the Holy Spirit.
II. What is it to
exalt Him?
1. Not by tall spires.
2. Not by gorgeous ritual.
3. To adore Him as the object of our worship.
4. To give Him the chief place in our affections. (W. W. Wythe.)
My mother’s God
At a fashionable party a young physician present spoke of one of
his patients, whose case he considered a very critical one. He said he was
“very sorry to lose him, for be was a noble young man, but very unnecessarily
concerned about his soul, and Christians increased his agitation by talking
with him and praying for him. He wished Christians would let his patients
alone. Death was but an endless sleep, the religion of Christ a delusion, and
its followers were not persons of the highest culture or intelligence.” A young
lady sitting near, and one of the gayest of that company, said, “Pardon me,
doctor, but I cannot hear you talk thus and remain silent. I am not a professor
of religion; I never knew anything about it experimentally, but my mother was a
Christian. Times without number she has taken me with her to her room, and with
her hand upon my head, she has prayed that God would give her grace to train me
for the skies. Two years ago my precious mother died, and the religion she
loved through life sustained her in her dying hour. She called us to her
bedside, and with her face shining with glory, asked us to meet her in heaven,
and I promised to do so. And now,” said the young lady, displaying deep emotion,
“can I believe that this is all a delusion? that my mother sleeps an eternal
sleep? that she will never waken again in the morning of the resurrection, and
that I shall see her no more? No, I cannot, I will not believe it.” Her brother
tried to quiet her, for by this time she had the attention of all present.
“No!” said she. “Brother, let me alone; I must defend my mother’s God, my
religion.” The physician made no reply, and soon left the room. He was found
shortly afterwards pacing the floor of an adjoining room, in great agitation
and distress of spirit. “What is the matter?” a friend inquired. “Oh,” said he,
“that young lady is right. Her words have pierced my soul like an arrow. I too
must have the religion I have despised, or I am lost for ever.” And the result
of the convictions thus awakened was that both the young lady and the physician
were converted to Christ, and are useful and influential members of the Church
of God.
Verse 3
The Lord is a man of war.
The triumphs of Jehovah
I. The thought of
God’s triumphs as a man of war seems to be valuable as giving in its degree a
proof of the truth of Holy Writ. The moral expectations raised by our Lord’s
first sermon on the Mount are being actually realized in many separate souls
now. The prayer for strength to triumph against the devil, the world, and the
flesh is becoming daily more visibly proved in the triumph of the Spirit, in
the individual lives of the redeemed.
II. The triumphs of
the Lord in the individual hearts among us give an increasing hope for unity
throughout Christendom. We cannot deny the debt we owe to the labours of
Nonconformists in the days of the Church’s lethargy and neglect. We cannot join
them now, but we are preparing for a more close and lasting union, in God’s own
time, by the individual progress in spiritual things.
III. We must do our
part to set our seal to the triumphant power of Divine grace. It is the
half-lives of Christians which are such a poor proof of the truth of our Lord’s
words. They do not begin early enough; they do not work thoroughly enough. We
have the promise that this song shall be at last on the lips of all who
prevail, for St. John tells us in the Revelation that he saw those who had
overcome standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, singing the
song of Moses and the Lamb. (Bp. King.)
Verse 9-10
The enemy said.
The enemy’s spirit
Observe the spirit of the enemy of Israel. It was characterized--
1. By great ambition. It was the love of power and dominion. To hold
human beings as property is the vilest display of ambition.
2. Great arrogance and pride. I will pursue (rather “repossess”),
overtake, divide, etc. What self-confidence! What boasting! What assumption!
Pride goeth before destruction.
3. Insatiable avarice. Divide the spoil. Had not Pharaoh enough? An
avaricious spirit unceasingly cries, Give! give! What a cursed spirit it is!
Well has it been said that nature is content with little, grace with less, but
the lust of avarice not even with all things.
4. Reckless malevolence and cruelty. “My lust shall be satisfied, I
will draw my sword,” etc. What thirsting for blood! Ambition and avarice render
the mind cold and the heart callous. Tears, wailings, groans, mangled bodies
and the flowing blood of mankind allay not the fires of human malevolence and
lust.
5. Presumptuous confidence and security. I will do, not endeavour, no
peradventure. Contingency and doubt have no place. How foolish for the man who
puts on the armour to boast. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
God’s Church and her enemies
Israel was a type of the Church, Pharaoh a type of the Church’s
enemies in all ages of the world, both of the spiritual enemy Satan, and of the
temporal, his instruments. The deliverance was a type of the deliverance that
Christ wrought upon the cross by His blood; also of that Christ works upon His
throne, the one from the reign of sin, the other from the empire of antichrist.
The text is a part of Moses’ song; a song after victory, a panegyric; the
praise of God, attended with dancing, at the sight of the Egyptian wrecks (Exodus 15:20).
1. It was then real; the Israelites then sang it.
2. It is typical; the conquerors of antichrist shall again triumph in
the same manner (Revelation 15:3).
3. It was an earnest of future deliverance to the Israelites.
General observations.
1. The greatest idolaters are the fiercest enemies against the Church
of God. It is the Egyptian is the enemy. No nation had more and more sordid
idols.
2. The Church’s enemies are not for her correction, but her
destruction: “I will pursue; my hand shall destroy them.”
3. How desperate are sometimes the straits of God’s Israel in the eye
of man! How low their spirits before deliverance.
4. God orders the lusts of men for His own praise.
5. The nearer the deliverance of the Church is, the fiercer are God’s
judgments on the enemies of it, and the higher the enemies’ rage.
6. All creatures are absolutely under the sovereignty of God, and are acted by His power
in all their services.
7. By the same means God saves His people, whereby He destroys His
enemies: the one sank, the other passed through. That which makes one balance
sink makes the other rise the higher.
8. The strength and glory of a people is more wasted by opposing the
interests of the Church than in conflicts with any other enemy.
9. We may take notice of the folly of the Church’s enemies. Former
plagues might have warned them of the power of God, they had but burned their
own fingers by pinching her, yet they would set their force against almighty
power, that so often had worsted them; it is as if men would pull down a
steeple with a string.
But the observations I shall treat of are--
1. When the enemies of the Church are in the highest fury and
resolution, and the Church in the greatest extremity and dejection, then is the
fittest time for God to work her deliverance fully and perfectly. When the
enemy said, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil,” etc.,
then “God blowed with His wind,” then “they sank.”
2. God is the author of all the deliverances of the Church, whosoever
are the instruments. “Thou didst blow with Thy wind; who is like unto the Lord
among the gods.” Uses: How dear is the Church to God!
2. Remember former deliverances in time of straits.
3. Thankfully remember former deliverances. (S. Charnock, B. D.)
Vanity of boasting
When Bonaparte was about to invade Russia, a person who had
endeavoured to dissuade him from his purpose, finding he could not prevail,
quoted to him the proverb, “Man proposes, but God disposes”; to which he
indignantly replied, “I dispose as well as propose.” A Christian lady, on
hearing the impious boast, remarked, “I set that down as the turning-point of
Bonaparte’s fortunes. God will not suffer a creature with impunity thus to usurp
His prerogative.” It happened to Bonaparte just as the lady predicted. His
invasion of Russia was the commencement of his fall.
Triumphing before the battle
Nothing can be got, but much may be lost, by triumphing before a
battle. When Charles V. invaded France, he lost his generals and a great part
of his army by famine and disease; and returned baffled and thoroughly
mortified from an enterprize which he began with such confidence of its happy
issue, that he desired Paul Jovius, the historian, to make a large provision of
paper sufficient to record the victories which he was going to acquire!
Providentially destroyed
During the last summer, at Coblentz, we saw a monument erected to
commemorate the French campaign against the Russians in 1812. It was a gigantic
failure; 400,000 men set forth for Moscow; 25,000, battered and worn and weary,
tattered and half famished, returned. Do you ask how it was done? Not by the
timid Alexander’s guns and swords. We read in one place that “the stars in
their courses fought against Sisera”; in another, how God has sent an army of
locusts to overthrow an army of men; but here the very elements combine to
drive the invader back in disgrace. Yes. “He gave snow like wool, He scattered
His hoar-frost like ashes, He cast forth His ice like morsels--who can stand
before His cold?” Who? Not Napoleon who, with self-sufficient heart, boasted in
his own right hand, and sacrificed to his insatiable ambition the blood of
myriads of murdered men. No! God blows upon him with His wind out of the north,
and, shivering and half-starved, he slinks back in defeat. What a picture! But
Alexander had not forgotten to prepare his ways before the Lord and seek the
God of Jacob’s aid. And in recognition of the Divine interposition and help, he
struck a medal with a legend: “Not to me, not to us, but unto Thy Name.” Thus
the lesson taught by ancient and modern history is, that the race is not to the
swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to the man who prepares his ways
before the Lord his God. (Enoch Hall.)
Verse 11
Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?
The incomparable God
I. Who is like
unto thee, o lord, among the gods?
1. King of kings and Lord of lords! Who among the gods is like unto
Thee in majesty and power? Well might Israel exultingly make this inquiry.
2. Who is like unto Thee in the ineffable purity of Thy nature?
“Glorious in holiness!”
3. Who is like unto Thee in the solemnity and sanctity of Thy
worship?--“fearful in praises!” The gloriously holy God is alone worthy to be
praised, but that praise ought to be offered with “reverence and godly fear.”
II. Who does like
Thee?--“doing wonders.”
1. The wonders alluded in the text were undoubtedly the miracles
recently wrought by Jehovah for the salvation of His people. “Thou art the God
that doest wonders,” etc. (Psalms 77:14-20).
2. But not only miracles, which imply an inversion or suspension of
the laws of nature, but nature and her laws--every part of the work of God in
the heavens and in the earth is wonderful, and amply shows forth the power and
wisdom of the Creator (Job 37:14-23; Psalms 8:3-4; Psalms 19:1-7). If we only study our own
frame, we shall be led to exclaim with the Psalmist, “I am fearfully and
wonderfully made!”
