Grumbling and God's Patience: Exodus 16-18 Deep Dive

In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, Pastors PJ and Rod discuss their office scheduling and meetings before diving into Exodus chapters 16 to 18. They analyze Israel’s grumbling for food and water, God’s provision of manna, and the introduction of Sabbath regulations. The narrative moves to Israel's battle with the Amalekites and Moses' father-in-law Jethro's advice on delegating leadership. The episode underscores God's patience, the importance of delegation in church leadership, and the overarching theme of trust in God's provision.

00:00 Welcome to the Daily Bible Podcast

00:11 Office Chit-Chat and Moving Plans

01:13 Weather Talk with Ponder on Weather

01:55 Israel's Grumbling and God's Patience

02:38 Manna and the Sabbath Test

04:41 Water from the Rock and God's Provision

07:00 Jethro's Wise Counsel to Moses

09:37 Reconciling Locations and Final Thoughts

10:47 Closing Prayer and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody, welcome back to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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We are thrilled.

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Hey folks.

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That you were with us.

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Yes, we are.

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What day is today?

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It's Tuesday.

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Tuesday.

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Yeah.

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What do we got going on today?

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We're back in the office.

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Monday is our day off.

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So Tuesday is kind of our, our

Monday where we get back in.

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We do a staff meeting.

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I've got a lot of meetings on Tuesdays.

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I tend to stack my, my Tuesdays

when meetings, although I've

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learned from someone who is wiser.

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Then I am, that might be sitting

at this table with me that I try

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to preserve my mornings and avoid

meetings in the mornings these days.

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That's a good call.

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I feel like that's a

wise use of your energy.

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Whoever this is that you're

referring to seems like they

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have a lot of good things to say.

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Hey, really quickly though,

speaking of our office, when

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do we move into the March 1st?

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March one is the new office.

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Can't wait.

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I think we should Instagram

live that that experience.

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Are you going to get like a GoPro

mount, put it on her chest, hit

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myself, I'll put it on yours.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, we could do that.

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That would be fun.

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I think they'd want to see our new office.

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We'd love to, and I'd love

to have them see it with us.

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I'd be a cool thing for them to see.

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You know, I was thinking we've

got those glass doors, the double

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glass doors on our new office.

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You have, you seen those screen things

that you can get that are magnetic.

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And so they, they hang down from the

door and they close with a magnet.

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And so you can like push through

them real easily, but they.

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They seal off the door

from bugs and stuff.

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Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

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They're screens.

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Yeah.

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We can get those for the front glass doors

and open up the glass doors on night.

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It's beautiful outside today on Saturday.

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Right now, when, while we're doing

this, it's 66 degrees and sunny.

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Yeah.

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It'd be a perfect day to

get fresh air in the office.

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I saw a report just today that on

Monday, I think it was, we might hit 90.

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That's on.

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Isn't that crazy?

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Fortunate.

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Yeah.

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That was ponder on weather.

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Shout out to ponder.

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He's always got some good weather.

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I do.

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He, I, well, my neighbor told me

about him when I first moved here

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and I've watched him and listened

to his news reports ever since.

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And he's been a gem.

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Okay.

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I don't see that.

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My weather app says 77

for a high on Monday.

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I always trust ponder

over the weather app.

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I'm just going to say it Thursday.

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I've got 80.

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Yeah, man.

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Wow.

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This is that time.

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This is like fault spring in Texas.

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Yeah.

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This is when the trees

are like, let's bud.

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And then they die again.

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Yeah.

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Anyways, let's jump into our text.

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Exodus 16 18.

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16 18, we've got manna coming on

the scene now because guess what?

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Surprise, surprise, Israel

is going to grumble again.

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And this time it's about food.

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So previously it was about water.

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This time it's going to be about food.

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And again, we don't know how much

time has passed between the end of

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chapter 15, beginning of chapter

16 but they're unable to find food.

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And Moses warns them this time.

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He says, Hey, you need to understand

who you're grumbling against.

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It's not about me.

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You're grumbling against God.

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It's not about Aaron.

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It's not about me.

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Your beef is with God and you

need to be careful on this.

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And again, God's patience, right?

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In response to this, God doesn't zap them.

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There's going to be times God's

going to say, Moses, get back.

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I'm going to wipe them all out and

start over with you, but not yet.

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He is still patient with them.

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And so in response, he's going to

give manna, but he's going to put the

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people to the test at the same time.

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He's going to say, I only want

you to get an Omer of manna.

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Now everybody knows what an Omer is.

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And if you're asking what

an Omer is, we don't.

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Fully know what an omer is.

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It's got a couple of quarts in it We know

that much but we don't know exactly but

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each person get an omer according to the

number of people in the household Don't

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take any more and this is where the test

comes in because if they took more than

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it grew worms and it stunk the next day

and Then correct me if I'm wrong PR it

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which you do so well but I Think this is

our first real test Notice and stipulation

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of anything regarding the sabbath

that we have as far as regulations.

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Yes In fact, I was going to make a

comment about this Yeah, we don't

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have anything formal about the sabbath

until exodus chapter 20, but god is

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giving us bread crumbs bread crumbs and

clues That the sabbath is important.

