Tag Archives: Exodus

God Provides Manna for the Israelites (Exodus 16)

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Bible Summary:

A month and a half after leaving Egypt, the Israelites are just opposite a desert from Mount Sinai when they start complaining to Moses about him starving them to death. God tells Moses He will rain food down from the sky and that the people must collect enough, two quarts each, except on the sixth day when they are to collect four. Moses and Aaron tell the Israelites that God has heard their complaints “against Him”. Once the morning dew evaporates on the next day, thin and flaky white seeds that taste like thin cakes made with honey cover the desert. They eat this manna from heaven for the next forty years until they reach Canaan.

My Thoughts:

Things Become Familiar: In a story like this it is easy to think the Israelites are ungrateful for what God has done for them, but I think it is more the case of things becoming familiar and the miracles being forgotten over time.

I used to travel a bit for work and the first time I saw the Rocky Mountains I was in complete awe. I thought they were so majestic, with the sun peering over the peaks as the day began to end. But after a while, they just became part of the scenery, part of the background. They had lost their newness. It takes effort to remember our everyday miracles.

On the Seventh Day We Rest and Worship: God tells us to take a break once a week. This rarely happens in America. We move at 5,000 miles an hour all the time and do not know how to take a break. Caffeine is the drug of choice to keep us going at this incredible pace.

Try to take a break for one hour, yes, a whole hour once a week. It will be very difficult at first, doing nothing for an hour, but keep at it until you make it the whole hour. You will be surprised how this can change your life.

Moses Solves the Bitter Water (Exodus 15)

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Bible Summary:

Moses and the Israelites celebrate their victory over the Egyptians with a song that describes the power of God’s right hand in drowning the army in the Red Sea plus the fear in the tribes neighboring Canaan.

Then Moses leads the Israelites away from the Red Sea and across a desert for three days without water. They finally find water but it is too bitter to drink, so the Israelites complain to Moses. He prays to God and learns a type of wood to throw into the water to make it fit to drink.

Later, God tells the Israelites laws to live by and warns them to obey or He will punish them with diseases like the Egyptians.

My Thoughts:

No Water: Can you imagine walking three days across a desert without water, only to finally finding some that you cannot drink? Today, people complain if the faucet is off just a couple hours for repairs. We take so many things for granted that we fail to see how blessed we truly are. Next time you are in a situation you would normally complain, stop, ask how long before things will be cleared up, and then go do something else: take a walk, talk to a friend, read a book, etc. You will be surprised how this approach can reduce your stress and improve your relationships.

Unwritten Commandments: I was surprised to hear that God was already laying down the laws, though just verbally, shortly after freeing the Israelites. I always thought they came down first in hard copy with the Ten Commandments. Guess we will find out more as the story unfolds.

Moses Parts the Red Sea (Ex 14)

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Bible Summary:

The Israelites camp between the desert and Red Sea. When the king of Egypt is told the slaves have left, he changes his mind and pursues them with his entire army. Upon seeing the approaching army, the Israelites complain to Moses for taking them out of Egypt just to die in the desert. Moses tells them not to be afraid, that God will fight for them.

God places the pillar of clouds between the Israelites and the army, then, at God’s command, Moses lifts his walking stick and parts the Red Sea. A great wind blows all night and dries a path that the Israelites walk across with the walls of water on each side. The Egyptian army pursues them. After the Israelites reach the other side, the walls of water collapse on the Egyptian army, destroying them all. The Israelites stand in awe of God’s power and now have faith in his servant Moses.

My Thoughts:

Real Work: In the grief of losing his first-born son, the king sets the Hebrews free. A little while later he realizes that the Egyptians will have to do all the work the slaves used to do, including cooking and serving meals, so he wants them back.

Many people are afraid of real work. They want to take the easy way out and let someone else do the work. After a while, they rely on others for all their needs and cannot function when the help is taken away. Real work gives you strength, builds character, gives you confidence, and more. It is especially gratifying if you do it for someone else, like shoveling the elderly neighbor’s snow. So, plan a project, begin the work, and see what you can accomplish.

