Category — Bible Study - Book of Exodus

CHAPTER 16

15: 22-18: 27 
 

According to the fourth of P’s journey rubrics, the people leave the Sea of Reeds, and go to the Wilderness of Shur.  P, several times, collapses several place – names in Numbers 33 into the phrase “Wilderness of PN.”  This is the first of many stories of Yahweh testing the people in the wilderness.  God puts humans in a position where they must show their true allegiance; God may test humans but humans may not test God.  All the tests in the wilderness concern either 1. food or 2. drink for the people or 3. Moses’ authority.   

At Marah (Hebrew for “bitter”) the people cannot drink the bitter water and “murmured.” 

The word occurs only in Exodus 15-17 and Numbers 14-17 (and in Joshua 9:18).  It means complaining against Moses and Aaron regarding the divine nurture or guidance in the wilderness. 

Will the people allow Yahweh to be their God by trusting that He will feed and rule them?    

In this first trial (other water stories are Exodus 17: 2 – 7 and Numbers 20: 1 – 13), a deliberate reference is made to the first of the Egyptian plagues, the bloody waters of the Nile that the Egyptians could not drink (confer 7: 18; 21, 24). 

Egypt, in the person of the Pharaoh, hardened its heart and the plagues ensued.  If Israel opens its heart then its fate will be different from the Egyptians for it will experience Yahweh as healer (vs. 26) rather than sender of plagues.

As Yahweh showed His power to the Egyptians in the ten signs and wonders, so He will test Israel in the wilderness ten times. 

1. Exodus 15: 22 – 27
2. 16:
3. 17: 2 – 7
4. Numbers 11
5. 12:
6. 13 - 14
7. 16:
8. 17:
9. 20: 1 – 13
10. 21 – 4 - 9

 
The episode ends in well-watered abundance, a harbinger of the happy later ending of the journey. 

16:1

Just one month after their departure from Egypt (Ex. 12: 2, 51 and Numbers 33; 3f), they escaped in the desert of sin on a Friday.  The murmuring (vs. 21) occurred on the Sabbath, the arrival of the quail (vs. 25), the evening before Sunday, followed by six mornings of collecting manna before the next Sabbath. 
 
 
 
THE SECOND TEST

THE QUAIL AND MANNA

The second test pairs manna with quail according to the frequent biblical word pair “meat / food” (or bread).  The story is also told in Numbers 11 in another version and in Psalm 105: 40 and Psalm 78: 17 – 31. 

In Psalm 78 the quail turns out to be poisonous, killing those who had craved them.   

Here the quail do not figure prominently in the story and, in fact, are not mentioned after verse 13.   

The story is about manna.  This omission is surprising in the light of the ominous prediction in verses 6 – 12.  

Further, the story seems to presuppose that the Tent of Meeting and the Arc were already in existence – (vs. 33s34 and probably vs. 9-10). 

The glory ordinarily appeared through them:  Arc and Tent.  (vs. 9 – 10) 

The redactor has apparently placed a version of the story of quail and manna on the way to Sinai.   

In accord with P’s view, that the people heard the law at Sinai for the first time, they are not punished for transgressions, as they will be after Sinai in Numbers 11. 

Rather, P connects the manna with Sabbath observance, which for him was instituted at the creation – Genesis 2: 2 – 3. 

•  
  1. The fourth of P’s journey stages.  None of the places can be identified.

1.  
   1. The people murmur against Moses and Aaron but their complaint is ultimately against Yahweh.  They prefer Pharaoh’s sustenance in Egypt to Yahweh’s in the wilderness.  As in the other pre-Sinai trials (15:25; 17: 5 – 6), Yahweh simply exceeds to the request without rebuke.  The people here are tested on their willingness to follow the instructions regarding the manna:  sacred food must be gathered according to the divine rubrics.  Verses 16 – 27 are the P instruction corresponding to the brief J instruction in verses 4 – 5 and 28 – 30. 

 
 
6 – 9. 

The confusion in the text – the doubling of verses 6 – 7 and verses 8 and 12 in the sequence of actions – cannot easily be resolved. 

Vs 6 – 7 are ominous, but preface to a story that must originally have included death from the quails.  In this version of the story, the people will know Yahweh, confessing Him as God, when they experience, again, the control of nature and history shown already in the plagues and the Exodus. 

Vs. 8 is best translated, “And Moses continued, Yes, it will be in the very giving to you in the evening of the meat to eat and in the morning of food to sate yourself because Yahweh has heard . . .” 

After Sinai, Israel, would “come near before Yahweh” (vs. 9) before the Tenth of Meeting, but here the location is left unspecified as is the location of the Glory in vs. 10. 

13- 30. 

The quail is coturnix coturnix, a small migratory bird about 7 ½ inches long, brown or sandy with yellowish streaks.  It comes to Palestine and Sinai in March or April in great flocks.  It usually follows the wind but if the wind suddenly shifts, the entire flock may be forced to land, where, exhausted, it is easily caught. 

