Exodus: Chapters 14 to 18

Now that we've finished the plagues, time to get out of Egypt entirely. 

CHAPTER 14

Time for one of the most famous Biblical passages of all – the parting of the Red Sea.  One part caught my attention in the build up.  The Lord tells Moses he’ll harden the pharaoh’s heart (again!) so that he’ll pursue Moses and friends.  “Thus I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”  OK, first off – shouldn’t the Egyptians already have figured that out?  (And if they hadn’t how would this help? Kill every firstborn – not impressed!  Take out 600 chariots – time to quake with fear!  Nah, that don’t make sense).  Also, who cares if you receive glory from the pharaoh? 

So the Pharaoh is just about to get them, and the Israelis, in what’ll become quite the pattern, bemoan their fate to Moses: “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?” Ouch – and that’s a very well phrased grievance.  That’s poetry.  They also claim that they told Moses to leave them alone and that they’d rather serve the Egyptians.  When did this happen?  The Israelis were largely passive observers, but when Moses and Aaron showed, they won the support of the masses.  This could be post-facto change of position by the people themselves, not by the Bible writers.  The worst kind of problem is always the one you’re facing right now – whether it is Egyptian slavery or the possibility of losing a battle.

One last note before getting to the main event – it’s 600,000 Israeli men versus 600 chariots.  Really, plenty should be able to survive.

Now comes the big moment.  Moses raises his staff and the waters part.  Then something confusing happens and God’s cloud gets in the way of the Egyptians (who are in sight) so they can’t follow the Israelis.  Question: how long would it 600,000 men – maybe 1.5 to 2.0 million in all – to cross through a corridor in the Red Sea?  The logistics here are stunning, but these are the sorts of details not best overthought; much like why did all the kings have the hots for the geriatric Sara in Genesis. 

The Israelis make it through!  Now the Egyptians follow – but the Lord puts them in a panic, and clogs their chariot wheels.  I wonder how he did that? Mud, I guess.  Then the seas go back and “Of all Pharaoh’s army which had followed the Israelites into the sea, not even one escaped.” 

CHAPTER 15

Same as before, but this time as a verse poem.  Actually, two verse poems.  The first one is the lengthier one – 18 Bible verses and discusses all the main points.  Keynote: a footnote for “Red Sea” says in ancient Hebrew this is really “Sea of Reeds.”  The traditional translation is actually a mistranslation.  Interesting. 

The second poem is much shorter.  Attributed to Moses’ sister Miriam (who is called a prophet), it’s just, “Sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant; / horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.”  Well, going by Biblical scholarship, this is considered to be one of the oldest lines in the Bible, maybe the oldest.  Poetic verse is easier to pass down from one generation to the next and shorter verse is easier to pass down than longer verse.  So this may very well be the oldest lines in the Bible.  The intro to my Bible says the earliest Old Testament writings came around 950 BC, or so.  That’s early divided kingdom, about 500 years after this supposedly happened.

What’s interesting about Miriam’s verse isn’t just what she describes happens but what she does not describe happening.  Parting of the seas, anyone?  Not there.  Just the water claiming the men.  Since this is a Sea of Reeds, not the Red Sea, it might just be a freak wave of a bunch of guys falling into the swampy reeds and drowning.  The story could’ve begun like that, then built up over the years. 

There was a group called the Hebrew living in Canaan and they traced themselves back to some Near East patriarchs and a group who escaped from Egypt.  Both might be true – but they could be two different groups, with the Joseph story done to connect them while giving the 12 tribes a common family.  The Egypt group could’ve left on the run – with unleavened bread, escaped the pharaoh in the Sea of Reeds when the sea claimed the pharaoh’s men.  Then stories develop based on that and expanded over time. 

Some parts of this are just, well – the logistics of getting 2,000,000 people through the water – yeah, some parts are just difficult to envision.

CHAPTER 16

Well, the children of Israel survived!  They’re ecstatic just last chapter! Now they can live life on their own!  So immediately they start complaining. 

Well, it’s easy to mock them for being feckless and having little faith, especially after all they’ve been through.  But if you think about it from their perspective, they have a reason to be concerned.  They’ve escaped Egypt and now they get to march around for stretch through a desert without any food. “If only we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our kettles of meat and ate our fill of bread!  But you have led us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of famine!”  You got to admit, Moses and Aaron don’t really have an obvious plan for this stage of the game.  They had a goal – get out of Egypt, and they knew how to do it – Lord power – but now what?  Food – it comes in handy.

