Exodus 15.22-17.7

Miracles in the Wilderness

Bitter Water Made Sweet / Bread From Heaven

Bitter Water Made Sweet: Exodus 15.22-27

Moses orders Israel to set out form the Red Sea, and they travel three days into the wilderness of Shur. In the end, it turns out, Moses actually fulfills part of his promise to Pharaoh. However, no sacrifices are made here. Instead, the congregation complains about the bitter water at a place called Marah (which incidentally means "bitterness").

The people complain to Moses about the undrinkable water. Moses, in turn, cries out to God, who shows Moses a piece of wood he should throw into the water to make it sweet.

The Lord makes a "statute and an ordinance" to "put them to the test":

If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.
(Ex. 25-26)

God's people must show their respect to God in order to stay in God's good standing and stay plague-free. This is not a covenant, but a commandment.

The people make their way to Elim, which must seem something of a paradise, having 12 springs and 70 palm trees. They camp by the water. The two numbers suggest completeness and perfection. Twelve perhaps represents the  sons of Israel, thereby encompassing the whole of Israel: there is a spring for each tribe. Seventy or any multiple of seven, represents completeness or perfection. These numbers are not to be taken literally, but they serve to demonstrate continuities within the narrative: 12 palms for 12 tribes, 70 springs for the whole (as in having "wholeness") congregation.

Bread From Heaven: Exodus 16.1-36

The whole congregation again sets out and finds itself in Sin, betwen Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from Egypt. As they left on the fifteenth, this means that the Israelites have travelled exactly one month. This will be their seventh stop and their third complaint.

The entire congregation complains that there is no food in the wilderness, whereas in Egypt they had their fill of bread and meat. They go so far as to accuse Moses of plotting to kill them with hunger.

The Lord gives Moses a plan. The Lord will test the Israelites by raining bread from heaven that the Israelites must go and prepare. On the sixth day, they are to collect twice as much, as they cannot do work on the Sabbath and bread will not fall that day. This is an indication that this portion comes from the P-source. The Priestly redactors were very careful to make sure the people written about in the Bible follow the central tenants of religion.

The next verse, however, seems to indicate a different source, with a different command (Ex. 16.6). Moses tells Aaron to tell the Israelites that:

In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?
(Ex. 15.6-7)

Moses then tells the congregation that the Lord will provide meat in the evening and bread in the morning. Wait a minute. The Lord said nothing before about meat. Where did that come from? A different source, obviously.

And Moses rebukes the congregation too, saying that their complaint is not directed at Moses and Aaron, but the Lord.

The story then repeats itself, with a twist. Moses tells Aaron to speak to the congregation. Aaron speaks to them facing the wilderness, while behind them the Lord speaks to Moses in a cloud. The Lord then gives moses the commandment of meat and bread that Moses had informed the Israelites about above. The text appears to be out of order - the traditions twisted around one another.

In any case, quails come that evening...and are not mentioned again. Huh.

In the morning there is a layer of dew in the camp, and when it lifts, there is a fine layer of a flaky substance on the ground. It is manna, a substance "like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey" (Ex. 16.31). It melts away with the heat of the day. The Israelites are puzzled at first, but Moses commands them to collect it, one omer per person. They do, and everyone somehow every day ends up with a perfect omer. Some leave it to morning, which is forbidden, and find that it is foul and wormy. Others do not collect two servings on the day before the Sabbath, and go hungry for a day. The manna kept over into the Sabbath, by God's doing, does not become foul overnight.

The people learn from disobeying the rules, but that does not mean God is happy about it. Rather, God sees the people as not obeying his instructions.

In spite of this, the Lord commands Moses that an omer should be kept through the generations, so that future generations may see how the people were fed (for forty years) in the wilderness after being led out of Egypt. Aaron puts an omer of manna in a jar and places it before the (anachronistically placed) covenant for safekeeping.

Oh, wondering what an omer? It's one-tenth of an ephah. Duh. And how much is an ephah, you ask? An ephah is 22 liters. So an omer is 1.1 liters. 1.1 liters is about 4.6 cups. 4.6 cups of manna per person, per day.

Tomorrow: Water from the Rock.