Exodus 18:9-12 
World English Bible

9 Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 Jethro said, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because of the way that they treated people arrogantly.” 12 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

The good news that Moses shared about the deliverance the LORD had provided (which included the destruction of Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt) was received by Jethro with great gladness.  He broke out in praise saying (or singing), "Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians."

He continues by saying that he knows (maybe for the first time) that the LORD is greater than all the gods because of the way that the LORD went to battle against all the gods of the Egyptians and defeated all of them (though Jethro does not seem to come to the conclusion that all the idols of Egypt--the gods they worshiped--are dumb, deaf, impotent and dead).  There is only one True and Living God.  All the other "gods" that people worship are cheap fakes that are the work of demons whose native language is lying and deceit.  Right now, Jethro just thinks that the Egyptian gods were behind the mistreatment of God's people (partially true) and that was why the LORD went to war with them and they were defeated (not so much.....Jethro is missing the whole thing about the covenant between the LORD and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and His acting for the sake of His covenant and His Name that He put on His people).

Jethro made sacrifices to the LORD because he realized He was worthy to be worshiped, and he did so in the prescribed manner.  Then they had a celebration and Moses' family and all the elders of Israel gathered together to give a celebratory dinner in honor of Moses' father-in-law coming to visit (think of a "state dinner" for a dignitary).

Our very next passage will be the one I probably alluded to yesterday where Moses will be worn out and run down by listening to everyone's problems and his father-in-law will give him some great advice.  Moses needed to learn to delegate the small decisions to those whom God had given wisdom to so that Moses could take care of the big decisions that needed to be taken directly to the LORD.   We still need to do this today and there is wisdom in a multitude of advisors and counselors (who have been gifted with wisdom and leadership).

Exodus 18:1-8 
World English Bible

18 Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, 3 and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”. 4 The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.” 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with Moses’ sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God. 6 He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.”

7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed and kissed him. They asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent. 8 Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that had come on them on the way, and how Yahweh delivered them.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law comes out to meet Moses and the people of Israel,  He is the priest of Midian if you didn't know that about him before this.  Jethro has come to take Zipporah and the two sons that she had with Moses back home to his house because the Exodus is not for them (I'm not sure if you remember me saying as much when Moses was first called to go to Pharaoh and the LORD told him to go alone and he chose to take his wife and children with him and they were nearly killed along the way because of it).

I'm sure it made Moses very sad for his wife and two sons to go, but he was also happy to see his father-in-law again, for Jethro had taken him in when he was a fugitive and had made him a part of his family.  Moses is able to speak to Jethro a counselor and comforter about all the trouble they have been through and how Moses feels he bears the weight of all the nation of Israel and all their problems on his shoulders (all their problems become his problems).  I'm sure he also mentioned how they always grumble and complain and the numerous times they have threatened to kill him because they wanted to go back to their old lives of slavery because it was more comfortable to them than freedom in the wilderness.  This is going to lead to Moses getting some great advice from Jethro that we're going to talk about next time, but we called that next passage "The Jethro Principle" at Liberty University in the Office of Student Leadership.  It is wise to delegate authority and responsibility so that the whole burden does not fall on one man--only God can bear that kind of burden.  We'll talk about that next time.

Exodus 17:8-16 
World English Bible

8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out to fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God’s rod in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands were heavy; so they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset. 13 Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. 14 Yahweh said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky.” 15 Moses built an altar, and called its name “Yahweh our Banner”. 16 He said, “Yah has sworn: ‘Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’”

We don't really know much about the Amalekites as they are a nomadic people that seem to appear simply to be adversaries against the children of Israel.  They do not appear in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, and their only mention before this in Genesis 14:7 is probably something where Moses referred to "the land of the Amalekites" as a geographical region that would be the land of the Amalekites in future generations (they did not exist as a people yet in Genesis 14--they came about sometime after Esau).

When the Amalekites came against the children of Israel to go to war with them, the LORD had a strange battle plan.  Moses was to go on top of a nearby hill and he would take the staff of God which had preformed all the wonderous signs in Egypt in his hand.  As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel would prevail, but as soon as he lowered one of his hands, Amalek would prevail.

Moses could not hold his hands up forever.  Eventually his arms felt heavy and he needed help to keep his arms raised, so they put a stone under him and Aaron and Hur held up Moses' arms--one on each side while Joshua led the army of Israel in battle.  Moses' arms were kept steady until sunset and Joshua and the armies of Israel defeated (but did not destroy) the Amalekite army with the sword.  This is not the last that we will see or hear of them.  Yet, the promise was made that day, especially for Joshua, that the LORD would one day erase Amalek so thoroughly from existence that people would struggle to remember they ever existed (this is one of the people groups that archeologists have trouble finding evidence of today and they act like this somehow disproves that Bible, but the Bible said that we should expect every trace of them beyond these accounts of their defeat to be erased from history).  The LORD sword that He would go to war with Amalek throughout all generations, no matter how long it took to fulfill His promise.  We won't see this promise completely fulfilled until 1 Chronicles 4:42-43.  One other important note about Amalek is that the last mention of the Amalekites is in the book of Esther.  Haman the Agagite was a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag (the very king that Saul was ordered to kill but refused to in defiance of the LORD's command in 1 Samuel 15:8-9.  If Saul had obeyed, Haman never would have been alive to try to exterminate the Jews in the book of Esther.).

