Saturday, January 17, 2004
The Venerable Anthony the Great
Kellia: Exodus 15:22-16:1 Epistle: Hebrews 13:17-21 Gospel: St. Luke 6:17-23
Exodus 15:22-16:1, especially vs. 25, "And he cried to the Lord;
and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet."
Considering the whole of this account from Exodus within the context of the passage through the
Red Sea into the desert beyond, one should notice how Moses carefully records the progression
of encampments which ancient Israel followed after celebrating their "Baptismal" liberation with
singing and dancing (Ex. 15:1-21). First, they entered the wilderness of Shur going three days
away from the Red Sea until they came to Marah, the spring of bitterness (Ex. 15:22-23). There,
God revealed to Moses the means for sweetening the water, but there the Lord announced that He
would give the People statutes and ordinances to keep diligently (vss. 25-26).
Then they continued on to Elim with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees (vs. 27). Finally,
leaving Elim, they entered the wilderness of Sin (vs. 16:1). There, in the Sinai peninsula, they
would make their long and historic encampment at the foot of the Mountain where they would
receive the whole Law with its burden of sacrifices and regulations (Ex. 19-40).
The noted, ancient Alexandrian teacher, Origen, observes that "If we follow only the simple
record of facts, it does not edify us much to know to what place they came first and to what place
second." Still, let us remember that there are few or no accidents - and certainly no incidental
bits of information - provided in Holy Scripture. Rather, we read that we may be led to inquire,
"What significance, then, is there in Moses' deliberate accounting of the camp sites?"
Origen encourages us to "pry into the mystery lying hidden in these matters [until] we discover
the order of faith." The "order of faith" to which this ancient catechist refers is the Gospel, which
stands in contrast with the Old Covenant as an archetype to a type. Hence, the manna eaten in
the wilderness is a type of the "true Bread" which our Savior gives us (Jn. 6:49-50), and the
passage through the sea is a type of Baptism, as the Apostle Paul notes (1 Cor. 10:2). Marah
received its name because the water source found there was bitter and unpalatable, "marah"
meaning bitterness in Hebrew. The site is the present day Howdra, a pool of bitter, salty water
that the Bedouins consider the worst in the whole region. But prying into this type, we need to
connect the bitter water with the Lord's appeal to the People: "diligently hearken to the voice of
the Lord your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give heed to His commandments
and keep all His statutes" (Ex. 15:26). What refreshment is there in drinking the cup of pure law
and commandment, especially in the face of our human sin? Law alone leads to despair,
prompting us to cry out to the Lord, as did Moses (vs. 25). However, at Marah, in the gall of the
water, God shows us "a tree" to be thrown into the bitterness, a tree which will turn the bitter
water of the Law into the sweet fount of the Gospel. Are we not speaking of the Tree of the
Cross by which God Himself has sweetened our sin and bitterness of soul?
After Marah, Israel went on to a place of twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, to Elim
(vs. 27). Following the pattern of the type already suggested, let us now recognize the need to
pass from the bitterness of Old Covenant legalism to the abundant waters of the Twelve
Apostolic springs and to the food of the Apostolic Seventy who preached the saving word of
Christ our God. As Origen expresses it: "So it is not sufficient for the people of God to drink the
water of Marah, even though it has been made sweet, even though all the bitterness of the letter
has been cast out 'by the Tree of Life' and the mystery of the Cross.... They must come also to
the New Testament from which they are given a drink without...any difficulty...."
Glory to Thee, O Christ our God, Who didst sweeten bitter sin by the Life-giving Tree.
