After the people of Israel had such a great exodus from Egypt, experienced Jehovah’s mighty hand to deliver them from Pharaoh and his usurpation, crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, and saw Pharaoh’s armies being swallowed by the waters of the sea, they were ecstatic, singing the song of Moses.
Then, they moved onward from the Red Sea and went into the wilderness, where they travelled for three days and didn’t find any water. The fact that they walked through the wilderness for three days means that they passed through the death waters and entered into resurrection; the wilderness here has the positive aspect of separation in resurrection.
When they came to Marah, they could not drink from the waters there because they were bitter (Marah means bitter). So the people of Israel murmured against Moses and asked for water to drink, and Moses cried out to Jehovah. After journeying for three days, being completely delivered from Egypt and separated unto God through baptism, the people of Israel were thirsty and the waters they found were bitter.
In the realm of resurrection, there is no natural water, no natural supply – so we need to cry to the Lord to give us to drink. Moses is such a pattern to us: instead of murmuring and complaining when we are thirsty and encounter a bitter situation, we need to cry out to the Lord! When we find bitterness in our being and when we find ourselves in bitter situations, we need to cry out to the Lord, and He will show us the crucified and resurrected Christ who heals our bitter being and bitter situations.
When Moses cried to Jehovah, He showed him a tree; Moses cast the tree into the water, and the waters became sweet. Praise the Lord, the crucified and resurrected Christ can be applied to our bitter being and our being will become sweet!
It is very meaningful to see that the first experience the people of Israel had in the wilderness was related to being thirsty and having the bitter waters turned sweet, and this was after a three days journey through the wilderness.
Being Separated from the World Through Baptism and Living in Resurrection
Then Moses moved Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore its name was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree; and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them. And He said, If you will listen carefully to the voice of Jehovah your God and do what is right in His eyes and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah who heals you. (Exo. 15:22-26)
The children of Israel journeyed through the wilderness for three days and found no water; it is very significant that they didn’t journey for two days, four days, or a whole week – but three days.
Being three days in the wilderness means that they were buried for three days – they were in death, and on the third day they were brought into resurrection. The Lord Jesus was raised on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), and as we are baptized, we enter into Christ’s death and are resurrected with Him.
In the Bible the wilderness has a negative significance as the place of wandering (Num. 14:33) and a positive significance as a place of separation from the world. This three-day journey corresponds to baptism, which brings us out of the world through Christ’s death and into a realm of separation in Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5).
We were baptized with Christ in His death; we were buried with Him in the waters of baptism, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God so we might walk in newness of life! The Red Sea was created by God as a great baptistery for the people of Israel, and they all were “buried” in it and came out on the other side in resurrection to serve God.
When Moses first came to Pharaoh he asked him to let the people of Israel to go for a three days journey in the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord their God and hold a feast unto Him. This journey of three days signifies resurrection.
The Lord wants to deliver His people from the world through His redemption, their exodus, and baptism, so that they may serve Him in resurrection. Baptism brings us out of the world and into resurrection; after we are baptized we have the feeling that we are now in a new realm, the realm of resurrection, and here we walk in newness of life and serve in newness of spirit.
In the wilderness the children of Israel didn’t walk anymore as they used to walk in Egypt; they had a new walk under the leading of the pillar of cloud and of fire. After being baptized we are separated from the world to be in the realm of resurrection so that we may serve God in newness of life and follow His guidance in our spirit day by day.
Lord Jesus, thank You for bringing us into the realm of resurrection through our baptism. Hallelujah, we have been separated from the world through baptism, and Satan cannot usurp us for his purpose anymore! We are now in resurrection, learning to live in the newness of life and serve in newness of spirit. Lord, keep us the realm of resurrection, exercising our spirit to follow Your instant leading through Your living word and Your Spirit with our spirit!
There’s No Natural Supply in Resurrection – here we have only the Crucified and Resurrected Christ!
After the three days journey in the wilderness, a realm of resurrection, the people of Israel didn’t find water and became thirsty; the water they found at Marah was bitter. After being baptized and entering into the realm of resurrection, we will thirst again – but there will be no natural water or natural supply available for us.
In resurrection there’s nothing natural for us to enjoy and feed on anymore; rather, as we go on with the Lord, we will encounter bitterness in our situations and we will realize there’s bitterness in our being. When we are in a bitter situation or realize the bitterness in our being, we need to cry out to the Lord, and He will show us “a tree” – the crucified and resurrected Christ, who will heal our bitterness and make it sweet.
