It pains me to write this, but A Slow and Steady Walk Through the Bible is going on hiatus.  I don’t know when (or if) it’ll be back, but my schedule is overwhelmingly busy and something has to go.  Please continue to read through Exodus and ask God what you should read next.  Daily Bible reading is essential to living a Godly life; His Word is the method He most often uses to talk to us.  Since Christianity is a relationship and not a religion, Bible reading and prayer are two of the ways we grow our relationship with Him.

Thanks for keeping up with this for this long, and we’ll have to see what the future holds.

God Bless,
Jason Chaillou
thefirewall@comcast.net

I don’t think it would be overstating it to say that the events of the next few chapters are some of the most important events in all of the Bible; actually, in all of history.  God physically descends to Mount Sinai to talk to Moses and through him, make a covenant with the Israelites.  V 5 states this covenant quite clearly: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”  Moses takes this covenant to the people of Israel, and they all respond “yes.”  In response, God tells Moses that He will be descending onto Mount Sinai so that the people of Israel will hear God speaking to Moses, and therefore obey Moses.  God also gives the people of Israel orders to not touch even the foot of the mountain, or they are to be killed; being in the physical presence of God is serious stuff, and Moses is one of the few who ever get to do it while on earth.  In vv 20-24 God is testing Moses when He tells them that “the priests, who approach the LORD, must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them.”  Moses properly responds that the priests aren’t allowed to go up the mountain, as God had warned them.  God tells Moses to bring Aaron with him, but the other priests were to stay off the mountain.  Over the next few chapters, God gives Moses the details of the covenant we saw in v 5 of this chapter; this was to become the Law and the basis of Judaism.

So, all this time that Moses was rescuing the Israelites and wandering the desert, his wife and two kids were living with Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro.  Well, Jethro decides to pay Moses a visit, along with Moses’ family.  On a side note, how did he know where to find Moses?  Weren’t the Israelites wandering around in the desert?  Perhaps Jethro was following Moses on Twitter?  Anyway, Jethro listens to all that has happened to Moses and the Israelites and is convinced “that the LORD is greater than all other gods” (v 11).

The next day, Jethro observed Moses sitting as judge over every dispute the Israelites brought to him; he was there from morning to night.  Jethro rightly informs Moses that this was unhealthy and that Moses should pick trustworthy men to be appointed as judges over smaller groups of people, and then have them bring only the really difficult cases to him.  Division of labor, a great concept that many people (especially pastors) should learn.  Smartly, Moses listens to his father-in-law, and then in the next verse sends him away!

Ah, the cycle of Israelite complaining and God providing continues.  What’s notable here is Moses’ reaction in v 4, apparently he’s quite exasperated by all of the complaining.  When God provides water to satisfy the Israelites complaints, Moses names the place Massah and Meribah, which mean “testing” and “quarreling” respectively.  Take a minute and read Psalm 95:7b-11; this is the incident that the Psalm is making reference to.

The second half of this chapter contains the first mention of Joshua, who was to become a very important figure in the history of Israel.  The Amalekites attacked the Israelites, and Moses selected Joshua to lead the Israelite defense.  Moses goes to the top of a hill (which I would assume overlooked the battleground) and as long as he keeps his staff (the same one which was used to part the Red Sea) raised, Joshua and his men win the battle.  However, keeping your arms up over your head for an entire battle is quite tiresome, so Moses first tries sitting down, but even that isn’t enough rest.  So, Aaron and Hur come by his side and hold up his arms until the Israelites were victorious, I think that’s probably the definition of real friends…

The Israelites complaining, God providing, and the Israelites disobeying is the pattern that is being established for the Exodus.  This time, the complaining has to do with the lack of food, which I suppose is somewhat legitimate given that they were living in the desert.  However, the complaining was combined with a longing for the “good old days” of slavery in Egypt; really, it’s only been two months!  God provides food, in the form of quail in the evening and bread in the morning.  The bread is called “manna”, which means “What is it?”, it is also similar to the Egyptian word for “food”.  In providing manna, God is also testing the obedience of the Israelites, in that He tells them not to keep it overnight, except on the sixth day because the seventh day was to be a Sabbath and there would be no manna on that day.  Of course, some of the Israelites disobeyed and tried to keep the manna overnight, but it became full of maggots and began to smell bad.  In doing this, God was reestablishing the idea of six days of work and one day of Sabbath, or rest, from the creation account in Genesis.  For the forty years the Israelites were in the desert, God continued to provide manna.