Manna is the name for the bread from heaven derived by folk etimology from manku’, “What is it?” even though correct Hebrew would be man hu’ - manna is the honey-like dropping from the tamarisk tree of Palestine and Sinai which the Bedouin of the Sinai call mann.  The drippings from the tamarisk are secretions from two kinds of scale lice which suck large quantities of liquid from the twigs in Spring in order to collect nitrogen for their grubs.  It contains glucose and fructose but no protein and cannot be harvested in quantity.  The bible portrays manna as miraculous; it is not an everyday occurrence.  The rubrics for dealing safely with heavenly food are twice disregarded by the people. 

Vs. 20 - 27 A hint of later disobedience to the law.  The violations of the Sabbath earn a rebuke in vs. 28 – 29. 

31 – 36. 

Verse 32 enables later generations of Israel to see how Yahweh led them through the wilderness.   

28. The Third Test:  Water (17: 1 – 7 P: 1 J: 2, 4 – 7  E: 3) 

In 15: 22 – 27, the people could not drink the bitter water; here there is no water at all.   

P has telescoped the place – names of Numbers 33: 12 – 13 which are Dophkah and Alush into one:  Rephidim. 

2 – 4.  

The people demand water and attack Moses.  To Moses their quarrel is with God directly: they do not believe He can feed them, i.e. be their God in the wilderness. 
 

5 – 7. 

Again, there is no divine rebuke but only the command to take some of the elders and go to the rock, which, when struck with the rod, will yield abundant water.   

The elders represent the people and their witnesses.  The final verse, “Is Yahweh present among us or not?” sums up perfectly what it means to test God. 

Meribah, which plays on the Hebrew word rib, “to quarrel,” is the site of the dispute about the water at the end of the journey in Numbers 20: 1 – 13. 

Massa is derived from the Hebrew verb nissa “to test”.  According to Numbers 27: 14 and Deuteronomy 32: 51, Meribah is a spring at Kadesh in the Negeb.  Yahweh gives bread from heaven and water from the rock to this people in the wilderness; God thus proves His mastery over hostile environments. 
 

XXIX The Defeat of the Amalekites (17: 8 – 16 – J). 

The Amalekites are mentioned as a fierce tribe in the vicinity of Kadesh in Genesis 14: 7; Numbers 13: 29; 14: 25. 

Moses defeats them by stretching out over them the rod he used to defeat Pharaoh.   

Yahweh fights for Israel only when the rod is raised.  Moses’ physical fatigue in vs. 12 prepares for 18: 18; the same word describes his inability to function without sharing his authority. 

Joshua and Hur are introduced.  Hur is mentioned elsewhere only in 24: 14, unless he is also the grandfather of the Judahite artisan mentioned in Exodus 31: 1 – 2, 35: 30 and 38: 22 and in the genealogies in 1 Chronicles 2:19, 20, 50 and 4: 1, 4.

Joshua, on the other hand, becomes Moses most trusted servant and, later on, his successor. 

14 – 16.  

The Amalekites are cursed because they attempted to keep the people from their God – given heritage.  The curse is written in a document and given as a command to Joshua as military commander.  Moses builds an altar to celebrate the victory and gives it an appropriate name.  
 

30. Jethro’s Blessing and Advice (18: 1 – 27 – E) 

In verses 1 – 12, Jethro meets the people who had escaped from Pharaoh at the mountain, just as he had earlier met Moses, the escapee near the mountain in 2: 15 – 22. 

He recognizes Yahweh as the all-powerful deity in vs. 10 – 11, another instance of a non-Israelite confessing Yahweh as the sole God because of the prosperity of His people.   

This story does not accord with Moses’ farewell to Jethro in 4: 18 – 26 in which Moses took his wife and sons with him to Egypt (4: 20a is J whereas Chapter 18 is E) further evidence of diversity of the tradition about Moses and the Midianites is the different name for Moses’ father-in-law:  Jethro here and in Chapter 4, but Reuel, in 2:18 and Hobab in Judges 4: 11. 

Numbers 10: 11 makes Hobab, the son of Reuel.  The Midianites were an early ally of Israel (so here) but later an enemy as in Numbers 25: 31 and Judges 6 – 8. 

2 – 4. 

The technical term for divorce (Deuteronomy 24: 1, 3) is not used here.  Moses had sent her home from Egypt.  Her father now brings her back to Moses.  The sons’ names recall Moses early relationship to his God. 

10 – 12. 

To bless God is to recite what God has done so that the hearers may praise God and enhance His glory. 

Yahweh’s sole divinity is proved by His defeating the great military and political powers of the region, Egypt.  The meal shows Jethro’s bond with Egypt. 

13 – 27. 

Jethro is the one who first suggests that Moses share his authority with others.  The same story is told in Deuteronomy 1: 19, 9-18 where the sharing takes place after Sinai and at a divine command. 

9 – 27. 

Moses will now bring “before God” the cases that have no precedent and teach the people the laws and the teachings of God.   

He will continue to be their teacher, making known to them the way in which they should walk.  In other words, routine cases that can be decided on precedent no longer come to Moses. 

