Tag: Exodus

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Bible Study Exodus

Exodus | Chapter 17

The people continue the trek through Sin, following cloud and fire as they went (likely how we should understand that “…according to the commandment of the Lord” bit. They camp at Rephidim, just a bit further south and the last stop prior to Mt. Sinai. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s no water there for the people to drink. Given that they followed the fire and cloud to Rephidim and harvested free honey flakes from the heavens every morning since they left, you’d think these fellas would put two and two together and perhaps ask the Lord to provide for water (you know, like He’s already done once.)

But no, instead, they quarrel with Moses and demand to be given water to drink. In this, they ignore not only how God has provided but Moses’ entreaty just days ago that their beef is with YAHWEH, not him and Aaron. They persist nonetheless, once again protesting that they could have died of thirst in Egypt without all this travel and said among themselves, “Is the Lord among us or not?” This is outright foolishness. God’s patience with them is remarkable.

Even Moses gets in the act this round. Note how he protests to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” He’s losing his nerve a bit. I get it, but he’s not exempt from cloud, fire, honey flakes, magic water log, and free quail. He’s leading this circus, the person leading folks around has to hold the whims back as a good example.

Even in the face of all this, God provides. He instructs Moses to walk in front of the people and the elders of Israel with the same stick that turned the Nile to blood and strike a rock to get water to come out. This is a level up from taking existing water and making it sweet, this is a river flowing from a stone. The people need to see it. The elders need to see it. It goes done as the Lord instructed. Moses, though, doesn’t want them to forget how they’ve behaved and names the place both Massah and Meribah, which means “testing” and “quarreling” respectively.

Directly after this incident, Amalek attacks Israel at Rephidim. Perhaps, word has gotten around that a wandering band of Hebrew malcontents are ripe for the pickin’ on the outskirts of the desert. Moses instructs Joshua to find some fellas to go fight with Amalek (apparently it wasn’t a sneak attack). The sense is, Joshua may have a hard time rousting up qualified folks, but he’s the man to make it happen.

However, it doesn’t particularly matter, this will be God’s victory. Moses goes to the top of the hill at the battle, Nile/water stick in hand. Whenever he holds up the staff, the Israelites win. When he drops the staff down, they start to lose. Understandably, Moses’ arms get tired (he’s a human after all). On the bright side, Aaron and Hur hang around and help him hold up is arms (this has all the makings of a pamphlet for a men’s retreat).

And it works, Joshua overwhelms Amalek. The victory is obviously God’s, but often history attributes it to the leader, thus the attribution to Joshua. Afterwards, God has Moses record the victory for the annals and to keep it in the ears of Joshua. Just like the water from the rock, God’s intervention on His people’s behalf needs to be remembered (especially for a people so prone to forget things that happen right in front of them).

Moses builds an altar to commemorate the victory and proclaims a generational war with Amalek (rough times for him).

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Bible Study Exodus

Exodus | Chapter 16

Although Elim sounds nice, the travel continues. Why not stay in Elim? Well, it’s neither the mountain of the Lord (Mt. Sinai) nor the promised land of Canaan for starters. More directly, though, the cloud and fire that leads them places ain’t staying in Elim. When the magic cloud and fire move, you pack up your goods and head out as well, twelve springs and seventy palm trees or otherwise.

They keep heading south (towards Sinai) and travel through the wilderness of Sin (Hebrew “Ciyn”, pronounced “seen”, unrelated, and not the same word, as “sin” being a transgression and separation from God). They are back in a desert and it’s been one month since they left Egypt. They have grumbled already against there being a lack of drinkable water, now the same complaint will arise due to lack of food. Before we are too harsh on them, these complaints are not completely without merit. The food and water issues are legitimate (otherwise God wouldn’t step in to remedy them). Even as they were overworked and deprived of the right to worship appropriately, lack of food or water was not mentioned as one of the issues in Egypt. Certainly, there is truth in the change of their situation here.

However, lest we be too easy on them, let’s not forget that they are following the aforementioned magic cloud on the daily. They have seen the mighty hand of Lord against the Egyptians, they have seen their first born spared, the nation that kept them as slaves send them out with jewels, a sea be held back to give them dry land to traverse it, and that same sea fall upon their hapless pursuers to close out God’s judgment against them. They had seen enough to know that Yahweh was the one true God, was more powerful than any ruler or god that might come up against Him, and that this one true God was with them and for them. And yet, here they are, grumbling.

