Author: SFJ Bible

Exodus 18

Jethro’s Advice

18:1 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, 3 along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner¹ in a foreign land”), 4 and the name of the other, Eliezer² (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 And when he sent word to Moses, “I,³ your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. 8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”⁴ 12 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. 27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

Footnotes

[1] 18:3 Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for sojourner

[2] 18:4 Eliezer means My God is help

[3] 18:6 Hebrew; Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac behold

[4] 18:11 Hebrew with them

(ESV)

Exodus 17

Water from the Rock

17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at 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.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah¹ and Meribah,² because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

Israel Defeats Amalek

8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne³ of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Footnotes

[1] 17:7 Massah means testing

[2] 17:7 Meribah means quarreling

[3] 17:16 A slight change would yield upon the banner

(ESV)

Exodus 16

Bread from Heaven

16:1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”

9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”

13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”¹ For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer,² according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so 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 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 35 The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36 (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)³

Footnotes

[1] 16:15 Or “It is manna”; Hebrew man hu

[2] 16:16 An omer was about 2 quarts or 2 liters

[3] 16:36 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters

(ESV)

Exodus 15

The Song of Moses

15:1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,

  “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
    the horse and his rider¹ he has thrown into the sea.
2   The LORD is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation;
  this is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3   The LORD is a man of war;
    the LORD is his name.


4   “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
    and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5   The floods covered them;
    they went down into the depths like a stone.
6   Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power,
    your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.
7   In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;
    you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
8   At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
    the floods stood up in a heap;
    the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9   The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,
    I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.
    I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10   You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
    they sank like lead in the mighty waters.


11   “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
12   You stretched out your right hand;
    the earth swallowed them.


13   “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;
    you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14   The peoples have heard; they tremble;
    pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15   Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;
    trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;
    all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16   Terror and dread fall upon them;
    because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,
  till your people, O LORD, pass by,
    till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
17   You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,
    the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,
    the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18   The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them:

  “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
  the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

Bitter Water Made Sweet

22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.² 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log,³ and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the LORD⁴ made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

Footnotes

[1] 15:1 Or its chariot; also verse 21

[2] 15:23 Marah means bitterness

[3] 15:25 Or tree

[4] 15:25 Hebrew he

(ESV)

Going Deeper

Exodus 11-15 (12-23-17)

Grab your Bibles, and let’s go deeper into Exodus chapters 11-15.

My hope today is to help us put into view the larger context for the 10^th plague and the Passover. While this was a significant moment of deliverance for God’s people, it held much greater significance for all of mankind and especially for all of God’s chosen people to ever trust in Him for salvation and eternal life with God. To set the table, let’s read a few key passages in Exodus 11 and 12.

Exodus 11:1 The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely.”

Exodus 12:1-14 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”

Understand that this event, the Exodus and the provision of God to free Israel from Egypt’s grip, was talked about worldwide for generations and generations. It would be the most cherished gathering of the Jews and would serve to point the hearts of His people to the One who would forever set them free.

From the beginning, God has had a plan to redeem His elect from the separation and eternal wrath due them for their sin. To do this, He planned for a royal Redeemer to come and die in our place so that we could be free from the eternal penalty of sin and reconciled to God to enjoy Him forever.

God the Son, Jesus, is this promised Redeemer. The Passover not only became the most cherished Jewish practice to honor God and remember what He did to set them free, but it would be the table at which Jesus would establish a new covenant between God and His people.

The Passover that began at the Exodus would point generations to the truer and better Passover Lamb: Jesus Christ.

Turn with me now to the Gospel of John chapter 1, and look with me at verse 29:

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Here we read “the forerunner of Christ” (John the Baptist) as he announces Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” not as “the Word of God,” not as “the Christ of God,” but as THE LAMB. This is so critical, because the work of the Lamb of God is the very office in which we stood in deepest need of Him.

Before we get to the official work of Jesus as the Lamb of God, let’s look back on God’s divine plan from the beginning to provide the needed Lamb. God, in His providence, uses a lamb all throughout history to make it clear that a sinful people are desperate for a lamb–a Lamb of God.

