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‘Yebel Musa’, or Mount Sinai,

with St Katherine’s monastery in the foreground

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these studies were first written in 2007/8, and substantially updated for Summer 2010

Bible study for Exodus 12:1-13

Exodus 12:1-13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Prior to this passage of Scripture, the book of Exodus has told us about the call of Moses and his confrontation of Pharaoh.  Moses had been called by God to release the people of Israel from slavery, so that by following the Lord’s instructions, he would be able to lead them to a ‘Promised Land’ (3:8,17).  Then, after a series of attempts to get Pharaoh to allow the people their liberty, God decided that He would act unilaterally to set in motion a plan to liberate Israel.

For the plan to work, the Lord needed to know that the people would trust Him and obey His chosen servant Moses.  So before the people were set free, the Lord gave Moses instructions about the celebration of a feast that would eventually symbolise the Lord’s deliverance of His people; and this feast would be called the ‘Passover’.  Our passage today tells us about the origins of this Passover feast.  Jewish people have celebrated the Passover ever since, though its importance for Christians is slightly different.  Passover is the Jewish feast at which Jesus was killed outside Jerusalem, and the early Christians soon realised why God had allowed the death of His Son on that date.  While the first Passover celebrated God’s salvation of Israel, the death and resurrection of His Son at Passover time was God’s far great salvation, made available to all, through faith in Jesus.

The story of God’s deliverance and salvation in Exodus is a long story, and it begins here.  Moses had already announced  to Pharaoh that God was about to act to release His people (11:4-8), and stubbornly, Pharaoh had ignored Moses.  He continued to refuse Moses’ request to set Israel free despite the long story of confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh, which Moses had won hands down.  So now, Moses turned to Israel to give these instructions, so that they would celebrate God’s deed of deliverance both while it was being done and after it was done.  The instructions refer to a night when God would ‘pass through’ Egypt (12:12) and judge the land, bringing death to the firstborn of Egypt (12:12).  So these instructions are for the protection of the people of Israel (12:13), and also to prepare them for the days ahead.  The people were living in Egypt in a stable lifestyle, and had to be ready to go.  If they were to be liberated they had to both honour the God who was setting them free and be ready to go.  A new ‘mindset’ was required.

Most of the passage describes the assembling of the people of Israel in families (12:3,4) to share a memorial meal, and the instructions seek to make sure that everyone is included in some family group.  In God’s family, no one is to be excluded or disadvantaged.  The preparations for the meal require an animal to be killed so that there is meat to eat, but the instructions for this are surrounded by ritual requirements to make the act of slaughter acceptable to God, and holy (12:5-6).  The blood of the animal represents life, as so it is used in a ritual to make a ‘sign’ on the ‘two doorposts and lintel of the houses’ (2:7) as a sign to God of the holiness of the occupants as obedient Israelites (12:13).  The meal is then eaten and consumed completely, and the people are to be ready to move (12:11).

Today, we find the details of this sacrificial meal somewhat gruesome.  However, they are little more than meal preparation instructions and are far less religiously imposing than the awesome rituals described later on in Scripture (see the book of Leviticus); the Passover meal first took place some considerable times before these later sacrificial instructions were given.  The meal described here is important because it helps us understand something about the eternal grace of God.  For, they show that God is always at work and ready to save His people, and if we will be obedient to what He asks of us, then we, too can take part in what He plans, which of course, is our salvation.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The Passover; when and where was it to be eaten?
• The Passover; what was to be eaten and how?
• God’s Passover, death, and the importance of being ready

Exodus 12:1-13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The details of this passage contain some fascinating insights, from the way in which Scripture talks about an ‘assembly’ (12:3,6,) of the people of Israel, to the meaning of details such as ‘roasting’ the meat (12:9,10), and the ‘bitter herbs’ (12:8).  Possibly the most fascinating of these are the instruction for how the Passover meal should be eaten (12:11).  All of these have meaning both for Jews and Christians.

The Passover: when and where was it to be eaten?

All manner of elaborate theories have been put forward about the timing of the Passover, and this has affected even the manner in which Easter is chosen within the Christian church.  There have even been groups of Christians who believed that the only proper date for the death of Jesus was the 14^th of the first month of spring (as the Passover is defined in this passage), whatever day this might fall on.  They were called the ‘quartodecimans’ (Latin for 14^th!), but this belief never took root in mainstream churches.  The ‘first month’ (12:2) of the Jewish calendar in which the Passover must be kept is the month of ‘Abib’, which occurs during our March and April.  It was the first month of the year in ancient Jewish calendars because the agricultural year began with spring, symbolising ‘new life’.  It is not certain whether the New Year pre-dated the Passover or not, but our passage makes it clear that the Exodus was so important that it had to be the first religious celebration of the Jewish year (12:2).  The Passover is strongly linked to other ‘New Year’ festivals such as the festival of ‘Unleavened Bread’ (as we will see tomorrow – Exodus 12:14-20).

No-one knows why the lamb for the festival meal had to be chosen on the 10^th day of the month and kept to the 14^th.  If there were any connections to the conditions of the people of Israel in Egypt and the timing of what was happening, then it is not pointed out in the text.  The 14^th is, however, the middle of the lunar month of 28 days.  The emphasis in the text is on the obedience required of the people of Israel, for just as Moses had needed to learn to be obedient to the Lord; all God’s people now had to learn this lesson.

It is fascinating to observe that Israel was instructed to celebrate the Passover firstly in family groups, each with its male ‘head of the household’ (see 12:3,4).  This man had to select the animal for the meal, and the instructions also made careful provision for those families where there was no suitable male figure or the family was too small (which is the meaning of 12:4) .  The animals, however, were all to be killed at the same time, when the families of all Israel gathered in an ‘assembly’ (12:6). Jewish faith has continued to emphasise the importance of the family as the smallest social unit with an important religious function; indeed most Jewish people celebrate Passover to this day in their families.  The Christian church has always emphasised the importance of the gathering of God’s people, which in the New Testament is the ‘ecclesia’, or, the ‘church’.  It is perhaps regrettable that it has lost touch with the idea of the family as an important expression of Christian faith, and few churches have any specific suggestions about how families might celebrate their faith together.

The Passover: what was to be eaten, and how?

It is also interesting that the animals were to be killed ‘at twilight’.  This latter phrase hides a rather obscure Hebrew word which means ‘between the two evenings’.  Some believe this means during the last quarter of the day, between roughly 3.00 pm and 6.00 pm; and others think it was between sundown and darkness (twilight).  As yet, there is no clear way of knowing which is right, but you will realise how important this is if you recall the connections we made earlier with the death of Jesus, which may have happened around 3.00 pm (according to Luke 23:44).  In reality, the Old Testament is not clear about the exact time of the Passover sacrifice, and the New Testament is not as clear as we might like about the time of Jesus’ death.  We must be content with what the Bible says about the meaning of the Passover and Jesus’ death, rather than the details of the time.

Traditionally, we think of the animal to be selected as a lamb.  However, as this text explicitly says (12:5), the animal to be killed for the meal could either be a sheep or a goat; the Hebrew word means either.  Whether the animal selected was one or the other, it had to be one year old, male, and perfect (meaning not lame or injured). This meant that the animal was the best that could be brought to God and used for the intended purpose. It was difficult to separate out sheep and goats in ancient times because the two breeds were very similar, and they were allowed to live and graze together; so it is no surprise that either was acceptable.

The meal was to be eaten after being roasted, and not eaten raw or boiled (12:9)!  This may seem to us to be somewhat incidental, but roasting over a fire was the quickest way to cook a whole animal, and boiling would take a very large pot and a long time.  This verse of our passage appears to contradict Deuteronomy 16:7, where we are told that later in Passover festivals, the lamb had to be boiled, not roasted!  Why the difference?  The only reasonable explanation is that the original instructions were for the event of the Exodus only, in which haste was required (see 12:11), but later celebrations did not require the same haste, hence the changed instructions.  Most scholars accept there was a difference between the Passover meal ‘in Egypt’ and the meal as it was practiced later, after the Israelites met God at Sinai (Ex 20f.).  The meal was to be eaten with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.  We will look at the unleavened bread requirement tomorrow, but the bitter herbs were probably a type of wild lettuce, but later generations came to associate this with the ‘bitterness’ of suffering in Egypt.

God’s Passover, death, and the importance of being ready

The last two features of this passage are particularly important.  The Lord instructed the people of Israel to eat the meal of the Passover hurriedly, because of the impending escape from Egypt.  If you think about it, this required considerable faith on the part of the Israelites.  Their previous attitude to Moses was to reject him and also the God he served (5:21), but after the demonstrations of power given by God to the people of Egypt in the plagues, these instructions challenged them not to merely sit back and receive God’s liberation, but to participate themselves by being obedient.  Verse 11 requires the Israelites to eat the Passover meal fully dressed and ready to depart and escape from Egypt; it was a strange but pertinent requirement.  Christians can see in this verse a connection with our Lord’s instructions for His disciples when going ‘on mission’ to do His work (e.g. Matt 10:10), and also indicates the extreme importance of the work of mission.  Such work, even today, is life and death for those to whom the message is brought.

It is well known that the Lord commanded the Israelites to smear blood on the ‘doorposts and lintels’ of their homes, thereby marking the dwellings of the Israelites for when the final plague would come to Egypt.  We will discuss what actually happened at the point in Exodus where this is described (Ex 12:29f.), but in this passage, the purpose of the blood was to signify the ‘holiness’ of those Israelite people who had been obedient to the instructions; in other words, those who had shown faith in God through what they did.  The symbolism of blood and holiness is primitive indeed, but the meaning of it is helpful, even to Christians, showing that the connection between faith, obedience and actions was valid in Old Testament times as well as New (see James 1:22, 2:14f.)!

Exodus 12:1-13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

As we have seen, there are a number of connections between this passage and the Christian faith, because of the meaning of the Passover and its connection with the death of Jesus.  For example, nearly all the features of the text can help us appreciate the importance of faith and obedience.  It is important, though, to stand back from being too concerned to find exact connections between the Passover and the sacrifice of Jesus, for one simple reason.  What Jesus did for us on the Cross was more than what God did for the Israelites in Egypt.  God liberated His people Israel from Egypt so that they would fulfil their mission in the world; through Jesus, however, God made His salvation available to everyone.  The death of an animal was a worldly sing for people to help them do God’s work on earth; the death of Jesus was a spiritual sign for earth and heaven that God’s work of salvation was done, once and for all. 

Despite this, not everyone is ready to accept what God has done through His Son Jesus, and today, we must receive this by faith if we are to receive the benefits of God’s grace.  We may wonder whether there were Israelites who did not do what God asked of His people, and were consequently numbered with the Egyptians when the time came for God’s judgement to be made.  We do not know for certain, and Scripture does not tell us here whether all Israel was obedient.  This only serves to warn us today of the importance of being obedient to God’s word once it has been revealed to us.

The other very interesting feature of the Passover meal is that to this day, it is celebrated largely in families.  This is interesting, because the Christian equivalent of this meal is the ‘Lord’s Supper’, or Communion, which generally speaking is only shared where there is a church leader present.  Personally, I have always felt that because of the origins of the Passover, it is right to allow a form of the ‘Lord’s Supper to be celebrated in families.  For theological reasons that are not entirely convincing, most mainstream churches have always rejected the idea that the communion can be shared in the family.  They say that a recognised priest or church clergy should be present if it is to be valid; but I would suggest that in the home, it is valid if the Holy Spirit is present and Jesus is honoured by the family, in particular the parents.  If we encouraged some form of communion celebration appropriate to celebration in the home, it would do a great deal for the development of Christian family life, and this is the basis for so much.  I would love to think we could learn from this passage of Scripture!

Exodus 12:1-13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. How can we make the most of the idea of eating a meal together to celebrate the central truth of our faith that Jesus died and rose again to bring salvation?
2. What part do annual celebrations and festivals play in the life of our church?
3. Discuss and share any experiences you may have of when you have had to be obedient to the Lord in some specific matter.

Topics covered by this text

• The foundation of the Passover feast
• The salvation of God
• Obedience and being ready

Personal comments by author

We can take a number of things from this text.  One of them is the importance of being obedient and being ready.  So often, I have found that I was not ready when the Lord asked me to help.  I thought I was ready, but I was not.  It is not that I should have worked hard at this or that, more that I was not spiritually ready for the work of God when it happened.  I was doing my own thing and not looking to the Lord for what He might do at any moment in time.  How can any of us be ready then?  To start with, we can be ready by praying and keeping in touch with the Lord, as much as possible.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Set aside some time to pray and work out with God the priorities for your life in the coming days.  Do your best to identify specifics, not just generalities.  When you feel that you are clear about this, set in motion a plan to do what God has required of you.  Your task is to be obedient!
• Have a look through the internet at what is said about the Passover, and look especially for information about so-called ‘Christian Passover’ feasts.  Examine them carefully, and make up your own mind about whether they are a useful expression of Christian faith.  What more do they say about faith than celebrating the Lord’s Supper’?

Final Prayer

Jesus, You ask each of us to do things we do not understand, and perhaps never will, until we come to glory.  Help us to be so deeply committed to You that we are not troubled by such matters, but content to do that which You ask of us; to Your praise and glory: AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 12:14-20

Exodus 12:14-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The Lord was about to do an amazing work amongst His people, and He needed them to keep close to Him, and remain obedient.  They did not fully understand what was happening, but their very lives depended upon remaining faithful to the Lord and doing what He said, even if they did not understand it.  God was about to set His people free from Egypt in one dramatic night, and He had given them instructions about what they had to do (12:1-13).  But before it happened, the Lord gave instructions about how they would remember all this is in generations to come (12:14).

This passage is not exactly easy for people today to understand.  However, those who heard this for the first time knew very well that it contained directions for a classic, very large, religious festival.  By giving these impressive instructions before He actually set His people free, God gave His people a promise.  It was His way of saying, ‘I really will do what I have said, and afterwards, you will appreciate how important this is by holding the most impressive feast of the year!’  With this in mind, we can now set about looking at the details of the feast, the most significant of which is the use of ‘unleavened bread’.

Leaven (yeast) has a purpose in baking, because it makes the bread rise and gives it a light texture and improves its flavour.  However, yeast is a living organism that has to be passed on from one batch of dough to the next, and so it came to represent the security of stable daily life, something the people of Israel were about to leave behind.  Omitting yeast would make the bread less palatable, but this was not the point; the use of unleavened bread had practical and a symbolic implications.  Firstly, unleavened bread was less likely to go mouldy in the heat of a desert journey, and secondly, it symbolised being ready to break with the past and prepare for the future.  So by giving the people instructions for a feast of ‘Unleavened Bread’, the Lord reminded His people that in order to be liberated, they had to live as a people ready to do His will.

As we read them, we will find that the details of these instructions are repeated.  For example, verse 14 is like verse 17, with each verse saying that the festival is special and appointed by the Lord, and each one ending with the words, ‘it is a decree for all time’ (12:14,17).  Further details of the feast are then found in verse 15, and these are expanded in verse 18 to 20.  We learn that the feast was to last for seven days, that unleavened bread was to be eaten throughout, that leaven had to be removed from all homes, and anyone who failed to keep these instructions had to be excluded from Israel.  The feast was to start at the end of the fourteenth day of the first month and end on the twenty first (12:18), the seven days being typical of such feasts, and it had to include all within the community of Israel (12:19).

The only verse standing entirely on its own is verse 16, and this adds the instruction that the first and the seventh day of the festival were to be ‘holy days’, with the first day being the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar.  At this point we have to remember that the Jewish calendar is quite different to ours.  For them, this day is always a Sabbath day, as is the twenty first, which is why the passage calls them ‘holy’ days.  We are also told that because of the special circumstances, food could be prepared on these Sabbath days (12:16), something not usually allowed!

To this day, Jewish people celebrate the Passover meal and the festival of Unleavened Bread wherever they are in the world (12:19).  We often speak of ‘Passover’, but we should not forget all the symbolism of the feast of Unleavened Bread with which it is associated.  Moreover, a Christian will quickly see that this feast has much to teach us about celebrating God’s work of liberation and being ready to do His will. 

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The meaning of ‘unleavened bread’, and its prohibition
• The remembrance of God amongst His people
• Patterns of worship amongst God’s people
• Why does God speak of bring His people out of Egypt ‘like an army’?

Exodus 12:14-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The explanation given above for the use of unleavened bread is simple enough, but there is some uncertainty about it even in Scripture.  To begin to understand this, we should remember that the word ‘leaven’ means two things; firstly it is a word for the yeast which is used in bread to make it rise.  Secondly, it is used for the small piece of uncooked dough retained from one batch to be used as the starter for introducing the yeast to the next batch.  Yeast is a naturally occurring airborne organism which grows in bread dough to make it ‘rise’, and it also grows within liquids to make them ferment, producing wine.  Ancient people knew how to create new leaven by leaving out bread dough to pick up yeast spores from the air, but the usual practice in the baking of bread was to pass on the ‘leaven’ from batch to batch.

There is plenty of evidence that settled agricultural people of ancient times (in contrast to nomadic people who moved around in tents), celebrated harvest festivals by worshipping their gods when particular crops were harvested.  The idea of a feast of ‘unleavened bread’ in that setting was to dispense with the old bread and leaven from the previous year’s crop and celebrate the harvest by making new bread which was freshly leavened.  It is thought that the people of Israel, who were historically nomadic, picked up these skills whilst in Egypt.  They would have to leave all this behind, however, for their journey into the Promised Land; hence the need to remove all the old leaven.  It symbolised the ‘old life’ of slavery in Egypt, and a new leaven would have to be created for a settled life in the Promised Land.

There is a great deal of debate about the meaning of leaven in both the Old and the New Testaments.  Both Jesus and Paul talk about leaven as a symbol of some kind of evil (Matt 16:6; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor 5:6-8; Gal 5:9), though in contrast, Jesus also talks positively about yeast in one of his parables (Matt 13:13; Luke 13:21) when giving an example of faith!  Many people have been confused as to whether leaven therefore is a symbol of ‘good’ or ‘evil’ in the New Testament.  If we accept the Old Testament meaning of leaven which is both positive and negative, then what we find in the New Testament is not surprising.  The old leaven represents what must be left behind (evil) and the new leaven anticipates what is to come (in this case, faith).