Keeping the Faith: Oh, ye of little faith. The Israelites were happy when Moses freed them, but quickly turned on him when the king’s army showed up.

It is difficult to keep the faith, especially during difficult times. We just want to give up and go back to our old dreary life. Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. God is with you and you will prevail to see brighter days and success. Keep the faith!

God Leads Israelites to Red Sea (Ex 13)

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Bible Summary:

On the day the Israelites are set free, Moses tells them how to remember that day every year going forward by sacrificing first-born animals and not eating leavened bread. Moses takes Joseph’s mummified body as they had promised many centuries before and leads them through the desert toward the Red Sea instead of by a shorter route. God did not want the Israelites to change their minds and return to Egypt when they learn they have to fight. God leads them with a pillar of cloud during the day and pillar of fire to light the way at night.

My Thoughts:

Backs Against the Wall: God knows the Egyptians are going to pursue. He also knows the Israelites, even with the excitement from their new freedom, would not have the confidence after centuries of slavery to fight the Egyptians unless He backed them against the wall of the Red Sea.

Maybe this is why God sometimes makes our struggles so difficult, so we too build confidence to do greater things in the future.

The Pillars: I have participated in Komen Races for the Cure with 55,000 others in a river of people coursing their way through downtown Columbus, so I can only imagine what 2.4 million Israelites looked liked as they escaped from Egypt. With no cell phones, Internet, TV, radio, or even walkie-talkies, it must have been extremely difficult to communicate with such a large crowd, so God devised the pillars of cloud and fire so they could all see the way.

Sometimes I wish God would show me a large sign to guide my life in the right direction, instead He sends small signals and some people at the right time. You just have to use your intuition, which is God speaking within you.

Passover (Ex 12)

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Bible Summary:

God instructs Moses and Aaron about the Passover Festival. The Israelites are to kill a young goat or lamb and mark their doors with the blood, roast the animal and eat all of it, and be ready to travel. No one is to leave their house until morning.

That night God sends the Angel of Death through Egypt to kill every first-born son, except in houses marked with blood that are past over without harm. The king and his officials awaken to loud cries throughout the land. He sends for Moses and demands the Israelites get out. The Egyptian people urge the Israelites to leave quickly before God does anything else.

The Israelites grab their unleavened dough and ask the Egyptians for jewelry and clothes, and so carry away the wealth of Egypt. About 600,000 men, not including women and children, set out on foot, free after 430 years of slavery in Egypt.

My Thoughts:

Worst Epidemic Ever: The description of Passover makes me believe an epidemic from dead animals contaminating the Nile River struck Egypt. God saved the Israelites by teaching them to roast their meat instead of eating it raw or boiled and marking healthy houses. The latter makes me believe the plague was worse than the Black Death that killed 30-60% of Europe’s population between 1348 and 1350 (See full Black Death story on Wikipedia). Normally citizens will mark unhealthy homes to stay away during an epidemic, but Egypt’s epidemic must have been so bad that the Israelites marked just the safe houses.

Jacob’s Numerous Descendants: The seventy Hebrews that entered Egypt with Jacob grew to about 2.4 million descendants freed by Moses, assuming the 600,000 men were pared with a like number of women and children made up half the total number. This seems incredibly high, but a little estimation shows that roughly six children per family over 21 generations grew to the large number of Hebrews.

See what an impact you can have through your children!  Be sure love them dearly so they carry it on for generations to come.

Moses Warns of First-born Sons (Ex 11)

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Bible Summary:

God tells Moses he is sending his last punishment on Egypt and to tell the people of Israel to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver jewelry. Moses warns the king of Egypt that at midnight every first-born son in Egypt will die, from the heir to the throne down to the animals. But, the king still refuses to let the Israelites leave his country.

