Exodus - Lesson 16

Dr. Carmen Imes 
Exodus 
OT605-16 
Wilderness Beginnings 
Lesson Transcript

We have crossed through the Red Sea, we have celebrated God's victory on the other side, and now we are officially in the wilderness. The word wilderness sometimes has a connotation to us that doesn't match the reality. When you think of wilderness, do you think of the backcountry of Montana or of the Rocky Mountains where there's trees and mountains and streams? We call that a wilderness area.

This wilderness is nothing like that except that there are some mountains. It is a very dry and desolate place where water is hard to find, food for animals is very hard to find. It is striking that God brings his people into such an inhospitable place.

And part of the genius of their experience in the wilderness is that God is able to remake them as a people and reshape them. The wilderness is liminal space, it's in-between space. They're not in Egypt anymore, they're not in the promised land yet, and so they don't have all of the structure of an established society.

They're on the move, living in tents, looking for water, trying to find their way, following the the pillar of cloud. And it's a wonderful venue in which God can show them on a day-to-day basis that he is caring for their needs and bringing them right where he needs for them to go. And so it's a workshop in which he is developing their trust in him.

We have a few chapters of transition from the Sea of Reeds until Mount Sinai where they're crossing through the wilderness and God is providing for them. And then we have a long stretch of time where they're at Mount Sinai, stretching all the way from Exodus 19 until Numbers chapter 11. These are called the Sinai narratives because they're at Sinai that whole time.

So a lot of material for a probably pretty short period of time. In narrative time, it takes a year. It might have taken longer than that.

The narrative time might be functioning in a different way there. But in any case, they're not very long. And what we have on either side are wilderness journeys.

So the journey to Sinai and the journey from Sinai. And what I want to show you is some of what I discovered as I tried to drill down and see what is the narrator doing by telling these particular stories. So if you keep your finger in Exodus and flip over to Numbers chapter 33, you'll notice that in Numbers 33, we have an entire list of all the campsites where Israel stayed in their time in the wilderness.

And you can add them up and there are 42 different campsites in Numbers 33. These are the different stages of the journey. It's very carefully documented.

Perhaps if you've been on a long vacation before, you've had a list of day one, we did this and day two, we did this and day three, we did this. But then if you were going to make a photo album of your event, you would actually be more selective. You might not put every pit stop and every time you got gas and every time you went to an event or ate a meal.

Only the significant events are the ones that you're going to actually put pictures in your album and focus in on it. So if you went to Disneyland, you're going to have pictures of Disneyland, but you might not have pictures of gas stations along the way. So there's a similar dynamic that happens in the biblical text.

Numbers 33 is the full itinerary of 42 stops, but the actual wilderness stories that we read, the narratives in chapters 16 through 19 of Exodus and then in Numbers 10 and following are more selective. They're zeroing in on particular events. And I don't think these are just random selection of events.

I have become convinced that these events have been very carefully selected to create a sort of framing effect around the Sinai narratives. The Sinai narratives are so crucially important to Israel's theology and their experience with Yahweh. And by carefully crafting which stories are told on each side and what order those stories are in, we have this amazing, giant literary chiasm or sandwich effect.

So let me first show you some of the elements that we see on either side of Sinai. So in the image on your screen, you'll notice that there are only 10 times in the narrative that we're told that they camped or they broke camp to go somewhere. Even though we know from Numbers 33 that they had 42 different campsites, we have 10 times where it says they camped.

And there are six particular campsites mentioned on either side of Sinai. So we have six and six. And we have two times before Sinai and two times after Sinai where they don't have water and are struggling because of that.

We have one time before Sinai where water is given from a rock and one time after Sinai where they get water from a rock. One time it's mentioned before Sinai that God provides quail and manna. And once after Sinai, God provides quail and manna.

Now we know from the narrative that God provided manna every single day through the entire 40-year span of their time in the wilderness. But we only get one story on either side that tells us about the manna. They fight the Amalekites before they get to Sinai and they fight the Amalekites after Sinai.

They lament leaving Egypt before they get to Sinai and they lament leaving Egypt after they leave Sinai. There's a leadership struggle before they get to the mountain. And there's a leadership struggle afterwards.

