Then (the next day?) Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea. He would get them started on a pilgrimage through the wilderness to the promised land.  What else would they have wanted to do? Getting as far away from Egypt as possible must have been their heart’s desire. Arriving in a land flowing with milk and honey must have been their aim. From all appearance they had adequate supplies of meat and bread. What’s more they had the financial resources that sympathetic Egyptians had given to them.

The only thing they lacked was a steady supply of water.  The Nile River and the Red Sea’s tributaries were soon behind them. They would have to rely on the occasional oasis, the spring or wadi in the wilderness.  But Moses had lived for 40 years in the wilderness, so the journey seemed doable.

Three days into the journey they changed their minds. They found no water; then they found bitter water. So they cried out to Moses, “What shall we drink?” They faced an existential threat. Fortunately, the same God who had saved them was available to sustain them.  When Moses cried out to the LORD, the LORD showed him a log. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became sweet.

A lesson was to be learned at Marah: “The Lord made a statute and rule and there he tested them. He called them to listen to his voice, to do what is right in the LORD’s eyes, to give ear to his commandment and to keep his statutes.”  In response, he promised: “I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians. I am the LORD, your healer.

We all need the LORD’s healing, for we have been broken by sin or slavery, from bitter experiences, from inadequate resources, or from other griefs and losses in life. We live in an environmentally broken world Yet, the LORD is up to the challenge of changing our lives from bitter to sweet, just as he was up to the challenge of making the bitter water sweet in the wilderness. In fact, as we read in the last verse of this episode, He is ready to lead us to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palms.  

The invitation to experience sweet springs of water is amplified many times in the Bible. Isaiah speaks of it saying, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (12:3); and, “Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; come, buy and eat.” (Isaiah 55:1)

In the gospel, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. (Jn 4:10). Then, “On the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘out of his heart will flow living water.’” (Jn. 7:37,38)    

Reflections: To the question: What shall we drink? We see God’s final answer as the saints are guided by the Lamb to springs of living water (Rev.7:17). The thirsty are given water from the springs of the water of life. (Rev. 21:6); Then the final invitation is made. “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Rev 22:17) Come! Sweet water is yours for the asking!