2018, August 5 ~ Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 and Ephesians 4:1-16

Exodus 16: 2-4, 9-15

The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible and covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE), the Exodus itself, and the early months in the Wilderness.

In today’s reading, the Israelites have not yet reached Sinai, and are complaining (once again) to Moses that it would have been better to have died at the hand of YHWH (!) in Egypt than to starve in the Wilderness.

Because YHWH is perceived as controlling everything in most of the Hebrew Bible, the writers of this story say that the Israelites’ deaths in Egypt would have been at the hand of YHWH (v.3) rather than at the hand of Pharaoh.

The God presented in this story is very human-like. YHWH “hears” their complaining (v.7). YHWH “speaks” to Moses (v.4) and responds by sending them manna.

Man hu are the Hebrew words for “What is it?” (v. 15), so the name of the substance is also a play on words. “Manna” is a real thing. The New Oxford Annotated Bible says it is “the carbohydrate-rich excretion of two scale-insects that feed on the twigs of the tamarisk tree.”

In Israel today, something called “manna” is sometimes available for purchase in Arab markets. It is sweet and sticky.

Ephesians 4:1-16

Ephesus was a large and prosperous city in what is now western Turkey. In the Acts of the Apostles and 1 Corinthians, Paul is said to have visited there. In Ephesus, there were Jesus Followers who were Jews and Jesus Followers who were Gentiles, and they didn’t always agree on what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Because the letter contains a number of terms not used in Paul’s other letters and gives new meanings to some of Paul’s characteristic terms, most scholars believe that this letter was written by one of Paul’s disciples late in the First Century. The letter was intended to unify the Jesus Follower community in Ephesus. The first three chapters are theological teachings and the last three chapters consist of ethical exhortations.

In today’s reading, the author continues to urge the Jewish Jesus Followers and the Gentile Jesus Followers in Ephesus to be unified in Christ. He urges them to be humble, patient, “bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v.3).

He emphasizes that there is “one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Christ both ascended and descended so that he might come to all persons. Each person has different gifts for the body’s growth in building itself up in love (v.11-12). A perfect (i.e. complete) church is modeled on Christ himself.