Day Six -- Seeing God's Glory in the Wilderness

Exodus 15:19 to Exodus 28:43

The Israelites will cover a lot of territory in the early months after their deliverance by God through the Red Sea.  They find themselves in new territory and facing new challenges.  No longer slaves scrounging for materials to make bricks in Egypt, they are in need of the very basics necessary for survival.  Water and food become their immediate concerns and its not long before the grumbling begins.

For me, the turning point in today's reading comes not with the giving of the Law to Moses and the ordering of the life of the Covenant Community, all of which happens a few months after the exodus from Egypt.  For me the turning point occurs in the early days when the people are just needing a reason to believe they will survive this journey.  They are hungry and remembering that even though they were slaves back in Egypt they always had enough food to eat.  Maybe they're thinking of bolting the whole God venture and heading back.

It is then that Moses and Aaron gather the people, and While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud. (Exodus 16:10)  At this point the people have set their backs to Egypt and their faces towards God.  There is no other direction in which to head except the one in which God leads the way.