3. The Lord sometimes does wonders in judgment, flood, etc.
4. The Lord does wonders in mercy. Redemption. (B. Bailey.)
Glorious in holiness.--
The holiness of God
Plutarch said not amiss, that he should count himself less injured
by that man that should deny that there was such a man as Plutarch, than by him
that should affirm that there was such a one indeed, but he was a debauched
fellow, a loose and vicious person. He that saith, God is not holy, speaks much
worse than he that saith, There is no God at all. Let these two things be
considered:
1. If any, this attribute hath an excellency above His other
perfections.
2. As it seems to challenge an excellency above all His other perfections,
so it is the glory of all the rest; as it is the glory of the Godhead, so it is
the glory of every perfection in the Godhead; as His power is the strength of
them, so His holiness is the beauty of them; as all would be weak without
almightiness to back them, so all would be uncomely without holiness to adorn
them. Should this be sullied, all the rest would lose their honour and their
comfortable efficacy; as at the same instant that the sun should lose its
light, it would lose its heat, its strength, its generative and quickening
virtue.
I. The nature of
Divine holiness. The holiness of God negatively is a perfect freedom from all
evil. As we call gold pure that is not imbased by any dross, and that garment
clean that is free from any spot, so the nature of God is estranged from all
shadow of evil, all imaginable contagion. Positively, it is the rectitude of
the Divine nature, or that conformity of it in affection and action to the
Divine will as to His eternal law, whereby He works with a becomingness to His
own excellency, and whereby He hath a complacency in everything agreeable to
His will, and an abhorrency of everything contrary thereunto. In particular.
This property of the Divine nature is--
1. An essential and necessary perfection. He is essentially and
necessarily holy. His holiness is as necessary as His being, as necessary as
His omniscience.
2. God is absolutely holy (1 Samuel 2:2).
3. God is so holy, that He cannot possibly approve of any evil done
by another, but doth perfectly abhor it; it would not else be a glorious
holiness (Psalms 5:3), “He hath no pleasure in
wickedness.” He doth not only love that which is just, but abhor with a perfect
hatred all things contrary to the rule of righteousness. Holiness can no more
approve of sin than it can commit it.
4. God is so holy, that He cannot but love holiness in others. Not
that He owes anything to His creature, but from the unspeakable holiness of His
nature, whence affections to all things that bear a resemblance of Him do flow;
as light shoots out from the sun, or any glittering body. It is essential to
the infinite righteousness of His nature, to love righteousness wherever He
beholds it (Psalms 11:7).
5. God is so holy, that He cannot positively will or encourage sin in
any.
6. God cannot act any evil in or by Himself.
II. The proof that
God is holy.
1. His holiness appears as He is Creator, in framing man in a perfect
uprightness.
2. His holiness appears in His laws, as He is a Lawgiver and a Judge.
This purity is evident--
3. The holiness of God appears in our restoration. It is in the glass
of the gospel we “behold the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18); that is, the
glory of the Lord, into whose image we are changed; but we are changed into
nothing as the image of God but into holiness. We bore not upon us by creation,
nor by regeneration, the image of any other perfection. We cannot be changed
into His omnipotence, omniscience, etc., but into the image of His
righteousness. This is the pleasing and glorious sight the gospel mirror darts
in our eyes. The whole scene of redemption is nothing else but a discovery of judgment and
righteousness. “Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with
righteousness (Isaiah 1:27).
III. The third thing
I am to do, is to lay down some propositions in the defence of God’s holiness
in all His acts about or concerning sin.
1. God’s holiness is not chargeable with any blemish, for His
creating man in a mutable slate. It was suitable to the wisdom of God to give
the rational creature, whom He had furnished with a power of acting
righteously, the liberty of choice, and not fix him in an unchangeable state,
without a trial of him in his natural. And if he did obey, his obedience might
be the more valuable; and if he did freely offend, his offence might be more
inexcusable.
2. God’s holiness is not blemished by enjoining man a law which He
knew he would not observe.
3. The holiness of God is not blemished by decreeing the eternal
rejection of some men.
4. The holiness of God is not blemished by His secret will to suffer
sin to enter into the world. God never willed sin by His preceptive will. It
was never founded upon, or produced by any word of His, as the creation was.
Nor doth He will it by His approving will; it is detestable to Him, nor ever
can be otherwise. He cannot approve it either before commission or after.
IV. The point was,
that holiness is a glorious perfection of the nature of God. We have showed the
nature of this holiness in God, what it is, and we have demonstrated it, and
proved that God is holy, and must needs be so, and also the purity of His nature in all His
acts about sin. Let us now improve it by way of use.
1. Is holiness a transcendent perfection belonging to the nature of
God? The first use shall be of instruction and information.
2. The second use is for comfort. This attribute frowns upon lapsed
nature, but smiles in the restorations made by the gospel.
3. Is holiness an eminent perfection of the Divine nature? Then--
God the pattern of holiness
No creature can be essentially holy but by participation from the
chief fountain of holiness, but we must have the same kind of holiness, the
same truth of holiness; as a short line may be as straight as another, though
it parallel it not in the immense length of it; a copy may have the likeness of
the original, though not the same perfection. We cannot be good without eyeing
some exemplar of goodness as the pattern. No pattern, is so suitable as that
which is the highest goodness and purity. That limner that would draw the most
excellent piece fixes his eye upon the most excellent pattern. He that would be
a good orator, or poet, or artificer, considers some person most excellent in
each kind as the object of his imitation. Who so fit as God to be viewed as the
pattern of holiness in our intendment of, and endeavours after, holiness? The
Stoics, one of the best sects of philosophers, advised their disciples to pitch
upon some eminent example of virtue, according to which to form their lives, as
Socrates, etc. But true holiness doth not only endeavour to live the life of a good man,
but chooses to live a Divine life. As before the man was “alienated from the
life of God,” so upon his return he aspires after the life of God. To endeavour
to be like a good man is to make one image like another, to set our clocks by
other clocks without regarding the sun; but true holiness consists in a
likeness to the most exact sampler. God being the first purity, is the rule as
well as the spring of all purity in the creature, the chief and first object of
imitation. (S. Charnock, B. D.)
The holiness of God and that of His best saints
There is as little proportion between the holiness of the Divine
majesty and that of the most righteous creature, as there is between the
nearness of a person that stands upon a mountain to the sun, and of him that
beholds him in a vale; one is nearer than the other, but it is an advantage not
to be boasted, in regard of the vast distance that is between the sun and the
elevated spectator. (S. Charnock, B. D.)
God loves holiness
God is essentially, originally, and efficiently holy: all the
holiness in men and angels is but a crystal stream that runs from this glorious
ocean. God loves holiness, because it is His own image. A king cannot but love
to see his own effigies stamped on coin. God counts holiness His own glory, and
the most sparkling jewel of His crown. “Glorious in holiness.” (T. Watson.)
Verses 14-16
The people shall hear, and be afraid.
The world afraid of God’s people
What shall make these mighty men melt away? Seeing two or three
millions of unwarlike folks marching towards them--an unarmed rabble, without
military discipline, and without the appliances of war? Is it before such that
the mighty men of Moab are to fall back, that the chivalrous sons of Edom are
to be put to flight; that all the inhabitants of Palestine are to melt away?
Nothing of the kind. Those Israelites were not going to terrify all these
nations with any display of their own power or prowess. It was the story of the
Exodus, the story of a divided sea, the story of a certain mysterious pillar of
fire, the story of the wonderful overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red
Sea; it was this that was to fill them with despair. Many of us are at the
outset terribly afraid of these hostile forces; is it not a comfort to know
that on account of redemption
they are actually afraid of us? In a very memorable period in “our island
story,” when Admiral Howard and Drake had defeated the Spanish Armada after the
first great battle, they continued to pursue them for a fortnight without
having a single shot or a single charge of powder left in their ships. They had
nothing left but air to fill their guns with. Yet thus without any ammunition
our fleet went sailing on and sailing on, while the terrified strangers fled
before them, until they were driven right into the Northern Sea. Then the
Admiral thought they could not do much harm there, and so he left them and came
back to get powder and shot for his own ships. Our fleet, with empty guns,
chased their enemies because that enemy was afraid of them. They had had one
terrible defeat, and that was enough. And even so may we deal with the forces
of this world. Count upon your enemies being afraid of you. If instead of being
afraid of them you will only carry the war into the enemy’s camp, and seek to
win them for Christ, instead of allowing them to draw you away from Him, you
will find that redemption has already stripped them of their courage and
paralyzed their power to do you any injury. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
Verse 17-18
Thou shalt bring them in.
Anticipations of faith
We are, perhaps, hardly surprised at the tone of jubilant
confidence which pervades this glorious psalm of thanksgiving. Very strong
indeed is the language used; but perhaps not stronger than might naturally have
been expected to spring from such circumstances; for what a wonderful event had
just transpired! Here they were then, on the other side of the Red Sea, the
vast wilderness stretching before them, their long weary march not yet
commenced, and wholly destitute of any adequate supplies, and without either
arms, or discipline, or any capacity for warfare. Surely the prospect might
have seemed most discouraging. They must have known perfectly well--what they
soon found out to be a fact--that the wilderness swarmed with wandering nomad
hordes, Bedouins of the desert, men of war, who might at any moment come down
upon them, cut off their stragglers, or even put the whole undisciplined rabble
to rout and make a prey of them. And even supposing they should overcome these
difficulties of the journey, what then? There lay Canaan before them, but how
were they, who could hardly hold their own against the tribes of the desert, to
undertake aggressive warfare against nations dwelling in cities with walls
great and high, and equipped with all the appliances of ancient warfare? How
chimerical their enterprise would seem on reflection! how improbable that they
would ever succeed in taking possession of the land which God had promised to
them! But faith looked on beyond all difficulties. Faith never stops for
commissariat supplies! Faith does not ask, Where is my daily bread to come
from? Faith does not wait to be clothed with armour, save such armour as the
power of God supplies. Faith does not stop to weigh the adequacy of the means
within our reach to induce the end. Children of God, it is time we endeavoured
to apply the lessons suggested by all this to ourselves. We too have been the
subjects of a great deliverance, a deliverance as supernatural in its character
and as astonishing in its conditions as ever was the deliverance of Israel from
Egypt. This deliverance is also the product of redemption. We are saved in
order that we may rise to the prize of our high calling, and become inheritors
of our true Land of Promise; and the first great deliverance is with us also
surely an earnest and a pledge of all that is to follow. I suppose it is
because we so imperfectly apprehend the miracle of our deliverance and its
completeness, and the new relations which it establishes between ourselves and
God, and between ourselves and sin, that our feelings at the outset of our new
life are so often just the opposite of those depicted in this triumphant song.
