Exodus-15v22-to-16v361.doc

Exodus 15:22-16:36 Testing, Testing Introduction: Testing for obedience (Speak into microphone) “Testing! Testing!” That’s the title for this passage: Testing, testing. To understand biblical narrative always concentrate on direct speech. Zoom in on what God says in response to Israel’s grumbling. You get a completely wrong idea if you focus on what God does in response to Israel’s grumbling. Did you know that dolphins are so intelligent that within only a few days of captivity, they can train people to stand at the very edge of the pool and throw them fish? When the Israelites grumble God does provide water and he does provide food. You might conclude the Israelites are as good at training God as our intelligent dolphins. Concentrate not on what God does but on what he says. In the Desert of Shur at Marah we are told God set before his people the following test, saying: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you” (15:26). It is at Mount Sinai that Israel, for the first time, will directly hear the voice of God. God’s great test concerns whether the Israelites will obey the laws he will later give them at Sinai. In the Desert of Sin God gives his people a trial run: “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions” (16:4). In both the Desert of Shur and the Desert of Sin God’s primary response is not to provide water and food, but to set a test before his people. Indeed our passage centers on God testing his people for obedience. Where does God test his people? In the desert: “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur” (15:22). When I was 13 years old my family spent a year travelling through Europe, the Middle East and part of the Indian subcontinent in a giant caravan pulled by a diesel engine car. Roads in the Middle East were often so bad we drove on the baked clay of the desert itself. In Jordan we camped one night in the Syrian Desert and went to bed. At midnight, suddenly we were surrounded by lights followed by thunderous knocking on the caravan door. It was the police. They told us to move on because just a fortnight earlier Bedouins had slit the throats of German tourists camped in the same area. The desert is a life-threatening place as Australians know from the tragic deaths of explorers such as Ludwig Leichardt and Burke and Wills. In the ancient world life-threatening chaos was associated with two zones – the sea and the desert. In Exodus 15 the Song of Moses especially speaks of God’s sovereignty over the chaos waters. God now leads his people from one sphere of chaos – the Red Sea - to another sphere of chaos – the desert. God controlled the life-threatening chaos of the sea and used it for the good of his people. Israel must now trust God to control the life-threatening chaos of the desert and use it for their good. Why does God test his people? To prepare his people to live in his presence. I first admired Barbara Mill at a funeral. Her brother had been killed by a drunken driver on Concord Road. It was how she coped with this immense trial that first caused me to see her as a potential life-partner. The Song of Moses closes with God’s commitment to making his people his life-partner in a new home: “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In

2 your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling…You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance – the place, O Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established” (15:13, 17). See how our passage begins: “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea” (22a). Through Moses, his servant (14:31), Yahweh has begun the process of leading his people that will end when they enter his dwelling, his presence. It is how his people respond to testing times that determines whether they are ready to live in his presence. Peter comments, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet 1:6-7). When you enter that inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, you will see Jesus and live in his presence forever. You will spend an eternity giving praise, glory and honour to Jesus. Do you understand that God is using all kinds of tests right now to prepare you to live in his presence, in the presence of Jesus forever? Believe this and rejoice! God intends to use the desert to test his people and prepare them to live in his presence. In Exodus 17 remember when Moses struck the rock and water gushed out. The narrator summarises: “the Israelites…tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” (17:7). In Exodus the great problem is that of God’s people living in God’s presence; of God’s presence living with God’s people. That’s why Exodus closes with chapters on the Tabernacle. The desert is TopsyTurvy Land. It was the arena in which God’s people tested Yahweh. Despite the Exodus miracles the Israelites remain unconvinced that God was present with them. In your relationship with God who is testing who? If you respond to difficult times with opposition to God-appointed leadership, disobedience, resentment, and doubting God is with you to bless you, then you are turning things on their head. Instead of allowing God to test you, you are testing God. What undermines God’s purpose to test his people? The refusal of God’s people to cooperate with their doctor’s treatment. Reconsider 15:26: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” Here is an implicit warning. If God’s people disobey him they will experience the diseases he brought on the Egyptians. However, God reveals himself in a positive manner: “I am the Lord, who heals you.” God wants to heal his people. If they want to be healed they must do what their doctor tells them to do. The Lord tells them, “If you don’t obey me I will bring the plagues of Egypt upon you.” Two cows are standing in a barn. First cow says, "I'm a bit concerned about this mad cow disease that's going around." Second cow replies, "I'm not worried, it doesn't affect penguins." The Jews want to believe God would never treat them the same way he treated the Egyptians. In 16:20 we read: “However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.” Compare this with the description of the first plague in Exodus 7:21: “The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink the water.” History repeats itself. God causes the manna to become contaminated and to stink so that the Israelites are not

3 able to eat it. It’s a warning sign, recalling the threat of Exodus 15:26: fail to obey God and experience plague. Auditors are supposed to ensure that companies comply with accounting standards. One of the Big Five accounting firms, Arthur Andersen, was in dire straits because it turned a blind eye to improper accounting practices by Enron, once the 7th largest corporation in the US. The then Secretary of State Colin Powell returned from a diplomatic mission to Iraq and reported to President Bush, "I have some great news." "Well, Mr. Secretary, let’s hear it." Secretary Powell replied, "Saddam Hussein has agreed to all our demands. He will accept inspection of anything we want to see. All facilities and all records are open to examination." "That’s fantastic!," George Bush exclaimed. “Ah, but there is one condition,” Colin Powell interjected. "What’s that?” asked Bush. “He wants the inspectors to come from Arthur Andersen." Unlike Arthur Andersen God will not turn a blind eye to non-compliance. In Exodus when does the next significant act of non-compliance occur? In Chapter 32 when the Israelites worship the golden calf. What is the result?: “And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made” (32:35). However, God insists, “I am the Lord who heals you.” Remember the first plague God brought on the Egyptians? They were not able to drink water from the contaminated Nile River (Ex 7). What do the Israelites first experience in the desert? They cannot drink the contaminated waters of Marah. But God transforms the bitter water at Marah into sweet water. Much later Elisha also purifies bad water by throwing salt into it. On that occasion Yahweh declared, “I have healed these waters” (v21). At Marah when Yahweh healed the bitter water he demonstrated his ability to heal Israel. In the Desert of Sin God promises, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you”(16:4). God rained down hail on the Egyptians destroying their sources of food (9:23-25). By contrast, when God rains down quails and manna upon his people, he provides them with food. When the quail came they “covered the camp”, providing much needed food (16:13). This contrasts with the plagues of frogs and later of locusts that “covered the land” of Egypt (8:6; 10:15), again destroying food sources. God does not want to destroy his people with disease but to heal them. I remember a friend of mine who needed the Lord’s healing. He had been unjustly dismissed from an important position. Years later, he was still bitter about what had happened to him. I remember some time later he applied for a position but another person got it. He expressed to me his bitterness at this knock-back, insisting he was better qualified for this position. Once bitterness gets into your system it spreads and embitters your attitude to other areas of your life. It is no accident that God begins the desert journey by exposing his people to bitter water. In Exodus “bitterness” describes the miserable state of the Israelites under Egyptian tyranny. The Egyptians “made their lives bitter with hard labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labour the Egyptians used them ruthlessly” (1:14). The Passover meal includes eating bitter herbs, recalling the bitterness of life in Egypt (12:8). The healing of

4 bitterness requires God’s people to make a clean break with Egypt. But in the Desert of Sin they express their inability to leave Egypt: “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 into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (16:3). The failure of the Israelites to pull the root of bitterness out of the soil of their hearts lead to their tragic end in the desert. Have you pulled out the weeds of bitterness from your heart? One evening several students in a boarding school spread limburger cheese on the upper lip of a sleeping classmate. Upon awakening the boy sniffed, looked around, and said, "This room stinks!" He then walked into the hall and said, "This hall stinks!" Leaving the dormitory he exclaimed, "The whole world stinks!" Egypt had left a bitter taste in the mouths of God’s people and they responded bitterly to all the new experiences God brought before them. Look how God effects the miracle at Marah: “the Lord showed [Moses] a piece of wood”, or “tree.” The verb “showed” shares the same root as the noun torah. In verse 26 God tests Israel by calling upon them to obey Torah. This is the path to healing. Moses obeys Torah when he throws the tree into the water and the result is healing, sweetness and life. Healing and life will likewise be experienced by Israel if they pass God’s test and obey his Torah. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.” After Marah God brings the Israelites to Elim, a place that has all the symbolic features of paradise. 12 springs of water, that is, sufficient for each tribe of Israel. 70 palm trees, that is, sufficient for each clan of Israel. God intends to replace bitterness with fulfilment. But Israel’s bitterness has the root system of a mulberry tree, almost impossible to uproot. The analysis of direct speech is crucial to understanding biblical narrative. Everything God says to Moses is a response to Israel’s grumbling. In v7 God promises the Israelites will see his glory in the morning, through the provision of manna, “because he has heard your grumbling against him.” In v8 God’s provision of quail in the evening and manna in the morning is “because [the Lord] has heard your grumbling against him.” Moses calls a spade a spade, adding, “Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.” Then Moses gets Aaron to tell the entire Israelite community to come before the Lord “for he has heard your grumbling” (v9). When the glory of the Lord appears in the cloud, Yahweh says to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.” Grumbling, grumbling, grumbling. God does not provide manna to satisfy the hunger of his people but to test their obedience, to heal them of the very bitterness they express through their constant grumbling. Centuries later, bitter Jews rejected the Bread of Heaven because they were not motivated to know and do the will of God. Jesus reprimanded his grumbling opponents, saying, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven” (Jn 6:32). Similarly, in Exodus 15-16, because the Israelites do not believe God is present with them, they speak of Moses not God bringing them out of Egypt. So, countering this, Moses states, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt.” God will provide quail and manna so that they will know he is the Lord their God (16:12).

