Moses Part 15 (Exodus 19:9-25)

    Now that Yahveh has laid out his vision for Israel, he gives Moses specific instructions for one of the most central events in the entire Bible: Yahveh giving the 10 Commandments. What makes this event so huge, so central is that Yahveh gave these commandments (or some of them anyway) in person to the entire assembly of Israel. Think about that for a moment; the god of the universe personally talked with a group of people. That is epic.

    Of course this will be dealt with in more detail in the following post, which will sort of be on the Commandments. For now we are going to discuss the instructions that Yahveh gave.

    "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow," Yahveh ordered everybody through Moses. "Have them wash their cloths, and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live. Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.'"

    Whoa. That raises a lot of questions, such as isn't Yahveh kind of touchy? I'm all for hygiene but commanding that everybody spend the next couple of days doing laundry seems a bit excessive (although it does raise the question of clean clothes in Late Bronze Age Israel. Maybe some things are better left unknown). Did they have enough water for everyone to do laundry? What if someone couldn't get their laundry done? All I know is that whoever sold detergent made bank.

    And then what's this about putting up limits around the mountain? If anyone goes close to Yahveh when he is on the mountain, he's going to be executed on the spot? This seems to be taking personal space to a bit of an extreme. What about the loving God who became human and lived among us in the person of Jesus Christ? He had no problem touching people of all kinds. So what's up with Yahveh being so finicky? While we're on the subject, would you go anywhere near that mountain ever, even after the all-clear had been sounded? I know you couldn't pay me enough.

    Oh, and for good measure Moses throws in a "Don't have sex for the next three days," zinger, which had to drive more than one person nuts. To quote Brian Regan, it was as if Moses threw in, "And no more happiness."

    I'm pretty sure that everyone was thinking what you and I are probably thinking: what is going on? Part of them was thinking that this is stupid while the other part was wondering what epic thing was about to go down and probably a bit apprehensive. I know that's what would be going through my mind.

    They had no idea what was in store for them. For that matter, neither do I. The Biblical description hardly does the even justice in conveying what went down on the third day.

    The people woke up that morning to see Mount Sinai covered in a cloud of smoke, like a furnace, and rocked with thunder, lightning, and an earthquake. The Bible says the mountain "trembled violently." And sounding above all of this was a loud, clear, trumpet blast that blew again and again and again.

    None of us have ever experienced anything remotely close to this so there is no way we can understand what it was like to be there. Part of me wishes I could have been there, while the other part of me is glad that I wasn't. I'm pretty sure I would've wet my freshly washed pants. What I can understand is that the people "trembled" as Moses led them to meet God.

    To meet God. That was what all of this intense preparation was about. The Israelites were going to have as close to a face-to-face meeting with the creator and ruler of the universe as one could ever have and that is not something to be taken lightly.

    The whole picture of Yahveh in Exodus 19 tends to fly in the face of the popular image of Yahveh as some old guy sitting on a cloud somewhere, a picture that is, interestingly enough, very similar to the Canaanite picture of their chief deity El who has often been compared with Yahveh. We often think of Yahveh as this kindly, somewhat senile, old man who dispense with love and gifts to good people.

    Jesus, on the other hand, is the cool kid from down the street. He's the guy driving the cool car that always takes the time to hang out with you. Whoever you are and whatever you do is cool by him and he will always go to bat for you. He is, to use the highly grating metaphor, your homeboy.

    To be fair, there are some aspects of this picture of Yahveh and Christ that are accurate. Christ is pretty cool and Yahveh is loving. But the problem is that these are overly simplistic images that bring the god of the universe down to our level when in reality he is nowhere close to our level. Yahveh is so much more than just that.

    Inaccurate as it may be, that is often the picture of him, consciously or no, that we take with us to church and our personal devotions. As a result, we so often underestimate Yahveh and take meeting with him lightly.

    But as the Israelites learned, that is a rather foolish thing. Yahveh is far beyond any of the simplistic, anthropomorphic images we conjure up. Yahveh is true, pure, unadulterated power on a scale that none of us can comprehend.

    Nature is truly an awesome thing. If you spend much time in, you are quickly made aware of how weak and fragile you are. I know that is my experience. I have stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon, strolled through the mighty redwood forests, had lightning strike less than a hundred yards from me, been attacked by the ocean, hiked through the Alps and the Rocky Mountains, been attacked by the Pacific Ocean, and walked through the aftermath of tornadoes. I don't say these things to brag; rather I tell you this because there is an awesome beauty in these experiences; seeing the raw, untamable power that nature possesses and I understand how helpless I really am.