My Thoughts:

Negotiator: The idea that Moses existed and negotiated the release of the Israelites must be true. Why else would the Egyptians, who had kept the Hebrews as slaves for 430 years, allow them to leave, even if there had been a volcano-induced plague (see last bible study post)? If anything, the Egyptians would have forced the slaves to clean up all the dead animals and get back to work.

The plague must have impacted the Egyptians who lived along the Nile more than the Israelites who lived on the eastern part of the delta in Goshen. Moses could have taken this opportunity to free his people.

The story of Moses growing up as part of the royal family must be true as well, since he had the nerve to negotiate the release. As a slave, he would have never had the courage stand up to the royal family. Any way you look at it, the events in Egypt were truly miracles how they played out exactly as it needed to free the Israelites.

Stubborn King: Why in the world would the king sacrifice the first-born sons of Egypt, including his own, after Moses proved God could make it happen with all of the other plagues, darkness, and hail? By this time in Egypt’s history, the king had come from a long line of powerful Pharaohs who believed they were gods. So, either the king was arrogant enough to challenge the first-born warning or this is an embellished story of a plague that wiped out many people, especially the young, including the important first-born sons.

Okay, even after all my scientific theory about the events around the release of the Israelite, I still like the bible miracle story better.

Moses and God Punish Egypt (Ex 6: 28-30, 7, 8, 9, 10)

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Bible Summary:

God sends Moses and Aaron to speak to the king of Egypt several times with successively harsher punishments against the Egyptians, but the king is very stubborn and will not let the Israelites leave to worship God in the desert. The punishments are:

  • Aaron makes a snake with his walking stick. The king’s magicians do the same, but Aaron has his snake eat theirs.
  • Aaron turns the Nile River into blood. All the fish die and begin to stink. The king’s magicians also turn water red so he refuses to listen to Moses.
  • Seven days later God sends a plague of frogs, but the magicians make frogs come on land too. The king asks Moses and Aaron to pray the frogs away. The next day all the frogs die and the Egyptians pile them in heaps, but the king becomes stubborn again.
  • God sends a plague of gnats, but this time the magicians fail to match His power. The king still remains stubborn.
  • God sends a plague of flies and all of Egypt is brought to ruin, except for the land of Goshen where the Israelites live. The king tells Moses to sacrifice animals to their God right there. Moses rejects him saying the Egyptians would be offended and stone them to death, so they must travel three days into the desert to worship God. The king agrees but reneges after the flies are gone.
  • God sends terrible disease on the Egyptian animals and many die, but He spares the Israelite animals. The king still remains stubborn.
  • God sends ash that creates boils on the Egyptians. The magicians do not even show up this time since they are covered in boils. The king still will not listen to Moses about releasing the Israelites.
  • God sends a heavy hailstorm on Egypt but spares the Israelites in Goshen. The king agrees to set them free, that is, until the hail stops.
  • Moses warns the king of impending locusts. The king’s officials complain to him about letting the Israelites go since Egypt is already in ruin. The king only agrees to let the men leave to worship, so Moses leaves the king and God brings on the locust to eat all the remaining plants. The king asks Moses to take away the locust but again will not let the Israelites go.
  • Then, God sends darkness over Egypt for three days, though the Israelites have light. The king now agrees to allow the people to leave, but not their animals, so Moses asks the king to provide animals for sacrifice. The king becomes angry and sends Moses away with a warning that he will die if he shows up again.

My Thoughts:

Nature’s Role with the Israelites: It sounds like nature got the Israelites into slavery, due to the seven-year famine of Joseph’s time, and nature got them out. These chapters read like a huge volcano erupted near Egypt, which could explain the blood red river and dead fish, followed by gnats and flies, the death of the animals from drinking the diseased water, boils on the people from ash, and even the hail as the volcanic emission caused dramatic weather changes.