In resurrection Christ is everything to us, and He can make any bitterness into something sweet. If we cry out to the Lord and open to Him concerning the bitterness in our environment and the bitterness in our being, God will show us the crucified and resurrected Christ who can be applied to our situations and to our being to make them sweet.
From Rev. 2:7 and 1 Pet. 2:24 we see that we are healed by the crucified and resurrected Christ who is the tree of life. The cross of Christ is not a thing but a person, the crucified Christ. The healing cross is the healing crucified Christ. When we apply the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life to our bitter waters, our being and our environment become sweet with the Lord’s precious presence.
After we are baptized we enter into the realm of resurrection and here we have no more natural supply; the only water we find is bitter, and we need to apply the crucified and resurrected Christ to our bitter situation and being to be change it into the sweetness of the Lord’s presence.
In the realm of resurrection we only have Christ, the crucified and resurrected One, as everything to us.
Lord Jesus, we cry out to You concerning the situations we’re in and even more concerning our being: we need You! Lord, we need to drink living water, but all we find around us and even in us is bitter waters! Show us “the tree”, the crucified and resurrected Christ who can be applied to our situation and our being to make it sweet! Lord, come in as the crucified and resurrected One to heal our situation and our being!
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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 2, “The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures,” ch. 4, 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:
# Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too; / What is there left for me to do? / Simply to cease from struggling and strife, / Simply to walk in newness of life. / Glory be to God! (Hymns #483)
# In death’s waters I am buried, / For with Christ my Savior, I have died; / Now the world cannot pursue me, / For its power here is nullified. / I with Christ have risen too, / Out of death with Him I walk and live; / Now the Spirit life supplies / And His strength exhaustless unto me doth give. (Hymns #936)
# There is a healing branch that grows / Where every bitter Marah flows; / This is our health-renewing tree. / “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” (Hymns #753)
[In Exodus 15:22] the children of Israel “went three days in the wilderness.” Since three is the number of resurrection, this signifies that they walked in resurrection, that is, in newness of life. It is significant that the journey from the Red Sea to Marah was exactly three days, not two days, four days, or even three and a half days. According to a note in the text of the Amplified Version, the distance from the Red Sea to Marah was thirty-three miles. Surely the children of Israel could have walked this distance in less than three days. We must believe that the pace of their travel was under God’s sovereign leading and control. The fact that they traveled for three days is a portrait of walking in resurrection. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they certainly walked in a way that was different from the way they walked in Goshen. In Goshen they did not have the pillar of cloud, but in the wilderness they walked according to the guidance of this pillar. They were led by the Lord’s presence to walk in a new way. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 347-348)
Amen! “they were ecstatic, singing the song of Moses.” O Lord Jesus! Drinking at the fountain that never runs dry, drinking at the fountain of life and how, finding joy and pleasure in abundant measure, I am drinking at the fountain of life. Hallelujah! Amen.
“Praise the Lord, the crucified and resurrected Christ can be applied can be applied to our bitter being and our being will become sweet.” Lord Jesus, I love You! Lord Jesus, be cast into our bitter situation that we may enjoy You as the sweetest water, that satisfies our thirst. O Lord Jesus, drinking at the springs of living waters, happy now am I, my heart is satisfied! O Lord Jesus! “for I am Jehovah who heals you.” “so that we might walk in newness of life!” “and serve in newness of spirit.” Amen.
Amen. “In resurrection Christ is everything to us.” Lord Jesus, thank You for Your mercy and for Your grace to us, in the opening of our eyes to see the crucified and resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, mingled and dwelling within our spirit. Lord Jesus, we cry out to You, this world is not our home and we have no where to go but to You O Lord, to enjoy You as the joy and rejoicing of the God of our full salvation. Thank You Lord for being the tree of life applied to our bitter situation and being. Thank You Lord that we can now drink of You as the water of life, for the water You give has become sweet us our taste and satisfies our thirst. Thank You Lord Jesus, the living water of life to us. Keep us drinking in of You more and more each day, until we see You at Your coming. O Lord Jesus, we love You Lord. Amen.
Amen! O Lord Jesus, we cry out to You. O Lord Jesus! Give us to drink of You as the water of life. Lord Jesus! We are thirsty for You, satisfy our thirst.
O Lord Jesus! Thank You, for You have satisfied our thirst, and our being is made sweet with Your all-inclusive death and resurrection life. Keep us calling upon Your name Lord Jesus, for only You can turn the water into wine! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Amen.