Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 15:25

25 And he cryed unto the LORD: and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet : there he made for them a statute and an ordinance , and there he proved them .

Not so much by any vertue in that tree, as by the power of God who used this rather as a sign to the Israelites, than as an instrument to himself in this work.

God or Moses in Gods name and by his order constituted and published to them a statute. Which seems to be understood not of any particular Statute or Law, as that concerning the Sabbath, or their duty to their Parents, or the like, for the specifying of their duties is reserved to another time and place, but of a general Law or Rule formerly given and now solemnly renewed by Moses at Gods command, like that given to Abraham their Father, Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be perfect. God having thus far performed his part of that Covenant made with Abraham and his seed, to bring them out of Egypt towards Canaan, tells them that he expects and requires of them their observance of the condition of that covenant, and gives them this indefinite and universal Law or Precept, that they should obey and fulfill all the commands which God had already laid upon them or their Parents, and which he should hereafter reveal to them. This sense may be gathered out of the following verse, wherein he explains what he meant by this Statute, even all Gods Statutes or Commandements, which if they would keep, he engageth himself to preserve and deliver them. So it is onely a change of the number, the singular, Statute, being put for the plural, Statutes, which is a figure very frequently used both in Scripture and in other Authors. God having now eased them of the hard and iron yoke of the Egyptians, puts his sweet and easie yoke upon them, and having undertaken to be their King and Protector and Captain, he claims their subjection to himself and to his Laws or Statutes.

Or, tryed them, i. e. the Israelites. There he tried both their Faith by the difficulty now mentioned, viz. their want of water, and their future obedience by this general command which he is about to branch forth into divers particulars.

Marginal references: Eccles. 38. 5.; chap. 16. 4.