In our passage, we should also note that great emphasis is placed on the clearing out of the old leaven (12:15,19); moreover, searching the house for old leaven is still very much a part of Unleavened Bread festivals to this day.  Verse 15 forbids the eating of leavened bread during the festival, and verses 19 and 20 extend the prohibition, making it a central characteristic of Israelite faith to the extent that eating leavened bread during the festival is regarded as equivalent to being ‘cut off’ from the community of Israel.  The Hebrew words ‘cut off’ (12:15,19) do not necessarily carry a sense of judgement, although they appear to do so in English; the phrase means that the consequence of ignoring the festival ban was that the person who did this ceased to be part of God’s liberated community.  As such, it was a matter of obedience.

The remembrance of God amongst His people

As we have seen, the instructions for the remembrance of God’s deliverance were given just prior to the deliverance itself.  Because of this, some think that this part of God’s revelation to Moses (12:1-20) was added at a later date, but we really do not know how this might have happened.  There is no reason to think that Moses was not able to see that by giving the instructions beforehand, it might help the Israelites to face what lay before them with greater fortitude.  Certainly, Jesus spoke about His own death and resurrection before it happened (e.g. Matt 20:18,19), so it seems that there is a pattern of prophetic revelation within Scripture.

Part of the problem Moses originally found amongst his own people in Egypt was that they had apparently lost sight of their heritage through the forefathers.  The Lord therefore had to reveal Himself anew to Moses and appeal to His people’s memory of the forefathers in the message Moses brought to them (4:5).  In the most significant early part of the story of God’s people in Egypt, their cry caused God to ‘remember’ His people (2:23), and this meant that He began to do things which brought about their deliverance.  Now, the Lord set out a detailed annual and weeklong feast by which the people would continue to remember Him.

Patterns of worship amongst God’s people

As we saw yesterday, the Passover meal was eaten within the family, but the bigger festival of Unleavened Bread which began with this meal was to be celebrated by the whole community.  Verse 16 talks about holding a ‘holy assembly’ on the first and the seventh day, where the assembly on the first day was presumably for the sacrificial slaughter of the Passover lambs (see 12:6), and the final day for other worship of the Lord.  The requirements for the first and last day were that they would be like a Sabbath day, and no work should be done on them. However, the rules for these days were more relaxed than a normal Sabbath because food could be prepared on them (12:16).

We would be fascinated to know what worship might be practiced on the first and last day when no work was done, but Scripture does not tell us, and we can only guess!  Certainly, the people of Israel formed their own patterns of worship which changed over the years.  This is a reminder that Scripture is very specific about some aspects of worship (in this case, not eating leavened bread) but quite silent about others, which His people are at liberty to develop.  It is impossible however, to imagine that worship can do anything other than give thanks to God for His deliverance, as here, in the festival of Unleavened Bread.

Why does God speak of bring His people out of Egypt ‘like an army’?

The last feature of the text we will look at is the part of verse 17 which says ‘I brought you like an army out of Egypt’.  This phrase is similar to others found earlier (Ex 6:26 and 7:4) which are also parts of speeches by the Lord in which he describes the exodus of His people from Egypt.  A literal translation of this phrase would be ‘I brought you out of Egypt in your companies’, where the expression ‘companies’ is a military one usually describing the organisation of an army (hence my translation).

This phrase was therefore a reminder from God that the people were leaving Egypt on military alert.  They would soon face pursuit by the Egyptian army after they fled the land (14:5f.) and would one day face battle, being forced to fight to take the Promised Land they would one day possess.  In addition, this phrase adds a sense of danger and urgency to God’s requirements.  The text of verse 17 clearly refers to the original circumstances of the Exodus from Egypt, but it is also a reminder to us that in the midst of our celebrations of God’s deliverance, God’s people have battles to face and need to be on their guard to fight against the continuing presence of evil.

Exodus 12:14-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This passage has a number of important features that relate to Christian faith and worship today.  It tells us that when we gather for regular worship, we do so to remember what God has done for us; it is a duty as much as a pleasure!  In the services of worship we hold today, we remember what God has done for us through many features of our praise and our prayers, but we do this most poignantly through the sharing of bread and wine.  This is the closest the Christian Church has to a replacement for the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the early Christian church was far more conscious of this connection than we are today.  For example, whereas many Christians celebrate communion daily, weekly or monthly, many early Christian churches celebrated communion only at Easter.  They shared bread and wine once a year just like the festival of Unleavened Bread, and it is easy to see why they thought this to be appropriate.

Worship is a difficult and emotive subject amongst Christians, and it would be helpful if we had clear guidance about exactly how we might worship God and please Him in what we do.  The Bible, however does not give us much advice.  It is clear that we should pray, read God’s Word and hear it expounded, and share in the Bread and Wine, for Jesus asked all His followers to do such things in different ways (Matt. 6:6f. 28:19, 1 Cor 14:1f. etc).  However, it seems that the Lord has given us liberty in our worship rather than restrictive practice, with nothing more than the most general of guidance.  It is helpful, however, if we recognise that however we go about our worship, it is the response of God’s people in love and obedience to their Maker and Redeemer, and it must surely recall the great deeds of God through Jesus Christ by which we are saved.  

In the passage of Scripture we have read today, there are instructions about worship given to God’s people of old.  They certainly require worship that remembers God’s work of salvation, but they reflect something we are reluctant to talk about today, and perhaps we should.  They suggest that those who will not do what God has required are not part of His people.  We like to think that the church is open to all people whatever their circumstances, but we need to remember that being open to all is a stance, and this cannot define who we are.  God’s people are those who receive Him by faith and are obedient to His will.

Exodus 12:14-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In what ways do we ‘remember’ what God has done for us within our worship?
2. How does the festival of Unleavened Bread relate to the life and worship of God’s people today?
3. How can God’s people be ready and prepared for action ‘like an army’ (see 12:17) in order to defeat the powers of evil?

Topics covered by this text

• The meaning of the festival of Unleavened Bread
• Obedience to the Lord’s commands
• Being ready to do God’s will
• Remembrance of the saving acts of God

Personal comments by author

This passage of Scripture reminds me that our worship of God must be God centred and not people centred.  I have heard so many arguments in recent times about the nature of worship, and all of them based on whether the worship we perform is something people can understand.  In reality, we should be far more concerned about whether the worship we offer is worship that the Lord our God accepts!  He has asked us to remember Him and honour Jesus, to pray and read the Bible, and give ourselves to Him exclusively, so whatever we do, it must be ‘God-focussed’ or else it is not worship.  Though I have to say that I like the idea of weeklong festivals of worship with plenty to eat, even if the bread has no yeast!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• What do you think about the worship of God, and what picture do you have in your mind about what the Lord requires of us as opposed to what we would ‘like’ to do to worship Him?
• Look carefully at this text and see if you can find for yourself some principles within it for worship that is relevant for God’s people today.  Find an opportunity to discuss this with others at your own church, and perhaps also with friends who attend different churches.

Final Prayer

All praise to You, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer.  Because of Your love we have been given a glimpse of the eternal love of God the Father, and by the power of Your Holy Spirit we are led to worship You in spirit and in truth.  Keep us close to You and Your Word, we pray, especially in our worship.  AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 12:21-36

Exodus 12:21-36 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

There is no doubt that this is one of the most fearful passages of the Bible.  Although we know that God was working to liberate His people, we are presented here with an awesome sequence of events.  Moses pleaded with the elders of Israel to be obedient and fulfil the Passover regulations they have been given (12:7, and 12:22), knowing that this would be a matter of life and death.  The Lord was ready to strike.  The elders of Israel accepted Moses’ words and did as he said (12:27,28), then the Lord came on Egypt in the night as a ‘Destroyer’ (12:23) and killed all the first born of Egypt (12:29-32).  Amidst scenes of horror, Israel left (12:33-36); the Egyptians begged them to go.

What a fearsome moment.  God does not always intervene in history in such dramatic ways, but these were no ordinary times, and it had become necessary for God to demonstrate His power and authority if Israel were to be liberated to fulfil their destiny.  What happened is hard for us to comprehend, however, and it is difficult and unpleasant reading.  We tend to avoid Old Testament passages like this because we do not like the fact that it speaks of God killing people (12:29f.).  We would much rather that Almighty God deliver people without bloodshed, and we find it hard to accept the fact that liberation comes at a cost.

If we are to understand all this we must not ignore the fact that our own Saviour, Jesus Christ, died for us so that we might be set free.  This is not the only place in the Bible where we have to face the uncomfortable truth that our faith is a matter of life and death.  In real history, good does not prevail unless evil is defeated, and justice and truth are not victorious without a cost.  However, we must accept that when God does things within His world, He does so in complete command of death as well as life.   

Of course, we are in awe of the terrible punishment meted out on the Egyptians and Pharaoh.  In Egypt, the life and prosperity of Pharaoh and the people of Egypt were integrally linked.  Pharaoh vaunted himself as a god, and the Egyptians regarded themselves as the pinnacle of civilisation, so both Pharaoh and people all received the same treatment from God (12:29f.), for all were mortal.  On that night there were no innocent individuals; all were caught up in what it meant to be Egyptian or Israelite, and in a moment of history revealing God’s power to save, a line was drawn between the two.  To this day, knowing God is a matter of life and death, and salvation is not a spiritual quest; it is life when all else is death.

In the first part of our passage (12:21), we may wonder why Moses gathered the elders of the people and repeated God’s Passover regulations.  He did this to ensure that Israel stood obedient before God in the critical moments before He came in power (12:27).  After all the signs and wonders, the plagues, and the disputes between Moses and Pharaoh, everything was now ready for God’s liberation.  In the midst of this awesome event, notice how far we have travelled since the beginning of the book of Exodus.  The story begins with doubt and despair (Exodus 1,2), but now God is ready to deliver His people.  At the beginning, Moses had shown little promise as a leader of God’s people, he was a defeated man hiding in the desert (Exodus 2:15f.); but he was now in full command of events, under God.  He had done God’s will and stood strong before Pharaoh, though it had been a difficult encounter because of Pharaoh’s tedious and repetitive rejection of God (see Exodus 6-11).

This will never be an easy passage of Scripture to read, but if we want to understand more about how God works to bring salvation and liberation to our troubled and sinful world, then we need to take this passage very seriously indeed.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The night of the Passover and its remembrance
• The night of the ‘Destroyer’
• Death and destruction in Egypt
• The exodus from Egypt

Exodus 12:21-36 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The details of the story are interesting.  Much of what happens here has been described in advance, but there are new insights which help us understand more about the Passover meal, for example.  When the Israelites are finally given permission to leave by Pharaoh, we will not understand why he acts as he does (asking for a blessing, for example – 12:32) unless we do so from the perspective of ancient peoples; and this is quite different to our own.

The night of the Passover and its remembrance

We have already read about the instructions for the Passover meal in 12:1-13, but here in this passage, we hear about what happened.  We must assume that Moses had passed on what he had earlier received from the Lord to all the people, and the time came for him to call on them to make ready the Passover sacrifice (12:21-23).  The emphasis in these few verses is not on the eating of the sacrificial meal, but on those actions which secured the people’s protection from God’s Destroyer (12:23).  Here, we learn that a bunch of ‘hyssop’, a small, closely growing shrub, was to be used to pick up the blood of the sacrificed lamb from a bowl so that it could be smeared on the lintel and doorposts of the homes of the Israelites as a sign (12:22).  Hyssop is thought to have been either a small shrub or type of North African marjoram, but its purpose was to spread the blood sufficiently for a visible mark.  Probably as a consequence of this event, hyssop came to be associated with healing, as in the famous Psalm; ‘purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean’ (Psalm 51:7 – see also Leviticus 14:1-9 and Numbers 19:1-10).  This sign of protection was the urgent need of the terrible night of the Destroyer, and although it seems primitive to us, blood was a sign of life.

People sometimes ask why it was that such a sign was required.  Surely God knew who had been obedient to Him and who His people were, and did not need to ‘see’ the blood (12:23).  The smeared blood, however, was a demonstration of obedience, and obedience has never been a mere mental thing; it has to be physical.  What other sign could so dramatically signify the obedience of that household to the Lord’s commands given through Moses.  In addition, it was an open sign that publicly acknowledged that the householder was part of God’s people.  Israelites had to have the courage to make their identity known in Egypt and stand for who they were; and although this is not said in this passage, the sign of the blood on the doorposts and lintel was also a sign to the Egyptians.  All would be able to see clearly the difference between whose houses were affected by the ‘Destroyer’, and whose were not.

Some commentators believe it to be strange that the passage suddenly changes in verse 24 to give detailed instructions about how this act was to be repeated in future years as a memorial of the Exodus.  But it is surely not surprising that this was the very time to ensure that this requirement was firmly implanted in the minds of the people.  As we saw yesterday, God had remembered His people, and now they were called upon to remember Him, and the best way to do that was to re-enact parts of the event in such a way as roused the interest of children yet to be born (12:24).  Surely we can learn from this principle today?

The night of the ‘Destroyer’

On the night of the Passover, the Lord came to ‘strike’ the Egyptians with the tenth, final and deadly plague, killing the firstborn of all Egypt.  What actually happened is not known to us, and there is little more we can say to satisfy our interest in the facts of the matter.  In verse 23, Scripture uses the strange word ‘hamashchith’ meaning ‘one bringing destruction’.  We can only guess that this refers to an angel of death acting out God’s will to devastate the firstborn in each household.  We should be aware that some feel it is appropriate to think of this named spiritual being as like a manifestation of evil similar to that found in Job, who is tormented by an ‘accuser’ (in Hebrew, the ‘satan’, see the first two chapters of Job).  In Job, this being does what is evil only by God’s permission and authority, which is what happens here in this story.

Scripture leaves us to work out what we will about this, because its focus is on God and His power to do what is right in judgement.  Pharaoh continued to reject God to the point that God rejected him and his authority to protect his people.  We should not forget that the contest between God and Pharaoh was a contest of divinity, between God Almighty and someone who claimed to be a god (Pharaoh) and who bore the rights and duties of protecting his own people.  The final plague, awful as it was, did not wipe out Pharaoh or his household, or even Egypt; it drove home the point that Pharaoh was not the god he thought he was.  There was only one God.

Death and destruction in Egypt

The range of death and destruction was compete throughout Egypt; ‘from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon’ (12:29).  This statement varies a little from what was said earlier, where the least of all people was described as the ‘servant-girl behind the hand-mill’ (11:5), but it merely shows the range of God’s work through the Destroyer.  No-one was exempt and a ‘great cry’ (12:30) surged around Egypt in the middle of the night when the Destroyer struck.  The verse which describes this horror is mercifully brief, and characteristically of Scripture, the focus shifts to the consequences of what happened.

Pharaoh, the king who had not previously known who ‘the Lord’ was (5:2f.) and who had also thrown Moses out of his court vowing to kill him if he returned (10:28), now summoned his old enemy in abject submission.  He ordered Moses to do what he had first requested, to leave the country without any conditions (remember, Pharaoh had toyed with Moses about conditions for the release of the Israelites during the plagues – 8:28, 10:10,24).  Many people find what happens next rather strange, however.  Firstly, Pharaoh asked for a blessing from Moses, and later, the Egyptians honoured the Israelites by allowing them to take ‘items of silver and gold and clothing’ (12:35)!  This appears very strange, and we gain the feeling from the text that the Lord manipulated the Egyptians to make them generous to the Israelites (12:36).  What we fail to appreciate is that when the final plague struck, Pharaoh and the Egyptians responded in the manner of their own day, not ours.  They believed that they had been dealt a blow by a superior god to those who they believed protected them, and it was therefore in their interests to appease the god who they now asked to depart from their land and leave them in peace.  This is why Pharaoh asked for the blessing, and the Egyptians gave the Israelites their goods (12:36).

The exodus from Egypt

In the midst of this story, a small cameo verse (12:34) describes the speed of the exodus from Egypt, giving us the factual background for the feast of ‘Unleavened Bread’ described earlier in the Lord’s instructions to Moses (12:13-20).  Here, the picture of people hurriedly placing their remaining uncooked and unleavened dough in kneading troughs, wrapping them in clothes and carrying it on their shoulders is enigmatic and perhaps traumatic.  When would they be able to set a fire and cook even unleavened bread again, facing a journey on foot away from the land they had inhabited for more than four hundred years (12:41)?

Exodus 12:21-36 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

At the very moment of the Exodus and the first victory of God won for His people in this world, we face the inescapable truth that the price of God’s salvation was the destruction of the power and authority of Pharaoh, the man who had rejected God and attempted to make a mockery of the Israelites.  We also face the intriguing yet difficult fact that the salvation of Israel came through the death of Egypt’s ‘firstborn’.  This means that although it is difficult to make direct connections between this passage and the Gospel, it seems that the death of the firstborn is an important ‘feature’ of the way God works to bring salvation.  We have certainly come across this before, for Abraham was asked to sacrifice his firstborn son Isaac, but was held back at the last moment by the voice of God (Genesis 22).  The theme of the firstborn is a complex one in Scripture, and it reaches its climax in the death of God’s ‘firstborn’ Son, Jesus, for the salvation of the world.

Another theme we cannot avoid is that of the defeat of evil.  When God acts to deliver and save His people at any point in history, one consequence of this is the exposure of evil to face God’s wrath.  Too often, we think of evil as an abstract thing, but here, Scripture reminds us that evil is real and sometimes it resides in people and is promoted by them.  It is still evil, even though we naturally feel for those who perpetrate it, and evil must be defeated.  If God’s will is to be done, then what is wrong and evil in this world must be overcome; and those who hold to it will fall with it.

The Exodus was a phenomenal event, and it has defined the people of Israel to this day.  We can say this even before reading to the end of Exodus 12 or considering the impact of the crossing of the Red Sea!  It is not surprising therefore that the text contains instructions about how to remember the event.  To this day, Christians are lost if they forget or allow themselves to sit lightly to the truth of the events which God has now used to replace the Exodus and bring salvation to the whole world through Jesus Christ.  We are called to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus through sharing bread and drinking wine (1 Cor 11:23f.), and much more.  Certainly, if we forget such Scriptural things as the incarnation of Christ, His death and resurrection, His ascension and His glory, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the Church, and also Christ’s coming again in glory, or if we allow our remembrance to be eroded, then we will become lost.  We will be as lost as the people of Israel were when they first called out to God for deliverance before the Exodus.  God has acted firstly in the Exodus and finally in Christ, and He does not have to do these things again.

Exodus 12:21-36 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What ceremonies do we use to remember the saving work of God in the church today?  Is this enough, or have we forgotten things we should remember?
2. How can we enable our children to be involved in the remembrance of our faith?
3. Discuss in your group who or what you believe the ‘Destroyer’ to be.

