In Exodus 19:18-19, “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder,” which understandably made the Israelites “tremble with fear” (20:18), and fear so intense that they begged Moses, “Don’t have God speak to us or we will die”(19).

Yahweh had made his presence felt all right, and he was one scary Being. But Moses tells the terrified crowd in Exodus 20:20, “Don’t be afraid.” Which seems like an odd thing to say, but in context he’s saying, “Yahweh’s not doing all this to frighten you to death.” Instead, “he’s come to test you.” This frightening display of his power, therefore, was a test, the test being: will it create in the Israelites “an ongoing fear” of what Yahweh is capable of that will “keep them from sinning” (20)?

Because up to this point the Israelites hadn’t been very good at not sinning, and the reason for it becomes abundantly clear in their reaction every time a crisis arose that scared them. When they saw the Egyptian chariots bearing down on them they “cried out to the Lord” and to Moses, “Did you deliberately bring us out here to die? What have you done to us?” (14:10-11). They were accusing Yahweh and Moses of deceit. 

And when there weren’t the pots of meat they could fill up on like they’d had in Egypt, they accused Moses and Aaron of deceit again, this time in purposely starving them to death (16:3). And when there was no water, they accused Moses of deliberately killing them off by thirst too (17:3), described by Moses as “putting the Lord to the test” (2) – which it was, because Moses had told them back in Exodus 14:13, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and you’ll see the deliverance of the Lord,” which they’d experienced in vivid and memorable detail again and again, but it never stopped them from mouthing off at Moses and turning against Yahweh. 

They had no fear of Yahweh at all, and that’s what created their rotten attitude. So at Sinai Yahweh upped the scariness to help them realize they also needed to “be afraid” – realizing just who they were dealing with and the immense power he could unleash on them for their rotten, negative, accusing attitude toward him. 

So first of all, “don’t be afraid,” since there was no crisis Yahweh couldn’t solve, but secondly, “be afraid” to keep them from sinning – both for their benefit. They were learning in Yahweh, therefore, that “They needed no other God”….(next blog)

Another day, another crisis. First it was the undrinkable water at Marah after travelling three waterless days in the desert, Exodus 15:22-23. To which the Israelites could understandably ask, “Is the Lord among us?” Well, yes, came the answer, because Yahweh made the undrinkable water perfectly drinkable. So what other conclusion, other than “the Lord being among them,” could they come to? 

And then half way through their second month in the desert, it was the lack of pots of meat and eating all the food they wanted – like they’d had back in Egypt – that got the Israelites moaning again. So Yahweh solved that one too, not only providing them with meat each evening, but all the bread they’d ever want each morning too, Exodus 16:8, so that, verse 12, “you’ll know that I am the Lord your God,” proving again that he was very convincingly among them.

But as soon as that little crisis was over, another one arose, this time when they arrived at Rephidim and “there was no water (at all) for the people to drink,” Exodus 17:1, not even undrinkable water. But hadn’t Yahweh proved twice already that he was among them, and therefore would be ready again with a perfect solution?

But no, they turned on Moses, accusing him of deliberately “getting us out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst” (3). So Yahweh has Moses strike a solid rock with his staff and out pours enough water for every adult, child and all their sheep and cattle too (4-6). That’s now three times Yahweh has proved he’s among them. 

They got a fourth time too, when the Amalekites suddenly attacked while the Israelites were still camped at Rephidim (8). But the Amalekites were sent packing by Moses climbing a hill, staff in hand, and Aaron and Hur holding up his arms “till sunset” (10-13). Another unusual but remarkable solution by “the Lord (yet again) being among them.”

It had been one thing after another, but a month or so later they arrived at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20, where they were treated with a really impressive display of Yahweh’s power that had them trembling with fear (18), and in no doubt at all that the Lord was among them (19).

It was then in verse 20 that they found out why he was among them. It was, according to Moses, to tell them, “Don’t be afraid, but be afraid”….(next blog)  

When “the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians,” Exodus 14:31, it was then that “they feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.”  

It was Yahweh’s show of power that did it. Not only was it hugely effective in focusing the Israelites’ trust in him, it would stir their kids’ imaginations at story time too, when telling of what happened back there in Egypt and how “With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” Exodus 13:14, and all the amazing miracles he did to make it happen.

So Yahweh wasn’t shy about showing his power to kickstart trust in him. He clearly took into account that trust takes time. Abraham’s trust, for instance, was a bit shaky to begin with. How, for instance, could his children inherit the land of Canaan as promised in Genesis 12:7, when Yahweh hadn’t given him any children, Genesis 15:3? And how did Abraham know the land of Canaan would be his (8), when at this point in time there was no evidence to show that any of this would come true? 