5 A young soldier left home to join the army. He told his girl friend that he would write every day. After about six months, he received a letter from his girlfriend that she was marrying someone else. He wrote home to his family to find out who she married. The family wrote back and told him. It was the .... postman. Moses was God’s postman. As Jesus indicates in John 6, the Jews were preoccupied with the postman rather than the Sender. The Israelites needed to trust and obey their God. That’s why God required the Israelites to observe a weekly sabbath in the desert, that is, to constantly trust God to miraculously change conditions so that the extra manna will not become full of maggots the next day but remain fresh. The common view that manna was really high protein insect droppings is absurd. Manna was entirely supernatural, even though it tasted like honey wafers, coming from heaven in quantities sufficient to feed 2 million people in a precise location. The Israelites had 40 years experience of God’s miraculous provision; that is, some 14,000 days or reasons for trusting God. Remember Jesus’ words: “…even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (Jn 10:38). The Golden Calf episode of Exodus 32 shows the Israelites still failed to believe that it was God who had brought them out of Egypt. God is testing you, testing me, preparing us to live in his presence for ever. Jesus himself “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb 5:8) and this involved learning from a time of testing in the desert. Jesus is with you wherever you go in this life-threatening world. Don’t doubt this. Let him help you respond to perceived loss and injustice with a spirit of thanksgiving rather than with bitterness and grumbling. If resentment and anger are eating away at your heart you are sick. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Mt 9:12). “I am the one who heals you,” promises Jesus. But you must comply with his treatment. So, however hard you may find it to do: “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess 5:18). Consider these magnificent words from the Merchant of Venice: “Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow’s bliss.” The manna of Moses’ day was but a shadow cast by the body of Christ. Any satisfaction the Israelites derived from eating the manna was like kissing a shadow, experiencing a shadow’s bliss. How wonderful it is to embrace the reality, to feed upon the Bread of Heaven!

6 Instead they mix three ingredients that produce a lethal cocktail, namely bitterness, unbelief and disobedience. The Israelis become victims of their own concoction that tragically lead to their mass destruction, the death of an entire generation of God’s people in the desert. Many have seen these two stories as aimed at showing how God graciously provides for the needs of his undeserving people. But with just an ounce of common sense we can see this is a totally inadequate understanding of these stories. It is true, of course, that the Israelites are an undeserving pack of grumblers. It is also true that God nevertheless provides for his people. But if that was all there was to these stories then this narrative would be a great deal shorter. All we would need to be told was that the Israelites grumbled and God nevertheless met their needs. Each year many illegal immigrants from Mexico, in an effort to evade stringent border patrols in Calexico and San Diego and reach the US, attempt to cross desert country where temperatures rise as high as 43 degrees. Significant numbers of such people have died of thirst as they try to cross the desert in this way. So in an effort to save lives volunteers have placed 100 fluttering blue flags in the desert and at each flag they have begun to store and replenish two visible one-gallon jugs of drinking water. There were no blue flags to guide the Israelites to water. Just Moses. We are told, “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea.” They were depending on his leadership for their survival in the desert. What happens at Massah, at Meribah is ironic because the purpose of the desert wanderings is the testing of Israel by God. Far from complying with this purpose we are presented with an absurd reversal, Israel testing God. At Marah God tests the Israelites by requiring them to listen carefully to his voice, pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees. “If you pass this test,” God tells them, “I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians.”

The provision of the Sabbath – there is no clearcut evidence in the Pentateuch that the Israelites had ever observed the Sabbath prior to this point – is a further expression of God’s concern to bring healing to his people. They have been complaining about the service of God and have claimed, in an absurd manner, that God is a harder taskmaster than the cruel Egyptians. God underscores his graciousness as their master by providing for them to rest one day per week, a provision they never enjoyed under the Egyptians. God tells the people via Moses that he will “fill” them with bread. This is a clear indication that God has heard the precise sentiments they have expressed, for the Israelites had grumbled that they had eaten their “fill” in Egypt (v3). In the Desert God will treat the people with a generosity they never experienced in Egypt, for all its wealth and prosperity. Only Yahweh can truly bring satisfaction. The import of the prior grumbling was that God was unable to “fill” them with meat and bread. God will demonstrate that even in the desert he is able to fill them. An ominous notes is struck. God says that when he works his miracles to fill them with meat and bread they “will know that I am Yahweh.” This was precisely what

7 Yahweh had promised the defiant Egyptians. This revelation of Yahweh has a note of judgment about it. The miracle of providing quail and manna will reveal who the Israelites have dared to defy.

Structural Significance This is the first part of a new section in Exodus that is concerned with the journey from the Red Sea to Sinai. Mark Smith argues that “the priestly redaction arranged Exodus as a double journey to, and sojourning at, the holy place of Sinai” so that “pilgrimage constitutes the basic pattern of the book” 1. The book then divides into two parts (chaps. 1-14, 15:22-40:38) with the Song of the Sea as the fulcrum at the center. One of the messages of Exodus is the futility of all systems opposed to God and how rebellion is at the root of all the woes of mankind. This is not merely exemplified in the life of the Pharaoh and the Egyptian people but, tragically, in the lives of God’s people as well. Moshe Kline remarks, “At first glance, the three remaining books (Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers) compose the “core” of the Torah, the story of the forty years that Moses led the children of Israel through the desert from Egypt to the border of Canaan. Upon closer inspection, however, this appearance reveals itself as a dessert chimera. There is no historical narrative in Leviticus. Nevertheless, it is in fact closely connected to Exodus and Numbers, but by a different theme, the Tabernacle. Exodus is clearly divided in half. Only the first half presents an historical narrative. The second half is entirely given over to an enormously detailed description of the construction of the Tabernacle. Leviticus continues the “story” of the Tabernacle, describing the rituals performed in it. Numbers, like Exodus, has two principal sections. The second part picks up the historical narrative, which was interrupted in the middle of Exodus. The first section deals with the ceremonies connected with the dedication of the Tabernacle, creating a virtually continuous flow of Tabernacle related material from the middle of Exodus, through Leviticus and into Numbers. As in the encampment described in the Torah, the text of the Torah also has the Tabernacle at its focus. The following illustration demonstrates the literary symmetry that creates this focus.” If this is the case how are our present passages related to the theme of tabernacle? 1

Mark S. Smith, The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus (JSOTSup 239; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) 191.

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Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

A Schematic Overview of the Torah (Moshe Kline) Prologue 1 Leaving Egypt 2 Building the Tabernacle The Tabernacles Service 1 Dedicating the Tabernacle 2 Preparing to enter Canaan Epilogue

According to this structure our passage forms a parallel with those passages in Numbers that concern depictions of the Israel poised to enter the land.

Geographical Locations As Durham points (212) out the location of the various places mentioned in the passage cannot be determined with any precision because this in turn depends on fixing the location of Sinai which remains disputed. 1. The Desert of Shur (15:22) The term shur is often understood to mean “wall.” It would seem that it was in this area that a wall of fortresses had been built by the pharaohs to stop Asiatics from invading Egypt. Such a “wall” of fortifications is mentioned in Egyptian literature from the middle of the twelfth century BC (Durham). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word is derived from a root meaning “traveling” or possibly even “watching.” Consequently, this desert may have been known as either the desert of fortifications, the desert of traveling or the desert of watchfulness. Evidently, the Desert of Shur was also one of the principal caravan routes to Palestine, extending through the Negev to Beersheba. However, the precise location is unclear. Josephus identifies this with the Pelusian Desert (Antiquities 6:7:3). Saadia, on the other hand identifies it with Jifur, an old name for Es Sur, south-west of the desert of Et-tih (Etham?) near Egypt. A number of sources identify Shur with Etham (Ex 13:20; see Num 33:8). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown think the Desert of Shur comprehended all of the western part of Arabia-Petrea. Actually, along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez, there is a strip of level land. The northern part of this is known as Shur, extending toward the Mediterranean, while the southern part is the Sin Desert (Ex 16:1). 2. Marah Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify Marah with Howarah, in Wady Amarah, about 48 kilometres from the eastern shore of the Red Sea, since, they claim, there is no other perennial spring in the intermediate space. They add, “The water still retains its ancient character, and has a bad name among the Arabs, who seldom allow their camels to partake of it.” Local traditions identify the first stop with Ayun Musa (the Springs of Moses), on the east side of the Gulf, 9 miles south of Suez and 1.5 miles from the coast. However, many identify the site of Marah with Bir Huwara or Eyn Chawara, some 75 kilometres south of Ayun Musa, 96 kilometres south of Suez, and around 11 kilometres from the coast. Others identify Marah with Ain Naba (also known as el-Churkudeh), a fountain with a large flow of brackish water, some 16 kilometres

