Study Desk

But some of the people did not obey Moses. They saved their food for the next day. But worms got into the food and it began to stink. Moses was angry with the people who did this.

On Friday the people gathered twice as much food—two baskets for every person. So all the leaders of the people came and told this to Moses.

Moses told them, "This is what the Lord said would happen. It happened because tomorrow is the Sabbath, the special day of rest to honor the Lord . You can cook all the food you need to cook for today, but save the rest of this food for tomorrow morning."

So the people saved the rest of the food for the next day, as Moses had commanded, and none of the food spoiled or had worms in it.

You should gather the food for six days. But the seventh day of the week is a day of rest—so there will not be any of the special food on the ground."

Look, the Lord has made the Sabbath a day of rest for you. So on Friday he will give you enough food for two days. Then, on the Sabbath, each of you should sit down and relax. Stay where you are."

Moses told the people what the Lord said: "Save a basket of this food for your descendants. Then they can see the food that I gave to you in the desert when I took you out of Egypt."

So Moses told Aaron, "Take a jar and fill it with a full basket of manna. Save this manna to put before the Lord . Save it for our descendants."

The people ate the manna for 40 years, until they came to the land of rest, that is, until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan.

(The measure they used for the manna was an omer. An omer was about 8 cups.)

The Israelites left the western Sinai desert. They traveled all together from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

After some time, Moses' arms became tired. So they put a large rock under Moses for him to sit on. Then Aaron and Hur held Moses' hands in the air. Aaron was on one side of Moses and Hur was on the other side. They held his hands up like this until the sun went down.

Moses told Jethro everything the Lord had done for the Israelites. He told what the Lord did to Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. He told about all the problems they had along the way. And he told his father-in-law how the Lord saved the Israelites every time there was trouble.

Jethro was happy when he heard all the good things the Lord had done for Israel. He was glad that the Lord had freed the Israelites from the Egyptians.

Then Moses said to his father-in-law, "The people come to me and ask me to ask for God's decision for their problem.

It is too much work for you to do alone. You cannot do this job by yourself. It wears you out. And it makes the people tired too.

But you should also choose some of the people to be judges and leaders. "Choose good men you can trust—men who respect God. Choose men who will not change their decisions for money. Make these men rulers over the people. There should be rulers over 1000 people, 100 people, 50 people, and even over ten people.

Let these rulers judge the people. If there is a very important case, then they can come to you and let you decide what to do. But they can decide the other cases themselves. In this way these men will share your work with you, and it will be easier for you to lead the people.

These rulers were judges for the people. The people could always bring their arguments to these rulers, and Moses had to decide only the most important cases.

And the Lord said to Moses, "Today and tomorrow you must prepare the people for a special meeting. They must wash their clothes