Instead of joyous anticipation, how common a thing it is to meet with gloomy
forebodings on the part of the newborn children of God, fresh from the Cross of
Christ, just rising, as we may say, spiritually out of the waters of the Red
Sea. And many of us have scarcely been saved from our condition of condemnation
and spiritual bondage before we begin to consider the difficulties that lie
before us, the enemies that we shall have to encounter, the sacrifices that we
may have to make, the trials that we may have to undergo. The wilderness seems
so vast, the enemies so mighty, the supplies so inadequate or precarious; and
while our eyes of unbelief are resting upon all these adverse considerations,
our heart seems to sink within us until we are ready to turn back again into
Egypt. How common a thing it is to meet with young Christians who seem indeed
to be on the right side of the Red Sea, but who appear to be more inclined to
wring their hands in terror than to “sound the loud timbrel” in exultation! (W.
Hay Aitken, M. A.)
An encouraging deliverance
Two ways this great deliverance was encouraging.
1. It was such an instance of God’s power as would terrify their
enemies and quite dishearten them (Exodus 15:14-16). It had this effect (see
Deuteronomy 2:4; Numbers 22:3; Joshua 2:9-10).
2. It was such a beginning of God’s favour to them as gave them an
earnest of the perfection of His kindness. This was but in order to something further (Exodus 15:17). (M. Henry, D. D.)
Christ for ever
When Luther went to his trial at Augsburg from Wittemberg he
walked all the distance. Clad in his monk’s brown frock, with all his wardrobe
on his back, the citizens,
high and low, attended him in enthusiastic admiration. As they went they cried,
“Luther for ever!” “Nay! nay!” he answered, “Christ for ever!”
Verse 18
Hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed.
Lessons
1. God’s future providence as well as past deliverance is the matter
of faith’s praise.
2. God, as a shepherd, leadeth His people through their course to
rest, and will lead, as if it were done.
3. Mercy is the rule of all God’s conduct to His Church here below.
4. God hath saved, and will redeem His Israel out of all their
troubles. It is His promise (Psalms 130:8).
5. God’s holy habitation, Sion in type and heaven in truth, is the
end of all His providential guidance unto His.
6. God’s strength secureth the Church’s conduct to His holy
habitation.
7. Tender, sweet, and gentle is God’s guidance of His Church through
their way to rest (Isaiah 40:11).
8. All this promised guidance faith must return to the praise of God.
(G. Hughes, B. D.)
The song of Moses
I. Past mercies
acknowledged. The fact celebrated is redemption from Egypt--“Thou in Thy mercy
hast led forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed.” The whole glory of
deliverance is ascribed to the Lord, without any reference to second causes.
The believer will often look back and contemplate his mercies, and celebrate
his deliverances; like Samuel, he will raise his Ebenezer (1 Samuel 7:12).
II. Future mercies
anticipated. “Thou hast guided them, in Thy strength, unto Thy holy
habitation.” Here is the language of strong faith, as if they were already in
Canaan. Moses knew that God had promised to bring them to His holy hill, and to
His dwelling; he knew that God’s promises were as good as His performances; and
we may say so too, for they are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus. The Lord had
done so much for Israel, that Moses felt no doubt as to the future--“Thou shalt
bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance.”
III. Israel’s
enemies confounded. “The people shall hear and be afraid, sorrow shall take
hold of the inhabitants of Palestine,” etc. The world has now much to say
against the people and cause of God. Religion is denounced by them as a
delusion--a gloomy thing--as madness; but then every objection will be
silenced. Satan, too, is now very busy with his temptations and accusations;
but this state of things shall not always last. Trembling shall take hold of
the believer’s enemies, when the people of God are safely brought to the
heavenly Canaan. Then where will be the venom of the world? where the accusations of Satan? Not
one mouth will then be opened against the meanest and most neglected of God’s
people on earth. He shall then have nothing to fear; admitted within the pearly
gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, he shall be for ever with the Lord. All
enemies will be for ever excluded. The Church shall be saved and God glorified.
IV. The Kingdom of
God permanently triumphant. “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.”
1. To the enemies of Christ. You see that the Lord must reign; then
what must become of you?
2. To the friends of Christ, yea, to those who wish to love the
Saviour.
Verses 19-21
With timbrels and with dances.
Song, timbrel, and dance
The monuments reproduce this scene in all its parts. Separate
choirs of men and women are represented on them, singing in alternate
responses; the timbrel, or tambourine, is represented as the instrument of the
women, as the flute is that of the men; and the playing of the tambourine,
unaccompanied, as here, by other instruments, is represented in connection with
singing and the dance. Further, it appears from the monuments that music had
eminently a religious destination in Egypt, that the timbrel was specially
devoted to sacred uses, and that religious dances were performed in the worship
of Osiris. (E. C. Wines, D. D.)
In the tombs at Thebes timbrels, like Miriam’s, round and square,
are seen in the bands of the women; while pipes, trumpets, sistrums, drums, and
guitars are there in great abundance and variety; and harps, not much unlike
the modern instrument, with varying numbers of strings up to twenty-two. (S.
C. Bartlett, D. D.)
Cheering effect of music
Whilst the Federal army lay before the city of Richmond, the
regimental bands were silent. When they began to retreat to Malvern, the troops
marched through the acres of ripe grain, cutting off the tops and gathering
them into their haversacks, being out of rations, as well as lame and stiff
from marching. Orders were here given for the bands to strike up playing, and
the effect on the dispirited men was almost magical as the patriotic airs were
played. They seemed to catch new hope and enthusiasm, and a cheer went up from
each regiment.
Serving God with a cheerful spirit
When the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn how it happened
that his church music was always so cheerful, the great composer made a most
beautiful reply. “I cannot,” said he, “make it otherwise; I write according to
the thoughts I feel. When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the
notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has given me a
cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful
spirit.”
Verses 22-27
They came to Marah.
Marah
I. The water was
deleterious, not distasteful only. Had the people drunk it, it would have
wrought disease; but it was healed by the obedience of Moses to God’s
directions. So if we are attentive and obedient to His voice He will find us
remedies from all things that might hurt us.
II. It was not
possible, perhaps, that the children of Israel should, by persevering in the
unwholesome draught which is there typical of sin, have vitiated their taste
till they delighted in it. But it is too possible in the antitype.
III. Though we axe
compelled by God’s providence to pass through difficulty and temptation, we are
not doomed to dwell there. If we are faithful, it is but in passing that we shall
be endangered. If we use the remedy of obedience to God’s Word to-day,
to-morrow we shall be beside the twelve ever-springing fountains, and under the
shade of the palm-trees of Elfin. (Archbishop Benson.)
The waters of Marah
We have here a parable of the deep things of Christ.
I. Israel was in
those days fresh from the glorious deliverance out of Egypt; they had sung
their first national song of victory; they had breathed the air of liberty.
This was their first disappointment, and it was a very sharp one; from the
height of exultation they fell almost at once to the depths of despair. Such
disappointments we have all experienced, especially in the outset of our actual
march, after the first
conscious sense of spiritual triumph and freedom.
II. Of us also it
is true that God hath showed us a certain tree, and that tree is the once
accursed tree on which Christ died. This is the tree of life to us, though of
death to Him.
III. It was God who
showed this tree unto Moses. And it was God who showed it to us in the gospel.
Applied by our faith to the bitter waters of disappointment and distress, it
will surely heal them and make them sweet. Two things there are about the tree
of scorn which will never lose their healing power--the lesson of the Cross and
the consolation of the Cross; the example and the companionship of Christ
crucified.
IV. The life which
found its fitting close upon the cross was not a life of suffering only, but
emphatically a life of disappointment. Here there is comfort for us. Our dying Lord
must certainly have reflected that He, the Son of God, was leaving the world
rather worse than He found it in all human appearance.
V. Whatever our
trials and disappointments, let us use this remedy; it will not fail us even at
the worst. (R. Winterbotham, M. A.)
Bitter-sweet
I. That great joy
is often closely followed by a great trial. “Thou hast made my mountain to
stand strong” is the grateful word of many a rejoicing Christian; and lo!
suddenly touched by the finger of Providence, it reels and rocks as though
heaved by an earthquake, and falls into the depths of the sea. In the day of
prosperity be wise! Rejoice with trembling! Do not presume on the possession of
present good. In the hour of peace forget not the preparation for a possible
storm. Trust in God with a firm hand, both in sunshine and in shade.
II. Here is a great
trial transformed into a great blessing. The bitter was not removed, but
converted into sweet. So God can make the grief a grace anti change the burden
into a blessing. The rod itself shall bud and blossom and bring forth almonds,
so that the very thing that chastens the trustful soul shall present beauty to
the eye and fruit to the taste. It was a Divine work. The Israelites, even with
Moses at their head, had no skill to meet the given necessities of the hour.
“The Lord showed them a tree,” and so miraculously healed the forbidding
spring. Brothers! human wisdom, earth’s philosophies, the world’s limited
resources are all useless in the midst of our desperate needs.
III. Here is a great
trial, so transformed, preparing for and leading to a still greater blessing.
(see Exodus 15:27). Christian, be of good
courage. Egypt’s chains were heavy; but the Red Sea victory made thee glad.
Marah’s waters were bitter; but the Lord distilled sweet streams therefrom to
strengthen and refresh thy soul. Then He led thee to beautiful Elfin, with its
springs and palm-trees, and its grateful rest, and in all and through all thou
art “nearer” Canaan than when first thou didst believe. Amid all thine
alternations of joy and sorrow there shall be, if thou art faithful to thy God,
a clear current, progressive gain, and it shall still be better further on.
IV. This gracious
alternation and abundant deliverance was all experienced on the line of march.
Let the Christian never forget that these are the conditions necessary to
secure his gracious progression of conquest, transformation, and exceeding joy.
(J. J. Wray.)
