Exodus 16-17: Mind your mannas!

Exodus 16

The ungrateful and now free wretches are still whining.

Verse 3 “And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Really, this isn't to the manna born, is it?

The LORD promises their daily bread, and foreshadows a stunt his kid will pull off later.

Verse 5 “And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in: and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Moses and Aaron tell their followers that a murmur against them is a murmur against the LORD. How unlike earthly leaders to try to wrap themselves up in Supernatural Authority.

So they get “manna” in the morning with orders to eat it by its best before date (today).

But some try to save for a rainy day.

Verse 20 “Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses: but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.”

See, lack of a cold chain can elevate your food spoilage rates well-easily.

Anyhow, they follow Moses' orders for the requisite six days.

Verse 25 “And Moses said, Eat that to day, for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it: but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.”

But there seems to have been a communications snafu, for God is narked with Moses for breaching t'sabbath.

Quite obsessed with food and food rituals this lot. Unsurprising really.

Verse 35 “And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited,: the did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.”

Oh, and btw

Verse 36 “Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.”

Just to clear up any confusion...

Exodus 17

More unhappy and thirsty refugees, leaving (the widerness of) Sin behind them. They kvetch to Moses, who kvetches to God.

Verse 4 “... What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me.”

God tells Moses to get a grip on his rod, and get the elders together and

Verse 6 “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb: and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”

Now a military curiosity.

Moses gets a lieutenant, Joshua (him of the trumpet, I think) to lead men in a skirmish with some clown called Amalek.

Moses and co will be up a mountain

Verse 11 “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.”

But obviously the upper traps and levator scapulae and so forth aren't what they used to be in the old man...

Verse 12 “But Moses hands were heavy: and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side: and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”

Me, if I were Amalek, I'd be complaining to the umpire. But I think Amalek is too dead for that, because

Verse 13 “And Joshua discomfitted Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”

And the LORD gets Moses to write it all down cos otherwise people forget, eh? Like one of those fancy flashing pen things in Men in Black

Verse 14 “... for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”