Remember, they are a people in training. God was clear back in Exodus 6 that the Israelites weren’t simply being set free from Egypt, they were being brought to a new situation and identity, one in which they were to be the people of Yahweh, in His service. It is clear that they do not yet know how to do that. These times of testing are necessary so that God may demonstrate His faithfulness to them. Whereas the plagues and wonders in Egypt were aimed to ensure that the Egyptians knew who indeed was the Lord, these tests during the time in the wilderness will do much the same thing for the Israelites. Trust is not just a concept that can live within our mind, it must be acted upon, demonstrated. The Israelites will struggle, as we certainly do today, in putting complete faith in God for provision, trust in His way of doing things. In a nation where we are generally capable of providing for ourselves in almost every way, we must be cautious of not re-defining faith as purely a notional (shadow) concept.

God affirms this notion of testing in v. 4. After the people complain (insinuating that they might as well have died at the hand of the Lord in Egypt around pots of meat than at the hands of Lord’s lack of provision here in the desert), God tells Moses that He personally will provide bread to the people. This is a test as to whether they will walk in His law (torah) or not. Again, they are a people in training. God is showing His faithfulness so they will begin to trust Him in all that He is about to command them (following basic instructions on collections of free honey wafers will pale in comparison to the commands God will give them at Sinai and beyond).

Moses and Aaron receive the word from God and pass it on, but first they make sure it’s clear to the people that they are not worth grumbling at, the complaint is between the people and Yahweh. I don’t think Moses and Aaron are trying to deflect blame, instead they are trying to make sure it is clear that God is about to step in to solve (vs. Moses doing it, as they may have believed after the bitter water incident at Marah). This point is confirmed as Aaron is talking to the people and the “…glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud” in that moment. (The Lord has yet to provide such an exclamation point to any proclamations of mine.) Then God promises that they will eat meat at twilight and then bread in the morning. From this the people will know that Yahweh is the Lord their God. (This is interesting in that, back to chapter 6, God says they will know He is God when He gets them out of Egypt. Now the definition includes the provision action about to take place. There is a lot of grace and patience in this chapter that these people don’t particularly deserve.)

In the evening, quail show up and cover the camp. This is a one-time action that is a direct response to their grumbling about there being no food. And it’s not a meager amount, it covers the camp. The next morning, there is an interesting flaky substance on the ground that God has provided for them. The people see it and ask “what is it?” (Hebrew “man hu”, which is basically what they end up calling it (“manna”). Moses explains to them how it works. The Lord will provide it every morning and each person is supposed to gather what they can eat (an omer per person is the expectation), just enough for one day. Of course, there’s one in every crowd who thinks he is going to take advantage of the situation and tries to take extra, and the next morning it is covered in worms and had a stank on it. This makes Moses angry. As the sun gets hot, the manna melts. (It isn’t clear whether there are piles of manna-lick available for the animals at this point, I’m assuming there are.)

On the sixth day of the week, God provides twice the amount of manna for them (two omers each). He’s giving them the means to be able to rest. Moses tells them that the next day is a Sabbath (means “cease work”) so he gives them double the amount so they don’t have to collect any the next day. Unlike every other day, this double portion can be kept overnight without risk of worms and stank. Of course, there’s one in every crowd who doesn’t pay attention to the situation and some of them head out on day 7 looking to gather manna. God says He will give them rest and make sure provisions exist to ensure it and these wandering goons are out there the next morning trying to do more work. God is not pleased.

I’ll quote this in full as it remains important: “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and laws? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.”

A few things. The Sabbath is a gift. This day of rest was foreshadowed in the rhythms of God’s creation and He is instilling it in His people now. (Note, this is before the official 10 commandments). Fellas, we need this. If your life does not permit a consistent pattern of rest, you’re taking a gift that God has crafted for you (one that you need) and throwing it back at Him. Not a wise move. Sure, you don’t have to open your birthday presents, but you’d be a damn fool not to. That’s what’s happening when you are rejecting a day of rest. Put the priority on it (I’m guilty as charged on this).

Also, don’t over crank on the “…let no one go out of his place…” business. The context here was the collection of the manna, not a general house arrest because it’s Saturday. The goal was to provide a day of rest that would not require them to do the work they had to every other day.

God commands that some of the manna should be kept over the generations as proof to the Israelites that God has provided for them. Ultimately, it will be placed in the Ark of the Covenant along with the 10 commandments and a stick (yet to come). At the end of the chapter, we’re told that the people of Israel are fed on this manna for 40 years. This is a non-Moses addition to the text, at the time he dies they are still being fed by the manna.

