Exodus 15:22-16:10
“…for I am the LORD who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26)
Well, there it is. Isn’t that our hope and prayer right now? In the middle of a global pandemic, isn’t it to “the Lord who heals you” that we are most desirous to turn to?
Yet I’m struck by a few things. First, this healing is a contingent healing – “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.” That’s a heavy load to bear! Of course, we wouldn’t be wrong to view this sort of language through the free grace won for us by Jesus Christ on His Cross. To be sure, we are still to listen, do what is right, give heed, and so on, but our well-being is found not in our obedience to God, but is found in Jesus’ obedience. And thanks be to God for that!
Second, and maybe more importantly, the context of this healing is specific to the wandering Israelites’ need for water. For three days, after they escaped Egypt, they went thirsty. Initially God sates their thirst at Marah (a word that means “bitter” in Hebrew because the water there was bitter) by having Moses chuck a block of wood into the water. Later, after this offer for contingent healing is made, we read: “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they camped there by the water.”
So, book-ending this command is transformed bitter water and abundant, delicious water. Elim is so fertile with the H2O that even palm trees can live there. Palm trees require moist soil and need watered 2-3 times each week (and even more frequently when they’re saplings). And Elim has 70 of them! SEVENTY!
I think we’d all rather have our home in Elim than Marah. However, let us be clear that God provides in both places. The Israelites did have their thirst quenched in Marah. They were able to bathe and wash clothes and boil a little something to make a meal. God did still provide.
I suspect we’re meant to remember that “I am the Lord who heals you” can take multiple shapes. That healing might look as lush and wondrous as Elim or as austere as Marah, but it is healing all the same.
Societally, we are in a Marah period. Surely this continued “Stay at Home” order is bitter. Yet let us not neglect that our hearts’ prayer for God’s healing is being found even in the bitter places. Amen.