There's a Midianite relative who helps them before Sinai and a Midianite relative who helps them after Sinai. There are complaints and rebellion before Sinai and there's complaints and rebellion after Sinai. And the cumulative effect of this list is that is that we have like clearly whoever is putting this narrative together is selecting the stories to create a framing effect around the mountain in the middle.

It came to my attention a few years ago as I was reading a book on Leviticus called Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of Yahweh. It's a book by Michael Morales. He shows that the whole book of Leviticus is structured as a kind of mountain or a chiasm where there's an element on either side.

So we have rituals and rituals at the beginning and end of the book. And inside of that we have a section on priesthood. And inside of that we have two sections on purity.

And at the very center we have the day of atonement ritual. So he shows how there's this wonderful design to the book of Leviticus. And I thought to myself I've already seen a framing on either side of Sinai where they're going through the wilderness.

I wonder if that too is in an actual chiasm where these elements are actually in a particular order. So this diagram shows you the larger structure of Genesis as a prologue, Deuteronomy as an epilogue, and then we have the defeat of Egypt in Exodus, the defeat of Moab in Numbers, and then the wilderness journey inside of that. And then we have forming a nation in Exodus 19, and we have mobilizing a nation in Numbers 1 and following.

And then the day of atonement triangle Leviticus material in the middle. This is so much fun when you start to see how much intentional design there is. Now let me show you what happened when I sat down with my list of elements on either side of Sinai and asked myself are these in order? I found, okay, so on either side of this center text which is Exodus 19 to Numbers 10, the Sinai narratives, we have the arrival at Sinai and the departure from Sinai as we would expect.

On either side of that we have Moses being assisted by a Midianite relative. It's Jethro in Exodus 18 and it's Hobab in Numbers chapter 10. On either side of that we have Moses complaining about the burden that he has of leadership.

That's in Exodus 18 and Numbers 11. On either side of that we have a mention of Moses' family. There's a possibility of conflict in chapter 18 verses 1 through 6. Zipporah and his and his and their sons are coming to meet him at the mountain and we wonder when did they leave? Weren't they with Moses on the way back to Egypt? And so when did they leave and why are they coming back now and is there some kind of brokenness in their family? It's a possible conflict but for sure just a mention of his family.

And we have Moses' family again in Numbers chapter 12, the story I mentioned earlier about the complaint against Moses as a leader. On either side of that we have a mention of Joshua. Joshua wins the battle with the Amalekites in Exodus 17 and in Numbers 13 and 14 Joshua is among those who go into the land as scouts and he and Caleb battle with the Amalekites.

On either side of the mention of Joshua we have a collection of events that work together. So we have a complaint about no food, a story about the Sabbath, a story of opposition to Moses and water coming from a rock. The order of these elements are different and I think there's there's reasons for the order that they're in in each place that were necessary but as a block they work on either side of the mention of Joshua.

Springs of water are provided on either side of that and then a song of victory over Pharaoh matches the song of victory over Sihon king of Ammon in Numbers chapter 21. And on either side of that we have the angel of Yahweh who protects Israel from Egypt's army and who protects Israel from Moab's curses. On either side of that we have Yahweh's showdown.

So we have a showdown with Pharaoh and a showdown with Balak king of Moab. So is that remarkable? So many elements that mirror each other on either side. It cannot be an accident.

A few years ago I was trying to figure out the structure of the book of Numbers. I was trying to understand how it was put together, organized, how could we outline this book and I found myself so stymied. I just couldn't get my head wrapped around it.

It didn't seem to have a logical or a chronological or a thematic flow and then I realized that's because it's half of a chiasm. It doesn't really work on its own. It only works when you put it together next to Exodus with Leviticus in between that you begin to see the logic of its structure.

So I hope this has been interesting to you to kind of see how it plays out and I would encourage you to take a picture of this slide and then go explore it for yourself and see if you can find other elements that I might have missed. There's some key themes that come out in the wilderness narratives. One of them is the people's ingratitude and rebellion.

