Stopping by Elim

July 10, 1988

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Scripture: “And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.” Exodus 15:27

It’s just a simple verse in a long narrative. You could read right through it, and hardly notice it at all. There is action before and action after.... lots of action in the story.... this line represents simply an interlude, a brief respite, a chance to catch your breath before you plunge on into the next exciting scene. But can you read it with imagination? Can you picture the lift it must have given those dog-tired pilgrims as they plodded across that desert? “And they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water, and 70 palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.”

The Bible comes out of an area of the world that is harsh, dry, and unbelievably desolate. It really is difficult to think of any place on earth less hospitable to the maintenance of human life than that corner of our planet where 3 continents come together, the place we call the Middle East. Much of it is so arid as to be virtually uninhabitable.

People from Florida, raised with palm trees, and 50 inches of rainfall a year, have a little idea, until they’ve been there, of the stark severity of it. It influences your whole outlook. I don’t suppose it’s an accident that philosophy with its endless theories and speculations came out of the plush, verdant Aegean Islands, but religion came out of the desert.

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, 3 of the world’s mightiest spiritual forces were all cradled there in the parched sands of Arabia, the place we’re talking about. And why should it be surprising?

When it takes every ounce of effort and energy you possess just to stay alive, you don’t have time for speculation and flights of fancy. You think about basic things like survival, life, destiny. Someone has said, “The desert makes monotheists”, and that pretty well tells it. When you live there, you have to have something bigger than you are to cling to.

Well, that’s the panoramic setting for this slender verse from Exodus. The immediate setting is a long, bone-wearying walk out of Egypt. After the exuberance of the Red Sea crossing, the exultation of victory over Pharaoh had subsided, the harsh reality of journeying set in.

When our children were younger and we started out on a trip in the car, we were scarcely out of the driveway before one, and usually all three, would pipe up from the back seat, “How much farther is it, Daddy? When are we going to get there?”

Well, that’s the story of the wandering in the Wilderness---and the word “wilderness” by the way, is an inadequate translation. Whenever in the Bible you read wilderness substitute “desert” and you’ll be closer.... See bleak, barren, treeless landscape, from horizon to horizon, and you’ll have a more accurate picture..... but that’s the story of that 40 year trek.... ”How much farther is it, Moses? When are we going to get there?” No sooner were they out of the driveway than the grumbling set in. Exodus calls it “murmuring.”

“WHAT HAS HE BROUGHT US TO? Moses.... I never did completely trust the guy. What do we really know about his background? Making bricks, after all, wasn’t so bad. At least there was something to eat....and a little bit of shade to rest in during coffee break. This is progress? We’re worse off than before. Have you brought us out here to die, Moses? Murmur, murmur.....”

Some wanted to turn on their heels and go back. They very nearly persuaded the rest. But Moses somehow held them together......

And on they trudged, maybe not resolutely, but at least continually, mile after mile, day after day, though gritty sand got in everything they owned, and wind peppered their faces like bird shot, and sun beat down mercilessly on their necks, and sweat popped, and limbs ached, and thirst..... terrible, relentless thirst turned their mouths into cotton..... Despite all of it, they kept going.... this was the desert.

And then when it seemed they couldn’t take another step, they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water, and 70 palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.

Doesn’t it do something to you? Anybody ready for vacation? After all they’d been through, it must have seemed like heaven itself.... Call it scrawny if you like.... compared to Waikiki, or New Smyrna Beach, maybe so, but to them in that setting, it must have looked like PARADISE.... an oasis in the desert, a place to rest, to catch up, to clean up, to drink ‘till you popped, to brush your teeth.... the dental caucus in the Church said we had to work that in......

Somebody was impressed enough even to count specifically the number of trees---it’s part of the Record---the first environmental survey in recorded history.... there weren’t several, or a few, or a bunch... there were 70, exactly.... each one in its place a marvelous and special gift.

I can imagine the murmuring was minimal that first night in Elim. For the first time in weeks, people talked about grace, and blessing.... bounty, and the goodness of God. At least for a moment, a precious interlude between grind and uncertainty, all was right with the world.

Exodus lays it out for us in the simple wording of the text, all we need to make the scene leap to life---“Then they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.”

Now will you let me take a preacher’s liberty with that delightfully suggestive verse? There’s more here than just history, as happens over and over in the Bible. Let me propose Elim as a symbol, a metaphor, if you will, for all those special points of refreshment and renewal in life that God gives us in our journey out of bondage and on to promise.

THREE THINGS---

First, and most obviously... in fact, I guess I’ve already suggested it.... ELIM IS MORE THAN A PLACE or can be. Elim, figuratively, can be any uplifting, reinvigorating experience that brings us respite as we travel and reminds us afresh of our dependence on God.

I made a passing, casual reference to vacation a moment ago. I was only partly kidding. Everybody needs a vacation periodically to let body and soul get reacquainted. It doesn’t have to be at a physical, geographical Elim, and your Elim may not be another’s Elim, but from time to time every person, because God planted the requirement in us, needs to take time off to recoup his physical and spiritual energy. To perform at your best, you have to do it.