But the problem is solved.  He’ll rain own bread from heaven.  Manna will be there every morning – except the seventh day of the week. Still the Lord’s Day people. Don’t worry – you can get a double share on the sixth day, but don’t eat too much that day.  Oh, and quail will appear that you can just snatch up. (I’ve read in some book that this quail thing is really legitimate – it still happens sometimes even now that you can just grab them in the morning; though not necessarily to the extent that you can feed 600,000 men plus women and children). 

Of course there is grumbling.  People are supposed to eat all the food each day, and they try saving some and it immediately gets wormy.  (Exception: the seventh day, of course).  Some go looking for food on the Sabbath, and that’s a no-no – but they don’t die for it.  They just return empty handed. So they learn and they stop.  The chapter ends that this goes on for 40 years.  Yikes. 

And there’s one moment I found funny.  16:9-10: “Then Moses said to Aaron, `Tell the whole Israelite community: Approach the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’  But while Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they turned in the direction of the wilderness, and there was the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud!”  I just get a kick – Aaron’s talking to the whole community and they turnaround – “Oh, hey – look over there!”  Man, Aaron ain’t getting much respect there.  (Also: powerful lungs!  He’s able to speak with 1,000,000+ people at once.  Yeah, that 600,000 adult males number can’t possibly be right).

CHAPTER 17

Time for another round of complaints from the Israelites – lack of water.   While I’m aware that these guys come off as a bunch of complainers in the back half of Exodus, who got to admit – lack of water is a serious issues.  Moses complains about how they put LORD to the test again, but if it’s a lack of water issue, that’s a good time to put him to the test.  Moses complains who these people are on the verge of stoning him.  OK, that I’m not going to defend.

There is a solution – they get water from a rock.  Moses hits it with his stick and water comes out. Now why couldn’t God think to do that before thirst became a problem here? 

The second half of the chapter is less well known but much stranger – and funnier.  A group called the Amalekites makes war on the Israelites.  They fight back under Joshua – Hi, Joshua!  I do believe this is his first mention.  At any rate, Moses goes on a hill with Aaron and some guy named Hur (I’m not surprised that Biblical name never caught on) as long as Moses keeps his hands up, Joshua and the Israelites have the advantage.  If he lowers them, they falter.

I can envision this power in the hands of some reckless young punk.  I can see the video game version where you just raise and lower your hands as a goof.  But here, Moses has a problem – that damn thing gravity.  He keeps getting tired. SO Aaron and Hur get a rock for him to sit on.  They hold his hands up for him.  This is almost comic.  Sure a screwy and inefficient way for the Lord to have Moses help the army out.  Eventually, the Israelites win.

In the aftermath, God tells Moses to write this down in a book to remember and then he wants the memory of the Amalek completely blotted out.  Wait a second – remember this, but blot out the memory?  Lord, you’re defeating your own purpose here.  Also, literacy won’t hit the Israelites for a few more centuries and people stopped living that long fairly early in Genesis. 

CHAPTER 18

Jethro returns!  He’s Moses’ father in law, and we last so him when Moses lied to him about why he was going back to Egypt.  I must say, Jethro sure takes it well – doesn’t mention the lie either.  Then again, he sees Moses is an important man now.  Jethro praises God and even gives a burnt offering to him, rather odd for a priest of Midian.  Also, Jethro says “Now I know the LORD is greater than all other Gods.’  OK, the way that’s phrased indicates a belief in polytheism.  Well, he’s not a Hebrew, so it’s allowable, but you get some occasional hints throughout that in these early days the Hebrew thought of Yahweh as the most powerful God and their God, but not necessarily the only one.

Mostly, Jethro shows up to give Moses some really good advice.  He sees that Moses spends far too much time deciding over every little matter there in between the Israelis.  He’s the prophet, so he’s the judge.  Jethro has some nice advice: delegate.  Moses, you’re wearing yourself out with too much responsibility.  Make yourself the people’s representative before God and handle their issues with him, and let other, God-fearing men handle disputes between the Israelites.  Lighten your burden by letting them handle routine cases. Folks, we’ve just got to the beginning of a judicial system, which necessitates some codified laws – and whadaya know, the 10 Commandments are coming up soon.  

I got to say - Jethro is one of my favorite Bible characters so far.  He might be my favorite minor character.  He's sensible, pragmatic.  He's religious, but not overzealous (even though he's a Midian priest, he's giving offering to the Israeli God).  He's willing to overlook Moses' white lie earlier.  He's just a really good guy. 

Quick thing – Moses has already been described as 80 years old when the bush burnt.  So Jethro is what – 100?  Well, Moses could’ve robbed the cradle when he married.  Speaking of which, there’s an awkward bit early on when we’re told Jethro brings Moses’ wife and sons – but they went with him to Egypt, so the Bible backtracks a second and says Moses sent them back.  Odd time to throw that in there.

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