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‘The waters were made sweet.’
Exo_15:25
I. Israel was in those days fresh, from their glorious deliverance out of Egypt, they had sung their first national song of victory; they had breathed the air of liberty. This was their first disappointment, and it was a very sharp one; from the height of exultation they fell almost at once to the depths of despair. Such disappointments we have all experienced, especially in the outset of our actual march, after the first conscious sense of spiritual triumph and freedom.
II. Of us also it is true that God hath showed us a certain tree, and that tree is the once accursed tree on which Christ died. This is the tree of life to us, although of death to Him.
III. It was God who showed this tree unto Moses.—And it was God who showed it to us in the Gospel. Applied by our faith to the bitter waters of disappointment and distress, it will surely heal them and make them sweet. Two things there are about the tree of scorn which will never lose their healing power—the lesson of the Cross and the consolation of the Cross; the example and the companionship of Christ crucified.
IV. The life which found its fitting close upon the Cross was not a life of suffering only, but emphatically a life of disappointment.—Here there is comfort for us. Our dying Lord must certainly have reflected that He, the Son of God, was leaving the world rather worse than He found it in all human appearance.
V. Whatever our trials and disappointments, let us use this remedy; it will not fail us, even at the worst.
Rev. R. Winterbotham.
Illustration(1) ‘Elim, Elim! Through the sand and heat
I toil with heart uplifted, I toil with bleeding feet;
For Elim, Elim! at the last, I know
That I shall see the palm-trees, and hear the waters flow.
Elim, Elim! Grows not here a tree,
And all the springs are Marah, and bitter thirst to me;
But Elim, Elim! in thy shady glen
Are twelve sweet wells of water, and palms threescore and ten.
Elim, Elim! though the way be long,
Unmurmuring I shall journey, and lift my heart in song;
And Elim, Elim! all my song shall tell
Of rest beneath the palm-tree, and joy beside the well.
(2) ‘What a motley company it was! A good many did not love and trust God for themselves; they were good because they were with good people; but such goodness is sure to break down when the first trouble comes. There is a striking sentence in one of the Psalms, “Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him.” That we must do, each one for himself.
Is it right to grumble when something seems to go wrong? These Israelites should have united to pray. That would have been a thousand times wiser than “murmuring.” Some are always grumbling and finding fault. Take care not to begin the bad habit in early life; and remember, there is never any real reason for murmuring against God.’