The Living Bible (25 page)

Exodus
16

Now they left Elim and journeyed on into the Sihn Desert, between Elim and Mount Sinai, arriving there on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt.
²
 There, too, the people spoke bitterly against Moses and Aaron.

    
³
 “Oh, that we were back in Egypt,” they moaned, “and that the Lord had killed us there! For there we had plenty to eat. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to kill us with starvation.”

    
⁴
 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for them. Everyone can go out each day and gather as much food as he needs. And I will test them in this, to see whether they will follow my instructions or not.
⁵
 Tell them to gather twice as much as usual on the sixth day of each week.”

    
⁶
 Then Moses and Aaron called a meeting of all the people of Israel and told them, “This evening you will realize that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
^7-9
 In the morning you will see more of his glory; for he has heard your complaints against him (for you aren’t really complaining against
us—
who are
we?
 ). The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening, and bread in the morning. Come now before Jehovah and hear his reply to your complaints.”

    
¹⁰
 So Aaron called them together and suddenly, out toward the wilderness, from within the guiding cloud, there appeared the awesome glory of Jehovah.

    
^11-12
 And Jehovah said to Moses, “I have heard their complaints. Tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat and in the morning you will be stuffed with bread, and you shall know that I am Jehovah your God.’”

    
¹³
 That evening vast numbers of quail arrived and covered the camp, and in the morning the desert all around the camp was wet with dew;
¹⁴
 and when the dew disappeared later in the morning it left thin white flakes that covered the ground like frost.
¹⁵
 When the people of Israel saw it they asked each other, “What is it?”

    
And Moses told them, “It is the food Jehovah has given you.
¹⁶
 Jehovah has said for everyone to gather as much as is needed for his household—about two quarts
*
for each person.”

    
¹⁷
 So the people of Israel went out and gathered it—some getting more and some less before it melted on the ground,
¹⁸
 and there was just enough for everyone. Those who gathered more had nothing left over and those who gathered little had no lack! Each home had just enough.

    
¹⁹
 And Moses told them, “Don’t leave it overnight.”

    
²⁰
 But of course some of them wouldn’t listen, and left it until morning; and when they looked, it was full of maggots and had a terrible odor; and Moses was very angry with them.
²¹
 So they gathered the food morning by morning, each home according to its need; and when the sun became hot upon the ground, the food melted and disappeared.
²²
 On the sixth day there was twice as much as usual on the ground—four quarts instead of two; the leaders of the people came and asked Moses why this had happened.

    
²³
 And he told them, “Because the Lord has appointed tomorrow as a day of seriousness and rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord when we must refrain from doing our daily tasks. So cook as much as you want to today, and keep what is left for tomorrow.”

    
²⁴
 And the next morning the food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor.
²⁵
 Moses said, “This is your food for today, for today is the Sabbath to Jehovah and there will be no food on the ground today.
²⁶
 Gather the food for six days, but the seventh is a Sabbath, and there will be none there for you on that day.”

    
²⁷
 But some of the people went out anyway to gather food, even though it was the Sabbath, but there wasn’t any.

    
^28-29
 “How long will these people refuse to obey?” the Lord asked Moses. “Don’t they realize that I am giving them twice as much on the sixth day, so that there will be enough for two days? For the Lord has given you the seventh day as a day of Sabbath rest; stay in your tents and don’t go out to pick up food from the ground that day.”
³⁰
 So the people rested on the seventh day.

    
³¹
 And the food became known as “manna” (meaning “What is it?”); it was white, like coriander seed, and flat, and tasted like honey bread.

    
³²
 Then Moses gave them this further instruction from the Lord: they were to take two quarts of it to be kept as a museum specimen forever, so that later generations could see the bread the Lord had fed them in the wilderness, when he brought them from Egypt.
³³
 Moses told Aaron to get a container and put two quarts of manna in it and to keep it in a sacred place from generation to generation.
³⁴
 Aaron did this, just as the Lord had instructed Moses, and eventually it was kept in the Ark in the Tabernacle.

    
³⁵
 So the people of Israel ate the manna forty years until they arrived in the land of Canaan, where there were crops to eat.
³⁶
 The omer—the container used to measure the manna—held about two quarts; it is approximately a tenth of a bushel.

Exodus
17

Now, at God’s command, the people of Israel left the Sihn Desert, going by easy stages to Rephidim. But upon arrival, there was no water!

    
²
 So once more the people growled and complained to Moses. “Give us water!” they wailed.

    
“Quiet!” Moses commanded. “Are you trying to test God’s patience with you?”

    
³
 But, tormented by thirst, they cried out, “Why did you ever take us out of Egypt? Why did you bring us here to die, with our children and cattle too?”

    
⁴
 Then Moses pleaded with Jehovah. “What shall I do? For they are almost ready to stone me.”

