Month: August 2025

Exodus 16

Exodus 16

Exodus 16:1 They pulled up from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel entered the Sin open country, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt.

Exodus 16:2 And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the open country,

Exodus 16:3 and the people of Israel said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of Yahveh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, because you have brought us out into this open country to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Exodus 16:4 Then Yahveh told Moses, “Notice, I am about to rain bread from the sky for you, and the people will go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether they will walk by my instruction or not.

Exodus 16:5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Exodus 16:6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you will know that it was Yahveh who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

Exodus 16:7 and in the morning, you will see the glory of Yahveh, because he has heard your grumbling against Yahveh. Because what are we, that you grumble against us?”

Exodus 16:8 And Moses said, “When Yahveh gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to satisfy you, because Yahveh has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him- what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against Yahveh.”

Exodus 16:9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Approach the face of Yahveh, because he has heard your complaining.'”

Exodus 16:10 And while Aaron was speaking to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, they looked toward the open country, and noticed the glory of Yahveh appearing in the cloud.

Exodus 16:11 And Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Exodus 16:12 “I have heard the complaining of the sons of Israel. Tell them, For the next full day you will eat meat, and in the morning, you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am Yahveh your God.'”

Exodus 16:13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and it lay around the camp with the morning dew.

Exodus 16:14 And when the dew had gone up, they noticed on the face of the open country a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

Exodus 16:15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” Because they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that Yahveh has given you to eat.

Exodus 16:16 This is what Yahveh has commanded: ‘Collect it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You will each take one omer per person, according to the number of throats that each of you has in his tent.'”

Exodus 16:17 And the sons of Israel did so. They collected, some more, some less.

Exodus 16:18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever collected much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them collected as much as he could eat.

Exodus 16:19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.”

Exodus 16:20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it was wormy and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

Exodus 16:21 Morning by morning they collected it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

Exodus 16:22 On the sixth day they collected double the amount of bread, two omers for one person. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,

Exodus 16:23 he told them, “This is what Yahveh has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a sacred rest day, a sacred Sabbath to Yahveh; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.'”

Exodus 16:24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it.

Exodus 16:25 Moses said, “Eat it today, because today is a Sabbath to Yahveh; today you will not find it in the field.

Exodus 16:26 Six days you will collect it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

Exodus 16:27 On the seventh day some of the people did go out to collect, but they found none.

Exodus 16:28 And Yahveh said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?

Exodus 16:29 See! Yahveh has given you the Sabbath; on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days for this reason. Each of you stay in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

Exodus 16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

Exodus 16:31 The house of Israel called its name man.[1] It was white like a coriander seed, and it tasted like wafers made with honey.

Exodus 16:32 Moses said, “This is what Yahveh has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the open country, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'”

Exodus 16:33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of man in it, and place it before Yahveh to be kept throughout your generations.”

Exodus 16:34 Aaron placed it before the reminder[2] to be kept just as Yahveh commanded Moses

Exodus 16:35 The people of Israel ate the man forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the man till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

Exodus 16:36 (An omer is one tenth of an ephah.)

[1] מָן = man (traditionally, manna). Exodus 16:31, 33, 35.

[2]עֵדוּת = reminder. Exodus 16:34; 25:16, 21-22; 26:33-34; 27:21; 30:6, 26, 36; 31:7, 18; 32:15; 34:29; 38:21; 39:35; 40:3, 5, 20-21.

Exodus 16 quotes:

“The instructions were clear, but some people gathered more than they needed. Perhaps they remembered times when food was not available, so they wanted to protect against that possibility. Or maybe they were simply greedy. At any rate, any unneeded manna rotted overnight. On the other hand, some didn’t gather enough..(Were they lazy or inept?) The people were being instructed on how to “listen” to God, how to hear and act obediently. They did not actually meet God’s expectations yet (see Exodus 16:28). Nonetheless, by divine grace, all of the needs of the people were met (Exodus 16:16-21), giving the prayer that some of us have learned much later—“give us this day our daily bread”—added significance as well.”

