MARAH BETTER THAN
ELIM.
by
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon
AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 4TH, 1889.
“So Moses brought
the wilderness of Shur; and they
went three days in the wilderness,
and found no water. And when they came to Marsh, they could
not
drink of the waters of Marah, for
they were bitter: therefore the
name of it was called Marah. And
the people murmured against
Moses, saying, What shall we
drink? And be 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 said, If
thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy
God, and
wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear
to his
commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these
diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for
I
am the LORD that healeth thee.” — Exodus
15:22-26.
AFTER I had fallen down at Mentone, and was grievously ill, a
brother in
Christ called upon me, and said, “My dear friend, you have
now come to
Marah.”
I replied, “Yes, and the waters are bitter.” Hethen
said, “But
Marah is better than Elim, for in Elim the Israelites only drank of the water
and
ate of the fruit of the palm trees, and that was soon over; but at Marah
we
read that God ‘made for them a statute and an ordinance,’ and that was
never over. That statute and ordinance stood fast, and will
stand fast for
from Marah than from Elim.”
I thanked my friend for that good word. I
had
found it true aforetime; I have found it true since then; and you and I,
if
we are indeed the people of God, will find it true to the end, that Marah,
though it be bitter, is also better; and albeit that we do not
like it, yet in the
end
there shall be no bitterness in it, but an unutterable sweetness which
shall be ours through time and eternity.
We have a long record about Marah,
have we not? I have read you four
verses concerning Marah. How many
verses have we about Elim? Only
one.
Does Marah deserve to be talked about four times as
much as Elim?
Perhaps it does; perhaps there is four times as much fruit
to be obtained
from the bitter waters of Marah than from the
twelve springs of water, and
threescore and ten palm trees at Elim. Who
knows? This I know, however,
that we are very apt to talk more about our bitters than about our sweets;
and
that is a serious fault. It were well if we had fewer murmuring words
for
our sorrows, and more songs of thanksgiving for our blessings. Yet
Holy Writ seems here to speak after the manner of men, and
to lot us have
the
four verses for the trial, and the one verse for the delight. Still, as it
speaks also after the manner of God, I gather that Marah is, after all, more
noteworthy than Elim; and truly, there does
come to God’s people
something better out of their troubles than out of their joys.
Certainly one thing is clear,
trees they had; but they had no miracle there, no miraculous
change of the
bitter into the sweet; and they had no statute, and no ordinance,
and no
promise, and no new revelation of God, and no now name for Jehovah
there. All that belonged to Marah, “for
there he made them a statute and an
ordinance,” and there he promised, if they were faithful and
obedient, that
he
would put none of the diseases of
revealed himself as Jehovah Rophi, “the
Lord that healeth thee.” Oh, yes,
there are many virtues and many blessings in the bitter waters
of Marah!
Often have we found it true that “Sweet are the uses of
adversity.”
I hope that nobody here thinks that these Israelites
experienced a small
trial. We are not accustomed to travelling
in the desert; but those who are,
tell us that thirst in the wilderness is something awful to endure. For all
that
great host to go three days without water, must have been a very
trying
experience. You would not like to try that even in this country; but
what
must it be to go three days in the wilderness, beneath a burning sky,
without a drop of water to drink? Then came the bitter
disappointment at
Marah.
Probably the people knew that there were water-springs ahead, so
they hurried up to the place to drink; but when they stooped to taste the
waters, they found that they were bitter. They could not drink of
them; and
there they stood, in their desperation, with the long thirst
parching their
throats, and bitter disappointment adding to their agony; and they
murmured against Moses, saying,” What shall we drink?” I say not
this to
excuse them, but lest you should think that they had only a small
trial to
bear.
Remember, also, that this was a now form of trial. They
never lacked for
water in
drink as much as they chose. This was an experience to which
they were
quite unaccustomed, and I should not wonder if they were greatly
surprised at it, for they knew that they were the people of God.
They had
just seen the Lord divide the
has
he brought them out of
wilderness? They fancied that they were going to have one long
triumphant
march right into the promised land, or to be always dandled upon
the lap of
stood aghast at finding that, when the earth yielded water to
slake their
thirst, it was such water as they could not drink.
Well, now, this kind of surprise happens to many who have
set out on the
way
to heaven. God has been very gracious to them; their sins are washed
away, and they think that the great joy which they have lately experienced
will never be taken away from them, and will never be even diminished.
