Exodus

Reading that the people journeyed "by stages," according to the command of Yahweh, seems incomplete when read in isolation from the context. Moses records in Numbers 33:12-14 that these stages included camps enroute to Rephidim at Dophkah and Alush. This testifies to the size of the multitude of God's people as they traveled. Exodus 12:37 states that there were 600,000 men who departed Egypt, aside from the little ones. Add to this the women and non-Israelites, and this number would be closer to two million people. With that context, consider the complaints against Moses when the people became thirsty and "contended with Moses," saying, "Give us water that we may drink." (v2). God's delivery of water to His people here lays a strong foundation for Christ to deliver His message of redemption. "Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst—ever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (Jn 4:13–14). The Amalekites (v8) are the first peoples the Israelites fought and defeated after their departure from Egypt, yet they are not among the nations from which Yahweh declared to Abram that his people would receive the land of the covenant (Gen 15:19-21). Although the Israelites are yet to demonstrate their lack of faith in Yahweh to the degree that God denies them entrance into the promised land (delay for 40 years of wandering in the wilderness), He knows their hearts and does not grant them victory over the peoples who "possess" Canaan. Nonetheless, the Amalekites would have been a formidable foe if they were bold enough to attack a people traveling with such a large population. Despite the Massah and Meribah (Testing and Quarrelling v7) of His people, God continues showing His might as He ensures that the Israelites overwhelm the Amalekites by the hand of His faithful servant Joshua (v13).

Moses continues to learn as a leader of God's people, even though he has already led millions out of captivity and interceded on their behalf before Yahweh multiple times. But here in this chapter, it is not by the voice of God that Moses receives the instruction that allows him to better minister to the people of Israel; rather, it is from his father-in-law, from whom he had been separated throughout the period of conflict in Egypt. Jethro comes to Moses and brings with him Moses' wife and sons (v2). Moses recounts to him the goodness of Yahweh and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, prompting Jethro to declare his belief in Yahweh as greater than all the gods (אֱלֹהִים elohim) vv8-11. This strong declaration of faith is punctuated with a burnt offering. We know Moses or Aaron would have officiated, as the text states Jethro took (לָקַח laqah, brought), not offered, his sacrifice. After Jethro brought his sacrifice, even though the law on burnt offerings and sacrifices had not yet been given, Jethro, Moses, Aaron, and the elders, ate a meal together before God (אֱלֹהִים Elohim) v12. Nowhere else in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible written by Moses) is any name for God used with reference to sacrifice other than Yahweh יהוה (YHWH). This is the singular exception (Elohim v12). Perhaps emphasized by Jethro's acknowledgment of the plural non-trinitarian elohim in verse 11, Jethro is clearly an outsider, yet afforded the privilege of a covenant meal eaten in the presence of God. This may add insight to the question of why Jethro would not have joined with the Israelites as they continued (v27). God uses whomever He will and reveals Himself in all manner of ways.

This chapter is a challenge for the casual reader. Consider these details as you move through the text: There are over two million people moving through the desert now as they just departed Rephidim, where they had all the water they needed. While they continue to move toward the promised land, they are now in a desert bracketed by mountains in a landscape crafted by God Himself for them to come before Him in a display of His majesty. Until this time, God had displayed His power in wrath against the enemies of Israel and had spoken exclusively to and through Moses. The children of Israel had not, themselves, heard Yahweh. The priests, although not yet formally installed by Mosaic law, were unsure of where they ranked in the Israeli culture, and many likely thought themselves worthy of leadership among the people such that they might challenge the authority of Aaron or even Moses. We strive to understand the mind of God, yet He does not struggle to understand our thoughts. As we read and wonder why God would need to tell Moses twice to keep the people away from the Mountain, we can be sure that God knew exactly why that was necessary and what the outcome would have been had Moses not been faithful to His command. George Rawlinson writes of the theophany from vv18-19 in the Hendrickson Pulpit Commentary: "The phenomena were not a mere storm of thunder and lightning, where Moses took advantage to persuade the people that they had heard God's voice - not an earthquake with volcanic eruptions - not even the two combined... (there was) a clear penetrating voice like that of a man, made itself heard in distinctly articulated words, audible to the whole multitude, and recognized by them as superhuman - as 'the voice of God.' It is vain to seek to minimize, and to rationalize the scene, and to tone it down into something not supernatural. The only honest course is either to accept it as a plain record of plain (albeit miraculous) facts, or to reject it altogether as the fiction of a romancer."

God delivers the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel from Mount Sinai, "And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and the people perceived it, and they shook and stood at a distance." (v18). God intended that the entire nation would know that He, Himself delivered these commands to them, and they were not to be mistaken. "Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven." (v22). God has already demonstrated a precedent of the need for man to have a right/correct relationship with 1) God, 2) Man, and 3) Truth (see Genesis 26). In the delivery of the Ten Commandments, the order is significant in perpetuating these right relationships. The first four commandments directly address man's regard for God and the worship that is due Him. The fifth connects these to the last five with a promise. This command establishes the right relationship with the first persons every human will have a relationship. Beginning in verse 13, the last five commandments declare, in descending order, the sins we commit against man. They are listed in order by the degree from which it is most difficult to recover a right relationship, (murder, at the beginning, being obviously the most difficult/impossible). The Ten Commandments are delivered as God's Law to the people. The Law is clarified ultimately as something none of us can fully obey. "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." James 2:10. But as we repent of our sins, we seek to repair the relationships that we damage in our sinful state (attaining a right relationship with God/Man/Truth). Only in a right relationship with God and man, can we have a right relationship with the truth. In Christ's address to His disciples after Judas' betrayal, He responds to James with the clarity of this message. "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6.