In Exodus 21:1, Yahweh tells Moses, “These are the laws you are to set before them,” and when the Israelites obeyed these laws “fully,” Exodus 19:5-6, “then out of all nations,” Yahweh says, “you will be my treasured possession, and you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

By the application of these laws, then, the Israelites would be the most skilled people on the planet in the art of living. As “priests” they would also teach it, and as a “holy nation” demonstrate it. And in Yahweh calling Israel his “treasured possession,” that’s how much he prizes those who bring his laws to life in their world and their circumstances.

The Israelites, for instance, had grown up in an Egyptian culture of masters and slaves. But rather than have the Israelites start from scratch and try to create a completely different culture, Yahweh gave them laws for living within that culture, because that’s where the differences in his ways of living would really begin to show. The Egyptians, for instance, were brutal in their treatment of foreign captives and labourers, including the Israelites themselves, so Yahweh designed laws for the Israelites that would stop them doing the same thing.

Like the first law on his list in Exodus 21:2, which says, “After six years service a servant shall go free, with no financial penalty.” But if the servant says in verse 5, “I love my master” and wants to stay as his servant, his choice would be honoured too (6). No one, therefore, was stuck as a servant forever with no chance of a new life, but nor was he let go if he felt welcome and secure in his present position. 

Where in Egypt or in any of the surrounding cultures would that be top priority? But it was to Yahweh, because it would beautifully show the contrast and improvement in the culture that his laws made, which in Deuteronomy 4:5-8 was exactly what Yahweh had chosen Israel “out of all nations” for. 

Is there also a clue here, in Yahweh making this the first of his laws for Israel, that the most pressing (and depressing) problem in any culture in any age would be the strained relationship between masters and servants, or in our day the relationship between the ruling elite and the working class? But in the Israelites Yahweh had a solution for that: it was always there in his laws, that lived fully create “A society with a heart”….(next blog)

In Deuteronomy 4:1, Moses cries out, “Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I’m about to teach you….that the Lord my God commanded me (5) for you to obey in the land you’re about to occupy.” 

And in verse 6, “Make sure you carefully follow them too, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples in that land, so that when they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’”

Imagine being told that and comparing it to their lives back in Egypt. What chance did they have back then of wowing other nations with their wisdom when they were stuck in the clutches of a tyrannical regime that considered them enemies of the state and a danger if allowed to survive, that felt utterly justified, therefore, in killing all their boy babies? And what was their everyday life like too, being mere slaves, and if they protested the regime came down even harder on them? They lived in constant fear, reduced to just surviving, with no prospect of escape.

And yet here they were, free of all that, and being told that even with their miserable background of knowing nothing but toil and hopelessness, and having no skills beyond making bricks for the Pharaoh’s vanity projects, they would become so “great a nation” themselves that other nations would be impressed enough to want to check them out.

So what, then, would make them so great? Moses answered that with two questions, the first in verse 7: “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” Good point, because it was the Israelites crying out to God directly in Exodus 2:23-25, that got their rescue from Egypt started. He answered their cry, showing he really was that near to them. And a lot of non-Israelite people took note of it too, who left with Israel in the Exodus (Exodus 12:38).  

And then Moses’ second question in Deuteronomy 4:8 – “What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” What would really catch the attention of others would be the wisdom and understanding the Israelites gained from the highly practical set of laws Yahweh had given them in Exodus 21 to 24. Because these laws would make them “Skilled in the art of living”….(next blog)   

In Exodus 20:22-23, Yahweh has Moses tell the Israelites, “You’ve experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from heaven: ‘Don’t make gods of silver and gold and then set them alongside me.’”

Not an easy thing for them to do, though, because in Egypt they’d grown up with all sorts of gods and goddesses, over 2,000 of them, to provide for their every need. That was the culture: if there was a need, create a god or goddess to take care of it. But now the Israelites were being told in verse 2, that “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Don’t then,” verse 3, ”have any other gods besides me.” In other words, they needed no other God than him, because from now on he, and he alone, would provide for all their needs.

And he’d dramatically proved his point by “bringing judgment on all the gods of Egypt,” Exodus 12:12, which he’d done by each of the plagues he’d inflicted on Egypt representing a god the Egyptians idolized, and their gods had been powerless to stop him. So he demonstrated his obvious superiority over their gods. And then he explained why he’d done it too, in Exodus 20:4-5, when he told the Israelites to “not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or on earth, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Jealous in the sense that he wanted to be their provider and no one else. 

And from that point on he set about proving he could be their total provider, by first of all putting on a fearsome display of his power at Mount Sinai (20:18), and following it up with a promise in verse 24, that “Wherever I cause my name to be honoured, I will come to you and bless you.” On any future occasion, then, wherever and whenever he showed his power again, realize that it too was entirely for their benefit. Or put another way, trust him to provide, knowing he had the power to do so, and he would make his presence and provision very real to them.

Their trust, therefore, was hugely important, which they could show by “making an altar of earth (or pile of stones) for me and sacrificing your burnt and peace offerings on it” (24-25). Nothing elaborate, no cut stones using tools, and no steps up to it either (26) – so nothing impressive made by human hands that could be idolized like the gods of Egypt. 

Because what Yahweh was creating in Israel was belief in him, with no elaborate man-made rituals or buildings required to get him to provide. And not only was it his power he wanted them to trust in, it was making them into “A wise and understanding people” too….(next blog) 

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)