    But for all that power, it is nothing compared to Yahveh who created nature and controls it. He is the one who formed the mountains, rivers, forests, and fields. It is he who orders the wind and rain and he who commands the ocean. Nature obeys him. And if nature, who is at Yahveh's command, is untamable, how much more so Yahveh himself?

    And that is the whole point. This being of incomprehensible power and strength is who we are meeting every time we go to church, every time we open the Bible, and every time we kneel in prayer. When we realize this, then we approach Yahveh a sense of awe, respect, and even a little fear.

    This sense is called reverence. It is the understanding of who I am in relation to who Yahveh is. Often when we think of reverence, we think of it as not running in church or always talking in whispers and having a straight face all of the time.

    But this isn't what reverence really is. Reverence can be somber of course (believe me, the Israelites were somber that day) but reverence can also be joyful. Reverence can be expressed through song and dance; after all this almighty being against who we've rebelled did die to save us and that is a reason for celebration.

    No, reverence is understanding who I am in relation to Yahveh. It is understanding that I am a helpless, sinful creature while Yahveh is the perfect, omnipotent creator. It is understanding that we are not equal. It is understanding that I am his servant, not he mine.

    This may offend some people especially those of us who have grown up in the West were equality among everyone is a central tenant. But the fact is that we are not equal with Yahveh and if we are truly going to be his followers, we need to understand that.

    That is why Yahveh gave those instructions to the Israelites before he met with them. He wanted them to understand who they were in relation to him; he wanted to give them a sense of reverence so that they would take his words seriously and follow his commands. How much better off would we be if we possessed the same sense of reverence? Would we be so flippant towards meeting with him? Would we be so careless with his words?

    Yahveh is not to be taken lightly. Take time to reflect on who he is and who you are. Wash your clothes to do it if you have to but do not take him lightly.

    I must warn though: if you do this, you will be frightened or at least you ought to be. After all, would you feel no fear in the face of a tornado or lion? And if those things terrify you, how much more the creator of the universe? He cannot be controlled, he cannot be tamed. Yahveh should scare you.

    But remember this: though Yahveh is not tame, he is good (thank you CS Lewis). He is power and majesty, but his also love and goodness. So while he may be far beyond your control, he does love you and will take you under his powerful wing. And that is a comforting thought.

Moses Part 14 (Exodus 19:1-8)

    Exodus 19 is one of those setting the stage chapters to arguably one of the most epic and important chapters in the entire Bible, the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20. So naturally I want to spend two posts talking about this intro chapter.

    Moses and the Israelites have continued to traipse around the Sinai Peninsula following the pillar of cloud or fire depending on the time of day and they eventually wind up in front of this mountain. This mountain, called Mount Sinai in the Bible, happens to be the same mountain where Moses whole adventure began with the burning bush, which to my knowledge was not still burning although the Bible doesn't say it wasn't. At any rate, they stopped there and made camp for quite some time.

    Now there is a mountain at the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula that is called Mount Sinai, but it is probably not the same one that Moses and company camped at. There just isn't enough room for that many people to camp, especially how the camp came to be set up. So in truth, we have no idea where Mount Sinai was.

    Right after everyone set down their tents, Yahveh calls Moses up to the top of the mountain to have a chat. This is a scene that is to going to be repeated a lot as Mount Sinai is where Yahveh gives his law, his system of living life and worship and such. But right now, Yahveh is going to set the stage by giving Israel his vision for them. And it's a beautiful vision.

    "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself," Yahveh starts. "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

    There are so many ways we can unpack that mission statement. Questions are raised, interestingly enough, about Yahveh's character. Does Yahveh play favorites? Why the Israelites? What was so special about them?

    At first glance, it does sound like Yahveh is playing favorites. After all, the Israelites weren't the only slaves in Egypt. In fact, they weren't the only nation enslaved by another; this kind of thing happened all the time in the ancient world. But Yahveh chose them out of all the other nations of the earth to be his "treasured possession." Why?

    Mostly it was because of a promise that Yahveh had made centuries before to a man named Abraham that he would create a mighty nation out of his children. Of course this begs the question why Abraham? What was so special about him that Yahveh chose him to be the progenitor of this special nation?

    The answer is nothing.

    Abraham is worthy of a character study himself, although his life is much less exciting than Moses. But the first we here of Abraham is Yahveh telling him to go somewhere (exactly where is not specified) where Yahveh will make him into a great nation (all of this begins in Genesis 12). Interestingly there is no preface about how Abraham was a good and righteous man who followed Yahveh in everything (we find out later that he didn't). Nope, just Yahveh showing up and saying, "Hey, move somewhere that I'll show you and I'll make you into a great nation." And Abraham did it. So now, hundreds of years later, Yahveh was making good on his end of the bargain.