I can identify with the quote I read about Julia Ward Howe, the 19th Century social reformer, who is best remembered as the author of Battle Hymn of the Republic. Once when she was worn out, weighed down by the cares of the world around her and the load she was carrying, she slumped in her chair and said she was TIRED.... TIRED WAY DOWN INTO THE FUTURE. Maybe we’ve all felt that way at time. Mothers certainly feel it.... doctors, business people, even lion-tamers and preachers.... two separate categories... usually...

The journey across the sands, the giving, the going, the doing, constantly, saps us after a while, and we need a break.

When I get in that condition, and feel guilty about getting in that condition---I think the term for it is “workaholic”, I am helped enormously by remembering the practice of Jesus of Nazareth, the sanest person who ever lived. Even at His busiest, He found time and took time to withdraw and go to Elim for renewal.

One of my favorite stories about Jesus is that story Mark records when Jesus is at work teaching and healing the people....They flood in for help, all day long, even into the night. Finally, he closes the door, but His waiting room is still full.

So, what does He do? He withdraws, and goes off by Himself, alone, to pray. The disciples can’t stand it. They rush out to find Him. Like a squadron of eager-beaver junior executives, they crowd around Him, and say, “Master, you can’t do this. The people are waiting. Everybody’s looking for you. You’ve got to get back. Come on, Lord, you’ve got to go, go, go...”

And Jesus, with a divine indifference to their importuning, says in effect, “Well if everybody’s looking for me, I guess it doesn’t matter where I go. Let’s go somewhere else, and enjoy the walk along the way.”

Sounds like rank heresy, doesn’t it? Sounds like a terribly inefficient use of time and talent. It’s not the American way. Jesus sounds like a person who isn’t even interested in getting ahead and making a “success”. But, you see, He knew that no one can be the hand that GIVES to life until it is first the hand that receives FROM life. When things and conditions became too crowded, He went to Elim, so that He was able to come back refreshed, ready to give it His best.

Now Elim may take a number of forms, of course, and it will vary from person to person. Reading, a sudsy bath, a walk in the woods may be Elim. Friendship can be an Elim. A long, intimate talk with an old, trusted friend can be a wonderfully renewing experience. You may not believe this, but my wife goes to the Elim Beauty Salon and comes home ravishingly refreshed.

Prayer, of course, is Elim. There are springs of water there that never run dry. The weekly Church worship service ought to be an Elim experience. You don’t come to Church regularly just because the Book tells you to and you made a vow when you joined to support it with your presence. All that’s true, but it’s deeper than that. The rule is there not because somebody thought it ought to be there, but because of the need implanted in the heart. If you miss it, you feel it...and then, even more tragically, after a while, you don’t feel it. God has made us to require that time apart, that quiet time, that stillness, when with others of like mind, and before the throne of His grace, we acknowledge Him as Creator, Redeemer and Friend.

12 springs of water, and 70 palm trees.... more than you need to renew your strength. Elim is more than a place. It’s any experience, any gift of God received for restoration to bring respite from the desert and get us ready to go on.

Now that leads us to a 2nd thing about this experience of Elim we might consider. If Elim is more than just a place, it follows that if you’re not careful, you might just march right by it and miss it completely.

That is to say, God’s gifts of refreshment and renewal are not automatic---they have to be appropriated. They’re not mandated or forced on us. There are no required courses in God’s curriculum. His gifts are available, but you have to be sensitive to them, or at least open to them when they appear. AND YOU NEVER KNOW. Some of the most deprived people I know, I think, certainly some of the saddest, are the “blinders” people, those so narrowly goal obsessed that they are not able to see anything else. There are those who are so intent on getting somewhere that they have no time or chance to enjoy life along the way.

I’ll never forget the couple who got married in our sanctuary a while back. We provide the setting for a good many non-member weddings.... wedding for people who get married here, sometimes, I think, just because of the sheer beauty of the place. And it is beautiful. This particular couple really didn’t have much concept, though, of the significance and meaning of Christian marriage, the sense of awe and sanctity into which that special Covenant needs to be entered. We tried to share some of that aura, but I’m afraid didn’t do a very good job. I remember all through the service they kept fidgeting and twisting, looking constantly at their watches because as soon as the ritual was over they had to run catch a plane for the honeymoon trip. “Make it fast”, they said, more than once....Perhaps the highest, most momentous hour of their lives, a couple coming together under God, and they failed to be aware of it, or enjoy it because they had to meet a scheduled deadline.

I’ve known parents who failed to get to know their children, who never really enjoyed them because they were too busy laying up money for their college education. There’s more to the journey than just the destination, more to the road than just the end of it.

I understand that medical schools now increasingly are recommending undergraduate pre-med students that they get a good, broad liberal arts background as preparation for the technical studies that will follow. It makes sense. They’re saying a doctor should know more than just biology, and chemistry, and anatomy, because being an effective doctor means first of all being a whole, effective human being.