9 south-east of Suez. 3. Elim Possibly, 'Place of Terebinths.' This is usually identified with Wadi Gharandel, the next oasis on this route, some 10 miles south of Marah. In medieval times, there was a city in this area known as Ailom (Mas'aoth Rabbi Binyamin 24). Some say that this was a very good resting place (Mekhilta), while according to others, the trees and wells were insufficient for the huge number of people (Josephus 3:1:3). 4. “Near the water” (15:27) Possibly the water at Elim itself which irrigated the trees there, or else the Red Sea. 5. The Desert of Sin J, F & B: “This passage represents the Israelites as advanced into the great plain, which, beginning near El-Murkah, extends with a greater or less breadth to almost the extremity of the peninsula. In its broadest part northward of Tur it is called El-Kaa, which is probably the desert of Sin.” When the Israelites trod along this southern route they were using one of the principal roads used by Egyptian mining expeditions. Currid informs us that Semites participated in these expeditions and that Egyptian mining activity occurred primarily during the months of January to March. He points out that the journey through the Desert of Sin described in Exodus 16 occurred after April (cf. 13:4 – Abib = c. March). Analysis of Direct Speech 1. People grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” = Expression of Grumbling 2. Lord speaks to Israelites, though evidently through Moses: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” = Response to Grumbling, that is, a warning that the key to avoiding the grumbling which will inevitably lead to disobedience and rebellion and eventually evoke judgment is through listening to God’s voice and obeying him 3. The whole community grumbles against Moses, “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 this entire assembly to death.” = Expression of Grumbling 4. The Lord speaks to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you…..” = Response to Grumbling 5. So Moses and Aaron instruct the Israelites, ‘In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt……” Revelation of the glory of God is “because he has heard your grumbling” (2x) + “who are we, that you should grumble against us?” + “You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord” = Response to Grumbling 6. Moses speaks to Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.” Aaron registers the grumbling of the people. Aaron has to do with the cultic side, hence “Come before the Lord”. Grumbling is a religious problem 7. Lord speaks to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling….” = Response to Grumbling

10 8. When the Israelites saw [the manna] they said to each other, “What is it?” = Expression of Curiosity at seeing something completely unprecedented 9. Moses explains to the Israelites, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat…” = Explanation 10.Moses later commands them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning” = Preparatory word which underscores the gravity of the rebellion that immediately follows. 11.Later again he commands them, “This is what the Lord commanded, ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest…” Sabbath-keeping means trusting God to miraculously change conditions so that the extra manna in this case will not become full of maggots the next day but remain fresh. The Need to Trust 12.Next Moses commands, “Eat it today…” Faith also expressed in deciding not to look for manna on the Sabbath. The Need to Trust 13.The Lord says to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands….” = Response to Rebellion 14.Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it….” Conclusions 1. Whenever we read that the Lord spoke to Moses we know that God is angry with the people because of their grumbling or rebellion. 2. The passage begins with grumbling and ends with rebellion and disobedience – the violation of the warning in 15:26, indicating that the time must eventually come when the Lord will treat them as he treated the defiant Egyptians. 3. As the passage develops we see these people behaving more like Egyptians, identifying themselves more with Egyptians and life in Egypt, than with the new life provided to them by God. The making of bitter water sweet and the provision of manna from heaven symbolises the granting of a new life from God, yet this new life is not treasured but treated with contempt. 4. The passage continually indicates that the fundamental problem of the Israelites is their failure to believe, to trust in God, and their fundamental need, as symbolised by the Sabbath provision, is to trust in him. 5. The key to understand these two incidents and the passage as a whole lies in comparing the first words of God spoken on each occasion, namely 15:26 and 16:3. That is, in both instances God’s provision is associated with testing the readiness of the Israelites to obey him. Miracles and Character Commenting on the incident at Marah, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin observes, “Momentous inspiration lasts but a moment; it is only the painstaking, perspiration-soaked lessons and disciplines which ultimately bring about lasting personality changes. God had to give a taste of Torah - as well as its critical objective as a "tree of life" - when the Israelites needed it most, so that they would learn the importance of painstaking perseverance over momentous miracles.” 2 The Leadership of Moses The passage begins by emphasising the leadership of Moses: “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea.” A Hiphil verb is used with causative force: “Moses caused Israel to set out”3; “Moses caused Israel to pull out”; “Moses pressed 2

“Shabbat Shalom: the Problem with Miracles” in The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, Thursday, 7 February 2002. 3 John D. Currid, Exodus. Volume 1, Chapters 1-18 (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2000) 328.

11 Israel on.”4 Houtman proposes that it is because the people are recoiling from entering the scary wilderness that Moses forces them to move. 5 But there is no indication of this in the text (302). It is important to recognise that the Red Sea miracle did not merely result in the Israelites fearing Yahweh and trusting him. They also placed their trust in Moses, looking to him for leadership. Consequently, verse 22 begins on a positive note. Moses now enjoys a high standing as Israel’s leader and he proceeds to lead. However, notwithstanding Moses’ prior experiences of living in the desert he is not able to lead them to a source of fresh drinking water. Indeed when they arrive at Marah the Israelites find that they have been led to water which is undrinkable. Consequently, it is only three days after Moses’ exaltation as a leader that he now finds himself a target for the people’s discontent. The incident at Marah proves to be only the commencement of what will become a habitual pattern. Indeed there is a definite progression from the incident at Marah to the incident in the Desert of Sin. In the former case we read “the people grumbled against Moses.” In the second incident it is emphasised that “the whole community grumbled against Moses.” The people’s challenge to God-given leadership has become much more sharply pointed as indicated by the inclusion of Aaron as a target of criticism as well as Moses. Further, at Marah a particular incident, the discovery of bitter water, triggered the people’s bitter reaction. By contrast, in the Desert of Sin the people do not need a particular situation or experience to occasion their grumbling against God-given leadership. They simply burst out grumbling against Moses and Aaron and blaming them for their lack of food. Testing in the Desert Having left the Red Sea the Israelites now must face a long period of travelling in the desert. It is in the desert that God tests his people. Again and again he will test whether they really believe he is willing and able to save them. The motif of testing is very strong in this passage. It was at Marah that Yahweh tested the Israelites by calling upon them to obey his Torah as they traveled in the desert. When the people complain about their lack of food Yahweh’s immediate response is to provide manna. He does this not primarily to meet their need but to test them: “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions” (16:4). The Theme of Bitterness The experience of finding bitter water at Marah shakes the confidence of God’s people in the ability of Moses to lead them. We do not know if the water had been deliberately poisoned. All we know is that the water was undrinkable. The real significance of this event is that it becomes a parable in action that indicates Israel’s own need and the ability of their God to meet that need. That is, as this incident and the narratives that follow will reveal, the people of Israel are crippled by their bitterness. However, as the miracle at Marah indicates, God is the healer of his people, the one who is able to take away their bitterness and make them sweet. The key to taking away their bitterness involves breaking the link between them and Egypt. In order to enjoy the sweetness of the new humanity that God offers them they must put off the bitterness of the old humanity associated with their bitter experience in Egypt. Exodus 1-2 paints a portrait of the cruel mistreatment of Israelites by their Egyptian overlords. We are informed that they “made their lives bitter with hand labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard 4 5

John I. Durham, Exodus (Word BC, Vol 3; OT ed., J.D.W. Watts; Waco, Texas: Word, 1987) 210-211. Houtman cites Jewish traditions that portray Moses using a stick to compel the Israelites to go on (305).

12 labour the Egyptians used them ruthlessly” (1:14). So we read: “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (2:23-25). The institution of the Passover meal involves a symbolic reminder of the bitterness of Israel’s experience in Israel through the eating of bitter herbs (12:8). Consequently, the incident at Marah serves to demonstrate that though the Israelites have left Egypt, Egypt has not left the Israelites. The bitterness of Egypt lives on in the hearts and minds of this people. It is highly significant that when the people reach the Desert of Sin the expression of their bitterness explicitly involves their inability to leave Egypt behind in their hearts and minds: “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 into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (16:3). What did Moses Throw in the Bitter Water? The NIV renders “a piece of wood” as per Josephus (2:3:2). But many others understand the word to be “a tree.” The narrator is not interested in the particular qualities of the tree used by Moses and gives absolutely no information that will help to determine what type of tree it was. As so often, where Scripture is silent speculation runs rife. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown comment, “Some travellers have pronounced this to be the Elvah of the Arabs--a shrub in form and flower resembling our hawthorn; others, the berries of the Ghurkhud--a bush found growing around all brackish fountains.” Some claim it was a fig, others a pomegranate, or an oleander (Mekhilta; MeAm Lo'ez). Torah and Life It is notable that after the water is miraculously made sweet there is no reference to the thirst of the Israelites being satisfied, though this clearly took place. The significance of this incident concerns how these people will respond to God’s testing; how they relate to God’s commands. In the NIV we read “Yahweh showed [Moses] a tree.” Various commentators have pointed out that the verbal form (vayoraihu) is from a root which in the Hiphil pattern means “to teach” or “to instruct.” The noun Torah or law is a derivative of that verb. The inference is that God instructed Moses concerning the tree (cf. “Yahweh directed him to a tree” [Durham]) and this in turn prepares for the statement made later in the same verse: “There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them” or “At that very spot, he established for them a requirement and a divine guidance, and there he put them on trial” (Durham). The showing of the tree to Moses almost carries the idea that God gave Torah to Moses. Klein notes the progression: “God gave Moses instruction, Moses followed God's instruction, and the result was healing and sweetness. The whole focus of what happens at Marah is on the effect of obedience to God's word. When Moses follows God's instruction, the result is sweetness. The sign indicates the blessing and healing that comes from being obedient to God's commands.” The explicit Torah spoken of at the close of the verse, a Torah given to Israel, involves the same message: “if you are obedient to God's commands, God will be your healer.” It is God alone who can heal them from the contagion of Egypt, the bitterness that has seeped into their souls. A threat hangs in the air, though. If they do not obey and if they continue to cling to Egypt and nurse their bitter

