DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

Thursday, January 11, 2007       Theodosios the Great, the Head of Monasteries in Palestine

3rd Vigil of Theophany: Exodus 15:22-16:1    Epistle: James 1:19-27      Gospel:  Mark 7:24-30

 

Types of Baptism ~ The Tree: Exodus 15:22-16:1, especially vs. 25: “And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.”  When considering the sweetening of the water of Marah within the whole of the Exodus account, one should notice how carefully Moses records the progression of encampments that ancient Israel followed after celebrating their “Baptismal” liberation with singing and dancing (Ex. 15:1-21).  First, they entered the wilderness of Shur going three days away from the Red Sea until they came to Marah, the spring of bitterness (Ex. 15:22-23).  There God revealed to Moses the means for sweetening the water, but there the Lord also announced the statutes and ordinances the People were to keep diligently thereafter (vss. 25-26).

Then they continued on to Elim with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees (vs. 27).  Finally, leaving Elim, they entered the wilderness of Sin (vs. 16:1), where, on the Sinai peninsula, they made their long, historic encampment at the foot of the Mountain at which they received the whole of God’s Law with its burden of sacrifices and regulations (Ex. 19-40).

The noted, ancient Alexandrian teacher, Origen, observes that “If we follow only the simple record of facts, it does not edify us much to know to what place they came first and to what place second.”  Still, he bids us remember that there are no accidents - and certainly no incidental bits of information - provided in Holy Scripture.  Rather, we read that we may be led to inquire, “What significance, then, is there in Moses’ deliberate accounting of the camp sites?”

Origen encourages us to “pry into the mystery lying hidden in these matters [until] we discover the order of faith.”  The “order of faith” to which this ancient catechist refers is the Gospel, which stands in contrast with the Old Covenant as an archetype to a type.  Hence, the manna eaten in the wilderness is a type of the “true Bread” which our Savior gives us (Jn. 6:49-50), and the passage through the sea is a type of Baptism, as the Apostle Paul notes (1 Cor. 10:2).

Marah received its name because the water source found there was bitter and unpalatable,  “marah” meaning bitterness in Hebrew.  The site is the present day Howdra, a pool of bitter, salty water that the Bedouins consider the worst in the whole region.  But prying into this type, we need to connect the bitter water with the Lord’s appeal to the People: “diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give heed to His commandments and keep all His statutes” (Ex. 15:26).  What refreshment is there in drinking the cup of pure law and commandment, especially in the face of our human sin?  Law by itself leads to despair, prompting us to cry out to the Lord, as did Moses (vs. 25).  However, at Marah, in the gall of the water, God reveals “a tree” to be thrown into the bitterness, a tree which will turn the bitter water of the Law into the sweet fount of the Gospel.  Are we not speaking of the Tree of the Cross by which God Himself has sweetened our sin and bitterness of soul?

After Marah, Israel went on to a place of twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, to Elim (vs. 27).  Following the pattern of the type already suggested, let us now recognize the need to pass from the bitterness of Old Covenant legalism to the abundant waters of the Twelve Apostolic springs and to the food of the Apostolic Seventy who preached the saving word of Christ our God.  As Origen expresses it: “So it is not sufficient for the people of God to drink the water of Marah, even though it has been made sweet, even though all the bitterness of the letter has been cast out ‘by the Tree of Life’ and the mystery of the Cross.... They must come also to the New Testament from which they are given a drink without...any difficulty....”

Glory to Thee, O Christ our God, Who didst sweeten bitter sin by the Life-giving Tree.

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