    The point in all of this is that Yahveh chose Abraham and then by extension the Israelites because he did. There doesn't have to be a deeper reason than that. Yahveh has the right to choose people for whatever he wants because, well, he's the freaking god of the universe and that's his right. Yahveh has the right to be arbitrary and has the right to make these kinds of decisions without telling us the reasons why or even having deeper reasons at all. It's a perk of the job.

    But asking why the Israelites were chosen to be Yahveh's special people is asking the wrong question. The real question we should be asking is what were they chosen for?

    You see while Yahveh may chose who arbitrarily, there is never anything arbitrary about the what. He didn't choose the Israelites as his chosen people for them to sit around lounging in pools of gold like Scrooge McDuck as he heaped blessing after blessing upon them. There was a purpose for them being chosen; there was a responsibility that came with it. That responsibility was being a nation of priests and a holy nation.

    That of course begs the question: what on earth does that mean? What does it mean to be a "nation of priests"? To answer that question, we must ask, what is a priest? Now this is an important question, especially when we study Moses life as priests are a crucial part of ancient Israelite society.

    Aside from the Catholic Church, we don't really have anything like a priest today, and even the Catholic priests aren't exactly like what priests were in ancient times. We tend to equate priests with pastors, but this is not an accurate comparison.

    Our modern word "pastor" comes from the concept of shepherding. Even today we use the term "pastoral" to refer to a farming lifestyle, specifically related to raising livestock. The idea is that a pastor is someone who tends to a group of people's spiritual needs like a shepherd does sheep. We even use terms like "the flock" in a pastoring context.

    But a priest was something different. We don't have the time or space to go into the specifics, but priestly ministry is a fascinating study and one I would recommend. Leviticus and Numbers particularly outline the duties of the priest. To simplify, there were three major functions of a priest in ancient Israel: the ministration of sacrifices, explanations of the law of Yahveh, and overseeing holy vows that are made. There were other minor functions as well, but it was these three that were the primary functions of the priest. And these three functions could be summed up in one word: intermediation.

    Priests were essentially the go-betweens between Yahveh and the people. If someone needed to inquire of Yahveh, they went to the priest would then ask Yahveh. If someone needed forgiveness for sins, they would go to the priest who would offer the sin offering to Yahveh. If Yahveh needed something communicated to the people, he would generally work through the priests (although he worked through prophets too, which is another question entirely). It was through priests that his law was explained and interpreted. Priests served as witnesses when someone made a vow to Yahveh (such as a Nazerite vow).

    It was to this that Yahveh was calling the Israelites. He was calling them to be his intermediaries to the rest of the world. This is also what is meant by calling them a "holy nation." Holy literally means set apart for a special purpose. Yahveh had set the Israelites aside for a special purpose, the purpose of being his light to the world. Yes he would bless them, but with those blessing came a great responsibility. It's like the Spiderman thing: with great power comes great responsibility.

    There are two points to draw out of this. First, every blessing of Yahveh comes with a task. One of the maxims I have learned from studying the Word of God is that every gift is meant to be given. Whether you have been blessed with time, money, knowledge, wisdom, or something else, there is a responsibility to share that gift with the rest of the world. Who Yahveh chooses to be blessed with what may be random, but there is nothing random about what you are to do with that blessing. There is the responsibility to share it.

    Second is that as Christians, we are a nation of priests. That concept didn't die out with ancient Israel but lives on in us. Peter and the author of Hebrews both reference this idea in their writings. As Christians, we have been blessed with the knowledge of Christ and the hope of salvation. We have the responsibility to share this with the rest of the world. As Christ himself said, we are now the light of the world; we are his intermediaries to communicate his message to the rest of the world. We have been given a great gift, the greatest gift of all, and with that gift comes the greatest of responsibilities. This is the reality of being a Christian.

    After all, every gift is meant to be given.

Moses 13 (Exodus 17:8-18:21)

    Things appeared to have settled down a little bit after the manna and water from the rock episodes. The people seemed to have been, for the moment at least, happy and content as they marched on their merry way to the Promised Land. Everyone was living in peace and harmony.

    And then the Amalekite nation attacked.

    Reasons for this are largely unknown. The Bible just says that they came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim, which was probably somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula. Even more strange is that no one seemed to complain, about the only thing the Israelites excelled at.

    At any rate, Moses told his young associate (and eventual successor) Joshua to lead the Israelites in a counter-attack. Moses was going to go chill up on a hill with the staff of Yahveh. This apparently was a sound tactical plan. And, for the most part, it worked. Moses stood on the top of the hill with Aaron and someone named Hur whom we never hear of again while Joshua and the Israelites fight the Amalekites.