Topics covered by this text

• God’s liberation and salvation
• The power of God over life and death
• The sacrifice of the ‘firstborn’
• The escape of Israel from Egypt

Personal comments by author

Our faith can become a fragile thing when we do not continually recall what Christ has done for us.  Personally, I feel that the best way for us to remain faithful to the roots of our faith is to do two things.  Firstly, we should continue to get to know Scripture and explore it throughout our lives, and secondly, make sure that we know the great Creeds used by the church for centuries as a means of remembering the faith.  I find it surprising that so many Christians today do not know the Creeds or of their existence or importance.  They should be memorised if possible, because they can give us an easy way of remembering the basic facts about what we believe, and this is vital in today’s confusing world.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Make an opportunity to read through this passage of Scripture and reflect on what it says about life, death and salvation.  These are all intertwined, but it is too easy to get confused about them.  We will be blessed if we allow God to speak to us through Scripture.
• Death is something we find difficult to talk about or think about.  For this reason, make sure that you can place into the Lord’s hands those who you know and love who have died.  If you do not have peace about this, then speak to others about it, and use the people you know and love to help you deal with any concerns you have.  This is how the Lord can help us.

Final Prayer

Jesus, You seek to be present with us throughout our days and throughout our lives.  May we not be unresponsive to Your presence, but eager to see You, to talk to You and to do Your will; therefore, give us eyes and ears and a heart to follow You for the whole of our lives: AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 12:37-51

Exodus 12:37-51 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The people of Israel were finally on their way, travelling out of Egypt to escape the slavery and domination of Pharaoh and his taskmasters (12:37-42), and as they went, Moses and Aaron gave further instructions about the Passover (12:43-51).  Israel has been saved, and the story line reflects the release felt by people who had been slaves for a long time.  The Exodus bound God’s Old Testament people together and demonstrated their dependence upon God.  However, Moses and Aaron were justifiably concerned that people might forget God’s acts too quickly, and this is why the further instructions were given about the Passover. 

Today’s passage is typical of all of Exodus, which mixes the story of Israel’s liberation with instructions for its remembrance and other laws.  This is not how we might write today!  We would not write a story about faith and mix it with church regulations for remembering what happened!  But these are the stories of God’s chosen people in their formative years, so the technique is special, and it reminds us that there are more ways to remember a great story that just repeating it.

The passage begins with the triumphant statement; ‘The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth ...’!  Israel was leaving Egypt!  It is unhelpful, therefore, to find that we do not know where these places were (though presumably in north eastern Egypt), but there is no doubt that Israel was heading away from Egypt towards the desert in the direction of the Promised Land.  Similarly, it is almost impossible to explain the very large numbers said to have travelled (‘around 600,000’ - 12:37) and correlate this with the time Israel had been in Egypt (we will look at this later on in the study).  Nevertheless, the reading clearly emphasises the fact that the whole nation gathered in obedience to their God (12:41,47,50).

In addition to this comes the extraordinary revelation that with the Israelites there was a large ‘racially mixed’ crowd (12:38).  This is surprising and fascinating, and later in the passage Moses gives regulations relating to these ‘foreigners’ or ‘temporary residents’ , and welcomes them to celebrate the Passover (12:43-49).  It is likely that in Egypt, Israel’s heroic stance against Pharaoh made them an attractive option for others who were disillusioned with Egypt, and they were happy to look for a new land together with the people of Israel.  Joshua tells us later on that these foreigners were involved in taking the Promised Land many later years (Joshua 8:33, 9:3-21 and 24:14-28).  This was a sign that the Lord was indeed at work to ‘bless the nations’, as He had promised through Abraham (12:2,3 etc), and their presence in this story indicates that one day, God’s favour would rest on all people, not just Israel.

The second part of the text gives further instructions about the Passover and its celebration, embedding the event within the national life of Israel.  Today, when Christians attend a Jewish Passover, they often remark on the deep sense of belonging evoked by the whole celebration.  Despite the elaborate rules, regulations and traditions surrounding the Passover, those who celebrate it feel that they are indeed part of the events they are designed to remember; it is as if the past is not three and a half thousand years ago, but very present.  This is true for all genuine remembrance, and when a Jew celebrates the Passover, it is as if God’s deliverance happens to them, not just their forefathers.

We have much to learn from this.  Surely, we should do as Christ has asked, and remember His sacrifice for our salvation by sharing bread and wine, which is the new and complete ‘Passover’?  The Bible does not give rules about how to do this now that we have the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we should surely celebrate our faith and the work of Christ purposefully and regularly.  Today, many are concerned about the future of the church because of problems in the recent past, and they hope for a new future.  We cannot go wrong if we ensure that our faith and worship celebrate the salvation Christ has won for us, and for all who will have faith in Him.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The initial journey of the people of Israel
• Numbers and dates, and the size of the Lord’s ‘army’
• Further instructions for the eating of the Passover

Exodus 12:37-51 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Each part of this text contains more insight and more details about how the Passover should be celebrated.  In addition to what we have already observed, a vigil is to be kept on the night of the Passover (12:42), and the detailed instructions in verses 43 to 49 state for the first time in Scripture the principles of how the people of Israel should treat those who wished to become part of its number.  Underlying all this is the theme of the unity of God’s people.

The initial journey of the people of Israel

On the first night, the Israelites travelled from ‘Rameses’ to ‘Succoth’ (12:37).  Whilst we do not know where these places were, there is another way of understanding this sentence, which comes by asking whether there is some meaning in the use of these two names here.  If we think of this sentence as being not so much a matter of record and fact, but more about the intention of the people as they left Egypt, then we are on the right track.  The first of these names is Egyptian (derived from the name of Pharaoh), and the second is Hebrew (a word meaning ‘booths’, frequently found in the Old Testament).  Could it be that the two names represent the ideal ‘direction’ for the Exodus; that is, from Egypt to the Promised Land?  It is a simple enough explanation of why the names were used.  Moreover, we have often seen that Scripture records facts not merely for the sake of recording the information (as we tend to do today), but it only records facts that have some meaning within a story.  Understanding this will often help us work out the meaning of a text.

As the Israelites journeyed on foot away from Egypt (12:37) together with the ‘mixed crowd’, they travelled with their flocks and herds.  They also had with them the partially prepared food they were forced to wrap up and take with them in haste (12:39f.).  This detail is not told to us to  explain how the people managed to eat on the following morning, though there would be no reason to record this unless it was what really happened.  As we saw in a previous study (Exodus 12:14-20), the eating of unleavened bread was something which clearly stood out in the memory of those who experienced the event and which God used to give meaning to the festival built around the whole Passover event in future generations (see also Exodus 12:34).  Because unleavened bread had no yeast in it, it did not rise, but made flat and rather dense ‘cakes’ (the meaning of the Hebrew word used for what was cooked, in verse 39)

Numbers and dates, and the size of the Lord’s ‘army’

Numbers have always created difficulties within the early books of the Old Testament because they often do not make sense according to our experience today.  We have already seen in a previous study that the time between Jacob’s coming to Egypt to see Joseph and the Exodus, is described in different texts as 430 years (Ex 12:40,41), 400 years (Gen 15:13), and four generations (Genesis 15:16; 6:14-25).  We have already looked at some of the reasons for the differences in the study of Exodus 6:14f., but because of the lack of any agreement amongst scholars and students of the Bible about these dates, we should focus on the reason which might lie behind Scripture’s use of these figures.

When we look at verses 40 and 41, it emphasises that the people left Egypt ‘exactly’ after spending 430 years in Egypt (the literal meaning of the Hebrew is ‘on that very day’ – 12:41,51), as if the exact timing of the Exodus was important to whoever wrote the story down, at a later date.  The only way we can make sense of it is like this.  Suppose that the starting point was God’s prophecy to Abraham of an exile of 400 years or four generations (itself a mystery, possibly confusing the words for ‘hundreds’ and for ‘generations’ – see Genesis 15:13-16).  If the 400 year prophecy is reckoned to be from the death of Jacob in Egypt to the call of Moses when the Lord began His deliverance, then the further 30 years mentioned here could be made up in this way.  Jacob lived for 17 years in Egypt (Gen 47:28), and we can presume that there was a further 13 years between the call of Moses and the eventual release of Israel from slavery.  The only problem with this computation is that we do not have anything in Scripture to prove the last assumption about the last 13 years!  Clearly, at some time in the past, the Israelites had figures at their disposal, and these enabled them to be confident about these numbers, and say ‘exactly’ here in our text (12:41,51).  Numbers may have been lost in the course of history, but those who recorded Exodus in the form we have it now clearly had reason to feel that the numbers added up, and we should respect this.

The next problem often raised by readers of this passage is the huge size of the ‘army’ of God’s people, at 600,000 men (12:37).  There are a large number of theories about this, all developing from the meaning of the Hebrew word for one thousand, which is ‘’eleph’.  Many languages have words having several meanings, and in Hebrew, this is one of them.  In these places in Scripture, the word means either ‘thousands’ (Ex 18:21; Num 10:36; 31:4,5 etc), or ‘cattle’ (Deut 7:13; 28:4; Isaiah 30:24; Psalm 8:7), or ‘clans/families’ (Numbers 10:4; Josh 22:14; Judges 6:15; 1 Sam 10:19).  Strictly speaking, it would be reasonably accurate to translate our passage ‘600 family clans’, which sounds a more likely number after four generations of growth from the original 12 family clans who went to Egypt.  The reason why the traditional translation here in this text is ‘thousands’, is because it ties in with the large numbers of the tribes of Israel recorded in Numbers 1:21f., concluding with an army of 603,550 men who left Sinai (albeit at a slightly later date!)  We must accept that we do not yet know enough from Scripture or history to tie down the facts of these figures or more importantly, their meaning.  Nevertheless, it is safe to say we are clearly meant to be impressed by the large size of God’s assembled people.

Further instructions for eating the Passover

We have already seen how the telling of the story of the events of the first Passover night has become intertwined with regulations concerning the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread.  Although Moses may well have been the source for the story and the instructions, the way they are recorded in Exodus reads as if the two have been intertwined at a later date, and after someone had given the matter some thought.  For example, an enslaved people in Egypt would hardly possess their own slaves, as we find it mentioned in 12:45f.; slaves were a feature of Israel’s life in later times.  In addition, the Israelites are described in verses 43 to 49 of our passage as ‘native to the land’ (literally), but they had just left their homes and were in the desert!  The instructions clearly refer to later times when Israel was re-settled in Canaan.  Nevertheless, the instructions we are given here concerning the Passover (12:43-49) are primarily concerned with the unity of God’s people at any time or place.

When Israel came out of Egypt, they were accompanied by many others who sought the favour of Israel’s God, and it was quickly evident that some regulations were needed to say who, of the people of other nations, could be included in the formal Passover celebrations.  The Exodus rules then became the basis for future laws about inclusion of slaves etc.  Basically, the rule was that if a ‘non-Israelite’ wished to be regarded as a ‘temporary resident’ (although such a designation could be regarded in later years as virtually permanent) then they had to be circumcised.  This requirement was first given to Abraham in Genesis 17, and circumcision defined all males who were a part of God’s Covenant and chosen people.  From this point onwards, the laws of Moses recorded in the first five books of the Bible, refer frequently to the ‘foreign resident’ (12:48f.), or ‘alien in the midst’, or similar phrase such as ‘sojourner’.  As here, it came to mean those who were not Israelite by birth, but who chose to be part of God’s Covenant people and had been circumcised (if male - see Ex 20:18, Lev 19:33 etc).

The feature of the rules set out in our text today is that they emphasised the unity of God’s people.  This was done by identifying who was and who was not one of God’s Covenant people, by requiring that no Passover food should leave the homes where God’s people were gathered to eat it (12:46), and by ruling that no bones of the Passover Lamb be broken (12:46) to ensure that it was not divided up.  Finally, the chapter ends with a general picture of unity; ‘all the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron’ (12:50).

Exodus 12:37-51 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Yesterday, we emphasised the importance of remembrance, and how it plays a vital role in the life of God’s people.  In this text, we are told a little more about what it means to be a people who remember the Lord and the salvation that He has won for us.  If we put together what we have learned in Exodus 12 about the remembrance of God’s salvation, then we can find three principles.  Firstly, we are to act together as people who are united by a common experience of salvation, just like the people of Israel as they left Egypt.  Secondly, we must have a clear sense of identity, and be able to say who we are and what unites us, just as the Israelite people expressed their identity by celebrating the common Passover meal.  Thirdly, our deliverance through Christ’s death on the Cross should be as real to us as the Exodus is to Jewish people who celebrate the Passover.

The first message for us is one of unity.  All Christians are people who know that Christ has died for them and are willing to accept the consequences of their salvation.  We cannot claim be God’s people in any meaningful way and disregard others who hold the same faith in Christ as Saviour, so we must respect others and be willing to work together in mission with those who make the same confession as ourselves.  Yes, we are divided because of our history of doctrine and our different practices, but we must be prepared to put our unity in Christ above all partisan interest.  Christ and Christ alone defines us.  Secondly, and similarly, we must know who God’s people are, and who they are not.  The definition for Jewish people is circumcision together with the Passover and experience of liberation through the Exodus.  For Christians, the definition is faith in Christ and the evidence of new birth in the believer by God’s Holy Spirit (see John 3).  Thirdly, just as the Jewish people feel themselves involved in a real Exodus when partaking of the Passover meal, so should we feel ourselves personally involved in the sacrifice of Christ through both our baptism and our participation in the communion of bread and wine.

Most importantly, what I have just outlined are not rules and regulations, as they were in Old Testament times.  This, I believe, is the truth that comes from Jesus’ death for us on the Cross and His resurrection the following Sunday.  For those who have found real faith, our unity as God’s people, our identity in Christ and our involvement in His sacrifice, are both a duty and a delight.

Exodus 12:37-51 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In your group, discuss what it must have felt like to be walking away from the slavery of Egypt in the fashion described here.
2. Are numbers in Scripture something which warrant our time and research, or should we simply accept that many of them are mysteries to us?
3. What really unites God’s people today?

Topics covered by this text

• Leaving the past behind and moving forward
• The importance of remembrance
• The unity of God’s people

Personal comments by author

It is quite common today for people to sit lightly to whether they are a formal member of God’s family, the church.  Our passage today suggests that it is very important to be clear about whether we are part of His body, though the manner in which we may be considered members of God’s people has certainly changed since Old Testament days.  I must confess to being sceptical of the faith of those who will not take the essential and positive step of publicly identifying themselves with all others who are the ‘body of Christ’.  We can of course, only ever be a part of one small part of it as it exists in one place, but the church of God only exists in this world in this imperfect way.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Reflect on what membership of your own church and the wider church of God means to you in the light of this Scripture.  Talk to others about this, especially if you feel challenged by what you have read.
• Pray for the church, for it is an imperfect instrument of God’s will, because it is made up of people like you and me.  Pray that the Lord will bring His people together in new and powerful ways to do His will in our own generation.

Final Prayer

Jesus, Saviour of the world, You were lifted up on a Cross to draw people of all races and nations to Yourself.  Bless the witness of Your church in every place, and help Your people finish the work You have given them to do.  We ask this in Your victorious name: AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 13:1-16

Exodus 13:1-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

At first reading, we realise that yet again, this new chapter of Exodus returns to the subject of the Passover.  We wonder what more can we need to know!  We have already spotted that this part of the story of the Exodus is intertwined with rules about the Passover, but we must be very careful not to skip over these texts and assume that we have heard it all before.  The more we know about the Passover, the more we will understand how and why God works for the redemption of His people, and this will help us appreciate all that Christ did for us on Calvary.

Exodus 13 begins with the Lord giving Moses a new command, to ‘dedicate all the firstborn to me ...’ (13:1,2).  We have already heard much about firstborn (11:4, 12:12,29), so this new instruction is clearly important.  It is not easy for us to understand the significance of the firstborn to ancient people, but for them, the firstborn represented not just God’s blessing of life, but the promise of future generations.  By dedicating the firstborn to God, people submitted both their lives and their hopes and dreams for the future to God.  Moreover, God had taken the firstborn of Egypt because Pharaoh had rejected God (12:19f.), and it was only right therefore for the people of Israel to dedicate their firstborn to Him (13:11-16).

Between this command (13:1,2) and its explanation (13:11-16) we find further (and final) information about the feast of Unleavened Bread (13:3-10).  We have read about this before (see 12:14-20), but we need to spot what is new.  Moses begins by re-emphasising the importance of the Passover meal as a remembrance of leaving Egypt, but he adds the phrase, ‘for the Lord brought you out of it with a strong hand’ (13:3).  Now that Israel were on their own and facing their future alone, Moses sought to stress the power and authority of God to guide Israel in the future.  God had liberated His people for a reason, and He intended to lead them to their Promised Land, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey ...’ (13:5).  Now, we are so used to reading about the Promised Land that we may not have spotted the fact that up to this point in the story, Moses had not told the people about this.  He had only told them they were going into the desert to worship God and move on to a new land where they would settle.  It is therefore a moment of high drama when he tells the people about God’s intention to give them the land promised ‘to your fathers’ (13:5).

The rules for the Unleavened Bread festival are completed by further instructions about remembrance (13:7-10).  The story of the Exodus was to be handed down from father to son (13:8), and that the feast was to be a memorial (13:8,9).  In order to make the point in a new way, Moses likens this to the way people make ways of remembering things, like tying things to their wrists, or writing on their hands (13:9); in order for the people to remember, it seems they need a reminder!  Moses also describes such reminders as being ‘a sign on your hand or a pendant between your eyes’ (13:16), objects which remind the wearer of God’s ‘strong hand’ to save (13:16).  We do not know what these objects were, though later in Deuteronomy, Moses gives further descriptions of them (Deut 6:8-9 and 11:18-20) and their importance to God’s people. 

We might say that such objects of remembrance do not matter today, but the truth is that we all need reminders to do what is right.  If something reminds us to do what is right before God, then it is surely useful!  Moses gave these commands so that the remembrance of God did not become mere words to Israel.  So let us make sure that our own worship of God and Christian discipleship is not a matter of mere words.  Also, if we need reminders to do what is right in the sight of our God, then we should not be afraid to use things like candles, diaries, crosses and other emblems.  They remind us of the salvation of our souls.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Remembering the Lord’s work in the feast of unleavened Bread
• Making the remembrance personal
• Redemption of the firstborn, a means of remembrance

Exodus 13:1-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

As we look at the details of this passage, we will find that all the new information God gave Moses through this passage was designed to help the Israelites pass on the remembrance of what God had done to save them.  When God ‘remembered’ Israel (2:24), he set in motion a plan to save them, so when the Israelites ‘remembered’ their Lord in return, they were expected to show their commitment in specific ways, which we will now look at more closely.