1. In Genesis 4, we have the Lamb typified, as Abel sacrifices a lamb unto the Lord.
2. We have the Lamb prophesied in Genesis 22:8, when Abraham said to Isaac, “God will provide himself a lamb.”
3. In Exodus 12, we have the lamb slain on behalf of the people and its blood applied.
4. In Isaiah 53:7, here for the first time we learn that the promised Lamb of God would be a man.
5. In John 1:29, we have the Lamb identified as Jesus.
6. In the last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22:1, we have the Lamb glorified, seated upon the eternal throne of God.

As Hebrews 9:22 says, “… without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.” The Bible says in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death …”

We must understand that sin earns death. In the Old Covenant system God put in place, the animal died as a substitute in the place of the sinful people at the hands of the high priest.

Now, here’s the problem: The Bible is also clear that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

So, what is going on in all of the Old Testament sacrifice and the spilling of the blood of spotless lambs and goats is a foreshadow of the ultimate grace of God that would be provided in Christ alone.

God is pointing to the ultimate sacrifice–the one true Sacrifice–the perfect and satisfactory blood of the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world. All throughout the Old Testament, God is making a way for Jesus–the One who would bring grace upon grace. Oh, how it was the grace of God to give His people this system to point to the fact that He would not just condemn, but He would act in amazing grace!

The whole Old Testament system was pointing forward to what would happen someday in a final sacrifice for sin. Those whom God would save of the Old Testament were putting their faith in the coming Messiah–THE LAMB OF GOD–who would pay the complete and final price for their sin and make atonement for their sin in the only way it could be paid for.

Now, turn to John chapter 2.

Here in John 2, we witness the first miracle of God in flesh. He turned water into wine at the wedding celebration. It is filled with symbolism of what Jesus has come to bring His people.

John 2:9-11 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

This miracle demonstrated not only Jesus’ lordship over creation but was also a picture of what the Messiah would do in His ministry, i.e. take up common elements (like water) and transform them into something special and wonderful for the good of others.

As the wedding celebration carries on, Jesus has another cup on his mind. He has a work to do first that will make possible the true enjoyment of wine at the wedding feast, whereby He and His bride (the church) will have fellowship forever.

John 2:3-4 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

 What is on Jesus’ mind is the cup of wrath. Like God has done from the beginning of time, Jesus is continuing the predetermined rescue mission of His people for the banquet that will outdo all banquets and that will last for eternity!

Before Jesus would drink the wine at the eternal feast with His redeemed, He would have to drink of the cup of wrath on behalf of His people. Yes, as Psalm 104:15 states, God gave “wine to gladden the heart of man.” He gave it as a good gift to be enjoyed and eventually to be a part of His eternal celebration, but Jesus came to do a work that we could not do–a work that must be done.

In this, Jesus had to set aside the ceremonial wine and instead drink of the cup of wrath so that we, His chosen people, don’t have to. All of this is pointing to another wedding feast where Jesus is the eternal Bridegroom and His redeemed people are His beloved bride. Listen to the language used later in Revelation 21:

Revelation 21:9 Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.

 Jesus is the true Bridegroom! So, the Lord is using the stage of His first miracle at a wedding in Cana to point to the eternal wedding by which Jesus, the Bridegroom, will be united forever with His bride: the church, the redeemed.

Praise God He finished what He came to do! It’s not without real cost that He did this, too.

Turn with me to Mark 14:32-36:

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Praise God that Jesus was obedient to the Father to the point of death.

“Not my will but yours be done.” Do you see? He drank the cup of wrath on our behalf.

This is the gospel of “our Passover.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin …

He took on our sin for His chosen ones! He paid our price. He atoned our sin.

Now, we must also understand, at that moment, the wrath of God due a particular people was satisfied.

The justice of God was met. The holiness of God was respected.

 1 Corinthians 5:7 says “… For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

This is God’s amazing plan of redemption for us, His chosen people.

What the Passover meant to the Jews for generations pointed to what the Lord’s Supper means to us today.

It is our opportunity to celebrate the Passover Lamb who drank the cup of wrath on our behalf.

Only in Him do we have new freedom from the wrath of God and are reconciled to Him forever.

This brings us to the new ordinance that Jesus gave to the disciples (and now us, the Church) the night before He was betrayed. At the last Passover meal, God the Son gave His people a new tradition and a new remembrance and a new celebration and testimony to the watching world about how the Lord passed over us and all others who believe in Him for salvation.

May we faithfully practice the new ordinance of the Lord’s Supper as we remember Him and testify of what He has done to pass over His chosen people and bring us new life in God’s eternal kingdom.

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

Soldiers for Jesus MC