Exodus 15-18
Drink, Food, Fellowship,
and Delegation
Psalm 12:6-8 Kept Safe According to God's Words
6.“The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.7.You shall keep us safe, O LORD, You shall preserve us from this generation forever.8.The wicked strut freely on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men."Observation
12:6-8.The psalmist puts his trust and hope in the revealed character and words of God. He expresses confidence that God will keep His people safe and preserve them from the wicked around them. When a culture honors what is vile or worthless the wicked increase and oppress the righteous, hence the need for God's help.
Application
Trust in God's words for deliverance from a wicked culture, and seek to exalt that which is worthy and honorable.
Prayer
God, thanks for communicating Your trustworthy and pure words, so I can hope in them and You, in the midst of a wicked and worthless generation of oppressors. Amen.
Proverbs 4:5-8 What Is Your Supreme Passion?
5.“Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don't forget, neither swerve from the words of my mouth.6.Don't forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.7.Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.8.Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor, when you embrace her.”Observation
4:5-8.Wisdom is choosing the right objectives and the right means of obtaining them. Are there any of the four listed benefits of wisdom you don't want? So how do you get it? The previous verses in Proverbs 4 give some ideas. If you haven't paid anything to get it, you don't have it. It's not just enough to get it, you've got to esteem it, use it, embrace it, love (be loyal to) it.
Application
Is wisdom at the top of your To-Get List? Are you getting it? How? Prove it.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thanks that You offer supreme wisdom. Help me not fritter away the pennies of my life on pointless pursuits. Amen.
Exodus 15-18 Drink, Food, Fellowship, and Delegation
Exodus 15 Singing to Sighing
1.Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, "I will sing to Yahweh, for He has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea.2.Yah is my strength and song, He has become my salvation: This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father`s God, and I will exalt Him.3.Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is His name.4.Pharaoh's charits and his host has He cast into the sea;6.Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power, Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces.7.In the greatness of Your excellency, You overthrow those who rise up against You: You send forth Your wrath11.Who is like You, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in praises, doing wonders?12.You stretched out Your right hand. The earth swallowed them.13."You, in Your hesed/loyal love, have led the people that You have redeemed. You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.14.The peoples (Canaanites) have heard. They tremble...15.Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of Your arm they are as still as a stone;...Yahweh, until the people pass over who You have purchased.17.You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, Yahweh, which You have made for yourself to dwell in; The sanctuary, Lord, which Your hands have established.18.Yahweh shall reign forever and ever."22.Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and the went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.23.When they came to Marah, they couldn't drink from the water of Marah, for they were bitter.24.The people murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"25.Then he cried to Yahweh. Yahweh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested/refined them;26.and he said, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, and will do that which is right in His eyes, and will pay attention to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you."27.They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees: and they encamped there by the waters."
Observations
15:1-18.This song of praise focuses on the attributes and actions of God in redeeming and leading His people (not so much about how the Israelites feel about it). It looks forward to the continuation of the fulfillment of God's promise to bring them into the Promised Land.
15:24.
Different tune, a whole lot worse. From singing God's praise they switch to singing the blues. God let them experience need so they would call out in dependence upon Him (who just so gloriously delivered them). Instead they murmur against Moses.
15:25.
Moses calls out to God who sweetens the very water they were complaining about. God says He is refining them (metallurgy). They were doubting God's goodness and complaining instead of calling out to Him. When will they/we ever learn?
15:26.
God graciously gives yet another promise.
Application
If we focus on who God has revealed Himself to be and what He has done in our life, the difficulties come into perspective as just a test.
Prayer
Awesome Incomparable God, You are One of a kind. Thanks for redeeming and leading me. May I faithfully follow You without faltering. Amen.
