And they removed from before Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and encamped in Marah.
One line of a travel list holds one of the biggest moments in Israel's history. The people walk through the sea, march three days into dry desert, and stop at a place whose name means bitterness. So why does God dictate a list of campsites at all? And why is the first water after deliverance undrinkable?
The chapter is a long list of place names. One writer sees the care behind that record.
You cannot read this list without feeling the tender love and care of God that shows all through it. Think of Him stooping to keep such a record of the journeys of His poor people, from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan... He went before them, every step of the way. He travelled over every stage of the wilderness. In all their afflictions He was afflicted... And here He retraces the whole way His hand had led them. He makes careful note of each stage of that wonderful journey, and of every spot in the desert where they had halted.
Another writer reads the same list as a pattern of something still ahead.
At the judgment seat of Christ there will be a review of all our history here on earth. In the same way, we find here a review of Israel's journey from the time they left Egypt. Moses wrote the record of these things at the command of the Lord (v.2).
The sea crossing is more than an escape route. It decides what kind of life follows.
The Red Sea and the Jordan come together, but they are not the same. If they were only redemption, merely redemption, then I should be a person down here and in the world still. But the actual, practical effect of crossing the Red Sea is to get into the wilderness — a trackless desert. If I cannot have a way in this world, I can have a way through it.
Moses had named this distance to Pharaoh before Israel left Egypt. Here they cover it, and one writer ties it to resurrection.
"We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us." (Ex. 8:26-27) Here is true separation from Egypt — "three days' journey." Nothing less than this could satisfy faith. The Israel of God must be separated from the land of death and darkness, in the power of resurrection. The waters of the Red Sea must roll between God's redeemed and Egypt, before they can rightly sacrifice to the Lord.
The name of this wilderness raises a question about the map.
Notice that the book of Numbers puts Etham on both sides of the Red Sea. Some take the word to mean 'boundary of the sea'. The scholar Fürst doubts that meaning, but he offers no other. If it is right, the name could fit either side. The desert of Etham may have swept round the end of the Gulf of Suez, as in some maps.
The road is counted in days without a drink. Then they cannot drink the first water they find.
"And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water." Egypt had always found them water, and in its river, water of famous sweetness. But the supplies they brought from that land were running low. After their three days of toil they reached Marah, or Bitterness, with its salty, undrinkable pools... God is not only recording an incident on their way from chains to rest. He is also giving spiritual instruction. Israel was headed for a fruitful land, and these were the first great lessons of the road: the wilderness they crossed offered no refreshment of its own, and the water they often found there was a disappointment.
The camp is named after what they drank there. A Bible dictionary explains how the water changed, and what that pictures.
One of the early stopping places of the Israelites. It got its name because the waters there were bitter, but a tree thrown into the water made it sweet. Ex. 15:23; Num. 33:8-9. It pictures the Christian's acceptance of death (Rom. 6:11; John 6:53, etc.), so as to live to God. It is the love of Christ, expressed in His going into death to make a way out for us, that sweetens the bitterness.
- Recorded — God commanded the list of every halting place. He had travelled each stage before His people did, and He kept the record.
- Redeemed — passing through the sea is full deliverance. Its practical effect is a trackless desert: no way in this world, but a way through it.
- Removed — three days' journey was the distance Moses named to Pharaoh. Nothing less counts as separation from the land of death and darkness.
- Rationed — three days with no water, then water too bitter to drink. The wilderness offers no refreshment of its own, and that is the first lesson of the road.
- Rewarded — a tree thrown into Marah made the water sweet. The love of Christ, who went into death to make a way out, sweetens the bitterness of death.
And they removed from Marah, and came to Elim; and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees, and they encamped there.
Numbers 33 is God's own travel diary for Israel, listing every camp from Egypt to the Jordan. Verse 9 records one of the kindest stops, right after the bitter water of Marah — so why did God keep such a small detail on record?
One writer reads the whole chapter as an act of love — God retracing, stage by stage, a journey He shared:
No one can read it without being deeply moved by the tender love and care of God. It shows from start to finish. Think of it — He chose to keep a record of the journeys of His poor people, from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan... He went before them, every step of the way; He travelled over every stage of the wilderness; in all their afflictions He was afflicted... and here He goes back over the whole way His hand had led them. He notes down each stage of that wonderful journey, and every spot in the desert where they stopped.
The verse begins by naming where they came from. That order matters. Marah taught them something Elim alone could not:
The people were now proving how worthless all the resources of the desert really are. It is a huge truth to learn, in practice, that there is nothing here to give comfort. If at first sight it appears to do so, it proves bitter. When this is learned, then they come to Elim... Even the waters of Elim were not as sweet to Israel as the waters of Marah, once God had turned their bitterness into blessing. It was so reassuring to find that God listened to them.
One writer sets the two places side by side, with Marah standing for the cross tasted in experience:
Marah is tasting the cross in practice; Elim is the refreshment God gives, in a certain sense complete in itself.
Israel murmured under the test. What came next was not punishment:
They were tested, and they murmured, but God does not discipline them. No matter what you are going through, if you take it from God, it is accepted as from Him, and blessing is always the result.
One writer notes what the name Elim means, and what kind of water Israel found:
From Marah, the bitterness made sweet, Israel journeyed to Elim — The Trees; again a three days' journey. Here they camped in the shade beside the water. It was not pools like those at Marah, but springs of living water rising up from the ground.
One writer counts twelve as the number of complete supply, seventy as complete shade, and links both to the workers the Lord sent out:
Refreshment from God meets us at every step, just as He brought Israel to the twelve wells of water and the seventy palm trees. These are the very picture of what you would call grace in its fullness, giving refreshment and shade. Twelve wells are the completeness of refreshment. In Scripture, twelve is the number for completeness in human government. Seventy palm trees suggest the perfection of care, in giving shade. The Lord sent out twelve disciples, and then He sent out another seventy (Luke 9:1; Luke 10:1) to bring blessing, and you cannot help connecting those numbers with the twelve and the seventy at Elim. So I think the twelve wells and the seventy palm trees are the perfection of the Lord's love in His desire to meet the need of His people.
"They camped there" — and that is all. Elim was generous, but it was still desert:
But Elim was not Canaan. Its wells and palm trees were only foretastes of that happy land which lay beyond the edge of the barren desert the redeemed had just entered. It gave refreshment, no doubt, but it was wilderness refreshment. It was only for a passing moment, designed, in grace, to encourage their low spirits and strengthen them for their onward march to Canaan.
Which is why the chapter keeps moving from one camp to the next:
Refreshment and shade are wilderness mercies. Israel found Elim a very beautiful place, no doubt. But they could not stay there, and you and I have to move on. When we find an Elim, the very thing that suits our hearts, we would like to settle down. But God will not allow that, and we must take the road again.
- Bitter first. The verse names Marah before Elim. Israel had to find the desert empty before its green spots could mean anything.
- Mercy given. Israel had murmured under the test, yet God met them with living springs and shade, not punishment.
- Full measure. Twelve springs stand for complete refreshment, seventy palm trees for complete shade — the same numbers the Lord later used when He sent out His workers.
- Short stay. They camped at Elim; they did not settle. Wilderness mercy is meant to strengthen the march, not end it.
- Written down. God kept every stage on record, bitter and sweet alike, because He travelled it with them. That is why this small oasis has a verse of its own.