The Water of Marah
A compilation
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“When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter.”—Exodus 15:23
In times of testing, we can go one of three ways. We can adopt a ‘whatever will be, will be’ attitude, which does nothing to improve our relationship with God. We can become bitter and resentful, which deteriorates our relationship with God. Or we can draw nearer to God, knowing He has His purpose.
One of the prime examples of God working out His purpose in a time of testing is seen in the bitter water of Marah. Having crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites are finally free, but are now languishing in the hot, barren desert of Shur. On the third day, they see something glistening in the distance. They rush to it, and it is water. They drink it, but it is bitter, and again Moses and Aaron bear the brunt of a disgruntled people.
Exodus 15:25 tells us, “Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” There the LORD made a decree for His people and ended it by saying, “For I am the LORD, who heals you.” It is intriguing that the antidote was a piece of wood, as there is no wood that is known to neutralize this bitter water. Many Bible commentators have viewed this as a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ, and in Scripture there is association of the cross of Christ being a means of healing. “By his wounds you have been healed.”1
Jamie Buckingham, an expert in desert conditions, wrote a book entitled “A Way through the Wilderness.” He writes that the water of Marah was filled with magnesium, which is a powerful laxative that would have expelled most amoeba, parasites, and death-dealing germs the people would have brought with them out of Egypt. Magnesium also forms the basis of a drug called ‘dolomite,’ which is basically used in extremely hot weather to control heart fibrillation and muscle spasms. God had provided the right medicine to purge their systems and prepare their bodies for the long, arduous journey through the desert.
The Israelites’ first stop in the wilderness was not a place of despair, but a place where God provided medicinal water. They drank the water and then came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees; a restful place with plenty of fresh water where they set up camp.
We all visit the bitter waters, but again and again, it is a means of God’s blessing in which He works to bring us to our own ‘Elims,’ where we may find rest in the full sufficiency and provision of Christ.—Charles Price
Call me Mara
Marah or Mara is referenced again in a different context in the book of Ruth. When Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth, both widowed, traveled back to Naomi’s homeland of Israel, the women of the village greeted their long-lost friend. But Naomi responded to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. . . . Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”2 Naomi’s grief and continued loss had created a bitterness of soul that defined her. The Lord helped heal that bitterness through the love story of Boaz and Ruth. Their son, Obed, was like a son to Naomi.3 And Obed grew up to become the grandfather of King David.
The word marah reminds us that bitterness destroys the usefulness of both water and human life that is poisoned by it. When we stop trusting in the goodness of God and see only our own limited resources, we can become bitter. Hebrews 12:15 warns, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”4 Like the Israelites, when we are faced with bitter circumstances, we begin to doubt God’s hand on our lives. We may attribute negative characteristics to our heavenly Father and may even accuse Him of wrongdoing.5 Just as marah made the water useless, so marah in our own lives makes us useless in bearing fruit for God’s kingdom. God healed the water, and He can heal us when we obey His instruction.6—From gotquestions.org
Healing of the water
The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.—2 Kings 2:19–227
Remember that bitter spring that Elisha found—the waters were bitter, like the waters of Marah—and Elisha by a miracle sweetened the waters by casting in some salt. This great sweet spring was very likely bitter since the time of Abraham, because it was bitter later when Elisha was there.
Perhaps it was a chemical miracle of some kind that God showed Elisha what to do to sweeten the water. Miracles are not always supernatural: they’re simply following God’s laws that we’re not familiar with, which God revealed to some of His ancients in their day. God sweetened these waters, and since that time this has always been a very famous sweet fountain or spring, which burst forth right from the foot of the Jordan hills.—David Brandt Berg
Sweetening the bitter waters
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. …
In this distress the people fretted, and quarrelled with Moses. … 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...
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 Henry8
Published on Anchor August 2018. Read by Simon Peterson.
1 Isaiah 53:5.
2 Ruth 1:20 NIV.
3 Ruth 4:13–17.
4 NIV.
5 Malachi 2:17; 3:13–15.
6 Psalm 34:18; Deuteronomy 32:39.
7 NIV.
8 Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible (1706).
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