27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
The Israelites are a fickle bunch. Just days before this they were complaining because they had no drinkable water. The Lord provided a way to make the water drinkable. Now the Lord provides an oasis for their needs. Plenty of water was available. I was looking at Google Earth the other day and zoomed in on an oasis in Libya. It was in the middle of nowhere! Miles of sand and dryness, and then out of nowhere, trees and water. The inhabitants took advantage of the water and were growing something. The patterns looked like orchards. There in the middle of the desert there was water. Unless you knew it was there and you had some way to guide you to it, you could easily miss it among the dunes and ever changing sand landscape. The Israelites have never traveled through this desert. They have no idea if or where water exists. They need a guide. The Lord is their Guide. I am sure they heard stories of water sources passed along by traders who entered Egypt to trade, but stories don’t necessarily carry the accuracy of GPS coordinates. And the Lord brought them by a very different route than the traders would have traveled. They had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground! None of the traders came by that route! So their starting point was different. And besides that, the Lord was leading them. We have several friends who have moved to very different parts of the world. They have packed up and traveled, only to have to settle in a very different place. It can be lonely to find yourself away from the familiar. The Lord wants the Israelites, and us, to know that He is not confined to a particular location. He is everywhere. He will provide for our needs.
The Arnold Journey 