In the Bible, to judge means to be partial, i.e., to rescue the innocent and oppressed party and punish the wicked.   

This conception of justice contrasts with the modern western conception of justice as blind or impartial and the separation of judicial, executive and legislative powers. 

I.  In the moment of the Text:

      A.  Israel journeys through the wilderness and the people become hungry.

            1.  They bitterly express their hunger to Moses, questioning him.

                  a. The Lord promises them that He will provide for

                                them – bread in the morning and flesh in the

                                evening.

            2.  Moses tells the people of the Lord’s plan and further

                        states that their murmurings are not against he and

                        Aaron, but against the Lord.

                  a. They are not to collect Manna and quail on the

                              Sabbath day.  Rather, each day they are to

                                collect only what they need for that day, however,

                                on the sixth day the Lord will provide for two days

                               of food – enough for the Sabbath.

            3.  For all generations to see, as instructed by the Lord,

                        the people of Israel keep a container of Manna. 

      B.  As the people continue, water becomes scarce.

            1.  The people once again find fault with Moses,

                        demanding water to drink and beginning to wonder

                        whether the Lord is with them or not.

            2.  Moses appeals to the Lord and the Lord instructs

                       Moses to take his staff, strike the stone at Horeb

                       before which the Lord stands and water will come from

                       the rock. 

      C.  Then comes Amalek and the fight with Israel.

            1.  Moses instructs Joshua to choose men to fight with

                        “Amalek while he goes on top of the hill with the rod of

                        God in his hand.

                  a. When Moses raises the rod, Israel prevails.

                  b. As Moses’ arms become tired, Aaron and Hur

                                assist him in keeping his arms raised.

                  c. Israel defeats Amalek. 

II. Pastoral Points

      A. Signs

            1. A sign points to something other than itself.

                  a. Natural – smoke à fire; nostrils flaring àanger

                  b. Artificial – words / languages à a thought; stop

                                sign àstop!

            2. The Lord providing Manna and water is a sign that

                       points to a sacrament.

                  a. What, then, is a sacrament?  Is it not a sign?

                        i. A sacrament is a sign that communicates

                                        what it signifies.

                        ii. Example:  a sign is to a sacrament as a

                                         ‘stop sign’ is to a ‘brick wall.’ 

      B. Reflect on Points to Ponder paragraph 3, “[God] tests the

             nation by allowing them to experience hunger and thirst.  He

              does this, not to find out what they are made of (He is God

              and knows already) but to bring Israel to see their own faces

              clearly in all their ugliness or distrust and faithlessness.”

            1. Have you ever experienced something like this in your

                       own life?

                  a. You may have asked yourself, “where did I go

                              wrong?” “I used to be better.”

                  b. Maybe you didn’t get worse.  Maybe you never

                                realized how bad off you actually were . . .

                  c. When we realize that which we need to face,

                               what can we do?  Trust. 

      C. Trust in Divine Providence.

            1. Trust in the Providence that has brought you this far.

            2. It is often easier, when we look back at our lives, for us

                        to believe that we had deserved God’s love because

                         we were “better” back then than we are now.  When it

                         could in fact be that the interior struggles we face

                          today may have existed within the depths of our

                          hearts and God is bringing them forth that they might

                          be dealt with.  He loves us too much to let us remain

                          as we are when we are not yet the men or women

                          He has created us to be.

CHAPTER 15 
 

Then Did Moses Sing 

The conclusion of many large narrative units in the Bible is marked with a relatively long poem (shirah).  After the destruction of the Pharaoh’s army, the Egyptian phase of the Exodus story is completed and the sequence of Wilderness tales (the very first is the Marah story, vs. 20-26) that is the narrative skeleton of the rest of the Torah begins.  

Let me Sing Unto the Lord

This poetic beginning reflects an ancient Near Eastern literary convention of announcing the topic in the act of song at the beginning of the poem, roughly paralleled to the Greek and Latin convention for beginning an epic (as in Virgil’s “of arms and the man I sing”).   

For He Surged, Oh Surged

The poem begins with a vivid pun.  The Hebrew verb ga’ah means something like “to triumph,” “to be exalted,” “to be proud.”   But it is also the verb used for the rising tide of the Sea, a concrete admission    especially apt for representing God’s overwhelming the Egyptians with the water of the Sea of Reeds. 

Horse and Its’ Rider

Perhaps, as many scholars have argued, rider (rokhev) should be translated as “driver” because chariots are stressed and the evidence appears to indicate that in the late second millennium B.C.E., the Egyptians did not make much use of Cavalry.  Nevertheless, the plain meaning of the Hebrew word is “rider” and only with some strain can it be made to mean “chariot driver.”  Anachronism about such details is familiar enough in the Bible – witness the ubiquity of camels in Genesis in a historical period before they were generally domesticated.   

Power

Scholarly consensus is that this is the most likely sense of the Hebrew vimrah, but it is probably a pun on the more common meaning of the word “song” – God, who is the source of the speakers power, He is for the very reason the theme of his song. 

