The Wilderness Experience

By William J. McRae [1]

An Exposition of Exodus 15:22–27

Introduction

This section of the book of Exodus begins the first steps of the children of Israel into the wilderness. After their remarkable deliverance from Egypt and their spectacular passage through the Red Sea, we read in Exodus 15:22

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur.

Israel’s wilderness experience contains many lessons for believers. We will begin with an overview of Israel in the wilderness and the major lessons of the period before considering our paragraph in Exodus 15.

Israel’s Wilderness Experience: An Overview



The Wilderness in Relation to the Journey from Egypt to Canaan

In Egypt there was the bondage, the plagues, the passover, and the crossing of the Red Sea. Then came the wilderness journey.

It began with problems: Five major ones confronted them one after another, testing their faith and proving God’s faithfulness. Then came Mt. Sinai with the giving of the Law and Tabernacle. In due course they left the mount of God and came to Kadesh-barnea, the border of Canaan. There, their faith faltered. They failed to take by faith what God had given to them. For thirty-eight long years they wandered in the desert until that generation of unbelievers died. Then the new generation came to Canaan. They were standing on the shores of the Jordan River when Moses died and Joshua assumed leadership.

Then they came into the land of Canaan. By faith they crossed the Jordan and possessed their inheritance. This is a simple summary of the course of events.

The Time Period and the Scripture Involved

The geography, the chronology, and the passages of Scripture involved in the journey from Egypt to Canaan may be conveniently represented in chart form.



Two Stages of Israel’s Time in the Wilderness

Their Walk

This term may be used to designate that part of their journey when progress toward Canaan is being made. It covers the journey from Egypt to Kadesh-Barnea (Exodus 12-Numbers 14) and from Kadesh-Barnea to Transjordan (Numbers 21–33). Altogether perhaps two years are involved.

Their Wanderings

Between Numbers 15–20 Israel wanders. No progress is made toward Canaan. The nation marks time while the older generation dies off. Because of their unbelief at Kadesh, they do not enter the land to possess their inheritance. These thirty-eight years may be designated as their wilderness wanderings.

The Purpose of the Wilderness Wanderings: To Humble Israel and Exalt the Lord

This is the testimony of Moses when, in retrospect, he observed:

And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD (Deut. 8:2–3).

The wilderness experience was one of testings and trials. These manifested the evil of their hearts, the incurable corruption of their flesh. All this was in order that they might be humbled. Their true self was exposed. They came to see themselves as they really were.

Here they would learn by experience that entrance into their inheritance is always and only a matter of sovereign grace. There was certainly no worthiness in themselves. Here they would learn, on the one hand, the futility of self-confidence and, on the other, the faithfulness of their God. Here they would learn of the life of faith — a necessary lesson for possessing their inheritance.

The Wilderness Experience: An Illustration of an Important Phase of Our Salvation



Three words tell the story of Israel’s journey from Egypt to Canaan: 1) out of; 2) across; and 3) into.

“Out Of” focuses upon their deliverance from the bondage of Pharaoh and the sentence of death. What a picture of our redemption is here. Through the personal appropriation of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus — the Lamb of God — we are redeemed, delivered, and saved (1 Peter 1:18).

“Across” focuses upon their pilgrimage from Egypt, through the wilderness, to the borders of Canaan. What a picture of our spiritual pilgrimage is here. Through times of testing, through victories and defeats, through personal experience with our Lord, our relationship with Him is developed. It is a time of testing, of being humbled, of being proven. It is a pilgrimage designed for the cultivation of our faith (1 Cor. 10:1–13).

“Into” focuses upon their entrance into the land, the Land of Promise, the land of their inheritance, Canaan, the land of Rest. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews speaks of a rest that still remains for the people of God (Heb. 4:9). Apparently he sees Canaan as a picture of the eternal rest into which the redeemed shall surely enter.

Here is God’s Plan of Salvation dramatically portrayed in the journeys of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. John Bunyan in his immortal allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, dramatizes the same truths as he writes of the pilgrimage of “Christian” from the City of Destruction, through the countryside, across the Jordan, into the Celestial City. What Pilgrim’s Progress is in secular literature, Israel’s journey from Egypt to Canaan is in sacred literature. It is a divinely-purposed illustration of the Christian pilgrimage. As such, it illustrates the three spiritual spheres of mankind.



Naturally, we are in Egypt. That is, by our natural state, in our natural condition, we are under the sentence of eternal death (John 3:18). More than that, we are slaves in bondage to sin, death, Satan, and the law (Eph. 2:1–2). What a pitiful state is ours by nature.

Experientially, those who have been redeemed and are believers in Jesus Christ are in the wilderness. That is, by virtue of our redemption, we have been delivered from bondage. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world (1 Pet. 2:11). We are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. It is a pilgrimage marked by testings and triumphs which are designed to prove us, to humble us, and to teach us. It is designed to exalt the Lord before us and magnify His grace to us. An individual course of study is designed for each particular believer to cultivate and perfect his faith. This is essential for the practical possessing of his inheritance.

Positionally, we are in the land. That is, by virtue of our identification with Christ, we are today seated in the Heavenlies in Him (Eph. 1:3). We are there in our representative Head. What is ours positionally, that is, by inheritance, by right of our identification with Christ, is appropriated by faith. It is by faith that the believer enters into his inheritance in Christ, and possesses what is his in Christ.

