Day 44

Exodus 16 continues the journey of the Israelites know as the exodus.  The Israelites are beginning to grumble once again and saying that it would be better for them to have stayed in Egypt.  They are having a hard time finding food and felt that it would have been better to stay in Egypt where they had plenty of food.  Now God hears their complaints and tells Moses and Aaron that they will be taken care of.  He gives Moses and Aaron instructions once again to hand out to the masses.  Once again the instructions are very specific.  The Lord tells Moses that He will provide bread of a morning and meat at night and there will be enough for everyone.  Some of the instructions that they were given was that they are to collect no more then they can eat for that day.  If they try and save any for the next day it will become rotten.  On the sixth day is the only day that the rules change.  On the sixth day they are to collect twice as much as they usually do because the seventh day is a day of rest.  No one is to work on the seventh day in observance of the Sabbath.  Now some of the people did not listen to what Moses and Aaron have said and save some for the following day and wake up to spoiled and smelly food.  I am still finding it hard to believe that after all they have seen that they can still doubt Moses and Aaron.  One other fact I found very interesting was that the desert was named sin.  I am not sure if there is any type of significant meaning behind that in this story or not.

Exodus 17 continues once again with the Israelites testing God.  This time they are thirsty and quarrel once again with Moses.  Moses ask why they continue to test the Lord, but once again Moses goes to the Lord.  The Lord once again provides for them by having Moses strike a rock with his staff.  Water springs up from the rock in abundance.  To end chapter 17 we see that the Israelites are confronted with a battle against the Amalekites.  The Amalekites were from Amalek who was the son of Eliphaz and the grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:12).  Joshua is sent into battle with a following of the Israelite men while Moses, Aaron and Hur go up to the top of the hill.  Now while Moses holds his hands up the Israelites win but if he puts his hands down the table turns and the Amalekites win.  Moses, Aaron, and Hur come up with a solution to allow Moses to keep his hands up so that the Israelites win the battle. 

Chapter 18 of Exodus we see Moses receiving advise from his father-in-law.  Jethro hears of all the things that Moses is doing and comes to see Moses.  As he observes all that Moses is doing he gives him advice as ways to make improvements.  Moses puts into practice what Jethro has said and it appears that it works.

Matthew 27 begins in kind of a somber manner.  We immediately learn that Jesus has been condemned and will be put to death.  When Judas hears this he is convicted and feels remorse for what he has done.  The priest however do not care and basically tell him that he must deal with his own concerns.  Judas can not handle what he has done and goes out and hangs himself.  Jesus is then handed over to Pilate who basically ask him the same things the priest had asked him.  Now the governor was throwing a feast and it was his custom to release a prisoner during the event.  He asked the crowd who he should release and they all replied to release Barabbas.  Barabbas was a notorious prisoner.  Pilate is then confronted by his wife and she gives him warning that he should not be involved in this man's death.  Pilate ask what he should do with this man called Jesus and the crowd tells him that he should be crucified.  Pilate then washes his hands of Jesus and says that his death will not be on his head.  I think this was a brave move for Pilate and would love to learn how God treated it.  Pilate shows some restraint and does not want to do any damage to Jesus who he finds to be innocent.  The crowd on the other hand do not share his mind set and are the ones that are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Tomorrow's reading is:
Exodus 19, 20 and Matthew 27:27 - 50