The sweetening tree in life’s bitter streams
Heaven has prepared a sweetening tree for the bitter waters.
I. Of our secular
life. Wrecked plans, blasted hopes, etc. The “tree” to sweeten this is Christ’s
doctrine of a Fatherly providence.
II. Of our moral
life. The bitter waters of an accusing conscience. “Whom God hath set forth,”
etc.
III. Of an
intellectual life. God’s revealed character in Christ--all-wise, all-loving,
all-powerful.
IV. Of our social
life. “I am the Resurrection,” etc. “Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him.”
V. Of our dying
life. (Homilist.)
The mysterious tree
I. That prayer
will meet every painful crisis in human experience.
II. That all men,
everywhere, are athirst.
III. That every man
will at length come to his well; but the water thereof will be bitter to his
taste. Sensual indulgence. Fashionable amusement; inebriety; riches; worldly
renown; infidelity. All mere earthly pools are acrid and unsatisfying.
IV. That there is a
tree which can sweeten all earth’s waters. “The tree of life”--the Cross of
Christ. “He, every one that thirsteth, come.” (S. D. Burchard, D. D.)
Life’s bitterness
The wilderness brings out what is within. It also discovers God’s
goodness and our unworthiness.
I. Earth’s
rottenness.
1. We must expect bitter pools in a bitter world.
2. Many of us make our own Marahs.
II. Heaven’s
remedy.
1. To the praying man the Lord reveals the remedy.
2. God uses instramentality.
3. God does not always take away the Marah, but drops an ingredient
into it to sweeten its bitterness. (Homilist.)
The waters of Marah
Had they been allowed to select their path, they would have taken
the short cut by the seaboard to their own promised land. But the cloud steered
their pathway through difficulty and into difficulty. Behind them was the blood
of the lamb. They were ransomed. Behind them the wonders of Egypt wrought on
their behalf. Behind them the passage of the Red Sea. And they might have
expected that, the moment they had left their foes behind, they had left all
trouble and sorrow too. But instead of that, their redemption from Egypt was
their redemption from comparatively easy circumstances into arduous and
difficult straits. God led His redeemed in the very heart and teeth of
difficulty. I am often met by men who have been redeemed by the blood of
Christ, who are truly His servants, behind whom there lies a wondrous story of
deliverance, and they have come to me with complaints, and they have said, “I
thought when I had given up my old sins that my life would be calm and placid,
and that difficulty would be at an end; but instead, I never did in all my life
go through such a sea of difficulty as I have known since I became a
Christian.” Friend, that is always God’s way with His redeemed ones. You must
not think that difficulty is a proof that you are wrong. Difficulty is most
likely aa evidence that you are right. Never be daunted by it. Why? Those
verses we read from Deuteronomy answer the question. It is in order to humble
us, to prove us, and to knew what is in our heart. Difficulty is sent to humble
you. If I offer my hand to a little maiden on a cold and frosty day, and she
thinks she can keep her feet by herself, she is net likely to take my strong
hand until she has been humbled by a tumble or two. God has been compelled to
break down your self-confidence. When you started the Christian life you
thought your arm was so strong it could beat down every barrier, or that you were so
elastic that you could leap over any wall, or that your brain was so keen that
you could see through any difficulty. God began by little difficulties, and you
leapt over them; and then He put greater ones, and you successfully overcame
them; and God has been compelled to pile difficulty upon difficulty until you
are now face to face with a very desert on the one hand, and an Alpine range
upon the other; and now broken, cowed, defeated, you are just at the very
position in which to learn to appreciate, and to appropriate, the infinite
resources of God.
And there is another thing that difficulty does for a man. It proves him. “He
made a statute and an ordinance, and proved them.” There are so many
counterfeits, you do not know that you have got the real thing till you have
tested it. You do not know the stability of a house till it has been tested by
the storm. And it is only when difficulty comes that we really know what we
are. You say that you have faith. How do you know? All your life has been
sunny. Wait till God hides Himself in a pavilion of cloud. You think that you
obey God, but up till now the path that God has led you hath been such an easy
path, through a meadow where the flowers have been bestrewn. You do not know
how much you will obey until you are proved. You say you have got patience; and
there is nothing sweeter than patience--the patience and gentleness of Christ.
Yet you wait until you are put into the midst of trying and difficult
circumstances, and then you may talk about possessing patience. And then, once
more, God not only humbles and proves us, but He tries what is in our hearts;
not that He needs to know, but that He may give us the opportunity of equipping
ourselves for larger work. For God thus deals with us: He puts us into
difficulty and watches us lovingly to see how we act, for every day He stands
before His judgment bar, and every hour is the crisis of our life. If we stand
the test, He says, “Come up higher,” and we step up to the wider platform and
plateau of usefulness. But if, on the other hand, we cannot stand the test, we
step down. Will you take heart from this? Will you mind the difficulties? Oh,
meet difficulty in God, and see if it be not a training-ground for great and
noble work in the hereafter. But there is disappointment too. It was hard
enough to have difficulty, but it was harder to be tantalized. They marched on
three days; they exhausted the water they had brought, or what was left was
stinking, and they could not drink it. Ah, how weary they were! Ah, you men and
women, so disappointment comes to all of us. The youth has disappointments. The
lad at school thinks that he is a slave, that the drudgery of Egypt was nothing
compared to this. How he longs for the time when he will be his own master! And
off he starts. He buries his school books, and goes forth into the world. Alas,
poor lad! he finds there is no way to Canaan except by the hard plodding sultry
desert march. So it is with age--mature life! mean. So it is with the young
convert. They think Christian living is a great holiday, a march-past with
banners and bands. But they soon find that there is a stern warfare. They are
disappointed in the Church they join, they find all Christian people do not act
as they thought; they are disappointed because they do not at once find sin die
within them, or the devil yield, or Christianity become what they hoped, just
wandering through a pleasant garden plucking flowers. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Moses at Marah
I. “They could not
drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter”--so the greatest triumphs
of life may be succeeded by the most vexatious inconveniences. You may be
right, even when the heaviest trial is oppressing you. You may be losing your
property, your health may be sinking, your prospects may be clouded, and your
friends may be leaving you one by one, yet in the midst of such disasters your
heart may be stedfast in faithfulness to God.
II. “The people
murmured against Moses”--so the greatest services of life are soon forgotten.
III. “And Moses
cried unto the Lord”!--So magnanimous prayer is better than official
resignation. All great leaderships should be intensely religious, or they will
assuredly fail in the patience without which no strength can be complete.
Parents, instead of resigning the oversight of your children, pray for them!
Pastors, instead of resigning your official positions, pray for those who
despitefully use you! All who in anywise seek to defend the weak, or lead the
blind or teach the ignorant, instead of being driven off by every unreasonable
murmuring, renew your patience by waiting upon God!
IV. “And the Lord showed him a
tree”--so where there is a bane in life there is always an antidote. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
The waters of Marah
I. A grievous
need. Do we not see in mankind a weary marching host of pilgrims, looking
eagerly for the next
well, and hoping there to find satisfaction? It is trite but true of the
greater part of them, “Man never is; but always to be blest.” There are deep
yearnings after unattained good; a burning desire for rest. Moreover, even to
them who have found “the living waters” there may be many a weary march.
II. A sore
disappointment. Intense as are human desires for final good, they are doomed,
so long as fixed upon created objects, to perpetual and agonizing
disappointment. The apples that seemed ripe for the gathering and fit for
“baskets of silver” are found to contain only rottenness and dust. It is wisely
ordered that no creature should give satisfaction to the heart. Even those who
have chosen “the Lord” as their “portion” need to be perpetually quickened,
lest they should cleave to the dust.
III. A rebellious
and unreasonable treatment of afflictions. “The people murmured against Moses.”
So men complain still. They “charge God foolishly”; and governmental measures,
blights, panics, failure of success, etc., are suffered to engender their
thoughts and hard speeches.
IV. The true and
sure refuge in time of affliction. There is no might of influence like that
which is wielded by those who are “hid in the pavilion” of “the blessed and
only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”
V. The Divine
sovereignty. When men are “willing” to see what God shows, how quickly is the
bitterness of life changed into “peace and joy through believing “ “Looking
away unto Jesus,” they hear Him saying, “I am the Lord that healeth thee!” The
mystic tree is “set forth” before the eye of faith, and its goodly boughs bend
to the touch even of the chief of sinners.
VI. Another and
most significant passage occurs in connection with Israel’s sojourn by the
bitter well, and which shows the continual obligation of Divine ordinances even
in great exigencies. “There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and
there He proved them.” They were now tested as to their disposition to obey
alike the stated and occasional commandments of God; and it is possible that
some further instructions were conveyed on Divine authority. But “the statute
and ordinance “ plainly refer to the “solemn assembly” which was now to be
observed.
VII. Once again, we
learn beside the waters of Marah the compensatory law of Divine proceedings. We
are “pilgrims as all our fathers were,” and often reach a bitter well in our
march through the wilderness; but beside each there is a tree whose virtue
makes the nauseous waters sweeter than all the streams of Goshen. (J. D.
Brocklehurst, D. D.)
Bitter things made sweet
But we have here also the means of sweetening all bitterness. The
bitterness of repentance is sweetened by this consideration, that, being a
godly sorrow, it worketh a repentance unto life, which no one repenteth of. The
bitterness of denying the world and self is sweetened by this, that he who
renounces everything for His sake receives it again a hundredfold. The
bitterness of the spiritual combat is alleviated by this, that it is the good
fight of faith to which the victory and the crown of glory is held out. The
bitterness of the various sufferings we have to endure is sweetened by the
consideration that they are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed; and
also of the various temptations by which we are assailed, of which it is said,
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for after he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life, which God has promised to them that love Him.” In
short, this wondrous tree can sweeten all the suffering that would be otherwise
intolerable. But still it is necessary that the remedy be shown and pointed out
to us by the Holy Spirit. (G. D. Krummacher.)
Marah; or, the bitter waters sweetened
I. The evils of
the wilderness.
1. The perils and trials of the wilderness occur very early in the
pilgrim life.
2. These evils assume varied shapes.
3. They touch very vital matters. God may touch you in the most
beloved object of your heart.
