Bible In One Year Day 35 (Exodus 13 - 14, Leviticus 10, Psalm 53)

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Day 35 Crossing the Red Sea 

Crossing the Red Sea (Nicolas Poussim)

A Commentary 

Understanding the Scriptures - The Didache Series (Chapter 7, page 139) 

As soon as the Israelites were packed and gone, Pharaoh had yet another change of heart.  He and his nobles suddenly realized that they had lost all their cheap labor. 

So Pharaoh gathered a formidable army, including horses and chariots, and set out to catch up with the Israelites.  The Israelites had reached the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea).  In front of them was the water and behind them the Egyptian warriors. 

God told Moses to stretch out his rod toward the sea and a storm came up  The pillar of fire and cloud moved between the Israelites and the Egyptians, so that neither side could see the other.  God sent a strong east wind to blow all night, and it cleared a dry path straight through the water.  The Israelites marched straight through the sea on dry land.  

When the Egyptians saw what had happened the followed the same path but their chariots got stuck in the mud.  

Once the Israelites were across the sea, God had Moses stretch out his rod again and this time the waters came crashing back over the Egyptians and Pharaoh and his army drowned.  

Without raising a sword, Israel had defeated Egypt, the mightiest empire in the world.  God himself had won the victory.  It was a kind of baptism: through the waters of the Red Sea, God had saved the people of Israel from certain death.  

The Exodus, Greek for "going out" was Israel's declaration of independence.  

Pharaoh's Army Engulfed by the Red Sea (Fredrick Bridgman) 

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Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible 

Leviticus Chapter 10 A Stark Lesson on a Glorious Continuation 

But as so often when there is blessing, disobedience comes. Men have a strange ability to forget their own weakness and begin to think that they know better than God, to declare, ‘I am the captain of my soul, I am the master of my fate’, even at such times as this. And thus it was with Aaron’s elder sons. In overweening pride, or overweening folly, or both, they ignored what God had revealed and chose to follow their own way. They offered what God had not laid down in a way that demonstrated that they despised the set service of the tabernacle. They did not fully follow His will. Were they not now superior to common mortals? Had they not been with God in the Mount? (Exodus 24:9). Could they not now lead the way with their own innovations (which were simply pagan practices)?

This whole chapter concerns the holiness of God and the necessity for His people to be fully holy if they are to meet with Him. It first declares that His ordinances must be followed exactly. It then goes on to declare that the priests, in preparation for their service, are to keep away from alcohol when about to enter His presence, are to be careful to discern at all times between what is clean and unclean, and are therefore to avoid all that is ‘unclean’, and that they are to ensure that the people are made fully aware of all covenant requirements, that they sin not in any way. 

It commences with this example of those who failed in holiness, and died for it, and then goes on to deal with various requirements in order to maintain the holiness of the Sanctuary, all of which are made more serious by these untimely deaths of those who failed to discern God’s holiness. The stress all through is on the holiness of God.

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A Daily Defense 

Day 35 How Did the Field of Blood Get its Name? 

CHALLENGE: “Matthew and Luke contradict each other. Matthew says the field of blood got its name because it was bought with blood money (Matt. 27:6–7), but Luke says it was because people knew that Judas died a gruesome death there (Acts 1:18–19).”

DEFENSE: Names can have more than one significance, and the two explanations are compatible. The fact that Matthew and Luke record different expressions of the tradition regarding Judas’s fate indicate that both were in circulation. 

Some people—aware of Matthew’s tradition—knew the priests bought the field and called it “field of blood” because it was bought with blood money. Others—aware of Luke’s tradition—knew about Judas’s bloody fate and called it “field of blood” for that reason.

Some Jerusalemites may have been aware of both versions—like modern readers are—and called it “field of blood” for both reasons. There are parallels to this elsewhere in the Bible. The biblical authors and their audiences often saw a single name as having more than one significance. 

For example, the name of the city Be’er-sheva can mean “Well of the Seven” or “Well of the Oath,” and the author of Genesis preserves more than one tradition regarding its significance. He notes that at this location Abraham dug a well, gave Abimelech seven lambs, and swore an oath with Abimelech (Gen. 21:30–32). He also notes that Isaac later dug a well and swore an oath with Abimelech there (Gen. 26:31–33). 

Ancient readers of Genesis were thus aware of both traditions and saw them as complementary explanations for the name of Be’er-sheva: It was called that for both reasons. Similarly, the field of blood was so called both because it was bought with blood money and because of Judas’s death. (Note that Luke says Judas bought a field, that he died a bloody death, and that people thus called the place “field of blood,” but he doesn’t say Judas died there. He may or may not have.) One explanation would have originated first, but both were in circulation in the first century, and both contributed to why people called the field what they did.

 Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist