I apparently needed a break from Exodus, which I didn't expect (did Psalm 9-12). But I'm learning to not fight it, and just go with it. [And I'm hoping this is the Spirit leading me, somehow]. This week, I felt like I was maybe ready to try Exodus again.
Let's start by rereading Exodus 15:1-21. God has drown the Egyptians, and rescued his people. And Moses and Israel respond by singing a song to Yahweh, celebrating what He did for them:
(1) At that time Moses was singing this song, with the sons of Israel, to Yahweh,
and they spoke, saying,
"I shall sing to Yahweh,
because He has surely been exalted/lifted up;
Horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.
My strength and my song, Yah is,
and He has become for me, salvation.
This [one] [is] my El/God,
and I will praise him-- the God/Elohim of my father--,
and I will exalt him.
(3) Yahweh [is] is a Man of War;
Yahweh [is] his name.
(4) The chariots of Pharaoh, with his strength, He has thrown into the sea,
while the elite of his officers were drown in the Sea of Reeds.
(5) The floods were covering them;
they have descended into the depths like a stone.
(6) Your right hand, O Yahweh, is glorious in power;
your right hand, O Yahweh, will shatter/crush the enemy,
(7) while in the greatness of your majesty you overthrow the ones rising against you.
You send out your wrath;
It consumes them like stubble (cf. Exodus 5:12),
(8) while by the breath/wind of your anger/nostrils the waters were piled up;
they stood upright like a heap-- the waves.
They congealed-- the floods-- in the heart of the sea.
(9) He has said-- the enemy:
"I will pursue;
I will overtake;
I will divide the loot;"
My desire/neck shall be filled of them;
I will draw my sword;
My hand will take possession of them."
(10) You blew with your breath;
It covered them-- the sea.
They sank like lead in the mighty sea.
(11) Who is like you among the el/gods, O Yahweh?
Who is like you?
Majestic in holiness/consecration;
Awesome in praiseworthy/powerful deeds;
The One Doing wonders.
(12) You stretched out your right hand;
It swallowed them-- the earth.
(13) You led in your loyalty the people who you have redeemed.
You have guided by your strength to your holy/consecrated abode/dwelling place.
(14) They have heard-- the peoples;
They tremble.
Pain has seized the dwellers of Philistia.
(15) Then, they were horrified-- the leaders of Edom.
The rulers of Moab-- great distress is seizing them.
They melted away-- all the dwellers of Canaan.
(16) It falls upon them-- terror and dread.
By the greatness of your arm, they were silenced like a stone,
until your people passed over, O Yahweh--
until they passed over-- the people who you have acquired.
You will bring them,
and you will plant them on the mountain of your inheritance.
A place for your dwelling, you have made, O Yahweh.
A sanctuary/consecrated/holy place, Lord, your hands have established.
(18) Yahweh will reign forever and ever,
(19) because they came-- the horses of Pharaoh, with his chariots, and with his charioteers, into the sea,
and Yahweh brought back upon them the waters of the sea,
while the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea,"
(20) and Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the tambourine in her hand,
and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances,
(21) and Miriam answered them:
"Sing to Yahweh,
because He is surely highly exalted;
A horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea,"
Here, we start reading new stuff:
(22) And Moses led Israel from the Sea of Reeds,
and they went out to the wilderness of Shur,
and they walked three days in the wilderness,
and they didn't find water,
(23) and they came to Marah/Bitter,
and they weren't able to drink water from Marah/Bitter
because bitter, it was.
For this reason its name is called "Bitter,"
Imagine walking through the desert for three days, without finding any water. Three days is a long time. Especially for the elderly, or little kids, or livestock. But for anyone, three days is about as long as you can go apart from water, without dying. So even if we imagine that the people have some type of jars to hold water (Genesis 24:16), it's really serious. People and animals are going to stop dropping like flies.
And then, you finally see the water, and you have this great sense of relief. But the water is "bitter." You can't drink it. Probably, it makes you sick.
If you're an Israelite, what would you do?
We maybe know the story, and we read this with a sense of moral and spiritual superiority. Obviously, when life is tough, we always pray to God. We don't ever lose faith in God's goodness or power. We don't ever wonder if some hardship will be our end. We don't ever wonder if following Jesus is a big mistake. We know all things work out for our good.
But the Israelites, are not where we are.
And so what they do, instead, is verse 24:
(24) and the people murmured/grumbled concerning Moses, saying,
"What shall we drink?,"
Now, this verb for "murmur" is kind of an ugly verb. "Murmuring" is what you do about people just below ear shot. It's something you do, when you're speaking poorly about leadership, and thinking about making a change. But it's also something you do a little quietly, behind their back.
