Chpt. 15 - Worship - Moses & Miriam break out with this song of praise and worship to God for saving them from the Egyptians. I would think this was probably somewhat spontaneous and surely from the heart. God has just done something great in their lives, and they were going to make sure God knew how they felt about Him. Have you seen anyone lately who worships like this? They have an acute knowledge that God has really saved them from something and they don't give a flying flip what anybody else is doing/thinking - they are there to make sure God knows how they feel about Him and they are not going to miss the chance. While others (I put myself many times in this category) worry about song choice, lighting, volume level, clothes choice of the worship leader, length of worship time, number of verses in a song - these people don't care. It makes one wonder if the group I'm often in remembers how great salvation is and what a huge price was paid.
Chpt. 16 - Calloused - I'm conflicted on this: when reading this story of God providing manna and quail everyday, my initial reaction is "Wow! They got a miracle every day for 40 years and they grumbled about it?!!" However, it's hard to read in v. 35 that The Israelites ate manna forty years and believe that we wouldn't have started to complain. If I had to eat the same meal every day for a week, I'd complain. What about almost 2100 weeks straight? In response, I feel like I don't want to be ungrateful for the continuous blessings God pours out on me - such as a my wife & kids, a paycheck, my health and the health of my family, clothes, food, a car, ability to buy gas, friends, great co-workers, etc. I guess this is the classic "Count your many blessings."
Chpt. 17 - Foreshadow - Moses strikes the rock with his staff (as God told him to do) so that the Israelites can have water. This is a foreshadow to another time (Numbers 20) when God gives specific instructions on how to get water out of a rock (??) and Moses disobeys God. That slip up ends up costing him big time.
The last half of the chapter is about how the Israelites fought the Amalekites. God tells Moses to hold up his staff as he overlooks this battle (Joshua leads this battle - 1st time we see him in a leadership position). Surely, God (the one who made Moses's body) knows that Moses cannot physically hold up his arms indefinitely. So why set up this scenario where Moses is asked to do something he can't do by himself? I think it has to do with teaching Moses (and us) that leadership requires gathering people around you to help you. In this story, Aaron and Hur come and help hold up Moses's arms. In the next chapter, Jethro (Moses's father-in-law) is going to give him some of the greatest leadership advice ever (and it involves this same idea of singular leadership versus a leadership team).
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