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He's already trying to teach

them like a father would a child

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learning how to walk Do it this way.

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This is how I want you to do it.

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I want you to go this direction.

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I want you to Balance yourself

on what i'm trying to teach you.

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So he's already giving clues about his law

He's he's doing this all over and I can't

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tell If Moses is working with a sense

of, okay, I can tell after the fact, now

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that I have the law under my belt, so to

speak, that this is what God was doing.

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Or if God was already using words like,

okay, Sabbath, the Sabbath commands, and

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I'm going to provide for you an extra day.

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There's even laws about cleanliness,

or he kind of drops hints about things

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like this that aren't stipulated yet.

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And yet God's already told us.

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Teaching them.

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I think kind of pre training them.

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Right, right.

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And that brings up an interesting point

because Romans five, we're still in

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the window where people were dying.

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Even those who sin was not like Adam

or like those that were after Adam.

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And the difference being the

law had not been codified yet.

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It hadn't been written down yet.

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And yet Paul's point in Romans

is our original sin, our

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connection back to our sin nature.

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You don't have to have the law to, to sin.

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And, and so part of the evidence

there is God is teaching them.

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I think you're right along the way.

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By the way, you said breadcrumbs.

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I picked up on that as

we're talking about manna.

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I think, I think the Lord did that to me.

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Yup.

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Did he?

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Did he do the clums part too?

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The clums was my thing.

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That was for free.

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That was me.

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Yeah, but, but he's giving them

this, this bread and he's saying with

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the Sabbath, Hey, on Saturday, on

Friday gather more than you normally

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would enough for the next day also.

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And it'll still be there.

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And so he's, Teaching them and calling

on them to trust him in this chapter

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17 more grumbling and again this time

They can't find water again and God

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again intervenes and performs a sign to

bring water out of a rock now This is

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gonna be important for us to remember in

numbers Because this time he tells Moses.

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Hey strike the rock and there's

gonna come water in numbers We're

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going to see a different situation.

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I won't spoil her that, but it's going

to have a lot to do with Moses's future

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when it comes to his leadership there.

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But again, God's patience,

they're grumbling again here.

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And God doesn't say,

fine, go back to Egypt.

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You want to go back to

Egypt, go back to Egypt.

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He provides, he responds

and he gives them water.

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And it just reminded me as I was reading

this, I mean, God is patient with us.

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He, we grumble, we just

grumble in a different way.

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We shake our heads at Israel,

but we all have our own grumbling

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that we bring against God.

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And yet his kindness to us is, is.

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Infathomable.

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His, his patience, his

long suffering is amazing.

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And so just, we see the foretaste

of it here with that, with Israel.

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Verses eight through 16.

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Then we get the first opponent, the

first enemy of Israel in the wilderness

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outside of, of Egypt are the Amalekites,

the Amalekites, Genesis 36, 12, which

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I know all of you have committed to

memory is they are descendants of

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Esau, so one of Esau's descendants.

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descendants is Amalek.

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In fact, I think it was

his grandson was Amalek.

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And so the Amalekites descending

from Esau, that goes back to Jacob

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and Esau and the discord there.

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And here, God's going to work another

sign in the presence of his people,

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just reminding them of his power.

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And they're encouraging their trust in

him that as long as Moses held up his

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staff, God was going to fight for Israel.

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And as soon as Moses let his staff

down, then the battle was going to turn.

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And so Moses held a staff up

along with Joshua and an Aaron,

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they're helping him in that.

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Or was it her and Aaron?

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Well, this is also the first mention

of Joshua as well, but I did have a

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question to ask because I think people

often assume, in fact, you'll read in

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your study Bibles that this is praying.

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Moses is lifting up his hands in prayer.

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He's praying over the battle.

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Is that what's happening or

is there something else that's

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taking place here, do you think?

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You know, I, I'm not sure.

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I didn't, I guess my default,

I never thought of it that way.

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I thought of it more of the, the, the bear

miraculous show of power, which I think

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is what We've seen elsewhere in the the

exodus situation with the the parting of

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the red sea and with the Even the miracles

in front of pharaoh I mean these were just

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god saying i'm gonna flex on you right

now And even what it says there at the end

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when when god says, you know My name or

moses has the altar the lord is my banner

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The banner was the the the sign the symbol

that an army would hold up and I think

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that's an allusion to The staff being

held arms during the actual battle there.

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Okay, that's good.

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Yeah That's my take on it at least

chapter 18, then we've got Jethro Moses,

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his father in law shows up and advises

him, says, Hey, you're doing too much.

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You're, you're, you're not fully qualified

to be able to oversee all of these people.

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So you need to appoint elders.

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You need to appoint men to help you

oversee such a vast amount of people,

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which again, whether this is, 600, 000

men, or as we talked about, if, if this

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really is 2 million, especially at the, at

that point but Moses just can't do it all.

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And so Jethro wisely, I think comes

up and says, Hey, you need to appoint

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qualified leaders to help you.

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And you need to delegate in such

a way to help accomplish what

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you're trying to accomplish here.

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And, and.

