Exodus 16
- People grumbling during the wandering
- Verse 4 - Yahweh promises to bring bread
- Verse 7 - Moses is harsh with Israel and they are silent (indicated by verse 8 "Moses also said")
- Verse 8 - Moses brings up meat, which was not promised by Yahweh, but Yahweh will honor Moses' word
omer measurement. Some Israelites gather more, some less. God uses the manna to test the Israelites - what is really in their heart? Will they trust him or try to gather on the Sabbath? (obviously some try to gather on the Sabbath, just as some gathered too much during the week and it turned bad)
- Verse 18
- - 2 ways to read this...
- First is that everyone gathered whatecer they felt necessary but when they all came back they all ahd the same amount (ie. some miracle)
- Second is that everyone gathered what they could, and when the total as divided up by the omer, each member of the community had exactly what they needed.
The second way of reading would indicate that Israel is in fact learning some of the lessons we expect them to learn - and yes they'll still fail, even in this very story, but it might indicate that their hearts are being formed and changed by Yahweh
Psalm 78
- lsrael put God to the test in the wilderness
- Israel had cattle and stuff when they left Egypt, so they had meat, they had things they wanted. But Psalm 78 makes it clear that they demand specific kinds of food, specific wants of theirs, of Yahweh and test him by demanding those things.
Exodus 17
- Verse 4 - Moses lets out a Zedka, which is a cry of oppression. He is clearly actually worried for his own life here
- Vrese 5 - Yahweh's response is to tell Moses to go in front of the people and perform a miracle, kind of submitting to the people's demands actually
- Verse 5 - Moses and the elders are anywhere from 11-19 miles away from Sinai still, depending on where it is. So he has to walk 10+ miles, on foot, with the elders, to show them something that they're demanding to see... We need to not forget the humanity present in this situation
- Moses is to "strike" (Viya) the rock, the mountain. This is the same word for when Moses "struck down" the Egyptian. This is Yahweh calling on something in Moses' own story and calling him up
- God is also telling Moses to strike him - God is putting himself in as the provider/the one who will pay the price on behalf of his people
Amalekites
- Desert-raiders who attacked wandering groups from the rear. They are judged hard by God throughout the story for how they treat humanity.
- Israel learns from them and later in the story the weak and marginalized are to be in the middle of othe Israelite caravan, not the rear. The tribe of Dan is responsible for the rear of the pack - it's a way to protect the weak int he community
- You can tell how obedient a group of Yahweh-loving people are by looking at where the weak and marginalized are within the community
Love the Lord with all your very
The third test in this narrative in Exodus 16/17 is about loving God with all your "very", meaning "with all of ourselves" which is evidenced in the Rabbinic teaching of verse 9 where Moses and Joshua do not call men "to fight" but they call men "to fight for [communal] us" - they call for men to fight for the community, for everyone. They are looking for men who will trust the story and protect everyone in the community.