    Now here is where things naturally get a little strange. As long as Moses held his arms up, the Israelites were winning and whenever he lowered his arms, the Israelites started losing. How or why this worked is a mystery but this is how things went.

    Obviously there is a bit of a problem here. I don't know if you've ever tried to see how long you can hold your arms up, but it's not very long. Certainly not long enough to win a battle. And sure enough, Moses arms begin to get tired and the Israelites are in trouble.

    This is where Aaron and Hur come to the rescue. They take a stone to use as a seat for Moses and then they hold Moses arms up. The entire day! The two of them just stand there, holding his arms up while the Israelites proceed to win the battle.

    There are many points that could be taken from this story such as Yahveh essentially declaring war on the Amalekites and a "don't mess with Yahveh's people" idea, but this story, exciting as it is, is really an introduction to the next story, which for Moses had to be far more terrifying.

    He gets a visit from the in-laws.

    Apparently sometime between Moses leaving Midian and confronting Pharaoh, he had sent Zipporah and the kids back to Midian for obvious reasons. Moses was going up against the most powerful man in the world and he didn't want his family exposed to reprisals.

    But now he has emerged victorious (well, Yahveh has, but I think you get the idea) from his contest with Pharaoh and is now in the neighborhood. So Jethro pops down for a visit with the family, which had to both make Moses nervous and excited. (Probably not nervous as he seems to have had a good relationship with Jethro)

    The family is there and as is often the case when the extended family visits, they wanted to see Moses at his work. So Jethro sits and watch as Moses acts as judge and counselor to the entire Israelite assembly, by himself.

    It would seem that Moses was the only one capable of serving as judge and organizer for the people. Or at least, that is what Moses though. And so he sat by himself in front of the entire assembly as everyone, and I mean everyone, brought every single little issue to him to deal with from murder (assuming that happened) to "He built his tent too close to mine." That had to have been exhausting.

    Jethro seems to have come to the same conclusion and told Moses that he was on the fast track for burn-out. At the rate he was going, he wear himself to nothing before they even got to the Promised Land and Moses needed to do something to fix that.

    Being the wise man that he was, Jethro suggested that maybe Moses ought to share the load. Get a group of people together, teach them how to be judges under Yahveh and let them handle the smaller things. If it's something they can't handle, they bump it up to the next level until on the really big things are put in Moses's lap. Essentially Jethro proposes a sort of district court system with Moses as the Supreme Court. That way Moses's life would be more balanced and less hectic.

    Moses didn't argue and put into place Jethro's plan. It took some time, I'm certain, to find the right people for the job and to train them but once he did, Moses's life became a lot easier, or at least that is what the Bible indicates.

    But real issue here is how did it get to this point in the first place? Jethro's proposal is little more than common sense. After all, who in their right mind could think that they alone could serve as judge and counselor for an entire nation?

    The answer of course is that Moses felt he was alone. He didn't feel that he could trust anyone else with the burden that Yahveh had given him. Given the Israelites recent petulance, I can understand that to a degree. And so Moses thought he stood alone on the hill and thought he stood alone before the Israelites. Everything, he felt, was on him.

    But it wasn't. There were people that Moses could trust to help him lead the Israelites to Canaan. Aaron and Hur stood by his side on the hill while Joshua fought the Amalekites. Potential leaders were everywhere in the assembly to help him govern the people.

    When we read what Moses was doing, our initial reaction is to think he is crazy to try to do all that alone. But how often do we do the same thing? Yahveh has given us a task to do, a reason for existence and often we feel that we must do it alone. No one else, in our minds, can be trusted with it, whatever "it" is.

    This is of course patented-nonsense. Of course there are others who can be trusted with it because usually whatever Yahveh has for us is far bigger that what we can handle on our own. That, perhaps, is what he was trying to teach Moses on that hill. In order for the Israelites to win, Moses had to let someone help him. He couldn't do it alone.

    The challenges Yahveh has given us are often far bigger than anything we can ever do on our own and yet we try anyway. I have seen so many times people who are passionately dedicated to Yahveh's service burn-out and fail because they didn't trust the people around them to help. Instead they tried to do it all on their own. Even I've come perilously close to it on more than one occasion.

    I don't know what it is about the human condition that makes us so naturally distrusting. Maybe it's pride or maybe it's fear or maybe a combination of both. But whatever the reason is, trusting others to help is hard.

    But that makes it no less necessary. Whatever mission Yahveh has called us to, it isn't about us, prides and fears included. It is one of those things we simply have to get over and trust, like Moses just had to make a conscious choice to let others share the burden.

    I'm not saying it's easy; it isn't. Everything in us rebels at having to let others in. But no one ever said that following Yahveh would be easy. In fact, it is often hard, which is why we need others more than ever.

