Exodus 15:25

And he cried unto the Lord,.... Or prayed, as all the Targums, that God would appear for them, and relieve them in their distress, or, humanly speaking, they must all perish: happy it is to have a

And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved

The waters were made sweet, not so much by any virtue in that tree, as by the power of God, who used this rather as a sign to the Israelites, than as an instrument to himself in this work. There he made for them a statute: God, or Moses in God’ s name, and by his order, constituted and published to them a statute. Which seems to be understood not of any, particular statute or law, as that concerning the sabbath, or their duty to their parents, or the like; for the specifying of their duties is reserved to another time and place; but of a general law or rule formerly given, and now solemnly renewed by Moses at God’ s command, like that given to Abraham their father, , Walk before me, and be perfect. God having thus far performed his part of that covenant made with Abraham and his seed, to bring them out of Egypt towards Canaan, tells them that he expects and requires of them their observance of the condition of that covenant, and gives them this indefinite and universal law or precept, that they should obey and fulfil all the commands which God had already laid upon them or their parents, and which he should hereafter reveal to them. This sense may be gathered out of the following verse, wherein he explains what he meant by this statute, even all God’ s statutes or commandments, which if they would keep, he engageth himself to preserve and deliver them. So it is only a change of the number, the singular, statute, being put for the plural, statutes, which is a figure very frequently used both in Scripture and in other authors. God having now eased them of the hard and iron yoke of the Egyptians, puts his sweet and easy yoke upon them; and having undertaken to be their King, and Protector, and Captain, he claims their subjection to himself, and to his laws or statutes. He proved them, or, tried them, i.e. the Israelites. There he tried both their faith by the difficulty now mentioned, viz. their want of water, and their future obedience by this general command, which he is about to branch forth into divers particulars.

Exodus 15:25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, [which] when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,Ver. 25. Showed him a tree.] A type of Christ’ s sweet cross, and easy yoke, that sweeteneth and facilitateth all our light afflictions. The Jewish doctors tell us that this tree was bitter, and give us this note; It is the manner of the blessed God to sweeten that which is bitter by that which is bitter. In Tanct. sive Ilmedenu.

(25) The Lord shewed him a tree.—There are trees which have the power of sweetening bitter water; but none of them is at present found in the Sinaitic peninsula, and the Arabs are not now acquainted with any means of rendering the bitter waters of Howarah and the neighbouring springs palatable. Perhaps in ancient times there were forms of vegetable life in the peninsula which do not now exist there. Moses would scarcely have been “shown a tree” unless the tree had some virtue of its own; but, on the other hand, the tree alone is scarcely to be credited with the entire effect. As in so many other instances, God seems to have made use of nature, as far as nature could go, and then to have superadded His own omnipotent energy in order to produce the required effect. (Compare our blessed Lord’s method in working His miracles.) He made for them a statute and an ordinance.- God took advantage of the occasion to draw a lesson from it. He promised that, as He had healed the waters, so, if the Israelites would henceforth faithfully keep His commandments, He would “heal” them (Exodus 15:26), keeping them free from all the diseases of Egypt, and from the far greater evil involved in their own corrupted nature and infirmity.

Verse 25. He cried unto the Lord] Moses was not only their leader, but also their mediator. Of prayer and dependence on the Almighty, the great mass of the Israelites appear to have had little knowledge at this time. Moses, therefore, had much to bear from their weakness, and the merciful Lord was long-suffering. The Lord showed him a tree] What this tree was we know not: some think that the tree was extremely bitter itself, such as the quassia; and that God acted in this as he generally does, correcting contraries by contraries, which, among the ancient physicians, was a favourite maxim, Clavus clavo expellitur. The Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem say that, when Moses prayed, "the WORD of the Lord showed him the tree ארדפני ardiphney, on which he wrote the great and precious name of (JEHOVAH), and then threw it into the waters, and the waters thereby became sweet" But what the tree ardiphney was we are not informed. Many suppose that this tree which healed the bitter waters was symbolical of the cross of our blessed Redeemer, that has been the means of healing infected nature, and through the virtue of which the evils and bitters of life are sweetened, and rendered subservient to the best interests of God's followers. Whatever may be in the metaphor, this is true in fact; and hence the greatest of apostles gloried in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified to him and he unto the world. It appears that these waters were sweetened only for that occasion, as Dr. Shaw reports them to be still brackish, which appears to be occasioned by the abundance of natron which prevails in the surrounding soil. Thus we may infer that the natural cause of their bitterness or brackishness was permitted to resume its operations, when the occasion that rendered the change necessary had ceased to exist. Thus Christ simply changed that water into wine which was to be drawn out to be carried to the master of the feast; the rest of the water in the pots remaining as before. As the water of the Nile was so peculiarly excellent, to which they had been long accustomed, they could not easily put up with what was indifferent. See Clarke on Exodus 7:18. There he made for them] Though it is probable that the Israelites are here intended, yet the word לו lo should not be translated for them, but to him, for these statutes were given to Moses that he might deliver them to the people. There he proved them.] נסהו nissahu, he proved HIM. By this murmuring of the people he proved Moses, to see, speaking after the manner of men, whether he would be faithful, and, in the midst of the trials to which he was likely to be exposed, whether he would continue to trust in the Lord, and seek all his help from him.

25. cried unto Jehovah] Cf. Exodus 14:15, Exodus 17:4. a tree] ‘That there might be a bush or tree, whose leaves, fruit, bark or wood were able to sweeten bitter water is not impossible (see on such means adopted by the Tamils and Peruvians, Rosenm. Alt. u. neues Morgenland, ii. 28 f.); from the Bedawin of the present time travellers have not been able to hear of such a tree (Rob. i. 67 f., Ebers, Gosen, 116 f.): according to de Lesseps (as quoted by Ebers, pp. 117, 531), however, a kind of barberry growing in the wilderness is so used’ (Di.). Comp. Sir 38:5. Josephus’ account of the incident (Ant. iii. 1, 2) is curious: see on this and other traditions, or interpretations, E. A. Abbott, Indices to Diatessarica (1907), pp. xi–lxiii. There set he them, &c.] Cf. Joshua 24:25 (the same words). ‘Statute and ordinance,’ as often (in the plur.) in Dt. (Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 4:5; Deuteronomy 4:8; Deuteronomy 4:14, &c. [in these passages rendered ‘judgement’; see on Exodus 21:1]). What ‘statute and ordinance’ is meant, is not stated: apparently some duty, by the observance or non-observance of which, Israel’s loyalty could be ‘proved’ (cf. on Exodus 17:2). The notice seems imperfectly connected with what precedes; and the second clause reads as if it were originally intended as an explanation of the name Massah (‘Proving’), differing from the one given in Exodus 17:7.

A tree ... - The statement points to a natural agency, but the result was manifestly supernatural. He made ... - The Lord then set before them the fundamental principle of implicit trust, to be shown by obedience.

25. The Lord showed him a tree — Many have supposed that this tree had sweetening properties, possibly neutralizing the salts which made the water undrinkable.