Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

Omega: BIB 102Exodus - Lesson 8

I. Problems in Their Pilgrimage 15:22-18:27) 1

Israel’s path to the Promised Land was not covered with rose petals. After crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites went into the wilderness of Shur. The area and land that they traveled was not an easy place to maintain an existence. Even before they reached Mt. Sinai, the redeemed of the Lord faced five serious problems.

A. Problem of Water (Ex. 15:22-27)1. Moses was now the acknowledged leader. After he led the Israelites into the Desert of Shur, the group traveled three days without finding water. A promising Oasis proved to be a disappointment. The water there was bitter, but no more than the people who expected to drink it.

a. That spot was name Marah, which means “bitter.”2. The grumbling people turned their anger against Moses. They expected him to know all the water holes in Midian. Moses in turn cries out to the Lord.

a. God directed his attention to a piece of wood which he was to throw into the brackish water. The solution to the problem was near at hand. It often is. b. Why the piece of wood? Some think this was a particular kind of wood that could make brackish water drinkable.

1. George Rawlinson: Pulpit Commentary in 1907 thinks it probable that a tree or shrub in the vicinity had natural purifying power. The miracle would consist of pointing out the tree to Moses.

a. Documentation of the claim that modern Arabs make use of such a method of water purification is lacking.

2. Casting this object into the water was probably intended to be a symbolic action designed to convey to the grumbling crowds that something had been done about the water. 3. The sweetened water must have been temporary, for the water in that region today is brackish.

1 Majority of this lesson from: Pentateuch – Dr. James Smith, pages 289-298.

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

3. God not only gave His people sweet water at Marah, he also gave them something much sweeter, namely, a promise.

a. Obedience to the voice of God would guarantee them good health. None of the diseases which God had smitten Egypt would come upon Israel. Yahweh is a healer and He would rather heal than inflict disease as He did in Egypt.

b. This last phrase – I, the Lord, am your healer – replaces the expected “your God” with “your healer,” changing the basic confession of Yahweh’s special nature and relationship into a confession of special blessing upon those in right relationship with him.

4. As the Israelites pressed on in their pilgrimage they found and abundance of water at Elim. This oasis was in a large plain and it contained twelve springs and seventy palm trees. This detail is added by the eyewitness narrator to suggest that the journey to that spot, however difficult, was well worth it.

a. Devotional Note: Too many believers encamp permanently at Marah, and never press on in their pilgrimage to taste the refreshment which is waiting at Elim!

B. Problem of Food (Ex. 16:1-36)

The contents of Exodus 16 can be divided into four paragraphs revolving around hunger and the provision of God.

1. Pain of Hunger (16:1-3)a. From Elim the Israelite host began to move eastward toward the desert of Sin, named after the moon god Sin. They had now been marching for one month. What little food they had brought from Egypt was now exhausted and the group was too large to live off the land.

b. For the 3rd time within the month the congregation began to grumble against Moses and Aaron. Their hunger caused them to idealize their sojourn in Egypt.

1. Vs. 3 exaggerates their plight. The “good old days” of slavery in Egypt were far superior to this. Their hunger had caused them to forget the slave masters and forced labor.

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

2. Prediction of Food (16:4-12)a. The Lord first communicated to Moses His solution to the hunger problem. He would rain down bread from heaven. The language clearly eliminates naturalistic explanations.

1. The Lord gave precise instructions regarding the heaven-sent bread. The people were to gather day by day only enough bread for that day. On the 6th day they were to gather and prepare twice as much food. With these instructions God would test the obedience of His people.

b. Moses and Aaron conveyed the announcement of God to all the people, for all had apparently been involved in the complaint. They pointed out that the people’s grumbling had not been against them, but against God.

1. The grumblers would now realize anew that the lord had brought them out of Egypt when they (1) saw the Glory of the Lord and (2) experienced the provision of meat and bread on the next day

c. Moses then directed Aaron to summon the people to an assembly “before the Lord,” i.e., a worship assembly. As Aaron addressed the assembly, the people observed the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud toward the desert.

