Week2 Exodus 1-23

“Blessed be the lord who has delivered you from the hand of Egypt”(18:10). Provision is emphasized in Exodus. From the Israelites escaping slavery, water from rocks,  manna from heaven, and the laws he has them follow, God is always providing. But there are some interesting things with what happens until he does.

First of all God continually hardens Pharaoh's heart so that it takes all 10 plagues to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Over and over again he says to Moses that he will harden Pharaoh’s  heart so that it takes another plague. God brings them into an impossible situation, then miraculously shows them the way out. It isn’t easy, it isn’t impossible, it’s just enough for them to survive and follow him. This shows up as he leads them in a cloud by day and fire by night. All they must do is trust him to follow. Again as he gives them water from a rock, and manna from heaven, God gives them just enough to fulfill their daily needs. But even through that, they don’t get away. He lets the Egyptians catch up to them. The question becomes why.

Why is God continually allowing the situation to deteriorate so much? Why do the plagues hit all aspects of life, but only a handful are specifically excluding the Israelites. Does that mean that the plague of blood affected them too? God seemingly protects them from random plagues, and yet let’s others affect them just as they affect the Egyptians. Or as God leads them onto the shores of an uncrossable sea, the Egyptians right behind them. God is constantly allowing the enemy, or the hunger, or thirst, or bad thing behind them to catch up. The Israelites are never ahead. Yet in all this you still see God’s provision. He gives them just enough manna for that day. Just enough water to drink. Just enough time to get them across the sea until it comes crashing back over the Egyptians.

The thing we know is that God is a jealous God(Exodus 20:5).  If the Israelites had left Egypt on the first plague, it could have been attributed to Pharaoh’s inability to keep them there. If they had escaped from the desert without the Egyptians coming after them it could have been to Moses’s excellent leadership, or Pharaoh's laziness. I believe God wanted to prove it was only through him that they escaped. He wanted them to look back on those days and remember that “I Am” was the God that provided for everything they needed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Or maybe God knew that only through a complete dependence on him would they listen to the laws he put forth. Only by relying on him would they really learn to seek his will, and take the promised land later. Maybe this was a time of preparation for the future. For the Israelites to be able to make a covenant with God at Mount Sinai, they had to trust him, and fear him as the Lord of all creation. By saving them in this way, God proved that. Everything he did taught, built, or created something in the Israelites they desperately needed.

The bible never says why. It never explains why God lead them into a sea, or let the Egyptians catch up. It never says why he waited for the Israelites to grumble about the lack of water until he provided, or why he didn’t just make the manna preservable so they didn’t need to collect it each day. But I believe the last part of the reading is in some ways the most important, for it provides a promise. Exodus 23:20 starts a section where God sends his angel to prepare the way before the Israelites. He promises to fight before them, and be with them every step of the way. This is a continuation of the promise to Abraham. He is reminding them of this, after 400 years of slavery. The Israelites may have forgotten that he would, and through this he reminds them. You can read Exodus a lot of ways, from a lot of different perspectives, but provision is written on the pages. It flows from every part, and through every trouble God always provides. Maybe he just wanted to prove that he would.