SERIES D --- YHVH’S TABERNACLE --- LESSON 09

IN MOURNING

PLANS TO MOVE

From Exodus 33

[Leave this place and take your people toward the land which I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,] Adonai told Moses. [I told them I would give this land to their descendants, the people whom you brought from Egypt. I will send My Angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. I will not go with you Myself to this land flowing with milk and honey, for I am so angry at your stubborn people that if I went with you, I might destroy them along the way.] Adonai told Moses to say to the people, [You are a stubborn people. If I were with you now for a moment, I would destroy you. Take off all your ornaments until I decide what I will do with you.] When the people of Israel heard these things, they mourned and quickly took off all their jewellery. From the time they left Mount Horeb, they wore no jewellery. Moses kept the tabernacle quite far out of the camp and called it the tent of meeting. Whoever sought Adonai went out to the tabernacle. Whenever Moses went to the tabernacle, the people stood in the doorway of their tents and watched Moses until he entered the tabernacle. As soon as Moses entered, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the tabernacle doorway. Then Adonai spoke to Moses. When the people of Israel saw the pillar of cloud at the doorway of the tabernacle, they went to their tent doors and worshiped Adonai. Adonai spoke in the tabernacle to Moses as a person would speak to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, a young man named Joshua, the son of Nun, remained behind at the tabernacle. One day Moses talked with Adonai concerning the journey to the Promised Land. [You say that I should take these people to the Promised Land, but You have not told me whom You will send with me,] Moses said. [You have said that You know me by name and that I have found favour in Your sight. If I have found favour in Your sight, show me clearly the way I should go, so that I may know You and please You. Remember that these people are Your people.] [Shall I go with you Myself?] Adonai said. [Will this assure you success?] [If You do not go with me, please do not let us leave this place,] Moses replied. [How can I have found favour in Your sight if You do not go with us? Is it not because of Your Presence that we are different from all other people on earth?] [You are My friend and you have found favour with Me,] Adonai told Moses. [I will go with you as you desire.] [Show me Your glory,] Moses asked Adonai. [I cannot let you see My face, for whoever sees My face will die,] Adonai answered. [But I will let My goodness pass before you and proclaim My Name before you. I will be gracious and merciful to whomever I desire. You may stand on this rock beside Me. When My glory passes by, I will put you into the cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand and you shall see My back. But you must never see My face.]

COMMENTARY

LIFE THEY LEFT BEHIND: FOODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

The Israelites had enough to eat on their journey. YHVH made sure they found quail and He supplied them with manna. But the everyday sameness of their diet made them long for the great variety of food they had in Egypt. The Egyptians, from pharaoh on down, had plenty of food. Vegetables were plentiful and so were many kinds of meat and fish. There were at least fifteen different kinds of bread and cake, many not like anything known today. For example, one cake was called a {shat cake.} It was in the shape of a tall, thin triangle. Because they were too thin to stand upright, shat cakes were laid on their sides and stacked in alternating heads and tails. Like most of the bread in Egypt, they were made with honey or water, using flour from dates, lotus roots or wheat. Onions were abundant. They made up a large part of the Egyptians’ diet. Leeks; much like an onion; were eaten often too. Several different kinds of spices were used to bring out the full flavour of food. There was a good supply of lettuce, cucumbers, olives, apples, raisins, nuts and grapes. Oil pressed from the olives was used as a dressing and in cooking. Figs or melons made up the usual dessert. Other ancient Egyptian foods are not so familiar. The pomegranate was a common fruit. Round, reddish-orange, it is about the size of a large apple. Although the pomegranate is easily found in Egypt and Israel, not too many people in the northern part of this world, have had the opportunity to tear off its thick skin and eat the juicy red seeds inside. Egyptians also ate young shoots of the papyrus plant. A hollow reed that still grows by the Nile, it was the source of the world’s first paper. The Egyptians kept a fair number of cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and pigs. But they didn’t eat meat very often. Special celebrations, feasts and religious sacrifices were the few occasions when animals were slaughtered for food. The sheep and goats, along with the cows, were used for milk. It was used for drinking or made into cheese and curds; something like a dry cottage cheese. Goat’s milk, not at all commonly drunk today, is thicker and creamier than cow’s milk. The Egyptians enjoyed capturing birds and catching fish. The lakes, ponds and the Nile River were full of both. They ate these more often than beef or lamb. The fish was often preserved by salting and drying. The Egyptians had at least five different kinds of wine. Where grapes did not grow for wine, several kinds of beer were made from barley. Black beer was the favourite. Most Egyptians may not have had as easy a life as is understood today. But most of them ate rather well by any standards.