Broadly, I was struck (probably convicted) by a few things. One, God has set them up to have to completely trust in Him day after day after day. The food was there every morning but wouldn’t last the night. You couldn’t horde it, couldn’t keep it to make you more powerful or rich than the next man. You got just enough, the rest went to worms. I’ll reinforce what I said earlier, at our level of wealth our understanding of “trust” runs the risk of being just a thought exercise. What things need to be on the table in your life to truly trust in God with? There’s not a difference here, boys, we’re in training to be the people of God. Let’s not get stuck at the grumbling/hording manna level of maturity.

Also, God’s provision and patience is a mercy that is undeserved yet intentionally and thoroughly provided. He gives what His people need, even in the face of their complaints and accusations. And even the manna itself, in a world where available sweeteners are either dried/condensed fruit or honey (which had to be harvested in the wild, which most folks weren’t doing), what God provides to make daily bread is quite possibly the best thing they’ve ever tasted.

Finally, take the rest.

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Bible Study Exodus

Exodus | Chapter 11

Things have come to a head, one more plague is to come and Pharaoh will release the Israelites completely. The goal has always been the complete freedom of God’s people (remember, God has promise to keep with these folks and the land of Canaan, which we were reminded of in chapters 3 & 6) and it was always going to be done through the humiliation of Pharaoh and all the so-called gods of Egypt. The power of Yahweh, the one true God, has been clearly demonstrated over and over again. Of course, we know that it was always going to end in 10 plagues, but neither Moses nor Pharaoh knew that. These have likely been occurring over a number of months with the Hail and Locust damage happening February/March based upon the state of the flax and barley at the time.

As part of the groundwork of this exodus action, the people will need some goods. Moses is to speak to the Israelites and have them request that their neighbors hand over some gold and silver jewelry. Again, knowing what is to come, we perhaps shudder at the thought of God providing all these jewels from the hands of the Egyptians as proof of the power of Yahweh when we know those same jewels will be used later to craft a golden idol to be treacherously worshiped in Yahweh’s place by the impatient Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

However, it’s also interesting to consider the reactions of the Egyptians in relation to the Pharaoh. They’ve kind of abandoned him. They seem to think highly of Moses (not only Pharaoh’s servants but also the Egyptian people) who are presumably handing over stuff to the Israelites because it’s clear that Yahweh has dominance in the area. Where the Pharaoh remains stubborn, I think we’re getting the impression that the plagues are having the appropriate effect on everyone else.

So Moses takes the final warning to Pharaoh, obviously unconcerned with the previous threat of his death if he were to enter the presence of Pharaoh again. The word is from the Lord so when it says, “About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt…”, we should read that as God personally involving Himself in this action. Yes, His hand has caused all the plagues so far, but the major impacts have been third party (hail, locusts, darkness, blood, frogs, etc.) This time, God is doing the work Himself. It’s happening at midnight as a grace, everyone who is going to die will likely die in their sleep. The great cry throughout the land will not be those who are dying, but those who are finding that they have died.

And it’s everyone, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the slave girl, as well as the…cattle? Have we so quickly forgotten that us humans share a creation day with the animals and are functioning under the same directive to multiply? To include the cattle is to indicate a sense of complete domination and a demonstration of the cascading effects of the sins of Egypt and the power of God. And firstborn isn’t likely limited to sons, the word can be ambiguous, and chapter 12 describes there not being a house in Egypt that wasn’t impacted, so only girl households are apparently touched.

But for the people of Israel, there shall be no trouble, not even barked at by a dog (think of a dog as on the same level as a rat in that time, a dirty nuisance). How this will be true will be shown in the next chapter. The result of this will be the final humiliation of Pharaoh, the death of his son and all of those most loyal to him turning to Moses and begging for the Israelites to leave. Then Moses leaves in hot anger (presumably he was mad the whole time and probably tied to the death threat from earlier).

And yet Pharaoh will not listen. This final demonstration must be completed in service of God’s promises to His people and in service to the revelation of the truth to those who falsely worship the gods of Egypt.

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Bible Study Exodus

Exodus | Chapter 6

As chapter 6 starts, we find a Moses who seems a bit disoriented. He knew enough from what God has previously said that there would be reluctance on the part of Pharaoh to just let the people split (God gave him signs and wonders for a reason specifically to combat doubt). However, the impact this had on the Israelites and their subsequent rejection of Moses doesn’t appear to have been anticipated. This conflict between our expectations and God’s execution isn’t specific to their time. God’s timing only sometimes coincides with our expectations and his idea of the hardships we need to go through only sometimes coincides with our idea of how much we can take.