    
^5-6
 Then Jehovah said to Moses, “Take the elders of Israel with you and lead the people out to Mount Horeb. I will meet you there at the rock. Strike it with your rod
*
—the same one you struck the Nile with—and water will come pouring out, enough for everyone!” Moses did as he was told, and the water gushed out!
⁷
 Moses named the place Massah (meaning “tempting Jehovah to slay us”), and sometimes they referred to it as Meribah (meaning “argument” and “strife!”)—for it was there that the people of Israel argued against God and tempted him to slay them
*
by saying, “Is Jehovah going to take care of us or not?”

    
⁸
 But now the warriors of Amalek came to fight against the people of Israel at Rephidim.
⁹
 Moses instructed Joshua to issue a call to arms to the Israelites, to fight the army of Amalek.

    
“Tomorrow,” Moses told him, “I will stand at the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand!”

    
¹⁰
 So Joshua and his men went out to fight the army of Amalek. Meanwhile Moses, Aaron, and Hur
*
went to the top of the hill.
¹¹
 And as long as Moses held up the rod in his hands, Israel was winning; but whenever he rested his arms at his sides, the soldiers of Amalek were winning.
¹²
 Moses’ arms finally became too tired to hold up the rod any longer; so Aaron and Hur rolled a stone for him to sit on, and they stood on each side, holding up his hands until sunset.
¹³
 As a result, Joshua and his troops crushed the army of Amalek, putting them to the sword.

    
¹⁴
 Then the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.”
^15-16
 Moses built an altar there and called it “Jehovah-nissi” (meaning “Jehovah is my flag”).

    
“Raise the banner of the Lord!” Moses said. “For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.”

Exodus
18

Word soon reached Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, the priest of Midian, about all the wonderful things God had done for his people and for Moses, and how the Lord had brought them out of Egypt.

    
²
 Then Jethro took Moses’ wife, Zipporah, to him (for he had sent her home),
³
 along with Moses’ two sons, Gershom (meaning “foreigner,” for Moses said when he was born, “I have been wandering in a foreign land”)
⁴
 and Eliezer (meaning “God is my help,” for Moses said at his birth, “The God of my fathers was my helper and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”).
^5-6
 They arrived while Moses and the people were camped at Mount Sinai.
*

    
“Jethro, your father-in-law, has come to visit you,” Moses was told, “and he has brought your wife and your two sons.”

    
⁷
 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and greeted him warmly; they asked about each other’s health and then went into Moses’ tent to talk further.
⁸
 Moses related to his father-in-law all that had been happening and what the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to deliver Israel, and all the problems there had been along the way, and how the Lord had delivered his people from all of them.
⁹
 Jethro was very happy about everything the Lord had done for Israel, and about his bringing them out of Egypt.

    
¹⁰
 “Bless the Lord,” Jethro said, “for he has saved you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and has rescued Israel.
¹¹
 I know now that the Lord is greater than any other god because he delivered his people from the proud and cruel Egyptians.”

    
¹²
 Jethro offered sacrifices to God,
*
and afterwards Aaron and the leaders of Israel came to meet Jethro, and they all ate the sacrificial meal together before the Lord.

    
¹³
 The next day Moses sat as usual to hear the people’s complaints against each other, from morning to evening.

    
¹⁴
 When Moses’ father-in-law saw how much time this was taking, he said, “Why are you trying to do all this alone, with people standing here all day long to get your help?”

    
^15-16
 “Well, because the people come to me with their disputes, to ask for God’s decisions,” Moses told him. “I am their judge, deciding who is right and who is wrong, and instructing them in God’s ways. I apply the laws of God to their particular disputes.”

    
¹⁷
 “It’s not right!” his father-in-law exclaimed.
¹⁸
 “You’re going to wear yourself out—and if you do, what will happen to the people? Moses, this job is too heavy a burden for you to try to handle all by yourself.
^19-20
 Now listen, and let me give you a word of advice, and God will bless you: Be these people’s lawyer—their representative before God—bringing him their questions to decide; you will tell them his decisions, teaching them God’s laws, and showing them the principles of godly living.

    
²¹
 “Find some capable, godly, honest men who hate bribes, and appoint them as judges, one judge for each 1000 people; he in turn will have ten judges under him, each in charge of a hundred; and under each of them will be two judges, each responsible for the affairs of fifty people; and each of these will have five judges beneath him, each counseling ten persons.
²²
 Let these men be responsible to serve the people with justice at all times. Anything that is too important or complicated can be brought to you. But the smaller matters they can take care of themselves. That way it will be easier for you because you will share the burden with them.
²³
 If you follow this advice, and if the Lord agrees, you will be able to endure the pressures, and there will be peace and harmony in the camp.”

    
²⁴
 Moses listened to his father-in-law’s advice and followed this suggestion.
²⁵
 He chose able men from all over Israel and made them judges over the people—thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
²⁶
 They were constantly available to administer justice. They brought the hard cases to Moses but judged the smaller matters themselves.

    
²⁷
 Soon afterwards Moses let his father-in-law return to his own land.