March, W. Eugene. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Abingdon Press, 2012. p. 25.

“Some scholars seek an explanation for manna in nature, yet the Israelites recognized this strange substance as a gift from God—a supernatural phenomenon that expressed his generosity and his care for them. Extraordinary quantities of manna were continuously available to them except on the sabbath (Exodus 16:26)—a strange lack if the manna was simply a natural occurrence—and sustained them over quite a protracted duration of time. The Israelites received the manna as divine provision, bread rained down on them from heaven (16:4).”

Kun, Jeanne. Food from Heaven : The Eucharist in Scripture. Word Among Us Press, 2007. p. 19.

“When the manna came, Israel didn’t know what it was. The name “manna” (given later in Exodus 16:31) meant, “what’s that?” It came from the question asked in Exodus 16:15. When God provides we often don’t recognize it. God has promised to meet all our needs – not all our expectations. Today, let God do His part while you do your part.”

Guzik, David. Free And Clear. Enduring Word Media. 2004. p. 65.

Exodus 16 links:

hunger games
Sky flakes
two for one Fridays

Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, August 4, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, August 3, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, August 2, 2017

EXODUS in Jeff’s library

WHERE IS UNDERSTANDING?

WHERE IS UNDERSTANDING?

Job 28:20-28 NET.

20 “But wisdom — where does it come from? Where is the place of understanding? 21 For it has been hidden from the eyes of every living creature, and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed. 22 Destruction and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.’ 23 God understands the way to it, and he alone knows its place. 24 For he looks to the ends of the earth and observes everything under the heavens. 25 When he made the force of the wind and measured the waters with a gauge. 26 When he imposed a limit for the rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, 27 then he looked at wisdom and assessed its value; he established it and examined it closely. 28 And he said to mankind, ‘The fear of the LORD — that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'”

This is our final peek into the Book of Job (for a while, anyway), so I decided to focus on chapter 28. In this chapter, Job comes closer than anywhere else to the message of the other wisdom literature books. The subject is wisdom, or its synonym, understanding. But the other wisdom literature books tend to encourage people to seek wisdom. Solomon wrote his Proverbs to teach people how to be wise and make discerning decisions. In Ecclesiastes, he says that wisdom is like a sharpened axe head, which makes one’s work easier and makes it more likely for one to succeed.

But in Job, the people who claim to be wise are Job’s “friends” who are proven to be fools. They were experts in the conventional wisdom of their day, but they used their wisdom to condemn Job. The Bible never calls Job wise. Ezekiel calls him righteous, and James praises his endurance. But the point is not that Job was wiser than his two friends. The fact is that wisdom is only one tool in the box. There is a tool that is even more important than wisdom – even more vital than understanding.

Truly wise people understand this. After all he wrote about wisdom, Solomon revealed that humanity’s whole duty can be summed up as fearing God and keeping his commandments. Wisdom is a helpful tool, but respect and obedience finally get the job done. So, Job encounters the wisest of the wise, and he prevails over their arguments, not because he was wise but because he had a right relationship with God.

Job argues that you cannot find wisdom.

If you want some silver or gold, or iron, there are places on the map where you can go, and there are mines you can mine. You can dig deep enough into the mountains that you can bring out precious jewels. You can pan for gold along the streams and get the valuable items you desire. But there are no places on the map where you can go to find wisdom.

This is Job’s point in the first eleven verses of this chapter. At first glance, we might want to object to Job’s argument, though. Some of us have paid good money and gone to several places of higher learning. I, myself, have paid out lots of cash and gone to several educational institutions and added some degrees to my title. Is Job saying that I wasted my time, energy, and resources? No, he is not saying that. But he is saying that if my educational pursuits only get me as far as they got his wise friends, then they were futile.

Job is saying that there are always limits to our understanding. We might find some valuable nuggets along the way, but we never strike the mother lode. Wisdom is a good thing, but it should never be the only thing. Even Solomon eventually conceded this. He had made several fortunes, collected all the wise sayings he could find, written many books, planned and supervised many building projects, but in the end, his reputation was tarnished by his bad moral choices.