They reckon upon a long day without a cloud. God has
favored them so
much that they cannot imagine that they shall have any trial or any
bitterness. It is not so, beloved; a Christian man is seldom long at
ease, no
sooner does he start out on pilgrimage to heaven than he meets
with a
difficulty, and as he goes on he finds out that the way to heaven is
not a
rolled pathway, it is up hill and down dale, through the mire and
through
the
slough, over mount and through the sea. It is by their trials and
afflictions that the people of God are proved to be his children. They
cannot escape the rod, whoever may; yet this experience does at
first come
as
a very great surprise to them, so I want to talk tonight to some who
have been lately brought to rejoice in the Lord’s pardoning mercy, but are
now
staggered because they have come to an encampment in the
wilderness where their thirsty mouths are filled with bitterness.
I begin my discourse by saying that this experience was a
great gain to
advance in three things through having to endure this trial; they
were
gainers, first, by examination; next, by experience; and, thirdly,
by
education.
I. First,
to
that end that they were brought there, that they might be examined by
the
Lord: “There he proved them.”
Speaking of
position. They were no longer slaves, they
were not in Egyptian territory,
the
masters; but it is evident from their conduct that they were not
altogether a
new
people. They had brought a great deal of evil out of
When you heard them sing, you said, “It is strange that
those poor slaves
can
sing such a jubilant song. Those women, so accustomed to carry heavy
burdens of earth, how merrily they dance! How joyfully they strike
the
timbrels!
make! What singing is theirs! Who would have dreamt that those who
cried by reason of their taskmasters would ever sing like that?”
Yes, but
when they were tried and tested, it was found that the old stuff was in them
still; they murmured just as they had often done before when, in
the land of
too,
have entered quite a new state. Some of you, perhaps, have lately
become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Between you and your old
sins there
rolls a deep, impassable sea; you will never go back to them
again. Ah, but
do
not begin to flatter yourselves that you have left behind you all your old
selves! There remaineth still, even in
the regenerate, the old lusts of the
flesh. They have had their heads broken, but they still live;
they have been
crucified, their hands and feet are fastened to the wood, crucified
with
Christ; but they live for all that; and they struggle on
the cross, and you
must not marvel, if, when you are tried and proved, you find that you are
like these Israelites at Marah.
Notice, next, that the trial to which
own
test, which is searching and accurate: “He proved them.” We sit
down, and practice self-examination, which is a very proper thing. Beware,
I pray you, of a faith that will not stand
self-examination. If you dare not
look into your own heart, it must be because there is something rotten
there. The tradesman who is afraid to inspect his books, or
examine his
stock, is going to the bad, rest assured of that. We are bound
to examine
ourselves very carefully; but, after all, our examinations are very
superficial, very partial, and we are very apt to make a mistake. In
the case
of
great agony on finding that the water they looked for was
undrinkable. “He
proved them.” The Lord maybe bringing some of you into deep
waters,
and
great trials, because he is proving you. When the fan is in his hand,
then does he throughly purge his floor. When he
sits as a refiner of silver,
believe me, it is no child’s play to be in the crucible. The Lord
took
to
those waters on purpose to prove them. Have you never prayed,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my
thoughts”?
The Lord may answer you in a way of which you little dream;
he may
conduct you to some waters of Marah that
he may test you and prove you.
Well, now, under the test, see what happened to
evaporated. That question, “What shall we drink?” has not a trace of
faith
in
it. I hear it shouted, in different tones, by men, and women, and children,
and
it all comes to the same thing, “We hoped to quench our thirst here,
but
we cannot drink this water; and now what shall we drink?” As if God
could not, having dried up the sea, turn the earth into a
fountain of water!
He that made them a path through the midst of the deep
waters could make
a
path for waters to come to them. There was no trace of faith in the
murmurers at Marah. They seemed full of
faith at the
not?
Many dancers, but no doubters; many singers, but no unbelievers; yet
the
whole company had not more than a pennyworth of faith amongst
them. Moses was the only one who truly believed God; but as for the faith
of
the rest of them, it was mere gilt; veneer of faith covering a solid mass
of
unbelief.
Not only did their faith fail, but their love to God was
very feeble. Did you
not
hear them three days ago? Why, you can almost hear the strain of their
jubilant song, “He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation;
my
father’s God, and I will exalt him.” Oh, how they love Jehovah, do
they
not?