13 spirit then they will be treated like Egypt. They will experience the same plagues that God visited upon the Egyptians. However, the next incident will indicate that for Israel the writing is on the wall, for the very words of their grumbling and bitterness show their profound sense of identification with Egypt: “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 into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (16:3). The Israelites have the effrontery to accuse God of causing them more misery than the Egyptians. The bitterness of their present experience causes them to idealise their past life in Egypt, imagining against all evidence that there they ate meat and bread “to the full.” They thus deceive themselves into thinking that their bitterness of spirit was not created by Egypt but by God. It is in fact a small step from this mentality to the forging of the golden calf and the belief that “these are your Gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt” rather than Yahweh. A bitter heart is an evil heart that leads people away from the living God and causes people to twist truth and grossly misinterpret experience. It is perhaps significant that Yahweh shows Moses a tree and that it is a tree that is used to change the water from being bitter to sweet. There is nothing in the text to indicate that there were any properties in the wood itself that enabled it to absorb salt and filter impurities. It is clearly the intent of the narrator to indicate that a wonderful miracle was performed at Marah, not to provide a naturalistic explanation. There may be an allusion here to the tree of life and this in turn may carry with it the connotation that Torah is to be likened to the tree of life, a line of thought picked up in some targums (Houtman, 309). 6 That is, just as a tree brings healing and life to the water of bitterness so too Yahweh will give his people Torah with the intent of bringing them healing from the bitterness of their lives and life. Josephus was not satisfied by the explanation given by the text as to how Yahweh, through Moses, miraculously transformed the water. So he writes that they also purged the well by pouring out large amounts of water from it. The Divine Physician God reveals himself to Israel: “I am the Lord who heals you.” Compare: Psalm 107:5 "Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them." As indicated above, the parabolic nature of the event that transpires at Marah seems to carry with it the implication that God will use Torah to heal his people. Hence the importance of the particular Torah that God now gives to his people:

A A` 6

a. If you certainly listen b. to the voice of Yahweh b`. And the right thing in his eyes a`. you do, a. And you listen b. to his commands a`. And you keep b`. all his statutes, c. Every disease

We have seen in Exodus that the motif of bitterness relates to Israel’s experience in Egypt and this is confirmed d. I set by the expression of bitterness in 16:3. Therefore, we can be confident that the parabolic force of the event at e. on the Egyptians Marah does not involve comparing Torah with the bitter waters, as Origen mistakenly supposed (Houtman, 310).

B

d`. I will not set e`. on you, f. for I am Yaweh your healer

14

It should also be noted that at a later stage in Israel’s history an analogous miracle is performed by Elisha who purifies bad water by throwing salt into it. Currid points out that the there is also a similarity in the vocabulary used in 2 Kings 2:19-22. Significantly, on that occasion Yahweh declared, “I have healed these waters” (v21), a clear indication that we are to view Yahweh’s transformation of the water from bitter to sweet as evidence of his ability to heal Israel. It is significant too that the Elisha event is set in a context indicating that it is the prophetic ministry that brings blessing or curse to the land, and that all depends on how the people will respond to God’s prophet (cf. vv23-25). This tends to confirm our suspicion that in the Marah incident there is an implication that Torah is used by God to heal his people. Bringing them to Elim Klein: “Notice how our text ends. God brought them to Elim in the wilderness. It is no doubt a picture of paradise: 12 springs of water and 70 date palms. Elim is the promise that the wilderness sojourn has an end. What gives the wilderness meaning and makes it bearable is its relationship to paradise. And as surely as God has brought Israel to Elim, he will bring his people to the promised land, the new paradise of God.” The Sabbath 1. The incidents described in Exodus 16 commence on the fifteenth day of the second month: just one full month after their departure from Egypt. Cf Exodus 12:2, 51; Numbers 33:3, 4. They encamped in the desert of Sin on a Friday; the murmuring (Exodus 16:2, 3) occurred on the sabbath, the arrival of the quail (Exodus 16:13) the evening before Sunday, followed by six mornings (Exodus 16:14-27) of collecting manna before the next sabbath. 2. Many commentators take this passage as evidence that sabbath is a creation ordinance and that God’s faithful people had long observed the sabbath prior to this or that they reverted to an observance of sabbath they had practised before oppression in Egypt had precluded this. However, it must be noted that the commands of Exodus 16, as stated, can equally be understood as initiating a practice of sabbath observance for God’s people, in anticipation of the giving of the Decalogue at Sinai. Currid takes verse 5 to be an indication that sabbath observance predates this particular time in the Desert of Sin, but it is difficult to see any basis in the text itself for this presumption. 3. The Israelites have been complaining about the service of God and have claimed, in an absurd manner, that God is a harder taskmaster than the cruel Egyptians. God underscores his graciousness as their master by providing for them to rest one day per week, a provision they never enjoyed under the Egyptians. Death Wish “The Israelites said to them, ‘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 this entire assembly to death” (v3).

15 Matthew Henry remarks, “They so far undervalue their deliverance, that they wished they had died in Egypt; and by the hand of the Lord, that is, by the plagues which cut off the Egyptians.” Indeed at the close of the last chapter God promised not to bring these plagues upon the Israelites if they would listen carefully to his voice and keep all his decrees. Exodus 16 immediately shows that the Israelites have so little respect for this promise that they claim they would rather have had such plagues brought upon them than be in their present situation. J, F & B: “And though we may lament they should tempt God in the wilderness and freely admit their sin in so doing, we can be at no loss for a reason why those who had all their lives been accustomed to walk by sight should, in circumstances of unparalleled difficulty and perplexity, find it hard to walk by faith. Do not even we find it difficult to walk by faith through the wilderness of this world, though in the light of a clearer revelation, and under a nobler leader than Moses?” Grumbling Against God The narrator treats the complaints of the people against Moses and Aaron as a species of deceit. In reality these people are grumbling against God (16:7) but they are not prepared to come out into the open and voice their discontent with God. Moses forces the Israelites to face the reality of their attitude and mentality by commanding them to ‘come before Yahweh’ (16:9), that is, to approach the glory cloud. God’s Glory Revealed The revelation of God’s glory in the cloud is not described but merely stated. We may speculate that there was the appearance of radiant light. Whatever, in this context this revelation of God’s glory serves to underscore the fact that the people have indeed been grumbling against God and he has heard their grumbling (cf. v9). God’s Word Via Moses God tells the people via Moses that he will “fill” them with bread. This is a clear indication that God has heard the precise sentiments they have expressed, for the Israelites had grumbled that they had eaten their “fill” in Egypt (v3). In the Desert God will treat the people with a generosity they never experienced in Egypt, for all its wealth and prosperity. Only Yahweh can truly bring satisfaction. The import of the prior grumbling was that God was unable to “fill” them with meat and bread. God will demonstrate that even in the desert he is able to fill them. An ominous notes is struck. God says that when he works his miracles to fill them with meat and bread they “will know that I am Yahweh.” This was precisely what Yahweh had promised the defiant Egyptians. This revelation of Yahweh has a note of judgment about it. The miracle of providing quail and manna will reveal who the Israelites have dared to defy. The Provision of Quail The quail is a migratory bird that flies mainly at night time and makes use of favourable winds (cf. Num 11:31). After migration the birds are so exhausted that they can be caught with bare hands.