    In the end, it is like the Nike slogan: just do it. You have to make a conscious choice to let others help and stick by it. Sometimes they screw up but often time's people surprise you with their ability to help.

    There are Aarons and Hurs all around us. It is merely a matter of swallowing our pride and quieting our fears to see them. That maybe hard, but in the end it is far easier and better than trying to fight through burn-out.

    So look for your judges and Aarons and Hurs. Find them and let them hold up your arms.

Moses Part 12 (Exodus 16-17:1-7)

    In the last post, we discussed the Israelites (and by extension ours) inability to follow simple directions. This time we are going to go over the same story again but instead we are going to focus on the meat of the issue.

    About two and a half months after Israel skedaddled out of Egypt, they find themselves wandering around the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. As mentioned previously, the Sinai Peninsula is one of the most desolate, barren, god-forsaken (no pun intended) places on the face of the earth. There is literally nothing there; I mean a shrub makes your day.

    In said miserable and god-forsaken place, the Israelites begin to run out of food, which is a legitimate problem. Naturally the Israelites panic and start to complain against Moses and Aaron.

    Now we dealt with how Yahveh solved the food problem in the last post, so there's no point in rehashing that here. Instead I want to focus on what it is they said to Moses and Aaron.

    "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve the entire assembly to death!"

    Running parallel to this story is the story in chapter 17. Now, instead of food, the people have no water and again they freak. "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and our livestock die of thirst?"

    Whoa. Those are some pretty strong words. I mean, think about what the people are basically saying. Basically the Israelites are saying that they were better off in Egypt; they are saying essentially that they want to go back.

    I can imagine Moses and Yahveh's reaction being something like, "Hold on, what? You were slaves to those people. They were literally working you to death. They murdered your children. And you're saying you want to go back? You're saying you were better off?"

    When we read these stories, they don't make much sense. The Israelites have a small food and water shortage and everybody losses their minds. My question to the Israelites is what did you expect? That the road to the Promised Land would be paved with dandelions and daisies and you'd all go skipping down the way arm in arm singing "We're off to see the Wizard"? Did you not think that there wouldn't be any problems along the way?

     The problem is that that is probably what they were expecting. Not necessarily in those specific terms, but that idea. They seem to have thought that it would be an easy, luxurious jaunt to Canaan where they'd live like kings.

    However Yahveh never promised any of that. He said that he would bring them to "good and spacious land," but he never said that it would be easy; all he promised was that he would get them there. That was it.

    But that's not what the Israelites had in their heads and so when trouble rose, they panicked and started looking back. They began to forget the copious bad that defined their pathetic lives in Egypt where they worked for a genocidal Pharaoh and began to remember the very little good that existed. In essence, the Israelites started suffering from grass is always greener syndrome.

    This is syndrome is an issue that plagues Christianity today (probably always has). Thanks in part to poisonous theologies such as the Prosperity Gospel Christians have gotten it into their head that being a Christian leads to a life of ease and luxury. Christians don't have problems and struggles; the path of the Christian is paved with dandelions and daisies.

    That sounds nice except absolutely nowhere in the Bible does Yahveh even suggest that possibility. In fact Christ himself repeatedly drives home the opposite point. The life of the Christian is fraught with struggles and trials and persecution. A good chunk of the Gospels are devoted to explaining that Christians will suffer in this life and if you want a pointed explanation of the real Christian life, read Fox's Book of Martyrs. A lot of Christians came to less than savory ends.

    This is the reality of the Christian life. There are desert moments were we feel that we are out of food and water. And in those moments it is tempting, like the Israelites, to look back to Egypt and long.

    At the core, this was the problem with the Israelites complaint. It wasn't what they were complaining about. Not having food or water is a legitimate problem. No, the problem was how they were complaining. They were looking back to Egypt, forgetting all the problems that were there and all that Yahveh had done.

    But instead of looking back, they ought to have been looking forward to the Promised Land. The Israelites were standing between two points: Egypt, the land of slavery and misery behind them, and the Promised Land, the land of freedom and joy ahead of them. Instead of doubting Yahveh and wishing for the life, no matter how terrible, they knew, they ought to have had had faith that although Yahveh never promised it would be easy getting there, he would get them to Canaan.

    As Christians, we are in much the same boat as the Israelites. We are between two points, bondage to sin behind us and the freedom that Heaven will offer ahead. Our journey between has not been promised to be easy and neither will it be. We have our desert moments. Often it is tempting to look back to our lives in sin without Yahveh and long for it. We forget the pain and suffering that we endured and the pain and suffering we inflicted. We begin to think that it wasn't that bad.