The Lord is a Man of War

The representation of God as a fierce warrior is “recurrent” in Biblical poetry and draws on a literary background of Canaanite mythological poetry.   

He Pitched Into the Sea

The vivid hyperbolic image of God’s “pitching” or “hurling” the Egyptians troops into the sea provides a hint to the representation in the preceding prose narrative – which is later in composition – as God’s “shaking out” the Egyptians into the sea.  

Down They Went in the Deep Like a Stone. – Your Right Hand. . . Mighty in Power.

The Song of the Sea is a rare instance in the Bible of a poem that is clearly marked with strophic divisions.  Near the end of each strophe, one encounters the simile “like a stone” or “like lead.”  The simile is followed by lines that celebrate the Lord’s triumphant supremacy.  The first strophe – vs. 1-6 – offers a kind of summary version of the victory at the sea.  The second strophe – vs. 7-11 – goes over the events in more concrete terms, providing some dialogue for the pursuing Egyptians as well as a more particular account of how God’s breadth or wind – the same word in the Hebrew – first heaped up the waters in a mound or wall and then sent them back to engulf the Egyptians.  The right hand smashing the enemy derives from the martial imagery used for representing battling deities in ancient Near Eastern poetry, but it also resonates with all the references to God’s powerful hand in the preceding narrative.   

In Your Great Surging.  Oh Lord, “In Your Great Triumph”

The use of the noun derived from the verb ga’ah aligns the beginning of the second strophe with the beginning of the first.   

It Consumes Them Like Straw

The straw simile might appear to conflict with the stone simile, but it is generated, almost formulaically, by the language of “wrath” and, in the next line, “death of your nostrils,” because in Hebrew poetic idiom, wrath is represented as a kind of fiery emanation from the nostrils.  Thus, the Hebrew ‘af’ means “nose” and “flowing anger.” 
 

Your Waters. . . Streams . . . Depths.

The Hebrew word for water is always plural.  The various synonyms used by the poet for the depths or the bottom of the sea are all in the plural as well – possibly a poetic plural of intensification but, in any case, a form that imparts a sense of grandeur or epic sublimity.   

Who Is Like You Among the Gods

This line has inspired a good deal of rather nervous commentary.  The most unapologetic way of explaining it is that, in the early part of the first millennium B.C.E. or possibly even earlier, through which the composition of this poem may plausibly be assigned, Hebrew writers have no difficulty in conceding the existence of other deities, though always stipulating, as here, their absolute inferiority to the God of Israel. 

Awesome in Praise

The Hebrew uses a plural “praises.”  The word may refer to a kind of ellipsis to the tremendous acts performed by God that make Him the object of praise. 

You Stretched Out Your Hand – Earth Swallowed Them Up

The hand that smashes the Pharaoh works like Mose’s hand, signaling to the sea to engulf the Egyptians.  Since it is the sea, not the land, that does swallowing, there is probably a play on the secondary meaning of the Hebrew ‘arets, “underworld.”  But in a doubling of the pun, ‘arets, which also means “land,” points forward to the prospect of the promised land to which the people will be brought that is the topic of this third stroph. 

You Led Forth… You Guided

The Hebrew exhibits a sequence of three phonetically overlapping verbs – natita,”You stretched out,” nahiti, “You led forth,” naihalta, “You guided.”  This sound pattern helps to affect the tempo on the spatial transition as the beginning of the third strophe moves from the Sea of Reeds to Canaan and, in the space of a single line, from this event in the thirteenth century B.C.E. to the establishment of God’s temple on Mt. Zion in the tenth century.   

Peoples Heard, They Quaked – Trembling Seized Philistia’s Dwellers

The national triumphalism of the whole Exodus story comes to a climax here as the victory at the Sea of Reeds is imagined to reverberate throughout the region, panicking the peoples of Canaan who will face a Hebrew invasion led by the unconquerable Lord of Israel.  These lines will be echoed in the speech of Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, in Joshua II, as a kind of on-the-ground “confirmation” of the terrific impact in Canaan of the event at the Sea of Reeds.  The reference to Philistia is an anachronism because the Philistines did not arrive on the coastal strip of Canaan from the Aegean Sea until about a century after the Exodus. 

Quailed

The literal meaning of the Hebrew verb is “melted.” 

They Were Like a Stone

It is also possible to construe the verb to yield “they were still as a stone.”  However, the image of the Canaanites petrified with fear seems stronger, and plays against the “literal” “melting” of the previous line. 

Till Your People Crossed Over. . .- Till the People Made Yours Crossed Over

The use of this sort of incremental repetition is particularly characteristic of the older strata of Biblical poetry.  (The Song of Deborah which is older still than this poem abounds in such patterns.)  The Hebrew for “You made Yours,” qanita, means “to acquire,” “to purchase,” and occasionally “to create.”  The liberation from Egyptian slavery is taken as a great historical demonstration that God has adopted Israel, His special people. 

