BEMA 20: With All Your Heart

Transcription Status

29 Jun 22 — Initial public release

11 May 22 — Transcript approved for release

With All Your Heart

Brent Billings: This is the BEMA Podcast with Marty Solomon. I’m his co-host Brent Billings. Today, we are looking at the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea in Exodus 14, and then we will dissect their first test on the way to Mount Sinai in Exodus 15.

Marty Solomon: Just a little bit of review. I’ll make it brief this time. We’ve been spending some time on the review, but remember we have talked about the book of Genesis now, gotten that all wrapped up as we talked about that as God’s preface and introduction to his larger narrative. If God’s narrative starts in the book of Exodus, that means Genesis gives us a preface of chapters 1 through 11 where God introduces us to the really basic premises of his story. That is that he’s made a good creation.

He’s pretty much crazy about his creation. He thinks it’s good. He loves it. He values it. He accepts it as it is and invites that creation, particularly mankind, to trust that, to not live in fear and insecurity that they’re not enough, but trust they are. They struggle to do that until we get to the introduction, Genesis 12 through 50, and we meet the family of God. We meet the family of God with a guy named Abraham.

We’re going to talk about Avram as the father of faith in our tradition quite a bit, and that’s going to be because this family is going to be the kind of family that God wants to use. They have the chutzpah. They have the hospitality. They have the compassion. They seem to know how to lean back into the story. That’s what sets up the story, and then God’s narrative begins. We talked about the tale of two kingdoms. In the story of the Exodus, you have this juxtaposition and this contrast set up between two different ways. We talked about, in the last couple podcasts, the way of Pharaoh and his hand outstretched over the people that he’s oppressing, the people that stand against him. There’s a stick in his hand.

We’ll always talk about empire as being this metaphor for fear and coercion and a particular kind of power. It’s a worldly kind of dominating power, and that’s empire. It’s about greed. It’s about wealth. It’s about fame. Then you have the kingdom of Shalom. If this is the narrative of a Tale of Two Kingdoms, on one hand, you have empire; on the other hand, you have Shalom. If empire is about fear, then Shalom is about trust. If empire is about coercion, Shalom is going to be about invitation. If empire is about a particular kind of power, a dominator power, Shalom is about the kind of power that comes from self-sacrifice.

This is a juxtaposition we’re going to see and we saw as we walked through Rabbi Fohrman’s material. On our last podcast, we looked at the plagues. We looked at a God who’s pursuing Pharaoh’s heart. He wants the Egyptians to know, to yada him as God. He wants the Israelites to know and experience him as God, but he wants Pharaoh to know and experience him as God. Will Pharaoh give up this worldview of empire? Will he bow the knee to a new way, a better way, a way that puts the world back together? Of course, the answer is no.

God’s going to rescue his people out of this empire, and he’s going to invite them to partner with him to help him put the world back together. Just like he invited their ancestors, Avram, Yitzak, Yaakov to partner with him and put the world back together. First, he’s got to get them out of Egypt, and he’s got to get Egypt out of them. He’s going to do that by leading them into the desert. That’s where we’re going to pick up. We’re going to be in Exodus 14 today, and we have them coming out of Egypt. The Lord said to Moshe — Here they are on their way out. They’re on the run. They’ve been heading east out of the land of Goshen. The Lord said to Moshe, “Tell the Israelites to turn back and to encamp near Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea.”

Brent: Marty, I got to stop you one second. I just realized, we have a presentation for this podcast…

Marty: We do.

Brent: Check that out in your show notes.

Marty: Absolutely. In your show notes. Got the PDF. Thank you for stopping me. Good to know. You can follow right along if you pull that up. “They are to encamp by the sea directly opposite of Baalzephon, and Pharaoh will think the Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion hemmed in by the desert. They will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” The Israelites did this.

Now, in order to understand what God’s saying here, there’s a couple of things there that you’re like, “Well, I don’t really totally get it.” We threw in a few pictures here that’s going to help. If you go to your next slide here, we got a picture of the Sinai Peninsula. Just as a side note, I love stopping with this picture because you see, talking about the visual here of Goshen, Brent.

Brent: Oh boy. It is sand everywhere, except this one little spot.

Marty: That’s right.

Brent: This huge Nile River Delta and then of course the Nile itself you see snaking down, which has this little patch of green. It is desert everywhere.

Marty: Yes. Absolutely.

Brent: Where you go when you need vegetation of any kind, it’s pretty obvious.