Did anybody else sing this song (often) at church in the 1980′s or ’90′s?  Here we have one of the first songs recorded in the Bible; a song of deliverance and hope.  The text make it look like it was sung on the spot immediately after the Egyptian army was swallowed by the sea, but I think it’s more likely that they spontaneously sung the song in v 21 and later, the song from vv 1-18 was composed by Moses.  For all those who question a woman’s role in the church, here is a mention of a prophetess, of which there are four others mentioned in the Old Testament, in addition to several more in the New Testament.  Because the Bible was written in a male-dominated time period, there aren’t as many mentions of women in ministry as there actually were, and that makes this mention of Miriam an interesting glimpse into the reality of women in ministry.

I v 22 the grumbling starts; albeit with a legitimate gripe about the lack of water.  But the grumbling is important to note, as it will soon become a theme.  The Israelites arrive at a place called Marah (which actually means “bitter”), but they couldn’t drink the water because it was bitter.  God told Moses to throw a specific piece of wood into the water and when he did, the water become good to drink.  The grumbling starts, and God provides.  Sounds like my life!  God also makes a promise of good health to the Israelites, but only if they follow His commands.

It’s all good now for the Israelites, right?  They’re on their way out of Egypt, and they were given gold and other valuables on the way.  Only, there is one hurdle left to jump.  God causes Pharaoh to realize that he had made a mistake by letting the Israelites go; not a mistake in God’s eyes, but in Pharaoh’s, but God had a plan to protect the Israelites in such a way that everyone involved (Israelite and Egyptian) would know who did it.  With an Egyptian army pursuing them, the Israelites were afraid, but Moses assures them that God would save them.  God tells Moses to use his staff to divide the sea and allow the Israelites to cross on dry land.  The Egyptians follow, only God has another plan for them, and it’s not rescue.  Moses stretches his hand back over the sea, and it returns to normal, drowning the Egyptian army.  When the Israelites saw what God had done, they “put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (v 31).

This chapter starts out with Moses giving the Israelites instructions for celebrating their rescue from Egypt.  Central to these celebrations was the instruction of the children in what God had done for their people; every succeeding generation was to observe the Passover, and in turn pass it on to the next generation.  Also important to the celebration was the idea of “consecrating” (or setting apart for God’s use) of the firstborn sons of Israel, both children and livestock.  The livestock were sacrificed and the children were “redeemed” by an animal sacrifice.

The rest of the chapter begins the description of the “exodus” from Egypt.  Rightly, God lead the Israelites on a longer journey, rather than send them through the land of the Philistines, where war was certain to happen.  God reasoned that war would drive the Israelites back to Egypt, instead of forward toward Canaan.  This was to become a pattern, as when things get rough in the desert, the Israelites often ask if they would have been better off being slaves in Egypt.  The leading was done with a cloud during the day (helpful if you’re in the desert!) and a pillar of fire at night.  Interesting is the fact that they were carrying Joseph’s bones with them, which by this point were at least 400 years old!  Perhaps the Egyptians knew a thing or two when it came to embalming.  The Israelites were taking his bones to be buried with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Machpelah.  Little did they know, but it would be a while before they get there…

In this chapter God is doing two things: He is preparing the Israelites to leave Egypt (and in somewhat of a hurry) and He is giving them instructions for the annual celebration of this deliverance, Passover.  It is called Passover because the Israelites were to spread some of the blood from the sacrificial lamb on their door frames, and when God enacted His last plague, which was to kill all of the firstborn sons in Egypt, He would know to “pass over” the houses with the blood, sparing the Israelite families.  Very specific instructions (foreshadowing the Law given to Moses in a few chapters) for observing Passover are given, including the beginning of a yearly religious calendar for the Jewish people.  Every aspect of the observance had significance, especially the lack of yeast in the bread; this represents the idea that the Israelites had to leave Egypt in such a hurry, that they didn’t have time to add yeast to the bread they were making.

Moses passes all of the instructions to the Israelites, and during the appointed night, God killed all of the firstborn sons of Egypt, passing over the houses of the Israelites.  Angry, Pharaoh tells Moses not only to take the Israelites into the desert, but to get them out of the country!  The Israelites do so, and in a hurry, but not without asking their Egyptian neighbors for their gold, silver, and clothing, which was God’s way of allowing the Israelites to plunder the Egyptians.  In this way, God rescued His people from Egypt (and gives this book it’s name).  The chapter ends with a few more instructions about the observance of Passover.

All this time, Moses had been asking Pharaoh only to let the Israelites go into the desert to worship God.  With this last plague, God will accomplish His ultimate purpose, which was to completely liberate the Israelites from the Egyptians.  After the death of all of the firstborn sons in Egypt, Pharaoh is going to throw the Israelites out of Egypt.  In addition, the Israelites will “plunder” the Egyptians on the way out, as they will ask for and be given gold and silver by their Egyptian neighbors (remember back to chapter 3, this was always part of God’s plan)!  More about the deaths of the firstborn sons and the sparing of the Israelite sons is coming in the next few chapters, which contain one of the pivotal events in Jewish history.