So Yahweh put on a show for him in verses 9-17, involving cutting a three year old heifer, goat and ram in half, arranging the pieces opposite each other, and at sunset “a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.” Whatever that meant, it succeeded perfectly in removing all doubt from Abraham’s mind. 

Moses too was a bit hesitant to begin with when Yahweh said, “I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” in Exodus 3:10-11. Moses not only doubted he was the man for such a job, he doubted the Israelites would go for it too (4:1). So Yahweh put on a show for him, and later the Israelites too, by having Moses throw his staff on the ground and it turned into a snake, and then grabbing the snake by its tail to turn it back into a staff again (4:2-4). And what was Yahweh’s reason for this little display of his power? “This,” verse 5, “is so that they (the Israelites) may believe” – which they did (29-31).  

So Yahweh wasn’t requiring blind trust in him. He happily provided evidence for trusting him in a show of his power. “For forty years the Israelites saw whai I did” (Hebrews 3:9): bitter water became sweet, their demand for bread and meat in the middle of a dry desert was met. So they had no reason to wonder in Exodus 17:7, then, “Is the Lord among us or not?”….(next blog) 

Right from the start of the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt, Yahweh gave a reason for the often strange and scary things he had them go through. How strange and scary, for instance, that instead of telling them to scurry off as fast as they could on the shortest and most direct route out of Egypt, he had them stop and “turn back” in Exodus 14:1. 

Because, verse 3, “Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert,’” and with his heart then purposely hardened by Yahweh, he’ll gather his troops with murderous intent to slaughter the Israelites – so that, and here’s Yahweh’s reason, verse 4 – “I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”

But how exactly was Yahweh going to do that? It was all well and good saying it, but defeat “six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt,” and all his foot soldiers too (7-9)? True, the Israelites “went up out of Egypt armed for battle” (13:18), but what possible hope of winning did they have against the greatest, most powerful nation at the time? They didn’t, and they knew it, because they were “terrified” on sighting the Egyptians, Exodus 14:10.

But with Yahweh, “always a reason, always a way,” or as Moses put it in verse 14, “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still,” so sit back and relax, Yahweh will find a way – which he did by drowning the entire Egyptian army (28). “And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (31).

Right before their eyes, then, they witnessed the truth of “always a reason, always a way.” Yahweh had a clear reason for this scary incident, and he provided a way to fulfill it. Not only did he get his point through to the Egyptians, he set up a pattern for the Israelites in future too. And for a brief moment they got it, as they stood on the far shore looking back on the utter destruction of their formidable enemy, having not lifted a weapon in self-defence. So they sang out loud in Exodus 15:2, “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation,” and in verse 11, “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?” – the same point Yahweh got across to the Egyptians. 

But what did it take on Yahweh’s part to transform them from being whimpering scaredy-cats to bubbling over with confidence? According to Exodus 14:31, it was “A display of great power”….(next blog) 

One and a half months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites hit what they considered to be another “overwhelming circumstance.” And their reaction was much the same. 

The first time it was the sight of the Egyptian army chasing them in Exodus 14:10 that “terrified” them, and it was Moses who got it in the ear: “Did you get us stuck out here in the desert to die, because there weren’t any graves in Egypt?” they yelled at him. “Better for us that we’d stayed in Egypt than die out here” (11-12). 

And only two chapters later they’re at it again, up on their high horse accusing Moses: “If only we’d died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you, Moses, have brought us out into the desert to starve this entire assembly to death,” Exodus 16:1-3. 

In both cases, Yahweh fixed it for them, despite their arrogant demands and accusations. But two years later in Numbers 11, the Israelites are back at it again, the ‘overwhelming circumstance’ this time being stuck with nothing but manna, and no meat, fish, melons and other goodies they’d had in Egypt, to the point, they said, that “we’ve lost our appetite” (4-6), which was just another way of saying the same thing, that because of Moses they were starving to death.

Hit with overwhelming circumstances their immediate reaction was to blame. How could Moses treat them like this? But it wasn’t Moses’ fault. Yahweh had allowed these circumstances to happen, and in such a way that there was no clear solution. But why would he do that? There’s a clue in Genesis 22 when Yahweh told Abraham to sacrifice his son. What could be more overwhelming than that? Abraham reacted differently though. He humbly accepted and off he went, and became the first man to discover the solution, which he simply put in verse 14, as “The Lord will provide.” 

And hadn’t Yahweh done that for the Israelites in every overwhelming circumstance he’d put them in? He’d always provided, and also in such a way that clearly only he could have done it, so that they too, when sorely tested, would react like Abraham. So that instead of getting themselves in a lather, they’d come to realize that with Yahweh there was “Always a reason, always a way”….(next blog)

Exodus 15 sets the scene for “The test” – when for “three days the Israelites travelled in the desert without finding water” (22), but at the first oasis they come to, desperately thirsty, “they couldn’t drink the water because it was bitter” (23).

