The destruction of
Egypt’s power was total. It is not known if Pharaoh survived by watching it all
from a distant, but the demoralization of Egypt was profound.
The impact on Israel
was as profound, with Moses singing before the congregation. His song retold
the entire incident, but Miriam, his older sister (by 7 years), exercised her
prophetic gift to laud the glory of the moment and to dance before the people.
More significantly,
the news spread. Overnight a rabble of slaves rose from obscurity to notoriety.
Into the desert
After the sea they
moved three days into the Wilderness of Shur, in Arabia. Paul confirms it in
Galatians 4:25. Easton’s bible dictionary also places Shur in Arabia. It is the
same place where Hagar and Ishmael fled to before God saved them.
Well three days away
from the sea was enough to wipe the smiles off their faces. They had no water,
well not until they came to the bitter waters of Marah. A tree was thrown into
the water to sweeten it and they moved on.
The Moringa oleifera bush is
used today to purify water.
Then they came to the
oasis of Elim with its twelve wells and 70 palm trees.
In Chapter 16 they
ventured into the Wilderness of Sin, on the 15th day of the second
month Iyar, which, meant that they had been gone for 45 days. If we deduct the preceding 3 day journey to
Elim, they had taken 42 days to get across the Red sea.
Thus Pharaoh must have
set off on his chase around the 40th day of mourning.
The Wilderness of Sin
lay between Elim and Mount Sinai, in Midian. It was where Moses had sojourned
for 40 years as a shepherd and where he had left Jethro, his father in law,
with God’s promise of returning there to worship God in that holy mount.
It finally dawned on
Moses that God never set out to make him a shepherd of sheep, but to use the
sheep to teach him how to shepherd a nation.
The Wilderness of Sin
referred to the moon-goddess Sin who
was widely worshipped across the region and into the Levant.
Manna and quails
They compared their
lot to the fleshpots of Egypt. They clearly had short memories.
Well, God heard them
anyway and He had also anticipated their need, so soon they had a daily
provision of manna. Manna literally meant, “what is this”, which with different
inflections could range from a cynical question to genuine intrigue.
Manna would sustain
them for the next 40 years. There has been so much speculation about manna that
I don’t have a succinct description of it. It was like frost on the ground,
tasted a bit like honey-wafer, and went off quickly, except over Sabbath and
was nutritious.
Ethnomycologist, Terence McKenna, suggested that most
characteristics of manna are similar to that of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms,
notorious breeding grounds for insects, which decompose rapidly. They first appear as small fibers (mycelia) that resemble
hoarfrost.
The people were not
happy with a diet of manna alone, so God sent the little quail, ubiquitous to
the region, to provide meat in the evenings.
They had enough food
with them, in the form of the livestock they had accumulated and taken with
them on departing Egypt. However, that had another purpose. It was certainly
for sacrifice, possibly also for certain festivals and also for a future
endowment.
For the sake of posterity,
Moses was instructed to add to the casket carrying Joseph’s bones, an urn
sealed with a measure of manna, so that they would never forget God’s
provisions.
Onwards toward Mount Sinai
Next the people
reached Rephidim. There may have been two Rephidims, with the other in the Sinai
Peninsula, but we are already well inside the land of Midian, to the east of
Aquaba.
They were out of water
again. So Moses was told to strike the rock of Horeb, which has almost
certainly been found. The rock shown in this post is cleft in the middle and
shows ample evidence of a lot of water weathering. It confirms again that Mount
Sinai was in Arabia.
The rock was at the top
of Mount HoreB, now known as Jebel el Lawz in Yemen, Arabia. There Moses saw the burning bush. The home
of Jethro was nearby. It was also close to where Hagar fled and Galatians 4
uses that as a basis for Paul’s argument about two mounts.
He deems Mount Sinai to
be in bondage with her children, which refers obliquely to Hagar and the fact
that Ishmael was not the child of promise. It shows that the works of the law
detract from the Promise we have inherited in Christ, which is not by the works
of the law.
The mount due north of
Horeb, Mount Moriah, where Jesus died and Isaac was sacrificed, alludes to the promised
seed and the redemptive plan of God, but it contrasts the bondwoman Hagar with the
mother of the free, Sarah, who symbolized heaven above us all.
It was time to settle down, but the Amalekites
had to be dealt with first
They got water, enough
to keep them at the foot of Horeb for a long time. The feast of Pentecost was
set for three days hence as a feast of consecration in preparation for the receiving
of the law. On that day God promised to occupy the mountain.
However, they were
troubled by an attack from the Amalekites, but Joshua repulsed them. Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses,
probably with his rod between those arms and they prevailed against the Amalekites
as long as his arms stayed up.
I wonder how often our
Joshua holds up His arms and will not weary in doing so, until we prevail
against our enemies down here. It’s a wonderful picture of God going to war
with His people and provides a poignant backdrop to the coming feast.
Jethro joins in
The arrival of the father-in-law of Moses, brought organisation. They had only been on the road for a few weeks, but the burden on Moses was untenable. At Jethro's instigation they organised into units of tens, hundreds and thousands, with Moses only presiding over bigger matters.
The model continued right into Canaan, with family leaders handling domestic disputes, city elders dealing with intra-community issues and the judges or kings dealing with national civil issues, while the Sanhedrin dealt with ecclesiastic or constitutional matters.
They were ready for the next phase.
Jethro joins in
The arrival of the father-in-law of Moses, brought organisation. They had only been on the road for a few weeks, but the burden on Moses was untenable. At Jethro's instigation they organised into units of tens, hundreds and thousands, with Moses only presiding over bigger matters.
The model continued right into Canaan, with family leaders handling domestic disputes, city elders dealing with intra-community issues and the judges or kings dealing with national civil issues, while the Sanhedrin dealt with ecclesiastic or constitutional matters.
They were ready for the next phase.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com
Notes on split rock of Horeb: Penny Caldwell, Split Rock Research, at http://splitrockresearch.org/content/100/Field_Reports/The_Split_Rock
