Instruments thrown into the water that reverse the bitter curse.

Exodus 15 v 25

25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.

Could these be pointers to Christ? He himself was hurled into the death we deserve so that we could have life.

Could it be that this one piece of wood here in Exodus 15 was an instrument of curse reversal? Is it a foreshadow of the ultimate pieces of wood, namely the cross of Christ, the instrument that God used to reverse our curse into blessing?
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There are several miracle stories in the OT that involve someone’s throwing something into something (see Culley 1976: 72–96).

Second Kings 2:19–22 records the story of Elisha throwing salt (2:21) into the bad water, which then becomes good to drink.

Second, 2 Kings 4:38–41 records Elisha making the poison stew edible by throwing (NIV has “put” in 4:41) meal/flour into the pot.

Third, 2 Kings 6:1–7 is the famous story about the floating axhead, which happened after Elisha threw a stick (6:6) into the Jordan. This last story seems to be the closest to Exod. 15. In both incidents Moses/Elisha throws a stick (with ʿēṣ meaning “stick/branch/twig” in Exod. 15:24 and 2 Kings 6:6 rather than “tree”) into a body of water.

The one difference between the two stories, perhaps significant or insignificant, is that the Lord first points out the stick to Moses. Not so with Elisha. He just scoops up the nearest suitable branch lying on the ground and tosses it. Moses’s throwing (šālak) something into a body of water comes on the heels of the Lord’s throwing (rāmâ) something into a body of water (15:1). One throwing means survival. The other throwing means death.

Hamilton, V. P. (2011). Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary (p. 242). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Comments

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