There are complaints and rebellion before Sinai and there are complaints and rebellion after Sinai but God responds differently in the book of Numbers than he does in Exodus. So in Exodus, God is gracious and provides them with cycles of work and rest. In Numbers, he judges them.

The difference is that in between they've encountered God at Sinai and they've received his clear instructions about how to live and so their inability to put that into practice is what God is judging them for in Numbers. But in Exodus, we have a beautiful story of God's gracious provision which results in a striking contrast between serving Yahweh and serving Pharaoh. One example of this that I just love is from Exodus chapter 16.

This is when God provides manna for the people and he says, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.

So God's instructions are not onerous. They're not burdensome. His instructions are to go out and eat, to go find food.

He's providing for them and he's providing them enough for that day. The phrase enough for that day in Hebrew is davar yom b'yomo. So it's the thing day by day, day by its day.

So enough for each day is a good way of translating it. But what's striking about this is that it's the same phrase that was used in Pharaoh's instructions about making bricks. When he refused to give straw for the making of bricks, he said, but you still have to make your quota for the day.

You still have to make your davar yom b'yomo, which creates this beautiful contrast between Yahweh and Pharaoh. Yahweh is the God who provides food for each day. Whereas Pharaoh is the one who demands something for himself day by day.

Such a stark contrast between them. Exodus 18 is the passage in which I hinted at earlier when we were in chapter four, looking at the strange circumcision episode. I said that this chapter where that chapter four, where Moses talks with Jethro has all kinds of echoes in chapter 18, where Moses talks with Jethro again, and that these two chapters frame Israel's deliverance story.

So now I want to unpack what those connections are between the two chapters. So in both cases, Moses speaks with Jethro. In both chapters, Jethro offers a blessing of peace to Moses.

In both chapters, Zipporah travels with Moses' sons. The noun choten, which we've talked about before, can mean father-in-law or other male in-law. And Zipporah also uses the noun chatan, the relative by marriage or blood relative.

So the mention of Jethro as the choten and Zipporah's use of chatan is another feature that connects these two chapters. Aaron greets Moses with a kiss at the mountain of God when he meets him in chapter four. And in 18, Moses greets Jethro with a kiss near the mountain of God.

They both mention the mountain of God and the greeting with a kiss. Aaron and the elders of Israel are both present in chapter four and in chapter 18. Any one of these things by itself would maybe not be that profound, but the cumulative effect of so many connections ensures that we pay attention to how they work together and how they participate in the framing of Israel's deliverance.

Notice that chapter 18, verse five says, Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, together with Moses' sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped near the mountain of God. This is a very vague reference to Mount Sinai. And you might be curious, why doesn't it just mention Sinai here? Well, I think that this incident is placed here to help make the framing around Sinai with the leadership and the complaining and other things that it matches on the other side of Sinai.

They're there, they're near the mountain of God, but we're waiting until chapter 19 to announce the arrival at Sinai. So what I'm trying to say here is that I think that the narrator has actually moved this story a little bit earlier so that it can participate in what God does in the wilderness. Without mentioning Sinai, it kind of delays the actual encounter with God at Sinai, and then it helps create this kind of narrative frame.

Jethro, as he meets Moses, has a testimony that's just as powerful as the testimony of Rahab that we read from Joshua chapter two. It's so interesting. Moses reports to him everything that God did in Egypt.

And Jethro was delighted. And he said, praise be to Yahweh, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.

We didn't know for sure where Jethro stood with Yahweh before. All we knew is that he was a priest of, he was a priest in Midian. We didn't know priest of which god, but now we see the nations testifying to Yahweh's supremacy, that Yahweh is greater than all other gods.

And this testimony affirms the literary structure and the theme of the book, that the rescue of Moses and the rescue of Israel leads to the nations knowing that Yahweh is the greatest. So this two-part structure of rescue that points to Yahweh's greatness is testified to by Jethro at the mountain. Such a beautiful moment.

As I mentioned earlier, chapter 18 frames Sinai along with numbers 10 and 11, which is where Moses receives advice from a Midianite family member. He struggles under the burden of leadership, and he appoints elders to share in the burden. I want to just zoom in and give you some detail on how that mirroring works, because there's shared language in these two texts.