4. There is a reason why the earthly mercies which supply our
necessities must be more or less bitter. What can you hope for in a wilderness
but productions congruous to it? Canaan! Who looks for bitterness there?
II. The tendency of
human nature.
1. They murmured, complained, found fault. A very easy thing. No
sense in it, no wit in it, no thought in it: it is the cry rather of a brute
than of a man--murmur--just a double groan. Easy is it for us to kick against
the dispensations of God, to give utterance to our griefs, and what is worse,
to the inference we drew from them that God has forgotten to be gracious. To
murmur is our tendency; but do we mean to let the tendencies of the old nature
rule us?
2. Observe that the murmuring was not ostensibly against God. They
murmured against Moses. And have you ever noticed how the most of us, when we
are in a murmuring vein, are not honest enough to murmur distinctly against
God. No; the child is dead, and we form a conjecture that there was some wrong
treatment on the part of nurse, or surgeon, or ourselves. Or we have lost
money, and have been brought down from opulence to almost poverty; then some
one person was dishonest, a certain party betrayed us in a transaction by
failing to fulfil his part; all the murmuring is heaped on that person. We
deny, perhaps indignantly, that we murmur against God; and to prove it we
double the zeal with which we murmur against Moses. To complain of the second
cause is about as sensible as the conduct of the dog, which bites the sticks
with which it is beaten.
3. Once more, while we speak of this tendency in human nature, I want
you to observe how they betrayed an utter unbelief in God. They said unto
Moses, “What; shall we drink?” They meant by it, “By what means can God supply
our want of water?” They were at the Red Sea, and God cleft the intervening
gulf in twain, through the depths thereof they marched dryshod; there is
Marah’s water--shall it be more difficult for God to purify than to divide? To
sweeten a fountain--is that more difficult than to cleanse a sea? Is anything
too hard for the Lord?
III. The remedy of
grace.
1. Take the case of prayer to God.
2. As soon as we have a prayer, God has a remedy. “The Lord showed
him a tree.” I am persuaded that for every lock in Doubting Castle there is a
key, but the promises are often in great confusion to our minds, so that we are
perplexed. If a blacksmith should bring you his great bundle of picklocks, you
would have to turn them over, and over, and over; and try half of them, perhaps
two-thirds, before you would find the right one; ay, and perhaps the right one
would be left to the last. It is always a blessing to remember that for every
affliction there is a promise in the Word of God; a promise which meets the
case, and was made on purpose for it. But you may not be always able to find
it--no, you may go fumbling over the Scriptures long before you get the true
word; but when the Lord shows it to you, when it comes with power to the soul,
oh, what a bliss it is!
3. Now that remedy for the healing of Marah’s water was a very
strange one. Why should a tree sweeten the waters? This was no doubt a
miraculous incident, and it was also meant to teach us something. The fruit of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil was eaten by our first parents and
embittered all; there is a tree of life, the leaves of which are for the
healing of the nations.
4. That remedy was most effective. When they cut down the tree, and
put it into the water, it turned the water sweet--they could drink of it; and
let me assure you, that in the case of our trouble, the Cross is a most
effective sweetener.
5. It is transcendent. The water was bitter, but it became absolutely
sweet. The same water that was bitter became sweet, and the grace of God, by
leading us into contemplations that spring out of the Cross of Christ, can make
our trials themselves to become pleasant to us. It is a triumph of grace in the
heart when we not only acquiesce in trouble, but even rejoice in it. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The well of bitterness
I. That the first
day’s journey, in spite of the splendid scenery of the coasts of the gulf, is
probably the most wearisome and monotonous of the whole way. Sand-storms, white
limestone plains, the dust caked into a hard surface intensely hot and
dazzling, no water, no trees--it is as if the desert put on its dreariest dress
to greet its pilgrims, and gave to them at once a full taste of the foils and
wants which they must endure in traversing its wastes. And is it otherwise in
life? Is not the same character impressed for us on earth and life, when we
enter on its sterner era, when we leave the home of our childhood, the Egypt of
our careless, half-developed youth, and go out into the wilderness, to wander
freely there under the law of duty, and before the face of God. Does it not
seem to all of us strange and dreary? Who ever found the first aspects of duty
pleasant? Is it holiday pastime, the first grappling with the realities of
life? Who has not been choked and parched by the hot dust of the great desert!
though it be full of looms, and mill-wheels, and manifold activity, it is a
desert at first to us before we get accustomed to its atmosphere and at home in
its life. Well does the schoolboy know it, as he plods into the wilderness of
study, and faints under the first experience of its dryness and dust. Let him
but hold on awhile, and lie will find springs and palm-trees, where he may rest
and play; but it wants large faith and a goad of sharp necessity to get him
through the weariness of those first days. God does not conceal from any one of
us the stern conditions of our discipline.
II. It is a trite
saying, that disappointment is the hardest of all things to bear. Hardest,
because it finds the soul unbraced to meet it--relaxed, at ease, and tuned to
indulgence and joy. Who has not muttered “Marah” over some well in the desert,
which he strained himself to reach and found to be bitterness? It strikes me
that we have, in this miracle, most important suggestions as to the philosophy
of all miracles. I believe that the object of all miracles is to maintain, and
not to violate--to reveal, and not to confound--the order of God’s world. (J.
B. Brown, B. A.)
Marah and Elim
I. The thoughts
suggested by the changes here described.
1. That the life of a God-led man is full of changes in outward
circumstances.
2. That these changes are divinely ordained.
3. That each change brings its own temptations.
4. That these varied changes are intended to develop all our graces.
II. Thoughts
suggested by the halting-places here mentioned.
1. Marah was a place of temptation.
2. Marah was a place of disappointment.
3. Marah was a place of trustfulness and prayer.
4. Elim has its suggestiveness. God’s bountiful goodness. (A.
Rowland, LL. B.)
The moral lessons of Marah
I. We have an
expressive type of human trial in the bitterness of the waters.
1. The bitterness of the waters disappointed their most eager
expectations.
2. The bitterness of the waters left them apparently without a grand
necessity of life.
3. The bitterness of the waters immediately succeeded a remarkable
deliverance.
II. We have
unreasoning mistrust of the Divine providence the murmuring of the people.
1. Their mistrust was unreasoning, considering the person against
whom they murmured. Not Moses, but God, was their Guide, as they well knew.
2. Their mistrust was unreasoning, considering the Divine promises
they had received.
3. Their mistrust was unreasoning, considering the displays of Divine
power which they had witnessed.
III. We have an
instructive appeal for Divine help in the prayer of Moses.
1. It indicates the importance of earnest supplication to God in all
our trials.
2. It suggests the importance of a submissive spirit in supplicating
deliverance from our trials.
IV. We have a
gracious display of Divine power in the sweetening of the waters. God answers
prayer in the hour of trouble.
1. By influencing the mind in the direction whence relief may be
obtained.
2. By transmuting the temporal affliction into a rich spiritual
blessing.
V. We have an
intimation of the design of all affliction in the declared purpose of this
particular trial. “There He proved them”--tested their faith and obedience.
Afflictions prove us.
1. By discovering to us the unsatisfying nature of earthly things.
2. By disclosing the true measure of our piety. (W. Kirkman.)
Poisoned waters
What is all this, but a striking picture of human life, and of
that which the grace of God can and does effect? All the waters of human life
have been poisoned by sin. There is not one drop that has been left quite
pure,--all has been made bitter. Much there is still which at a distance looks
beautiful and refreshing; and those who walk by sense and not by faith, are often,
may, always, deceived by appearances just as Israel was. It is not until they
taste for themselves that they find out the truth of Solomon’s words, that all
is “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Look at the attractions of the world, which
cause so many souls to wander. What are they all but a vain show, which can
intoxicate or lull the soul for a time, but which leave it, oh, how weary and
restless afterwards! The waters of the world are truly bitter waters. Or, look
at the occupations of life. To some energetic spirits the very difficulty and
toil of labour are attractive; but, after a while, will not the question thrust
itself upon the busy mind--oh, what is the profit? what the end of all this?
Suppose that everything prospers. Suppose that I have enough to satisfy every
earthly want, to secure me every gratification, to encompass myself and
children with every luxury. What then? There is a voice, a penetrating voice,
that says, “Prepare to meet thy God!” that proclaims, “It is appointed unto men
once to die, but after that the judgment.” And then, what will become of me?
Or, look again at the relationships of life. Instituted though they are by God,
yet sin has embittered them also. Whence is it, that some of the deepest and
most certain trials of life come to us? It is through our relationships and our
friendships. Deep affection, sacred as it is, has always many anxieties
associated with it. How many a mother’s heart is gradually worn out by cares
about her children! How many a father, when surveying the disturbances of his
family, is impelled to adopt the words of the aged Jacob, “All these things are
against me!” And then, how many a heart is left widowed even early in life,
with a void which nothing earthly can ever fill! Is it too much to say that
this world, viewed as it is in itself, is “Marah”? Its waters are bitter. Have
not numbers who have embraced it as their all, gone down to the grave,
restless, discontented and murmuring? It may seem to some as if we had invested
the world with its pleasures, its occupations, and its relationships, in too
thick a gloom. If so, we would remind you that we have been speaking of the
world, as such, as it is in itself--of pleasures which are far from God--of
business and occupation from which God is excluded--and of relationships which
are put in the place of God. (G. Wagner.)
Bitter waters
Such are often the consolations of this world. We ardently long
for them, and when we obtain them they are bitter. The things we have most
wished for become new sorrows. And this is to teach us to seek our true joys in
God alone, to make the wilderness of this world distasteful to us, and to cause
us to long for eternal life. Suppose a man to be so poor as to earn his bread
with difficulty; he can scarcely provide for his family. “Ah!” he may perhaps
say to himself, “if I were only like so many people around me, who are not
obliged to work, and are so happy in this world!” Suppose this man to become
rich; but still a prey to care, surrounded by enemies, and unhappy in his children.
How many bitter sorrows are still his lot: he was once in the desert of Shur,
now he is at the waters of Marah! A woman finds herself solitary and lonely;
she wishes for a friend and protector; she marries. But she finds out too late
that her husband is a man of bad character or of bad habits. She was in the
desert, she is now at Marah. (Professor Gaussen.)