In response to Moses’ exasperation of God not delivering His people as expected, God largely ignores the protest and reminds him of what he said back in chapter 3, that it will take a mighty hand to change Pharaoh’s heart and that many wonders must be done in the land to get that to happen. We must not forget that this isn’t a battle between Moses and Pharaoh, or even Israel and Egypt, it’s between Yahweh and the so-called gods of Egypt.

We should likely see the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, when it occurs, as part of this same battle. The Pharaoh was considered a pure person, a manifestation of the gods themselves. For Yahweh to be able to do whatever he wanted with Pharaoh’s heart shows a domination over those gods already. This is temporary, not an indication of God’s permanent or eternal judgment upon the man himself, but a demonstration of God’s power to communicate a truth and make a point. This shouldn’t be a surprise, every time we pray for something we’re generally asking for God to suspend someone’s free will or a natural process and to intervene in a supernatural way. The broad question is, do we trust God to suspend free will in the appropriate times for the right reasons? Well, if we can’t trust God to be just, we can’t trust him with anything. So, generally I’d say that it must be able to be done in a just and fair way.

The promise remains the same. Who are they dealing with? Yahweh (the same Yahweh that makes promises of land to Abraham, et al). Further, He has heard their groaning, has been with them in it, and now the time has come for that His faithfulness in this promise will be demonstrated to not only the Israelites but to those who have oppressed them as well. Even more, there is a unique connection between Yahweh and these folks that no one else has. They will be liberated for a special relationship where He will be their God and they will be His people. When would this happen? v. 7 answers. They will know for certain the truth of this when they have been delivered out of Egypt.

Moses pulls all this together…and the Israelites don’t want to hear it. From their perspective, they got burned the last time they put their hope in this deliverance. No thanks, this brick load burden leaves us no time for these promises anymore. Interestingly, Pharaoh wanted to work them harder to keep them from following lies. It’s working, but instead they’re missing the truth. Pessimism will do that, especially pessimism that is comes from being let down when your expectations, unreasonable or otherwise, weren’t met. Just something to watch, boys.

Still, God’s faithfulness doesn’t wane even when folk be stubborn about it. So, he sends Moses to talk to Pharaoh anyway. Moses tries to bail again, this time claiming that disbelief that Pharaoh will listen when his own people will not (this seems reasonable) and further by claiming that he has “uncircumcised lips”, meaning that he isn’t ready, things aren’t in order on his end to go and convince Pharaoh of this thing. Granted, we get that Moses remains a little disoriented and disenfranchised by the relative lack of success so far. Yet, when God says it’s the thing then it’s the thing. So, He insists that Moses and Aaron are the right fellas to get this promise delivered.

Now we run into a genealogy out here in the middle of everywhere like a pair of undies on the lawn. You wonder why it’s there? Why is this happening and who thought it was a good idea? Well, if we look, it’s focused on tracing the connections between the lineage of the man Israel through to Aaron’s grandson Phinehas. Notice it’s a selective genealogy. We only get the first 3 sons of Israel, for example. When we hit Levi, we then start following him because it’s his line that produces Amram, the father of Aaron and Moses. The level of detail for those that follow that line also varies. This is not unusual, Biblical writers use genealogies for specific connections or to reinforce specific narratives and will skip generations or bail on tracing certain branches because it’s not important to the point of the story.

So why is this here? Multiple reasons. It provides an affirmation that these leaders, Moses and Aaron, are legit and their line can be traced back from Levi all the way through Phinehas (who is a priest during the time of the Judges). Their future priestly duties are understandable given that lineage. Also, that the Israelites aren’t ethnically pure as the genealogy points out connections to a Canaanite woman in v. 15. This isn’t a surprise, really, the group that leaves Egypt was likely a pretty mixed bag and probably includes Egyptians who wanted to leave with them. The initial recipients of these writings from Moses could see a bit of themselves in the genealogy. We also see quite a few ladies, highlighting the importance of proper marriages for priests, something that will show up later in the laws that God gives them.

The end of chapter 6 resumes where the lawn undies interrupted but makes reference that one of the points of the genealogy was to orient how readers/hearers of this story were to understand Moses and Aaron. Now we’re back to the question again of Moses’ ability to do this thing on God’s behalf. This leads to a chapter 7 where, as expected, God will largely again ignore this protest and affirm His commitment to what is to go down.

