Hey everybody, thanks for joining us as we make our way through the week.
We move into the 16th chapter of Exodus.
I think in lots of ways this is a signature part of the story.
This is one of those stories that you probably know if you’ve done much with scripture.
And also, it shows up in some different ways,
and we’ll talk about those as we go.
This is,
we saw yesterday that Israelites needed water,
and a little bit of that story.
That’s kind of an expanded theme today as we move into the 16th chapter.
I don’t know that we’ll go verse by verse,
but let me start here,
and then we’ll go from there.
“The whole congregation of Israel set out from Elem,
and Israel came to the wilderness of sin,
which is between Elem and Sinai,
and on the fifteenth day of the second month,
after they disappeared from the land of Egypt,
the whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
The Israelites said to them,
‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by flesh pots and ate our fill of bread.
For you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’”
We can stop there.
This is going to be,
we don’t want to overdo it here,
but this is going to be a theme.
Every time something bad happens,
they’re going to look at Moses.
In this case, is Aaron as well.
And why did you do this to us?
Did you bring us out here to die?
So,
we talked yesterday that people bounce very quickly in this narrative between
optimistic and pessimistic, between faithful and doubtful.
We see that all the time in this story.
I think what’s interesting here, Michael, is,
well, A, how quickly it happens,
and B, I think it’s interesting that they have a very…
they have a very positive memory
of what they think happened in Egypt.
Yes, and I’ll get to that.
I want to add a three,
or what would be my three.
I would add to this,
note who they address,
right?
They are talking to Moses and to Aaron,
and it’s striking because just paragraphs before,
they were singing songs of deliverance to God.
They were giving thanks to God for delivering them from this captivity and bondage.
And here now,
when it comes to this second trouble,
this trial, as they continue on this journey,
their complaints are against Moses and Aaron.
And it’s striking to me how quickly
they have shifted away from the source of their deliverance,
the one who brought them out,
and now they are going to Moses and Aaron.
It’s sort of like going to the customer service
department and railing against them when they’re not the ones who are responsible
for the problem, right?
Ultimately, it’s putting their faith and trust in God.
But I also want to point out, yeah, Clint,
selective memory much?
I mean, we just…
not long ago, we’re talking about the capital punishment,
the death that was being inflicted upon them.
And here, as the narrative tells the story,
you know, I’m sure that there was nuance
to fill in and,
you know, that there were many perspectives.
But the story that is included in
the book of Exodus is that they accuse Moses and Aaron of bringing them out into the wilderness
with the language to kill the assembly with hunger.
Now, exaggeration or hyperbole,
maybe.
But yeah, at the same time, Clint,
just the chasm that has opened between the situation
that the people were in moments ago,
and now the trouble of the situation the people experience now,
and the lack of trust in God,
and the lack of awareness of the change of their circumstance
is troubling.
Yeah, you know, there’s just something here,
Michael, that I think is deeply true when we find
ourselves in a difficult place,
when we find ourselves facing adversity.
It is so easy to
kind of romanticize the past and to attribute to prior days,
to days that are long gone,
a kind of goodness that
is only part history and is part
fantasy.
I mean,
they didn’t just sit
around eating.
I mean, they were slaves, they were making bricks,
they were under the boot of the Pharaoh,
they
were under the control of Egypt, you know.
So, this is, I think, the text’s way of telling us
that, unfortunately, the Israelite people are not
fully vested in the reality they’re
in.
Whenever they have a challenge,
whenever they have adversity,
the road that they’ve paved
for themselves is doubt,
is questioning,
is complaining,
and now is sort of fantasizing,
or sort of dreaming.
And we’ll hear things like this
again,
but they’re not, none of those things
are steps toward faithfulness.
None of those things point in the direction that God wants
to take them.
So, I think this is a very interesting passage.
A pastor that I like a lot,
once used this phrase,
“People prefer the misery they know to the mystery they don’t.” And I think
the Israelites bear that out.
They’re not good with the idea of new things,
particularly when those new things are difficult.
So,
I think there’s more here.
I think this is connected,
like I said at the end of yesterday’s study.
I do think that there’s something meaningful in the first miracle
being needed is the miracle of water,
that you get into the wilderness and now you need something
to drink, and that the next problem directly facing the people is food.
I think it speaks to us as
the story continues about the fact that the people are now relying upon God for their basic necessities.
The things that before they could rely upon their slaveholders to do for them,
now the people must rely upon God to do.