Exodus 16 More Murmuring and More Manna
1."They took their journey from Elim, to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai2.The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness:3.We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."4.Then said Yahweh to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day`s portion every day, that I may test/refine them, to the intent that they will walk in My law.5.It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."8....Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against Him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh."9.Moses said to Aaron, "Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before Yahweh, for He has heard your murmurings.'"10....behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.12.Speak to them, saying, `At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.`"13.It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.14.When the dew had gone, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.15.When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, "What is it?" Moses said to them, "It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat." 16.This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: "Gather of it everyone according to his eating...19.Moses said to them, "Let no one leave of it until the morning."20.Notwithstanding they didn`t listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them.23.He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, 'Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all the remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning."24.They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn't become foul, neither was they any worm in it.25.Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. Today you shall not find it in the field.26.Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, that some people went out to gather, and they found none.28.Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?29.Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in this place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."30.So the people rested on the seventh day.31.The house of Israel called the name it Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.32.Moses said, "This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, `Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt."Observations
16:5.God is purifying and refining His people in daily training them to walk in His law.
16:8.
We tend to blame others for our problems.
16:26.
God is giving them their daily manna, except on the Sabbath, when there was none, and the sixth day's double gathering lasted an extra day. He is teaching them obedience, but some don't get it.
Exodus 17 Water and War
1.All the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh`s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.2.Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?"3.The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"4.Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."5.Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with ou, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.6.Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.7.He called the name of the place Massah (trial), and Meribah (quarrel), because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us, or not?"8.Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.9.Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God`s rod in my hand.10.So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11.It happened, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amaled prevailed.12.But Moses` hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.13.Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.14.Yahweh said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky."15.Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Yahweh our Banner16.He said, "Yah has sworn: `Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.`"Observations
17:1.God commands them to go where there is no water.
17:3.
If God wanted the people dead, He would have left them in Egypt or by the Sea. Israel causes their own pain by failing to perceive God's purposes for them.
17:11-13.
Conquest is a team sport. God makes it clear that He energizes the sword; our job is to constantly pray and wield it.
17:15.
Yahweh our Banner/Ensign/Standard, like the Roman Legion's Eagle, the ensign embodied the honor and rallying point of the people.
17:16.
Amalek descended from Esau. Attacking the descendants of Jacob, God's chosen people, has dire consequences.
Application
We doubt God's presence when we focus on ourselves instead of Him.
Prayer
God my Banner, thanks that You go with me, provide for me, and fight my battles through me; may my honor be loyalty to You. Amen.
Exodus 18 Fellowship and Delegation
1."Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses` father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, how that Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt.6.He said to Moses, I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.8.Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel`s sake, all the hardships that had come on them on the way, and how Yahweh delivered them.9.Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had done10.Jethro said, "Blessed be Yahweh...11.Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because of the thing in which they dealt arrogantly against them."12.Jethro, Moses` father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God...13....Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening...15.Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God.16.When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws."17.Moses` father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.18.You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.19.Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.20.You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.21.Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.23.If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all of these people also will go to their place in peace."24.So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.26.They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.27.Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land."Observations
18:10-11.Fellowship means to have in common. As Moses shared his experience with God, Jethro comes to know the True God. That's the way faith should be shared.
18:21.
Note the characteristics of the people God can use. True of you?
18:23.
God guides Moses through Jethro in the art of delegation (not abdication). We all have limits.
Application
Faithfully trusting God gives us a testimony of His goodness to us, so we can share our faith with others. No trust, no testimony.
Prayer
Great God, may I always be in a position where You can pour out Your goodness on me, so I can introduce others to You. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God is very interested in showing that He is Supreme, so others will trust Him, rather than false gods. He leads His people into difficultly so they will become more dependent upon Him. He dislikes disobedience, but tolerates it if we're on the right track. He trains us to be dependent on a daily basis, by giving us daily provision and protection. He communicates His will through others at times especially regarding our blind spots. He is not shy about punishing evil and those who attack His people.Us in a nutshell: We tend to have goldfish memories when it comes to trusting God: singing His praises one day, and singing the blues the next; we are also myopic about his promises, losing sight of them as soon as a difficulty looms into view. We have the responsibilities to pray and poke the pointy end of the sword into the other guy; God has the responsibility to ensure our safety and success.