MARAH AND GILGAL

MARAH AND GILGAL

I enjoyed seeing that while at Marah the Egyptian — all that which was condemned in the cross-is refused; I have the manna — the life of Jesus — in its place. What an ^[p. 83] exchange! The greater I am in Egypt, the more difficult it is to deny myself, because I have the ability to indulge myself. I must put a knife to my throat, but I am richly compensated, I have the life of Jesus here. Marah is death in the world to one who has given up the world, and who is not of it — who has to live in it, and yet not live from it; therefore he must be dependent on God for everything while in it. At Gilgal it is far more serious. Nothing of the flesh in any form is to be admitted. It has been cut off (Colossians 3). The nearer I am to Christ the less can I retain what necessitated His death. It is absolute putting off of the old man. In the wilderness the great lesson is dependence; and the cross — the tree in the bitter waters — sets me free from the self-seeking which refuses dependence; but in the circumcision in the land there is, as it were, an extermination of the motives and habits of the old man, to make way for the new man only. To be divested of the old man and to be invested with Christ is an interesting process, and I believe they go on together. It is not the badness of myself that I see by itself, but while I see it, I see at the same time the beauty of Christ, so that I surrender the one for the other, and I get the benefit of the exchange. This is self-judgment, and there is no growth when this is not going on. How blessed to get near the Lord, to enjoy Him more, as we find Him in Corinthians and in Hebrews. He never leaves or forsakes us in our wilderness path, and in the sense of His love we ascend to the scene where He is, and where all is in perfect concert with His mind. May your heart be much enriched in the effects of His company.