Day 035 (Exodus 16-18) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Yesterday, the Israelites found a great oasis that they stayed at for a while, but today they continue their journey into the wilderness. We're just 45 days out from God's miraculous deliverance of them, and they're already grumbling, wishing they were back in Egypt because the food was better.

But all these complaints against Moses are actually complaints against God. Moses knows this. He has a proper understanding of God's sovereignty and who is actually the provider here. Complaining reveals our view of God and His provision. God hears these complaints, but He doesn't punish the people for mistrusting Him. Instead, He promises food.

Chapter 16 says the glory of the Lord appears to them in the cloud. This was possibly some sort of luminescence in the cloud or something else distinct, just to remind them, in case they'd forgotten, that it's not just some regular cloud they're dealing with.

He tells them he'll give them bread in the morning and meat in the evening. I feel like I'm on the same wavelength with God here. Carbs for breakfast, protein for dinner. This bread from heaven was called manna. And though it's not clearly marked out in the text, this bread seems to serve a threefold purpose. It serves a practical purpose by feeding the people. It serves an eternal purpose by glorifying God and revealing his power. And it serves a spiritual purpose by testing the people and training them to trust God.

Will they obey the rules he sets up for how and when to gather the manna? He says they're supposed to gather it every day except the Sabbath, which is the Hebrew name for the seventh day of the week. It's what we call Saturday. God's testing here addresses a lot of potential pitfalls. Will I have a scarcity mentality and try to hoard the manna? Or will I trust that the food will be here again tomorrow morning? Will I be willing to work twice as hard gathering on Friday in order to rest on Saturday?

Will the food I gather on Friday be enough to carry me through until Sunday morning? Will God keep his promise to provide for me if I stop to rest as he has commanded me? The Ten Commandments haven't been given to the people yet, but God has been hinting at this idea of resting on the Sabbath since creation. And he points to it again here.

He reminds people that if they trust that he controls the forces of nature, their response will be obedience. And come on, how many times has he already proven to them that he controls creation? Most recently, six weeks ago in the Red Sea. Then they move to a new site, Rephidim, and there's no water. But God tells Moses to strike a rock with his staff, and when he does, water pours out. Remember this moment. We'll come back to it in the days ahead.

In the next scene, they're camped out in the desert when an invading army comes and attacks them out of nowhere. I don't know what kind of weapons you have access to if you've been a slave all your life and just escaped the desert, but they probably had very little to fight with compared to their enemies. Moses appoints a guy named Joshua to put together a last-minute army real quick so they can fight back. This war is against the Amalekites, who are the descendants of Esau's grandson, so they're distant relatives.

During the war, Moses stood on top of the mountain and held up his hands and his staff. And as long as he did that, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered them, they were losing. So Aaron and a man named Hur, who may have been Miriam's husband, Moses' brother-in-law,

propped up his arms for him until Joshua and his army won. If you know any sports fans who are superstitious, they may fancy themselves as having the God-given power to win the game for their team if they only wear one blue sock and one white sock or whatever. While I can appreciate their emotional investment, it probably doesn't work like that. Anyway, at sundown, Joshua and his army defeat Amalek, and God promises to destroy the Amalekites because they attacked his people. And guess what? They don't exist anymore.

We never see them again after 1 Chronicles except for one brief mention in the Psalms. After the battle, Moses built an altar and gave God a new name. The Lord is my banner. What does this mean? A banner is a visible identifier on display. Sometimes banners are hung to commemorate a victory, to serve as a reminder of the winning team. A flag is a kind of banner.

So to say, the Lord is my banner is saying a lot of things, saying, God is victorious. I want to honor God's victory. I want to remind myself of what God has done. I want everyone to know that I belong to God. Giving God this name is an act of worship and praise, and it's also a personal statement Moses is making about his identity.

In chapter 18, Moses' father-in-law Jethro steps in when Moses is working one day and gives him some advice. He tells Moses to delegate tasks to trustworthy, tiered leadership. Moses could have been like, uh, thanks Jethro, but, um, I've got a direct line to Yahweh, so if I need any advice, I think I know who to talk to. But he didn't. He was humble and knew good wisdom when he heard it.

Could God have given Moses this counsel directly? Of course. It seems like they talked all the time. But sometimes God uses other people as his mouthpiece. What was your God shot today? I loved seeing that God commands his people to rest, to trust him to provide. These people have been slaves with no day off, not even for their animals. They were forced to work, and it feels very unnatural to them to not strive and work.

But here's just one way where God is showing them that he's a better God than Pharaoh. Pharaoh commanded them to work, but God commands them to rest. He knows how unnatural it feels to us, how much our human nature longs to earn things, to feel accomplished. But the very nature of his relationship with us is one where we are the recipients, not the earners, not the doers. He is the doer, and he says it's done.

This is one reason Hebrews 4 calls Jesus our Sabbath rest. His finished work on the cross frees us up to rest, to stop striving and trying to earn his approval and favor. There's a quote from Martin Luther that I love. When he was asked what he contributed to his salvation, he said, God himself has done all that he requires of us, and he invites us into his rest.

I want to learn how to rest in Him because He's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the second half of Exodus, so we're linking to a short video overview in the show notes. Check it out if you have six minutes to spare or if you're using the Bible app, look for that at the start of tomorrow's reading.

Okay, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How are you doing? What have you learned so far? In today's reading, we saw God command His people to rest, to trust Him to provide. What a beautiful, counter-cultural thing. Resting shows we trust in Him to provide everything we need. And this is just one of the many beautiful things we're learning about Him as we read and look for Him every day. Think about it.

Think about what you've learned about him in the chapters you've read so far. Lean into those things today. Ask him to grant you an increasing desire to know him more. And I'll see you back here tomorrow.