Baptismal meditation

Exodus 15:27: Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.

There’s water everywhere in the exodus. Israel passes through the sea; they get thirsty in the wilderness and Yahweh miraculously provides water; they come to springs and palm trees.

Superficially, Elim looks like any oasis, a place for Israel to find water and food in the howling waste. The numbers are crucial. Twelve tribes pass through the sea, and twelve tribes march until they arrive at an oasis with twelve springs. The message is clear: Like Moses at the beginning of Exodus, Israel crosses the water and so that she can become a water source. She is redeemed by water so that she can give water. And the “70” is significant too, the number of nations in Genesis 10. The twelve tribes are twelve springs, which feed seventy palm trees, the number of the nations.

That all sounds very exciting. But there is a more sobering moment along the way, the incident at Marah. There Israel thirsts; there baptized Israel finds only brackish water; there Israel grumbles, not for the last time. At Marah, the twelve tribes are not twelve springs – they can’t even find even a single spring. As soon as the triumphant song of Moses fades, Israel wakes up to reality. They are in the desert, and unless they find water they are all going to die.

Paul says that we like Israel, like Jesus, are baptized into the wilderness. In the desert, He tries and tests us. In the desert, we hunger and thirst, and in the desert we look for the God of the Exodus and cannot find Him.

Marah’s waters are bitter, but Marah’s waters are turned sweet. When Moses throws a tree in, the waters of Marah become a river of paradise, and Israel a tree beside the still waters. As all the church fathers noted, the tree of the cross turns bitter waters sweet.

It’s critical to see the whole water sequence together. Yahweh didn’t take Israel through the sea directly to Elim. Between the Egypt and Elim was Marah. Before the baptized can become springs of water, they have to pass through the wilderness, thirst in a dry and weary land, bear the cross.

Paul tells us that the exodus is a baptismal event, and all the water in the exodus points to baptism. Baptism is a water-passage out of Egypt, and the baptized become springs, wells of water springing up to eternal life. Today, Jesus calls and begins to equip Giles to be not a pool but a spring, not a reservoir but a river. Remind your son regularly of that calling.

But teach him too that he can become a spring only if through testing and trial. Point him to trust the Triune God of his baptism, and assure him that as he follows the Jesus who bore the cross and hung on a tree, all darkness yields to light. Teach him that he shares in the resurrection life of Jesus only by sharing His death. Teach him the meaning of his baptism: God is at work turning twelve tribes into twelve springs, and He does that by taking us first to Marah.