And in many ways,
the transition from those who served
under a despot, those who serve under Pharaoh,
who really wanted to abuse, misuse, even murder
the people, are now under the free hand of a loving God.
And they are not acting incredibly different
under the hand of God.
And I think that there is
also some spiritual lesson about our own temptation
to personify God,
to imagine God to be like some of the worst examples of people in our life.
You know, we have in the Lord’s Prayer our Father,
we address God as Father,
but that doesn’t mean that
God has the character traits of those fathers who haven’t portrayed the love of God,
the compassion of God.
Human relationships only go so far.
And it seems to me here, Clint, that
some of that mystery you’re talking about
is the people being unable to discern the difference between what they
had experienced and where they now are.
And because of their inability to see that,
their behavior is destructive to the community.
Their complaining is not going to create any value,
anything meaningful within their ranks.
But that’s where they turn because I think they
fail to see the difference between then and now.
Yeah, I think woven throughout this whole story,
Michael, is just that question.
Who do they trust
and how much do they trust?
And in this initial part of the story, the answer is
maybe no one and not much.
And so they’re struggling with that.
Let’s continue on a little bit and
see where we go from there.
Verse 4,
“The Lord said to Moses,
‘I’m going to rain bread from heaven
for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.
In that way I will test them,
whether they will follow my instructions or not.
On the sixth day,
when they prepare what
they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.’
So Moses and Aaron said
to the Israelites, ‘In the evening you shall know it was the Lord who brought you from the land of
Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord,
because He has heard your complaining against the Lord.
For what are we that you complain against us?
When the Lord God gives
you meat to eat in the evening and you fill of bread in the morning,
because the Lord has heard
your complaining that you utter against Him,
what are we your complaining is not against us,
but against the Lord.’” So a couple of interesting things here.
We saw this word “test” yesterday.
Here we get it perhaps in a little bit of a different usage,
but here it is whether they
will be obedient.
The test is not to see whether or not they get food.
God is going to provide food,
but the test that that’s going to mean is can they trust?
And fascinating, Michael, this gift of food,
the way that this happens is,
you know, the Bible often uses physical food and water as metaphor for the spiritual.
And so here,
the spiritual lesson is that they will be able to gather each day
what they need for that day.
They can’t hoard it,
they can’t house it,
they can’t save it up,
that they are going to find themselves in a daily experiment to trust God for the coming day,
the exception being the Sabbath,
which they can gather a double portion on Friday so that they
have enough for the Sabbath.
And that language, you know, leaks into Christianity, give us this, they are daily bread.
That’s the idea behind this,
that each and every day we have to choose again to
put our trust in God for sustenance,
for nourishment, for what sustains us.
And, you know,
I love this part of the story and I really,
the, can you call it wisdom?
The mechanism here by which
God makes them trust Him every day or at least test them to see if they will trust Him every day is very interesting.
I also think there’s a deeply human response that we see happening from Moses
already in this story.
And, you know, I look here at what he says in verse seven.
First of all, you’ll see the glory of the Lord because it’s the Lord who’s heard you complaining.
What are we that you complain against us?
And I think that there’s a beautiful kind of air traffic control,
rhetorical air traffic control happening here.
You know,
no, you’re not complaining that I brought
you out that ultimately the test to your point here,
Clint, the test is not whether or not Moses
will get them through.
It’s whether or not God will be faithful to them and God will be faithful.
But how will the people respond and what will they continue to say and how will they continue
to behave towards one another?
There’s the moments of difficulty tend to be moments that reveal our character.
And they are also moments that grant us an opportunity.
Even if it’s a thin moment,
they grant us the opportunity to make a choice.
Sometimes it’s a new choice.
And I think that some
of that is the test that’s in play here.
Will they see that the food that is provided is more than
just that day’s meal?
Will they see it as a kind of promise,
a kind of ongoing visible reminder
of the God who they may not see but is caring for them?
And you know, if you know your Bible
and you know what is to come,
it’s somewhat horribly ironic that the physical things that
grant us some awareness of the God who is around us,
they often become the things that we fixate
on or the things that we look at and we fail to see God who is working behind the scenes.
And you know,
it’s amazing how quickly water and bread quenching our physical needs,
how quickly that takes precedence over the kind of gratitude and trust and awareness that the people had just
a few short verses ago.
But it would be easy,
Clint, I think to disparage the people of Israel.
I think we’re going to be a little bit more
humble.
