B'Shallach (After he had let go)
The years in Egypt had been very hard on the Hebrews in many ways. The
Egyptians had never accepted them, and the forced slavery of the last
years were especially difficult. Even in the first days of their travel
from Egypt, they were beginning to see how their time as slaves was
paying off. They had become accustomed to the walking and carrying of
heavy loads. Many of them even joked among themselves at how their first
couple of days journey would have been too much for most of the soft,
physically unfit Egyptians.
Their first night was spent in a place called Sukkot. As darkness fell,
the sky began to glow red with fire. It was if the clouds themselves
were aflame. Then, as the Hebrews gazed on with awe, the clouds of flame
gathered into a giant pillar that hovered over the midst of them.
At first sight of the flames, many of the Egyptians, as well as some
Hebrews, began to scream and fall to the ground in fright. It was as
if the plagues had followed them out of Egypt. People began to rush
to the sides of the camp, directing their gaze back to the heavens.
As the whole multitude gazed up at the slowly rotating pillar, they
noticed a certain peace that they did not understand. The pillar of
fire, along with a full moon, cast a rather soothing glow throughout
the camp. Slowly, the people began to calm. Some went to sleep. Others
could not keep their eyes off of the display of power that had followed
them from their old home.
They began to stir about sunrise and, together, the multitude watched
as the pillar of fire changed into a glowing cloud. As the cloud began
moving to the east, every person rushed to pack and join the expanse
of people who were already following. Bedrolls were thrown into wagons,
and the whole flock began to move. Moses looked to Joshua. Both of them
had gotten up much earlier, trying to plan how to move everyone orderly.
"How could we have ever gotten this many people moving in such
order by ourselves?” Moses said. Joshua spent most of his day
of travel just pondering the event.
The cloud would eventually take them to the sea. The cloud stopped,
and the people who were beginning to get used to this phenomenon began
to set up their camp for the night. Others were much slower, having
to check the heavens continually to make sure the cloud wasn't going
to fall into the camp with a fury of plagues.
Moses walked down to the water's edge and sat on a rock. There, he began
to half think and half pray. Elohim, you have brought us to the
edge of this sea. We have no direction we can go: mountains to our sides,
Egypt to our rear, and water in front. Besides, Pharaoh is still alive.
He still has legal ownership of these people.
His thoughts were interrupted by Joshua running up behind him. “Aaron
told me to come get you. Pharaoh and his armies are coming after us.
The people are frightened and want to know what you are going to do.”
As the last words were coming from the mouth of Joshua, they both noticed
the cloud begin to rise from the midst of the camp and then settle behind
the Hebrews. The cloud erupted in a fire more furious than before. A
silence settled as the people all looked to back to the sea. "We
must help the people. Somehow," Joshua said.
Moses nodded and stood. He began moving closer towards the water. The
people close to him could not believe their eyes. Even Joshua stood
with his mouth agape. Moses did not stop when he came to the water's
edge, but instead pointed his staff before him and continued to walk.
With every step, he shouted, “Stand and see the 'Yeshua' (salvation)
of our Elohim!”
The winds began to blow, and the people stood in amazement as the sea
began to part, revealing dry ground. By the light of a nearly full moon,
the people quickly broke camp and continued their journey through the
dry seabed. For each family, it was a bit unnerving to descend into
the sea. They were hesitant at first, as all they could see was the
very unnatural sight of walls of water piled up around them. The children
soon made it into a game and would walk along, sticking their hands
into the water just to see what would happen. Some would try to grab
hold of a fish swimming close to the edge of the wall. Most parents
would quickly pull their children back from walking too close to the
water walls. However, a few of them could not stand the curiosity and
turned when they thought no one was looking and did the same.
The next morning found them all on the other shore, safe and sound.
As the sun rose, the pillar of cloud arose with it, revealing the army
of Pharaoh ready to pursue. The cloud had hardly crossed over the river
itself when Pharaoh gave the order to charge. Without even a thought,
the armies went down into the dry bed of the sea, driven by anger at
the Hebrews. When every horse and rider was between the two banks, the
wind ceased in an instant. The waters came crashing together and, as
quickly as it began, it was over. Every single soldier of Pharaoh was
dead, without even having a chance to let out a scream. The Hebrews
stood, silent, as they began to see the lifeless soldiers floating to
the surface of the water. It was Aaron who pointed out the body of Pharaoh
to Moses. Moses stared as the body of Pharaoh began to drift through
the water and came to rest at his feet. “He is dead. We now are
truly free,” He whispered under his breath.
The struggles were not over for the Hebrews. They were out of Egypt,
but now the bigger task of getting Egypt out of them had begun.
Their first compliant was that of no water. The cloud led them to a
spring at Marah. Many of the people ran to the water and began to drink
so fast they did not even notice how bitter the water was. Immediately,
they began to throw up, not only the water, but what food of Egypt was
left in their stomachs.
Moses watched this event for a moment. That is one way to get Egypt
out of them. He then took a chosen piece of wood in his hand, looked
up to the heavens and gave thanks for water. He threw the wood into
the spring and told the people to begin to drink. At first they were
timid, but soon found it to be the sweetest water they had ever tasted.
It even soothed the stomachs of those who had drank the bitter water.
The next complaint was that they had no food. Moses again took their
request to Elohim. After a brief lesson with too many quail in the camp
and in their bellies, the instructions came through Moses of how they
were to be fed. They were told that, starting the next morning, there
would be a type of bread which would be left of the ground when the
dew evaporated. At first, some of the people began to laugh at Moses.
The camp was a buzz with conversation that night of this crazy plan
Moses had told them. The joke was on them the next morning when, true
to his word, there was a substance covering the ground. The people began
to gather and eat the substance, all the while asking the question,
”Manna?” (translated “What is it?”)
As Moses overheard the conversations, he wondered to himself if they
would just keep asking the question every morning of “What is
it,” or if one day someone would answer the question and change
the name of the substance. Maybe they could call it: “A miracle
and a gift from One who loves us more than we love ourselves!”
The time of teaching was just beginning for the Hebrews. For Moses,
he kept wondering what it was going to take for these people to finally
leave Egypt behind and make it to the Promised Land. As he was drifting
off to sleep for the night, his last thought was, In the end, will
l be found worthy to enter it? Maybe it is I who will come up one step
short.