Hence the need for the wilderness experience. It is through these trials and testings, these failures and defeats, that our vile and sinful natures are exposed. We are humbled. Our faith develops and grows. We are turned from self to the Lord. As we would expect then, the wilderness experience begins with a series of problems.

The Bitter Waters at Marah (Exodus 15:22-27)

The first leg of their wilderness journey was from the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai (Ex. 14–19, 3 months). En route they were confronted with five problems, each of which was calculated not only to test and teach Israel, but to warn and instruct us as well. The first is the bitter waters of Marah.

Israel’s Problem (Ex. 15:22-23)

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

According to verse 23, they embarked upon a three-day journey, during which no water was available. Finally they came upon a spring of water, but alas, it was undrinkable. This was a sore trial, a real test. Three days in the hot sandy desert without water. Now when water was reached, it was bitter! The Hebrews named the place “Marah,” which means “bitterness.”

Times of bitter disappointment, bitter testings, are scheduled into the pilgrimage of every man of faith. As for Israel, so for us, they are designed to show us our true self, to surface our true nature, to manifest the evil of our hearts, that we may be humbled before God. And what is our response to such bitter experiences? Often, it is precisely Israel’s.

The Response of the People (Ex. 15:24)

So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

The response of the people of Israel to this situation is almost unbelievable. “They grumbled” (v. 24). In three days they had forgotten the supernatural display of God’s power to care for them and provide for their needs — and they grumbled. In spite of the cloud guiding them to that very place and reminding them of God’s abiding presence with them — they grumbled. Just three days earlier they were exalting God with song and praises. Now they had forgotten. Despair set in. They grumbled.

But look at their grumbling. Against whom did they grumble? In reality their murmuring against Moses was murmuring against the Lord. It is always so! Every complaint against any circumstances — every grumble about the weather, our job, our parents, our health, our foes, is directed against the One who “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11)

What a mistake they made. Because their eyes were off the LORD, they grumbled and blamed Moses for the bitter water. Doesn’t that sound familiar? When God surely and wisely leads us to a “Marah experience” our response is a telltale indication of where our eyes are. When they are not on the Lord, we grumble loudly and blame our wife, our employer, our friend, or our government.

But how different was Moses’ response. “Then he cried out to the Lord” (15:25a). There was no rebuke, appropriate as that might have been. Rather, he prayed. He cried out to Yahweh. He sought help from the Lord. He took the matter to the Lord in prayer.

This is what our Marahs are for. They drive us to the Lord in prayer. Arthur Pink correctly observes: “It is sad and solemn, yet nevertheless true, that it takes a ‘Marah’ to make us cry unto God in earnest” (cf. Psalm 107:4, 5, 12, 13, 18, 19, 27, 28). [2]

Moses does not cry out in vain. Although Israel’s faith fails, nevertheless the Lord comes to their relief.

God’s Provision (Ex. 15:25-27)

Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.” 

Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.

The Lord showed Moses a tree. When he cast it into the waters, they were miraculously made sweet or drinkable. John J. Davis concludes: “Since there is no tree which is known to have the natural quality of changing bitter water into sweet, this act must be regarded as a miracle performed by God to demonstrate again His willingness and ability to care for His people.” [3]

There at Marah He not only tested them, but also made for them a statute and regulation. He said: “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer” (Ex. 15:26).

How wise is God in His dealings with us! The next stopping place is identified in verse 27 as Elim. Here there was a plentiful supply of good water — twelve springs, with groves of date palms. There they camped beside the waters. Elim is the complement of Marah. First the bitter testing to so manifest our true nature, and to so demonstrate God’s grace, that we are humbled. Then comes a time of rest and refreshment before the next testing problem.

Conclusion

Close to our home in Canada, in the lower Ottawa Valley, lived a man of moderate means who had enjoyed considerable success as a farmer. Although his wife and children were believers, for years he had had no time for God and no ear for the Gospel. Then in the years of his middle age God touched his heart and drew him to Himself. He was wonderfully converted and became an outspoken Christian in his community.

The first steps of his Christian pilgrimage brought bitter times. Within a matter of weeks his infant son died in his crib. During the night a few weeks later his huge barn burned to the ground.

As is the wilderness experience, so is the Christian pilgrimage. “Many an experienced Christian would bear witness that most of his failings in the wilderness are to be attributed to his starting out with a wrong view of what the wilderness is. Ease and rest are not to be found in it, and the more we look for these, the keener will be our disappointment. The first stage in our journey must proclaim to us as to Israel, what the true nature of the journey is. It is Marah.” [4]

These bitter times of trial and testing reveal to us our true nature. They magnify before us the grace of God. They humble us before Him and perfect our faith in Him. They are part of the process that brings us to maturity, to possessing our inheritance in Christ.

Away with grumbling then! What shall be our response?

“Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt. 11:26).

Notes

1. Emmaus alumnus Bill McRae, well-known Bible expositor, author, and educator, presently serves as Chancellor of Ontario Bible College and Seminary. This is the tenth in a series of expositions on the book of Exodus.
2. A. W. Pink, Gleanings in Exodus, reprint ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), 120.
3. John J. Davis, Moses and the Gods of Egypt, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986), 188.
4. Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Exodus, 120.