Job argues that you cannot buy wisdom.

Again, if we have invested a lot of our resources in education, we might be tempted to counter Job’s argument. But Job is arguing that a wisdom exists that is not part of any school’s curriculum. Even if we had the money to go to every university on every continent, we could not purchase the wisdom that Job is describing. It exists, but it might as well not exist for us, because we cannot access it. There are limits to what we can know.

One of the reasons God gave us the Book of Job is to reveal this fact. The whole plot centers around an event that neither Job nor any of his friends were aware of. They could not figure out what was happening to Job. For the miserable comforters, the lack of that information was not a problem. If they did not know why Job was suffering, they would guess. They figured that they already knew all the data they needed in order to make an approximate guess as to why it was happening. But we learned about the conversation between the LORD and the devil. If Job’s friends had known about that, they could have been actual comforters for him. But the point of Job is that they did not know. They angered God by their proud assumptions. Instead of displaying true wisdom, they displayed their ignorance.

By way of application, we should all remember this fact and learn to keep our assumptions to ourselves. If we do not know the whole story, we should not be quick to accuse others of causing their problems. As I suggested last week, when people are suffering, we should seek to help them, pray for them, and share Christ with them. We should not make the mistake that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did. We should not assume we know more than what has been revealed.

Job argues that only God has wisdom.

What Job had experienced had humbled him and put him in his place. Job’s question was, “Wisdom — where does it come from? Where is the place of understanding?” His answer was, “Only God knows.” Not a creature created has ever accessed that divine wisdom. Before we even dare to proclaim that we know anything, we should bow our knees to the heavenly Father. To fear him is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. That is the least we can do because that is where wisdom begins.

  • “Fearing the LORD is the beginning of moral knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).
  • The LORD created wisdom before he made the dust of the world (Proverbs 8:22-26).
  • “The beginning of wisdom is to fear the LORD, and acknowledging the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

Knowing how much we don’t know should humble us as it did Job. It should make us cautious about the cause of anyone’s problems – even our own. We should go to prayer – not as a last resort, but as our first response. Being quick to pray acknowledges that only God has the whole solution to any problem. The doctors have their place, medicines have their place, our wisdom has its place, other people’s advise can help, but we have to start with acknowledging our limits and deficiencies.  

Knowing how much we don’t know should make us more compassionate when we see others suffering. Instead of looking for the obvious solution and seeking the quick fix, we should be willing to stay beside the sufferers and be there for them as they face their trials. It is sad, but many of us have grown up in a culture that tends to hide our suffering. When we have problems, we try to avoid bothering others with those problems. We get sick, and we might go to a doctor or two, but we often keep it from our loved ones and fellow believers. Sometimes those closest to us only find out what we had when they read our obituary! That culture of hiding suffering keeps us away from sharing the compassion of Christ with others.

Knowing how much we don’t know should make us more intentionally evangelistic. We can’t figure everything out for others, but we can lead them to the one who has figured everything out. In the Book of Job, the story significantly shifts when God appears and sets the record straight. Even before Job experiences his healing and the restoration of all his blessings of family and wealth, Job is vindicated. We find out what we already knew. God is sovereign over the affairs of humanity; He rules over everything. But knowing that there is a God who knows everything and we do not is not really a problem. There is a way to God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and we can come to God through him! No one comes to God through anyone else. The best thing you can do for your non-Christian neighbors is introduce them to Christ. In John, chapter 12, we learn of a group of Greeks who approached Philip. They said, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” That was a very wise request. Like Philip, we can tell people about Jesus, but what we really want is to lead people to get to know Jesus himself.

Each of us has the responsibility not to push our agendas and flaunt our wisdom. We have one primary goal: to get others to know Jesus. Once we lead them to Jesus, we can turn our attention to spreading the gospel among others. We should have the attitude of John the Baptist. Once he introduced Jesus and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John stepped back. He said Jesus must increase, but John must decrease.

