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After they had been redeemed by God through the Passover, Israel, God’s elect, crossed the Red Sea and went out of Egypt. The Red Sea became a separating line to them. After they had crossed this separating line, they entered into the wilderness and traveled in it to follow the journey of God that they might sacrifice to God at the place where He appointed (Exo. 3:18). In their journeying in the wilderness, because of the desolate environment and its hardships, they had all kinds of needs for their living. Hence, in this lesson we will go on to see the supplies that they needed. The supplies they received consisted of six items, every item of which being a type of Christ as the supply that we need for us to take the journey of God after we have been saved.
The first thing that the children of Israel needed in their journey in the wilderness was water (Exo. 15:22-26). They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, there were waters, but the waters were bitter. (Marah means “bitterness.”) They murmured against Moses, and Moses cried out to Jehovah. Then Jehovah showed him a tree. When Moses cast the tree into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Thus, the problem of the thirst of the children of Israel was solved.
The tree that healed the bitter waters is a type of the cross on which Christ suffered the bitterness of death. The cross of Christ was constituted of wood; hence, it is also called “the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). This cross is the healing cross.
Exodus 15:22 says that the children of Israel “went three days in the wilderness.” Three days signify resurrection, indicating that the children of Israel walked in resurrection. We have to be in resurrection to experience Christ’s death. In our natural life we have no way to participate in Christ’s death; in the resurrection life of Christ we can enjoy all that He has accomplished for us in His death.
All our thirst is due to our sins; thirst to the uttermost is death. Christ suffered the penalty of sin for us on the tree, that is, on the cross, and tasted death on our behalf (Heb. 2:9) in enduring the thirst of death (John 19:28), and thus saved us from the thirst of death.
As we run and follow the way of God after we are saved, we always have hardship in our circumstances. When we encounter hardships, if we take the cross of Christ and apply it to our circumstances, the sensation of the bitter situations will be made sweet.
According to the case here at Marah concerning the changing of bitter waters into sweet waters, God made a statute and an ordinance for the healing of the children of Israel. That is, if they would diligently give heed to God’s commandments and keep all His statutes, God would be their healing and would save them from the diseases of the Egyptians (Exo. 15:25b-26). This signifies:
Since Christ bore up our sins on the cross, He also bore up our sicknesses, which come from sin (Isa. 53:4-5). Hence, whenever we have sickness, we should take the cross on which Christ suffered the bitterness of death on our behalf and apply it to every aspect of our being. Then the resurrection life of Christ becomes our healing power, and He becomes our Healer.
Because the worldly people generally despise and disobey God’s word, they are plagued by sicknesses. If, contrary to what they do, we give heed to God’s word in the resurrection life, God will become our healing and spare us from the diseases and plagues inflicted upon the worldly people.
At Marah God made the bitter waters sweet with a tree; at Elim God gave them twelve springs of water (Exo. 15:27a) to fully meet the need of the thirst of the children of Israel.
The number twelve signifies completeness, fullness, and perfection in God’s eternal administration. According to the Bible, twelve is composed of four times three. Three signifies the Triune God, and four signifies the creatures, especially man. Hence, twelve also signifies the mingling of the Triune God with man. The twelve springs of water indicate that the full supply given by God here to the children of Israel in their need for water was for the mingling of God with man and according to God’s eternal administration. Hence, it is complete, full, and perfect.
Here it is not merely water but springs of water which issued from the fountainhead, flowing forth to supply the need of God’s chosen people. Twelve springs of water signify the resurrection life, which is the Spirit, flowing out from God into us for the mingling of divinity with humanity. This mingling will carry out God’s eternal economy and reach the full extent of God’s administration.
At Elim, God prepared for the children of Israel not only twelve springs of water but also seventy palm trees (Exo. 15:27b). The springs of water are for the quenching of thirst, whereas the palm trees are for a shade, a shelter from heat.