They were in the love of their espousals; they went after him into the
wilderness. But now the cry is, “What shall we drink?” and they
murmured
against Moses. Theirs was a cupboard love, like yours and mine
often is.
They loved God very much for what they got out of him; and
if he would
not
give them water to drink, what cared they for him? If he would divide
the
him
a habitation; but if he let them suffer the pangs of thirst, there should
be
no blessings for him on their lips. Ah, me! how like
ourselves were these
people! When we test ourselves, we say, “Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I love thee.” And I hope that
that is correct; but when
the
Lord proves us, and we are very sharply tested, we are apt to say,
“Nobody was ever tried as we are,
nobody ever had the peculiar difficulties
that surround us;” and then we begin murmuring. When we are thinking of
how
much we love God, it might be more profitable to consider how very
little we really love him after all.
And see, brethren, these people were ready to break away
from their God.
They murmured against Moses, because Moses was visible in
their midst;
but
the real murmuring was against God himself. They might ask, as long
as
they liked, “What shall we drink?” but they could not get a drop of
water by repeating that question a thousand times. Would they go
back to
Egyptians think of them if they did go back? Could they
force their way
forward through that terrible wilderness? There they stood,
entirely
dependent upon God, and yet with scarcely a particle of faith in
him, and
their love all shrivelled up, and all
that within three clays. O Israel, it is
early days to be falling out with your new Husband! They had
just been
married to the Lord by a new covenant, and baptized in the cloud
and in
the
sea; yet within three days they are ready to fling it all up, and to say, as
they did in their hearts, “Would to God that we had remained in the land of
It is only grace that makes us anything worth having. It is
a wonder of
mercy that the Lord puts up with us.
This, then, was
by
that?” Oh, yes! It is always a gain to a man to know the truth about
himself. A captain must find his longitude and latitude,
that he may know
whereabouts his vessel is upon the sea; and this, I believe, is one of
the
things God would have his people do. The Lord does not wish his
children
to
live in a fool’s paradise, and to fancy that they are rich, and increased in
goods, and have need of nothing, when they are naked, and poor,
and
blind, and miserable. He sends us our Marahs,
just to blow away our
shams, and got rid of our pretences, that we may build our house
on the
rock, that what is built may be founded on real granite, and may endure
even to the end.
So much for the examination of the
children of
II. But
now, beloved friends, these people gained much by EXPERIENCE.
Experience cannot be the property of the beginner; he must
acquire it. Now
what did the children of
First, they learned that the wilderness was the same to
them as it was to
other people. It is well that young converts should know that
this world is
an
evil world even to the man who is saved by grace. You are new; but the
world is not. You love holiness; but the world neither loves
you, nor loves
holiness. You are in a wilderness; you are in the enemy’s country;
you have
not
yet come into your rest. If you have not learnt this fact yet, you will
have to learn it.
They were to learn, next, that they were wholly dependent
upon God.
When they stood at the brink of the
and
that only God could lead them through the sea; but after that, they
were just as dependent. They could not live longer without water, they
must perish of thirst unless God supplied them. It is a blessed lesson for
us
to
learn that we are entirely dependent upon God for all things, but
especially for spiritual things. You will not pray unless he gives
you the
Spirit of supplication. You will have no tenderness of heart unless he
works repentance in you. You will have no more faith unless
faith be
constantly bestowed by God. We are just like these gaslights; a
candle may
depend upon its own resources, but this light cannot. Only cut
the
connection between it and the reservoir of gas, and straightway out
it must
go.
We depend upon God every instant as much as we did at first; and all
our
old experience, all that we have learned, and known, and taught, will
stand us in no stead whatever unless we continue perpetually to
receive
from God. That was the lesson
They also learned that God and God alone would provide.
They might
have to go very short of supplies at times, and they might have a long
thirst, but the Lord would not let one of them die of thirst.
There is no
record that even the tiniest babe in the camp, or even a sheep or
goat in
that mighty throng, perished for lack of water. God did provide. He does
not
promise that there shall always be a dinner ready when the dinner-bell
rings. You have not such an appetite as you would afterwards
have if you
waited another hour; and sometimes the Lord may keep you waiting
for his
supplies that you may enjoy them all the better when they do come.
He
never is before his time, but he never is behind his time,
though he may be
behind your time. God will provide. That day,
that word of their father Abraham when he said to Isaac, as you remember,
My son, God will provide.” Now it began to come home to the
children of
the
tribes, that God would surely provide; and he did provide for them this
great necessary gift of water when they were in the wilderness.