We have to be comfortable with our limits. That does not mean that we should be willfully ignorant. We should always ask God to open our eyes to the wonderful things he has revealed. But everything we learn is not to magnify our own position and status. Our purpose is to reflect his light, not to draw attention to ours.

I don’t know how true it is, but I read a story this week about a little town in North Carolina called Pershing. This town had just built a new high school and installed the latest technology—a series of generators that powered the latest battery-operated lights. The city was so proud of its new technology that it decided to rename itself after the brand of lights—they were called Delco lights.

The Book of Job begins by introducing a man named Job, whom God had blessed. It ends by saying that God blessed Job again. The LORD blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. You and I may not experience that kind of blessing in this life. But we can know the same God that Job knew. We cannot know everything, but we can have a relationship with the one who does know everything. What we know is not half as important as who we know.

Exodus 14

Exodus 14

Exodus 14:1 Then Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Exodus 14:2 “Speak to the people of Israel and make them turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you will encamp facing it, by the sea.

Exodus 14:3 Because Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the open country has shut them in.’

Exodus 14:4 And I will make Pharaoh’s heart strong, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahveh.” And they did so.

Exodus 14:5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had run, the mind of Pharaoh and his slaves was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have sent Israel away from slaving for us?”

Exodus 14:6 So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him,

Exodus 14:7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

Exodus 14:8 And Yahveh made the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt strong, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

Exodus 14:9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

Exodus 14:10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and noticed the Egyptians marching after them, they were very afraid. And the people of Israel cried out to Yahveh.

Exodus 14:11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the open country? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Exodus 14:12 Is not this what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone, so that we may serve the Egyptians’? Because it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the open country.”

Exodus 14:13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, stand firm, and you will see Yahveh’s deliverance, which he will work for you today. Because the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again permanently.

Exodus 14:14 Yahveh will fight for you, and you have only to plow in.”

Exodus 14:15 Yahveh said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to set out.

Exodus 14:16 Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, so that the sons of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

Exodus 14:17 And notice, I will make the hearts of the Egyptians strong so that they will go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his riders.

Exodus 14:18 Then the Egyptians will know that I am Yahveh, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his riders.”

Exodus 14:19 Then the agent of God who had been going before the army of Israel repositioned and went behind them, so the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,

Exodus 14:20 coming between the army of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahveh drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the water was divided.

Exodus 14:22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the water having become a wall for them on their right hand and on their left.

Exodus 14:23 Meanwhile, The Egyptians pursued and went in after them; all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen were there in the middle of the sea.

Exodus 14:24 At the morning watch Yahveh looked down upon the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic.,

Exodus 14:25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they had difficulty advancing. So, the Egyptians were saying, “Let us flee from before Israel, because Yahveh fights for them against the Egyptians.”

Exodus 14:26 Then Yahveh told Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the water will return upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”

Exodus 14:27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, Yahveh shook off the Egyptians into the middle of the sea.

Exodus 14:28 The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them survived.

Exodus 14:29 But the people of Israel had walked on dry ground through the sea, the water had been a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Exodus 14:30 This is how Yahveh saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Exodus 14:31 Israel had witnessed the great hand that Yahveh used against the Egyptians, so the people feared Yahveh, and they believed in Yahveh and in his slave Moses.

Exodus 14 quotes:

“We don’t always know why God allows problems, but we know He intends to use them to heighten our maturity and deepen our faith. Trials and troubles are dumbbells and treadmills for the soul. They develop strength and stamina. Exodus 14 concludes by noting how the Israelites benefited from their narrow escape. It beefed up their faith for the great challenges ahead of them. The Israelites “feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His-servant Moses.””

Morgan, Robert J. The Red Sea Rules : 10 God-given Strategies for Difficult Times. W. Publishing Group, 2014. p. 110.

“There can be no question that the text of Exodus 14 intends the readers to understand that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the creator of the heaven and earth, and that all other gods are no gods at all. As discussed above, the crossing at the Red Sea is portrayed as nothing less than a miracle of God.”

Newsome, James D. Exodus. First edition, Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. p. 54.