16

In a Manna of Speaking The original man hu is rendered by the ancient versions as “What is it/this?”, which understood the phrase as a popular etymology of the Hebrew word man, "manna"; some render, "This is manna." The Amount of Manna to be Collected The amount of manna to be collected is “a man according to his eating” (v16), the same command used with respect to the division of the Passover Lamb (12:4). Just as the provision of the Passover Lamb involves the meeting of the needs of each and every member of the covenant community so too the provision of manna demonstrates Yahweh’s concern for every Israelite. However, the measure is also stipulated by way of prohibiting the hoarding of food. Why? Because the desert is the place of testing, as Yahweh has indicated in 15:25. That is, the people of Israel must trust Yahweh daily for their food. The correct measure to be collected is also described by the word “omer” (v16). This normally means “a sheaf” (Lev 23:11-15; Deut 24:19; Ruth 2:7, 15). But it can be used figuratively of food in general (Job 24:10). In this case the word is used as a measure of weight or quantity, that is, one tenth of an ephah which in turn is one tenth of a homer. This means that an omer is approximately 2 litres. 7 The Supernatural Nature of Manna It is difficult to determine the precise nature of manna. It is described by two words. One can be rendered as either “thin” or “fine” or “small”, and the other as “flakes”, given the derivation of this word from the verb meaning “to scale” or “to peel.” The LXX, influenced by Numbers 11:7, replaces “flakes” with “white coriander seed.” The manna was like coriander seed. Coriander seeds are small, round, aromatic seeds of abright brown colour. By contrast, manna was a white colour. The comparison, therefore, refers merely to the size and shape, not to the taste or colour of the manna. Some identify manna with the honeydew excretion of cicadas, plant lice and scale insects. Evidently, evaporation causes this to quickly solidify. However, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point out that “more recent and accurate examination has proved this gum of the tarfa-tree to be wanting in all the principal characteristics of the Scripture manna. It exudes only in small quantities, and not every year; it does not admit of being baked (Num 11:8) or boiled (Ex 16:23). Though it may be exhaled by the heat and afterwards fall with 7

Durham maintains an omer is about 2.3 litres, though Currid’s estimates when converted would place the measure at around 1.9 litres.

17 the dew, it is a medicine, not food--it is well known to the natives of the desert, while the Israelites were strangers to theirs; and in taste as well as in the appearance of double quantity on Friday, none on Sabbath, and in not breeding worms, it is essentially different from the manna furnished to the Israelites.” Heavenly Provision J, F & B: “Israel, a type of the Church which is from above, and being under the conduct, government, and laws of heaven, received their food from heaven also.” The Contamination of Manna When manna was hoarded it became contaminated and smelled. The NIV renders “And worms grew in it”, that is, maggots. The image of contamination and smelling is an allusion to the first plague on Egypt when the Nile was contaminated and smelled. Here then we are taken back to 15:26: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” The inference is clear: failure to obey God, through hoarding manna, results in experiencing the diseases brought upon the Egyptians. The fact that God visits the first of the plagues upon his disobedient people has an added ominous note. Just as the text has indicated that the bitterness and grumbling of the people is a prelude to yet further instances of defiance and disobedience so too the inflicting of the first plague suggests that God’s people are liable to experience the other plagues as well. The Treatment of Manna The Israelites are told to keep the manna on the sixth day just as they had earlier been told to keep the Passover lamb until the proper moment of sacrifice (12:6). Once again then we have an allusion that connects the provision of manna with the provision of the Passover lamb. Manna and Testimony “Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’ So Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.’ As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna in front of the Testimony, that it might be kept” (vv32-34). It would seem that verse 34 is looking back on this incident from a time in the future after the Ark had been constructed. Eating Manna for Forty Years The forty year period is not only historical but also simultaneously symbolic for a period of testing. New Testament Development Philippians 2:14-16a, “Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…”

18 Here “arguing” or “disputing” does not introduce a separate concept but amplifies the general attitude introduced by the word “complaining.” Note too that Paul contrasts the attitude of complaining and disputing with obedience: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed…” (v12). It is by the avoidance of complaining and disputing that God’s people become blameless and pure. It is notable that in Exodus 15 and 16 that the attitude and utterance of grumbling and disputing is likened to bitterness, the bitter waters encountered by the Israelites at Marah, to contaminated water. Verse 14 also serves to contrast the disposition of God’s people and the disposition of those who are part of “a crooked and depraved generation.” The latter phrase is clearly applied by Paul to any non-Christian society. However, initially they relate to God’s people, Israel, and this is very significant because it recalls the generation of Israelites who perished in the desert. Non-Christian society is especially characterised by grumbling and disputing and for this reason God’s people stand out as bright lights when they refrain from grumbling and disputing. Speaking of Israel's wilderness journey, Paul writes, "Now these things happened to them as types, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have" (1 Cor. 10:11). David J. Klein: “The glory of the new covenant is that the Marah statute points not to what you must do, but to what has been done for you. Christ is the one who gives earnest heed to the voice of the LORD, and does what is right in his sight, and gives ear to his commandments, and keeps all his statutes. Hence it is on account of the obedience of Christ that God is our healer. Did not the Israelites already see this as they looked into the face of Moses and saw a covenant mediator who was obedient to God's command and healed the bitterness for the people? Yet this is the generation that perished in the wilderness, despite Moses' mediation. Despite Moses' obedience and intercession, the bitterness and rebellion of the people made God lay them low in the wilderness. Moses himself could not usher them into the Promised Land (which he himself did not enter). So just as Israel's failure points ahead in the history of redemption to a new Israel, Moses' failure points ahead in the history of redemption to a new Moses. This savior is so glorious, he is so wonderful, that in his person the typology of Israel and Moses converge. Christ is the faithful covenant mediator who acts on behalf of the people by being obedient to all of God's commandments. He is the one who brings healing to the people. He does this by his resurrection. Christ is greater than Moses because Christ himself drank the bitter waters of Marah on the cross. And because death had no hold on him, he was raised into the new paradise. His resurrection now guarantees our access into the Promised Land.” Klein: “What then of the tree? Perhaps you thought I was going to leave this out! God did not show Moses a rock, Moses did not put his staff in the water. The reference to the tree is not incidental. The tree is obviously the instrument of healing. Does not the collocation of tree and healing immediately bring to mind Revelation 22, where in the new paradise there is the tree of life whose leaves are healing to the nations? That which was the future reward held out in the garden, that which is the final provision of the heavenly Jerusalem, is already intruding itself into the wilderness. The tree represents nothing less than the new order penetrating into the old. As Geerhardus Vos wrote, "The kingdom of God,

19 what else is it but a new world of supernatural realities supplanting this natural world of sin." And access to this tree of life comes only via Calvary's tree. The sweetness of heaven, the new heavenly order, comes to us by the work of Christ. His obedience merits for us the eschatological reward of the tree of life. He drank the bitter waters on the cross, he endured the bitter wrath of God, he tasted the bitterness of death, that you might know the sweetness of the forgiveness of sins, the sweetness of sonship, the sweetness of communion with the Father. Christ has taken the bitterness out of your wilderness sojourn, because even now in your wilderness you have access to this tree of life, because of Jesus' tree.” Parallels between Exodus 16 and John 6 It must be recalled that in John 6 Jesus, having miraculously provided bread and fish for the crowd, presents himself as the even greater Bread, greater even than the manna from heaven given to the Israelites under Moses.

Testing Following Healing Satisfaction Motivation Requirements Substituting Moses for God Heavenly bread Constant provision

Unbelief

Grumbling

Questioning Bread of life

Exodus 16 Provision of manna to test Israelites (4) Follows a “healing” miracle (15:25-26) Fills the people with bread (12) People want to eat their fill of meat and bread (3) The people are required to obey God (4; cf. 15:26) God’s work at the Red Sea is wrongly attributed to Moses (3) The bread comes from heaven (3) The bread is provided daily for Israel for the entire 40 years they spent in the desert (35) Despite the provision of manna the people still did not believe that Yahweh had brought them out of Egypt (17:3) The provision of manna occurs in a context of grumbling (3; cf. 15:24) When the people encounter God’s ‘bread’ they ask “What is it?” The people ate the manna which gave them life, but only temporarily. They later died (Jn 6:48, 58)

John 6 Jesus tests Philip re provision of bread (6) Follows healing miracles (2) All had enough to eat (12) People come to Jesus because they want to eat their fill of bread (26) The people are required to believe in Jesus (28-29) God’s work of providing manna is wrongly attributed to Moses (31-32) Jesus is the Bread who comes down from heaven (33) As the Bread of Life Jesus can be fed upon at all times (35) Despite seeing Jesus and the miracles he had performed the people still did not believe in him (36) The provision of Jesus as the supreme Manna from heaven occurs in a context of grumbling (41) When the people encounter the Bread of Life they ask, “Who is he?” Those who eat the Bread of Life will never die (48-51, 58)

20

The Purpose of this Passage With respect to the incident at Marah, Durham maintains that the “purpose is not etiology or the highlighting of the murmuring motif. It is the glorification of Yahweh who provides for his people, whatever and wherever their need, Yahweh who is eminently deserving of service and loyalty” (212). However, in making such a claim Durham fails to understand the parabolic force of bitterness in the incident that occurs at Marah and fails to link this up with the prior motif of bitter experience in Egypt. He also fails to see that Yahweh’s word concerning the plagues of Egypt is a word of threat that finds a first fulfilment in the Desert of Sin in the very next chapter when the contamination and stench of hoarded manna recalls the contamination and stench of the first plague in Egypt. In addition Durham fails to note that Yahweh himself explains that the reason he provides the manna from heaven is not, in the first instance, to satisfy the needs of his people, but to test them (16:3; cf. 15:25) – a test that they clearly fail. Consequently, we must recognise that the theme of grumbling and bitterness is much stronger than Durham appreciates. For Houtman 15:22-27 teaches that “life is being faithful to Yahweh” (302) whereas Chapter 16 teaches that “life is acknowledging YHWH as Lord and faithfully observing the day of rest” (316).

