So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord made an east wind blow all night and drove the sea back and turned it into dry land. The Israelites walked across on dry ground. Pharaoh pursued him with his horsemen and chariots. During the morning watch the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptians and made their chariot wheels fall off and threw them into a panic to get away. Then the Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea and the waters flowed over the Egyptians, their horses and chariots, drowning all of them. The Israelites saw the power of the Lord and trusted him and Moses his servant.
Chapter 15 contains the lyrics of a song of celebration to commemorate the defeat of Pharaoh. Miriam, Aaron's (and Moses') sister, a prophetess, got her tambourine and all the women followed her and danced and sang. This grateful noise was short lived. Moses led Israel into the desert where there was no water. For three days they searched for water and the people started grumbling about what they were going to drink. There was bitter water available, Moses prayed and God showed him some wood which Moses threw into the water and it became sweet. The Lord made a statute with them and tested them. Basically they were supposed to listen to God, do what is right and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, he will not bring any of the diseases He brought on the Egyptians, "for I am the Lord who heals you." Then they found Elim with 12 springs and 70 palm trees, and they camped there. Sounds like paradise to me.
Next they traveled again and started grumbling, again, about being hungry and why didn't they just stay in Egypt where they had all they wanted to eat? Moses prays for them again, and again the Lord comes to their rescue. Manna from heaven! Described as being like white coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey, it looked like white flakes of frost on the ground in the morning. They were told to gather a quart or so - as much as each person would eat that day. The Lord tested them on this because when they tried to save it for the next day, it had maggots in it. On the sixth day they were to gather a double batch because everyone knows the Lord rests on the seventh day and he wasn't making dinner, so the sixth day was the only day they were allowed to take twice as much and on the seventh day there wasn't any on the ground in the morning.
Moses told Aaron to take a jar and collect a sample of the manna so the generations to come could see it. That would be so interesting to try a taste - except that it might be past it's expiration date...
They set out again and got thirsty again, and grumbled again, and Moses prayed again and told God he was afraid they would stone him. During this time the Amalekites attacked the Israelites. While Moses had his hands raised in the air the Israelites were winning. If he put his arms down the Amalekites were winning. How they figured that out it doesn't say, but they got smart and propped up Moses' hands and Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. God told Moses to write it on a scroll and make sure Joshua heard it because He would "completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." I can't help but wonder whether these people were aware that they were related to each other. I know we don't really see it that way now even though it's true. By the way, the picture above is a mural painted by me in my church hallway about two years ago. I hope you like it.
Tomorrow read Exodus 18-21:21
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