    But it was that bad. Instead of looking back, we ought to look forward to the salvation that Yahveh has promised us. This is the Christian Peace that has baffled persecutors through the centuries; a peace among Christians that no matter what is done to them, they never waver or budge. They don't complain or freak out. They just carry on. It doesn't mean that they are ignorant of their present trials; it means that they are cognizant of their destination.

    This is what Christ offers us today. It isn't freedom from struggles and trials; rather it is the strength to get through them if we just keep looking forward. So as Winston Churchill once said (and I'm paraphrasing), "Never surrender, never retreat, and never give up." To which I add, never look back.

Moses Part 11 (Exodus 16)

    It has now been two months since the Israelites had made their break from Egypt and the novelty of being free has worn off, probably because they are wandering around the Sinai Desert, which is easily one of the most miserable places on earth. Now the Israelites have become a nomadic people in the desert which essentially means two things: one, they aren't in any one spot long enough to do any agriculture and two, since they are in the desert, there isn't any grain to be found. So in short, they are running out of food.

    You would think that after all that they had seen Yahveh do in Egypt, they wouldn't be too worried. Maybe casually mention it to Moses or something and then let Yahveh take care of it. But no, the Bible says that the whole community grumbled (get used to hearing that) against Moses and Aaron. "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt," they whined. "There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

    One thing that you could count on the Israelites for was melodrama but today we're not going to deal with that. That will be dealt with in the next post. Suffice it to say that the Israelites are just about the whiniest group of people I've ever read about.

    Regardless, Yahveh listens to their pleas and tells Moses that he's got something in mind. The basic idea goes something like this: Yahveh is going to cover the earth in the morning with Frosted Flakes for the Israelites to eat.

    Okay, so that's not exactly what happened. But Yahveh did cover the earth with a white, wafer like substance that was apparently both highly nutritious and still quite tasty. That is easily the most unbelievable thing in the entire Bible. I mean, whoever heard of something that tastes good and is good for you?

    At any rate, the Israelites woke up to see the ground covered with something that from what the Bible says looked an awful lot like Frosted Flakes. The Israelites called it "manna", which literally means "what is it?" Needless to say, the whole healthy and tasty combo confused them too.

    Now they were to gather as much as they needed for that day and no more. Yahveh assured them that they would be provided manna as long as it was needed. So naturally what did a good share of the Israelites do? They hoarded it of course.

    The next morning when they went to get their stash, to their astonishment, these Israelites found it to be moldy and maggoty, which is a disturbing visual. The manna had gone bad overnight.

    This went on until Friday rolled around. Then Moses told the Israelites that there was one more caveat to the manna. On Friday, they were to gather twice as much because there would be no manna on Sabbath. This was the first direct introduction of the Sabbath to the Israelites, which has its own significance but is not entirely relevant to this discussion. The point is that there wasn't going to be any manna on Sabbath because Yahveh did not want them to be spending their time on Sabbath gathering food.

    Of course, a bunch of them ignored Yahveh's instructions (probably the same bunch). So early on Sabbath morning, they went outside to get their daily manna only to find nothing there. Tony the Tiger had not made his nightly delivery.

    This whole episode earned an exasperated eye roll from Moses and Yahveh. "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?" groaned Yahveh to Moses, which was a fair question. How many times would Yahveh tell the Israelites to do this and they wouldn't do it?

    Reading about the Israelites is a strange exercise. From the benefit of hindsight and an armchair, it is easy to see how stupid they could be, constantly relying on their own "judgment" and "wisdom" instead of simply doing as they were told. But how often do we do the same thing?

    The Bible is rife with instructions about how to live life from what we should and shouldn't to what to do with our money. The vast majority of these instructions are basic and simple, much like the instructions that Yahveh gave the Israelites with the manna. All that is required is a little trust and frankly not even that much.

    Yet routinely, I gather too much manna. I ignore the dietary principles in the Bible; I don't properly prioritize my time; I don't use my money wisely. These instructions are so simple yet for some reason I just don't follow them. And like the Israelites, I find myself in awkward places mostly because of my own stupidity. More than once I've earned a divine facepalm with Yahveh looking at me and saying, "Seriously dude?"

    Now I'm not talking about the big things. Was what the Israelites did a sin? No, not really. They simply didn't listen to Yahveh's advice about how best to use the manna. Yahveh gave them instructions as to how the manna worked and if they chose to ignore them, that was their business. It was stupid, but not necessarily wrong.

    The same is true with many of the instructions in the Bible. They are not hard and fast rules like the Ten Commandments or many others. Instead they are simply guidelines that Yahveh has given us to live fuller and more complete lives. If we chose to ignore them, we aren't necessarily sinning but why short change ourselves?