3. Provision of Food (16:13-18)a. That evening the quail came and covered the camp.

Ps 78:27... “When He rained meat upon them like the dust,Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas...”b. In the morning the Israelites awoke to find a layer of dew about the camp. When the de dried, they noticed thin flakes like frost on the ground. Moses told them it was “the bread of the Lord.”

1. Moses directed the people to gather as much of the bread of the Lord as they needed. He suggested an omer (about 2 quarts) for each person living in a tent. Gathering the manna by hand the people had to estimate how much they had accumulated. Some had more, some had less; but a miracle occurred when they measured

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

their gatherings by the omer standard, Each person had exactly what he needed.

4. Precepts for the Food (16:19-30)a. Two major restrictions were placed on the use of the bread of the Lord.

1. It was not to be kept overnight. The people were to trust the Lord to provide their daily bread.

a. Some ignored this command and by morning the bread of the Lord stunk and was full of maggots. b. Moses became angry at the deliberate disobedience of the people to the 1st precept.

2. On the 6th day the people went to gather twice the amount of the bread of the Lord as they gathered on the preceding days. When this was reported to Moses, he revealed a 2nd divine command, namely, that the 7th day was to be a day of rest.

a. Some of the people tested the 2nd precept. They went out to gather the bread of the Lord on the 7th day and found none.

3. God had given the 7th day to Israel as a day of rest. People were not to venture out of their tents on the Sabbath.

5. Preservation of Manna (16:31-36)a. The bread of the Lord was given the name “manna” (“What is it?”). The color and taste of the substance are described by the narrator. Manna was white like a coriander seed, and had a honey-like taste.

1. The coriander plant found in Egypt and Palestine bears seed-like fruit. The dried leaves are used for seasoning and oil is produced from the seeds.

b. God directed Moses to preserve some of the manna for posterity. Aaron collected an omer of manna in a pot and placed it “before Yahweh.” c. In verse 34 it says this omer of manna was placed before “the Testimony” where it was to be kept.

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

d. The narrator closed the account by noting that the Israelites ate manna for 40 years, until they reached the border of the Promised Land. (And then adds an omer is a 10th of an ephah.)

C. Problem of Thirst (Ex. 17:1-7)

1. The Israelites eventually came to Rephidim in their journey. Here they found no water. For the 4th time the people complained. This time they went beyond grumbling; they quarreled against Moses. Murmuring is an attitude that God is insufficient in difficulties. 2. At Marah they had asked Moses, What Shall we drink? At Rephidim, after the three food miracles they had already witnessed along the way, they demanded that Moses produce water. 3. Moses considered himself powerless. Quarreling with him would do them no good. He wanted them that they were putting God to the test with their demand.

a. Hebrews 3:7-13... This passage refers to this incident and concluded that murmuring leads to hardness of heart and loss of standing with God.

4. Moses’ warning had a temporary calming effect upon the people, but soon they were grumbling again. They continued to accuse Moses of leading them out into the wilderness to their death.

a. The crowd was on the verge of stoning him, and this drove the prophet to his knees.

5. The Lord directed Moses to leave the camp and take some of the elders with him to serve as reliable witnesses. The people it seems had forfeited their right to witness any miracle which God might perform.

a. Moses was to take his staff and strike a rock beside which the Lord Himself would be standing.

6. Moses did as the Lord instructed, and when he struck the rock water gushed forth. (1st Corinthians 10:4)

a. Some have suggested that he struck a thin layer of limestone rock that covered a vein of water.

1. The problem with this view is that the rocks in that area are granite, not limestone.

7. Moses game two names to that spot: (1) Meribah (“quarreling”) and (2) Massah (“testing”).

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

a. Devotional Note: Whenever God’s people begin to demand a miracle to prove that God is in their midst, they are repeating the sin of Israel at Massah.

D. Problem of War (Ex. 17:8-15)

1. While the Israelites were encamped at Rephidim they were attacked by the Amalekites. There people were descendants of Esau. (Gen 36:12,16) The Amalekites pounced upon the stragglers who were weary and worn out from the journey. (Deut. 25:17-19)2. Joshua, mentioned here for the first of 27 times in the Pentateuch, was delegated to organize a fighting force to deal with the threat.

a. Moses promised to undergird his efforts with intercession on a nearby hill. He would hold in hand his staff, symbol of the power of God at work among his people. Moses’ reliance on the staff, however, did not exclude the action of Joshua.