Daily Readings

•    Day 1: Exodus 17:1-7
•    Day 2: Exodus 17:8-16
•    Day 3: Exodus 18:1-8
•    Day 4: Exodus 18:9-12
•    Day 5: Exodus 18:13-27
•    Day 6: Psalm 65

Exodus 17:1-7 
World English Bible

17 All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, starting according to Yahweh’s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?”

3 The people were thirsty for water there; so the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

4 Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 Yahweh said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”

This is now the second time that the LORD has led the people out into the wilderness and they did not have enough water for the journey and grumbled and complained about the lack of water.  Perhaps they assumed they would again be led to a place with seventy palm trees and plenty of water or perhaps they thought their journey would be shorter, or perhaps they were not thinking at all about what they needed to prepare for.  Whatever they did prepare for, it was not enough.  At some point, everything they were able to provide for themselves ran out and the people and their animals were out of water and there was none to be found anywhere.

They grumbled and complained to Moses telling him, "Give us water to drink."  The tone is not there for us but they must have been quarrelsome and contentious because Moses said, "Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the LORD?"  They continued to murmur and grumble asking Moses why he brought them out of Egypt only for them, their children, and livestock to die of thirst in the wilderness.  They easily forget that they were the ones complaining about their conditions in Egypt and were crying out for salvation and the LORD heard their cries and saved them.  He also had already planned their salvation hundreds of years ahead of time when He told Abraham about how his descendants would sojourn as slaves in a foreign land for about 400 years and then they would eventually return to the Land of Canaan.  This is about the LORD keeping His covenant with Abraham because the LORD is not a liar.  He will not break His covenant even if it's not what the people want or deserve.  Therefore, we can be sure that He will once again save the children of Israel so that He can deliver them to the Promised Land.

Genesis 15:12-16 
World English Bible

12 When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. 13 He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. 14 I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth; 15 but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”

Moses cries out to the LORD to ask Him what to do because the people have turned into a mob that is ready to stone Moses.  I'm not sure what they think they are going to do once they kill him, but they are ready to kill him.  The LORD gives Moses instructions that may not seem like they have anything to do with Jesus, but this will be one of the great passages that the New Testament authors point back to remind us that Jesus was with His people as they wandered through the wilderness, and He was the one who satisfied their hunger and their thirst.  He is the true spiritual food and spiritual drink that we need to not die spiritually.  Only He can give us the Bread of Life and Water of Life (because He is these things).  However, the imagery is more than that.  Moses was to strike the Rock of Horeb that was to foreshadow Jesus being "struck" (crucified) so that life would flow from Him by the blood that He shed on the cross for all those who were His people and children of Abraham by faith.  We're going to see this come up again later in the record of their wanderings as another similar situation will occur but the LORD's instructions to Moses were different.  Instead of striking the Rock, Moses will be told in the passage we will study later to speak (some versions might say prophesy) to the Rock and water would flow from it.  Moses did not listen because He was angry with the constant grumbling and complaining and he would again strike the Rock like he did this first time.  This led to Moses not being allowed to enter the Promised Land with the people.  That seems harsh until it is explained to us in the New Testament that the LORD was trying to give HIs people and image of the sufficiency of Christ's death on the cross.  He only needed to die once for them, and then, after that, all they needed to do was pray and they would receive the blessings that flowed from Him.  Moses obeyed in this first case, but His outburst of anger and disobedience the next time around messed up what was to be a perfect "Gospel Glimpse."  There will be many more of these "Gospel Glimpses" to come and I'll try to point them out as we study the Law, the Tabernacle, the Priesthood, the Sacrifices, the Feasts, and many other things that point to Jesus, as He was the fulfillment of all of them and was "more excellent" than Moses (see Hebrews 2) and provided a "more excellent" covenant by a "more excellent " sacrifice and He is a "more excellent" High Priest for His people--both now and forevermore.

Psalm 13 
World English Bible

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
13 How long, Yahweh?
    Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
    having sorrow in my heart every day?
    How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God.
    Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4     lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;”
    lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your loving kindness.
    My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to Yahweh,
    because he has been good to me.

David feels separated from the LORD and like the LORD's grace and favor are no longer on him (the image of the LORD turning His face towards you is an image of blessing and that of Him turning His face away from you is an image of disapproval, shame, and that curses are likely going to fall on you--or at least the natural consequences of your actions).

David feels like the LORD is hiding from him, and he's crying for the LORD to remember him and reveal Himself once again.  David knows he has no chance of finding God on his own.  David is sort of having his own version of wandering through the wilderness, and, if this is the period of his life when he is running and hiding from Saul, he really is living in the wilderness, though he has no Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire to guide, protect, and comfort him.