Sweetening the waters
I. Marahs of
disappointment.
I. The young
convert imagines that when he has got to the Cross he has got, so to speak,
next door to heaven; he imagines that, once he has got pardon, he will never
have another sigh; but oh! it is only a three days’ march from the City of
Destruction to the Slough of Despond, only a little way out to the darkness and
the trouble; and then, when it comes, the young convert is sometimes tempted to
look back to the delights of the old days, when he had not any fear of God
before his eyes; for he has thus to learn in bitterness and disappointment that
it is through much tribulation he is to be perfected for the kingdom.
2. So, too, with the mature believer; life is full of
disappointments. It takes very little to turn the waters of our best comforts
into bitterness; and disappointment in any case is hard to bear; but sometimes
it is doubly hard when it comes upon the back of other trials.
II. Marahs of
mercy.
1. God sends no needless trims. He does not afflict for His own
pleasure, but for our good.
2. For every need God has provided the supply, for every bane the
antidote. But you will not discover it yourself. He must point it out.
3. Notice the method of the Divine mercy. God does not take away the
burden; He will give you more strength; and then you will have the strength,
even after the burden is removed. You will be permanently the better for it. (G.
Davidson, B. Sc.)
The tree of healing
God’s plans of mercy to mankind are remedial. He allows sin and
suffering to exist, but He provides means for the cure of these evils. The
religion of Jesus Christ is the great healing and curative influence in the world.
1. Take, for example, the bitterness of temptation. A man has made
noble resolutions, formed high plans of life, and lo, he finds, to his utter
mortification, that his sinful nature still yields to any blast of temptation.
He is like one who has built a noble palace and finds that some foul infection
renders it hateful. Before the solemn aspect of the Crucified, the powers of
evil lose their fascinating glow.
2. And then there is the bitterness of remorse, the sting of
remembered guilt. A German writer describes a youth who returned, after a long
absence, to his home. All welcomed him with joy. Everything was done to make
him happy; but he still was oppressed with a silent gloom. Some friend urged
him to say what ailed him and kept him so depressed amidst their happiness, and
at length, with a groan, he explained, “A sin lies heavy on my soul.” But the
Cross of Christ removes this bitter sorrow, for He who is our peace has nailed
“the writing which was against us” to His Cross.
3. What shall we say about the bitter cup of suffering which God, in
His inscrutable dealings, places in the hands of so many to drink? Yet the
sufferer finds succour in remembering that his Saviour has also suffered, and
for his salvation. A poor woman in a ward of one of the great London hospitals
had to undergo a fearful operation, and, as a special favour, besought that it
might be performed on Good Friday, which was close at hand, that the reflection
on her Redeemer’s agony might the better enable her to endure her own sufferings.
Is the bitterness of poverty, or of contempt, our lot? So was it that of Jesus,
our Lord; and turning to Him, with all confidence we appeal to His sympathy.
Are we called on to feel the terrible bitterness of bereavement, to gaze on the
empty cradle, or the unoccupied chair? Then think how the Cross points upward!
(W. Hardman, LL. D.)
Anticipated pleasure alloyed
We look with great expectancy for the arrival of some pleasure
which we imagine will afford us the most complete satisfaction, and no sooner does
it arrive than we find in its train a whole host of petty annoyances and
unwelcome accompaniments. It is not only so in social life, but also in the
material world. Mr. Matthew Lewis, M.P., in his interesting “Journal” of a
residence among the negroes in the West Indies, relates how eagerly in Jamaica,
after three months of drought, the inhabitants long for rain; and when the
blessing at last descends, it is accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning,
and has the effect of bringing out all sorts of insects and reptiles in crowds,
the ground being covered with lizards, the air filled with mosquitoes, the
rooms of the houses with centipedes and legions of mosquitoes. And it will, on
inquiry, be found that the enjoyment of nearly every anticipated pleasure is in
like manner more or less alloyed by reason of the unpleasant things which seem
inevitably to attend it. (Scientific Illustrations.)
We have not done with hardship when we have left Egypt
This may be regarded as a universal law so long as we are in the
present life, and may be illustrated as really in common and secular matters as
in spiritual things. The schoolboy is apt to imagine that he is a slave. He is
under tutors and governors; and as he grinds away at his studies, not seeing
any relation between them and what he is to do in the future, he is tempted to
think that the drudgery of the Hebrews in the brickyard was nothing to that
which he has to undergo, and he longs for the day when he shall be a free man
and enter upon the active duties of life. His emancipation from the dry and
uninteresting labours at which he has so long been held marks an epoch in his
history, and he sings over it a song as sincere, if not as exalted, as that of
Moses at the sea. The burial of the books by our graduating classes may be in
the main a foolish freak; but yet it is the expression, in its own way, of
relief from that which has hitherto been felt to be a restraint, and each of
those who take part in it is intensely jubilant. But after he has entered on
the active duties of the work to which he devotes himself, the youth has not
gone far before he comes to Marah, and his first experience is one of
disappointment. Ah! well for him then if he cries to God, and finds the healing
tree which alone can sweeten its waters of bitterness! So it is, also, with
every new enterprise in which a man engages. After his first victory comes
something which empties it of half its glory. Pure and unmingled success is
unknown in the world, and would be, let me add, a great calamity if it were to
be enjoyed; for then the man would become proud and forget God, and lose all
remembrance of that precious influence by which the disappointments in our
experience are transmuted into means of grace. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
A valuable tree
The eucalyptus tree is efficacious in preventing malaria. The
cause is supposed to be that its thirsty roots drain the soil for many yards
around, and that its large leaves exhale an aromatic oil and intercept the
malarious germs. An incident shows its efficacy: An officer in India whose
troops were often attacked by sickness removed their huts to a place where
several large trees grew between them and the swamp, and from that time until
the trees were cut down the troops enjoyed excellent health; afterwards sickness
reappeared. It appears to be only in the case of zymotic diseases that the
trees operate as a preventative, but that is of no slight value in many
districts. (Youth’s Companion.)
A heaven-sent plant
It is impossible for us to win any victory over this terrible evil
in our own strength. Even heathen teachers acknowledge this. Many of you will
remember the classic fable when Ulysses was on his way from the ship to deliver
from Circe those companions of his who had been changed into swine by the power
of the enchantress of sensuality, he was met by the legendary god Mercury, who
told him that he would never be able to overcome the enchantress by his own
sword. Mercury gave him a plant, the root of which was black and the flower of
which was white, and it was by the power of this plant that he was to win his
victory over the enchantress. There is a deep moral truth in that myth of the
old Greek poet. We have an enchantress to contend against; we have to contend
against a mighty power that is changing our fellow-men into swine every day,
and we cannot attain the victory over that power except by means of a
heaven-sent plant, the Tree of Life, the blessed Cross of Christ. (Dean Edwards.)
Difficulties of leaders through opposition among followers
What a hard place was this of Moses here! Every great reformer has
had to go through a wilderness to the promised land of his success; and always
some of those who left Egypt with him have turned against him before he had
gone far. I think of the almost mutiny of his men against Columbus, as, day
after day, he steered westward and saw no land; I think of the trouble which
Luther and Calvin had so often with their own followers, and of the banishment
at one time of the latter from that Geneva, which, even to this day, is the
creation of his greatness; I think of the curs that yelped at the heels of the
Father of his country, when he was following that course which now the
universal voice of posterity has applauded; I think of the difficulties which
have embarrassed many meaner men in lower works of reformation, which have at
length benefited and blessed the world; and I blush for the selfishness of
those who prefer their own interest to the welfare of the community, while, at
the same time, I honour the conscientious courage which determines to go on, in
spite of opposition in the front and dissatisfaction in the rear. Oh! ye who
are bravely battling for the right, the pure, the benevolent, whether it be in
the sweeping out of corruption from political offices, or in the closing of
these pestilential houses which are feeding the intemperance of our streets, or
in the maintenance in the churches of the faith once delivered to the
saints--take heart of grace from Moses here. Go with your causes to the Lord,
and be sure that they who are on His side are always in the end victorious. (W.
M. Taylor, D. D.)
The sin of murmuring
Consider that murmuring is a mercy-embittering sin, a
mercy-souring sin. As the sweetest things put into a sour vessel are soured, or
put into a bitter vessel are embittered; so murmuring puts gall and wormwood
into every cup of mercy that God gives into our hands. The murmurer writes
“Marah,” that is, bitterness, upon all his mercies, and he reads and tastes
bitterness in them all. As “to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,” so
to the murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter. (T. Brooks.)
The evil of murmuring
I have read of Caesar, that, having prepared a great feast for his
nobles and friends, it so fell out that the day appointed was so extremely foul,
that nothing could be done to the honour of the meeting; whereupon he was so
displeased and enraged that he commanded all them that had bows to shoot up
their arrows at Jupiter, their chief god, as in defiance of him for that rainy
weather; which, when they did, their arrows fell short of heaven and fell upon
their own heads, so that many of them were very sorely wounded. So all our
murmurings, which are as so many arrows shot at God Himself, they will return
upon our own pates’ hearts; they reach not Him, but they will hit us; they hurt
not Him, but they will wound us; therefore it is better to be mute than to
murmur; it is dangerous to provoke a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:1-29.). (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring, the mother sin, to be fought against
As the king of Syria said to his captains, “Fight neither with
small nor great, but with the king of Israel,” so say I, Fight not so much
against this sin or that, but fight against your murmuring, which is a
mother-sin; make use of all your Christian armour, make use of all the
ammunition of heaven, to destroy the mother, and in destroying of her, you will
destroy the daughters. When Goliath was slain, the Philistines fled; when a
general in an army is cut off, the common soldiers are easily and quickly
routed and destroyed: so destroy but murmuring, and you will quickly destroy
disobedience, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, etc. (T. Brooks.)
