Numbers 33:9 (ESV)
And they set out from Marah and came to Elim; at Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.
They set out from Marah. We remember Marah, a place named when they came out three days journey from after crossing the Red Sea. The water was bitter there, but it became sweet after Moses threw a log into the water:
Exodus 15:25-26 (ESV)
And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, [26] saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which 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 that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer."
God Himself is that log that is thrown into our bitter lives to heal us, as it is written in the last verse "I am the LORD, your healer". It makes one wonder why the water was so bitter in the first place. It could be that perhaps an animal went inside and died in it, and the corruption from it polluted the whole water. Likewise we see what happens when a man is filled with the corruption of sin. Sin pollutes the whole being of man. Though it may have been only one dead animal in the pool, it ruined the entire water. It is likewise with sinful human beings. One sin is enough to corrupt man's whole being, and God cannot drink from such water. But when the Gospel of Jesus Christ enters into the heart of man, and the man believes, sin is destroyed as sin becomes condemned through the body of Jesus Christ. Sin is forgiven, and Jesus Christ's righteousness and life flows through faith into the person. God's love comes upon the man by believing, and it fills the every corner of the man, conquering sin. Christ blood flows to every inch of the soul, covering the sins committed and presenting the sinner as perfect before God's eyes. God is able to drink from the water. Not only this, God the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in the man, and purifying every part of the person through faith in the Gospel and the Word of God. Therefore it is written:
Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
It is God Himself that purifies our heart and heals it from sin and its damages. Sin is a disease, which is why God says to Israel at Marah "I will put none of the disease on you". God heals us from sin, by making us to not sin by His Spirit and the power of faith in the Gospel. He is our physician, who has both a scalpel and a balm in His hand for our sins. Marah was a diseased water, but the piece of tree healed the disease. This tree is the cross of Jesus Christ. On the tree Jesus Christ was diseased with the effects of sin and He died under the curse of it. Though He never sinned, He took the consequence for our sins, which is death. He took all our diseases and our trespasses and all our death, that we may live forever with Him.
It is not as though the log had any power in of itself. But the log worked because God's power was in the log. Likewise the cross itself has no power. It was just a tool on which vile criminals were hung. A mere man dying on the cross would not mean anything. Buddha or Mohammed crucified would save nobody. But the cross was special because of who it was that was hung there. It was the Son of God who became a man who hung on that tree. It was the spotless Lamb of God without blemish. It was a man who had never sinned in His whole life, a man who only had pure thoughts, pure speech and pure deeds, indeed a person who had never sinned for all of eternity. It was God manifested in the flesh. It was a man who was always filled with the Spirit of God. It was such man who was hung on the cross as though He was a vile sinner. Why? That those who believe may not need to die like that. On the day of judgment God will condemn all men like they condemned Jesus on that Passover, unless they repent and put their trust in Christ. It is only Jesus crucified that can save our bitter, corrupted, diseased hearts. Let us not talk of the cross without talking of the beloved Son of God who was hung there. Try throwing an empty cross at someone - it won't do anything. It is only Christ crucified that heals a soul from sin.
At Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palms. God takes Israel from Marah to Elim to show them that this is how God will change them - from corrupted, dead, still water into a flowing spring of water that wells up to eternal life:
John 4:13-14 (ESV)
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, [14] but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Likewise God does not leave us to be a small pool of water that has been barely sweetened by grace, but he makes us to be wells that flows with life from the inside. We are not left on our resources to fight off the residues of sin that remains within us. God gives us the Holy Spirit, a living Person, that we may not only be healed, but that we may be full of eternal life. We will never thirst, because we have a Spring who lives in us. We can always go to the Holy Spirit for life. This Spirit is the one who raised Christ from the dead, and He is the one who will raise us up. He makes this well to continually flow, forever, and there shall be endless satisfaction and joy forever with God in heaven. In hell there is not even one drop of water given to the sinner, which means there will not be even one drop of relief, not even one drop of pleasure, not even a drop of happiness, forever. This eternal thirst is the punishment of those who have sinned against God. Those in hell shall not have even one drop of God to relieve them from the endless suffering. It is a horrible consequence of rejecting the water of life that Christ was freely offered to them.
For the believer, this Spring in us also makes us to give life to others around. Not only we relieve our own thirsts forever, we have plenty of water that flows from us to spare to others who are in thirst. By our preaching of the Gospel and by our acts of love, we can relieve the thirst that sinners are longing for. This poor sinful Samaritan woman of John chapter 4 was longing for Love, having married 5 times, and was in a sixth relationship. She was thirsty for love, but no man could give true love to her. So she was, as it were, coming again and again to the well to draw water. But it only made her more and more thirsty. Then she met Jesus Christ. She found Love who was clothed with flesh. She believed, and she thirsted no longer for love. She instead began to advertise the Love she found, that others may have the Love that she found. Isn't this woman a picture of Marah that became the springs of Elim? She was lost in sin because she was looking for love, because she did not realize that GOD is love. She did not realize that it's not love she needed, but God Himself. But Christ came to her, because He loved her, and revealed Himself to her, that she may no longer thirst of love, but go to Christ for love forever.
Let us be children of love to those who are dying with thirst for love. They have lived their whole lives in a world of lovelessness, so they have no idea what love is. As much as they know not God, they know not Agape love of God. As much as no man has seen God, no man has ever seen love. But God sent His own Son down to the earth that mankind may see what love is. God sent His Son, and His Son chose to die, and the Holy Spirit chose to dwell among sinners who would believe in Christ. Let us demonstrate and give this kind of love to each other and to our neighbors, that they may see God. God is revealed among us when we love in truth. Let us pour out ourselves to God and to others, that they may see who God is, and let us preach the Gospel faithfully that they may hear what He did out of His love for sinful man.
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