We might admit that this is a thing that
I think every human can relate to.
We share short-sightedness and especially in moments
of difficulty when our character is tested,
we’ve all known the time when that character has been left wanting.
Sure.
And often that happens to us in those moments of adversity,
those moments where challenged or those moments that we have needs or that we’re struggling.
And you know, certainly the case here,
and part of the reason that this story is powerful to us,
yes, this is history and we understand something of the covenant story in it,
but also because it invites
us to see ourselves in the role of Israel.
And as much as we would like to believe we would have acted differently,
I think the challenge of this text is when you’re struggling,
when there are and filled with negativity and fear,
do you join them or not?
And the answer for
most of us too often is,
yeah, we do that.
We sometimes travel those roads.
And so
this is, again, I have a fondness for this part of the story.
I just finished this last part out
so we can start with maybe getting into more of the heart of it tomorrow.
Moses says to Aaron,
say to everyone, the congregation of the Israelites draw near to the Lord.
He’s heard your complaining and Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites and they looked
toward the wilderness and the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.
The Lord spoke to Moses and
said, I’ve heard the complaining of the Israelites say to them at twilight,
you shall eat meat.
And in the morning you shall have your fill of bread.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.
So we talked, we’ve talked before lots of opportunities in this story.
Moses says mediator, the go between.
Here Moses gives a message to Aaron.
He relates to the people.
God speaks directly to Moses.
Again, telling them of this thing that’s going to happen.
I’ve heard your complaining.
I’m going to act.
And that’s the promise that hangs over this part
of the text.
Tomorrow we’ll look at how that promise is fulfilled.
Again, some fascinating
lessons I think in it,
but here we leave the people on the verge of
being called to trust
that God is going to respond to their needs.
Yeah, and Clint, there’s a what you might think
of as a small detail that I don’t want us to miss in verse 10.
So as Aaron is saying this to the
congregation, you kind of imagine them all gathered and here they’re being addressed.
They are looking toward the wilderness.
So imagine that they’re looking out to the expanse
of the unknown to the reality of their challenge of their struggle,
the future,
which is yet written
and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
And you know, we have said this many times earlier
in the book of Exodus that ever since the burning bush,
the question has been hanging over this
text.
Who is God?
God reveals himself to Moses in this fiery bush,
this bush that is burning, but not consumed.
God continues to show strength,
of course, through all these plagues.
Then as this military general, you might remember this idea of a cloud again as God was above the battlefield
over in the parting of the Red Sea.
And now here,
the glory of the Lord appears again in the cloud.
So
it may seem like a strange detail, but friends,
imagine that physical reality of looking out into
the unknown and they’re the presence of God being made visible.
God himself is not showing his face
and yet he is clearly with the people.
This language and appearing kind of vocabulary is
going to appear multiple times here in the book of Exodus.
And I think it’s important because as
the story of Israel continues beyond Exodus,
there’s going to be time and time again,
temptation to create graven images of God,
to make God look physical.
And throughout this entire deliverance story, God never steps out in that way.
God never does that.
It’s always a measure of faith.
It always requires trust on behalf of the people.
And yet there are moments
like this one where while you’re looking at the challenge,
God is there and God is
seen in the cloud.
And I think there’s something really,
really interesting about that.
Yeah, I think one of the ongoing struggles of the people,
those people and we people,
Michael,
is we think of doubt when it comes to our faith,
we think of doubt as somehow doubting that God is
out there.
And that’s not the struggle of the people.
They don’t doubt that.
They doubt that God can be trusted.
They doubt that God is interested in them.
They doubt that God will protect them.
Their doubt is not a doubt of God’s existence,
but it’s relational doubt.
Can this God that is
capable of these things,
can this God who uses his power,
use power, will that God use power
to our benefit and not to our harm?
Are we safe following that God?
And I think
those are the deep questions that kind of run through this narrative.
And unfortunately, the Israelites most often answer them incorrectly,
but that’s not, again, that’s not intended to just
be their story.
That’s the human story.
That’s our story as well.
So there’s a lot of jumping
off places here.
I think, again,
tomorrow we get a chance to really mine some of the depths of those themes.
Yeah. And to be clear,
if this feels like kind of an abrupt ending,
it’s because it is.
We’re not done.
The story here is going to continue.
So we’re glad that you would spend some
time with us today as we set this up and hope that you’ll join us tomorrow as we continue on
here in our study of Exodus.
Thanks, everybody.