“People use such expressions as “in a pinch,” “in a pickle,” “in a jam,” “up a tree,” “in a corner,” “hard-pressed,” or “between a rock and a hard place” to describe a predicament. But whatever the expression, the meaning is the same — someone is facing a troubling situation that cannot be easily escaped. These dilemmas are uncomfortable and nerve-racking. They often bring us to the end of our resources and threaten to drive us into despair. An ancient illustration of just such a predicament is found in Exodus 14. There we will discover how the Hebrews were rescued from a humanly impossible situation that involved the pursuing Egyptians.”

Swindoll, Charles R., and William D. Watkins. Moses, God’s Man for a Crisis Bible Study Guide from the Bible-Teaching Ministry of Charles R. Swindoll. Insight for Living ; Distributed by Word, Educational Products Division, 1985. p. 77.

Exodus 14 links:

barriers
Exodus- safety or glory-
introducing the breath of God
no way
witnessing the great hand
you will see the LORD’s deliverance

Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, February 12, 2024
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 24, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, July 26, 2017

EXODUS in Jeff’s library

Exodus 13

Exodus 13

Exodus 13:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Exodus 13:2 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

Exodus 13:3 Then Moses told the people, “Remember this day in which you exited Egypt, out from the house where you were a slave, because by strength of hand Yahveh rescued you from this slavery. No leavened bread is to be eaten.

Exodus 13:4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.

Exodus 13:5 And when Yahveh brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he solemnly promised to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to keep this ritual in this month.

Exodus 13:6 Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there will be a feast to Yahveh.

Exodus 13:7 Unleavened bread will be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread is to be seen among you, and no leaven is to be seen with you in all your territory.

Exodus 13:8 You will tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what Yahveh did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Exodus 13:9 And it will be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that what Yahveh instructs may be in your mouth. Because Yahveh has brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.

Exodus 13:10 You will therefore keep this permanent prescription at its appointed time from year to year.

Exodus 13:11 “When Yahveh brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he solemnly promised to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,

Exodus 13:12 you are to set apart for Yahveh all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males will be Yahveh’s.

Exodus 13:13 Every firstborn of a donkey you will redeem with a lamb, or if you choose not to redeem it you will break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you will redeem.

Exodus 13:14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you should say to him, ‘By a strong hand Yahveh brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

Exodus 13:15 Because when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to send us away, Yahveh killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. For this reason, I sacrifice to Yahveh all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’

Exodus 13:16 It will be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, because by a strong hand Yahveh brought us out of Egypt.”

Exodus 13:17 When Pharaoh sent the people away, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. Because God said, “The people might change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.”

Exodus 13:18 So God led the people around by the way of the open country toward the Red Sea. And the sons of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt grouped in fifties.

Exodus 13:19 Moses took the mummified remains of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly promise, and this is what he said, “God will surely visit you, then you are to carry up my mummified remains with you from here.”

Exodus 13:20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the open country.

Exodus 13:21 And Yahveh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day and by night.

Exodus 13:22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not leave the presence of the people.

Exodus 13 quotes:

“Before leaving Exodus and seeing what the New Testament makes of some of these events, we should notice Exodus 13:1-2 and 13:11-13. These verses talk about the concept of the firstborn. Exodus 4:22 made clear that Israel was God’s son. God delivered his son out of Egypt (or ‘redeemed’ him from Egypt) at the cost of the death of Egypt’s firstborn sons. As a result of this, the firstborn of every womb in Israel belongs to God. However, God allows a substitute to take place, and ceremonies where substitutes are sacrificed are to be observed by the Israelites as a continual reminder of the lengths that God will go to in order to save his firstborn son, Israel. The redeeming of a donkey with a lamb symbolically represents what God did for Israel in the tenth plague.”

Reid, Andrew. Out of Darkness : Exodus 1- 18. Matthias Media, 2005. p. 46.