A Firm Place for Your Dwelling. . . – . . . Your Hands Firmly Founded

The Hebrew noun makhon and the related verb konen are regularly associated in Biblical idiom at the solid establishment of a throne or dynasty.  Since a mountain is also referred to here as a sanctum, niqdash, as mentioned at the end of the verse, it is highly likely that what the poet has in mind is the temple on Mt. Zion, which is imagined as God’s earthly throne or dwelling place. 
 
 The Lord Shall be King for All Time

Although some construe this line as a kind of epilogue to the poem, its celebration of God’s supremacy corresponds to the endings of the two previous strophes – vs. 6 and 11.  God’s regal dominion is confirmed both by the victory over the Egyptians and the establishing of a terrestrial throne in Jerusalem. 

And Miriam, the Prophetess, Aaron’s Sister, Put the Timbrel in Her Hand

One surmises that she is called “prophetess” (nedi’ah) because the singing and the dancing are an ecstatic activity and one of the established meanings of the Hebrew term for “prophet” is an ecstatic who typically employed dance and musical instruments to induce the prophetic frenzy.  Miriam is designated as Aaron’s sister in accordance with a practice of identifying a woman in relation to her oldest brother.  The custom of women going out in song and dance to celebrate a military victory was common in ancient Israel and the surrounding peoples and figures significantly in the David story.  The women who sing out the opening lines of the song we have just heard has a kind of antiphonal refrain.  Miriam is a witness by the water both at the beginning of the Moses story and now.   

The Wilderness of Shur

The main means “wall” in Hebrew and evidently refers to a fortified region on the northern border of Egypt.  (The Egyptian, Hagar, flees toward this region – Genesis 16:7).   

Marah

The name means “bitter” as the story goes on to explain.  Could not drink water from Marah.  The vested need for water in the desert which is a recurrent feature of the stories that follow is, of course, a realistic aspect of the Wilderness narrative.  At the same time, it links the tribulations of the Hebrews in the Wilderness with the Plagues narrative.  Here there is an explicit echo of the first plague when the Egyptians “could not drink water from the Nile.” Moses, who as an infant was “drawn from the water” and the efforts of the people of between walls of water, is now called upon to provide them with water to drink in the wilderness.   

There Did He Set Him a Statute and Law, and There Did He Test Him

Nearly everything about this sentence is uncertain.  Since the only plausible candidate for setting statutes and laws is God, He would logically be the subject of the verb in the parallel clause, though some have claimed it to be Moses.  “Him” might be Moses or collective efforts to Israel.  The meaning of “statute and law” is obscure because, at least in this episode, no legislation is stipulated.  The phrase might refer merely to the idea that it became a sub-practice in the wilderness that, as in this incident, Israel’s urgent needs would be filled by God, if only Israel trusted in Him.  The “testing” then, would be the testing of Moses’ or Israel’s trust in God’s power to provide for the peoples needs though that is far from clear.  In the famous parallel incident in Numbers XX, Moses would fail the test by angrily striking the rock in order to bring forth water.   

If You Really Heed. . .and do What is Right in His Eyes

The language sounds like Deuteronomy.  Some are prudent in calling this “quasi-deuteronomic diction,” and associating it with the Wisdom overtones of the episode.  Wisdom literature is much concerned with medicine.  Here, God concludes that, promising He will shield Israel from all the sicknesses that visited the Egyptians.  The illusion to the first plague at the beginning of the episode associatively points to the others. 

Twelve Springs of Water and Seventy Date Palms

After the scary incident at Marah, in which it seemed that there was only brackish water, the next stage of the journey is now encouraging, for the Israelites arrive at a real oasis, with an abundance of springs and fruit-bearing trees.  Twelve and seventy are, of course, formulaic numbers, perhaps here particularly echoing the twelve tribes and the seventy elders of Israel.   
 
In Exodus 15: 1 – 28, the people of Israel rejoice and sing the famous song of Moses.  This is, as we have seen, an antiphonal hymn which praises God for deliverance at the Sea of Reeds.  This hymn contains a somewhat puzzling passage:

“You will bring them in, and plant them on Your own mountain, the place, Oh Lord, which You made for Your abode, the sanctuary, Oh Lord, which Your hands have established.”

(Exodus 15:17) 

This mention of “my abode” refers to Solomon’s Temple which would not be built until about 1000 B.C.E., more than three centuries after the death of Moses.  Modern scripture scholars lead to the conclusion that Moses could not have had any notion of a building of a sanctuary in Jerusalem so the song of Moses must have been composed centuries after the Exodus actually took place. 

This overlooks the fact that Moses obviously has a very clear awareness of the tradition of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which is the entire basis for the event of the Exodus.  Moses is told repeatedly that it is because God has remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He now is delivering the Israelites from bondage in Egypt and leading them to the Promised Land of Canaan. 

Elsewhere in the Pentateuch, the Israelites, far from having no notion of a sanctuary to be built in a particular place in the land of Canaan, are instead told: “but when you go over the Jordan, and live in the land which the Lord, your God, gives you to inherit, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies roundabout so that you live in safety, then to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose, to make His name dwell there, you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the Lord”  (Deuteronomy 12:10-11). 

