In our crystallization study of the book of Exodus this week we have been getting into the deeper significance of the people of Israel at Marah and Elim.
After crossing the Red Sea and seeing Pharaoh and his armies buried in the sea, the people of Israel traveled through the wilderness for three days without finding any water. This was very troublesome for them, and when they got to Marah and saw that the waters were bitter, not drinkable, they murmured against Moses about it. Moses cried to God, and God showed him a tree, which Moses cast into the bitter waters, and the waters became sweet.
This experience signifies our Christian experience after being baptized: we follow the Lord in the realm of resurrection (in the wilderness), and here there is no water – there is nothing natural to supply us. After being separated from the world through baptism, nothing natural from the world satisfies us; rather, the only water we have available is many times bitter, not drinkable.
At times like these when there’s so much bitterness in the environment and even our being is bitter we need to cry out to the Lord, and He will show us “a tree” – He will show us the cross of Christ. The experience of the cross of Christ is a test to us, exposing the bitterness in our being and bringing us to realise how much we need the application of the cross.
When we apply the cross of Christ to our bitter situation and bitter being, the bitter waters become sweet, and we experience Christ as our Healer.
It is not only the environment that is bitter, but we ourselves are sick; for this cause, we come to Marah again and again, and the Lord exposes the bitterness in our being time and time again – at such times we need to cry to the Lord, pour out our heart to Him, and apply the cross of Christ to our situation, and any bitterness will be turned into sweetness!
After experiencing the bitter waters being healed and turned into sweet waters at Marah, the children of Israel went to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. Here they encamped, and they were formed as God’s army, ready to fight for God’s interest.
The Result of the Flowing and Growing Life is an Army Strengthened to Fight for God’s Interest
In Exo. 15:27 we see that the children of Israel went to Elim and encamped there by the waters. This word “encamped” indicates that the result of their experience at Marah and Elim was that they were formed into an army to fight for God’s interest on earth.
When they were in Egypt, God fought for the children of Israel, and He eventually defeated Pharaoh and his army by causing the sea to swallow them up when they tried to cross it after the children of Israel.
But after they crossed the Red Sea, experienced God as their Healer at Marah, and were enjoying the flowing and growing life at Elim, the children of Israel were formed into an army to fight for God’s interest. Later in their journey they had to fight with many enemies, and they were qualified to do this by first experiencing God as their Healer at Marah and then by enjoying the flowing life (twelve springs) and growing life (seventy palm trees) at Elim.
In a similar way, when we believed into the Lord, enjoyed Him as our Passover, had an exodus from the world, and entered into the waters of baptism, God fought the battle for us and destroyed all our enemies.
After we were baptized and experienced Christ as our Healer through the application of the cross of Christ to our bitter situations (Marah) and then we experienced the resurrection life flowing and growing (Elim), we were equipped and qualified as an army for fighting for God’s interest. Our enjoyment of the flowing divine life and the growing life enables us to fight to carry out God’s purpose to build His habitation.
What qualifies us for fighting for God’s interest on earth is enjoying Christ as life, so we need to give ourselves enjoy Christ’s growing life so that we may be one with Him to fight for His interest on earth. In our Christian life and church life we will enter into the spiritual warfare, and what qualifies and equips us for this is not merely eating the passover lamb with bitter herbs and the unleavened bread, but the experience of the cross and the resurrection (Marah and Elim).
Through experiencing the cross, our bitter waters are made sweet, and by entering into resurrection, the sweet waters are flowing and there’s something growing.
Being healed by God so that any bitterness is turned to sweetness is good, but we must go on to have an abundant flow of living water (twelve springs of water) and grow in this life until we are equipped and strengthened to become an army fighting for God’s interest on earth and building up His habitation.
Hallelujah, the result of the flowing and growing life is an army strengthened to fight for God’s purpose!
Lord Jesus, give us the experiences we need that we may experience the cross and the resurrection and be formed into an army fighting for Your interest on earth. Lord, may we experience the flowing and growing life that supplies us to be the army on earth that fights to carry out Your purpose to build up Your habitation. We give ourselves to enjoy Christ’s growing and flowing life day by day so that we may be one with Him to fight for His interest on earth!
Having Flowing Waters by which we Grow like Palm Trees to Express God’s Rich Life and Full Victory
The experience of Marah and Elim need to become our experience today in our Christian life and church life. Furthermore, we need to have BOTH the experience of Marah and the experience of Elim. We need to go on from Marah to Elim so that we may both grow and flow, and to be formed into an army to fight for God’s interest.
Many of God’s people who are really seeking a deeper experience of Christ have seen the need of experiencing the cross of Christ have stopped here; they seek to be deal with by the cross and be healed by God in their entire being, but there’s no flow of life nor is there a growth in life that causes them to be strengthened to be God’s army today.
From the time that Madame Guyon lived and wrote concerning the cross and the experience of the death of Christ to the time of Mrs. Penn-Lewis, the Lord’s people have been for the most part at Marah. Through these two sisters the Lord has released much concerning the subjective experience of the cross. In a similar way, the Lord has recovered much concerning the subjective experience of the cross through brother Watchman Nee.
But we all need to go on from Marah to Elim and experience not only the cross of Christ but also His resurrection for His life to flow and grow so that His purpose may be fulfilled. In our experience, the waters that have been changed from bitter to sweet must become the flowing waters in which, by which, and with which we grow like palm trees to express God’s rich life and full victory for praising the Lord.
In other words, we need to cry out to the Lord, pour out our soul to Him, talk to Him, and cast Him as the crucified One into our bitter circumstances and being, and He will become our Healer, healing our inner being; then we need to continue to experience Him in resurrection so that the waters that became sweet would become the flowing waters by which we grow in life to express God’s rich life and praise the Lord.
The Lord doesn’t just want to heal us and our situation through the application of the cross; He wants us to have flowing living waters by which we grow in life to express His rich life and full victory with much praise to the Lord.
Hallelujah, our destiny is to praise the Lord by experiencing His cross and resurrection so that we may flow with the divine life and grow in life to express God’s rich life and full victory to praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, may the waters which have been changed from bitter to sweet in our experience become the flowing waters in which, by which, and with which we would grow like palm trees to express God’s rich life and full victory for praising the Lord! Lord, may we go on from experiencing the cross to experiencing the resurrection life so that we may have the flowing life and the growth in life needed to express the riches of the divine life and the complete victory of God’s administration! Oh, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 31, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 7 / msg 7, The Experiences of Marah and Elim.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, come to the Fountain of Life, / The fountain that never runs dry; / Oh, drink of the boundless supply, / For Christ is the Fountain of Life. (Hymns #523)
# Growing, growing, in us He is growing, / More and more each day. / Into all our living He is flowing— / This is now His way. / For growth, O Lord, we pray; / Increase in us each day. / It’s not enough to know; / Now Thy life in us must grow. (Hymns #1240)
# Lord, Thy life abundant, / Flowing, rich and free, / Constantly refreshes / And empowers me. / Death by life is swallowed, / Weakness is made strong, / All my bonds are broken, / Gloom is turned to song. (Hymns #841)
About aGodMan
In our experience we need not only the sweet water but also the flowing water. This means that we need the water that has been changed from bitter to sweet and also the water that flows from the twelve springs at Elim. In order to have the flowing water, we must go on from Marah, the experience of the cross, to Elim, the experience of resurrection. (Life-study of Exodus, msg. 31)