The number seven signifies the completeness of God’s dispensing in time. The book of Revelation speaks of seven churches, seven golden lampstands, seven Spirits, seven lamps of fire, seven eyes, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. All these sevens are related to God’s dispensing in time. The number ten signifies perfection, fullness. Hence, seventy signifies absolute completeness in time for God’s dispensing in full.
Palm trees have deep roots that reach far to the source of the water under the earth. Hence, they can survive under the scorching sun and bring forth an abundance of leaves as a shelter from heat, a place for cooling. In the Bible palm trees signify life that is flourishing (Psa. 92:12), rejoicing in life’s satisfaction (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15), and victory (John 12:13; Rev. 7:9). This life carries out God’s ministry dispensationally in time. This refers to the supply of Christ in resurrection.
The first thing that the children of Israel needed in their journey through the wilderness was the thirst-quenching water and the cooling shade. After this, what they needed very much was food to satisfy their hunger. Therefore, the next thing that was supplied for their life necessities was manna, the heavenly bread.
Manna is a type of Christ (John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58). As the real manna, Christ was sent by God the Father that God’s chosen people might live by Christ. Although the children of Israel had had their exodus from Egypt, they were still Egyptian in their constitution. They needed to change their constitution that they might become materials for the building of God’s habitation. God gave them manna to change their diet that they might become a new constitution through their eating. Today Christ has come from God to be our real food, and God has changed our food from something worldly to Christ Himself. We need to eat Him that He may enter into us organically to become our inner constituents that we may be built as God’s habitation.
In the wilderness God gave the children of Israel nothing to eat besides the manna. According to Numbers 11:6, the people said that “there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” This indicates that, besides Christ, God did not give us anything as our food supply. Christ is the unique food given to us by God.
Manna was the food which God rained from heaven for His chosen people; it was the heavenly food to sustain and supply them for their existence. This is a type of Christ as the bread of life sent from heaven by God the Father (John 6:35, 51) to be man’s life supply in the form of food that we may eat Him and live.
From Exodus 16:13-14 we see that manna came with the dew: “In the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there upon the surface of the wilderness were fine round flakes.” This small, round thing was manna. Numbers 11:9 also says, “When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.” According to the Bible, the dew signifies daily grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 133:3 mentions “the dew of Hermon / That came down upon the mountains of Zion.” The dew of Hermon signifies grace which comes down from the heavens. According to Lamentations 3:22 and 23, God’s mercy, like the dew, is fresh every morning. Mercy in the Old Testament eventually issues in grace in the New Testament. Grace is God reaching us. When God reaches us in a positive manner, full of mercy and compassion, He becomes grace to us. Manna coming down with the dew signifies that Christ as our heavenly bread of life comes to us through grace.
Exodus 16:21 says that the children of Israel “gathered it morning by morning.” The fact that manna came in the morning indicates that it gives us a new beginning. We may also say that every new beginning brings us fresh manna. If we desire to enjoy Christ as the real manna, we must be prepared for a new beginning. Furthermore, whenever we enjoy Christ as our daily food, He brings us a new beginning every day.
Manna was something small, signifying the smallness of Christ. Christ was a descendant of David, a descendant of a royal family. However, He was born in a manger, and He was raised in the home of a carpenter in a small, despised town. This indicates that the Lord did not make a display of His greatness. Rather, He preferred to be small in the eyes of man.
According to John 6, the crowd wanted to enthrone the Lord Jesus as a king, but He fled from man’s exaltation of Himself. The next day He returned and presented Himself as the bread of life, which was as small as the manna (v. 35). He did not want to be a king; He wanted to be food that we may receive Him as our life and life supply. As the real manna, Christ is small enough for us to take in, digest, and assimilate.
In Exodus 16:14 we see that manna was round. The roundness of manna signifies that Christ is eternal, without beginning or ending. Christ is eternal food with an eternal nature for eternal supply without limitation. Christ and His word are perfect and full. By eating Him we are transformed and become eternal, perfect, and full.
