By Jione Havea*
Text: Exodus 15:22–25a
Context
I read this passage from the context of Pasifika (the Pacific), where groundwater in many low-lying islands is becoming more brackish each day due to seawater rising and invading the water tables. Our groundwater is bitter, and we do not have a cure for it.
Reflection
Exodus 15:22–25a tells of an event at Marah. After Israel escaped from Egypt and crossed the Sea of Reeds, Moses brought the people into the Desert of Shur. They had travelled for three days – some on foot and some on wagons – under the burning sun of the harsh desert, without finding water. When they arrived at Marah, they found water there. But they could not drink that water because it was bitter. So, the people grumbled – rightly – against Moses. I say “rightly” because, as leader, it was Moses’ responsibility to provide for the people (as parents do for their families).
The longer passage (Exodus 15:22–27) has traditionally been read as judgment against the people for “rebelling” against the Lord. The question that they raised against Moses—“What are we to drink?”—which I said was “rightly” raised, is understood as rebellion and evidence that they lacked faith in the Lord. That reading—seeing Israel as a rebellious people in the wilderness—is problematic because the text is clear: the people grumbled against Moses, rather than against the Lord. And second, the Lord provided a solution – a piece of wood that Moses threw into the water, and that cured the water so that it became fit to drink. The Lord provided for the people; the Lord was not angry and did not reject their question against Moses. On the other hand, Moses was angry and he (based on something that the Lord had said) condemned the people (see verse 26).
I chose the shorter passage (Exodus 15:22–25a) for this reflection to invite a different reading of the event at Marah. The Lord did not condemn the people but instead provided a cure for the bitter water, and the people stopped grumbling. Curing the bitter water made peace possible in the community. Put differently, the sweet water made the grumbling people peaceable. I am thus led to expect that peace is easier to secure when water is sweet!
In Pasifika, groundwater is bitter and there is neither natural nor supernatural cure. Recently, many Pasifika islands have turned to an introduced solution – desalination – to turn the salty seawater into potable water. But that does not cure the brackish groundwater. The water wells in Pasifika are not “well” (sweet).
There is bitter water in other lands, with drought and war making things worse for thirsty humans—and other-kinds. At the time of writing, there are wars in Ukraine (invaded by Russia) and Gaza (invaded by the modern state of Israel), and civil wars in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Congo, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, among others. These wars make groundwater more bitter, and peace more removed.
Exodus 15:23 explains that the place was called Marah (a Hebrew term that means “bitter;” see also the story of Naomi who told the women to call her Marah because the Almighty has made her life very bitter – Ruth 1:20) because the water was bitter. The text gives the impression that the water at Marah was already (if not always) bitter before Moses and the people arrived. The water was not bitter because of the people’s presence or question.
Curing the bitter water was transformative upon the grumbling people, but it has not also been transformative upon the perception of the place. Even though “the water became fit to drink” (Exodus 15:25), the name of the place remained Marah – bitter. This is unfortunate. Without a change of name, the stigma of “bitterness” remains upon the place. In Exodus 15:27, Moses and the people moved on to Elim, “where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” Readers are led away from the place, even though its water was already cured – fit to drink.
We may not be able to change written biblical texts, but we can change our perception of characters and places in biblical texts. In other words – we can transform our interpretations, beginning with “bitter” interpretations of Exodus 15:22–25a. We can go even further and transform our interpretation of other texts about bitter water, like the story in Numbers 5:11–31. In the shadows of Israel at Marah, let us grumble against such texts and pray that the Lord, or someone, will help us turn bitterness into sweetness.
Questions
- What can you do to make bitter water fit for drinking?
- What can you do to change your mind about views and texts that seem bitter to you?
Resources
- Sherry Kirkland, “Drinking bitter waters” (2020, access here)
- Shmuel Simenowitz, “Where the Wood Meets Water” (access here)
Action
- Stop wasting water (turn taps off, reduce time to bathe or wash, etc.).
- Raise your voice against water pollution and scarcity of water, since access to clean water is a human right.
- Join demonstrations related to clean water and water usage.
*Rev. Dr Jione Havea is a native pastor of the Methodist Church in Tonga, and coparent to a poly-cultural daughter. He is currently senior research fellow at Trinity Methodist Theological College (Aotearoa, New Zealand) and with the Centre for Religion, Ethics and Society (Charles Sturt University, Australia).