Marty: Right. When we said the best topsoil on the face of the planet, we meant it, and you can see it in this photo here. They’re coming out here, and they’re headed towards the — we call it the Red Sea. Now there’s an immediate problem with that. A lot of people know this, but for those of you that don’t, there is no way that this can be translated Red Sea. It’s not like, well, it can kind of mean Red Sea. No, it can’t mean Red Sea. The word that’s used in the biblical text is not red. The word that’s there is the Sea of Reeds. It is the Reed Sea, or more appropriately, the Sea of Reeds. Now that raises another unique problem or questions.

Anyway, today, if you were to talk about the Sea of Reeds today, the Sea of Reeds refers to this marshland. If you go to the next slide, I’ve circled it in red. There’s a marshy marshland that sits just north of the left finger of water that goes up there out of the Gulf of Aqaba, if I remember that correctly. Or Suez sits right on the coast there. Anyway, you have marshland, and that is what has been referred to in recent history as the Sea of Reeds. Now, some have suggested, well, maybe the larger sea, what we know as the Red Sea, the big body of water to the south of that. Maybe the Red Sea used to be called the Sea of Reeds, and that’s entirely possible. We just don’t have a record of that. We don’t have it ever being called the Sea of Reeds, but we just don’t know.

It raises all these questions. Lots of scholars and academics have suggested that in fact Israel did not cross the Red Sea. What they crossed was this marshy marshland, and that would make a lot of sense for some scholars because chariots are not going to get through the Sea of Reeds. There’s no way. Is it possible that they told this — what did Gandalf say in The Hobbit? “Every good story deserves embellishment.” There’s my nerd quote for the podcast.

Brent: There you go.

Marty: It could be that, but I’m going to not go there. I don’t like to do that with the Text. I don’t like to do that myself. I like to try to stay as close to the Text as I can. You know me. I’m not exactly going to read the Text literally all the time, but I don’t want to bend it a whole lot just to suit my academic needs. I’m going to suggest that maybe it went further south than that because the Text definitely talks about walls of water. They walk between walls of water at the end of Exodus 14.

If you go to the next slide here, this helps us explain. I got an S there where they start. They head east, and before they get to the Sea of Reeds, God tells them they need to head south, which is nonsense. They need to go east and north in order to get to freedom, in order to get to safety. They need to get there quickly. God tells them to head south. This is why he says Pharaoh, he’s going to change his mind yet again, and he’s going to come after them. He says Pharaoh’s going to think you’re crazy because you’re just headed south, and he’s going to think you’ve lost your mind. You’re wandering around the desert being lost. Then once they get south they’re going to cross the sea.

Now the problem — a lot of people are like, “Okay, but they camp here, and they camp here, and they camp there.” The problem is we just don’t know where those places are and not in the ancient world. There’s a lot of places today that are called by those names, but a lot of that is just to attract people to those locations. Nobody really thinks that historically there’s any historical credence to those locations.

There are 19, what I would call, respected scholastic opinions, of where Sinai could be. There’s almost as many ideas of where they crossed either the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds. We’re not going to try to figure out where that would be, but just for the sake of our picture I’ve just drawn that map there. It could be a lot of options, but nevertheless, let’s get back to the story.

I’m going to pick up here in verse 10. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified and cried up to the Lord. They said to Moshe, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out to Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt to leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? It would’ve been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert. Now we understand, having looked at the photo, what they’re so upset about. Now, I love Moses’ words. Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm. Stand still and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring on you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again, and the Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still.” Moses says “just stand and watch.” That’s going to change later in the story. God is not always going to use the method of, “Hey, just stand and watch,” but here, he does. At the beginning of their story, God says, “You’ve seen a lot of things in the plagues. I’ve asked you to slaughter the lamb and put its blood on the door. I’ve asked you for a show of faith, and I’m going to invite you to just stand and watch your deliverance.” That will change later, so we can hold onto that. File in the back of our mind.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea.” Notice that stick. That stick is going to make an awful lot of appearances throughout the story here of the Exodus. In the videos that we watched from Ray, it symbolizes the power and the authority of the creator of the universe. Here’s this stick again. He tells him to stretch it out, and the Red Sea is going to part.

And then the angel of God, verse 19, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s armies withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to one side and light to the other side, so neither went near the other all night long. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind — there’s that ruach we’ve talked about, and turned it into dry land.

The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on the right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued them. I think we’ll probably keep on moving. Did you have any observations or anything there you’d add to that conversation, Brent?

Brent: I don’t know. The east thing is interesting. You go back to coming out of the Garden of Eden. They go out east. They’re heading east in Babel, and God says, no, you’re going away from where I want you to be. This east-west thing is interesting.