In Exodus 18, 18, Moses hears from Jethro. Jethro sees that he's working as a leader all day long. People are lined up all day long wanting to talk to Moses, and he says, this thing is too heavy for you.

You are unable to do it alone. And on that basis, he suggests that Moses appoint other leaders who can work under him and take some of the burden off of his plate. Well, in Numbers chapter 11, when Moses is feeling overwhelmed, he reuses the exact words that Jethro had said at Sinai.

He says, I myself am unable alone to carry all this people for it is too heavy for me. It's a fascinating moment because Moses has never been asked to carry the people. Yahweh is the one who carried the people to Sinai.

And here, Moses has tried to shoulder it all himself. He's taking on more than what is reasonable for him to bear. And he realizes, I'm unable to do this.

And so God helps him to see that he has taken on more than what he should have. So that is a taste of the literary structuring that gets us through the wilderness and up to Sinai, the framing on either side of Sinai, and some of the themes that come out in the wilderness. We could just also reemphasize God's provision of water, God's provision of food, both manna and quail, his provision of victory over the Amalekites, and then this leadership advice from Jethro.

All of these things are crucial in the development of Israel as a nation, that as they're spending time in liminal space, they've given up all that they knew. Yeah, it was rough in Egypt, and it wasn't great to be slaves, but at least they knew what was expected of them. And now they're in a season in which everything's been upended.

They've been experiencing all of the stress that comes with dislocating, being dislocated. And so in the midst of that stress, God steps in and provides so graciously and gives them everything they need, including not only food, water, and victory, but the way he provides the food begins to help them experience the rhythm of Sabbath rest. So before he ever commands them to keep the Sabbath, he provides for them in a pattern that's six days of work and one day of rest, so that they can learn to trust his provision and learn to obey his commands.

So by the time they actually get the law, it will be more intuitive for them, and they'll see, this is going to work. God's going to provide what we need. So it's such a beautiful and gracious story.

Any questions about the wilderness? As you're describing the experience of the Israelites before and after Sinai, you used the term liminal. Could you just be specific about what that means and why it's important in Exodus? Yes, I'm happy to do that. Liminal is one of those 50 cent words that you learn in grad school.

And to be honest, I had to look it up multiple times before it stuck. But the word liminal comes from the Latin word limen, which means threshold. And so it refers to the in-between.

If you're standing at the threshold of the building, you're not inside and you're not outside, you're in between. And usually sociologists or anthropologists use the word liminal to describe in-between space sociologically. So if you think of a young boy who hits puberty, maybe in a tribal culture, there's often a ritual that sends him off into the wilderness by himself to prove his manhood.

He's got to survive for a certain length of time. And when he comes back, he's a man, he's no longer a boy. And that period of in the wilderness by himself is liminal space.

It's a liminal zone where his identity is changing and he's being remade into something new. There are other ways of thinking of liminality. An airport for most of us is liminal space because it's not our destination.

We're not even allowed to go to the airport anymore. You and I can remember a time when you were allowed to go hang out at the airport if you wanted to, but now you have to have a ticket. You have to be a ticketed passenger to get past security.

And you're only there for as long as it takes to get on your plane and go somewhere else. So people are coming and going, but nobody belongs there. So that's liminal space.

And sociologists tell us that liminal space is where we get transformed the most. That when we've left one season and are entering another, it's very destabilizing, but that's the time when we actually can start new habits. I heard one time that people are most likely to change brands of toothpaste when they've just moved to a new house.

And there is literally no correlation between toothpaste and what house you're in. There's no reason why someone should change brands of toothpaste. But if you changed houses, you're renegotiating life again.

Maybe you're shopping in a different store. It's on a different shelf. You try something new.

And so the wilderness is this brilliant thing. It's so brilliant that God takes his people into this no zone where there is no structure, and so he can remake them and reshape them as a nation. They're actually not ready for Canaan yet.

They're not going to be ready for quite some time because they need to learn a new way of being as they're there. I'm glad you asked that question.