3. As long as the Israelite fighters could see the upraised staff of Moses on the hill they prevailed in battle. When the staff was lowered because of fatigue, however, the course of the battle changed.

a. Noting this, a stone was rolled into position for Moses to sit upon. Aaron and Hur stationed themselves on either side of him and propped up his hands until the sun set. b. Jewish tradition identifies Hur as the husband of Miriam.

c. Joshua was thus enabled to overcome the Amalekite army.4. Devotional Note: Battles as well as blessings mark the course of a believer’s pilgrimage. Sometimes the Lord fights for His people (as at the Red Sea), and sometimes through His people. In any case believers can be confident that He who is in their midst is greater than any enemy which may encountered in the way. 5. Moses was told to write “this” namely, (1) the victory of Amalek, and (2) the prediction of Amalek’s destruction. Five times in the Pentateuch Moses was told specifically to write something. That Joshua was destined for even greater leadership is clear in this incident.

6. To commemorate the victory of Amalek, Moses erected and altar and called it Yahweh Nissi (“my banner”). All of Israel needed to realize that they fought under the banner of God.

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

7. Moses proclaimed a perpetual hostility of Yahweh toward the Amalekites. Devotional Note: Those who attach the people of the Lord incur the wrath of God.

E. Problem of Leadership (Ex. 18:1-27)

Exodus 18 narrates how Jethro, Moses father-in-law, visited the Israelites while they were in the vicinity of Mt. Sinai.

1. Jethro’s Arrival (18:1-8)

a. The report of what God had done for the Israelites had reached the ears of Jethro. Sometimes after the circumcision episode en route to Egypt, Moses “had sent” Zipporah and his two sons back to Jethro.

b. Jethro sent word to Moses that he was coming to meet him with Zipporah and her two sons. Was this intended as a mild rebuke to his son-in-law? In any case, Moses went out to meet Jethro and greeted him respectfully and warmly.

1. Inside his tent Moses rehearsed at length all that Yahweh had done to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake

2. Jethro’s Confession (18:9-12)

a. Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things which Yahweh had done for his people. He burst forth into praise to Yahweh.

b. This is not Jethro’s conversion, as some commentator imagine, but his elation that his own God had been so gracious.

1. First Jethro praised the Lord for rescuing Israel from the hand of the Egyptians and Pharaoh.

2. Based on this dramatic experience of divine power, Jethro expressed renewed confidence that Yahweh was greater than all other gods.

c. The word “know” does not necessarily mean “come to the realization,” but rather “know by personal experience.”

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Exodus – BIB 102Instructor Brian Schulz

d. Jethro then offered a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God. Aaron and the elders of the nation were invited to eat a sacrificial meal with Jethro “in the presence of God.” From Jethro Aaron may have learned the priestly craft. (Ex. 18:12)

3. Jethro’s Counsel (18:13-27)

a. The next day Jethro observed Moses exercising his judging function. People stood in line all day long to have Moses expound the will of God in settling their disputes.

1. Jethro was dumbfounded that Moses would attempt to shoulder this burden all by himself.

b. Jethro had some sound advice for his son-in-law. Moses of course should remain the representative of the people before God. He must teach them God’s decrees and laws and show them the duties which they should perform. Moses, however, should appoint subordinate judges over groups of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands.

1. Difficult cases would still be brought to Moses.

c. The appointees should possess three qualifications:

1. They should fear God.2. They should be trustworthy men.3. They should hate dishonest gain.

d. Jethro concluded that there would be two positive benefits from this arrangement. First, the people would be satisfied; and second, Moses would be able to stand the strain of his office. e. Moses accepted the wise counsel of Jethro, but the plan was not implemented immediately. According to Deuteronomy 1:9-15 judges were selected after the law was given at Sinai a few weeks later (18:24-26).f. Jethro elected to return to his own land, but apparently Zipporah and the children stayed with Moses. Moses sent his father-in-law on his journey by traveling a short distance with him.

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