Marty: Absolutely. Now here’s a question for you. I don’t actually know the answer to this, but you might be the guy that does. If it’s an east wind, does that mean it’s heading east or coming from the east?

Brent: I think that means it’s coming from.

Marty: Coming from the east. Interesting.

Brent: I could be completely wrong, but I’m pretty sure.

Marty: If it’s coming from the east, it would typically symbolize judgment. Would that be a judgment on Pharaoh? It’s an interesting observation you’ve made there about the east wind. Absolutely. That will happen a lot in the Tanakh all throughout the prophet’s judgment from the east or judgment from the north sometimes, but that eastern wind often symbolizes the judgment of God.

Brent: Perhaps we have a meteorologist listening to the podcast who can let us know.

Marty: Perhaps.

Brent: The ruach.

Marty: I know we got a listener, Mr. Zack Dean. I wouldn’t call him a professor at all, but he got his degree in atmospheric science. He needs to send me a message.

Brent: That’s close enough.

Marty: Hey, moving on to the next slide. Now what’s interesting here is they’re going to cross the Red Sea, and they’re going to throw this big dance party on the other side of the Red Sea as they stand on the beach. Tambourines and dancing and singing. They’re going to call on the name of the Lord. It brings to mind, this is where for my class I often introduce what’s called the threefold coming of the kingdom. The Jewish teachers often taught that the kingdom comes in three ways. Three things have to happen in order for the kingdom of God to come.

Now, a lot of people are like, whoa, where does this idea of kingdom comes from? We haven’t gotten there yet, but later in Exodus 19, God is going to tell his people that if they will enter into a covenant relationship with him, they will be for him a what, Brent?

Brent: A kingdom of priests.

Marty: A kingdom of priests. Now later in Judaism, they connected this idea to a kingdom. The kingdom of God, we first see the kingdom of God at the very beginning of the narrative when God chooses a people. He chooses his people, and he creates a kingdom. It’s a kingdom of priests. They looked at that Exodus story, and they thought that they identified three things that always happen when kingdom comes. The first one is that the finger of God works. You can find that in the Exodus story in lots of ways. God keeps moving and working over and over again.

The magicians, if you remember in the Exodus story, if you remember what they told Pharaoh? After one of the plagues, they tell Pharaoh, “Pharaoh, you need to probably back off of this whole resisting-God-thing because this is the finger of God,” the magicians said. We have a finger of God direct reference in the Exodus story, but then over and over and over again, not just with the plagues. You could even put that on the western beach of the Red Sea. You could put the finger of God moving.

Then when they get to the eastern beach, they call on the name of the Lord really as a people for the first time. Prior to this, they have not as a people. The Israelites have not called on the name of the Lord together. They haven’t cried out to God as the name of the Lord. They haven’t, but now after his rescue, they finally call to him and say he is our God. In fact, at the end of the song there, the Hebrew seems to almost be like a refrain is Adonai emloch ha’olam va’ed. “The Lord is reigning forever and ever.” The Lord is reigning forever and ever. They finally call on the name of the Lord.

Brent: This name is specifically the one that the Lord revealed to Moses earlier in Exodus.

Marty: The Yod - He - Vav - Heh that we talked about earlier. Now, the one piece that’s still missing is that the people respond in obedience, and that’s where God’s going to take them, because after this they’re going to head where, Brent?

Brent: East or north.

Marty: Yes, they’re going to head east and south to…?

Brent: Sinai.

Marty: Yes, to Mount Sinai. That’s where God’s going to invite them to respond in obedience. It’s there where they’re going to get the law. It’s there where they’re going to learn what obedience is going to look like. At that point, you’re going to have the finger of God. You’re going to have the people calling on him as Lord. You’re going to have people responding in obedience, and you’re going to get a kingdom of priests. I just find this to be helpful for me because sometimes it helps me put words on the experiences that I have in my life.

We all have maybe acquaintances, family, friends, maybe even ourselves if you’re listening to this podcast, you’d have a hard time maybe saying that you’re a Jesus follower or a Christian or any of the other labels that we use for that conversation. Yet we know these people in our lives that the finger of God has worked, and we see them. They live these incredible lives of obedience. They live these lives of righteousness. The Jewish teacher would say, “Until you call on the name of the Lord, kingdom can’t come.”

At the exact same time, I think the judgment goes the other direction just as easily, probably even more, which is that in our Christian faith and in our Christian tradition, we have a tendency to do the first two and act like the third is just an extra add on if we get to it. We like to act like the finger of God has worked and we call him Lord, and that’s what makes the kingdom come. If the people of God don’t respond in obedience, the kingdom of God hasn’t come. All three of these things have to be at play, according to the Jewish sages, in order to find the kingdom. Some people, they’re like, “Man, I just don’t really like the sound of that.” I think — and I’ll let you decide this — I think Jesus taught this. I’ll give you some words from Jesus. Jesus said, “If I cast out demons by the…” what, Brent?