Remembering the Lord’s work in the feast of Unleavened Bread

Although the feast of Unleavened Bread was highly significant, the text seems to emphasise that the people of Israel should always remember the reason for the feast, which was the Lord’s deliverance of His people from Egypt.  This is why the first instruction passed on was; ‘call to mind this very day on which you came out of Egypt’ (13:3).  If there were any other reasons for such a feast, such as its ancient connections with either the New Year, or the Spring (see study on 12:14-20) then these should be cast aside; God’s deliverance was everything, and it defined God’s people.

The instructions about holding the feast in the spring month of Abib, the prohibition of leaven (yeast), the command to eat unleavened bread for seven days (13:4-6) were little different to what Moses had previously told the Israelites, but here, he emphasised the feast as a part of the new life of God’s people in Canaan (13:5).  At the very point of the departure of the people from Egypt, it was important that they were focussed on God’s destiny, the Promised Land, and Moses pressed home this point.  This was the land God promised ‘your fathers He would give you’ (13:5).  Therefore, the leaven previously banned from households and homes (12:19) was now to be banned from the entire country!  This may have been rather difficult to achieve, but the command called for vigilance, indicating how seriously the whole event was to be taken.  Such remembrance should not be trivialised or watered down, just as the worship of God which we offer today should never be trivialised or approached casually, lest it lose its meaning and be dishonourable to God.

Making the remembrance personal

One small feature of verse 8 is very important.  It reads; ‘this is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt ...’.  Now these words would clearly be a first-hand and personal recollection of the first generation who came out of Egypt, but everything we have studied so far in this passage has told us that the rituals and words were to be used generations later when the people came into Canaan.  Many generations later, however, the use of these words meant that each person who said them identified personally with the ancient events of the Exodus, and recited what happened on that first night to the children who asked questions about what happened as if it had happened to them personally.  This is an essential part of the Passover and Unleavened Bread festival, and it is found here and also later in our text today (see later where it says ‘the Lord brought us out of Egypt ...’ 13:14).  This is also a feature of the Passover meal to this day.

Towards the end of this section, Moses talks about ‘signs’ that should be worn on the forehead and the hand in remembrance of the Exodus, but he does not give us any details about them (13:9 – and also 13:16).  There is much more detail in Deuteronomy 6:8-9 and 11:18-20, where a technical word ‘phylactery’ is used to describe a small box containing verses of God’s law which was strapped by means of a leather strap around the forehead.  The idea sounds rather drastic to us, but the idea is not far distant from what it means for a Christian to wear the Cross as a sign of faith today.  All such signs or symbols can degenerate to become meaningless unless the community in which you live helps give meaning to that sign, of course, but the whole point of the festival of Unleavened Bread was to do this.

Redemption of the firstborn, a means of remembrance

The opening two verses and the last part of our text depend on our understanding the meaning of ‘redemption’.  The word used in this passage and elsewhere in Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New, means ‘to buy something back with a price’, with the implication that it once belonged to you but was previously given up for some reason.  The idea of the redemption of the first-born therefore goes like this.  All first-born male children and male animals belong to God.  No particular reason for this is given, but ancient cultures would have understood that the life and identity of a group of people was closely linked to the first-born sons, because they were the ones who were most highly prized as their father’s heirs, responsible for passing on both the property and heritage of a family or group of people.

Strangely, there is plenty of evidence that in Canaan (see 2 Kings 16:3 for example) it was common for communities to offer their first born children to their gods, by ritual sacrifice.  This sounds appalling to us, but if you think about this, you will realise that if this was what was done in society, then the men who did receive and pass on the inheritance were always the second born sons.  They would know very clearly that the only reason why they had the privilege of being heirs was because their elder brothers had been sacrificed to the gods, thereby passing the inheritance of their fathers to them.  This was a dreadful but powerfully cohesive social force.

The Lord wanted none of this for His people, so He had to replace such paganism with something more powerful.  Israelites were indeed told to offer their first-born to God, but they were required to buy them back, that is, to ‘redeem’ them so that they would continue to live and pass on Godly traditions.  For the sons of the Israelites, the ‘price’ paid to redeem the first-born was the sacrifice of the lamb (or kid) at the Passover sacrifice.  This explains why the Passover was so important for the people of Israel.  It also explains the principle of redemption through a sacrificial substitute, which is God’s chosen way to bring His salvation to people. 

By way of explanation, the Scripture mentions the price of redeeming a first-born donkey (13:13).  This may be a mystery to us, for why should a donkey be mentioned and no other specific animal, when it says that all animal ‘first-born’ should be redeemed?  What is not obvious is that the word for animals here means ‘clean’ animals acceptable to God for eating or for sacrifice, and in contrast to all other commonly used animals in Israel, the donkey was considered to be ‘unclean’.  Other unclean animals such as pigs were simply not kept by the Israelites, but donkeys were, and this left the Israelites with a problem; as necessary beasts of burden but unclean, there were no obvious regulations about how to deal with the first-born.  This passage merely solves the problem by stating the redemption ‘price’!

Exodus 13:1-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

The idea of redemption is very important, and it has already come up in previous studies in Exodus.  This is significant for Christians because it helps us understand what happened on the Cross.  When Jesus died, He did so in our place as the price of redemption paid by God for our lives.  Many people struggle to understand this, but the best place to start is here in the Old Testament, and the manner in which redemption is understood in the Passover meal and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  Here, the death of a first-born animal saves God’s people from His wrath, which wipes out the first-born of Egypt.

Now if the Israelites were charged with the remembrance of this event as a holy ordinance, how much more are we charged with the holy task of remembering in practical ways the death of Jesus, God’s first-born, which saves us from God’s wrath at our sin?  For cultural reasons some find it distasteful to talk about our redemption through Christ’s sacrifice, yet this way of thinking removes the death of Christ from its Old Testament roots and this results in people making up their own ideas about the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Some even imagine other routes to the Father other than through Jesus.  However, if you stick to the Old Testament idea of redemption through sacrifice, there can only be one salvation for all people because there is only one Son of God; and He takes the place, personally, of the Old Testament Passover Sacrifice.  He does this for us, and so He is our Saviour.

I finish with a small point but one worth mentioning.  In verse 9, the text tells us that physical signs of the remembrance of God’s Covenant on our hands and around our heads (literally, ‘between the eyes’) will help God’s commands be ‘on our lips’.  This is an intriguing combination of ideas, for hands represent what we do, the head represents thinking and lips represent speaking.  Put together, the text says that real faith in God is shown when what we do, what we think and what we say testifies consistently to the God who saves us.

Exodus 13:1-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Does the dedication of the firstborn have any significance or meaning for God’s people today?
2. What festivals are held within our churches, and which of them have a meaning that is well understood and relates well to the core faith of a Christian?
3. Discuss what you think ‘redemption’ means, and share how you feel about the redemption of Jesus Christ who saves you.

Topics covered by this text

• The remembrance of faith
• The offering of the firstborn
• Physical signs of practical faith

Personal comments by author

I have come across many people in the church today who wish to express their faith in very individual ways, but few who wish to join with others in a common expression of faith.  The cultural path towards individualism is ;considerable, yet the Bible speaks strongly about the importance of standing together with other brothers and sisters in witness to our faith.  In contrast to this, I am fairly certain that when people are looking to answer their long term questions about God and faith, they are looking to join with others rather than find a personal route to private faith.  God’s people need to be clear about the central truths of faith and be unashamed to proclaim them as a shared experience of God.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Think about how you can ensure that you remember the central facts of your faith.  Is it worth memorising the Apostle’s Creed, for example, or some other ‘statement of faith?  Explore what your own church says about the faith of an individual Christian.
• Write down a list of events in your own life where you believe that God has acted to make a very real difference to what has happened.  If the list is too long, then this is wonderful!  Rejoice in what the Lord your God has done for you

Final Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus Christ.  Bring us to the place where we know our faith and have confidence in all You have done for us.  May we never avoid the tough demands which our faith makes on us, either practically, spiritually or mentally, and bring us at last to Your home in glory, where we can know that our faith is complete in You: AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 13:17-14:4

Exodus 13:17-14:4 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The people of Israel had been liberated from Egypt.  After an awesome display of God’s power and might on the night of the Passover, Pharaoh had implored them to go.  This was no ordinary event, for it was the Lord’s unique work to liberate His people from slavery.  It was God’s intention that they would travel to their own ‘Promised Land’ and grow as a nation to become as a visible representation of His presence in the world.  However, if we did not know what happened next (the story of the crossing of the Red Sea), we might expect that the story would continue with Israel marching across the desert towards their destiny!

This was not to be, and it is by no means clear what would happen next.  Our passage today raises some big questions about Israel’s cohesion as a nation, and the guidance they would require if they were to reach their God-given goal.  To begin with, the Israelites were hesitant about the possibility of battle (13:17 and 18), and judging by God’s command at one point to ‘go back’ (14:1), the route was by no means clear.  Indeed, we also discover that God has unfinished business with Pharaoh (14:3,4)!

Nevertheless, the news was not all bad because in the first few days of their journey, the Lord appeared to the Israelites in a new and unique way.  God led His people through the desert ‘... during the day in a pillar of cloud to show the way, and during the night as a pillar of fire to give them light’ (13:21).  This miraculous sight gave the Israelites the capacity to move by day or by night (13:21), and stayed with them as a constant means of protection and guidance.

To begin with, God led the people away from the most obvious route from Egypt to Canaan, which was the road north along the Mediterranean coast.  Earlier inhabitants of that region had been close allies of the forefathers (Gen 26), but history confirms what Scripture says here that a new warrior people had occupied the coastal region, a people we will come to know as the Philistines (13:17).  The people of Israel were wary of fighting these notorious people, so God directed them southwest towards the Red Sea and the desert regions that lay beyond.  The people were arranged in ‘battle formation’ (13:18), but it was defensive and they were not yet hardened for war.

So it is not surprising that the Lord did not take Israel straight to Canaan where they would have to fight for possession of the Land.  The direction in which Israel was led was unclear and must have been something of a step of faith, but first of all Israel had to trust her God.  We who have read the story know that the journey would eventually transform God’s people until they were indeed ready to fight for Canaan, but the people did not yet know either what lay ahead or the lessons they would have to learn from the Lord.

Clearly, once the movements of the Israelites we reported in Egypt, rumours would have circulated about how the Israelites lost in the desert and did not know which way to go (14:3)!  Yet all this was in God’s hands, for He intended to draw the Egyptians out to pursue His people.  He would soon prove His authority over Pharaoh yet again in one further dramatic demonstration of His glory; ‘I will gain glory at the expense of Pharaoh and his army’ (14:4).  The Israelites did not yet know this, and we will soon find out that they panicked when they heard that Pharaoh was coming after them (see tomorrow, in 14:10f.), but God was with them, and He would win a victory over Pharaoh in His own way.

The whole of this reading therefore gives us the background for the story of the crossing of the Red Sea (ch.14) and the final defeat of Pharaoh by the power of God.  It is arguable that this last event is the one most remembered about Israel’s escape from Egypt.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Israel coming out of Egypt
• The change of direction back towards the Red Sea
• The evidence of God’s presence

Exodus 13:17-14:4 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Most of us do not have a clear picture of exactly ‘what happened next’ in the story of the Exodus.  This passage gives us some clear indications about how and why the Israelites journeyed as they did.  God was in control of everything, preparing for what He knew would lie ahead.  The details of the story are not very specific, but help us understand that God was in control of events, despite the anxiety of the people.

Israel coming out of Egypt

All we know about the journey out of Egypt so far is this; they ‘journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot’ (12:37).  All the place names mentioned either in that earlier text or in our text today are unclear, and there is no certainty about their exact location.  When we studied the previous verse, we noted that the place names were possibly symbolic, indicating the direction of travel, away from Egypt and towards the Promised land.  Here in our passage today, the direction in which the people travelled becomes extremely important and significant.  God was trying to lead His people not just to the Promised Land, but to the place where they would have victory over the Egyptians (crossing the Red Sea – Ex 14), and go on to learn to worship Him and hear His Word (see Exodus 19,20).  Clearly, the general direction of travel the Lord required of His people was very important for their future; they did not know this, but their obedience and trust in God was essential.

Some scholars are dubious about the possibility of Philistines living on the coastal regions between Canaan and Egypt at the time of the Exodus.  If you read other books about the Exodus, you may find this quoted as a reason for believing that the story was affected by the later, warlike reputation of the Philistines in David’s day (possibly around 300 years later).  However, there is good archaeological evidence and also the evidence of Genesis (Gen 21:32f.; 26:1f.) to indicate that a succession of different peoples lived in this region, some more peaceful than others; and all were called Philistines.  Certainly, this route along the Mediterranean Sea was well used in ancient times by people who migrated to find land, and by merchants trading goods.  It was the logical route to follow to get to Canaan, but because of the hesitancy of the people (see above) it was not going to be God’s way.

The hesitancy of the people when faced with battle (13:17) sounds odd when only one verse later, the text tells us that the people left Egypt in ‘battle formation’.  Were they or were they not prepared for battle?  This passage echoes the previous comments in Exodus that the people of Israel left Egypt ‘like an army’ (6:26, 7:4, 12:51).  After everything that had happened, you would think that they would be ready for anything, especially with the help and guidance of the Lord at hand.  So, were they ready for battle or were they not?  The answer is that although the people were organised for war, they were not mentally prepared.  This is the only way to explain the differences between verses 17 and 18.  It also forewarns us of coming problems for the people of Israel.  We will find that throughout the Exodus, the Israelites frequently complained and grumbled against God, even though they had the evidence of God’s protection before their eyes.  They often failed to be obedient to the God who had saved them (see for example, Exodus 16, 17, 32,33), yet in the end, the Lord kept them on track and led them to the Promised Land; but it is a journey from which we can all learn!

The change of direction back towards the Red Sea

On this occasion, the Lord gave instructions to change direction, sending the Israelites away from the coastal road in a southerly direction towards the ‘Red Sea’ (13:18).  The Hebrew words which we translate as the ‘Red Sea’ mean ‘the Sea of Reeds’, and this has led to a great deal of speculation based, unfortunately, on the similarity of the English words ‘Red’ and ‘Reed’, which have no connection in the original Hebrew!  What is clear is that by turning away from the coastal road, the people of Israel would have to pass across some northern part of the Red Sea as we know it, and this would either be through a large river tributary or marshy swamp with reeds, whether large or small.  Yet the only name given to us by Scripture for this region is the ‘Sea of Reeds’, which must be an ancient name for some northern part of the Red Sea.  Also, the term ‘Sea of Reeds’ could easily mean ‘Sea surrounded by reeds’, which could mean any number of regions around the Red Sea in ancient times.  Some scholars make a great deal of saying that the Hebrew for ‘Sea of Reeds’ could mean that the Israelites merely escaped through swampy ground.  However, it is unwise even to be this specific.  We cannot know the exact place, and all Scripture reveals is the general region in which the Israelites travelled.

The change of direction is picked up later on in the passage (14:1,2), with instructions which appear very specific, but for which, yet again, we can find no identity today( see the place names Pi-Hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-Zephon – 14:1,2).  However, we can easily see that the instructions were to camp near to the Sea, and as the Israelites had left the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, it is fairly safe to assume that the only other Sea in the region was the Red Sea!  It becomes obvious to the reader that all this was part of the preparation of the Israelites for the crossing of the Red Sea, and it comes as no surprise to us who know where the story is heading (see above).  It is important, however, to verify the story we all know and locate the crossing as being at some part of the Red Sea, not merely some marshy or ground full of ‘reeds’ which was easily crossed by foot (as some have proposed).

The evidence of God’s presence

The remarkable feature of this passage is the description of God’s presence ‘... during the day in a pillar of cloud to show the way, and during the night as a pillar of fire to give them light.’ (13:21).  This is the first mention of this phenomenon in Scripture, and it becomes a major part of the story of the Exodus.  It must have been a remarkable sight to see one great pillar appearing like a cloud during the light of the day, and then a raging fire in the darkness of the night.

There are a number of ways for us to give a spiritual explanation for this extraordinary phenomenon.  Firstly, the description of cloud and fire reminds us of images of the ‘glory’ of God in other parts of Scripture (e.g. Daniel 7:9, Isaiah 4:5 etc), especially the presence of the Lord in the Temple (1 Kings 8:10).  Before the coming of Jesus Christ, through whom we know God, the image of cloud and fire was probably the most used ‘picture’ of God available, as symbols of magnificence and power.  Some have also suggested that the cloud was a form of protection from the heat of the day, and the fire at night a source of comfort and warmth.

This idea is a little fanciful because it is not mentioned in Scripture; indeed, when Moses was not present with the people of Israel, the people frequently rebelled against God despite His visible presence in the cloud and the fire.  They clearly did not have a ‘close’ relationship with this great symbol of God’s presence.  The cloud and fire had a function, which was to lead the people through the wilderness, and to appear at Mount Sinai when the people were asked to come and worship the Lord (Exodus 19:16f.).  There, God showed Himself to the Israelites in awesome power before giving the Ten Commandments to Moses (Ex. 20), and later when leading them away from Sinai into the desert towards Canaan (Exodus 40).

The pillar of cloud and fire is introduced in this passage as a firm indication of God’s guidance of His people at a critical time in their history.  It’s presence with the people to guide them also mocks the thoughts of Pharaoh and his court, who believed that the change of direction of the Israelites was due to their being lost in the desert!

Exodus 13:17-14:4 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

The symbols of fire and cloud play an important part in the story of God’s revelation throughout the Bible, and they have much to teach us about God’s nature and His presence.  In the New Testament, fire is a symbol of judgement in the story of John the Baptist (Matt 3:10f.) but also a symbol of the coming presence of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1f.).  Fire is visible but ultimately unapproachable, so we can sense its presence but only come close to it.  We cannot hold it or maintain control over it.  In the same way, God may be seen, experienced and approached, but not held or controlled because He is far greater and more powerful than us. 

In contrast to this, the cloud is a symbol of mystery, for a cloud can be seen but we cannot see through it or beyond it.  In the same way, we may see God (as is now possible through Jesus Christ) and follow His leading, but we cannot see through Him into the heart of God or see beyond Him into the future.  These great symbols of God’s presence are essential to John’s vision of the future and the return of Christ in glory (Rev 10:1; 14:14; 12:12f.), when the journey of all God’s people is finally concluded in the heavenly Promised Land of the New Heaven and New Earth!