That is
something to learn. Some of you people of God here have learnt that
lesson, for you have been in great straits, and you have been fed
by the
constant provision of God.
The Israelites were also to learn, in the next place, that
God could make
their bitters into sweets, and he could do that in a very simple
way. But he
could do it; and he could bring good out of evil, and satisfy
them by that
which formerly nauseated them. Have you learned that lesson yet?
Some of
you
people of God, when you get bitter waters, want to throw them away.
Do not throw a drop of it away, for that is the water you
have yet to drink.
Accept your afflictions. They are a part of your education.
Accept your
afflictions. When Job could say, “The Lord gave,” it was easy to add, “and
blessed be the name of the Lord;” but he also added, “and the Lord
hath
taken away.” That was the bitter water; but he drank it, and it
was sweet to
his
taste, and he blessed the name of the Lord for the taking as well as for
the
giving. God means to bless some of you by the enemy’s curse. Though
you
do not know it, you are to be lifted up by those who are trying to pull
you
down. I noticed some of the papers writing unkindly of our dear
friend, John McNeill, and saying all manner of hard things of
him; and I
rejoiced in my heart. I hoped that they would go ahead at that
work. I
remember how they did it to me, all the bitterness they could
invent, in
years gone by. Every form and fashion of abuse was heaped upon
me, and
what a wonderful advertisement it was! What a kindness they were doing
me
without intending it! Let them alone; and depend upon it, God will
make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of that wrath he
will restrain.
Next, notice, that God works by his own
means. The Lord showed Moses
a
tree, and when he cast that tree into the waters, they became sweet. I
think, if I had been there, I should have suggested that Moses
should use
that rod of his. Did he not divide the
rod
into the water, and stir it up, and make it sweet? Oh, yes, you know,
we
are always for running to old methods! But God is a Sovereign, and he
will work as he pleases. There was a tree growing there, perhaps the wood
of
it was bitter, certainly it had no efficacy for making bitter water sweet;
but
God bade Moses cast that tree into the waters, and as soon as it was
done, the waters were made sweet. Now, you have just to believe that God
will help you. You do not know how he will do it, and perhaps he will not
help you in the old way. Do not despair because Moses does not bring out
his
rod, for the Lord can relieve you without that. That dear friend who has
helped you so many years is gone. Well, but God has not gone, and
he is
not
dependent upon that one person, nor upon any other. Therefore leave
God as a King to do as he pleases, for his pleasure is the
wisest, and lot his
pleasure be your pleasure.
nobody else. If there were waters beneath their feet, they were
of no value
until God spoke sweetness into them; if Moses himself stood
there, he
could do nothing but pray to the Lord. God himself must come,
and by a
miracle must make the water fit to drink. Brethren, it is always a
gain to us
in
our experience when we get farther and farther away from every
dependence but the Lord. You may have friends forsaking you, and they
who
used to praise you may now be speaking evil of you, and you may
come at last to feel that you have nothing but God to depend upon. Then is
the
time that faith really comes into exercise. I could not help laughing
when I read the story of a good Christian lady, who spoke of our friend,
Mr. Hudson
him!
Poor man, he has nobody but God to depend upon!” You may well
smile. “Nobody but God to depend upon;” but that is everybody to
depend
upon. Oh, if we could only be brought to that experience, Marah’s waters
would indeed be a heavenly tonic to us! The child of God who has
learned
this truth experimentally can say, “My soul is weaned from all the nether
springs, but she drinks from the upper spring that flows from
beneath the
throne of God, and she finds every drop to have a heavenly
sweetness in
it.”
Thus
III. Now
comes the third point,
was
not going to lead a mob of slaves into
slaves there. They had to be tutored. The wilderness was the
taught and trained them, and they took their degree before they
entered
into the promised land. There is no University for a Christian like that of
sorrow and trial.
Now the Israelites were educated by Marah,
first, in self-distrust. How
could they ever trust themselves again when, three days after
singing that
jubilant song, they caught themselves murmuring against Moses? If
they
had
been intelligent, as they were not, they would each one have said to his
fellow, “Behold the boastfulness of our evil hearts.” What a
terrible drop it
is
from “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the
horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea,” to “What shall
we drink?”