Possible Titles Bitter Water for Bitter People (15:22-27) Food Testing Tasting and Testing

David J. Klein, Proving and Provision at Marah http://graceopc.org/grace/pastor.html Illustrations “Seldom is heard an encouraging word and the boss is a villain all day” (Dan Hendley). “If you can’t say anything grumbly don’t say anything at all.” Child had never spoken until one day when he was 7 years old he was served brussel sprouts. For the first time he opened his mouth and said, “Yuk! This stuff is terrible.” His parents said, “Son, we thought you could not speak. What made you able to speak now?” “Well,” their son replied, “Up till now everything has been OK.” At its foundation level grumbling has to do with being unsatisfied. Grumbling is addictive, it is habit-forming. It is a problem that becomes greater than age. Beware not to become an old grump. There is a level of grumbling that is social grumbling. You mean nothing by it but at work and with your friends you

21 grumble about this and that. But it is habit-forming. “The early bird gets the worm and the surly bird gets the germ.” Grumbling can destroy your spirit and it can destroy the spirit of others. It is highly contagious. There is hardly anything more damaging to morale than having someone around who is grumbling, someone who drags everyone down by his or her sour attitude and spirit of complaint. The devil likes to plant a grumbler in every church. When you come to church park your grumbling outside. The key to getting rid of grumbling is to remember, remember what God has done. He has brought the people out of Egypt. This is the foundational truth that these people fail to remember, that they constantly forget. Grumbling based on lack of faith in the goodness of God as expressed in 16:3. Note that the narrative of 15:22-27 involves wisdom allusions – the tree of life, the instruction of Moses, and Torah guidance. The context involves the idea that Yahweh is wise in what he is doing as he tests his people and guides them. Therefore, grumbling betrays a lack of faith in God’s wisdom. The people grumble because they are not disposed and ready to commit themselves to do God’s will, precisely the thing that God seeks and tests for even when he responds to their grumbling and provides what they ask for. Sahiwal: the villages that were given the most grumbled the most. Dionysius was a powerful king who ruled on the island of Sicily in the 4 th Century B.C. There was a cave in which his workmen labored which was entered by a low doorway. This opened up into a vast cavern in which the men worked. High up in the chamber, concealed near the roof, was a small secret chamber. This could only be entered by a concealed path at the top of the mountain. The faintest whisper uttered below is distinctly heard by those concealed above. In this chamber the tyrant Dionysius used to sit listening to his slaves. All their plots against him were thus, to them, mysteriously discovered and circumvented. From this historical fact the cave has received the name of the “Ear of Dionysius.” Now the nature of God is just the opposite of this tyrant, but unseen by us, everything we say in the course of our day is said in the hearing of God. The text in Exodus states again and again ‘he has heard your grumbling.” What does God hear from you day by day? J. Hudson Taylor was the founder of the China Inland Mission. One day a man, attempting to find out the difficulties of missionary work, asked Hudson Taylor, what is the hardest mission in the world? Without any hesitation whatsoever, Hudson Taylor replied, "The hardest mission in the world is submission to God." There is a community of 80 families in a remote district of Afghanistan called Shorabak which means “bitter water.” It is called this because the only source of water for the 450 villagers was a sulphuric spring which oozed like an open wound from a dry mountainside. Because of its foul water the villagers felt even more cut off from the world than other villages in the area. "We were

22 embarrassed to have visitors because our tea tasted so bad," Ghulam Nabi, the headman told me. "Even our donkeys prayed to God for good water!" Oxfam helped the villagers to construct trenches and piping that enabled previously inaccessible fresh water five kilometres up the mountain to be brought to the village. Passing a medical test before entering the army. On June 23, 2000, an arsonist lit a fire in the Backpackers Hotel, Chilton killing x people. One result was that the Queensland Fire and Rescue Authority more closely scrutinised low-cost budget accommodation. They demanded the closure of another backpacker hotel in Eimeo, Mackay, for non-compliance with the Fire and Rescue Authority Act. Examples of non-compliance included locked exit doors, no early warning system, no emergency lighting, no exit signs, overcrowding, and the absence of fire and evacuation plans. Imagine being shot from a cannon ball, and hurtling through the air at 570 kilometres an hour just as you slam into an aluminium wall. And you still survive! Imagine having 2300 kilograms placed on top of you for five minutes. And you still survive! Imagine being placed in an oven heated to 1100 o centigrade for a whole hour. And you still survive! What are you? Invite response You are a black box, the flight data recording unit which is placed in the tail of an aircraft. What I have just described is the way a black box is tested for compliance with safety requirements. It is God’s wonderful plan that we, his people, should live in his presence forever. God tests us for compliance and sometimes we feel like we are being treated like a black box. Imagine you enter a country already occupied by people who are far more powerful than you and who will seek to kill you the moment your path collides with theirs. Will you survive this threat? Imagine you are surrounded by people who live a very different kind of life to yours – it’s seems so exciting and attractive and you are greatly tempted to live like they do. Will you survive this threat? Well, before God places his people in such situations he first tests them for compliance with his requirements. Only a black box that has been stringently tested can survive a massive air crash. Only a people who have been stringently tested by God are fit to be placed

In the business world companies are tested for compliance with industry standards. There are methods for stack testing compliance, air testing compliance, computer hardware compliance, etc. Equipment, procedures and people are tested for compliance with industry standards. If people do not comply with industry standards for pesticides then they can endanger the environment.

23 “They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God” (29:46). We are constantly being tested and evaluated. Have you ever been bitterly disappointed and hurt because you set your heart on attaining something only to be rejected?

We have a screening process for admittance into College. You have to pass various tests in the shape of exams and essays in order to gain admittance to the next year of study. Before you take up ministry in a church you are evaluated by a Selection Committee. Perhaps you fall in love with someone but as that other person evaluates you he or she does not feel prepared to spend the rest of his or her life with you. At some stage, if not already, you will experience bitter disappointment because you fail to pass an evaluation made of you and therefore fail to enter into a relationship or a ministry or a job or situation you had set our heart upon. “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling…You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance – the place, O Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established” (15:13, 17). So sing Moses and the Israelites following the Our passage introduces a new section in the book of Exodus. This section is concerned with God leading the people he has redeemed. Our passage begins, “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea” (22a). That is, through Moses, his servant (14:31), Yahweh has begun the process of leading Israel that will culminate in God’s people entering the dwelling place of God, entering his sanctuary, that is, entering the presence of God. One of the fundamental problems faced in Exodus is that of God’s people living in God’s presence and of God’s presence living with God’s people. When the people enter Canaan they will be living in the presence of God. Will they be able to live in his presence? Will God be able to live with these people? Can he entertain the notion of admitting these people into his dwelling place? For Christians marriage means committing yourself to living with a person for keeps. They say, “Love is blind but marriage is an eye-opener.” The wise Christian does not enter marriage blind. My wife was not blind when she married me. When I first took her out, she spoke with another girl whom I had previously taken out for a long time. From this she ascertained that I had treated that other girl properly. My wife was evaluating me, determining whether she could envisage spending the rest of her life with me. At the time I was looking for a wife who would share my vision for overseas mission and who would go with me to India, as I then intended (it ended up being Pakistan). Guess where I took her for our first date? An Indian restaurant in Newtown. I too was evaluating. Would I be able to spend the rest of my life with this woman? In a similar manner, God determines whether the people he has rescued from Egypt are the people he wants to bring into his dwelling place. So he tests them, evaluates them. We all know the story. An entire generation of Israelites failed the test and did not enter God’s dwelling place. Nevertheless God did lead the people he had redeemed into Canaan, that is, Caleb, Joshua and the children of those who perished in the desert.

24

A group of senior citizens were exchanging complaints about their ailments. "My arm is so weak that I can hardly hold this coffee cup." "Yes, I know. My cataracts are so bad that I can't see to pour my coffee." "I can't turn my head because of the arthritis in my neck." "My blood pressure pills make my dizzy." "I guess that's the price we pay for getting old." "Well, it's not all bad. We should be thankful that we can still drive."

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes (Harry Emerson Fosdick)

Hold the ear and the head will follow The bone of contention is the jawbone. The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease. Josh Billings The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the first to be replaced. A wet blanket that soaks everything it touches. A cynical people who smell flowers and look for the coffin The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions. Ellen Glasgow Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday On one of his European tours, the master magician and locksmith Harry Houdini found himself locked in by his own thinking. After he had been searched and manacled in a Scottish town jail, the old turnkey shut him in a cell and walked away. Houdini quickly freed himself from his shackles and then tackled the cell lock. But despite all his efforts, the lock wouldn't open. Finally, ever more desperate but completely exhausted, he leaned against the door--and it swung open so unexpectedly that he nearly fell headlong into the corridor. The turnkey had not locked it. Harold Kellock, Houdini. You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?

