The Landover Baptist Church Forum - Day 22. Exodus 16-18

Exodus 16-18

Today we get:

The wilderness
Feeding the masses
A battle
The return of Jethro

Exodus 16

1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

So they had been in the wilderness for a month and 15 days. Remember that one verse from yesterday. Exodus 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

Remember it lasted maybe a day or two, I wonder how much longer it will last this time.

2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

Oh. In a month and 15 days, the people have turned against Moses when the Egyptians were near, and now this time.

3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

Because they were hungry.

So God devises a plan, in the morning He will rain bread down from heaven, in the evening He will send quail for them to eat.

The LORD put some rules on the gathering of the bread (manna), they are only able to gather enough for one day, except on the 6th day, they could gather enough for the 7th day. IF, they gathered more (on any day but the 6th) it will rot overnight and stink and be filled with worms.

26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

Our All-Powerful God likes to take a day off. It's not that He's not All-Powerful, and HAS to take a day off, He just chooses to take that day off.

The LORD then tells Moses to gather a pot of the manna to set aside to show the future generations that it happened.

34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

The testimony that we don't know what it is yet.

35 And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.

They ate quail and manna for forty years.

Exodus 17

The people finally leave the wilderness of Sin and go to Rephidim, where there was no water.

Once again, the people complain.

2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

So God tells Moses to hit the rock to get water.

6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

So they have water now.

8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

This is not the Amalek in Genesis 36:12 who is the grandson of Esau. He would be about 470 years old.

Moses then appoints Joshua to go fight Amalek.

Moses and Aaron and Hur go up and watch the battle, whenever Moses has his arms raised, Israel wins, when he lowers them the Amalekites start to win.

So Aaron and Hur hold Moses arms up for the duration of the battle.

14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

At least until we can kill them ALL.

Exodus 18

Moses father in law, Jethro comes to meet Moses. He brings Moses wife, Zipporah, and his sons, Gershom and Eliezer with him.

8 And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.

9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

Jethro then offers a sacrifice to the LORD.

The next day, Moses goes about his daily routine of judging all the people. (All 600,000). Jethro is puzzled by this and asks why?

15 And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God:

16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.

Jethro worries that Moses doing this will hurt his health, and also the people. So Jethro recommends that Moses make some laws and also appoint some lesser judges.

If there's a case that the lesser judges could figure out, they would send it up to Moses.

25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

26 And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

Then Jethro left.

So what have we learned?

1. The people who believed in Moses, stopped the second that things got difficult, until it got un-difficult.

2. Manna is only good for one day, unless it's the sixth day, then it is good for two.

3. Man can live by manna alone.... for 40 years.

4. Amalek is cursed to be at war with Israel, for attacking them in the wilderness.

5. While Moses is smart enough to judge everyone, he wasn't necessarily smart enough to realize that he didn't have to.

YIC
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