That is just how you and I come down when we are left to
ourselves. Thus
Next, they learned, as I have told you before, daily
dependence. They
learned that they must depend upon God even for a drop of water.
That is
the
dependence of a Christian man. He has nothing and he can do nothing
without his God. We have no bread, no water, no anything, except
as God
shall give it to us. A blessed lesson was this for
well at Marah.
Next, they learned the power of prayer. Will you kindly fix
your eyes upon
those two verses, twenty-four and twenty-five? “And the people
murmured
against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord.”
Moses did not answer them; he did not upbraid them; he did
not even begin
to
argue with them; but he cried unto the Lord, and thus the people learned
the
power of prayer. They might have gone on murmuring until now, if
they could have lived so long, and the waters of Marah
would have been as
bitter as ever. But Moses cried unto the Lord; and that prayer
did what all
the
murmuring could not do. Were half the breath we vainly
spend in going
round to our neighbors, asking their sympathy, spent in going
direct to
God in prayer, we should sooner get out of our troubles. “Straightforward
makes the best runner,” and he that runs straight to God in
every time of
adversity shall soon find relief.
Again, at Marah the Israelites
began to learn their separateness from
had
foul diseases, and terrible plagues. Now, the Lord tens his people that
he
will not put upon them any of the diseases of
rivers of
streams. His miracles were for
perceive clearly that they had nothing to do with the Egyptians.
They were
a
separated people. It is a valuable piece of education for a young Christian
to
find out that he does not belong to the world. The tendency is to think
that, though you are in the church, you can be in the world, too, and that
you
belong, in a measure, to both. That will never do. The Lord means to
fetch his people right out of the world, and he will have them
out; and if
any
of you try to be like the mouse behind the wainscot, and only come out
and
feed in the dark, I mean that you come to Christ for a little food when
nobody sees you, and then go and hide away with the world, there
will be a
black cat after you before long. Some trouble or other will
happen to you.
That game will never please God, and never profit you;
therefore drop it, I
pray you, or else some bitter Marah will teach you
that you are not of the
world.
this? God did not say, “Do this, and I will bring you out of
after he brought them out, he said, “Hearken to my commandments,
and
keep my statutes.” Salvation comes first, and then obedience. Saved first,
brought through the
and,
after that, become his obedient people. Obedience follows after
redemption and deliverance. First the blood of sprinkling on the
doorposts;
and
after that, thou shalt give ear unto the voice of the
Lord thy
God, and diligently hearken to him.
what it knows it should do, but it finds out what it ought to do. Oh, you
Christian people, do you make a practice of reading God’s
Word to see
what he would have you do? I am afraid that there are some who make a
point of not seeing some of the duties which are not pleasing to
them.
There are some who half shun portions of Scripture because
they would
trouble their consciences. Let it not be so with any of us; but
let us hearken
diligently to the voice of the Lord our God. If you are saved, the
kind of
obedience that you are bound to render is that of a willing heart,
which
cries like Saul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
Then,
hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which
is right in
his
sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes,
I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have
brought upon the
Egyptians.” For you there shall be no plagues. God may try you, yet it
will
be
not in anger, but in his dear covenant love. Everything shall be changed
for
you. If sickness comes, it shall be overruled for your spiritual health.
When death comes, it shall only introduce you to eternal
life. The Lord will
be
very gracious to you. He that forgives our sins also heals all our
diseases. His name is Jehovah Rophi. What
an education it is for us when
we
feel that the God that healed the waters heals us, and heals everything
that has to do with us; changes the aspect of all things about us, takes the
sting out of the wasp, and turns it into a bee; takes away the
venom from
the
serpent, and gives us its wisdom, that we may be wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves! Oh, the wonderful cure-alls of God, the heavenly
catholicon of the cross, the universal remedy of a dying Savior! May
our
experience educate us in the knowledge of that gracious healing!
The hour has struck, and I must therefore cease, only I
must say that this is
the
one lesson of to-night; dear people of God, trust your God. Trust your
God, not only when your mouth is full of
honey, but when it is full of gall.
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him;” for he in
whom you trust
will bless you.
But if you are not trusting him, then shall plagues, like
those of
come upon you. Darkness and all manner of evils shall waylay you, till, at
last, there shall be heard in your house a bitter cry, for the destroying
angel
will overtake you, and plunge his avenging sword into your guilty hearts.
God save you from that terrible doom, for our Lord Jesus
Christ’s sake!
Amen.