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.
And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red sea.
One short line in Israel's travel diary marks a camp that Exodus never mentions. After the wells and palm trees of Elim, the people went back to the shore of the sea they had already crossed. Why send a redeemed people back to the place where God rescued them? And what does that detour teach the Christian today?
Exodus 16 moves straight from Elim to the wilderness of Sin. This verse fills in the gap. One writer traces the reason to how the people had just behaved.
In Exodus 16 they "came to the wilderness of Sin." There is no mention here of a most significant fact, recorded in Numbers 33:10. "And they set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea." Oh, you say, I thought they had done with the Red Sea for ever. Why were they there again? Just because they had lost, if I may say so, the sense of the mighty power of the hand that had opened the Red Sea for them. In three days they were murmuring, and wondering what they were to do. God turns the bitter water sweet. He brings them to the twelve wells and the seventy palm trees. Then He says, Go and have another look at the way by which I have brought you out of Egypt.
One writer reads Israel's passage through that sea as a picture of something greater.
There you have our Red Sea. The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus was necessary to complete the deliverance which God pledged the blood of the lamb to perform. Putting the people through the Red Sea answers to it as the type in the Old Testament.
If the sea pictures Christ's death and resurrection, a camp beside it is an act of remembrance. That habit runs right through Israel's story.
God would turn our hearts back, again and again, to the wonderful truth of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do well to turn back in the history of our souls to that moment, which the Spirit of God would never have us forget. Read the history of Israel. Note how often God says to them, "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you" (Deut. 15:15). He would always keep fresh in the soul the sense of what His grace is.
Wells and palm trees made Elim a good camp. One writer notes when Israel had to move on, and why.
Though a pleasant and refreshing spot, Elim was not the permanent resting place to which Israel had been called. So they had to leave it behind just one month after coming out of Egypt, since the Passover lamb was slain on the fourteenth day of the first month.
The very next stop exposed what was in the people's hearts.
They came into the wilderness of Sin... The second murmuring takes place. This gives a deep glimpse into the desperately wicked condition of the human heart. God had brought them out of the house of slavery; they wished themselves back. God had sheltered them beneath the blood; they wished the judgment had carried them away. They were ready to leave the ground of redemption, guided by Jehovah, and turn back to Pharaoh to become slaves once more. What infinite patience and grace the Lord showed toward them. The same thing happens again in the lives of many believers. It need not be so. It will not be, if Christ and the redemption we have in Him, and our glorious inheritance ahead, are a reality in our lives.
This verse is one entry in a long list. That God bothered to keep the list at all is itself the lesson.
You cannot read it and stay unmoved by the tender love and care of God, shown so plainly all the way through... He went before them every step of the way. He travelled over every stage of the wilderness. In all their afflictions He was afflicted. He took care of them like a tender nurse. He did not let their clothes wear out, or their feet swell, for these forty years. And here He retraces the whole way His hand had led them. He notes down each stage of that marvellous journey, and every spot in the desert where they had halted. What a journey! What a travelling companion!
- Rest — Elim, with its wells and palm trees, was real refreshment but not the destination. Israel left it one month out of Egypt.
- Return — Numbers supplies a camp Exodus omits: God led them back to the shore of the sea He had opened for them.
- Remember — the Red Sea pictures the death and resurrection of Christ. God keeps turning His people back to that moment, so the sense of His grace stays fresh.
- Reveal — the next stage, the wilderness of Sin, brought out murmuring and a wish to go back to slavery. God met it with patience.
- Record — God writes down every halt, because the One who led them over each stage remembers the whole road.