New love is always interesting. We used to have a saying "you’re looking through rose-colored glasses." It meant that no matter how the other person was in reality, they always looked "rosy" to you because you were in love.
Having rose colored glasses is a danger sign for a relationship that needs to stand the test of time. It’s a good idea to go through difficult seasons as well as good times with a prospective spouse. You will not change the person you marry - they will not magically become talkative or responsible or caring - so you need to know what you are getting into before you say "I do."
In Exodus 15 - 17 we see the beginnings of the relationship between Yahweh and the Children of Israel. As I’ve said, Exodus is a book of rescues and re-introductions. God has rescued Israel out of the bondage of Egypt - and they are in the first blush of a love relationship. We’ll see in Chapter 15 that it’s all praise and adoration - all "rose colored glasses" as they sing a wonderful song of praise for all of what God has done.
But by the end of the chapter the rose-colored glasses come off and the gloves go on - praise turns to grumbling - thankfulness turns to complaining. Welcome to the true character of the people God has betrothed.
God also gets to introduce His real self to them - and they begin to see how holy and pure He really is - and just what it will take to make this marriage work.
Chapter 15
This has been called "The Song of Moses."
Verses 1 - 3
Notice: God has become my salvation. How true that will be later on. It also reminds me of Genesis 22 where Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac - and Isaac said "where is the sacrifice?" and Abraham said "God will provide Himself a sacrifice."
Verses 4 - 10
Basically retelling the journey through the Red Sea in poetic form. It celebrates what God has done.
Now they celebrate the wonder of who God is, and what He is about to do.
Verses 11 - 19
If only this faith carried on into Numbers 13 where at the edge of the Promised Land, they lost all faith in the conquering God and believed the report of the spies who said it couldn’t be done.
How often do our words of faith and boasts of trust come back to haunt us as well? When God works a mighty miracle on our behalf we are full of praise and trust - so what happens when the next time we face a trial we cry out to God and complain that He’s never come through for us.
- We should remember the things God has done - don’t forget!
- Know that God doesn’t always answer in the same way. Next time you might seemingly fail - but it’s not because He has abandoned you. The important thing is trusting God - trusting in the outcome we desire.
So now Miriam - Moses’ older sister - takes up the praise.
Verses 20 - 21
This is the first occasion of Miriam being named that I found - and the first mention of her as a prophetess. Miriam (and Aaron for that matter) get into some trouble in Numbers 12 - so much so that the leprosy miracle that was so absent from the Exodus from Egypt comes back to show that God is still in control and not open to rebellion - even from a prophetess.
So from praise and worship to complaining and grumbling - my how fast this happens!
Verses 22 - 25a
The writer of Hebrews comes back to this event as a way to show that the Children of Israel were rebellious and did not believe God. "Do not harden your hearts as in the days of the rebellion" he writes - telling them not to adopt a similarly rebellious attitude when it comes to faith in Jesus. They were in danger of turning away - turning back to Judaism in the face of persecution. His point is that abandoning God is not the answer.
God was worried that the Children of Israel would be overwhelmed by war - so He didn’t want to take them to Canine right away. He was right - they were overwhelmed here not because of war but because the water was bad.
I don’t think there is any spiritual point to the log - it was just something that God said to do so Moses did it. Interestingly enough - in 2 Kings 2, Elisha threw salt into water and made it good. In chapter 17 Moses will simply hit a rock and water will come out. The point is obedience and trust in God as provider - no matter what the circumstances look like.
I will say this, though - the word "log" in ESV can be translated "tree." Putting a "tree" (the cross) into a bitter world made it sweet too.
Verses 25b - 26
See - the idea is listening and obeying. God is not a magician that we can command. He is a God whom we must trust - no matter what! We are not to do what is "right in our own eyes."
He promises to keep them from the plagues of Egypt. Egypt was judged for rebelling against God. We are all judged for the same thing. The judgment against Egypt awaits anyone who does not listen to God, realize they are sinners, then trust in His commands and obey what He says to do - trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23).
So watch what happens now:
Verse 27
Can God make a point or what! It’s like He’s saying "look - trust me - things may not look right to you, but I know what I’m doing - when you are with me you get an abundance."
Reminds me of Jesus:
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. NIV
Chapter 16
Only a month has passed since they left Egypt - but it seems miracles weren’t enough for these people - their grumbling spirit comes to the surface yet again.
Verse 1
They are most likely headed south towards Mt Sinai - though an alternate route has them going more northerly towards Canaan. "Sin" here does not have the meaning of our word "sin" by the way.
Verses 2 - 3
Does the word "shortsighted" come to mind? What were these people thinking? But as I said before - we ask for God to come through and when He does we immediately forget about it and next time we run into trouble we attribute bad motives to the One who has already helped us.
We pray for direction - follow it - and wind up in a difficult space and we think God doesn’t love us because we are experiencing difficulties. Try telling that to the Apostle Paul - he followed God’s direction - and sometimes God said "no" and sometimes Paul got beat up.
The absence of trouble does not signal the presence of the Lord - and conversely, the presence of the Lord does not mean the absence of trouble. Obedience is more important than outcomes.
But oddly enough, God has compassion on them, even though they are rebelling. But even in the blessing there are lessons.
Verses 4 - 10
Now at this point I wonder if the Children of Israel are thinking "Uh Oh - God’s angry with us."
Verses 11 - 18
Not only did this food appear out of thin air - but it was also just enough to fulfill the need. That’s God - provides what we need to survive out of seemingly nothing, but never gives us enough so that our greed comes out. An omer, by the way, is about 2 quarts.
This reminds me of what Jesus said:
Matthew 6:30-33 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ’What shall we eat ?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ESV
And of course, the children of Israel followed what Moses said about only taking as much as they needed, right? No.