David is a pour counselor for himself, and he's tired of feeling sorry for himself.  He wants the circumstances to change, and he wants to be able to do something about it.  He has said he would not lay a hand on the LORD's anointed (King Saul) and that he would wait for the LORD to take care of Saul, but he didn't expect the LORD to take so long.  David knows the LORD's long-term plan, but he wishes it wouldn't be so long-term.  He also doesn't want to give his enemies a chance to gloat that the LORD and His plan to make David king has been defeated, and it seems David is not altogether sure that the LORD has not changed His mind.

All David can cling to is the LORD's covenant love which he knows is unchanging.  He does not break His promises.  His timing is perfect and He saves His people from themselves and from their enemies.  Though David cannot see it in this wilderness moment, He believes that the LORD is still good to him now because He has always been good to David n the past, and God has not changed.  Therefore, David will choose to sing to the LORD.

Exodus 16:31-36 
World English Bible
​
31 The house of Israel called its name “Manna”, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, ‘Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35 The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. 36 Now an omer is one tenth of an ephah.

The "bread from heaven" that appeared with the dew every morning (which itself is miraculous that there was dew every morning in the desert) was called "manna" by the house of Israel because they had no word for it.  "Manna" literally means, "What is it?."  It was something like a wafer of bread with honey (it was sweet).  There was enough for every man, woman and child to take one omer (one tenth of an ephah, which is about two quarts or half of a gallon).  On the day before the Sabbath day, they were to take twice as much so that everyone would take two omers (about 1/5 of an ephah or about one gallon).

Aaron was to take a omer of manna and put it in a pot or jar that he was to lay it before the Ark of the Covenant (we'll get to the construction of the Ark of the Covenant soon, but the commandment at first has to be interpreted as "lay it up before the LORD") as a memorial portion.  This would remind the priests and the people who remembered it was there of the miraculous provision provided by the LORD when He brought them up out of the land of Egypt and they were fed with bread from heaven for 40 years while they were wandering in the wilderness.  The manna did not stop coming each morning until they entered the Promised Land (then the Land itself was their provision because the LORD miraculously made it fertile and give plentiful crops and oil and wine and figs and grapes to them, not only to feed them, but also to make them rich and to show the world that they were the apple of His eye).

This omer of manna is one of three things that will be kept before the Ark of the Covenant or be laid in the Ark of the Covenant--a copy of the Law, an omer of manna, and the budding rod of Aaron.  We'll get to all these later, but they speak of the LORD's Plan for His People, His Provision for His People, and His Power to Transform His people and bring them from death to life and this is done by Election, Predestination and by His Sovereignty.  There is much of the gospel tied up in the imagery of the Ark of the Covenant, but today we focus on how Jesus is the Bread of Life as He talked about in John 6.  I encourage you to read those words, though they are hard words, and see that Jesus is the miraculous provision for us and no one has eternal life unless they partake of Him, the Bread of Life.  He will give eternal life to all who believe in Him and His Word is life-giving, but it is also necessary for us to partake of it on a daily basis, just like we see with the manna from heaven.  Also, John 6 tells us something else important--they changed the story to say Moses gave them bread to eat, and that's not true.  Moses never did any such thing.  The LORD miraculously provided the bread every morning, so let's be careful to not ascribe the works of God to the men He uses to lead His people.  Otherwise, we may miss the work God is doing in front of us because we think the work is done because the man God used at that time is gone.  The work did not stop when Moses died, but many of the people stopped looking for the word of the LORD to be done because they acted like Moses was responsible for it when the LORD who was always with them was still there and able to provide, protect, and preserve them.

Exodus 16:21-30 
World English Bible
​
21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is that which Yahweh has spoken, ‘Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’” 24 They laid it up until the morning, as Moses ordered, and it didn’t become foul, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. Today you shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.” 27 On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. 28 Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

The people were not to do any ordinary work on the Sabbath--it was to be a day of rest and worship that was holy unto the LORD.  So, how would they eat on the Sabbath day if they were only given enough manna for each day and could not save it from day to day.  The LORD is going to make an exception to this rule for the Sabbath so that they can gather two omers of manna per person and they could prepare extra food on the day before the Sabbath so that on the Sabbath day, it would be a day of rest for them.  They would not gather manna or cook any food on the Sabbath day.  In fact, there would be no manna to gather on the Sabbath day.  Everyone was to stay in tent (the Tabernacle was not made yet for them to gather for worship, but that is coming).  They were simply to be still and rest on that day.  This was part of their testimony to the world--the LORD is sovereign and is their Provider and Sustainer.  He is able to give them what they need each and every day, and He is able to give them a double-portion on the Day of Preparation so that they can observe the Sabbath and not have to fast.  This idea is going to extend to other Sabbaths as well like the Sabbath year every seven years when the Land was to rest and they were to trust the LORD to give them enough for year six, to eat from the surplus in the Sabbath year, and to make it all the way until harvest of the eighth year.  Every 50 years (after seven Sabbath years) there would be an additional Sabbath year called the Year of Jubilee and the LORD also promised that they would be given enough to make it through the 49th and 50th years and to make it until the harvest of year 51.  We'll see later if the people trusted the LORD on this or if they failed to observe the Sabbath day, Sabbath year, and Year of Jubilee.