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Bible Study Exodus

Exodus | Chapter 1

Exodus opens with the names of the sons of the man Israel. This is important for both historical and literary reasons. To history, we’ll come to find out that it’s been a few hundred years since this family first came to settle in Goshen, within the territory of the Egyptian pharaoh. They had now spent many years in pagan surroundings. During that time, we get a sense that many of them have given up on the thought of a God that cares for them. As that iterates through subsequent generations, it’s quite possible that they know very little of the promises God has made through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From a literary perspective, it reminds us, just like them, that this story isn’t in isolation.

The names of Israel’s sons are listed in birth order. We’re told the whole family is 70 strong, same figure given in Genesis 46, and that Joseph was already there. These are important to set the scene as both have relevance to the problems that are to come. We will go from an invited Israelite family who aren’t very big to an exceedingly strong nation that has been fruitful and greatly increasing (if we remember from Genesis, this is blessing language). The situation has changed.

As is prone to happen, Egypt eventually has a different leader than the one who was in charge and permitted Joseph’s family to settle there. It’s not super clear who this new pharaoh is, but it’s likely a native Egyptian who deposed the last of the Hyksos pharaohs. The Hyksos were, for all practical purposes, invaders from Asia who had settled in Egypt and taken the throne by force. After a couple of hundred years they are chased out. If this happens to be the right scenario, it’s easier to understand the threat that the new pharaoh potentially sees from the Israelites in Goshen. This is compounded by the general fear/mistrust Egyptians had of foreign peoples (driven likely by a sense of superiority).

The rendering of the pharaoh’s concern in v. 10, though, doesn’t make a ton of sense. The way it reads it sounds like he is concerned that the Israelites may get in league with an invading army and escape. Given that they don’t particularly care for this group that is blessed and massive within their borders, the fact that they might leave doesn’t seem like a problem. In fact, it’s probably a good thing in their eyes. A similar phrase is used in Hosea 1:11 and the NRSV recognizes it as “…and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall…”. That same type of rendering makes the most sense here as well. So, the concern is likely that Israel will join with an invading army and take over the land, not flee from it.

To combat this, the pharaoh decides to put heavy burdens on the Israelites. This is about population reduction, so the labor must be hard enough to kill the weak, weaken the strong, and likely reduce the amount of free time they have for the types of activities that produce more Israelites. This fails, and not just out of happenstance. The blessing that God shows here in multiplying the Israelites is proportionate to how much they were oppressed. This is in a sense difficult because it’s these blessings of God that actually lead them into further trouble with the Egyptians. We shouldn’t be surprised that there will be conflict when powerful humans try to exert control to suppress those things that God has designed for blessing.

Since the initial attempt at degrading their status and reducing their population didn’t work, pharaoh takes the next step and tries to enlist the Hebrew midwives to kill the male children as they are born and let the female children live. Obviously, things have escalated, now we’re talking straight up genocide. The fact that the midwives are named in the text is a strong testament to their bravery. They not only ignore pharaoh’s instructions but straight up sass him when asked why they aren’t doing it (Hebrew ladies don’t mess, they get the job done, unlike Egyptian ladies who seem to take their sweet time.) This was talking to a man who has commanded genocide. Who knows why he let them live (perhaps it’s implied God intervenes here), but they serve God above men, even in the face of danger. God blesses them in return.

Given that he can’t trust the midwives to enact his demands at the time of birth, Pharaoh changes the decree to not killing at birth but to throwing the male babies in the Nile after they are born. This is not only kind of a clean way (and one that can’t be argued with for access, even today 90% of Egypt’s population live within 5 miles of the Nile. Also, with the belief in the Nile as one of the gods, if the child is “received” by the water, it is more seen as a judgment of the gods than a blame on the person who put the child in there.) The stage is also set for the introduction of one of those babies who will somehow yet live as God continues to intervene for His people of promise.

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Reference Books

The Pentateuch As Narrative

Author: John H. Sailhamer

Publisher: Zondervan

Why I like it: Sailhamer does a great job of pulling you up from an overly technical study of the Torah into the underlying narratives. A good switch for me in reading this one was to start looking at how the laws in Leviticus-Deuteronomy serve the narrative (the story of how YHWH relates to humans and what it means to reflect His image and associate with His holiness) vs. just being a communication of a law code.

It won’t scratch every itch you have for details, but it’s a great place to start to make sure we’re actually asking the right questions of the text.

Purchase on Amazon