I know I shudder to think of theology students who majored as undergraduates in nothing but religion. I’ve n known some. They may be able to function productively in some kind of rarefied atmosphere, some kind of specialized setting, but I sure wouldn’t want my sister to marry one.

You see, so often it’s the little side stops along the way, the pauses, the serendipities, the Elims that give life its piquancy and flavor. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a mathematician who taught at Cambridge University in England in the 19th Century. He wrote a ponderous math book entitled Euclid and His Modern Rivals, an erudite, comprehensive, thick book, his “magnum opus”, which nobody reads today, and nobody remembers. But he stopped at Elim, for him the home of his friend, Henry George Lidell, and began telling stories to his friend’s young daughters. They were stories of a little girl, about their age, who fell down through a rabbit hole, into a strange, upside-down world, where a March hare, and a Cheshire cat, and a cantankerous Queen of hearts lived. Those wonderful stories in time, of course, were published under his pen name, Lewis Carroll, and have been loved by generations of children and adults ever since as the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

It wasn’t the planned, intended goal, it was the stopping off place that made Charles Dodgson and his work treasured by millions. And you never know.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush a fire with God, But only those who see take off their shoes. ”Then she added sardonically, “The rest sit around and pick blackberries.”

Now, blackberry picking itself may be an Elim, but the point is, BE READY. Look for the burning bushes God sets blazing along your path..... Turn aside to see them and be warmed by their glow. Expect God to reveal Himself in the unexpected, the little things, the surprising places.

And when you do sense His presence about you, whether in Church, or during your devotional time, or even as you contemplate Him while you’re down the street, pause long enough to drink from the spring, and rest for a moment in the shade of the palms. Just let Him fill you and soothe you. Let Him lift you in the strength of His comforting arms.

You don’t have to talk, or ask, or plead.... better just to be quiet. He knows. Just thank Him for Elim and the grace of peace.

Now, one final thing we might consider from this text. I think the text implies it. “They came to Elim where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.” Encamped, it says. Not settled, not homesteaded, not put down roots and laid foundations.... They encamped, implying that after the renewal and refreshment, they would go on.

A parallel and opposite danger of not stopping at Elim at all is the danger of trying to stay there too long, the danger of lingering when God is ready for you to move out.

You need the respite, you need the time out, you need the vacation, the refreshment, the Elim, but a lifetime at Elim is a cop-out, and God won’t let us get away with that.

Jonah tried it. He thought Elim was in Spain. God called him to get up and go to Nineveh and he headed straight in the opposite direction. He ran from his responsibility as hard as he could run, or sailed as fast as he could sail.... God had to chase him down, but He did...used a big fish to do it, and brought him back to his assignment.

The disciples thought the Mt. of Transfiguration was Elim. “Let’s just stay here, Lord, and drink from this water forever. It’s wonderful, mountain top high. We’ll build a Church for you, we’ll build a church for Moses, we’ll build a church for Elijah.... we’ll start a building fund, we’ll buy a new bus....”

And Jesus said, GO TO BLAZES. Don’t you understand? Spiritual ecstasy, thrilling as it is, isn’t an end in itself...never. It’s preparation for service in the valley.

Spiritual maturity, New Testament style, is always a tension, a wonderful balance, between receiving and sharing, taking in and giving out, stopping by Elim, and then packing up the tent to go on down the road.

Someone has pointed out that the two most characteristic words of the New Testament are the little words “Come” and “Go”.... In the Gospels they alternate, back and forth, like the recurring themes of a Bach fugue. Jesus says, “Come.... come and see... come, ye beloved of my Father.... come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest....”Come to Elim, and be refreshed---That’s one theme.

But He never lets you stay there. He never lets you be content with just what’s in it for YOU.   AFTER the “come”, there is always that other word, that divinely imperious word--“GO”.

Go and tell what you’ve seen. Go and sin no more. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature....

Elim is for rest, but not for retirement. Worship is for drill practice, so you can march into battle. Bible study is for laundering your towel, so you can wipe the feet of the dirty and diseased. You don’t do it by yourself, He’s saying.... I do it with you. I’ve already done it. I did it for you.

It’s a long way from Egypt to Canaan, from bondage to freedom, from slavery to maturity. The Hebrews weren’t the only ones who had to cross those sands. It’s not an easy journey. Along the path you’ll encounter dry spells, heat, abrasiveness, thirst, fatigue....There’ll be times when you’ll want to turn around and go back. There’ll be times when you’ll want to give up. There’ll be times when the sheer weight of the load will be almost too heavy to bear.

But from time to time, often when you least expect it, you’ll come over a rise in the hill, and there stretched out before you, will be an oasis, where waiting for you, to receive and bless you, to wash your tired feet, and massage your aches, to give you to drink and quench your thirst, and to invite you to rest in the shade before you go on your way, will be the Lord God Jehovah Himself, in all His might and incredible comfort.

Is there anything more we really need for the journey?

“Then they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water, and 70 palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.”

I think I’ll keep on being a Christian for a while..... won’t you?