Misery of murmurers
Every murmurer is his own tormentor; murmuring is a fire within
that will burn up all; it is an earthquake within that will overturn all; it is
a disease within that will infect all; it is poison within that will prey upon
all. (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring, the parent of other sins
As the river Nile bringeth forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion
many serpents at one birth, so murmuring is a sin that breeds and brings forth
many sins at once. It is like the monster Hydra--cut off one head, and many
will rise up in its room. It is the mother of harlots--the mother of all
abominations--a sin that breeds many other sins (Numbers 16:41; Numbers 17:10); viz., disobedience,
contempt, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, rebellion, cursing, carnality;
yea, it charges God with folly, yea, with blasphemy. The language of a
murmuring soul is this: Surely God might have done this sooner, and that wiser,
and the other thing better. (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring, a time-destroying sin
The murmurer spends much precious time in musing--in musing how to
get out of such a trouble, how to get off such a yoke, how to be rid of such a
burden, how to revenge himself for such a wrong; how to supplant such a person,
how to reproach those that are above him, and how to affront those that are
below him; and a thousand other ways murmurers have to expend that precious
time that some would redeem with a world. Caesar, observing some ladies at Rome
to spend much of their time in making much of little dogs and monkeys, asked
them whether the women in that country had no children to make much of. Ah,
murmurers, murmurers! you who by your murmuring trifle away so many golden
hours and seasons of mercy, have you no God to honour? Have you no Christ to
believe in? Have you no hearts to change, no sin to be pardoned, no souls to
save, no hell to escape, no heaven to seek after? Oh! if you have, why do you
spend so much of your precious time in murmuring against God, against men,
against this or that thing?, (T. Brooks.)
Murmuring at joys
I was tired of washing dishes; I was tired of drudgery. It had
always been so, and I was dissatisfied. I never sat down a moment to read that
Jamie didn’t want a cake, or a piece of paper to scribble on, or a bit of soap
to make bubbles. “I’d rather be in prison,” I said one day, “than to have my
life teased out,” as Jamie knocked my elbow, when I was writing to a friend.
But a morning came when I had one plate less to wash, one chair less to set
away by the wall in the dining-room; when Jamie’s little crib was put away in
the garret, and it has never come down since. I had been unusually fretful and
discontented with him that damp May morning that he took the croup. Gloomy
weather gave me the headache, and I had less patience than at any other time.
By and by he was singing in another room, “I want to be an angel,” and
presently rang out that metallic cough. I never hear that hymn since that it
don’t cut me to the heart; for the croup-cough rings out with it. He grew worse
towards night, and when my husband came home he went for the doctor. At first
he seemed to help him, but it merged into inflammatory croup, and all was soon
over. “I ought to have been called in sooner,” said the doctor. I have a
servant to wash the dishes now; and when a visitor comes, I can sit down and
entertain her without having to work all the time. There is no little boy
worrying me to open his jack-knife, and there are no shavings over the floor.
The magazines are not soiled at looking over the pictures, but stand prim and
neat on the reading-table just as I leave them. “Your carpet never looks
dirty,” said a weary-worn mother to me. “Oh! no,” I mutter to myself, “there
are no little boots to dirty it now.” But my fate is as weary as theirs--weary
with sitting in my lonesome parlour at twilight, weary with watching for the
arms that used to twine around my neck, for the curls that brushed against my
cheek, for the young laugh that rang out with mine, as we watched the blazing
fire, or made rabbits with the shadow on the wall, waiting merrily together for
papa coming home. I have the wealth and ease I longed for, but at what a price!
And when I see other mothers with grown-up sons, driving to town or church, and
my hair silvered over with grey, I wish I had murmured less.
Murmuring foolish
Seneca hath his similitude to set out the great evil of murmuring
under small afflictions. Suppose, saith he, a man to have a very fair house to
dwell in, with very fair orchards and gardens, set about with brave tall trees
for ornament; what a most unreasonable thing were it in this man to murmur
because the wind blows a few leaves off the trees, though they hang full of
fruit. If God take a little and give us much, shall we be discontent? If He
take our son and give us His own; if He cause the trees to bring forth the
fruit, shall we be angry if the wind blow away the leaves? (J. Venning.)
Murmuring injurious
It is not wise to fret under our trials: the high.mettled horse
that is restive in the yoke only galls his shoulder--the poor bird that dashes
itself against the bars of the cage only ruffles her feathers and aggravates
the sufferings of captivity.
The Lord that healeth thee.--
Jehovah-Ropheka
No human experience is uniformly joyful or sorrowful. A great
triumph is succeeded by a great obstacle and sometimes by a great defeat. But
there is another equally constant fact to offset this. As we look at this
alternation of Elims and Marahs in our life, and recognize it as a law of our
human experience, we find it supplemented by something else which is equally a
law; and that is the economy of God by which this alternation is happily
adjusted. In other words, I mean this: that if it is a law of our life that joy
and sorrow succeed each other, it is equally a law of our life that God
interposes and keeps the joy from corrupting and the sorrow from crushing us.
If sorrow is a part of God’s economy, healing is equally a part. You hear
abundance of popular proverbs to the effect that clouds have often silver
linings; that calamity usually stops short of the very worst; that time dulls
grief; that nature reacts from its depression, and much more of the same sort,
all which may be more or less true, but which do not cover the same ground as
this blessed name, “Jehovah that healeth thee”: which throw man for his
compensation for sorrow merely upon nature and circumstances. Both are-lawless
and accidental, the alleviations no less than the sorrow itself. But there is a
radical difference between a grief which is accidental, and a grief which falls
in with happier things into an order arranged to make the man purer and more
blessed. There is a radical difference between accidental mitigations, and the
firm, wise, tender touch of an omnipotent Healer upon a sorrow: and there is a
radical difference between that conception of sorrow which makes it an
intrusion and an interruption, and a conception which sees both sorrow and
healing as parts of one Divine plan, adjusted by that same Divine hand all
along the line of man’s life. With the alleviations of sorrow which come in
what we call the natural order of things, I have therefore nothing to do here.
That nature has certain recuperative powers is a familiar fact: that God often uses
these or other natural means in His own processes of healing, as a physician
uses for medicine the herbs and flowers which he gathers by the roadside, is an
equally familiar fact. But we are not concerned with the question of means. Our
text leads us back of the means. That to which alone sorrow can grapple
securely is not means but God. God, on this occasion, though He uses a branch
to sweeten the water, also uses it to direct the attention of the people to
Himself. When He gives Himself a name by which they are to know and remember
Him all through this desert journey, it is not, “the God of the branch,” nor
“the God of the rod,” nor “the God of the strong east wind,” but simply, “I am
Jehovah that healeth thee.” No matter what means I use. If He had called
Himself the God of the rod, the people would have despaired of healing in any
case where there was not a branch or a rod present. He would have them know
that healing was in Him, by any means or by no means as He might choose. And
thus it is well for us to bring every bitter experience of life at once to
God--directly. The fountain of healing is there, and there is no need of our
taking the smallest trouble in seeking any lower source of comfort. God is not
like certain great medical authorities who leave all minor maladies to
subordinates and hold themselves in reserve merely for consultation on cases of
life and death. He wrought the great miracle at Marah, not only to relieve the
people’s thirst on that occasion, but to encourage them to seek His help in
smaller matters. God sometimes reduces a man to terrible straits so that he may
learn that lesson. The branch which he throws in is this: Rest in the Lord and
wait patiently for Him. When one is in such confusion and bewilderment, a great
deal of the distress is thrown off in the throwing off of all responsibility
for the way out. Many years ago, while in Rome, I went down into the Catacombs.
I had not gone five feet from the entrance when I saw that if I should try to
find my way back, I should be hopelessly lost. Passages opened out on every
side, and crossed and interlaced, and my life was literally in the hands of the
cowled monk who led the way with his lighted taper. But that was a relief.
Having no responsibility for finding the way, and having faith in my guide, I
could give myself up to the impression of the place. There is a beautiful
passage in the one hundred and forty-second Psalm which brings out this truth.
The Psalm is ascribed to David when he was fleeing from Saul’s persecution and
wandering in a labyrinth of caves and secret paths. “When my spirit is
overwhelmed within me, Thou knowest my path.” Few things are more painful or
humiliating than the sense of having lost the way. The sweetening branch then
is just this blessed consciousness that Divine omniscience knows the path; that
the knowledge is with one who knows just how to use it, who knows the path
through, the path out, knows what the trend of the trouble is and what its
meaning is. But let us not forget the other great truth of this story, a truth
quite as important as the first, and perhaps quite as hard to learn; and that
is, that God’s healing is a lesson no less than a comfort. The aim of a
physician’s treatment is not merely to relieve his patient from pain. It is,
further, to get him on his feet for active duty. God did not sweeten the waters
of Marah in order that the people might stay there. Marah was only a stage on
the way to Canaan; and the draught at the sweetened spring was but to give
strength for a long march. And God never heals His people simply to make them
easy. If He takes off a load it is that they may walk the better in the way of
His commandments. Whatever God may say to us by sickness, when He comes to us
as the Lord of healing He says, “I will raise thee up that thou mayst do that
which is right in My sight; that thou mayst give ear to My commandments and
keep My statutes.” Healing means more toil and more burdens and more conflict,
and these will continue to the end. But let us remember that God never forgets
to give rest along the road, and refreshment at the right places to His
faithful ones. Even on earth there will be intervals of sweet rest, though the
desert lie on beyond. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
The Lord that healeth
It is with healing power in the lowest form of its development,
viz., the supplying of bodily wants--the healing of physical diseases--that
this precious name is first brought to our notice. And even this is a blessing
not to be lightly esteemed. But, if our powers of perception were so adjusted
that we could estimate spiritual diseases, as God estimates them; then, we
should see, in the walks of daily life, even in the case of those who are said
to possess sound minds in sound bodies, sights sadder far than any to be met
with in our hospitals and asylums for physical and mental diseases. And the
power to heal which the Lord claims when He is pleased to reveal Himself as
Jehovah-Ropheka, is this power in its higher form--the power to heal the
diseases of the soul.
I. He is an
efficient healer. He puts His own Omnipotence into the grace by which He heals;
and what can resist that grace? He has fathomed the lowest depths of human
depravity, and the chain of His grace has reached even unto that.
II. He is a
practical healer. It sometimes happens with earthly physicians that the
medicine is mingled with our daily food, and that the food itself of which the
patient partakes is made the means of healing. But this is what our heavenly
Healer does continually. He connects the process of His healing with the food
on which the souls of His people live, and the daily experience of life through
which they are passing.
