Exodus 15:23

_AND WHEN THEY CAME TO MARAH, THEY COULD NOT DRINK OF THE WATERS OF MARAH, FOR THEY WERE BITTER: THEREFORE THE NAME OF IT WAS CALLED MARAH._ Came to Marah - following the general route of all travelers southward, along the Wady Werdan, an almost interminable plain of smooth white sand, between the sea and the table-land of the Tih (valley of wandering). Marah is almost universally believed to be what is now 'called Howarah, in Wady Amarah, about thirty miles from the place where the Israelites landed, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea-a distance quite sufficient for their march of three days. The basin of this well is about six or eight feet in diameter, with two feet of water. Burckhardt says that the journey from Ayun Musa to Howarah took his party 15 hours and 15 minutes; but in the case of a whole nation, including old men, women, and children, we may reasonably allow a longer tim...

22-27 In the wilderness of Shur the Israelites had no water. At Marah they had water, but it was bitter; so that they could not drink it. God can make bitter to us that from which we promise ourselves most, and often does so in the wilderness of this world, that our wants, and disappointments in the creature, may drive us to the Creator, in whose favour alone true comfort is to be had. In this distress the people fretted, and quarrelled with Moses. Hypocrites may show high affections, and appear earnest in religious exercises, but in the time of temptation they fall away. Even true believers, in seasons of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret, distrust, and murmur. But in every trial we should cast our care upon the Lord, and pour out our hearts before him. We shall then find that a submissive will, a peaceful conscience, and the comforts of the Holy Ghost, will render the bitterest tri...

Verse Exodus 15:23. _MARAH_] So called from the _bitter waters_ found there. Dr. Shaw conjectures that this place is the same as that now called _Corondel_, where there is still a small rill which, if not diluted with dews or rain, continues brackish. See his account at the end of Exodus. Exodus 40:38, Exodus 40:38....

MARAH - Now identified with the fount of Huwara. The fountain rises from a large mound, a whitish petrifaction, deposited by the water, and is considered by the Arabians to be the worst in the whole district....

EXPOSITION THE JOURNEY FROM THE RED SEA TO ELIM. After a stay, which cannot be exactly measured, but which was probably one of some days, near the point of the Eastern coast of the Gulf of Suez, at which they had emerged from the sea-bed, the Israelites, under the guidance of the pillar of the cloud, resumed their journey, and were conducted southwards, or south-eastwards, through the arid tract, called indifferently "the wilderness of Shut" (Exodus 15:22), and "the wilderness of Etham" (Numbers 33:8), to a place called Marah. It is generally supposed that the first halt must have been at Ayun Musa, or "the springs of Moses." This is "the only green spot near t

AND WHEN THEY CAME TO MARAH,.... A place in the wilderness, afterwards so called from the quality of the waters found here; wherefore this name is by anticipation: THEY COULD NOT DRINK OF THE WATERS OF MARAH, FOR THEY WERE BITTER; and they must be very bitter for people in such circumstances, having been without water for three days, not to be able to drink of them: some have thought these to be the bitter fountains Pliny f speaks of, somewhere between the Nile and the Red sea, but these were in the desert of Arabia; more probably they were near, and of the same kind with those that Diodorus Siculus g makes mention of, who, speaking of the Troglodytes that inhabited near the Red sea, and in the wilderness, observes, that from the city Arsinoe, as you go along the shores of the continent on the right hand, there are several rivers that gush out of the rocks into the sea, of a bitter tast...

Exodus 15:1. _Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea._ Note, that they were singing, singing a very loud and triumphant song; and you would have thought that they would have kept on singing for the next forty years. It was such a triumph, such a deliverance, God's arm was made so bare before their eyes, that you would have thought that their jubilation would have lasted throughout a lifetime, at the least. On the contrary, it lasted a very little while. Yet what a song it was that they sang! «I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.» What a song of triumph that is which is sung by souls saved from sin, and death, and hell, by the great atoning sacrifice o

II. THE JOURNEY TOWARDS THE PROMISED LAND AND ISRAEL AT SINAI 1. The Experiences in the Wilderness CHAPTER 15:22-27 In the Wilderness of Shur _ 1. Marah (Exodus 15:22)_ 2. Elim (Exodus 15:27) They went out into the wilderness of Shur. Shur was a great wall of protection which Egypt had erected. The surrounding country was called by that name. The trials of the wilderness journey at once begin; typical of our passage as redeemed ones through this world. Redemption has for a consequence the wilderness. We are in Christ crucified unto the world and the world unto us. The bitter waters are the first wilderness experience of the nation. It is a hint of what their subsequent history would be. Naomi in the book of Ruth called herself “Mara.” “Marah,” the bitterness, is the perf

BITTER WATERS MADE SWEET (Exodus 15:22 a J, Exodus 15:25 b E, Exodus 15:26 Rje, Exodus 15:27 J). The wilderness of Shur stretched E. of the present Suez Canal. No very plausible site for Marah, three days-' journey E., can be suggested on the ordinary theory; but Gressmann finds Mara, along with Massa and Meriba, among the high ground near Petra, beyond the Gulf of Akaba, which he takes for the Reed-sea. There are three springs, the spring of Kadesh and two others. The brackish water was undrinkable, and set the people murmuring. This constant feature, so unflattering yet so true to the experience of a big caravan over desert ground, and s

MARAH. Bitter. The Divine principle in the training of God's People. Foreshown in Abraham's furnace and lamp; Marah before Elim; wilderness before Canaan; cross before crown; worse before better (John 2:10); suffering before glory (Luke 24:26; Luke 24:46; 2 Timothy 2:11; 2 Timothy 2:12. compare Romans 8:17, Rom 8:18. 2 Corinthians 4:17;...