When will the people of Israel enter this “rest?”  The answer is found in the “II Samuel” 

Now when the king dwelt in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies of roundabout, the king ‘David’ said to Nathan, the prophet, “see now, I dwell in the house of Cedar, but the Arc of God dwells in a tent.”  (II Samuel 7:1-2)

Note that the “rest” that God promised the people of Israel in Deuteronomy is bound up with the conquest of the land and with the establishment of the Temple.  It is when the Israelites, under David, enter their rest that David begins to think about implementing the command given in Deuteronomy to establish a “place” of sacrifice and offering – not a movable tabernacle or a tent-sanctuary – where God “will make His name dwell.” 

As you might well suspect, the specific location of the “place” is not known so it’s especially interesting that David knows the exact site for the Temple to be built.  Why does David have the Arc of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem (II Samuel 6:12-15)?   He is apparently aware of the same Abrahamic tradition that forms the basis for mention in the Song of Moses about a sanctuary to be built on God’s “own mountain”.  In the days of Abraham, worship centers did not pop up just anywhere.  Specific locations were recognized as holy places.  In Canaan, there was one particularly holy place – the city that was home of the first priest-king recorded in scripture.  The priest, Melchizedek, was both “king of Salem” and “a priest of God Most High.”  (Genesis 14:18) 

According to Psalm 76:2, Salem is another name for Jerusalem.  The author of a letter to the Hebrews says that Melchizedek was considered so great a figure that Abraham paid him tithes and received a blessing from him (Hebrews 7:1-2).  The offering of Isaac, which sealed the covenant that God had made with Abraham, had taken place on Mt. Moriah, also located in Jerusalem (Genesis 22:2 and II Chronicles 3:1).  So, therefore, there is an excellent reason to think that Moses would have known the stories of Abraham and Melchizedek and would have considered them strong basis for prophesying Jerusalem as the site of the future “abode” of God centuries before it would be possible for the Israelites to establish a temple there. 
 
 The Book of Exodus continues to emphasize the wonders God works.  In the Old Testament, the significance is often hidden.  The New Testament teaches that the entire Old Testament revelation is one vast sign pointing to the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Luke 24:46-49).  See also (Ephesians 3:5-6).  We don’t always appreciate the significance of an event that is taking place at the time in which it happens.  We are much too subjective to the event.  We need objectivity to be able to see what the event points to.  

There is a very strange sign that happens in Exodus.  We have looked at it already.  The bitter waters of Marah are made sweet and drinkable when a tree is thrown into them.  We don’t have any mention of this sign in the New Testament.  One of the early Church Fathers, Tertullian, wrote that this sign prefigured baptism.  That is, when the bitterness of the death and suffering is transformed into the sweetness of eternal life by the cross, “the tree” where Jesus suffered and died.  

This is the “spiritual” sense of reading the scriptures.  This “spiritual” sense is an extremely old method. 

EXODUS

CHAPTER FIVE 
 

      Moses and Aaron now approach Pharoah requesting that the Israelites be allowed to have a a feast in the wilderness apart from the Egyptians.  Pharoah refuses saying that he does not know the Lord.  They ask a second time suggesting that of the Egyptians do not allow the Israelites to the leave the Lord might down upon them with pestileice or with the sword.  He not only refuses he now increases the work load of the Hebrews.  

Pharaoh is hard.  My translation says, “Obdurate.”  It is a nice word, but I do not like it because you have a problem when you get into the “hardness” of the Pharaoh’s heart, and that is a problem.  Who caused the Pharaoh to have a hard heart?  Did God cause it, or did the Pharaoh cause it.  We will take a little bit of a look here.  That is why I think obduracy is a nice English word, but not a good translation.   

Exodus 6:1 is going to demonstrate the power of Yahweh.  We will see great things.  In chapter 6:1, the Lord answered Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.  How will you know who I am?  In My mighty deeds.  You watch Me.  My mighty hand will send them away compelled by my outstretched arm; he will drive them from his land.”  That is some power; that is some God.  That is the God that says: “I cause to be what happens.”  You will know Me in what I do. 

      The plot on Chapter 5 is that on one side is the stubborn Pharaoh, and on the other side you have God.   It gives Moses his mission.  The other great thing that we somewhat take for granted is that when God answers Moses and says:  You want to know who I am; this is who I am.  What is the response from Moses?  No more protests.  He is done with it.  He is probably on his face in front of the Burning Bush.  That response handles everything for him. 

      We now have what they always want to call the bad guy.  He is the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh and his crafty magicians.  On the other side, we have Yahweh.     In between, we have Moses.  Moses is the mediator.  He is the one who is going to run between Pharaoh and God, so that God can do His mighty deeds, and Pharaoh can have a hard heart, so that God can do more mighty deeds.  Then Pharaoh can harden his heart even more.  So God can continue to do more mighty deeds.  Moses is feeling that he cannot believe this is happening.  So this is the plot of the story.