Our passage today has been about the beginnings of a journey that was begun in the right direction, but which had to change.  The Lord had to move His people so that they travelled in a way that was not obvious, but was part of God’s long term plan, something the people could not have known.  He did this so that He could do things that were beyond their understanding, with the possible exception of Moses.

It remains true that the Lord will often require us to travel the path of faith in directions that do not appear to make sense; but in the fullness of time, they will.  If we stay close to our Lord, the pathways we travel on may seem obscure but they are purposeful, and we need to trust our Lord’s guidance.  He will do what is right for us, of that we can be assured, and although we may have many lesson to learn on our way, our faith and obedience is essential if we are to reach our ultimate goal.

Exodus 13:17-14:4 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What does this passage of Scripture tell you about God’s guidance, and does it remind you of any particular part of your life?
2. Discuss in your group all the reasons why God found it necessary to change the direction of the journey from Egypt.
3. If God led His people of old by a pillar of cloud and fire, how does He lead His people today?

Topics covered by this text

• The guidance of God
• The importance of being ready to do God’s will
• The cloud and the fire, symbols of God’s presence.

Personal comments by author

Guidance is something that is easy to talk about, but difficult to pin down.  Each of us is influenced by a large number of things, from our personal attitudes and preferences to the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and the words people say to us.  In addition, the way we process information in our brains is often not rational or explainable.  Yet each of us finds our way from one thing to the next, and as time goes by, our life unfolds.  There are so many factors at play here, I find it something of a relief to place myself in God’s hands and as a person of faith, trust God for what happens.  This does not mean that I am not active in making decisions and pursuing what is next, but it does mean that I do these things conscious that my Lord is with me and helps me all the way.  I don’t know how people live without it!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Consider for a moment the nature of your own spiritual journey.  Is it always a matter of walking in a straight line?  How does the Lord lead you to change direction, and has this ever happened?  Do you want to keep going in the same direction you have always travelled, or would you be happy for the Lord to change things?  These are all important questions.
• Pray for your own church community and ask the Lord to guide you in your collective witness to Him.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, save us completely, and forever ... Holy Spirit of God, keep our hearts aflame ... Almighty God and Father, reveal our eternal destiny ... Glory be to You ... AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 14:5-20

Exodus 14:5-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The tension mounts as Israel are caught wandering in the desert by the Egyptian army!  Our passage of Scripture describes the build up to the famous crossing of the Red Sea (which we will read tomorrow), but it bears all the hallmarks of a classic Old Testament story of a powerful intervention in world affairs by God.  The nations of the world pursue their own interests (as represented here by the Egyptians) but fail to see what God is about to do.  The people of Israel are equally ignorant of God’s will and desire to save them, but God’s servant, Moses, submits in obedience to the Lord God, and is used by Him to deliver His people.

It was not long before Pharaoh realised the enormity of his loss of face.  In the aftermath of the havoc wreaked by the angel of death (12:29), Pharaoh had pleaded with Moses to take the people of Israel away from Egypt (12:31), but now his heart ‘hardened’, just as before (14:5).  He realised that he had lost a substantial part of his labour force, and this would be a serious blow for his substantial building programme!  He therefore consulted with his advisors and sent the army to track down the people of Israel almost as soon as they had managed to escape Egypt’s borders (14:7-9).  Certainly, Pharaoh appears to have relished the chance to round up the apparently defenceless Israelites by assembling his best army (14:9).  At that time Egypt was famous for its chariots and its horsemen; it was an army that would have feared no-one.

We can almost feel the tension as the story unfolds.  The people soon realised they were being hunted, and they panicked.  When faced by the visible power of Pharaoh’s army their initial response was to capitulate and surrender (14:10-12), surely they were far better off as slaves to the Egyptians than as playing the ‘mouse’ to the Egyptian army’s ‘cat’!  They attacked Moses in anger (14:11), but he stood firm.  In the face of this peril, Moses leadership was about to be tested to the limit.  With Israel trapped with their backs to the Red Sea, Moses rebuked the people, he said, ‘don’t be afraid, take your stand, and see the salvation the Lord will bring about for you.’ (14:13). 

God then outlined His plan of salvation to Moses (14:15-18), but before the plan was put into action, something extraordinary happened.  Dramatically, the cloud that had been leading the way forward through the desert then moved into a protective position to shield the people of Israel.  The cloud was a visible sign of God’s presence with His people, and this movement indicated His intent to save His people.  It had the important effect of preventing the people from seeing the Egyptian army during the night before the crossing of the Red Sea (14:20).

We know what comes next, and this is the great story of Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea.  We will read the this tomorrow, but as with all great stories, the drama of the moments before it happened are extraordinary.  This is a story treasured and passed down from one generation to another over centuries.  Along with the story of the Passover, this event defines the people of Israel, and it remains one of the greatest miracles of divine revelation and salvation found in the Bible.

Many people have attempted to work out how this miracle took place, as if it was possible to analyse an event in the past and reach a different conclusion to that of the people who have passed the story down!  Whilst many theories about the crossing of the Red Sea have been produced, none of them account satisfactorily for all the details of the story found in Scripture, and it is only when we read the story with faith that we can appreciate the full measure of the power displayed by God in this extraordinary event.  It was God’s intent to show the world His own power and might, not merely in releasing the Israelites, but in the  comprehensive defeat of Pharaoh.  God alone would save His people!

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The pursuit of Israel by the Egyptians
• Israel’s complaints about God and Moses
• The Lord’s instructions to Moses and the moving of the cloud.

Exodus 14:5-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

There are some surprises for us within this part of the story which challenge some of our ideas about the crossing of the Red Sea; but when we examine it closely, the story makes a great deal more sense than we might imagine.  It was certainly a miracle, but it was carefully designed by God for the protection of His people as well as the defeat of the Egyptians.

The pursuit of Israel by the Egyptians

Why did Pharaoh change his mind yet again about letting the Israelites go?  Scripture does give us the answer to this, although we read it and think that we have heard it all before; ‘the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt ...’ (14:8).  What happens throughout the stories of the plagues is this; Pharaoh slowly moved towards giving permission for the Israelites to leave, but then changed his mind because the Lord had ‘hardened his heart’.  In the final plague, Pharaoh did indeed give permission for the Israelites to go, and pleaded with Moses to leave, but as someone who did not fear God, he was not capable of changing his basic instincts and the hardness of his heart, put there by God.  Pharaoh ‘changed his mind’ simply because he was not the person who was saved by God by the Exodus and he continued to be a stubborn man; he had changed his mind but not his heart.  It is worth remembering this, because throughout the Old Testament, unrepentant stubbornness becomes a theme which represents opposition to God and His ways.  Isaiah, for example, is told by the Lord that the people of Israel would become stubborn and unresponsive to God’s work (Isaiah 6:10,11).  Then, in the work of the prophets generally, the stubbornness of God’s people becomes the backdrop against which the great prophecies of the Messiah are set.  Jeremiah, for example, chastises the people for their stubbornness (5:23; 16:12; 23:17) and looks forward to a time when God would bring a new covenant written on hearts and not on stone (31:33f.)

One additional hint is provided by Scripture which may have something to do with Pharaoh’s response, and it is found at the end of verse 8; ‘... he pursued the Israelites as they left in triumph’.  The Hebrew expression at the end means something like this ‘with their hands held high’, and we reasonably assume that this was an indication of triumph and victory.  When the Israelites first left, they had done so in haste after Pharaoh bid them depart, and there must have been a sense of elation at finally being freed from bondage (12:37f.).  Perhaps their victory celebrations were a bit too much for Pharaoh to stomach!

Israel’s complaints about God and Moses

Once the Egyptian army had been assembled to track the Israelites, they quickly followed them on their changed course as far as the encampment by the sea ‘in front of Baal-Zephon’ (14:1,9).  It is possible that the army came within sight one evening, for much of what happens next (see later 14:) does so at night.  The complaints then arose as the Israelites faced the night, knowing that in the morning they would be shown no mercy; they certainly anticipated being killed (14:11).  We can sympathise with the plight of the Israelites, but should think carefully about what they said.  They would rather live in slavery with an earthly authoritarian ruler than risk trusting all to the mercy of God, even when He was evidently in the middle of doing amazing and miraculous acts to save them!

Moses’ threefold answer was firstly, ‘don’t be afraid’; secondly, ‘take your stand’; and thirdly ‘see the salvation ...’ (14:13).  This was typically robust and straightforward spiritual advice.  Fear has always been a proper response to danger, but it has never been a good guide for what to do when faced with danger.  The second piece of advice to ‘take your stand’ is sometimes translated as ‘stand still’ or ‘stand firm’, but the idea in Hebrew was of a military unit preparing to defend themselves from a position of strength, like a group of soldiers holding an impregnable position which they could not lose if they were disciplined.  This was the heart of Moses’ call to the Israelites, for he saw that with the activity of the Lord all around them, they could not lose despite the apparent problems.  Moses’ last appeal was for the Israelites to keep their eyes on what God was doing rather than what the enemy was doing.  They should have their eyes on God’s salvation which was unfolding around them in power and wonder, not the apparent problems of the presence of the Egyptian army.

Moses’ words to the Israelites did not stop there, however.  He went on (14:14) to affirm to the Israelites that the Lord their God who had already brought them out of Egypt after an unprecedented miracle, would fight for them!  All they had to do was ‘stop speaking’!  Again, my translation of this passage is a little different from most Bibles, which have ‘keep still’ or ‘be silent’; however, the Hebrew clearly means ‘stop speaking’, and it is likely that Moses was telling the Israelites in no uncertain terms that they should stop their complaining; the time for words was over!

The Lord’s instructions to Moses and the moving of the cloud

As in so many of the stories within Exodus, we hear about the Lord telling Moses what to do before he did it (14:15-18), which was a common feature of storytelling in ancient Israel.  Here, Moses was told in advance that he should hold out his hand over the Red Sea to divide it and therefore provide a path for the Israelites through the water on dry ground.  We will study this in more depth tomorrow, but here, the Lord gives more emphasis to the explanation of why this would happen than to the description of what Moses had to do.  The salvation of the Israelite people was only part of the reason why God wanted to have victory over the Egyptian army.  The main reason mentioned here was so that God would gain ‘glory’ for Himself.  This means that God would be credited by people in other regions of the world for achieving this victory.  It was important for God’s work in the world not just to save His people but also be seen to be alive and active in the world by other peoples and nations.

The last piece of preparatory action taken by the Lord is a mysterious manoeuvre to protect the people (14:19-20).  The Hebrew of this passage is a little bewildering, but it does not take too much thought about what was happening in the story to piece it together.  Because the people were frightened, it was evening and the night was drawing in (see the references to darkness and the night in verse 20 onwards), the pillar of cloud in front of the Israelites would be expected to turn to a pillar of fire (as in 13:21,22), representing the presence of God Himself.  However, God took up a new formation of protection around Israel, defending their rear and crucially, blocking their view of the Egyptian army behind them, and preventing the Egyptians seeing them.

What happened was this.  The ‘angel of God’ (another way of saying ‘God’s messenger’) went to the rear of the Israelites to protect them (14:19), and whereas we may assume that as night came, the pillar of fire took up its place at the front of the camp as expected, it appears to have split, with the cloud going to the back to form a barrier of ‘cloud and darkness’ (14:20) to the rear.  This meant that the front of the Israelite camp would have been lit by the glow of the pillar of fire, their rear only had the light of this mysterious ‘cloud and darkness’, and this meant, as verse 2 says ‘one side did not come near the other all night long!’  God was protecting His people.

Exodus 14:5-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This text has much to offer, and amongst this is good advice about how to handle ourselves when we are caught up in the dramatic events of salvation and spiritual warfare.  Firstly, the spiritual warfare described in this passage is not separate from God’s work of salvation God, it is one and the same thing.  The liberation of God’s people of Israel had to be gained through warfare, and much as we dislike this, salvation today will often have to be fought for.  Our battle, of course, is a spiritual battle rather than a physical one, but it is no less daunting.

The spiritual battles we face today are a consequence of all the evils we find in our own world, especially those that seek to prevent people from coming to faith in Christ and finding their salvation.  We can list at least materialism and secularism as harbouring such evils, but we need to be alert to what is right and wrong in our world if we are to discern those specific evils against which we must fight if our own witness to Christ is to be effective.  It is only when the whole church of God realises that salvation and spiritual warfare are one and the same that we will discover the proper meaning of them both.  Spiritual warfare, according to this text, is as much God’s warfare rather as ours, and He wins battles against evil (sometimes through us) in order to bring about the salvation of individual people.

In addition, we have a responsibility as God’s people to stand firm in our faith, and take our stance with Moses to keep watching the Lord rather than be distracted by how the enemy is behaving.  To be sidetracked by our enemy is a sure recipe for disaster.  Perhaps the Lord also needs us to stop our complaining at times, for the Lord had to speak sharply about this to the Israelites through Moses.

Finally, we should not forget that part of the reason for God’s work in the world in not simply to bring about our own salvation.  Sometimes God does things, as here, to show His power and glory in the world.  In this way, others see something of God’s power and majesty, and only subsequently do they turn to Him.

Exodus 14:5-20 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Discuss in your group how you might react to the circumstances faced by the Israelites when overtaken by the army of Pharaoh.
2. How easy is it to follow good advice in the midst of a critical situation?  Why do people sometimes lose faith in the midst of a crisis?
3. Imagine the picture painted in verses 19 and 20.  Read through the verses and draw a map of how you imagine the scene and discuss what it means.

Topics covered by this text

• The pursuit of Israel through the desert by Pharaoh’s army
• Panic in the Israelites camp and the leadership of Moses
• The work of God to bring about salvation and deliverance

Personal comments by author

Many people are afraid of what is called spiritual warfare.  This is unfortunate because the terminology puts people off what t really means.  Spiritual warfare is a glamorous term but it means fighting evil, and most of us do this in one way or another.  In this light, the crossing of the Red Sea is a story that helps us appreciate how dependent we are upon the Lord for this.  Personally, I have found that it is presumptuous of me to assume that I have to fight battles myself.  Rather, as I come across evil, my task is to join in what the Lord is already doing to fight that evil; He knows about it, and I need to join Him.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Think carefully about your own circumstances at the moment, and ask yourself whether you are facing any particular evil at the moment, in the home, in the workplace or in any other part of your life.  How do you intend to fight it?  In prayer, ask the Lord to help you.
• Find a friend and discuss the whole issue of spiritual warfare.  Try to find out what other people think about this from a number of different perspective, and weigh up what they have to say against what you believe Scripture says.

Final Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, You know my life better than I do.  You understand the things I fail to see and You know my heart when things seem too complicated for me.  Guide my life in all that is good true and lovely, I pray, so that I might give glory to You in everything I do, from now until eternity.  AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 14:21-31

Exodus 14:21-31 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Today’s reading contains the amazing climax of the story of the flight from Egypt by the Israelites.  The Egyptian army had caught the people as they fled south from northern Egypt towards the Sinai Peninsula.  However, God knew what He was doing, and in day of sheer drama, the Lord led Israel through the Red Sea with the waters forming a dramatic wall on each side of them (14:22).  The salvation of Israel was only part of the story, though, and most of today’s reading is taken up by a description of the chaos and panic caused amongst the Egyptian army as it succumbed to waters (14:25f.).  The Lord had won His victory!

The story of Israel’s escape is amazing.  God had told Moses what to do beforehand; he was to hold his staff in his hand, lift it up over the Sea, and ‘divide it’ (14:16), and this would enable the Israelites to travel through the sea as if on dry ground.  This was God’s means of escape for His troubled and hesitant people, and He had already planned their escape from this impossible situation.

One important feature of the story may go unnoticed, however, and this is the mention of the word ‘hand’.  The Red Sea was divided when Moses held His hands ‘stretched out over the Sea’ (14:21), and when Moses reached his hand out again (14:26,27), the seas rolled back to their normal depth, drowning the Egyptians (14:28f.).  In the language of Hebrew the hand and the staff are symbols of power and might, and God had given Moses a staff as a symbol of power when he was first called (4:2f.).  Moses, in this story, is himself a symbol of godly leadership amongst the people of Israel, acting in obedience (see 14:16f.) and only with the authority God has given him (the staff).

Most of today’s story is about the foolhardy actions of the Egyptians, who through arrogant self confidence followed the Israelites and attempted to follow the Israelites through the Red Sea.  They saw that they were able to walk through as on ‘dry ground’ (14:22) and sought to follow.  This resulted in utter disaster as their chariot wheels became clogged (14:25), and they panicked (14:24), and lastly, the whole army was overcome by the waters of the Red Sea as the waters returned to normal after the Israelites had crossed (14:26,27).  From a worldly perspective, this was a decisive military defeat for Egypt, but it was the Lord who had won the victory for Israel.  He did this for several reasons, firstly so that His people would come to believe in Him, secondly so that the world might see God’s power and might (14:30,31), and lastly so that the people might believe in Moses, the man of God He had chosen to represent Him as their leader (14:31).

In the last two verses, 30 and 31, most translations miss out the two references these verses contain to the word ‘hand’, but I have included them here so that you can see how this works to emphasise the power and authority of God in the parting of the Red Sea.  It says firstly; ‘the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians’ (14:30) and secondly, that Israel saw ‘the hand of God against the Egyptians ...’ (14:31).  In this way, the story highlights the spiritual power of God at work in this battle, for God’s ‘hand’ had won the victory over the ‘hand’ of the Egyptians.  God was more powerful than all the armies of Egypt, and the evidence of this was all around, with dead bodies littering the sea shore (14:30).

Remember, the people of Israel had been turned away from the easy northern route to Canaan because the Lord was concerned about whether they were able to face battle (13:18).  Then, when led south, the people thought that they were being led into a trap and would soon be overcome by the Egyptians.  Out of this seemingly impossible situation, however, the Lord created a stunning victory which brought the people freedom, but He chose to do this using one faithful person, a man who would not doubt Him, that is, Moses.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• When did the Israelites and the Egyptians cross the Red Sea?
• The defeat of the Egyptians
• The meaning of the crossing of the Red Sea

Exodus 14:21-31 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

This famous event is well known to Jews and Christians alike.  But how well known is it?  People have argued for centuries over its details, and not least about the region of the world in which this took place.  There are also other areas of great interest, for example, the discussion about what time of day the crossing of the Red Sea take place.  If you glance back at yesterdays’ reading, you will find that just before Moses stretched out his hand to divide the waters, Scripture gives a description of what was happening ‘at night’ (14:20).  As we will see, the timing of the crossing was quite significant!

When did the Israelites and the Egyptians cross the Red Sea?

