3 - Your God Reigns

Summary

This chapter is a reading of the second rock-water episode (Numbers 20) and the manna episode (Exodus 16). It also addresses the question of why Moses dies in the wilderness. The two episodes are part of a new version of the wilderness narrative that is emplotted like an Assyrian annal as a vision for the Israelites’ triumphant return from exile, a story parallel to the one told in poetic form in Second Isaiah. The second rock-water episode blames exile on royal disobedience and writes human kingship out of the story. Moses dies in the wilderness because kingship is dead, and God is now depicted as Israel’s only king. The manna episode reinvents human leadership as Moses is reimagined as a priest who mediates divine blessing by teaching torah.