Quote:9 And Moses said to Aaron, Say to the entire community of the children of Israel, Draw near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints. 10 And it came to pass when Aaron spoke to the entire community of the children of Israel, that they turned toward the desert, and behold! the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
Here again, we find Aaron performing a very specific role. Moses just finished speaking to the Israelites directly, but for the purposes of the miracle the Lord is about to perform, Aaron is the appropriate one to address the crowd. It's as if Moses can speak directly to the Israelites if it's just casual talk, but in the case of ceremonial formalities, it must be Aaron who speaks directly to the crowd.
However, in the passages that immediately follow, it's not clear what the miracle or act of God was:
Exodus 16:11-12 Wrote:11 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, In the afternoon you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be sated with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God.
Are the people witnessing God speaking to Moses? If the people are witnessing this, why doesn't the Lord speak to them directly? He even instructs Moses to "speak to [the people], saying..." as if the people aren't already hearing this. Is it that Moses and Aaron must act as intermediaries? But then, why must the people witness this at all? Why can't Moses and Aaron just "pass on the message" as they usually do? If the people aren't witnessing this, then the only miracle they witness must be the Lord (or the "glory" of the Lord, whatever that is) appearing in the cloud. But then why does the passage cut it short there and immediately transition to what the Lord said to Moses? What's the significance of appearing in a cloud for the crowd to witness? Given that verse 9 ends with "for [God] has heard your complaints" it seems logical that the Lord intends to address these complaints, which suggests the people were witness to what God said to Moses. But then all the questions above.
Robert's response:
Contributor "gib65" wrote:
"[...] in the passages that immediately follow, it's not clear what the miracle or act of God was":
For me it is clear that the miracle is the providing of the "Mon" (the correct rendering of "Manna") and the providing of the quail.
Moses has to be constantly ready to communicate with Hashem or be in such communication. Therefore he delegates certain tasks to Aaron. My view is that Hashem appeared in a cloud only to Moses.
No, the people do not witness Moses' communications with Hashem.
The people have made complaints to Moses, who refers the complaints to Hashem, and then Moses communicates Hashem's response to the people.