There is no way we can be crystal clear about this, but there is enough evidence in the text to do some educated guesswork about the time of the crossing, and it is my opinion that it was not in the full light of day.  The key references to time are as follows.  Firstly, the passage just before our reading only makes sense if we assume that the pillar of cloud/fire split into two on the terrible night before the crossing.  The pillar of fire (as usual for night time) remained at the front of the Israelite camp on the sea shore, but the pillar of cloud (usually a daytime feature) split away and formed a rear-guard with the Lord’s angel (14:19) blocking the view between the Israelites and the Egyptian army and preventing contact (14:19,20).  The next thing we hear (in today’s reading) is that Moses ‘stretched out his hand’ to sweep back the waters ‘all through the night’ (14:21), and when they were divided, the Israelite began to cross!  It certainly appears as if the Israelites crossed either at night, or at the latest, in the early part of the morning at first light, probably with the light of the pillar of fire (the night time presence of God – 13:21) still leading the way.

Another reason to reckon that the crossing took place either at night or at first light is because of the next reference to time, which comes in verse 24.  This says that the Lord looked down from the fire and cloud to view the Egyptians following the Israelites into the sea ‘during the morning watch’ (14:24).  This was the first watch of the day, beginning at first light and including dawn.  Now, if the Egyptians were following the Israelites into the sea by sometime in the middle of this early watch, surely the Israelites had been crossing earlier, perhaps beginning their crossing before dawn.  This is the most likely scenario, and in addition, the hazy dawn light together with the continued presence of the Lord in both fire and cloud (14:24) all contributes to the sense of confusion around the Egyptians, who pursued the Israelites into the sea; conditions which no seasoned soldier or military man would normally contemplate for chariots.

The defeat of the Egyptians

It is easy to lose sight of the sequence of events we are given for what the Egyptians did in pursuit of the Israelites.  At some point, they gained information that the Israelites were escaping from them by going through the sea.  This fact itself must have created some confusion because for religious people (which they were), this meant that something very significant was happening which they had not reckoned for.  As far as they knew, the Israelites were trapped.  They followed the Israelites blindly into the sea, only to find that the chariot wheels did not work (which is what the Hebrew text says), presumably clogged by the mud at the bottom of the sea.  There is some debate about the size of the chariots, but there is some evidence that at the time, Egypt had three-men chariots of considerable weight, so Scripture’s description fits these facts at least!

As the Egyptians followed, the Lord looked at them ‘from the pillar of cloud and fire’ and created panic amongst them (14:24).  This resulted in the Egyptians attempts to flee back to dry land.  Whatever the people of Israel thought, they at least recognised that the Lord was ‘fighting ... against Egypt’!  The Lord then instructed Moses to raise his hand in authority again and draw back the sea to its normal depth, an action which meant that the Egyptians were overwhelmed in the sea and we may assume that those caught up were drowned; ‘not one of them survived’ (14:28).

It is most interesting that in verse 27, the text says that the sea returned to its normal depth ‘at dawn’, adding to our theory that the Israelite must have been crossing the sea during the night!  This may not be the notion that most Christians have of the crossing of the Red Sea, but there is no doubt that it is thoroughly supported by the text.

The meaning of the crossing of the Red Sea

There has been much discussion of the facts of this event, and some have come up with amazing theories concerning possible explanations for the phenomenon.  Amongst these are the idea that it was the result of extraordinary ‘tsunami’ type waves generated in the Mediterranean Sea by volcanic activity, and also the more rational idea that a hot east wind in the region dried up some marshy land sufficient for individual Israelites to cross, but not 600 heavy chariots!  None of this is satisfactory or conclusive, and none has found universal acceptance.  The Bible clearly presents this great event as a unique act of God by which He saved His people from death at the hand of the Egyptians.  The whole of the story of Exodus swings about between death and life, ultimately showing that God is a God of life who saves those who put their trust in Him and obey Him.  For example: Moses was saved from death as a baby (ch.2) but was banished from Egypt because he killed a man (2:11f.).  Then the Lord sought to kill Moses, but he was saved through his wife’s actions (4:24f.).  After this, plagues were inflicted on Egypt and Pharaoh culminated in the death of the first-born (ch.12), and new life was promised.  Lastly, when the Israelites were given their freedom from slavery, they had to endure the deadly threat of battle (as here) before finally being granted the salvation and liberty for which they longed (today’s passage).  It is no wonder that the Passover meal and festival of Unleavened Bread contained powerful symbols of life and death (ch.13).

The abiding image of this great story is repeated towards the end of the story for emphasis; ‘the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.’ Moreover, the word used in Hebrew for the ‘wall’ of water is one that is usually used to describe the huge thick walls of an ancient city.  Scripture is quite clear; this was a miracle wrought by God.

The escape of Israel was a miracle which required faith, and that is where we find ourselves at the end of our passage today.  When the people had crossed and saw the results of what had happened, and saw the dead on the seashore lying as after a battle, but not one which they had fought, they ‘feared the Lord and believed in Him’.  Moreover, they also believed in Moses (14:31), the servant of God who had acted in faith to do the Lord’s will by signalling the dividing and the coming together of the sea.  This is the first time that Scripture talks about the faith of the people of Israel as a whole, both in God and in their leader Moses, and we will see how this faith develops as the story of the Exodus now takes further dramatic leaps forward.

Exodus 14:21-31 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

The active power of God intervening in this world is described in this passage of Scripture as God’s ‘hand’.  This term is used both of God himself (14:31) and also of Moses when acting in the faithful commissioned service of God (14:21, 26,27).  It is the normal Christian experience to know something of God’s will and power mediated through other people, and sometimes through direct divine intervention.  When we experience that direct power of God, in whatever circumstances, that power touches us deeply and we testify to the presence of God whatever rational explanations others have of what we have experienced.  For example, if I have felt God’s healing power in my life, then I will testify to that fact, irrespective of whether there is other rational or scientific explanation for my healing.

Most Christians also experience the power of God mediated through human agents; preachers, leaders and evangelists, for example, but also through the humble service of those who do God’s will.  Moses was singularly obedient in the task of raising his hand to divide the waters and then close them up; if we compare the argumentative Moses of Exodus chapter 4 with the obedient Moses of chapter 14, we can see the difference, and it was right that now, at last, Moses’ leadership was recognised by the people (14:31).  In the light of this, we may say that only complete obedience to the living God and submission through service is acceptable as the qualities of those who aspire to Christian leadership of any form.  Too often, Christian people follow a leader who is not acting in obedience to the Lord and also fail to challenge the presumptions and pretentions of people who come into Christian ministry who seek power for themselves rather than the ultimate and eternal purposes of God (often mixing up the two).  The story of Moses from this point onwards in Scripture is a model of leadership which needs careful scrutiny, and should not be quickly dismissed because the man did God’s will in an age long before the final revelation of God in Christ.  We have much to learn from him.

Exodus 14:21-31 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What pictures do you have in your mind of what it was like for the Israelites to cross the Red Sea?  Does a study of this text change your pictures?
2. Discuss why it is that people today find it hard to read passages of Scripture in which people get killed in battle because of the work of the Lord.
3. How much faith was shown by the Israelites in crossing the Red Sea?  How may we show such faith today?

Topics covered by this text

• The miracle of the parting of the Red Sea
• The Lord’s control of battle, and of life and death
• The salvation of Israel through the Red Sea

Personal comments by author

It has been my experience that throughout life, the Lord has saved me from circumstances I was not able to handle myself.  Moreover, it is only on looking back that I fully appreciate what the Lord has done.  For this reason, I have frequently been able to take heart in the midst of troubled circumstances, and I remain confident that He will do the same again, even if I cannot perceive it.  I am very grateful to the Lord that I came to terms with this aspect of the story of the crossing of the Red Sea at an early age, and as a consequence, I have been able to stand firm in the midst of trouble when I might otherwise have been weak.  I know that many people find it hard to hold on to faith when life gets tough, but remain convinced that this story will help all who apply its truths.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• The people of Israel were trapped in an impossible situation until they were saved by the Lord through the Red Sea.  Spend some time thinking about impossible situations from which you have been saved, and impossible situations from which you need to be saved now!
• Pray for any people you know who are trapped in situations from which it is almost impossible to escape, such as abusive marriage, or impossible work situations.  Pray that the Lord will find new and miraculous ways to resolve these problems and bring peace, both for this life and for the next.

Final Prayer

The wonders of Your love, Lord Jesus, are beyond our sight, beyond our experience, and beyond our understanding.  Yet we know your love in amazing and miraculous ways, for You have touched us and we can never run away from the power of Your love.  Keep us close, Lord Jesus, keep us close.  AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 15:1-12

Exodus 15:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

After the amazing events of the deliverance of the people of Israel through the Red Sea, Scripture records a magnificent song of praise to God, which takes up most of chapter 15 (15:1-21).  It is a lengthy song with fascinating insights into the experience of ancient Israelites, and it best studied as a whole.  However, there is a great deal to look at so we will begin today by studying the first half.  If you have time to read the whole song, then please do so.

Today’s passage (15:1-12), consists mostly of Israel’s praise to Almighty God for their deliverance from the Egyptians.  The second half (to be read tomorrow, 15:13-21) looks ahead to the journey of Israel through the desert to Canaan, and the eventual occupation of the Promised Land.  It even looks forward to a day when Israel would establish a ‘holy sanctuary’, which means a Temple, and says that this will be built on ‘mountain’ (15:17) from which the Lord would one day rule!  This, of course, anticipates the capture of Jerusalem by David, centuries later, and the building of the temple by Solomon.

The entire song is generally called the ‘song of Moses and Miriam’, because it begins with Moses; ‘At that time, Moses and the Israelites sang this song ...’ (15:1f.) and then at the end (15:20), Moses’ sister Miriam takes up the song and repeats the very first stanza (see 15:1 and 21).  We will look at this in the next study together with the meaning of what is said about Miriam.

This is a very important passage of Scripture, and it has been studied in great depth over the years.  The conclusion of independent scholars of ancient languages is that this poem is very ancient.  We do not know much about how the Scriptures we possess today have come to us, but it is clear that in early days, much was passed down from one generation to another until the form of it we have today was established.  Within this process it is clear that some parts were written down at an early stage, and it seems that this poem was indeed written down a very long time ago.  To say this is not to question the authenticity of Scripture, but only to follow through what we know about it from what it says.  In general, the more ancient the Hebrew style and the more rare the words used, the earlier the passage was written down (we will see some examples of this later in the study).

The song is unmistakably full of praise to God, and the first two verses form a remarkable declaration of confidence in the Lord.  It describes God as ‘risen up in triumph’ (15:1), and the people respond by honouring Him and raising Him up in praise, for this what is meant by the Hebrew phrase for ‘I will acclaim Him’ in verse 2.  The song goes on to praise God’s abilities as a ‘warrior’ (15:3) and to mock Egypt, the defeated foe.  Pharaoh and his army are ridiculed in verse 4 and 5, and then in verses 9 and 10.  The scorn continues as the poem repeats the warlike desires of the Egyptian warriors before battle; ‘I will chase .. I will catch up ... I will plunder ... I will fill up ... I will draw my sword ... I will destroy ...’ (15:9,10).  Despite the arrogance of Egypt, the Lord blew away their presumptions with His breath (15:10), which divided the sea and then swallowed up Pharaoh’s army (15:4,510).

Even though some find it difficult to use passages of Scripture that describe war, we can hardly doubt that these verses are as uplifting as the best of the psalms (e.g. 15:11).  Whilst the song may have been used originally to give thanks for victory over Egypt, this song of praise has been used by Israel throughout the centuries as a reminder of God’s power and strength to save from all kinds of foes and all manner of evil.  We can use it today in the same way.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• A shout of triumph to the Lord
• The defeat of Pharaoh
• The holding back of the waters

Exodus 15:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The text of this song contains interesting words and phrases and some powerful expressions in Hebrew, which all go to make up a fascinating song.  The song is much like a Psalm, though possibly much older, bringing together a wealth of words of wonder and praise to Almighty God.  In the end, though, the passage is about celebrating a battle, and this is the greatest challenge presented by the text.

A shout of triumph for the Lord!

The very beginning of the song goes to the heart of the matter; the God of the Israelites is a God who has remembered His people and delivered them.  A degree of mystery always surrounds why God acts when he does, but looking back on the story of the Exodus, we can see that the Lord was able to work through an extraordinarily large number of human situations to bring about the eventual deliverance of His people from slavery.  Each part of the long story had its place, but the ultimate aim of the Lord was salvation and liberty.  This is why he ‘rose up’, and the result of it was ‘triumph’ (15:1) visible in the remains of the Egyptian army scattered around the seashore (14:30).

Verse 2 contains an extremely rare word in Scripture, and it is one which helps us determine that the song retains very ancient words having been written down a very long time ago.  The beginning of the verse reads ‘My strength and my song; the Lord!’; though you will find many translations have ‘the Lord is my strength and song’ (15:2).  The word for ‘the Lord’ at this point is not the usual four letter (Hebrew) name of God ‘JHWH’, but a shortened form, ‘JH’, pronounced ‘Jah’.  It is written at the end of the poetic line as if it was a battle cry of some kind, or a shout of affirmation and praise!  It is common in some churches to call for people to shout out praise to the Lord; what better than to shout out His name in the most ancient form we know!

You will note that this shout is written before the next line which reads like a personal testimony; ‘He is salvation for me!’  This may sound wonderful and inspiring but it is more than that.  When people of later years repeated this song, they would say these words as if the events of the Exodus had happened to them personally; they would talk as if they were saved from Egypt themselves.  This significant and very early song is in complete agreement with what we learned earlier about the celebration of the Passover and Unleavened Bread, which was to be shared by future generations as if the events had happened to them personally (Ex 13:8,15).  Certainly, this is all evidence that the Exodus was a powerfully uniting factor amongst God’s people from the earliest of times.

The defeat of Pharaoh

The next great shout in the song comes in verse 3, which describes the Lord as a soldier; ‘the Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His name’ (15:3). We are not the first people who baulk at the idea of God as a military man, for the Greek translation of the Old Testament used in Jesus’ time changes this verse to ‘the Lord crushes wars, the Lord is His name’!  It is better to face the facts of the original text and accept that God is honoured to be considered as one who fights for what is right; for liberation and for justice.

In truth, the very best of Pharaoh’s forces were defeated (15:4) in the battle for Israel’s freedom, including the ‘best officers’, that is, the men who Pharaoh depended upon to give him advice about the conduct of the battle.  They had been outwitted, and they consequently drowned in the sea.  The song compares Pharaoh’s ‘right hand men’ who were drowned (15:4,5) with the ‘right hand’ of the Lord’s ‘majesty in strength’ (15:6); where the word ‘majesty’ in Hebrew means not only greater and more magnificent, but also more noble, more worthy and of higher moral worth.  Here, Scripture makes a clear moral case for the defeat of Pharaoh: evil had been defeated and the consequence of the Lord’s victory was just.

The holding back of the waters

What follows is an extraordinary description of the manner in which the waters of the Red Sea were held back.  Verse 8 says literally ‘at the blast of your nostrils the waters heaped up’, using a very primitive notion of the flaring of nostrils to signify anger and wrath!  I have translated this ‘anger’ because that is what is meant, but God’s anger is a righteous anger (see above).  The parting of the Red Sea was an act of salvation for the people of Israel, but it was an act of anger against the stubbornness and disbelief of the Egyptians.  The rest of verse 8 is equally stunning in nature, describing the currents of the Sea piling up to stand still, and the water becoming like a solid mass.  Again, the Hebrew words used in this passage are very rare in the Bible because there are not very many places in the Bible where water currents are described, or even where water become solid.  The Hebrew word for ‘solid’ used at the end of verse 8 is one which usually describes something cooked, which starts off liquid and becomes ‘congealed’!

The drama of the battle is magnificently described, but perhaps justified by verse 9 which departs from the usual style of Hebrew poetry with a six fold repetition of the ‘wants’ of the Egyptian army; ‘I will chase, I will plunder ...’ (15:9,10, see above).  Some scholars have suggested that these six short terse statements were a war chant designed to stimulate the ordinary soldiers of an army before war with the thought of gaining plunder at the expense of the lives of others.  This is a chilling reminder of the reality of war, and stands in strong contrast to the desperate and defenceless state of the Israelites who were saved by God.  The soldiers met the same fate as their officers in the depths of the Red Sea (15:10)

There is no doubt therefore, that God was praised not just for saving the people of Israel, but for being just in a world of corruption and evil.  No wonder the following verse (15:11) says ‘who is like You ... magnificent in holiness’.  The people of Israel saw this great victory as one that was right and just, and indeed, holy.  In the midst of a world full of sin and injustice, only God remains holy, and only God can say what is ultimately right and wrong; furthermore, what is done by a holy God must indeed be right, whether or not it is understood by us who only see things from the perspective of a faulty and sinful world.

Exodus 15:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

We cannot afford to forget that the people of Israel did not receive their salvation by some ethereal means or simply by giving ascent to belief in God.  Their liberation was wrought in the reality of life, in the experience of slavery and then liberation from an oppressive country.  We who live in a world of relative peace and have the luxury of looking at wars as things which happen elsewhere, are cocooned from both the reality of history.  We simply do not know what real life is like for most people in the world, many of whom experience tyranny and war in one form or another.  Now, it is unfortunately true that none of us knows when we will be called upon to stand again for what is good and right in a troubled world and defend our own lives and homes.  At such times, we may find that it is good to have moral compass bearings such as those wrought on the pages of world history by the events of the Exodus.

The moral authority of  God who delivered His people from injustice at the Exodus has given us a commanding example of the defeat of evil by all that is good.  This is very important because the present world order is defined by a Jewish (and subsequently Christian) definition of good and evil.  This lies behind the workings of governments, national and international agreements, institutions, and even science and technology itself.  These things have not come from societies based in other faiths, but from faith in a God who wins battles against evil and promotes all that is good in His world.

It is our prayer, of course, that none of us face the perils of war.  However, countless generations have paved the way for what we now enjoy by being prepared to lose their lives to defend the liberties we possess.  There is no doubt that the history of Christian involvement in wars is not entirely glorious, but in a world which is now uncertain of its bearings, it is vital that we rediscover the compass of a moral God who made the world and acts for good against what is evil.