Read about similar results from Mount Tambora exploding in Indonesia in 1815 and the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816 from Wikipedia.  Makes you pause at how destructive nature can be.

Justice: It is easy to get on the side of the Israelites in this story since they had been in bondage for hundreds of years, but it is hard to believe that God would kill so many innocent Egyptians because of their tyrannical, unbending king. This is why I am leaning towards the natural disaster explanation, though I have not searched for any historical proof of this theory.

God Promises to Save the Israelites (Ex 5: 22-23, 6: 1-13)

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Bible Summary:

Moses complains to God that the king of Egypt is treating the Israelites worse since their request and God is doing nothing to help. God says he will force the king to let them go, even drive them out of Egypt. He reaffirms His promise of the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and that He will save their descendents, the Israelites.

Moses conveys God’s promise to the Israelites but they do not listen because of their broken spirits from cruel slavery. God tells Moses to talk to the king again, but Moses complains that the king will never listen. God commands Moses and Aaron to tell the Israelites and the king that He ordered them to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

My Thoughts:

Broken Spirit: A long period of cruel behavior can crush someone’s spirit to the point where they feel they cannot believe in anything. Losing faith is not easily rekindled. It takes baby steps and proof of success before a hint of belief can take root and then be nourished.

God Sends You: Everyone thinks God should show up and solve all the world’s problems, but He has – in you! He sent you to solve the world’s problems. I know it sounds like a heavy burden, but you in this case is plural. God asks everyone to work together to resolve the world’s ills. Collectively, we can make tremendous changes for good as long as we let love guide the way. Please commit yourself to moving the world in a positive direction, even in little ways.

Moses Begins Negotiating with King (Ex 5: 1-21)

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Bible Summary:

Moses and Aaron ask the king of Egypt to let the Israelites leave to worship God for a three-day festival in the desert. The king refuses and complains they are disrupting the work.  That day the king stops providing straw to the slaves and make them find their own while producing the same number of bricks. The king says they must be lazy if they need time off to go and offer sacrifice to their God.  As the slaves leave, they run into Moses and Aaron to complain that they have caused the king to hate the Israelites and an excuse to kill them, especially since they are more numerous than the Egyptians.

My Thoughts:

First Labor Negotiations: This is the first documented labor negotiation. It starts with a request by the negotiators, Moses and Aaron, for three days off for religious reasons. The company, the king of Egypt, refuses and adds to their workload. The people falter and complain to their negotiators.

Labor unions began shortly after the beginning of the industrial revolution in the late 1800’s when companies took advantage of workers with long hours and low pay. This time period created very wealthy people like Andrew Carnegie on the backs of cheap labor.

Today, CEOs earn 343 times more than a typical worker (see CNN Money story), an upward trend that started in the early 1990’s (see Stanford historical graph).

Moses Returns to Egypt (Ex 4: 18-31)

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Bible Summary:

On the way to Egypt, God tells Moses to perform all the miracles to the king and that the king will not let the Hebrews leave. Moses is to tell the king that Israel is God’s first-born son and when he refuses that all the Egyptian first-born sons will be killed.

Meanwhile God tells Aaron to meet Moses in the desert at the holy mountain. Upon Aaron’s arrival, Moses tells him everything God shared with him.

Moses and Aaron go to Egypt and round up all the Israelite leaders. Aaron relays all the things God told Moses and then Moses performs the miracles. They believe and then bow down and worship God.

My Thoughts:

Seeing is Believing: Wouldn’t you love for God to show up and prove he exists like He did with Moses at the burning bush? I’m not sure we would believe the miracles Moses performed though, since many of us have seen David Copperfield do amazing illusions on TV.

Belief is an act of faith, but also an act of power. Power beyond our understanding, even that of the greatest doctors of our time. Belief has the power to heal or sustain someone with a debilitating disease well beyond what doctors predict. My aunt had breast cancer and was given six-months to live. Her faith carried her through some tough chemo and eight more years – long enough to watch her children become adults.