    The Bible, despite what many say, is not a manual. It doesn't give us detailed directions for every situation we come across, although the principles in the Bible should cover just about everything. No, the Bible is the written revelation of Yahveh and his character. This is important to remember.

    But that doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't have useful information on how to live the best life possible. After all, as Jesus put it, he came to give us life to the full. While we may live in a miserable world, Yahveh doesn't want us to be miserable. And so in the revelation of his character, he had left guidelines for how to live the best life allowable on this planet.

    It is our choice whether or not we listen to these instructions. As Yahveh didn't kick out the fools who gathered too much manna, he won't deny us salvation just because we made our lives more difficult than necessary. But again the question is why would you want to? Why would you want $100 when you could just as easily have $1,000,000?

    So as you study Yahveh's word, pay attention to the little things. Following them will give you a much better life. And remember not to gather too much manna!

Moses Part 10 (Exodus 14-15)

    The Passover night has happened. The firstborn of Egypt have been slain and Pharaoh has finally relented. The Israelites are free to go. But they aren't out of the woods (figuratively speaking) yet.

    Instead of taking the Way of Horus, the road on the Mediterranean Coast, which was dotted with Egyptian fortresses and deposited the Israelites right into Philistia, Yahveh takes them along a more southerly route which will lead them into Canaan via the back door. The Bible says that 600,000 men marched out of Egypt, not counting women and children. Whether that number actually means 600,000 or something else is unknown and largely irrelevant. The point is that Israel was finally free and heading to the Promised Land.

    But Pharaoh wasn't done yet. As his grief and shock at what had just happened began to wear off, his old fears and prejudices came roaring back. With horror, he realized that he had let a potentially massive army walk out on him, losing valuable slaves in the process. So he marshaled together his army, gathering his 600 best chariots and tearing off after the Israelites.

    Oblivious to all of this, the Israelites had peacefully made camp on the shores of the Red (or Reed) Sea. The exact location of this camp is unknown but it was in a place large enough to accommodate several hundred thousand people (at least) and massive herds yet it was enclosed enough to essentially put the Israelites in a trap. They were quite relaxed, convinced that they were finally free from the cruel and borderline genocidal Egyptians. That peace was suddenly shattered when they say the Egyptian chariots racing towards them on the horizon and the Israelites did what would become their MO for the rest of Moses's days.

    They freaked.

    Now granted, I can understand their fear. Despite obviously outnumbering the Egyptians, the Israelites were at a serious disadvantage. The Egyptian army was one of if not the best army in the world and Thutmose III himself was an accomplished warrior and tactician while the Israelites were untrained slaves. Additionally, the Egyptians were coming at them with 600 chariots which were the ancient equivalent to tanks, mobile firing platforms that would rain devastation down on whoever they encountered. The icing on the cake was that the Israelites had hills to the north and south and the sea at their backs, so they had nowhere to run.

    So their reaction is somewhat understandable. They immediately turn on Moses and said, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone and let us server the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

    For Moses, this should've been a clue as to how the next 40 years of his life were going to go. Something would go wrong and the Israelites would freak out and blame him. Then Moses would have to go to Yahveh for answers and help.

    A few weeks or months earlier, Moses might have freaked out too. Remember that when Moses first showed up to Pharaoh and Pharaoh essentially doubled the Israelite work load, Moses asked Yahveh why this was happening. Moses was prone to despair like the others.

    But something had changed in Moses in the intervening time. There was a new confidence about him that hadn't been there before. Instead of asking Yahveh why this was happening or if Yahveh was trying to bring trouble on the Israelites, he simply replies to the Israelites, "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians that you see today you will never see again. The LORD is fighting for you; you need only be still."

    There are so many ways to go with that passage the books could be written. But what I find interesting about this is that Moses says this before he talks to Yahveh. Now granted Yahveh had intimated that something was going to go down before they even got to that campsite, but Yahveh had also told Moses that Pharaoh's heart was going to be hardened and Moses still complained when Thutmose didn't just let them go.

    The point is that Moses, in the face of total annihilation, didn't flinch. He doesn't even half to speak with Yahveh to know that Yahveh is going to rescue them. He already knew it, so absolute was his confidence. But it wasn't confidence in himself that gave him courage to stand so strong in the face of danger; it was confidence in Yahveh.

    That is the difference between Moses and the Israelites, a difference that would be highlighted time and time again over the course of the next 40 years. Moses had absolute faith in Yahveh's word. Yahveh had said that he would lead the Israelites into the Promised Land and Moses believed that promise. He knew that no matter what happened, no matter how bleak things looked, Yahveh would come through with his promise.