“Moses and his brother Aaron confronted Pharaoh, and after a series of ten plagues, culminating in the death of all of the firstborn in Egypt, led the children of Israel out of Egypt to the land God had promised them. Jehovah went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22). On the way, in the wilderness, the glory of God appeared to Moses and the children of Israel (Exodus 16:7-10). Later, at Mount Sinai, God manifested His glory several times to the children of Israel in a series of wonderous events (Exodus 19:1 through 31:35). He also revealed His glory from time to time during the forty years in the wilderness.”

Hanson, H. Allen. They Shall See God. Xulon Press, 2010. p. 81.

“The pillar was also the guide, leading the people on, and stopping each night and at other times for a period of encampment. It was the guide for forty years. Indeed, we could go a little further in considering the pillar of fire. The common understanding is that the pillar went before the people as their guide, in the form of the pillar of cloud, and that is true. We therefore tend to think that the pillar of fire was more static, for the people were normally camped at night, when the pillar took that form. But Exodus 13:21 makes it clear that on occasion the Israelites travelled by night as well as by day. What they had to do was to follow the pillar when it lifted from its place. And when they travelled at the command of the pillar by night it not only guided and protected them, it also illuminated the actual path in which they had to tread.

Lyall, Francis. The I Ams of Jesus. Mentor, 1996. p. 57.

Exodus 13 links:

going up unprepared
the LORD brought us out of Egypt
what the LORD did for me

Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, July 21, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, March 15, 2019
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, March 17, 2023
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Saturday, July 22, 2017
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, July 23, 2017

Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, August 18, 2024

EXODUS in Jeff’s library

Exodus 12

Exodus 12

Exodus 12:1 While they were still in the land of Egypt, Yahveh told Moses and Aaron

Exodus 12:2 “This month will be the beginning of months for you. It will be the first month of the year for you.

Exodus 12:3 Tell all the congregation[1] of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man will take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a house.

Exodus 12:4 And if the house is too small to eat an entire lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor will share according to the number of throats; according to what each can eat you will make your count for the lamb.

Exodus 12:5 Your lamb will be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,

Exodus 12:6 and you will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill their lambs at twilight.

Exodus 12:7 “Then they will take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

Exodus 12:8 They will eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they will eat it.

Exodus 12:9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.

Exodus 12:10 And you will let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you will burn.

Exodus 12:11 In this manner you will eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you will eat it in haste. It is Yahveh’s Passover.

Exodus 12:12 Because I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will condemn all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahveh.

Exodus 12:13 The blood will be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:14 “This day will be for you a memorial day, and you will keep it as a feast to Yahveh; throughout your generations, as a permanent prescription,[2] you will keep it as a feast.

Exodus 12:15 Seven days you will eat unleavened bread. On the first day you will remove leaven out of your houses, because if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that throat will be cut off from Israel.

Exodus 12:16 On the first day you will hold a sacred assembly, and on the seventh day a sacred assembly. No work will be done on those days. But what every throat needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you.

Exodus 12:17 And you will observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Because of this, you will observe this day, throughout your generations, as a permanent prescription.

Exodus 12:18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you will eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

Exodus 12:19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that throat will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreign guest or a native of the land.

Exodus 12:20 You will eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you will eat unleavened bread.”

Exodus 12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Draw out and take lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.

Exodus 12:22 Take a cluster of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you should go out of the door of his house until the morning.

Exodus 12:23 Because Yahveh will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, Yahveh will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike.

Exodus 12:24 You are to observe this ritual as a permanent prescribed task for you and for your sons forever.

Exodus 12:25 So when you come to the land that Yahveh will give you, as he has promised, you will keep this practice.

Exodus 12:26 And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this practice?’

Exodus 12:27 you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahveh’s Passover, because he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but stripped our houses.’ “And the people bowed down low.

Exodus 12:28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; just as Yahveh had commanded Moses and Aaron, this is what they did.

Exodus 12:29 At midnight Yahveh struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the house of the pit, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

Exodus 12:30 And Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his slaves and all the Egyptians. And there was a great outcry in Egypt, because there was not a house where someone was not dead.

Exodus 12:31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go away from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve Yahveh, as you have said.