      Yahweh’s conflict is with specifically with the gods of Egypt.  This is not a problem for Yahweh.    What He is interested in is what one man has done to another man.  That is what He is interested in; the inhumanity to man by man.  He is concerned about the fact that the Egyptians have rejected Yahweh and have now enclaved their fellow human beings. That is what He is interested in. It is a heart to heart concern, which brings Yahweh down. 

      The gods of Egypt, as a matter of fact, are mentioned only once.  You will find them in Chapter 12:12:  “For on this same, I will go through Egypt striking down every first-born of the land, man and beast, executing judgment on all of the gods of Egypt, Adonai, “I the Lord!”  Why is God upset with the Pharaoh?  Remember, we said that when we understand Yahweh’s translation of His name as the One who causes events in history to happen from His will, this is what He causes.  He causes the partnership between man and woman; He causes creation; He causes all that He has created to be wonderful and good.  As the creation story goes on, God looks at it each time He creates something and says it is good.  That is beautiful.  Why is He upset with Pharaoh?  He is upset with Pharaoh because Pharaoh, on the other side of the coin, thinks he is in charge. He has rejected God and now oppresses His people, Pharaoh’s own relatives.          

Why does the text use the “God of the Hebrews”.  To better understand this you must first understand the notion of inherited blessing and then trace it chronologically.  The line of blessing is the line of God’s first born son of the nations.  Since the beginning of  Adam and Eve in scripture there has always been a blessed line.  Now if you track Adam to Seth;  Seth to. .Noah; Noah to Shem;  Shem to. . .Eber (from whom we get the name Hebrews); Eber to. . . Abraham; Abraham to Issac; Issace to Jacob to . . .See Genesis 11; 

Eber is a water shed figure.  Scripture records that when Eber became a father, the earth was divided which was he named his son “Peleg”, a name that means “division” (Gn: 10:25). This is a direct reference to the Tower of Babel.  In building this famous ancient Tower the accursed Hamites tried to create a sort of heaven on earth in an attempt to seize the covenant blessing that had been passed to Shem’s descendants. Note that what the descendants of Ham are recorded as saying: “Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in Heaven and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered aboard upon the face of the whole earth (Gn 11:4).  In the Hebrew language the word for name is SHEM.  In other words there is a Hamitic rebellion against Shem, the son of Noah who inherited the covenant blessing, and against Shem’s heirs, Eber and the Hebrews.  The result is disaster and leads God to confuse the world’s languages, dividing and scattering the people.  Amongst these scattered people are the heirs of Ham, who included the Egyptians and the Canaanites (Gn 10:6).  

Now track Egypt’s line.  They are descendants of Ham and his children.  This is why I state that Moses is declaring that Egypt and the other sons of Ham are on the wrong side of a very old schism and have run off and have now enslaved their very kinsmen (the Hebrews).   The God of the universe is the God of the Hebrews, the God of Eber.

So note that the Egyptians are descendants of Noah as well.  So when Moses and Aaron say to the Pharaoh, “The God of the Hebrews” sent them they are importing a great deal about the Pharaoh and his people.

First: They are of the same family.

Second: Pharaoh’s Hamite line has rejected God and pretends not to know Him. 

Also be aware of what will be the promised land — the land of Canaan (the son of Ham).    
 
 
 
 
 

THE BEGINNING OF THE DEPARTURE

THE PLAGUES

CHAPTER SIX 
 

      When we looked at the name of Yahweh, out of Chapter 3:12-15, we understood the name Yahweh to be “I Am who I Am.”  This is the traditional understanding and translation. 

Can we come to a better definition or a better statement of what “I Am” means?  When we look: “ I Am or I cause to be what is”  or  “I cause to be what happens.”  We began to see that that was reflective of Yahweh’s presence, at least as understood in the Book of Exodus.  The name is important because now we are going to look at the plagues and then we are going to look at the actual departure.  We have to recall basically what we are saying:   I Am who I Am denotes what?   God never tells us Who He is.  Why? 

What is the best understanding is the explanation to the Hebrew?  God is a God Who says He will always be present with us.  God is a God who says that if you want to know who I am, what do you look for?  Look for Me in My words, and in My deeds, and My actions, and then you will know Who I am.  I will not tell you My name; I will tell you that I am the God that causes things to be.  I cause what happens to happen.  If you want to know Who I am, where do you look for Me?  You look for me in My mighty deeds and in My power.  That is how you know what the name is, or who Yahweh is.  So you never get a definition.  That you know Yahweh by what Yahweh brings to pass.  You know Yahweh by what Yahweh causes to happen.  That is who Yahweh is. 

Who is God is answered, therefore, in events that will happen in the future.  Keeping that in mind, let’s look just for a moment before we get back into the plagues on this origin of the Yahweh cult.   

      But, I think you have to, again, ask the question, Where did it come from?  How does it happen that Yahweh, rather than some other name, is the personal name of the God of Israel.  When you do a careful reading of the text in Exodus 3, you will find that there are two words that are commonly bantered about in the text, the general term of God: translated Elohim.  You find Elohim in Ex:3:1,

“Meanwhile, Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.  Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.”  God, in the Hebrew:  “Elohim.”  You find it again in verse 4,

“When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush.” 