Perhaps our Scripture today should be read more often in church, not missing out the gruesome sections about war within its glorious praise of God.  We may then understand more about the ultimate consequences of believing in a moral God and a moral world, and accept that we have a duty under God to nurture and protect truth, goodness and liberty, for the good of all.  I am not arguing for a militarily aggressive approach to world problems, or against the high ideals of pacifism; but I do believe that this text suggests we should have a realistic understanding of the nature of humanity and the facts of our own history which have shaped our world.  In this world, evil must be fought and defeated if good is to prevail.

Exodus 15:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Which verses of this song do you feel you could use to praise God in church today?
2. Is it possible or wise for us to give thanks to God for any military action which has happened in recent world history?
3. Discuss in your group what you learn about good and evil within this passage.

Topics covered by this text

• The victories of the Lord
• The wrath of God against all evil
• The salvation of Israel through the Red Sea

Personal comments by author

Over the years, Christians have been divided on the issue of whether it is justified to wage war collectively, even against an evil foe.  On the one hand, passages such as this suggest that God does fight wars, but much of Jesus’ teaching tends towards what we might call Christian pacifism.  The issues are complex, and we should always remember that very committed Christians have never fully agreed about this; but it is important for us to consider where we stand, and enter into the occasional debate about this.  Even Jesus said that the peace we experience in our world will not last forever!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Read this passage over again and ask yourself about what it means for the Lord God to fight evil.  Ask yourself what this passage might mean for your own life, and your own discipleship. 
• Make a list of the enemies of the church you see around you today, and against that list, write down how you believe it is best to deal with the enemy.  Share this list with someone else if possible or appropriate.

Final Prayer

Almighty God and Father, you have saved your people throughout the ages, and protected them in ways which can never be fully understood.  Give us the courage to face issues of good and evil within our world with the strength and courage only You can give, and so contribute to Your work for love and peace within the world: AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 15:13-21

Exodus 15:13-21 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This reading is the second half of the great song of thanksgiving and deliverance sung by Moses and Miriam after the Israelites were saved from the Egyptians (15:1-21).  The first half of the song (15:1-12) celebrates the Lord’s victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea, but the second half (15:13-18) describes not the past but the future; the whole song is therefore about more than celebration, it is about moving on in God’s power to achieve His future.  Lastly, the remaining verses of our reading tell us how Miriam, Moses’ sister, led the people of Israel in their praises to God (15:20,21), for the victory over Egypt was indeed the beginning of their journey with the Lord.

Our passage begins by recounting God’s love for His people in enigmatic and powerful language; God’s ‘faithful love’ will guide His people to their destiny, which is to dwell with the Lord ‘in holiness’ (15:13).  It then continues by describing the nations standing in the way of Israel’s progress.  They are gripped with fear because of the Lord’s victory of Egypt; what chance did they have against such a powerful God!  The song comes to a conclusion with a remarkable description of Israel’s future (15:17), containing the first hint in Scripture that God intended to dwell in the midst of His people, in a ‘holy place’, which is another word for a ‘Temple’.  The song concludes with a triumphant affirmation that the Lord God ‘reigns’ over Israel (15:18), and anticipates the idea of God reigning like a King over His sovereign people.

Clearly, this passage is significant not just for the rest of Exodus but for the whole Old Testament, and it seems that God’s victory over the Egyptians is the trigger for Him to speak to His people about what lies ahead.  This is typical of the Lord’s work amongst His people, because God always has in mind the future destiny of His people.  After the Israelites had come through the Red Sea, they were clearly elated, but they needed inspiration to go forward in the right direction, and the picture of what lay ahead was designed to do just this.  With the sight of Pharaoh’s army covered by the sea behind them (15:19), Israel had to take hold of their future in God’s will.

The last part of the passage is also remarkable, but in a different way.  Verses 20 and 21 tell us that Miriam took up the refrain of this great song (15:1,2,21) to lead the women of Israel in celebrating with tambourines and dance.  This is not merely a beautiful touch to the whole story of the Exodus, showing that the women of Israel were now free from danger and able to celebrate and dance without fear of oppression.  More than this, the text describes Miriam, Moses’ sister, as a prophet and therefore someone who communicates God’s will to His people.  Some people doubt whether her deeds and words here can be described as prophetic because they cannot see where the prophecy is in this text.  However, what she did was to take the words of her brother Moses (‘I will sing to the Lord ...’ 15:1), and repeat it as a command to God’s people, by adding the instruction ‘sing to the Lord ...’.  This is one of only a few places in Scripture where a woman takes the lead in a celebratory act of worship to the Lord.

The ‘Song of Moses and Miriam’ in Exodus 15 is often left to one side and unread, perhaps because of people’s inability to see how God’s victory in war can be regarded as a relevant part of His saving will (see the study on Exodus 15:1-12).  One advantage of separating the study into two halves is the fact that when we look at the second half, the theology of God’s providential care stands out.  It may only describe an event in the past, but prophetically, it also points to the future reign of God amongst His people.  For us today, this points us towards Jesus’ return in glory.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The importance of God’s faithful ‘covenant love’
• God’s chosen people and the fear of the nations (15:13-16)
• The destination of God’s people
• Miriam, the prophet  (15:20,21)

Exodus 15:13-21 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The importance of God’s faithful ‘covenant love’

Much of the interest in the passage lies in a close study of the words used, such as the great Hebrew word for God’s covenant love ‘cheseth’ which appears in verse 13 (translated ‘faithful love’), and the extraordinary descriptions of the Israelites as ‘the people You redeemed’ (15:13).  Such powerful words indicate the importance of the text and also its prophetic nature, justifying the description of Miriam as a prophet.

Verse 13 contains a wonderful series of brief sentences, typical of this song, which describe God’s covenant chosen people.  From the beginning of the story of Abraham in Genesis 12, God had promised His people two essential things, firstly growth in numbers (Gen 12:2 etc.), and secondly, a land where they could dwell (Gen 13:14-17 etc.).  Once the people had grown into a nation, they needed to be separated out from the Egyptians with whom they were living, so the fulfilment of the first promise made the Exodus necessary.  However, the Exodus also looked forward to the fulfilment of the second promise, that of a Promised Land within which to dwell.  All of this is brought to our minds by the reference to God’s covenant ‘faithful love’ at the beginning of today’s reading (15:13).

In addition, the rest of the verse confirms God’s covenant love, for ‘You led the people You redeemed’ is now powerfully true.  On the night of the Passover, the sacrifice of the ‘Passover lamb’ in each household ensured that the people were redeemed, saved from the angel of death which killed the Egyptian firstborn through obedience to the Lord’s instructions and the ‘blood of the lamb’.  In addition, the strength of God which had previously saved them from the might of the Egyptian army was now poised to ‘lead’ them ‘to where You dwell in holiness’ (15:13); that is, the Promised Land.

God’s chosen people and the fear of the nations  (15:13-16)

Firstly, however, the people had to travel from where they were to Canaan, and although we know that the journey took far longer than was originally intended, the guidance of the Lord was still required to take them past other nations and other potential foes before they could reach their goal.  In verse 14,15 and 16, the song describes the fear which engulfed the entire region when it became known that the Lord had defeated the army of the Egyptians in the Red Sea.  In ancient times as today, a victorious army was to be feared, and as a general rule, the ancient peoples believed that the gods of those who had succeeded in battle were clearly protecting their own people and inflicting defeat on their foes.  Four lands are pictured as gripped with this fear; Philistia, Edom (the descendants of Esau), Moab, and the Canaanites (those who already lived in the Promised Land). ‘Because of the strength of Your arm, they were still as stone ...’ says our song; these people were not willing to suffer the same fate as the king of Egypt who stood in the way of the God of Israel!  (Some scholars argue that Philistine tribes were not yet living on the coastal regions of Canaan as in the time of David, and use this to claim that this part of the poem is a later addition.  However, we have already seen that Scripture has called ‘Philistine’ whichever people lived in that region during the entire time of Genesis and Exodus – see Genesis 21:32; 26:1f. – so the reference to them in this song is not surprising).

All the nations mentioned were ones with which the nation of Israel would one day struggle for independence, but the song of Moses would remind the people of Israel of the strength of the Lord God, providing they stayed within His will.  What happened in reality was that the people did reach the Promised Land quite quickly, and with the nations generally allowing them to pass, but their own unbelief then prevented them from taking possession for at least forty years (Numbers 13 and14, Deuteronomy 1:19-45). 

The destination of God’s people

Up to this point in scripture, all we know about the Promised Land is that it consisted of all Abraham surveyed when God brought him up to the heights between Bethel and Ai (Gen 13:14-18).  Certainly, his son Isaac and grandson Jacob settled in the deep south of this region and had little contact with the central and northern regions of Canaan apart from passing through on journeys (as did Jacob in Genesis 28).  Now, in a remarkable passage of the song, God speaks to the people prophetically, giving them new information about the Promised Land, and telling them what He wanted them to do once they arrived there.  This passage as much as any in the song justifies its description as prophecy, telling of the Lord’s intent and purposes for the future at a time when it would benefit the people from knowing His plans for them.

Verse 17 is an astonishing departure from the normal rhythm of Hebrew poetry, being a series of seven brief and succinct statements which all link together; ‘You have brought them in, You planted them, on the mountain which You own, the fixed place O Lord, where You have made Your dwelling, The Holy Place O Lord, established by Your hands.’ (15:17). The first two phrases are a promise of God’s guidance to bring His people to the Promised Land and enable them to start a new life.  Interestingly, the image used is agricultural, for the Israelites are described as being ‘planted’ in the land; and this describes the change that would be required of them.  Once in Canaan the Israelites would need to change from a nomadic culture of herding animals to the agricultural skills of a settled community and the cultivation of the land.

In the middle of verse 17 comes the first mention of God’s ‘mountain’, a place which the Lord makes ‘His own’.  Some have thought that this should refer to Mount Sinai where the people of Israel were heading to worship and where they would soon receive the Ten Commandments; however, the passage is almost wholly about Canaan and therefore the mountain must be a prophetic reference to Zion.  This is confirmed by the rest of the verse which uses language which usually refers to the Temple in Jerusalem; that is, ‘Your dwelling’, and ‘the Holy Place’.  It would be many years before Jerusalem would be won over by David and made the capital city of a united Israel (2 Samuel 5:6f.), and even longer before his son Solomon would finally build a permanent temple on the mount of Jerusalem (1 Kings 6). Here in this song of Moses and Miriam we have the beginnings of hope for a truly settled community centred upon the worship of Almighty God in Jerusalem.  This is an important text, and it concludes with a specific sentence which talks of God’s ‘reign’, His kingly authority expressed through His permanent presence with the people symbolised by the Temple.

Miriam, the prophet.

Verse 19 is a prose sentence that comes at the end of the song, bringing it formally to a close and stating again the facts of the Israelite’s liberation from the Egyptians through the Red Sea. 

Much has been made of the description of Miriam as a prophet.  She is the third person in the Bible to be called a prophet; Abraham (Gen 20:7), Aaron (Ex 7:1) and now Miriam (15:21), although it is clear from the words and deeds of Moses that he also spoke and acted as a prophet both before this time and later (Deut 34:10).  Some Christians of the present day feel that this is an important designation because it gives Biblical backing to the principle of women taking leading roles in the life of God’s new people, the Church.

The role of both men and women in the Church and the contentious issue of Paul’s comments about women in his letters (e.g. 1 Cor 14:34, Ephesians 5:22f.) is a far bigger subject than this text, however.  No-one who reads through the Old Testament can escape the fact that men and women are created equal in the sight of God (Gen 1:27 etc) and that the pages of Scripture have more stories about the critically important role of women in the covenant plans of God than we might expect.  Although Israelite society was clearly male dominated, its sacred writings were far more liberal minded.  It does no-one any good, therefore, to undermine or belittle the role of women in God’s Kingdom in any time or place, whatever view you take of the cultural appropriateness of certain roles for either men or women within society (an issue that Paul dealt with in surprising ways in his letters).

Exodus 15:13-21 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This wonderful text contains promises of God (15:13) for His people, and an amazing verse which anticipates the presence of God dwelling amongst His people (15:17).  As with many Old Testament Scriptures, these promises and prophecies are fulfilled firstly in Jesus Christ.  He has redeemed His people and brought them into a place of holiness, and He has fought His way through all evil to win the victory by which we can place our trust in Him.  We can also say that God has also made His dwelling (15:17) with those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and received the Holy Spirit as a gift.  Even this is in some way a fulfilment of the prophetic words of this very ancient song sung by Moses and Miriam.

However, there is more to most prophecy given by God than fulfilment in just one event in history.  This song can be read as a prophecy of the Lord’s coming again, when our redemption will be complete and we will finally live in the true holiness of God, surrounded by His presence, and living without fear or distress.  When this happens, the Lord will truly reign ‘for ever and ever’ (15:18), and we will know that the journey of faith has been fulfilled because Jesus has taken away all earthly fears.

From time to time, Scripture affords us this great vision of God’s future, and we should be grateful for such texts.  They all reflect the Christian hope for God’s completion of His creation at the end of time.  We should read the second half of the song of Moses and Miriam in this way, and be reminded that from the beginning of time, our Lord has shown a passionate love for His people and a deep desire to draw them back to Himself.  The Church must always appeal for people to accept this love.

Exodus 15:13-21 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Discuss verse 13 of our passage and see how many promises of God you can find within it.
2. Discuss verse 17 of our passage and see how many promises of God you can find within it.
3. In what ways does this song of Moses and Miriam reflect prophecy?  What is prophecy and how do we know when it is given to us?

Topics covered by this text

• The guidance of God
• The fear of the nations at the work of God
• The prophetess Miriam

Personal comments by author

Sometimes we must each take hold of the promises of God and not debate them, question them, reject them, ignore them or leave them to one side for consideration another day.  We need to accept them wholeheartedly and believe that they are our passport into the future with the Lord.  You may not have expected to find inspiration within a passage such as this, but Scripture throws up surprises to remind us that there is always much more for us to discover about Him.  Within the text we have read today there are a number of promises of God, about His love, His presence, His redemption, His authority and rule, for example.  All of them can be an inspiration to us if we will allow Scripture to speak to our hearts.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• As an exercise of discipleship, make a list of the promises you find in the text and keep them with you to read from time to time.  Refer to them daily and see what they lead you to do or not to do.
• Pray and ask the Lord to challenge His people, the people you know in your own church fellowship, with a greater vision of where He wants to lead them, and a greater heart to respond to such a call.

Final Prayer

Merciful Lord, when life rushes past so quickly, keep us alert to the possibilities of love, of hope, of faith and of joy.  Be present with us by Your Spirit so that we do not forget the blessings and the privileges we enjoy.  Thank you Lord, AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 15:22-27

Exodus 15:22-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

After the defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, Israel’s Egyptian past was left behind, and the people of Israel found themselves in the wilderness, beginning their journey towards the Promised Land.  This journey was not merely a passage from one place to another.  In common with many other journeys mentioned in the Bible, it was a spiritual as well as a physical journey, and this is the important message of our reading today.

When we read these verses quickly at the end of chapter 15 with its great song of salvation, they seem almost incidental.  At first, the story line appears to be merely the first small incident of many to come in which the people of Israel ‘grumbled’ (15:24) against Moses because things were not turning out as they hoped.  Indeed, the passage is far more interesting than that, for it outlines a pattern of events typical of many others in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and it therefore acts as an introduction to the long narrative of what is called the ‘wandering in the wilderness’ of the people of Israel.

What is this pattern?  We will see this evolve as we follow the story closely.  The people of Israel firstly begin on the path God has given them, but soon discover problems (the water was bitter – 15:23).  They then began to grumble against Moses, but their complaint was essentially against God Himself (15:24).  Moses then intercedes for the people, God gives Moses a solution to the problem (15:25), and then the people of Israel are put at peace (15:27).  This cycle of problem, complaint, solution (through a leader) and then peace, is typical of much of the rest of the Old Testament.  The stories in Exodus of Israel wandering in the wilderness repeat this pattern almost endlessly, for example, when the people cry out for food (16:1-36) and then when they become thirsty again (17:1-7).  The pattern is also discernable throughout Judges (see chapter 2) and in later years during the ministry of the prophets (e.g. see Isaiah 7,8)

The last part of our passage, however, is sometimes thought of a mystery, for the text talks about the Lord making rules and regulations for His people, to ‘put them to the test’ (15:25).  The Lord is then quoted as calling on Israel to pay attention to these commands so that the people will not suffer as the Egyptians did, because the Lord is the one who heals the people (15:26).  This is a wonderful passage, partly because within it, we find a promise of God to heal.  But what does this all mean?  No particular rule or set of commands is mentioned here (such as the Ten Commandments).

At this point, we call on what we learned earlier about the passage, which is that it is a pattern for what is to come.  Read like this, these verses tell us that as God’s people respond to events on their journey, then they will be given the chance to learn more about God through His commands and statutes (15:26).  Of course, we know that this will indeed happen because the Israelites will soon come to Mount Sinai when God will give them the ‘Law’ (Exodus 20).  In addition, these verses tell the Israelites that if they turn to the Lord instead of being stubborn (like the Egyptians), then the Lord will be able to heal them because it is His nature to do so.

Read like this, our passage is a challenge and a great source of encouragement.  It teaches us that on the journey God places before us we all have choices, and if we are to remain on God’s path, then we must pay attention to what He has told us if we are to arrive successfully at our destination.  In this passage, the final destination is ‘Elim’ (15:27), which in contrast with the waters of Marah, is a haven of rest, tranquillity, and water.  Elim was only a temporary place of rest for the Israelites, but in the narrative of Exodus, it symbolises the eventual rest of a completed journey. 

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The waters at Marah
• Moses performs a miracle
• Rules and regulations
• Healing

Exodus 15:22-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Some people have asked why it is that there are two stories of Moses providing the people with water in Exodus; this story and Exodus 17:1-7 (the water from the rock at Rephidim).  The answer may be that many miracles were performed by Moses as the people journeyed from Egypt, but this early one became useful as a sign of what was to come and a demonstration of how God dealt with His people.  This is what we will now explore in more detail.

The waters at Marah

The people of Israel were ordered by Moses to set out from the Red Sea in the general direction of the wilderness of Shur.  If you have a Bible with maps in it, you may find that part of the Sinai peninsula is marked as the ‘wilderness of Shur’, generally that part of it nearest to Egypt.  Frankly, there is little certainty about any of the names or places mentioned in this passage, and the designation in Bible maps simply comes from what this passage tells us.  Some scholars are fairly certain that if the people of Israel tracked down the eastern side of the Red Sea towards Mount Sinai (as mentioned in Exodus 19), then it might be possible to identify ‘Marah’ and ‘Elim’ as the present day places of ‘Ain Hawarah’ and ‘Wadi Charandl’.  Unfortunately, there is no way that this can be verified, and it is best not to presume too much about a route which, to this day, has proved notoriously difficult to pin down with accuracy.  Despite this, the meaning of the journey is far clearer.

