The Waters of Marah: Turning Bitter into Sweet

The exodus story is a powerful allegory for our earthly life. The story is filled with symbolic meaning. For example, Egypt represents the world, or worldliness. The enslavement of the children of Israel represents our bondage to sin. Moses frees the people and leads them into, and out of, the Red Sea. This is symbolic of Jesus freeing us from sin as we are baptized and begin a new life with Him.

The story continues with the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years until all the current generation passes away, when they are finally able to enter the promised land. The number 40 is often used in connection with a period of probation. These 40 years in the wilderness where “all the people...which came out of Egypt were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord” (Josh 5:6) represents our earthly walk with Christ where the worldliness within us is eventually destroyed in favor of a “new creature” (2 Cor 5:17. See also Rom 6:6). This change in our nature is accomplished by the Holy Spirit as it dwells in our heart (Gal 5:22-25). With our period of probation completed, we are finally able to enter our “promised land,” which is our eternal inheritance provided by our loving Father in Heaven.

There are many more elements to the story as related in the Old Testament. One of these details that impressed me in a new way when I read it recently was the account of the “waters of Marah”, an episode that takes place three days after the parting of the Red Sea:

"So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea...and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 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.

The word “Marah” means bitter. By repeating the name three times the author apparently wants to emphasize the bitterness of the water. The text says the water was so bitter it was undrinkable. It may have even been poisonous.

“And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?”

If the people complained a little at this point, perhaps we can understand. They must have been very thirsty. Their situation may have even been desperate. If I may put words in their mouth, they might have said to Moses, “We followed you, and you have brought us to this?”

Suddenly I imagined the waters of Marah to represent all the bitterness of life. By this, I don’t mean to say that life is only, or even mostly, bitter, but some of life’s experiences can be very difficult. And of course, the bitterest of all things is sin, which, in the course of mortal life, we all inevitably experience to some degree (Moses 6:55). Bitter herbs were a ritual part of the Passover Seder (Num 9:11) and were meant to remind the people of the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt, which, as I have already noted, is a symbol for our bondage to sin.

The story continues:

“And he [Moses] cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet" (Ex. 15:22-25).

This is the part that sunk deep into my heart. The tree is Jesus Christ. He is the Tree of Life. He was crucified on a tree. Our lives, without Jesus Christ, would be like the waters of Marah. There would be no remedy for the sufferings of this life. Our mortal experience, tainted by sin, would bring only death (D&C 42:47).

But, because Jesus Christ willingly drank of the "bitter cup" (3 Nephi 11:11), even the bitterest of our experiences are made sweet (Alma 36:21). That which was poisonous becomes life-giving. Jesus said:

"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).