You find it again in verse 11, “But Moses said to God.” 

You find it again in verse 12,

“I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you:  when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain.” 

Sometimes the special word Yahweh is found.  You find Yahweh in Ex 3:2.  This is just a breakdown of one little chapter on the differences between “Elohim” and “Yahweh”

You want to look for the different traditions involved here.

In Exodus 3:2:  “There an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush.” 

You find it again in verse 4:  “When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him.”

So Lord, Yahweh, God, Elohim, and on and on it goes in verses 7 and 15.  This is one of the evidences when scholars begin to break down the text that the narrative itself represents a blending of sources.  A blending of what we call the different traditions.  The different traditions are closely aligned. 

      We have what is called Pentateuchal traditions.  Four main traditions  basically of what we believe comprise the whole of the Pentateuch.  Let us look at the first of four traditions.  

First: The Yahwistic tradition.  As I mentioned, this is referred to as “J” because from the beginning when he calls God, Yahweh.  The explanation of why it is not “Y” and why it is “J.” comes from the time of Solomon, about 950 B.C., originating in the royal circles of Jerusalem.  Therefore, the king has an important place here, because the faith-unity of the community of Israel revolves around the king, who is the representation of God here on earth.   Therefore: “J” for Jerusalem rather than “Y” for Yahewh.

      Second: The next tradition is the Elohistic tradition denoted by the letter E.  It calls God, Elohim, Lord.  It came into being perhaps around 750 B.C., As you note  the time line is moving forward.  It is in the northern kingdom, after the kingdom of David and Solomon is split into two, into the two different kingdoms.  There is a large amount of usage with the message of the prophets, like Elijah and Hosea.  Great importance is attached to the prophet.  In the “E” tradition of the plagues, and especially of the crossing the Red Sea, the “E” tradition focuses on Moses as prophet.  About 700 B.C., both of these traditions come together.  It is a fusion called “Jehovistic,” If you have a Bible which outlines all of the different Pentateuchal traditions, you will see some verses with J E, which means it is a blending both of the Yahwistic and the Elohistic.   

Third:  The Deuteronomic is done by the letter “D.”  It began in the northern kingdom and was completed in the city of Jerusalem.   

Fourth:  “P” is the last one, representing the Priestly tradition.  During the Babylon exile, which is at the very end, 587 to 538 B.C., after the deportation, the priest re-read the traditions to keep up the people’s faith and their hope.  These four traditions and developments of the different sources in the Pentateuch were brought together in the five volumes itself that were known as the Pentateuch.  Around 400 B.C. is what scholars mostly agree would be the completion time, often attributed to Ezra the priest.   

We are going to go back to this because we want to look at what is “inside” when we do the famous departure from Egypt and the crossing of the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea). 

      Many scholars conclude that the narrative represents a blending of sources in the Book of the Exodus.  You are blending both the name of God and the name of the Lord, two different sources together.  In some verses that are strung exactly together you will have verse 15a and 15b, in which you have mention of the word: God, Yawheh, and then the word: Lord, Elohim.  It seems that what scholars have concluded is that it is based on two views of the time when first of all Yahweh was introduced according to the Yawhistic tradition.  The worship of Yahweh goes all the way back into the Book of Genesis, before the flood to the generation of Enoch, who is the grandson of Adam.  If you go back to Genesis 4:26b:  “At that time men began to invoke Lord by name,” at that time, men began to call upon the name of Yahweh.  On the other hand, E and P, these sources, the Elohistic and the Priestly tradition, refrain from using the name of Yahweh in the period covered by the Book of Genesis.  So when you go through it and look for their traditional sources, they do not use that word.  The name is associated, therefore, with special revelation to Moses, the central figure in the Book of Exodus in terms of the human figures.  We looked at Yahweh in terms of His name and the characters involved in the passages that we were dealing with, up until the time of the plagues that we had the Pharaoh on one side, we had Yahweh on the other side, and we had Moses in the middle.  That Moses gets a message from Yahweh because Yahweh hears: remember this is active, not passive, Yahweh hears, Yahweh listens, Yahweh has taken into His heart the cries of His people in bondage and in slavery.  And so He comes to Moses, and He says, this is what you are supposed to do:  You go to the Pharaoh and you tell him this.  So Moses becomes the intermediary between what might be considered the forces of darkness and evil.  Remember, what is in his heart?  He is hard; he is obstinate.  God does not move that person (Pharoah) to come to a belief in God by the signs and wonders that God does.  This is not how God operates.  That God does signs and wonders in our life to show that God is involved in your life and that you are not alone down here – that God hears, God listens, and God takes action.  That is all that the Book of Exodus is trying to tell you.  And He is trying to tell you the same thing today as if He were trying to tell you in 1200 B.C.: That God hears the cry of the poor, God hears those who are subjected to slavery, God hears those in bondage, God hears those who are sick and infirmed, God hears those to whom many people have put heavy burdens upon their back.