Exodus 14-24

1. 1. Pharaoh pursues; crossing of the Red Sea 
      1. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened again 
      2. Israel fears and cries to the Lord
      3. God plans to get glory
      4. Angel of the Lord moves in between pharaoh and Israel: the pillar moves too
      5. God parts the Red Sea; Israel goes across on dry ground
      6. The Angel of the Lord breaks the chariots of Egypt; waters crash back down on pharaoh’s armies. 
      7. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Exodus 14:30–31 (ESV)

1. 1. Hymn of praise for deliverance; waters 
      1. The hymn recounted the deeds, giving discretion of Yahweh’s actions
      2. The hymn proclaimed the response by the nations surrounding that heard of the acts of Yahweh. 
      3. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. Exodus 15:3 (ESV)
      4. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11 (ESV)
      5. After their deliverance and the Red Sea crossing, the people faced their first trial: three days without finding water. They came to a place with water but it was bitter. 
         1. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink? Exodus 15:24 (ESV)
         2. What did God instruct Moses to do?
         3. Log in water 
         4. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” Exodus 15:25–26 (ESV)

1. 1. Grumbling for food; see the glory of Yahweh in the wilderness; provision of manna. 
      1. In this chapter, we see the cycle of grumbling continue. The Israelites grumble for food against Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron clarify that they were not grumbling against them, but against Yahweh. 
         1. Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Exodus 16:3 (ESV)
      2. Yahweh says that he will provide bread from heaven for them, but he explains that this in itself is a test to see whether they will obey his voice. They are only to gather a certain portion per household each day, and on the six day gather twice as much that they may rest on the Sabbath.
      3. In the wilderness, the Glory of the Lord appears. 
      4. God provides two types of food for Israel, what are they?
      5. The Lord commanded that they only gather a certain portion each day and to rest on the sabbath, did everyone obey?
      6. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. Exodus 16:35 (ESV)

1. 1. Water from the rock; Israel defeats Amalek
      1. Grumbling for water
      2. God provides
      3. Someone tell what happened 
      4. Notice this?
         1. Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” Exodus 17:5–6 (ESV)
      5. Defeat of Amalek: someone tell what happened. 
         1. This is a nation that is coming against the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness; they are not liking that they are in their territory. 

1. 1. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law gave him advice on leadership 
      1. Divide the load among other leaders

1. 1. God proposes the covenant union; Israel agrees. 

1. 1. 1. Arrival at Sinai
         1. This is where Moses first encountered Yahweh in the burning bush. God had said that he would return. 
         2. The people remain at this mountain throughout the book of Leviticus and the first ten chapters of Numbers.
      2. Bilateral covenant 
         1. Example: marriage covenant. 
         2. Statements of past relationship and acts
         3. Covenant benefits vv. 5-6
            1. סְגֻלָּה signifies not possession in general, but a precious possession, which one saves
         4. Agreement to the terms of the covenant v. 8: “all that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
         5. Covenant curses (consequences for not doing what you agreed to in the covenant). (Later on.)
      3. Consecrate yourself for the Lord is coming near. 
      4. Yahweh comes down and Moses acts as a mediator between Him and Israel.  Moses first received the stipulations of the covenant. 

LAW CODES:

1. 1. Ten Commandments, Yahweh begins laying out the terms of the covenant.

1. 1. The Book of the Covenant: Stipulations of the covenant relationship
      1. Interesting statement in 23
         1. Exodus 23:20–22 (ESV): Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.  22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 

1. 1. The covenant ratified 
      1. Moses recounts the words of the covenant 
      2. The people agree to the terms of the covenant 
      3. Sacrifices are made
      4. Moses sprinkles the book and the people with the blood of the covenant 
      5. There is a meal shared between the elders of Israel and the Lord
         1. In the ancient biblical world, covenants were normally concluded with a special covenant meal in which animals were symbolically cut in half (symbolizing the shared responsibility of the two parties as well as the severity of the penalty for breaking the covenant), then the parties to the covenant walked between the pieces, and then the meal was eaten together as a sign of friendship and alliance
      6. The tablets were given to Moses
      7. Moses goes up to receive the Instructions of The Lord; the Lord comes down