Brent: By the name of… the honor of… by the finger of God?

Marty: By the finger of God! “Then the kingdom of God has come among you,” Jesus said. Then later in his teaching, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who…?”

Brent: Follow my commands or whatever.

Marty: Yes. “Do the will of my father who is in heaven.” Jesus, I believe, directly taught this threefold coming of the kingdom. “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come among you. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my father in heaven.”

Brent: Do you know the reference for that off top of your head?

Marty: Ooh. No, I don’t.

Brent: That’s easy enough to find. You have to search.

Marty: Good old biblegateway.com. I believe Jesus taught this. Maybe the threefold coming of the kingdom and that whole slide, you’re like, “I’m just not sure how I feel about all that stuff yet,” but at least see it in the teachings of Jesus. At least see Jesus saying these three things absolutely apply to us being his follower.

Anyway, they get done with crossing the Red Sea, and in order for them to get to Sinai, God is going to lead them on a little small journey from the Red Sea to Sinai. In this 40-day journey, tradition has it, this 40-day journey from the Red Sea to Sinai, God is going to test them. Tradition says three times. They’re going to have three tests. God wants to test their heart. God wants to test their soul, and God wants to test their might, we’re going to say.

Now, just the idea of testing is one that we need to look at. For us Westerners, a test is often a pass-fail experience. In class, we had a test. We either passed or we failed, and we got a grade. Not the way a Hebrew sees testing. The Hebrew idea of testing is not a pass-fail test. In fact, we can look at Deuteronomy 8 to help us get some insight here. God said that he led them in the desert to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart. God said that he wanted to test them in order to know what was in their heart. What’s the problem with that, Mr. Brent?

Brent: Doesn’t God already know everything?

Marty: Right! We immediately are like, “Well, that’s just weird because, what — doesn’t God know?” This is that word we talked about in the Exodus story, and it’s the Hebrew word yada. Yada does not refer to cerebral knowing. It’s not intellectual knowing. Of course, God would know. Of course, he knows what’s in your heart. That’s not what God wants. God didn’t want to just know intellectually what’s in your heart. God wants to know experientially. In fact, this word yada actually has a bunch of sexual overtones. Adam yada-ed his wife Eve, and they conceived and bore son. It was the same word yada that was used to speak of — it often can be used to speak of sexual intercourse. It’s an intimate kind of knowing.

God wants to know what’s in our heart. He doesn’t just want to know it cerebrally. He wants to actually experience what’s in our heart. If you jump to our next slide. That means that a test is an opportunity. It’s always a two-way opportunity. There are two gifts that can be given with a test. The first is a gift that we get to give to God. A test is always an opportunity to show God what’s in your heart. A test is always your opportunity to show God where you’re at in your willingness to follow him and your willingness to be obedient, not to be perfect. He gets to experience where you’re at in your growth. It’s a gift that you get to give him.

At the same time, a test is also a gift from God to us because a test is always an opportunity to learn a new lesson from God, so there’s that. If we were to jump over to the end of 15. I actually might have you read that, if you’ll read about the waters of Marah and Elim. Go ahead and read that section for us.

Brent: Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. That is why the place is called Marah. The people grumbled against Moshe saying, what are we to drink? Then Moshe cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink there. There, the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord of 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.”

Marty: This ends up being a story the rabbis teach. This is the first test. This is test number one on their way to Sinai. God wants to experience what’s in their heart. Now, levav in Hebrew is your heart, and it’s more than — there’s a difference in the Western and the Eastern and the Greek and the Hebrew when we say “heart” and think about heart. When the Hebrew says heart, they mean your will. Worship comes from your will. For a Jewish mind, they connect worship to obedience, the fact that you would willingly obey God as an act of worship because you’re submitting your will to God’s desire. Your heart is the seat of your will. I said this was a test of Israel’s heart, a test of their will.

They went to that same passage we just quoted earlier, which is Deuteronomy 8. Your next slide actually has Deuteronomy 8 on it. God said this. He said, Be careful to follow every command I’m giving you today so that you may live and increase, may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these 40 years to humble and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestor has had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell during these 40 years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

We go back to that passage the rabbis teach. This was a test of their heart. What God wanted to know is if they would willingly wait on every word. Deuteronomy 8 said he wanted you to learn that man does not live on bread alone. Bread is a broad word in the Hebrew. It means just sustenance, food, drink, that which we need to live. Man does not live on sustenance alone, but on every word.