    Let's recap Moses experience with Yahveh thus far: he had turned Moses's staff into a snake and back; he had turned Moses's hand leprous and back; he had turned the Nile into blood; covered Egypt with frogs, gnats, locust, and flies; killed all the livestock of the Egyptians; rained down the hailstorm of the century; dropped boils on everyone; blacked out the sun; and finally had executed all the firstborn in Egypt.

    Moses had given up doubting Yahveh. He had seen far too much to believe that Yahveh would let a little thing like the sea or Pharaoh's army stand in the way of him accomplishing what he set out to do. Moses knew that no matter how big the problem was Yahveh would overcome it. Yahveh had promised to take the Israelites to Canaan and Moses knew that Yahveh would let anything stop him from doing just that. This unflappable, unshakeable confidence that Moses possessed is called faith.

    Faith often comes across as a vague and almost mystical thing. Most Christians look at faith kind of like Jedi view the Force. It's this mystical energy or power and we have enough of it, we can do stuff. Of course this is very vague, which is part of the point: we're not entirely sure what "it" is. Just that we're supposed to have it.

    But faith is something else entirely. The book of Hebrews defines faith as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of we do not see" and then proceeds to devote an entire chapter giving example after example of what faith is. Every example can be essentially summed up as Yahveh said thus and then the people did it. People of faith, like Moses, simply took Yahveh at his word and believed him even if they couldn't see the endgame.

    Boiled down, faith is an attitude of confidence in Yahveh. Faith is doing what Yahveh commands even when those commands don't make a whole lot of sense. Faith is living in confidence of Yahveh's promises no matter how unlikely or bleak the prospects might be. Faith is ultimately trusting that Yahveh is who he says he is.

    True faith is not blind; Yahveh had given Moses plenty of proof of who he was and he's given us plenty of proof too. It's merely a matter of accepting that proof or not. That is real difference between Moses and the Israelites; he accepted the proof of Yahveh's power and love while they did not. They persisted in doubting Yahveh and that is why they panicked in the face of the Egyptian onslaught.

    Faith is power but not in the way that people often think. Possessing true faith frees us fear and doubt, allowing us to live lives in full confidence. That freedom grants us the power to do whatever Yahveh's commands without hesitation and without holding back, no matter how ridiculous the command might be, say for example stretching out your staff and splitting the ocean in half.

    Which happens to be exactly what Yahveh told Moses to do. Moses stretched out his rod over the Red Sea and a "strong east wind" drove the sea back, dividing the sea and allowing the Israelites to cross on dry land.

    This event is often satirized in comics and movies but let us make no mistake on exactly how epic this moment was. The Red Sea was split in two. I can't decide which I would rather see: the sea splitting or the look on the Israelites faces as the sea opened up around Moses.

    Crossing the Red Sea must have been quite an unforgettable experience. Imagine walking through the biggest and most diverse aquarium ever. Towering on either side of you was a massive wall of water and on the other side you could make out fish, sharks, and maybe even the occasional whale. Underneath your sandals was the coral and sand of the ocean.

    As the Israelites climbed out on the other side, the Egyptians, who up to that point had been blocked by a wall of darkness, came charging in after them. At this point, you would think that no matter how hard-headed Pharaoh was he would've seen enough to make him leave well-enough alone. Or at least his troops to say to Pharaoh, "With all due respect sir, screw you. We are not going in there."

    But in any event, they charged into the middle of the sea after Israelites and when they got to the middle, they realized that they had made a horrible error. The wheels on their chariots began to come off and they realized that they were stuck at the bottom of the freaking Red Sea. Not a tenable position. From the other side, Moses again stretched out his hand and the sea collapsed back in on the Egyptians, washing them all, Thutmose III included, away.

    The story concludes in Exodus 14:31 saying, "And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant." That's the Bible's way of saying that their mouths hung open awe.

    I guess the sad thing in all of this is that it took Yahveh opening up the Red Sea for the Israelites to finally put their trust in him (a trust, by the way, that would soon be forgotten). It wasn't like this was the first epic thing they'd seen him do; they had seen miracle after miracle up to this point and yet they were still afraid in the end.

    The question I must ask is that are we so different. Many of us, myself included, like to think that if we had seen the plagues we wouldn't have doubted Yahveh the way they did. Maybe not. But we have seen many great and wondrous things in our own lives (a five minute reflection on your past will reveal that) and yet we still ultimately doubt Yahveh.

    We have all had and will have Red Sea moments, moments were we feel like we've been led into a trap and we can't see a way out. Sometimes we've even been led into these moments by Yahveh himself. Who are you in those moments? Are you an Israelite who quails under the pressure? Or are you a Moses, who boldly trust that Yahveh is who he says he is? Will you have the faith to split the sea?