25 C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed. Believing things 'on authority' only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there is such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary person believes in the solar system, atoms, and the circulation of the blood on authority--because the scientists say so. Every historical statement is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Spanish Armada. But we believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them; in fact, on authority. A person who balked at authority in other things, as some people do in religion, would have to be content to know nothing all his life. C.S. Lewis. A monk joined a monastery and took a vow of silence. After the first 10 years his superior called him in and asked, "Do you have anything to say?" The monk replied, "Food bad." After another 10 years the monk again had opportunity to voice his thoughts. He said, "Bed hard." Another 10 years went by and again he was called in before his superior. When asked if he had anything to say, he responded, "I quit." "It doesn't surprise me a bit. You've done nothing but complain ever since you got here." For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. Harrison's Postulate. During an especially trying time in the work of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor wrote to his wife, "We have twenty-five cents--and all the promises of God! W. Wiersbe, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, p. 242. Desert Journeys We read of the hardships endured by Charles Sturt when in 1844 he led an expedition into inland Austalia which almost ended in disaster until rain unexpectedly fell and of those endured by John Forrest and his expedition in the deserts of Western Australia in the 1870s. On one occasion, Forrest too got himself into a situation where he was 1500 kms from the nearest settlement and he and his men were only saved by an unexpected fall of water. In the late 1840s Ludwig Leichardt disappeared in the desert with his entire expedition of 7 men and 2 indigenous Australians and how he died remains a mystery. Burke and Wills, the first men to cross Australia from south to north, both died of starvation on the banks of Coopers Creek in extremely tragic circumstances – the rest of the party had waited for Burke, Wills and King for 4 months and eventually gave up waiting. The tragedy is that the rest of the party left on the very morning of the same day that Burke and Wills arrived back at Coopers Creek, utterly exhausted and incapable of pursuit. Even for experienced explorers who set off wellequipped find it hard to survive in unknown desert areas.

26 Bitter Springs (Mataranka), Central Australia, Northern Territory Located in the NE of the Amadeus Basin. 100 kms south of Katherine. Late Precambrian deposits. Some of the best and most diverse Proterozoic fossils, supposed by scientists to date back more than 850 million years. Numerous kinds of blue-green and green algae. Tourist resort here now. Can swim in the Bitter Springs. Thermal springs in the area. Bitter Springs is itself a spring fed thermal pool. A very warm, very natural and very smelly hot spring. Bitter Springs, Nevada Desert, Eastern end of Fort Irwin At 4 o'clock we were on the road again. Carcasses of dead horses and oxen, strewed the way. Some were left to die, and others still warm, although dead. In the space of one mile I counted 40 dead oxen and cows; the air was foully impregnated with the effluvia arising from them. We also passed six deserted wagons, chairs, tables, and feather beds which were left on the road in greater quantities than on the first desert. At noon we arrived at Bitter Springs, the grounds about which are strewn with dead animals, and the polluted atmosphere at this time, one o'clock, P. M., ranges at 95º in the shade of our wagons, and is nearly unbearable. This is a howling, barren wilderness; not a single tree or shrub for the last fifty miles, nor is there one in sight now. I did not observe during the last day's travel, a lizard or any sign of animal or insect life. There was plenty of food for wolves, but they dare not venture so far from water. These springs are not bitter, but possess a brackish taste. There are small springs in different places; the largest admitted one horse at a time to drink, the rest would have to wait until the water was replenished from the earth. While I write of the sterile and barren desert, over which I have travelled, I cannot but contemplate with admiration the goodness of the Almighty, in placing at intervals, food and water for the sustenance of our animals. (1856, Captain John C. Fremont expedition)

Bitter Springs Not a place to find beer. The Movie, Bitter Springs Bitter Springs was the third Ealing release to be made in Australia, directed this time by Ralph Smart who had been Harry Watt's associate producer on The Overlanders. Bitter Springs is the leas successful of the trio, and concerns turnof-the century pioneers who trek 600 miles to reach land they have bought from the government, only to find it in the possession of an aborigine tribe who have been settled there for centuries and who, as the water supply is only just adequate to support them are not eager to yield to white settlers. There are nasty incidents, an aborigine is murdered, the whites are rescued from siege by the arrival of mounted troops, and the film ends with promises between the two factions to behave and co-operate, a somewhat crude and desperate piece of plot construction. The cast included Tommy Trinder as an ex-circus performer who apparently does not even know how to mount a horse; as in the majority of serious Ealing films he made, Trinder's performance is at variance with the prevailing mood. Chips

27 Rafferty, by now the British idea of a professional Australian, leads the settlers, and the party includes the stalwart Gordon Jackson, a favourite Ealing stock player.

In the Middle Ages tens of thousands of Muslims would travel together to Mecca from Cairo or Damascus in well-organized 'caravan cities'. It really was a mobile city complete with judges, doctors, surgeons and a public trustee. Despite all precautions, appalling numbers of pilgrims perished in the desert. Those who survived the extremes of heat and cold, hunger and thirst or attacks by beduin marauders often succombed to the plague. An Austrian sold into slavery early in the seventeenth century, who accompanied his master from Cairo, recorded that by the time the Egyptian caravan had reached half-way across Sinai, 1,500 men and 900 camels were already dead. In 1824 about one fifth of the 20,000-strong Syrian caravan died from heat or thirst; two years later 12,000 are said to have died from the searing blasts of the hot khumsin wind. When the Hajj, which like all Muslim festivals follows the lunar calendar, fell in winter, cold was also a serious hazard. In 1846 500 pilgrims, 1,200 horses and 900 camels died on the return journey from Medina to Damascus. The desert is a forbidding place, a place of desolation. Only desperate or homeless people wander in deserts. In ancient thought the desert is a place of chaos. Now the Israelites had just encountered chaos. When with Moses they sang about Yahweh’s victory over the Egyptians at the Red Sea they used the language of chaos waters: “The deep waters have covered them” (v5); “By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood firm like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea” (v8); “but you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waves” (v10). At the Red Sea Yahweh demonstrated his mastery over the chaos waters. Yahweh led his people safely through the chaos waters. What is the very last thing we are told prior to the narrative dealing with Israel’s journey through the desert to Sinai? “Miriam sang to them, ‘Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and the rider he has hurled into the sea’” (v21). Yahweh not only masters chaos he also uses it to deal with all that threatens his people. However, now Moses leads Israel from one realm of chaos, the Red Sea, to another realm of chaos, the desert. “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur” (v22). Great as the Red Sea deliverance indeed was, it was not adequate to instil in the Israelites the conviction that Yahweh is the master of chaos. They needed to learn and relearn this in their daily experience.

But there was another strain in Egyptian religion, another natural phenomenon which influenced theological development: the sharp contrast between the green of the River Valley and the red of the desert, the black and the brown, life and death. OUT THERE, in the desert, was death, heat, dryness, chaos, destruction. HERE, in the Valley, was life, coolness, green, moisture, order, construction. OUT THERE lived the demons of chaos and other elements of disorder. HERE lived the Gods and Goddesses of order. This contrast, this balance, was recognized as being precarious. The River might fail to flood, and occasionally did; then the green died and the desert crept closer. This balance was represented by a feather standing on end, and the Balance itself--natural, political, cosmological--

28 was called Ma'at. Every Egyptian, but most especially the Pharaoh, was responsible for maintaiing the Balance, the Order which was Ma'at.

The low desert sat above the floodplains of the Nile. So the Egyptians used this land to hunt and to bury their dead. The desert was a place of death. Above this was the high desert.

The Egyptian dog-like deity, Seth, the murderer of Osiris, was associated with the desert, with chaos, confusion, wind, storms and the destruction of the cosmic order. Does the journey through the desert achieve a further purpose: to make it clear to the Israelites that Seth and the Egyptian gods have no hold over them whatsoever; that they have nothing to fear from these gods, they have been well and truly left behind; they are simply in Yahweh’s hands now? The ancient Egyptians believed that both the forces of Law and Order, represented by Horus, and the power of chaos symbolized by Seth, were necessary for kingship. When God tests the Israelites at Marah and gives them his law would the Israelites have seen some association of Horus and Seth?

Yahweh has been experienced as a God of power, the God who fought Pharaoh, who parted the Reed Sea, who led the Israelites through the desert, who parted the Jordan, who brought them into the land by toppling the walls of Jericho and routing the Canaanite and Philistine armies. This led to the idea that Yahweh, the God of the patriarchs, was a powerful warrior God, the God of the desert who could be counted on to march in with his heavenly armies in times of crisis. However, as the Israelites settled into the land, they encountered the fertility cult of Ba‘al. They were easily convinced that while Yahweh may be God of the desert and God of battles and God of power, it was Ba‘al who was in charge of the more mundane aspects of everyday life, such as rain and crops and livestock. The Israelites never abandoned the worship of Yahweh. They simply added the worship of Ba‘al to their worship of Yahweh (called syncretism). They had one God for crises and another god for everyday life. The desert wanderings, however, should have taught the Israelites that they could depend on Yahweh to meet their daily needs, to provide for them in their everyday life. If God could bless them with food and water in the desert then he is most certainly able to abundantly bless his people in the land.

Andersen put its stamp of approval on years of Enron financial statements that overstated the company's profits by nearly $600 million and understated its debts by more than $1 billion. Exodus 1-2 paints a portrait of the cruel mistreatment of Israelites by their Egyptian overlords. So we read: “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them”

29 (2:23-25). Consequently, the incident at Marah serves to demonstrate that though the Israelites have left Egypt, Egypt has not left the Israelites. The bitterness of Egypt lives on in the hearts and minds of this people.