And Yahweh did that. He took them that route on purpose, knowing that they and their children, the elderly, the exhausted, and all their massive flocks and herds, would end up in a life threatening situation. But after boatloads of evidence that he had the power to rescue them from sure death, not only from thousands of bloodthirsty Egyptian soldiers, but also from a watery grave, what was the problem? And what about the song the Israelites had just sung earlier in the chapter too, with the words, “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling” (13).

But hit with this latest crisis, “the people grumbled against Moses” (24). So Yahweh gave Moses some needed credibility in their eyes by “showing him a piece of wood,” which Moses threw into the bitter water and it became wonderfully and drinkably sweet, all of which put the final props in place for “The test” (25).

It had all been beautifully choreographed by Yahweh – both the scary problem and the memorable solution – to get across the point in verse 26, that “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.”

That wasn’t difficult for the Israelites to grasp too, because they’d seen what Yahweh had done to the Egyptians, and they’d just sung why he’d done it too, that “you threw down those who opposed you” (7). The Egyptians were given the chance to humbly accept the obviously superior power of Yahweh over their own gods, but they were too arrogant for that, and they paid the price. So Yahweh was now offering the Israelites the same chance, and he’d show what humbly accepting his directions and power would do for them instead. 

Arrogance or humility, that was the test. And how brilliantly useful knowing that is when, like the Israelites, we too are being “Hit with overwhelming circumstances”….(next blog)

In Numbers 11:18-20, Yahweh’s response to the Israelites complaining about no meat to eat, and wailing “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” – was to swamp them with so much meat it would “come out of their nostrils” to the point they’d “loathe it.” Why? Because that was the consequence he inflicted on them for “rejecting” him (20).

It wasn’t the first time this happened too. Rejecting Yahweh had become a habit, and so were the consequences, starting back in Exodus 32 when the Israelites turned away from the real power that had saved them to bowing down to their own crafted idol instead (8). It was a direct slam against Yahweh himself, and he responded by “striking the people with a plague” (35).

From the very start of their relationship with Yahweh, then, they knew that “rejecting him has consequences.” But they also knew why Yahweh had set it up this way back in Exodus 20:20, when Moses, in response to Yahweh’s terrifying scene at Mount Sinai (18), told the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Fear of consequences, then, wasn’t meant to be negative. True, it was a scary thing knowing consequences would happen, but only as a helpful reminder and incentive to “listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your good and do what is right in his eyes,” Exodus 15:26, because (same verse), that way nothing harmful would happen to them and instead they’d have Yahweh “healing” them. 

But whenever things were not to the liking of the Israelites their first reaction was to turn against Moses and Yahweh, resulting in more severe consequences. It was a rotten way to live, but for some reason the Israelites never got the point of it.

In contrast to that, when Moses complained bitterly for how Yahweh was treating him in Numbers 11:10-15, the consequence he got was “healing,” not only in his attitude but the situation too. Why the difference? Because Moses wasn’t rejecting Yahweh; he only wanted to know if he’d “displeased” him in some way (11).

The difference, then, was in their reaction to suffering. For Israel it was reason to arrogantly reject Yahweh; for Moses, the humble desire to understand him. In every situation they came up against, then, which would it be? Because that was “The test”….(next blog)  

The words, “Just you wait and see,”were belted out in 1942 by Vera Lynn in the chorus of her song, “The white Cliffs of Dover,” during England’s “darkest hour” of humiliating defeats in battle, cities being bombed to bits, severe rationing of food, morale at its lowest, and Churchill’s leadership being seriously questioned. The situation was dire, and no relief in sight. But up pops Vera promising, “There’ll be love and laughter, and peace ever after, tomorrow when the world is free.” 

But if someone had dared say in 1942, “Nice sentiment, Vera, but you’re promising love and laughter when we’re being brutally hit from all sides by a formidable enemy intent on destroying us, and with very convincing signs he’s winning. Do you really think in our present state, then – even if we transformed every factory we’ve got into weapons production – it would be enough to set the whole world free?”

It sounds a bit grumpy, but that was also Moses’ approach to Yahweh after his promise to provide meat for a month to “600,000 men on foot” in the middle of a desert, Numbers 11:18-21. To which Moses replies in verse 22, “But if we slaughtered our entire flocks and herds, and hooked every fish in the sea, do you really think that would be enough meat to get all these people fed?” Like Vera, wasn’t it just wishful thinking on Yahweh’s part, rather than facing reality? 

But ironically, Yahweh’s answer was exactly the same as Vera’s. To the whole idea of a world being set free, Vera would have said, “Well, just you wait and see.” But that’s what Yahweh said to Moses in verse 23, first of all asking Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” In other words, “Do you really think I’m incapable or doing this?” And then Yahweh’s second volley, “You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” In other words, “Just you wait and see. I’ll show you what’s what, Moses; watch and learn.” 