Verses 19 - 21
Apparently the stuff had a short shelf life fresh. In fact, as we’ll see - if left out in the open and ungathered it melted when the sun came up.
Verses 22 - 24
The answer to the spoilage was to boil or bake it - but again the point here is obedience to the Lord’s command. It is possible that it miraculously kept as well - but the text doesn’t make that clear.
Next comes a test - and the introduction of the Sabbath. And an opportunity for the children of Israel to disobey.
Verses 25 - 30
This is only the first time that they disobeyed the Sabbath - later it will become more harsh. Here it is like a policeman giving a warning. Now - why did they disobey? If someone told you that you were supposed to kick back and relax on one day and that everything would be taken care of - wouldn’t you rejoice?
We have to keep in mind a couple of things: 1 - these people had just escaped from a brutal dictator who kept taking things away from them. They might have a hard time trusting in an authority that says they will get something for nothing. 2 - it is really against human nature to trust in God. It requires actually ceding control and relying on someone else for something very important to us. Do you ever have that problem? The closer to our core it gets, the harder it is to trust God.
So now - what to call this stuff and how to memorialize what God did in providing for them.
Verses 31 - 36
Remember - this was written by Moses at the end of the 40 years just before he died - so he has some perspective to look back on. Manna I’m sure tasted pretty good the first hundred or so times they ate it - but manna for every meal for 40 years? I’d love to see the cookbooks from that time!
Much later Jesus Christ in John chapter 6 deals with a similar attitude - the people wanted Jesus to do a miraculous sign to prove Himself. They said that Moses gave them Manna. Jesus then said:
John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. NIV
God will not do "tricks" to prove Himself. Later when the Jews asked for a sign Jesus said the only sign He would give was that of Jonah - signifying His death burial and resurrection. Tricks are temporary - and focus on ourselves, rather than on the issue of dependence on God.
By the way - the Manna in the Ark of the Covenant went missing when the Ark was captured by the Philistines many years later.
Okay - so the were thirsty, God gave them water - twice. They were hungry and He fed them miraculously. Aren’t we seeing a pattern here? I guess the people just didn’t get it because as soon as they are thirsty again, they complain again.
Chapter 17
In Chapter 17 we two dire situations the children of Israel find themselves in - and two ways the Lord rescues them. We see the provision and the protection of the Lord - and it is a picture for us as we seek to rely on Him more and more.
Verses 1 - 4
They literally "pull up stakes" and set out. "By stages" means they camped at various places along the way - but an important story takes place here at Rephidim. We really don’t know where this is, but it is possible that it is near Mt Sinai on the southern Arabian Peninsula.
The "you" in verse 3 is plural - so the people are complaining not just to Moses but to Moses and Aaron - or Moses and God. This is quite like chapter 16:1 where they people accused God of bringing them out from Egypt to kill them.
They are almost ready to stone Moses - how far he has fallen since the Exodus when the people revered him. This is often the case with leaders - one minute they are looked up to and respected, the next they are suspected and sneered at. And notice that it all has to do with the people’s needs.
Verse 5 - 7
This is amazing. Moses takes the same staff used to judge Egypt - and the Lord stands before him on the rock - and Moses is to strike the rock - and then life (water) comes out of the rock for the people.
This is a great picture of the gospel - and in fact, the Apostle Paul brings this up in 1 Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 10:5 I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. ESV
There is a lot of spiritual significance in these verses - but I just want to point out that the Rock was Jesus Christ. God’s judgment (the staff) was placed on Jesus (the Rock) for the rebelliousness of the people, and life came out - just as God judged our rebellion by placing the judgment for our sins on His Son Jesus - who overcame and rose from the dead, giving us all life.
Massah means "testing" and Meribah means "quarrelling." They doubted that God was among them. In the same way, the Jews much later would not believe that God in Jesus was among them.
That is the provision of the Lord - next comes the protection of God.
Verses 8 - 16
Amalek was the grandson of Esau - Jacob’s brother. Esau and Jacob never really got along - and now the animosity has grown to outright hostility.
Apparently the Amalekites fell on the rear of the people. This is the first we hear of Joshua and Hur. Hur was the grandson of Judah, son of Caleb. His grandson, Bezaleel, was the architect of the Tabernacle.
Most commentators think that the raised staff symbolized prayer - beseeching Yahweh to intervene on their behalf. When the staff was raised it was a sign, not to the men, but to God, that prayers were going up - and He came through with victory. Aaron and Hur holding up Moses hands could then be viewed as us holding up each other in prayer. A great picture.
God wanted Moses to write this down - His promise to wipe out Amalek. The ESV says "a hand upon the throne of the Lord." A slight change to the Hebrew would render: "A hand upon the banner" signifying the staff as a banner raised up for the Lord. If it is "throne" then the idea is a hand lifted to the throne of Yahweh - but it’s the same idea, really - Yahweh gets this great victory for Israel.
What is really interesting about this battle is that God did not give Moses any direction beforehand. It was Moses who told Joshua to go out and battle the Amalekites, and then Moses just lifts up the staff. God comes through in a big way.
We don’t always get specific direction from God when fighting our battles either. But we can see from this that:
1. There was a distinct threat to the people of God
2. There was active involvement by the people in the war
3. There was total dependence on God for all aspects of the victory through prayer
These principals can operate in our struggles as well.
Ephesians 6 tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood (distinct threat) - there is an invisible enemy out there who may work through visible people, but it is Lucifer who inspires and leads the battles against God’s people. We are to put on God’s armor - be prepared defensively, and offensively with His Word (active involvement).
Then Paul says: Ephesians 6:18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. ESV - that’s the total dependence on God through prayer.