What we are seeing here, is the second real crisis for Israel as a nation. The people are in danger of dying from thirst. And there are rumblings about Moses' leadership. Maybe because it seems safer to criticize him than God (h/t John Goldingay, Bible for Everyone: Exodus, I think).
Moses hears the murmuring, probably, and he knows the people need water. But he responds differently than the people. Verse 25:
(25) and he cried out to Yahweh,
and Yahweh taught/showed him a tree/branch,
and he threw it to the waters,
and the waters sweetened.
When you are in hardship, this is what you do: you cry out to God. You get his attention, you call on him to notice you, and you ask for help.
Murmuring doesn't solve problems. Prayer does. God does.
Now, the way God helps here, is super interesting. God "teaches" him, about a tree.
Some commentators talk about how certain trees naturally sweeten water, to make it drinkable. One, though (Duane Garrett), suggests that God showed Moses a piece of charred wood. The carbon in charred wood can filter out impurities in the water, and/or make it less alkaline, and make it safe to drink. Either way, what God does here, is teach Moses about water filtration, basically. And every carbon-based filter we use today, can maybe be traced back to this moment in human history.
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Duane A. Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus: Commentary, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2014), 413–414:
"It turns out that wood charcoal, especially charcoal from the Acacia trees that are common in that part of Arabia, are useful for desalinating water. Thus, it may be that God instructed Moses to place charred Acacia wood8 in the water and thereby make it fit for drinking. Against this interpretation, the text does not specify that the wood should be charred. It may be, however, that the text simply means to emphasize that deliverance came by a word from God and therefore does not go into specifics about how the actual purification came about. Either interpretation is possible, but the use of “instructed” favors the second view."
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What makes this interesting, is that it reveals something about how God created the world. Let's turn to Proverbs 25:2:
"It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings to search it out."
Part of how God demonstrates his glory, is by deliberately building secrets into the created world. Sometimes, those secrets are literally treasures-- oil, gold, silver, rare metals. Other times, they are different types of treasures. Carbon is an amazing, unsurpassed filter. Or take willow bark. Ancient Egyptians knew that willow bark relieves people from pain. Scientists, seeing that people would chew on the bark (or ingest it some other way?), eventually studied why people do this, and why it works. The glory of scientists, is to search out the answer. And the end result was aspirin.
In Ancient Egypt, part of how doctors treated infected wounds, was by applying a poultice made with moldy bread to it. Mold has powerful antibacterial properties. And scientists eventually learned how to extract penicillin from mold, and revolutionized health care.
God has created a world, with secrets. It gave God glory, to do so. And it is our glory, to seek them out. But here, when the people are in a pinch, God simply reveals the secret to Moses.
So the crisis is averted. But through the crisis, God demonstrates two things to his people:
(1) That He is faithful. He will not let his people die from thirst, if they call on him.
(2) That his teaching, gives life.
Let's reread verse 25:
(25) and he cried out to Yahweh,
and Yahweh taught/showed him a tree/branch,
and he threw it to the waters,
and the waters sweetened.
The verb Yahweh does for Moses, is "teach." It's not the normal word for "show" (which I think would be the hiphil of raah; cf. Psalm 85:7 EB). God's teaching gives life. His instructions, if followed, give life.
And now that God has demonstrated these two things, He's able to do something else. Last half of 25:
There He made for them a rule and a judgment,
and there he tested them,
(26) and He said,
"If you actually/truly heed the voice of Yahweh your God/Elohim,
while what is upright in his eyes, you do,
and you respond appropriately (DBL #3) to his commandments,
and you keep all of his rules, all the sickness that I placed on the Egyptians, I will not place upon you,
but rather/instead, I [am/will be] Yahweh-- The One Healing you,"
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When "ki" follows a negative statement, it usually expresses a counter-statement. BHRG 40.21.3. For that being the use here, h/t William Propp. "But/Rather," not "because."
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Yahweh has proven that He is faithful, and that his instructions give life. And here, He builds off that, by testing his people. And he tests them, by offering a promise. We maybe don't think of tests as working this way normally, but this one does. If the people fully, completely, obey God, God will not place any sickness on them. Rather, instead, He says, "I will be Yahweh-- the One Healing you."
Throughout the book of Exodus, Yahweh has revealed himself to the Egyptians, and to his people. That's what the name Yahweh means: "He will be, what He will be." We've seen that Yahweh "will be" a Warrior. That "He will be" with his people. That "He will be," whatever He wants to be, in the heart of Egypt. That "He will be" the one who drops horse and rider into the sea. All of these are core to who God is.