Exodus 12:32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also!”

Exodus 12:33 The Egyptians made the people strong so they could go away from the land quickly. Because they said, “We are all dead.”

Exodus 12:34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

Exodus 12:35 The sons of Israel had also done as Moses told them, because they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.

Exodus 12:36 And Yahveh had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked for. This is how they stripped the Egyptians.

Exodus 12:37 And the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, with about six hundred platoons of foot soldiers, separated from their children.

Exodus 12:38 An ethnically mixed company also went out with them, and very many flocks and herds of livestock.

Exodus 12:39 And they had baked unleavened loaves of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, because it had not been leavened, since they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provision for themselves.

Exodus 12:40 The time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.

Exodus 12:41 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the armies of Yahveh went out from the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:42 It was a night of watching by Yahveh, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night when the sons of Israel keep watch for Yahveh throughout their generations.

Exodus 12:43 And Yahveh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the permanent prescription of the Passover: no outsider is to eat of it,

Exodus 12:44 but after you have circumcised him, any slave that a man has purchased with silver may eat of it.

Exodus 12:45 A temporary resident or hired servant is not to eat of it.

Exodus 12:46 It will be eaten in one house; you will not take any of the meat outside the house, and you will not break any of its bones.

Exodus 12:47 All the congregation of Israel will keep it.

Exodus 12:48 If a foreigner is your guest and wants to keep the Passover to Yahveh, make sure all his males are circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he will be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person is allowed to eat it.

Exodus 12:49 There will be one instruction[3] for the native and for the foreigner who is a guest among you.”

Exodus 12:50 All the people of Israel did just as Yahveh commanded Moses and Aaron.

Exodus 12:51 And on that very day Yahveh brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

[1] עֵדָה = congregation. Exodus 12:3, 6, 19, 47; 16:1, 2, 9, 10, 22; 17:1; 34:31; 35:1, 4, 20; 38:25.+

[2] חֻקָּה = prescription. Exodus 12:14, 17, 43; 13:10; 27:21; 28:43; 29:9.

[3]תּוֹרָה = instruction. Exodus 12:49; 13:9; 16:4, 28; 18:16, 20; 24:12.

Exodus 12 quotes:

“The narrative of the first Passover is a pivotal story in the Old Testament from which the Jews have derived great inspiration over the centuries, and in which Christians have found ways to better understand the death of Jesus Christ.”

Newsome, James D. Exodus. First edition, Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. p. 37.

“God directed His plagues against the idolatry in Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against Satan. It was a battle of the gods. Exodus 12:12 confirms it: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.” God exposed the gods of Egypt as false, and He revealed to Israel His ability to deliver them. These Israelites had been born in the brickyards in the midst of idolatry, and God had to show them that He was superior.”

McGee, J. Vernon. Exodus Chapters 1-18. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991.
p. 48.

“The yearly timing of the Passover gives us further insight into its symbolism and significance for God’s people. The way nations and cultures mark their months and years often reveals something about their religion. The events described in Exodus 12 mark a very important time in Israel’s history when the children of Israel began to divide the year into months. From the standpoint of a religious calendar, the Passover and the exodus would begin the first month. So the new year for Israel is now grounded not in nature-renewal but in a redemptive-historical event —the Passover and exodus. The Egyptian new year began with the onset of the flood of the Nile. In structuring their calendars all the ancient cultures followed nature or lunar movement, but not Israel: “Such a revolutionary phenomenon is without analogy in the ancient world.”’ God’s redemptive act would commence the Israelite new year. At the center of Israel’s life as a nation would stand the remembrance of God’s redemption.”

White, John H. Slavery to Servanthood. Great Commission Publications, 1987. p. 85.

Exodus 12 links:

a consecrated community
all about a Promise (part 1)
brush with death
deployed for a mission
Exodus- remember
rescue by grace
sendoff
signs for the believers
WHAT DOES THIS CEREMONY MEAN?

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, March 14, 2019
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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 18, 2017
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EXODUS in Jeff’s library