The rabbinic idea here is that God wants to teach his people that he will give them what they need when he knows they need it and sometimes not a moment before. What they’re going to learn in the desert is that they’re going to wait on every word. They’re going to wait on every word, and so they get thirsty. They cry, and they grumble out to Moses. Now we have a hint here. I wonder sometimes if this was a well that Moses knew, because this is the region where Moses has done what for 40 years, Brent?

Brent: He was shepherding.

Marty: Right. He knows this land. I wonder if he knew about this well and he was pushing his people to get to this well because he just knew they could drink. When he got there, the water was bitter. I think a lot of us are like, “Oh, bitter. That’s why they named the place Marah.” Marah has a deeper meaning than just bitter. Yes, the water was bitter, but there seems to be, and the rabbis teach, there’s this dual edge to it because marah also is what you call a rebellious son. To be marah is to be defiantly, stubbornly rebellious. You took a marah son in the book of Leviticus and you stone him because he is marah.

There seems to be an implication in this story here that the people — it’s not just about bitter water. It’s also about people that are defiantly, stubbornly rebellious. The water is bitter, and now they’re upset. Moses cried out to the Lord. The Lord showed him a piece of wood. This isn’t his stick. Not the stick, mind you, but a piece of wood. That Hebrew word there is different. He takes it, and he throws it into the water, and the water becomes fit to drink. The Lord issued a ruling and an instruction, some translations say law and a statute, for them and put them to the test. We’re told this was the first test.

Then he said — and notice this. The rabbis point out, this is a new conversation. Some people listen to this, and they think this is the law and the statute, but this actually isn’t the law and the statute, not in the Hebrew. Not according to the teachers. “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do it is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees.” What is this? This is a test of the heart. This is a test of willful obedience. God’s saying, “If you’ll wait on every word, essentially, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.”

The rabbis ask this major question, what was the law and the statute? When you read it, even in English, that wasn’t the law and the statute. If you do this, this will happen for you, but it’s not a law. It’s not a statute. The rabbis asked what was the law and the statute? The midrash, as always, gives us some insight. The midrash said the law and the statute was that when they went to drink from the well, God said they had to let the lame, the elderly, the sick, the marginalized go first to drink.

The midrash seems to teach that one of the things God wants to teach in every single one of the tests in the desert, every test is supposed to teach an aspect of community. They’re supposed to learn about why obedience and how obedience impacts the community. What’s interesting is the last verse that you stopped just short of, Brent. Would you read that last verse of how the story ends?

Brent: Then they came to Elim where there were 12 springs and 70 palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Marty: They basically turn the corner. They go right around the corner from this well, I don’t know if Moses knew this. Did he not know this? Did he never find this? Did God put it there? I don’t know, but they seem to go right around the corner. They get 12 wells and 70 palm trees. What sticks out to you about that?

Brent: There’s 12 springs, 12 tribes.

Marty: 12 tribes. There’s enough for everybody, 70 is another one of those numbers. It’s going to come back later in Torah, and it too is a communal number. This whole story seems to point towards the fact that if they just would have waited on every-- How long did it take to water everybody from one well? Especially if they had to let the sick and the marginalized and the injured go first, that had to have taken forever and then they learn. In this testing, they got to show God where they were at and God got to teach them a lesson. What they learn is if we’d only wait on the word of the Lord. If we’d only wait to trust the story, trust that God’s going to give us exactly what we need exactly when we need it. He would’ve given them enough springs and shade palm trees and everything else that comes with the palm tree. He would’ve given them enough for everyone, and I think it’s a stunning lesson in their first test. We’ll pick up the last few tests in our next couple podcasts.

Brent: Since we’re talking about numbers, I just thought of this, three tests. Of course, the tests are about community.

Marty: Of course, they are. Three tests, absolutely. Three tests, three —the number of community. That’s exactly what we’d expect. Yes, we’ll get the next two in the next podcast, and we’ll go from there.

Brent: All right. If you live on the Palouse, we hope you join us for discussion groups in Moscow on Tuesday or in Pullman on Wednesday. By the way, we have heard about a number of discussion groups that are happening around the country. We’re working on a way to get more information about those groups to you. If you happen to be in an area where a discussion group is already happening, you can just join up. We’re working on that. We’ll get that information to you as soon as possible. If you want to get a hold of Marty, you can find him on Twitter at @martysolomon. You can find me on Twitter at @eibcb. You can find more details about the show at bemadiscipleship.com. Thanks for joining us on The BEMA Podcast, and we’ll talk to you again soon.