But Yahweh is more than this. Yahweh is also, "The One Healing you." Or, at least, He can be this, if you obey. So here we add to our knowledge, of who Yahweh will be for his people.
Why does God test Israel by doing this?
At this point in the book, Yahweh knows quite a bit about his people Israel. He knows Israel has committed to him as their God. They revere him, and they trust him (Exodus 14:31). They worship him as God (Exodus 15:1-21). But all of this, is not enough. If Israel is going to have an ongoing relationship with God, it has to be marked by obedience. Faith and (practical) obedience cannot be separated (James 2:18). And so God wants to know, will the people obey? And the only way to know the answer to a question like that, is through testing (Genesis 22:12). The test is for God's benefit, not for theirs.
In all of this, God is being entirely up front with them. There are no secrets here, or mysteries. There are no hidden or unfair expectations. God wants perfect, total obedience. And if you give this, He offers an incredible promise-- perfect health.
This brings us to verse 27:
(27) and they came to Elim,
and there [there are] twelve springs of water and 70 palm trees,
and they camped there upon the waters.
I think in verse 27, God is giving his people a picture of what life could look like with him-- if they're obedient. God is a Shepherd who will lead you to restful waters. And this particular oasis reminds us of God's faithfulness in two ways. First, there are twelve springs of water, one for each tribe. And, second, the 70 palm trees, is a little reminder of how much the people have multiplied. 70 descendants from Jacob went down to Egypt (Exodus 1:4), and now they are a nation.
So that's our passage for today. [Super short]. What should we learn from it? I think we can run in four directions.
(1) How to handle a crisis
God makes no promises, OT or NT, that life won't be difficult at times. But if you're dying from thirst, or something else, don't assume that this is God's will for you. Don't grumble about the crisis. Just go to God, and plead/protest with Him.
(2) Science, technology, and medicine.
Some of you are scientists, and engineers. You work using the very best of what math and chemistry and biology have discovered. I would just encourage you to view your work, as a seeking out of God's secrets. It was to God's glory, to hide secrets out of plain sight. And it's your glory, to seek those secrets out. Your jobs are like a game you play with God. It's like God is playing hide and seek with you. Or like you're putting together a puzzle that God deliberately scrambled. Enjoy the game. And when you make discoveries, give glory to God.
(3) Healing.
A) The relationship between God, sickness, and health:
In OT academic study, it's usually assumed/argued that God is the one who controls people's health (for this framing, h/t William Propp, Exodus). There's no talk, as far as I know, about demons being the source of sickness. If you are healthy, it's because God makes you healthy. If you are sick, it's because God makes you sick. All of this is up to God.
And this is seemingly in sharp contrast to the NT. The NT assumes, for the most part, that most sickness is demonic (Matthew 10:1; Acts 10:38-39). Everyone Jesus healed, and the early church healed, was someone afflicted by the demonic.
Does that mean there's a tension between the OT and NT?
I've been trying to decide for a week if there's a way to shove the NT into the OT's understanding. Is there space in the OT for the idea that not all sickness is from God? I'm hopelessly biased here, admittedly.
Let's reread Exodus 15:26:
(26) and He said,
"If you actually/truly heed the voice of Yahweh your God/Elohim,
while what is upright in his eyes, you do,
and you respond appropriately (DBL #3) to his commandments,
and you keep all of his rules, all the sickness that I placed on the Egyptians, I will not place upon you,
but rather/instead, I [am] Yahweh-- The One Healing you,"
God doesn't actually say here that all sickness is from him. Some is, for sure. The Egyptians could tell you about the sickness God put on them (also Exodus 4:6). But what God promises, is that if the people obey, He won't make people sick. And, He will instead be their Healer.
Now, let's cheat ahead to Exodus 23:23-26 (NRSV):
23 When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You shall worship the LORD your God, and I[b] will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you. 26 No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
God doesn't make it sound here like He sends all sickness. He says he will "take sickness away" from them IF they are faithful. But if they are idolaters, and worship other gods, God won't take the sickness away from them.
So I think, looking at it, that there is a gap. God sends some sickness, but not necessarily all. However, all healing is from God.
B) The relationship between health, and obedience:
God makes an incredible promise to his people here. If they completely commit to God, He will be their Healer.
God doesn't promise that his people won't get sick. But He promises, He will heal them when they get sick (so also Psalm 103:3), if they actually obey.
Now, this raises a really obvious question. Is this a promise we can claim for ourselves? Can we go to God in prayer, and say, "I'm living entirely for you, and I'm sick. Please look at me, please hear me, please keep your promise, and heal me."