It is interesting that the original request Moses brought to Pharaoh was for the people of Israel to journey for three days into the wilderness in order to worship the Lord (5:3; 8:27).  Here, the Israelites journey for three days and then fail to worship the Lord, they grumble!  Clearly, lack of water would have been a major concern for Israel, as they were travelling not just on their own, but with cattle and flocks as well (12:32).  The story implies that the people anticipated obtaining water for supplies and also watering their flocks at Marah, but when they arrived, the water was ‘bitter’.  It is reasonably well attested that some water sources in the desert regions of Sinai were and are bitter to the taste due to mineral deposits deep underground, though it does not help us to try and find a rational explanation for this event.  The Israelites clearly expected good water but found none, and it was a potential catastrophe for the people after the mixture of awe and excitement at their deliverance through the Red Sea.

Moses performs a miracle

We might expect that having seen the Lord’s deliverance at the Red Sea, the people might have had confidence in the Lord’s provision, but their feelings were dominated by the situation they faced, like many people before and after.  It is interesting that the people were said to have grumbled ‘against Moses’, rather than against the Lord.  But from their point of view, Moses was their contact with the Lord and by grumbling against their leader, they grumbled against God.  This was not the first time that the people had grumbled against Moses, of course.  Initially they had complained at his attempts to persuade Pharaoh to let them go (5:20,21), and also when they saw the Egyptians coming closer as they camped on the shores of the Red Sea (14:11f.).  In the book of Exodus as a whole, the theme of grumbling against God is significant, and the first person to grumble against Him was Moses himself (4:12f.)!  Moses was probably understanding of this characteristic of his own people, and in this incident, he did not respond with any personal feeling or animosity; he did what a good leader should do, which was to turn to God for an answer to the people’s problem.

The Lord led Moses to the branch of a tree, and he threw into the water to make it drinkable (15:25).  Again, it is too tempting to try and explain this miracle because it is too easy for us to look back and suggest that a chemical reaction took place.  But Scripture undoubtedly presents this to us as a work of God alone (just as in Elisha’s first miracle changing ‘bad’ water to ‘good’ - 2 Kings 2:19).  The pattern of God’s work is thus established; when the people complain to God, their leader must look to God and do what the Lord says in order to help them, and because the complaint arises because of something the people either cannot cope with, understand or do, then what is needed must be a miracle of some kind.  It is a pattern that is found not just in Exodus, but also in Judges (see the story of Deborah – Judges 4) and also throughout the Old Testament.  Eventually, the miracle of the coming of the Messiah is required because of the sins of the people and their inability to do God’s will!

Rules and regulations

When verse 25 says ‘it was there that the Lord made for them rules and regulations and put them to the test’, it is hard to imagine what was going on.  No specific rules are mentioned, and if some rules were given, surely they would be important and recorded, certainly if they were ones which should be kept in order to avoid the ‘diseases of the Egyptians’ and obtain the Lord’s healing (15:26)!  We have two options; either verse 26 is a generalisation of what happened in the desert journeys of the Israelites, or the ‘rules and regulations’ refers to the Lord’s general instructions to leave Egypt in the first place, perhaps linked to the rules and regulations of the Passover and Unleavened Bread.

Some commentators on Exodus favour the second option, but that means we must think of those rules and regulations as having been given later on in the story than where Exodus places them.  Verse 25 says ‘it was there that the Lord made rules ...’, but Exodus tells us that Passover and Unleavened Bread instructions were given to Moses earlier (12:1-27; 12:43-13:16).

The best way to work out this passage is to consider that the whole episode of grumbling against Moses about the water at Marah was a test.  Within this event, the Lord gave some specific instruction, perhaps even telling the people to ‘drink this water’ (after Moses had thrown in the tree branch!), and then commanding them to be obedient.  Whatever happened, what was remembered and recorded for us was a generalisation; ‘If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and if you pay attention to his commandments and keep all his statutes …’ (15:26).  This phrase becomes the basis of how Moses’ speaks to the Israelites when commanding the people to do the Lord’s will in future years (see Deuteronomy 3:6; 4:1; 7:12; 18:19 etc).  The rules given at Marah were a small sample of the rules and regulations to follow (e.g. the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20), but obedience was what God required of His people, long before they were given.

Healing

The passage ends with a precious promise of healing.  However, it is not to be thought of as some automatic healing, as if mere obedience to the Lord meant that the people would be healed.  The Hebrew of the text, and hopefully this translation, makes it clear that obedience to the Lord’s commands is something which makes it possible for the Lord to be a healer. This is important, for people sometimes expect God to heal irrespective of whether they have been faithful to God.  The Lord is certainly merciful, but our passage urges all the Lord’s people to be obedient in order to have the access to His healing power that is their right.  It is also true that disobedience can prevent the Lord from being a healer, in some instances, as He would wish.

The expectation however is that God’s people will do their best to be obedient to Him, and therefore find the peace and rest of what is described as the twelve springs of Elim.  No-one knows where this place is, and it was doubtless somewhere on the journey of the Israelites in the desert.  However, it represents the safety and haven of being obedient to God, and receiving the healing that He longs to give.

Exodus 15:22-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

We can take a number of things from this passage.  Firstly, it is a reminder of how easy it is for us to forget the miracles of the past when a new crisis confronts us.  Most Christians will be familiar with such circumstances, for most of us have seen people who have experienced the Lord’s blessings, even miracles of healing, but have fled from faith when life has become hard in an unexpected way.  It is a characteristic of life that we will have all manner of unexpected experiences.  The great test of our faith and obedience is whether our faith in God remains constant through whatever happens to us.  This is true of all relationships, of course, but it is especially true of our relationship with the Lord.

The second interesting feature of this story is the reminder it gives us that when God’s people complain against their leader, they complain against God.  This is a difficult matter, for some would say that if this is the case, how can we deal with bad leaders?  Surely we should we not complain against them?  The answer is this; there is a difference between complaining against God by complaining against your leader, as in today’s passage, and complaining against your leader because he or she is a bad leader, for this is an issue that should be addressed, wherever possible.  In a world in which complaint is a common feature of many cultures, we do well to examine our motives and ourselves carefully before complaining.  There will always be things we experience that need our attention, but we must not allow ourselves to be ruled by a culture of complaint, particularly in church.  This must surely be true in the church, given the painful history of Israel’s culture of complaint against God.

Finally, the last verse of our passage reassures the people of Israel that rest and the Promised Land will one day be found.  Each of us needs to experience places like ‘Elim’ along the pathway of our own Christian journey.  We will find places of healing and rest, and they are like an assurance that the Lord is indeed helping us on our way.  He does indeed have a place for us in the eternal home of His heaven.

Exodus 15:22-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Discuss the incident at Marah.  What can this brief story teach us in the church today?
2. In what ways are Christians called upon to be obedient to God, when we have been saved by grace according to faith?
3. How important is the healing ministry to the life of God’s people today.  Should we, or should we not expect people to be ‘healed’ when they are faithful Christians?

Topics covered by this text

• Trust in God for the future
• The need for leadership and for miracles
• The importance of rules and regulations
• Places of rest

Personal comments by author

How easy do you find it to be obedient?  There are many places in the New Testament where Jesus says things like ‘love one another’ (John 13:34), or ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (1 Cor 11:24,25), or ‘turn the other cheek’ (Matt 5:39), but what importance do we give these commands of Jesus?  Each of them is like a challenge that requires our response, and we can only be honest if we address them one by one, as the Lord brings them to our attention.  They cannot be avoided!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Take a diary with you for a week and write down in it anything you believe that God is saying to you about how you should behave and what you should do.  At the end of the week, look back at the diary and assess how you have measured against these things. It is a salutary exercise!
• Pray for those who you know who have difficulty with understanding why God will not do for them what they need, whether it is healing or help in a difficult situation.  Bless them in prayer and do what you can for them.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, save me from imagining more of myself than is true or right.  Help me to understand the call You have placed on my life, and give me the grace to accept the things You have asked me to do; then, as I live each day, may I be content to do Your will.  AMEN

Bible study for Exodus 16:1-12

Exodus 16:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

In the Lord’s prayer, we pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’.  In this way, we ask the Lord to provide for us physically and spiritually.  We all need the Lord’s help to eat and remain alive, and also to ‘feed’ our faith so that we grow as God’s people.  Now, it is just possible that when Jesus said this, he had in mind God’s provision of bread to Israel whilst they travelled through the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised Land.  The Israelites certainly needed bread and other food to eat on their journey, but they also needed to learn to approach God themselves with their needs, and it was an important lesson.

In reading through our passage we can spot that it contains several repeats.  ‘Complaining’ against the Lord is mentioned seven times, and the opening three verses explain why, for the people had finished the food they brought from Egypt, and needed more!  As hinted at in yesterday’s reading (15:24), the Israelites were unable to trust God despite His great miracle of deliverance and salvation, which they had just experienced.  For them the difficulties of desert life made them look back with longing to the stability of their past life in Egypt (16:3).  They complained, and typically of people in difficulty, their fist response was to blame their leaders, Moses and Aaron (16:2,3)!

The reply to the people’s complaint may appear rather complicated, but straightforward enough once we have unravelled the text.  The whole passage is series of repeats, which emphasise what God will do to provide meat in the evening and bread in the morning.  Firstly, the Lord tells Moses that bread will ‘rain down from heaven’ (16:4) each day.  Secondly, Moses tells the Israelites that their complaints will be met ‘in the evening’ and ‘in the morning’ (16:6,7), and he then repeats this, adding that the Israelites will receive meat in the evening and bread in the morning (16:8).  Thirdly, Moses and Aaron encouraged the people to come close to the Lord to hear this same message from the Lord Himself (16:9), who addressed the Israelites and told them that they would receive meat ‘in the evening twilight’, and plenty of bread ‘in the morning’ (16:12). 

Clearly, Moses and Aaron sought to deal with the people’s angst by bringing them to the Lord.  So when the people began to complain, they obtained the Lord’s response (16:3,4), but made it very clear to the Israelites that they were not the ones who were responsible for what was happening.  They were the Lord’s agents, and they were attempting to help the people of Israel, not hinder them.  If the people were honest, then they should bring their complaint to God (16:8), so they gradually drew the people towards the Lord and His presence (16:9).  It is only when they came into the Lord’s presence and stopped complaining against their leaders that the people finally heard God promise that he would provide for them.  All in all, it was quite clear that God’s provision was promised, but the real issue was trust.  The people had to learn to trust God and trust His leaders.

This whole story shows the lack of faith within Israel, and the moral of the story is therefore more complex than the simple message ‘the Lord will provide’ given to people in need.  It is a warning that if God’s people have a problem, they should not just complain to their leaders, they should go to God themselves.  Moses and Aaron had a duty to lead God’s people, but they were not to be used as a substitute for God Himself!

In this light, Jesus’ prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) is rightly a prayer of request going straight to God the Father.  All God’s people should go firstly to Him with their needs, and no one else.  The source of all nourishment, whether physical or spiritual is God Himself, and those who are lacking should not complain about the world, the church or the competency of leaders.  They should first go to God and see what He has to say.  Both this passage and the Lord’s prayer make this same point.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The people’s original complaint
• A dispute?
• An appearance of the Lord?

Exodus 16:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

When the Israelites left Egypt and began wandering in the desert, they did not have any sense of God’s personal love for them, and they directed their feelings about God to Moses and Aaron.  As we explore the text further, we will see how important it was that Moses and Aaron challenge the people to accept the reality of God’s caring presence in their midst.  As long as they attempted to keep God at a distance it would be hard for them to receive His blessings!

The people’s original complaint

In the first verse of the text we discover that a month has passed since the people left Egypt (on the day after the Passover, which was the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month – 12:6, 12:18).  It is not certain where the time passed, because the only other time reference is the three days spent travelling from the Red Sea to Marah (15:22f.)  One month was certainly enough time for the people to become fed up with eating unleavened bread cakes made from the dough they took with them from Egypt.  If the Israelites were typical of nomadic people of the time, they would have been reluctant to kill and eat the sheep and goats of their flocks because they represented their wealth and provided essentials for survival such as wool and milk.  It is easy to see how the people began to grumble and complain against God.

As before, the people directed their complaints to Moses and Aaron, but they added a personal twist to the complaint; ‘you have brought us out into the desert to make the whole community die of hunger!’ (16:1)  There is more than a hint here of an angry crowd making the issue personal, so Moses and Aaron may well have sensed danger, and all they were attempting to do was the Lord’s will!  Nevertheless, they brought the matter to the Lord, who immediately promised to ‘rain down bread’, and added a twist which picks up the theme of testing which we found in yesterdays’ story about the events at Marah.

The test given by the Lord was all about the Sabbath.  Although the people had not yet been given formal instructions about this in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), it was a principle they had observed from ancient times (see Genesis 2:1-3) and would naturally have refrained from work on the Sabbath.  The Lord’s test was therefore as follows; when the people gathered the bread on the day before the Sabbath, they would have to gather in faith, in order to provide enough for their needs on two days (16:5).  The test would be to see whether the people accepted the Lord’s special provision for two days, or whether they would be tempted to try and gather on the Sabbath day!  We will have to see what happens in the rest of chapter 16 to find out what happened, but in the meantime, things were not going well in the Israelite camp.

A dispute?

There certainly seems to have been a fair amount of tension between Moses and Aaron and the Israelites when the two of them reported the Lord’s words back to the camp.  As Moses told the people what the Lord had said, he began by delivering his own message ‘In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt’ (16:6), adding, ‘... who are we that you complain against us?’ (16:7).  Moses seems to have been more concerned to teach the Israelites about their God, because they appeared to be hiding from Him by dealing only with Moses and Aaron, and consequently blaming them when they thought things were going wrong rather than looking to the Lord.  This was not good, because it was only during the previous incident at Marah that they had been challenged to ‘listen to the Lord’ and pay attention to Him.

Moses appears almost angry that the people were not paying attention to the Lord and addressing their concerns to Him.  His comments in verse 8 are translated differently in the various translations, but it is clear that in the Hebrew, Moses told the people that the Lord would act to give them food, ‘and what’, he said, ‘is that to do with us?’ (16:8) This was a sharp comment, and indicates the heat of the conversations taking place.

An appearance of the Lord

Following this tense moment, Moses strangely stops addressing the people themselves, as if fed up with speaking to the recalcitrant people, and told his brother Aaron to tell the Israelites to approach the Lord with their complaining (16:9 – you may find that other translations do not make this very clear).  Then, as he spoke and delivered the message, the text of Scripture says ‘they turned towards the desert’ as if turning away from Moses and Aaron in anger.  Suddenly, the Lord appeared in the cloud in front of the Israelites as they turned from Moses!  It was a dramatic moment of confrontation in which the people were faced with the presence and glory of the Lord (16:10) Himself!  In this way, Moses was vindicated and the people were brought face to face with the reality of the Lord’s presence and power.

Lastly, after the whole incident had died down, Moses was able to deliver the complete promise of God about how the people’s needs would be met (16:12); they would have meat in the evening and bread in the morning, though the form of that food and how it would arrive was still a mystery.  It was a promise of God which the people would have to trust Him for and wait.

It is significant that the very last words of this passage are spoken  by Moses ‘You will then come to know that I am the Lord your God.’  This confirms our understanding of the passage, which is that it is all about Moses’ challenge to the people to accept that he and Aaron were simply God’s messengers and intermediaries.  The people needed to come before the Lord their God and acknowledge His role in leading them out of Egypt and go to Him to provide for their needs.  Eventually they would need to come and worship Him for themselves (see Exodus 19); something they had not done throughout the story of the Exodus even though they had been obedient to Him on the night of their escape from Egypt.

Exodus 16:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

If you began this reading by thinking that it was all about feeding the Israelites in the desert, then you will know by now that the focus of the passage lies elsewhere, in the three way relationship between Israel, God and the two leaders.  Tomorrow, we will read the story of what actually happened when the Lord fed the people of Israel in the desert. 

How often do we treat our leaders like gods rather than the servants they are meant to be, and fail to relate to the Lord in the way He wants?  This is an important message from our text, and it reminds us that our primary relationship is with the God who has saved us, not the human institution of the church or any of its leaders.  This is easy to say, but hard to practice, for churches and leaders are all very real to us, and people readily exercise their religious beliefs in a way which is dependent upon particular churches or Christian leaders.  Look, for example, at the way that Christians become highly dependent upon their particular denomination or style of church; or the way that some people follow particular preachers, worship with certain worship leaders or read only certain authors.  Many Christians read far more novels from the local Christian bookshop than the Bible!

The truth is that the Lord is our God and Jesus is our Saviour.  The glory of this fact is bigger than individual churches or denominations, ministers, speakers, authors or musicians.  Just like Moses and the people of Israel in the desert, a good leader is one who will turn us around to see the presence and the glory of the Lord, and go to Him to meet our needs, not to them.  Then, when we say the prayer ‘give us this day our daily bread’ it will be a genuine prayer to a Saviour who we know personally and whom we trust to meet all our needs.

Exodus 16:1-12 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Discuss the incident at Marah.  What can this brief story teach us in the church today?
2. In what ways are Christians called upon to be obedient to God, when we have been saved by grace according to faith?
3. How important is the healing ministry to the life of God’s people today.  Should we, or should we not expect people to be ‘healed’ when they are faithful Christians?

Topics covered by this text

• Trust in God for the future
• The need for leadership and for miracles
• The importance of rules and regulations
• Places of rest

Personal comments by author

How easy do you find it to be obedient?  There are many places in the New Testament where Jesus says things like ‘love one another’ (John 13:34), or ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (1 Cor 11:24,25), or ‘turn the other cheek’ (Matt 5:39), but what importance do we give these commands of Jesus?  Each of them is like a challenge that requires our response, and we can only be honest if we address them one by one, as the Lord brings them to our attention.  They cannot be avoided!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Take a diary with you for a week and write down in it anything you believe that God is saying to you about how you should behave and what you should do.  At the end of the week, look back at the diary and assess how you have measured against these things. It is a salutary exercise!
• Pray for those who you know who have difficulty with understanding why God will not do for them what they need, whether it is healing or help in a difficult situation.  Bless them in prayer and do what you can for them.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, save me from imagining more of myself than is true or right.  Help me to understand the call You have placed on my life, and give me the grace to accept the things You have asked me to do; then, as I live each day, may I be content to do Your will.  AMEN