So Yahweh ‘did a Vera’ in answer to Moses’ darkest hour – but, unlike Vera, Yahweh had the power to back it up, and in dramatic fashion too. He blew quail by the boatload into the camp to a depth of three feet “as far as a day’s walk in any direction” (31). It took two days and a night for the Israelites to gather up all the quail (32). 

So Yahweh was true to his word, but why, before the instigators of the complaint got to even taste the quail, did he kill them off with a plague (33-34)? There’s a clue in verse 20, to get the point across that “Rejecting him has consequences”….(next blog) 

Yahweh gave Moses two reasons for not throwing in the towel, the first being that he totally understood what Moses was going through. The Israelites’ loud wailing, “Give us meat to eat” in Numbers 11:13, and their constant moaning about how much better the food was in Egypt (5), not only made Moses angry, it made Yahweh angry too (10).

So when Moses in total exasperation yelled out to Yahweh in verse 13, “Where on earth am I going to find meat for all these people?” – and then in verses 14 and 15, “This is all too much for me, I want out now” – Yahweh didn’t stomp on him. Instead, he got Moses to choose seventy leaders from among Israel’s elders, on whom he “put the same Spirit Moses had,” so they could help carry the burden of the people, and Moses would not “have to carry it alone” (16-17). 

It didn’t mean the burden would go away, but there was no reason in the enormity of it for Moses to throw in the towel, because Yahweh not only understood Moses’ frustration, he stepped in with the help Moses needed. 

Yahweh then expressed his own exasperation in response to the Israelites wailing, “If only we had meat to eat, we were better off in Egypt” (18), by having Moses tell the people, “I’ll give you meat all right, and so much meat for the next month it’ll come pouring out through your nostrils until you loathe it” (18-20). 

But even Yahweh sharing his own frustration wasn’t enough yet to settle Moses down, because Moses fired right back at him in verses 21 and 22, “So you say, ‘I’ll give them meat to eat for a whole month,’ but where’s it coming from, eh? Even if all the flocks and herds were butchered, and if all the fish in the sea were caught, would that be enough?” All Moses could see was how impossible his situation was, to the point it didn’t matter what Yahweh said anymore. 

To slice through the impenetrable fog of Moses’ despair, then, Yahweh hit Moses in verse 23 with a blunt question: “Are you actually saying, Moses, that I can’t take care of this situation, that my arm is too short?” And that’s when he gave Moses a second reason for not throwing in the towel, by saying, “Well, I’ll show you whether or not what I say will come true for you.”  

And what more could Moses say after that? Proof was on its way. So rather than throw in the towel, “Just you wait and see”….(next blog)

In Numbers 11:15, Moses was at the end of his rope. He was exhausted by the endless complaints and demands of the Israelites to the point of asking Yahweh to “put me to death right now so I don’t have to face my own ruin.” Like a terminally ill patient seeking a medically assisted death, Moses in his mental agony was seeking a Yahweh assisted death.

But didn’t he have the right to ask Yahweh for such a thing, when it was Yahweh who’d landed him in this mess? And why should Yahweh expect him to keep putting up with it too, when life in this wretched desert had become an endlessly repeating cycle of the Israelites making Yahweh so angry by their grumbling that he hit them with plagues and fire, and on two occasions had even threatened to kill them off? Meanwhile, Moses was stuck in the middle of all this, with no end to it, no escaping it and no relief. Worse still, there was no obvious purpose to it too. 

So what stopped him from storming off in a huff yelling “I’ve had it with you Israelites, and frankly, Yahweh, I’ve had it with you too”? There’s a clue back in verse 15, because right in the middle of him asking Yahweh to put an end to him, he adds “if I have found favour in your eyes.” 

In other words, “I’m only asking this of you with what you think of me in mind too.” Which was a jolly useful reminder, and a lifesaver for Moses too, because he already knew what Yahweh thought of him – Yahweh himself having told him at some time in the past, “I know you Moses by name and you have found favour with me,” Exodus 33:12. When Moses had a highly personal request for Yahweh, therefore, he included that too, as a reminder to both himself and to Yahweh. 

Which Yahweh deeply appreciated, verse 17, because in response to Moses he told him, “I will do the very thing you’ve asked because I’m pleased with you.” And why was Yahweh so pleased with Moses? Because in everything Moses thought, said, did, and asked for, it was always with Yahweh in mind and pleasing him. He was close to forgetting it at times, especially when the pressure on him was as intense and agonizing as it was in Numbers 11, but at the last minute when he was truly ready to throw in the towel, back to mind it came: “I’d like to die,” he told Yahweh, “but only if that meets with your favour too.”

And Yahweh honoured Moses’ humility, but he also reminded Moses that he had “No reason to throw in the towel” too….(next blog)