III. He is a
universal healer. In many of our hospitals there is a ward for incurables.
There are cases which every physician will decline to undertake because he
knows that nothing can be done with them. But Jehovah-Ropheka knows no such
cases. In the hospital of His grace there is no ward for incurables. There are
no limits to the range and operation of His wisdom and power. He has not made a
specialty of any particular case. There is no form of spiritual disease that
can be incurable to Him.
IV. He is a
permanent healer. No earthly physician will undertake both to restore his
patient to health, and at the same time to give him the assurance that the
disease from which he has suffered shall never return to him. This is a matter
quite beyond the reach of ordinary medical ability. But it is not so with our
heavenly Healer. He undertakes to make His healing work not only perfect but
permanent. Two things show us this.
1. One of these is the state into which Christ introduces the saved
soul after death. It is a state in which there will be no sickness, sorrow, or
sin. And what that state is, as the healed soul enters into it, it will be for
ever. It is a “continuing city.”
2. And then the state of the soul as it enters that blessed abode
will show the same thing. “Presented perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:28).
V. He is a glorious
healer. Most physicians are satisfied if they can restore their patients to the
condition in which they were before the disease seized upon them. If they can
heal a man’s wounds they are satisfied. They will not pledge that in securing
this result there shall be no disfiguring scars remaining. But it is different
with our heavenly Healer. He restores the sin-sick soul, not to its original
state, but to one infinitely better than that. The creation state of the soul
was pronounced good, the redeemed state of the soul is declared to be perfect.
(R. Newton, D. D.)
The Lord that healeth
“Many a time have I been brought very low, and received the
sentence of death in myself, when my poor, honest, praying neighbours have met,
and, upon their fasting and earnest prayers, I have recovered. Once, when I had
continued weak three weeks, and was unable to go abroad, the very day that they
prayed for me, being Good Friday, I recovered, and was able to preach and
administer the sacrament the next Lord’s day; and was better after it, it being
the first time that ever I administered it. And ever after that, whatever
weakness was upon me, when I had, after preaching, administered that sacrament
to many hundred people, I was much revived and eased of my infirmities.” “Oh
how often,” he writes in his “Dying Thoughts,” “have I cried to Him when men
and means were nothing, and when no help in second causes did appear, and how
often, and suddenly, and mercifully hath He delivered me! What sudden ease,
what removal of long affliction have I had! Such extraordinary changes, and
beyond my own and others’ expectations, when many plain-hearted, upright
Christians have, by fasting and prayer, sought God on my behalf, as have over
and over convinced me of special providence and that God is indeed a hearer of prayers. And
wonders have I seen done for others also, upon such prayer, more than for
myself; yea, and wonders for the Church, and for public societies.” “Shall I
therefore forget how often He hath heard prayers for me, and how wonderfully He
often hath helped both me and others? My faith hath been helped by such
experiences, and shall I forget them, or question them without cause at last?”
(Richard Baxter.)
Elim.--
The pilgrim’s pathway
I. That, in life’s
pilgrimage, God crowns His people with constant blessings and diversified
tokens of His goodness. These blessings, as here implied, are of great
practical utility; they are--
1. Essential--“Water.”
2. Refreshing--“Palm-trees.”
3. Diversified--“Wells and palm-trees.”
4. Proportionate,--“Twelve wells and threescore and ten palm-trees.”
II. That, in life’s
pilgrimage, God’s blessings should be appropriated and enjoyed. “They encamped
there.”
III. That, in life’s
pilgrimage, Elim, with its refreshing shade, is frequently not far from Marah,
with its bitter waters. Therefore, as pilgrims, we should not be too much
elated or depressed with our camping-places. In the history of the Zion-bound
traveller, it should not be forgotten, that it is always better further on.
IV. That, in life’s
pilgrimage, we should remember that we are not yet home, only pilgrims on the
way. Our immortality would starve to death on the richest oasis this desert
world could give us, if we should attempt to make it our abiding home. So, they
did not buy the land, or build a city, they only “encamped there.” (T.
Kelly.)
Marah and Elim
I. The varied
experience of human life.
1. There are the sorrowful scenes of life. You know well the sources
from whence these sorrows arise. There is the sorrow that comes to us from our
disappointments. We are constantly deceived and disappointed, partly because we
indulge in unreasonable expectations, and partly because things differ so much
in their reality from what they are in their outward appearance. Then there is
the sorrow that proceeds from physical suffering. Another source of sorrow is
our bereavements. A whole generation fell in the wilderness, and as the
Israelites travelled onward, they had again and again to pause in their journey
and bury their dead. Another source of sorrow is sin. This indeed is the great
source of all sorrow, the fountain from whence these bitter waters flow.
2. There are the joys of life. Another day’s march, and the scene was
changed; verdure refreshed the eye, there was Tater in abundance to quench the
thirst, and the weary pilgrim could repose under the palm-tree’s welcome shade.
True type again of human life--“Weeping endures for a night, joy cometh in the
morning.” “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will
I gather thee.” The most weary pilgrimage has its quiet resting places, and the
saddest heart is not without its joys. God is kind even to the unthankful, for
on them He bestows His providential bounties, but “the secret of the Lord is
with them that fear Him.” He gives to them a “peace which passeth
understanding,” a “hope which maketh not ashamed,” and “a joy that is
unspeakable and full of glory.” Life, then, has a varied experience.
II. But what are
the reasons for it? There can be little doubt that if it were left to our
choice, we should choose a less chequered course--we should avoid the bitter
waters of Marah, and seek the palm-trees of Elim. Why is it that joy and
sorrow, hope and fear, health and sickness, blessings bestowed and blessing
removed, follow each other in such rapid succession.
1. It is to correct our self-will. Many whose hearts were stubborn
enough when they began life, have found life so different to what they
expected, that they have at length confessed--It is vain to fight against God;
henceforth I place myself under His government--His will, not mine, be done.
2. To develop our character. If the events of life were exclusively
sorrowful, then the test of our character would be but partial; so would it be
if these events were exclusively joyful; and therefore it is sorrow to-day and
joy to-morrow. Thus our whole character is developed.
3. To open our hearts to those sacred influences which soften and
purify them. (H. J. Gamble.)
Elim: the springs and the palms
I. Elim rises
before us as the representative of the green oases, the spots of sunny verdure,
the scenes of heavenly beauty, wherewith God hath enriched, though sparingly,
our wilderness world. This world is not all bad; its marches are not all bare.
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake”--and because for thy sake, it is not cursed
utterly. It is not all black, bare, lifeless, as the crust of a cold lava
flood; a prison-house for reprobates, instead of a training school for sons.
II. The nearness of
Elim to Marah opens up to us a deep truth in the spiritual history of man.
1. Had they pushed on instead of murmuring at Marah, they would have
found all they sought, and more than they hoped for, at Elim. Ah! the time we
waste in repining and rebelling--scheming to mend God’s counsels! How many Elims
would it find for us, if employed in courage and faith!
2. How near is the sweetness to the bitterness in every trial! it is
but a short step to Elim, where we may encamp and rest. The brightest spots of
earth are amidst its most savage wildernesses, and the richest joys of the
Christian spring ever out of his sharpest pains. The humbling pains of
disappointment tune the soul for the joys which the next station of the journey
affords. It is when we have learnt the lessons of the wilderness, and are resolved
to press on, cost what it may, in our heavenly path, that springs of unexpected
sweetness gush up at our very feet, and we find shade and rest, which give
foretaste of heaven.
III. Let us
endeavour to discern the principle of this alternate sweetness and bitterness
of life. These lights and shadows of nature, this glow and gloom, are caught
from a higher sphere. Nature is but the reverse of the medal whose obverse is
man. The ultimate reason of the bitterness of Marah is the sin in the heart of
Israel and all pilgrims; the ultimate reason of the sweetness and freshness of
Elim is the mercy that is in the heart of God. There is a fearful power in the
human spirit to make God’s brightest blessings bitter curses. Who was it who
wanted to die, because God had found a deliverance for a great city in which
were half a million of doomed men? At the door of your own spirit lie all the
pangs and wretchedness you have known. You have cursed fate and fortune, and
protested that you were the most wronged and persecuted of men. But the
mischief lies not in God’s constitution of the world, nor in His government of
it, but in your hearts. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Sweetness not far from bitterness
Sorrow is not all a wilderness, even to the most sorrowful. Amid
all its bleakness and desolation it has oases of beauty and fertility. It has
Elims as well as Marahs, and frequently these Elims are very near the
Marahs--if we only knew it. But six short miles separated the twelve wells of
water and the threescore and ten palm.trees from the bitter, nauseous well that
filled the hearts of the thirsting multitudes with disappointment. And so near
in human life is the sweetness to the bitterness in every trial. A few steps
will take us through the valley of the shadow of death out into the green
pastures and beside the still waters upon which it opens. Had the Israelites of
old, instead of murmuring at Marah, pushed on a little further, they would, in
two short hours, have found at Elim all they sought and more than they
expected. And so the time we waste in repining and rebelling would be better
employed in living faith and active duty, for thus would consolation be found.
Instead of sitting down to murmur at Marah, let us march in faith under the
guidance of our tender Shepherd, who will bring us to the next station, where we may lie down in green
pastures and beside still waters. (Christian Age.)
The comparative duration of sorrow and joy
Is there ever a Marah without an Elim near it, if only we follow
on in the way the Lord marks out for us through the wilderness? The notice of
Elim occupies less than four lines, while there are as many verses in the
record of Marah, and a whole chapter following about the wilderness of sin; and
we are apt to draw the hasty inference that the bitter experiences were the
rule, and the delightful ones the exception. And so it often seems in the
checkered life of the tried disciple of the Lord. But look again. The bitter
time at Marah was quite short, though it occupies a great deal of space in the
history. These four verses tell the story probably of as many hours or less.
But the four lines about Elim are the story of three weeks, during which they “encamped
there by the waters.” When troubles come, the time seems long; when
troubles have gone, the time seems short; and so many are apt to think that
they are hardly dealt with, whereas if they would look more carefully into the
Lord’s dealings with them, they might find that they have far more to be
thankful for than to grieve over. Hours at Marah are followed by weeks at Elim.
(J. M. Gibson, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》