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You know, that's something on our

mind right now as, as we consider what

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God is doing here at Compass Bible

Church we realize that, that we can't

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do it with the team that we have.

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Again, I was reading a book recently

that said in a church, our size, which

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about 250 on average has anywhere

from, from six to eight, let's Elders.

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And usually that's a church

with lay elders and we have

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a different polity than that.

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And so we have, you know, pass rod and

myself, and then we're also bringing

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mark along in a shepherding role as well,

though he's not officially yet a pastor.

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And, and so we've got three of us

trying to do work that a lot of people

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would say, Hey, that's, that's eight.

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That's an eight man job as far

as shepherding a group that big.

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And, and.

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That speaks to something that

is on our mind a lot, which

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is leadership delegation.

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And we lean into our community

group leaders a lot because

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they're helping us in that task.

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And that's why it's so important.

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If you're within earshot of

this and we are your pastors and

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Compass Bible Church is your home

church, get into a community group.

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We want you there.

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Talk to somebody that said, Hey, my,

my work schedule doesn't allow me

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to get off in time to make any of

the start of any of these groups.

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Okay.

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Talk to the leader, say, Hey,

I'm maybe 20 minutes late.

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I still want to be involved.

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What can I do?

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Yeah.

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Better late than never get involved,

get connected, get plugged in.

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And then, and so delegation is huge.

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That's, that's something that we

recognize we need if we're going to

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grow and do what God wants us to do.

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Looks like Jethro Ruel, or Raul Raul,

however you say his name he, if you

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remember, he was the priest of Midian.

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He's acknowledging here that what God

has done has made it evident that this

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is the Lord who is greater than all gods.

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He says in verse 11, so he's

coming to the awareness of

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who God is and what he's done.

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Salvation events are intended to do that.

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The salvation of Israel from Egypt

through the Exodus was meant to

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testify and showcase their good.

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The Lord, Yahweh, is greater than any god.

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Remember, the, the judgment, the plagues,

and all the things that God does to Egypt

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were meant to be in direct opposition

to the panoply of the Egyptian gods.

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And so God showcases his strength.

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Here, Jethro acknowledges the

Lord is greater than any other

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god, and that's the point.

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The same thing is true under

the New Testament in the New

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Testament, under the Gospel.

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Jesus saving his people from by his

own atoning death on the cross and

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then rising from the dead are meant to

showcase that he is stronger than any god.

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That's why we're so, I don't know, we're

so passionate about sharing the gospel.

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We want that to be front and

center because we want people to

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know Jesus is greater than any

other supposed god out there.

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Pastor Rob, pop quiz.

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Exodus 18.

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5 reference to the mountain of God,

which traditionally is held to be Mount

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Horeb, which is in the Sinai wilderness.

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So it seems that they're there.

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It seems that they're in Sinai at Mount

Horeb, which is the mountain of God.

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This is where the 10 commandments are

going to be given and everything else.

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The problem is exodus 19.

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2, which is tomorrow's reading is going

to say that they were still at Rephidim,

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which was, we believe about 20 miles

away from Mount Horeb in the mountain of

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God and Mount in the Sinai wilderness.

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So.

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W any thoughts on what

we do to reconcile that?

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I will defer.

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Yeah.

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And, and there there's not a clean answer.

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There's some that have suggested there's

multiple locations that held, held

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similar titles and others that have said,

you know, maybe this is chronologically

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put here, ver in, it took place really.

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Later on after the giving of the law, but

it was put here because the Moses wanted

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to put it here for some reason But these

are the little details as we read and like

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we talked about the other day This is not

anything that undermines the the integrity

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of of the Bible or our framework our

understanding of it at all So just a note

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there if you see that or somebody says hey

look Mount Horeb versus Sinai or Rephidim.

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What's going on here?

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Is there an error?

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It's not an error.

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Either it was an editorial choice

or we're not totally sure of all

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the different place names and

where they were during this time,

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but it's nothing to panic about.

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And then to that, all right,

let's pray and then we'll be done.

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God, we are grateful for your word.

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Grateful for this time together,

grateful for technology and those that

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were able to jump on Instagram live

with us and have some fun with us.

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We just pray that that we

would be faithful to you.

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We don't want to be those that grumble

and yet we are grateful for your patience.

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We know that we do grumble

even in our hearts.

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Sometimes we grumble without vocalizing

it when we sin in our hearts with thoughts

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of doubt and questioning and anxiety and

other things that can grip us a little

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to increase our faith and trust in you,

which is what you were really trying

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to do with Israel as you're leading

them out of here and showing them that

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they can trust you and rely on you.

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So we ask that you would

do that for us as well.

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And we pray this in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Keep reading your Bible.

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Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the daily Bible podcast.

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See you folks.

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Speaker: Hey, thanks for

joining us for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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We hope and pray this has been a blessing

to you and your time in the word.

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If it has, if you would subscribe to this

podcast, leave a like, leave a comment

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and share it with some friends and family.

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That would be awesome.

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If you need more information about

Compass Bible Church here in North

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Texas, you can go to compassntx.

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org.

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Again, that's compassntx.

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org.

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And we'll be back with you

tomorrow for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.