The manna was also like frost (Exo. 16:14). Frost is something between dew and snow. Frost not only refreshes people but also kills germs. As the real manna, Christ not only refreshes us but also kills the negative things within us.
In Exodus 16:31 and Numbers 11:7 we are told that the manna was like coriander seed. Although the coriander seed is small, it is full of life. This indicates that as food Christ is full of life, and He brings the life element into our being and thereby grows in us.
In Numbers 11:7 we are told that the appearance of manna was like the appearance of bdellium. There are two kinds of pearls: one kind is produced by oysters, and the other is produced by the secretion of resinous gum from trees. Both kinds of pearls are bright and transparent. The Hebrew word rendered appearance in this verse means “eye.” Manna has an eye which is like the eye of a pearl. Every piece of manna looked like an eyeball—round, bright, and transparent. Christ as the real manna is transparent. When we eat Christ, we become living creatures that are full of eyes, and we also become bright and transparent.
In Exodus 17:6 the rock that was smitten and cleft to flow out the living water for God’s chosen people was a physical rock. Yet in 1 Corinthians 10:4 the apostle Paul called it a spiritual rock because it typified Christ, who was smitten and cleft by God to flow out the water of life (John 19:34) to satisfy the thirst of His believers. Hence, Paul said that the rock was Christ.
God told Moses to use his rod to “strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink” (Exo. 17:6). In typology, Moses signifies the law, and the rod represents the power and authority of the law. The smiting of the rock by the rod signifies that Christ was smitten by the authority of God’s law.
The living water flowing out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6) typifies the Spirit, who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ. Through incarnation Christ came to earth as the rock. At Calvary, the appointed place, He was crucified, smitten by God’s law with its power and authority. His side was cleft, and living water flowed forth (John 19:34). This living water is the Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. Hence, in 1 Corinthians 10:4 Paul called it the “spiritual drink.”
According to John 7:38-39, the rivers of living water are related to the resurrection of Christ. This shows us that Christ had to pass through incarnation, human living, and death and enter into resurrection; then the Spirit as the living water could be experienced and enjoyed by the believers. Through incarnation this living water flowed from the throne of God to Jesus, and after thirty-three and a half years it flowed through the cross and flowed into resurrection. Hence, today this living water is the water of life in resurrection. It is for those who believe to drink of, and it will gush up in them into eternal life (John 4:14).
After they crossed the Red Sea and went out of Egypt, the children of Israel entered the wilderness and traveled in it to follow the journey of God. In their journeying in the wilderness, because of the desolate environment and its hardships, they had all kinds of needs for their living. The supplies they received consisted of six items, every item of which is a type of Christ as the supply that we need for us to take the journey of God after we have been saved. The tree that healed the bitter waters is a type of the cross of Christ. Christ suffered the thirst of death on the cross on our behalf and thus saved us from the thirst of death. When we are in a bitter situation, if we take the cross of Christ’s suffering death, the sensation of the bitter situation will be made sweet. Moreover, the healing by the cross of Christ was made a statute and an ordinance for our healing. If we would diligently give heed to God’s commandments, we would be spared from the diseases and plagues inflicted upon the worldly people. Twelve springs of water typify the resurrection life, which is the Spirit, flowing out from God into us for the mingling of divinity with humanity to carry out God’s eternal economy and reach the full extent of God’s administration. Seventy palm trees typify the flourishing life of Christ in resurrection for us to have the rejoicing in life’s satisfaction and the victory for the carrying out of God’s dispensing in time in absolute completeness and in full. Manna is a type of Christ, who was sent by God the Father to be our unique food. By eating Him, we allow Him to enter into us organically to become our inner constituents, and we are thereby built as God’s dwelling place. The rock typifies Christ, who was smitten and cleft by God to flow out the water of life to satisfy the thirst of His believers. The living water is a type of the Spirit, who, as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, is the water of life in resurrection. It is for those who believe to drink of, and it will gush up in them into eternal life.