My guess is that our natural response to verse 26, is to say that we can't. Maybe, we think that our covenant is inferior, and that God blesses us less than He blessed the Israelites. Or maybe we get stuck on the "if." We look at our own lives, and we see sin all over. We know we are living as a slave to sin in certain areas of our life. We "follow the practices" of the nations (Exodus 23:24). We wonder if certain things in our life are idols, and we go around feeling dirty. We would never say, "I'm completely committed to obeying God. I live entirely for him." We know that's a lie.
And if you can't say that, or you don't live that way, you know that promise can't be for you. Which is true.
The power for the Christian life comes through obedience. Obedience is what gives you confidence with God.
Let's turn to John 9:30-33 (NRSV):
30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
Who does God listen to? The one who (1) worships him, and (2) does his will.
And who does God heal? You could answer that the same way: (1) the one who worships him (Exodus 23:25), and the one who does his will (Exodus 15:26). Nothing's changed [as far as how it works within the covenant community].
If you're walking in step with the Spirit, obeying God (Galatians 5:16), I think you should feel free to claim Exodus 15:26 as a promise. If you get sick, turn to God, claim the promise, and He will heal you. That's who He is. Yahweh is the One Healing you-- and God is the same today, as He was in the OT.
Now, what about those of you who know you're living a compromised life? You're tolerating things, you know you shouldn't. Watching things, doing things, saying things, that you shouldn't.
I think you should read Exodus 15:22-27 as God's test to you. If you clean up your life, and fully, actually, commit to God, as your God, then God will respond, by increasing his commitment to you. He will always heal you, anytime you get sick. All you'll have to do, maybe (?), is ask. I think God's good for it. I think God will honor that. And you should decide, today, if God's promise is enough to make you rethink your life. What would you give up, for the promise of health? Sin? Worldliness? I think anytime you can exchange bad things, for good things, that's a good trade. But it is a test. You have to decide if God is good for this.
Now, what if you've been caught in sin, and you're sick? Exodus 15:26 is not a promise you can use. You can't turn to these verses, and claim Yahweh as your Healer, if you haven't been living with Yahweh as your God. You have to respect the "if."
So if you find yourself sick, and you know you've been living in sin, what should you do? Your best bet is to use James 5:14-16:
14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
Your elders are marked by great faith, and righteousness. They live rightly toward God. They know that God says "yes" when they pray. If you're sick, and you're compromised, you should go to them for help. Confess your sins to them. Be honest about how you're living. Ask them to lay hands on you. Maybe, bring your own little bottle of olive oil, in case they forgot theirs. Have them pray for you, anointing you with oil. And James makes a promise to you, that their prayer of faith will raise you up, and you will be healed, and forgiven. This healing, will be both physical, and spiritual. And hopefully from that point on, you will "actually obey."
[And if none of this is actually true for the elders in your church, it's probably true for some nearby church. My own kids have received healing from Winner's Chapel in Brooklyn Park, MN, and from Burning Hearts, in Fargo. Big, miraculous healings. There are pockets within the Church, where faith can still be found (Luke 18:8). You just have to search for it.]
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The other option, besides James 5, would be something like 1 Kings 8:37-40:
37 “If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any[b] of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; 38 whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing the afflictions of their own hearts so that they stretch out their hands toward this house; 39 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know—according to all their ways, for only you know what is in every human heart— 40 so that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.
Turn to God. Seek forgiveness. Repent. And ask him to heal you. And then, if/when He does, learn from that to revere him (1 Kings 8:37-40). Choose the better path, from that day forward.
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Translation:
(22) And Moses led Israel from the Sea of Reeds,
and they went out to the wilderness of Shur,
and they walked three days in the wilderness,
and they didn't find water,
(23) and they came to Marah/Bitter,
and they weren't able to drink water from Marah/Bitter
because bitter, it was.
For this reason its name is called "Bitter,"
(24) and the people murmured/grumbled concerning Moses, saying,
"What shall we drink?,"
(25) and he cried out to Yahweh,
and Yahweh showed him a tree/branch,
and he threw it to the waters,
and the waters sweetened.
There He made for them a rule and a judgment,
and there he tested him/them,
(26) and He said,
"If you actually heed the voice of Yahweh your God/Elohim,
while what is upright in his eyes, you do,
and you respond appropriately (DBL #3) to his commandments,
and you keep all of his rules, all the sickness that I placed on the Egyptians, I will not place upon you,
because I [am] Yahweh-- The One Healing you,"
(27) and they came to Elim,
and there [there are] twelve springs of water and 70 palm trees,
and they camped there upon the waters.