A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor's office. After his checkup, the doctor called the wife into his office alone. He said, “Your husband is suffering from a very severe disease, combined with horrible stress. If you don't do the following, your husband will surely die. Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant, and make sure he is in a good mood. For lunch make him a nutritious meal. For dinner prepare an especially nice meal for him. Don't burden him with chores, as he probably had a hard day. Don't discuss your problems with him, it will only make his stress worse. And most importantly, you must be sure to satisfy his every whim. If you can do this for the for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will regain his health completely.” On the way home, the husband asked his wife, “What did the doctor say?” “The doctor said you're going to die.” the Nash equilibrium posits that there are circumstances in which we are better off if we settle for something other than that which we most desire. This may be counterintuitive, but the mathematical proof (which is available for a general audience in William Poundstone's excellent book, Prisoner's Dilemma) is quite elegant. Indeed, the implication of the Nash equilibrium is that sometimes the entire community is better off when we choose not to pursue that which we want most desperately.

Mr Right Rejection Letter I regret to inform you that you have been eliminated from further contention as Mr. Right. As you are probably aware, the competition was exceedingly tough and dozens of well-qualified candidates such as yourself also failed to make the final cut. I will, however, keep your name on file should an opening become available. So that you may find better success in your future romantic endeavors, please allow me to offer the following reason(s) you were disqualified from the competition: [Check all those that apply] ___ The fact that our finest dining experience to date has been at McDonald's reveals a thriftiness that I find unappealing. ___ You failed the 20 Question Rule, i.e., I asked you 20 questions about yourself before you asked me one. ___ The fact that your apartment has been condemned reveals an inherent slovenliness that I fear is unbreakable. ___ The phrase "My Mother" has popped up far too often in conversation.

30 Sincerely, [Your name here] No sense being pessimistic; it probably wouldn't work anyway!" A pessimist is an optimist with experience. A pessimist is someone who feels bad when he feels good, for fear he'll feel even worse when he feels better. A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists. Don Marquis An optimist invented the jet; a pessimist, the ejection seat. The pessimist calls the police to report a disturbance of the peace when opportunity knocks. Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul. John Buchan (1875-1940) A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody's as nasty as himself, and hates them for it. G. B. Shaw (1856-1950) Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) Pessimist is someone who can look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol. Greek mythology has a tale of king Pygmalion who among other things was a good sculptor. He fell in love with a beautiful statue of a woman, which he had chiselled out. As the story goes, he invokes the Gods, gives life to this form, and marries her.

On our first date we went to an Indian restaurant. She passed that test. Here was a woman with whom I could spend the rest of my life! It was imperative that any woman I married share this vision and desire. Guess where I took Barbara on our first date? To an Indian restaurant. During our courtship I was testing Barbara for compliance, assessing whether she was the kind of life-partner I had been seeking, someone who accepted all that was implied in marrying a missionary. But she was also testing me for compliance. For example, she had spoken to a mutual friend whom I used to take out, wanting to know if I had treated her alright. So Barbara was evaluating whether I complied with her concept of what a husband should be like. When someone speaks into the microphone and says, “Testing, testing” that person is not looking for an excuse to throw the microphone away. The point of the test is to make sure the microphone is switched on and set properly. Similarly, God does not test his people with the intention of giving himself justification for ridding himself of them. The desert testings are intended to teach God’s people to obey him. Hebrews 5:8 reminds us that “Although [Jesus] was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” Jesus was tested in the desert for obedience and this testing strengthened his commitment to obey his Father. At Marah God initiates the desert testings and even when he provides manna in the Desert of Sin he does not do this to satisfy the hunger of his people

31 but to test them. “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions,” God says. When God delivered his people from the Egyptians at the Red Sea we are told they “put their trust in Moses, [Yahweh’s] servant” (14:31). Now for three days 2 million Jews have been trudging their way in the Desert of Shur and they are mighty thirsty. Moses has failed to find water for them. Their confidence in him is shaken. Then they come to Marah and find water. But they are well and truly brassed off when they discover the water is contaminated and bitter, unfit for drinking. When Barbara came with me to Pakistan she entered a seven year period of testing. Whenever she left the house she had to cover herself up completely. We could not express physical affection to each other in public. She was forced to spend much of her time in the house with the kids. There was not much to do in Sahiwal where we lived. Her academic and professional achievements in Australia meant nothing in Pakistan and when visitors came to the house she felt she was just treated as Mike’s appendage and as someone expected to run off and make the tea. Throughout these times of testing Barbara maintained a godly, gracious spirit and it is a great pleasure for me to have Barbara living with me and I with her. 22 years ago I did my super-hero thing. I swooped down and redeemed Barbara Mill from a life of slavery as a spinster. Then I took her as my wife on a journey to a new life in a new land; a life of missionary service on the Indian subcontinent. But there is an implicit warning in God’s words of testing: if you don’t obey I will bring the diseases of Egypt upon you. Recently American State health officials determined that 13 people who had contracted E. coli bacteria at a county fair had visited animal barns or a petting zoo, and then eaten without washing their hands. Those who became sick touched manure or touched an item that came into contact with manure. We think of disease being caused by such things as lack of hygiene. For the Israelites disobedience is the spiritual equivalent, the primary cause of disease. If they don’t obey God then they will experience the diseases I brought on the Egyptians. I remember when I was courting Barbara. Occasionally she would take a lemon and eat it entire, peel and all. My kids don’t understand why I like grapefruit. In Pakistan I was able to eat virtually any food that was put in front of me. But there was one dish I could never eat – bitter gourd, karele. Many Pakistanis don’t like it either. It is an acquired taste. Notice that the Elisha event is set in a context indicating that it is the prophetic ministry that brings blessing or curse to the land, and that all depends on how the people will respond to God’s prophet (cf. vv23-25). This tends to confirm our suspicion that in the Marah incident there is an implication that Torah is used by God to heal his people. By bringing his people to Elim God graciously symbolises to these people whose lives had been made so bitter by the Egyptians that he, their Healer, was committed to bringing them to the new paradise, the dwelling place of God. It is therefore tragic to see what happens when the Israelites reach the Desert of Sin. Here we have a clear indication that for Israel the writing is on the wall, for the

32 very words of their grumbling and bitterness show their profound sense of identification with Egypt: “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 into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (16:3). The Israelites have the effrontery to accuse God of causing them more misery than the Egyptians. The bitterness of their present experience causes them to idealise their past life in Egypt, imagining against all evidence that there they ate meat and bread “to the full.” They thus deceive themselves into thinking that their bitterness of spirit was not created by Egypt but by God. It is in fact a small step from this mentality to the forging of the golden calf and the belief that “these are your Gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt” rather than Yahweh. A bitter heart is an evil heart that leads people away from the living God and causes people to twist truth and grossly misinterpret experience. On another occasion the tow bar on the car came loose. My step-father had to leave us - his wife and 5 small kids alone in the desert while he drove off to find somewhere to get the tow bar re-welded. We spent an anxious 24 hours in the desert. There may be an allusion here to the tree of life. Significantly, a number of targums also read this text as indicating that Torah fulfils the role of the tree of life. Recall too that “the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2). A man goes to the doctor and complains that his wife can't hear him. "How bad is it?" the doctor asks. "I have no idea," the husband says. "Well, please test her. Stand 20 feet away from her and say something. If she doesn't hear you, get closer and say the same thing. Keep moving closer and closer and repeating the comment until she does hear you. That way we'll have an idea of her range of hearing loss." So the man goes home and sees his wife in the kitchen chopping up vegetables for dinner. From 20 feet away: "What are we having for dinner?" No answer. From 10 feet: Same thing. From 5 feet: Same thing. Finally, he's standing right behind her: "What's for dinner?" She turns around, looks at him and says:"For the FOURTH time, BEEF STEW!" What is the remedy for bitterness? Faith, that is, the knowledge of God, the conviction that he is the one who effected our redemption. The Israelites’ lack of faith in God is expressed in the way they confuse Moses with God. They grumble against Moses at Marah (15:24) and against Moses and Aaron in the Desert of Sin (16:2). But as Moses explains, “You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord” (16:8). As 15:26 indicates God is preparing his people for Mount Sinai when he will do something utterly unprecedented in history – speak directly and audibly to an entire nation. God calls the whole community of Israel to be priests, a people with whom he can communicate directly. But they are incapable of having a direct relationship with God. So every message of God continues to be delivered via Moses.

33 James was driving home late one night when he picked up a hitchhiker. As they rode along, he began to be suspicious of his passenger. James checked to see if his wallet was safe in the pocket of his coat that was on the seat between them, but it wasn't there! So he slammed on the brakes, ordered the hitchhiker out, and said, "Hand over the wallet immediately!" The frightened hitchhiker handed over a wallet, and James drove off. When he arrived home, he started to tell his wife about the experience, but she interrupted him, saying, "Before I forget, James, do you know that you left your wallet at home this morning?" When the thirsty Israelites find bitter water in the Desert of Shur and find their food stocks running out in the Desert of Sin they accuse Moses as the culprit, the one responsible for their perceived loss of great food in Egypt. But there was never any danger of them dying of hunger or thirst in the desert. The wallet was always safely at home in the hands of God. But they have no confidence that God is with them to care for them. The same combination of unbelief and grumbling characterises the antagonism of the Jews to Jesus when he claims to be the Bread of Heaven (John 6:41). The Jews again idealise the past, this time venerating Moses as the one who provided them with manna in the desert (John 6:31-32).