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ОглавлениеRead Exodus chapters 15–17. Watch The Bible Project video on Exodus chapters 1–18.
The first song in the Hebrew Bible is the Song of Moses in Exodus 15. The story of Moses crossing the Red Sea is also fairly well known. Notice that the pulling back of the waters did not happen in an instant, but rather took the winds blowing all night long. The movie Exodus: Gods and Kings1 depicts this act as having been caused by a great earthquake that created a tsunami that pulled back the waters temporarily.
The story itself has some chronology and geography issues to sort out. The Hebrew slaves escaped Rameses, then fled, and crossed the Red Sea. If you look at a map, you see that the Red Sea is about 150 miles south and then east of the lower tip of the Sinai Peninsula. This would take a group of that size months to traverse. It isn’t out of the question that it took Pharaoh that long to regret the loss of his cheap labor source and chase them down with his army, but the locations for water at Marah, Massah, and Meribah are back up north on the west side of the peninsula. Mount Sinai, where the commandments were given early on in their journey, is located in the south central region. So how did they cross the Red Sea and then get back over to get water and the Ten Commandments?
The most common solution is that it wasn’t the traditional Red Sea they were crossing, but rather the Sea of Reeds, a body of water not too far from the city of Rameses, where they fled. The names may have been corrupted as the story was transmitted, or it is possible that what is now called that the Gulf of Suez was then considered part of the Red Sea. These are questions to ponder.
After the crossing of the Red Sea there are a host of stories that are often overlooked because they are not so fantastic. Nearly every movie made about Moses stops at the crossing of the Red Sea. Someone needs to make the film Moses: the Sequel.
Remember, Moses was not raised as a Hebrew but an Egyptian. When he finally flees his upbringing, he marries into the family of a Midianite priest. Embedded in these stories is an idea that you should always keep in mind: Moses is being tutored in the ways of an old, almost dead, faith. Some of the ideas and practices of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob surely remained with their Hebrew descendants, but perhaps they got muddled during those 400 years of slavery. What these stories do is give us a peek into the formation of a religious culture. God and Moses are going to recreate or expand formal Judaism.
It is hard for us to see how deeply we are affected and shaped by our culture, especially over time. Often we are so close to our context we are not even aware of how it shapes our thinking. The Israelites will be living out of a “slave mentality.” You read it in these accounts. The people very quickly wanted to go back to Egypt, even if it meant slavery. Would you rather be adequately fed and be a slave, or anxious about food and shelter and live into freedom?
Water from the rock. A phrase that refers to the idea that God will provide out of nothing.
Have you ever heard the term “hangry”? This sometimes happens on long road trips with the family; you’re trying to make it to a certain point before you stop to eat and the people in the car get increasingly cantankerous. My kids call that “hangry.” You are angry because you are hungry. Finally you stop and get something to eat, and the demeanor of the car is transformed to sweetness and love, all because you now have a cheeseburger in your belly. Don’t tell me the soul and body aren’t intimately intertwined.
What-is-it?
God provided a flaky white substance that could be ground up into a sweet flour. It appeared in the morning like dew on the ground and burned off as the sun rose in the sky. The people see it and then ask, “What is it?” In Hebrew, the words are pronounced “Man-na?” And so that is what they end up naming it: what-is-it? Man-na, bread from heaven. There is a poignant devotional piece to this event. God tells Moses to instruct the people to only take enough for the day. If they try to save it up, it will stink and rot with maggots. God wanted them to depend on God on a daily basis, not on their own clever ability to manage their lives. YHWH was building a relationship that required their daily trust. Make yourself vulnerable to God; that is where you grow in intimacy with God.
A peek into the future: 1,500 years later, when Jesus multiplies the loaves and feeds thousands of people, he refers to this story and to himself as the bread from heaven. Jesus is manna. As a priest, when I give people the bread at communion, I often very quietly whisper, “Manna?” before I hand them the bread. “What-is-it?” I am asking. And then I answer my own question, “The body of Christ, the bread of heaven.” It is another typology. Manna is the type; Jesus as bread from heaven is the antitype.
Manna. The name for the flaky bread was a similar sounding word for the question, “What-is-it?” The answer is miraculous bread from heaven.
Bitterness, questioning, testing, quarreling. The writer of the story is describing the atmosphere of these runaway Hebrew slaves. These are some conflicted folks, scared and full of doubt. The literary device of alliteration, and these four “m” sounds, are framing the events. It is good practice to read the scriptures with a literary sensibility. The writer of this story is “doing a thing” here.
Then there are the Amalekites. This is the first skirmish the Hebrews encounter. God comes to their aid when Moses has his staff raised in the air, but as he fatigues and the staff lowers, they begin to lose. Aaron and Hur find a rock for Moses to sit on and they hold up his arms for him. Make a mental note about the Amalekites. They show up again in the book of 1 Samuel in a very significant manner.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
1. Do you get hangry? Would you rather be free and suffer for a while as you get established in your new life, or be a slave and have shelter, food, and water?
2. God told them only to take enough manna and quail for one day’s worth. Do you think it is wrong to store up money or resources? Does it keep us from depending on God?
1. Exodus: Gods and Kings, directed by Ridley Scott (Century City, CA: 20th Century Fox, 2014), film.
