Exod 16 – The Israelites take the “long way around” to Canaan, through the Wilderness of Shur, around the western coast of the Sinai Peninsula through the towns of Marah and Elim, then to the Wilderness of Sin - see the map if you are as unfamiliar with this territory as I was: http://www.wall-maps.com/bible/232783-over.htm - you have to love the internet.  Here they begin to grumble: “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!” It is interesting here that we are shown that the desire for freedom in man is not unequivocal.  We want our security as well, even the uncomfortable certainties we can get in a system that basically uses us.  The Lord gives his people nourishment – quails and manna - from heaven, but it is not something they can store away or build up a supply of; it is fundamentally food that is received day to day, and they need to trust a lot in the provider. Right now they are thinking the slavery they knew in Egypt is better than the freedom they are promised at the end of this hard journey.

This is the kind of guidance and presence God gave us in the garden, the guidance that came from his daily presence.  But we did not like that kind of guidance. We wanted a “knowledge of good and evil” that would make us independent of God to a degree --a system to go by.  And though God wants us close and listening day by day, He will work with us.  He will ultimately give his people a Law to go by, a list of rules.  But is it what He really thinks is best? I don’t think so.

Some attention is also given to the holiness of the Sabbath—some manna may be set aside safely for the Sabbath rest. And Moses also puts a little manna in an urn to keep, to show those who will come after them what they lived on for forty years. Communication of the salvation story to future generations will be key.

Exod 17 – The people in the desert are thirsty and again complain to Moses.  God instructs Moses to strike a rock at Horeb, near Mt. Sinai with his staff so that water will come out of it.  Moses does this, but the place is a place of quarrelling and rebelliousness.  There is also the conflict with the Amalekites. Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ arm with his staff to bring victory to the Israelites, and to Joshua who is their military leader. The conflict and hostility with the Amalekites will go through the OT as a continual theme—perhaps they are a kind of type of the outside hostile forces that plague the people of God in the wilderness. The people are not sure any more that God is in their midst. If you have ever doubted the presence and power of God, if you have ever felt torn about whether you should trust in the Lord and in those sent to draw you to Him, you will relate at some level to this story.

Exod 18 – Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro (AKA Reuel) brings Zipporah, Moses’ wife, and their two sons to Moses at the mountain of God, and he rejoices to hear all that the Lord has done.  The Schocken Bible [a modern Jewish translation of the Torah by Everett Fox] points out that the wilderness or “trek” narratives  (Exodus and Numbers) have six stations or stops between Egypt and Sinai, and then six again from Sinai to the Promised Land.  Here they are at the midpoint of the journey.  It is Jethro who notices that Moses really needs help in the work he is doing, judging the people’s disputes and advising them on what it is the Lord wants of them.  He suggests, “You will become worn out, yes, worn out, . . .for this matter is too heavy for you, you cannot do it alone” (18:18). He tells him “you are to have the vision (to select) from all the people men of caliber, holding God in awe, men of truth, hating gain,” and these men you should set over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens “so that they may judge the people at all times” (18:21-22). So, the introduction of law into the lives of the migrating people of God, will bring a degree of political organization as well as moral leadership in the appointment of "judges."

Exod 19 – Some of the interesting observations made by the Schocken translator in his introduction to chapters 19-24 include the following: the mountain serves as a bridge between heaven and earth [Augustine would run with this image in his sermons]—and only Moses is permitted to ascend it. Mt. Sinai itself never became a holy site for the Israelites.  The only other story that is located here is one with Elijah (1 Kings 19) and it tries to show the relationship between the two prophets.  The Midrash notices that the events on Sinai resemble the conclusion of a marriage ceremony (“rescue—courting—wedding w/stipulations—home planning—infidelity—reconciliation--moving in.” p. 360), not the first or the last image of marriage as a “type” of the relationship between God and his people.

A new covenant will be entered into here. It differs from the two described in Genesis—Noah (Gen 9) and Abraham  (Gen 15, 17) where human beings are more passive recipients of God’s promises. Exodus introduces the idea of mutuality and conditionality.

Arriving at the wilderness of Sinai, Moses goes up to meet with God, and God addresses him thus: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me.  So now, if you will hearken, yes, hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a special-treasure from among all peoples.  Indeed, all the earth is mine, but you, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (19:4-6). He comes down and speaks to the elders.  They arrange a time for the people to assemble before YHWH at the base of the mountain. No one is to approach the mountain and everyone is to make themselves clean and holy (19:10).  When they assemble the mountain smokes and the shofar sounds.