2. From the Red Sea to Sinai (15:22-18:27)
The story of the wilderness wanderings is one of the people’s continued inability to trust and of God’s continued providence. This theme appears here immediately after the great song of praise. The word grumbled (KJV “murmured” (15:24) will occur again and again throughout the remainder of the Pentateuch. It is the opposite of faith, trust, and acceptance. Nevertheless, God leads to the antidote to the bitter waters and mildly encourages them to believe. Concerning “any of the diseases” (v.26), some believe that the function of the ceremonial and dietary laws was to preserve health. Thus if the Hebrews followed the law, they would be more healthy. But it is also possible that the plagues are referred to here. In that case the sense is merely that obedience to God’s commands will mean the Hebrews need not fear the kind of destruction visited upon the Egyptians. In 15:27 we see God’s generosity following testing. No certain identification has been made of the places mentioned here. The traditional location is on the southwestern side of the Sinai Peninsula.
The Israelites seemed unable to transfer knowledge gained in one area to another. That God had provided water is quickly forgotten when food becomes a problem (16:1-36). After forty-three days (fifteenth day, 16:1) on the way, all of their own food would have been exhausted. Perhaps they had had to travel this slowly to allow flocks and herds to forage. At any rate, they were now at a place where they were forced to trust God. That was a fearsome prospect: better to satisfy the flesh in slavery then be dependent on the provision of a loving God (16:3).
The giving of the manna became both an opportunity to train the Israelites in obedience (“I will test them,” 16:4) and to teach them theological truth (vv.6-8). Just as deliverance from bondage was not the ultimate need of the Israelites in Egypt, so here the ultimate need is not supply of temporal necessities. What the Israelites need to know most is the providential love and mercy of God.
“The Glory of the Lord” (16:10): The Hebrew word for “glory,” kabod, has the connotations of weightiness, significance, and reality. Thus this glory is not merely a bright evanescence, but something that conveys visually the unshakable reality of God. See also 34:29-35; 40:34; 2Ch 7:1; Jn 1:14. Discussions of the means God may have used to perform this miracle are unprofitable. The point is that God provided for his people at the very moment when he said he would and in ways it was clear nature could not. “What is it?” (16:15): The Hebrew for this question is man-na, which, in a touch of humor, provides the biblical name of the food (v.31).
The people’s response to the commands concerning the manna (16:19-30) provides a graphic illustration of the perverseness of human nature when it comes to provision for our own needs. What God commands not to do, we do (v.27). Of special prominence are commands relating to the Sabbath. The daily business of procuring one’s living is not to be practiced on the seventh day. This is another way in which God reminds us that we are not the ultimate providers of our needs. The manna becomes the first of several visible reminders of God’s faithfulness in the past (16:32-34, see also Nu 17:10; Jos 4:20-24). V.34 reports how the command of v.33 was eventually fulfilled after the construction of the tabernacle (see Heb 9:4).
Again the people do not trust God for water when it is not immediately available (17:1-7). Horeb (17:6) probably refers to the general territory rather than the mountain itself (see on 3:1, 12), since they had not yet reached the mountain (19:2). To test God in this way (17:7) is to act out of unbelief, demanding that he prove himself true (see Dt 6:16; Lk 4:12). On the other hand, God invites those whose faith is small to put him to the test (Mal 3:10) and let him prove his trustworthiness.
God was preparing a people through whom the Savior of the world could come. Amalekite attempts to destroy Israel put them in a deadly position (17:8-16; see Dt 25:17-19). A similar judgment was pronounced upon Edom for a similar sin (Ob 8-10; Mal 1:2-4). The dependence of victory on the raised staff showed that God, not Israel, was the source of Israel’s military victories. See 1Sa 15 for the final development of this episode.
Ex 18:1-12 provides the first biblical instance of someone’s coming to belief through the testimony of another. Jethro is called a priest (18:1). If he was a priest of the Lord, it was with a limited understanding of him, as v.11 indicates. Apparently Moses had sent Zipporah and their two sons back from Egypt during the height of the danger in Egypt. Now Jethro brings them to Moses and has an opportunity to hear Moses' testimony about God’s self-revelation in delivering and caring for Israel. The result is Jethro’s affirmation “Now I know” (v.11). Although he had not seen what God had done, he was able to recognize the obvious implications from Moses' report: there is none like the Lord. Jethro’s actions (v.12) show that he was not merely giving intellectual assent to God’s transcendance, but was acting upon that awareness by submitting himself to this transcendant One. To know God rightly is to experience the true end of salvation.
Like every great man, Moses was tempted to take too much upon himself. Perhaps he felt every decision must come straight from God through himself (vv.15-16). This would have been the Egyptian pattern. Jethro graciously (vv.19, 23) suggests a better way in which the administration of the nation can be decentralized. It is to Moses' credit that he sees the wisdom of this suggestion and implements it at once (vv.24-25).