reading the Bible | Scripture Study | Exodus
Have you ever watched the news or scrolled through social media and later had trouble falling asleep or concentrating on an important task, because your mind was racing uncontrollably? Do you struggle with anxiety, negativity, criticism, or fear?The Exodus account offers a startling truth: The people’s negative thoughts in the desert led to continued unrest. They left Egypt and the deluge at the Red Sea on a spiritual high, but immediately confronted a lack of water in the desert. How could that be if God was leading them to the Promised Land of plenty?
Exodus 15:23 tells us, “When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter.” Most of us infer that the water was bitter. But one Jewish commentator observed that when the phrase is translated literally, it could also mean the people were bitter. According to this view, the undrinkable water at Marah was the result of the bitter attitude the people brought with them from Egypt. The bitterness in their hearts determined their experience of the water itself.
The same lesson is repeated in the next chapter, Exodus 16, with the manna that fell from heaven. Wisdom 16:21 tells us the taste of the manna changed according to each person’s liking. Ancient Jewish Talmud writings also say that the taste of the manna was linked to the taster’s thoughts. Can you see through the “bitter” waters and the “worthless” daily manna (Num 21:5) that the people’s thoughts were the key to what they received in the desert?
This excerpt from the Living the Word Catholic Women’s Bible is reprinted with permission of the publisher, Ave Maria Press.