The Branch

“Then Moses led Israel to journey away from the Red Sea. They went out to the wilderness of Shur, walked for three days into the wilderness, and found no water. Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.) So the people murmured against Moses, saying, ‘What can we drink?’ He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord made for them a binding ordinance, and there he tested them. He said, ‘If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.’”
–Exodus 15:22-26

The world gets caught up in silly pursuits. “What kind of wood did Moses throw in there that carried such medicinal properties?” How foolish to make the metaphor the point. This book is about Jesus. Do you see Him here?

For three days they could not find living water (Mat 12:40; see also Luke 2:46)! And all that Marah (this bitter world) has to offer is death. And at this revelation, God’s servant cried out and God “SHOWED”… “to point or direct” which eventually came to mean “to teach”; it is the verb behind the noun “Law” (תּוֹרָה, torah).” God SHOWED us the WAY to life in His Instruction, His Word!

Oh, and the word “tree” where so many versions sadly use “piece of wood” (NIV) or “log” (ESV), as if any dead stick would accomplish God’s purposes. No, I believe “Tree” is a much more appropriate, certainly not to indicate size, but life (see Gen 1:11-12; 2:9; 1Ki 5:10). And let us not overlook that trees are often symbolic for people (Eze 17:24). And perhaps not an entire tree, but merely “a branch” (AMP). Surely this is to point us to the Branch (Jer 23:5; Zec 6:12) whose life was given (Joh 3:16) to make the waters of life flow freely for us to drink and never be thirsty again (Joh 4:14; Rev 22:1-2)! For when Jesus enters our life, He turns the bitter things of this world sweet. We now can truly enjoy the things of this world, because they are put in their proper place (Ecc 2:25-26; Mar 6:25-33). Even suffering is counted as joy (Jam 1:2) because He has entered it with us (2Co 4:7-10).

Do you see Jesus now?! Do you see the ink on the page (or pixels on the screen) come to life?!