Day 34. Reading in Exodus 13 – 15. 

Read the scripture for today. What do you learn about God? Share what you learn with others.

Exodus 13.

Israel is out of Egypt! 

While it is fresh in their minds, the LORD instructs Moses to “consecrate to Me all the firstborn of Israel, man and beast. They are mine.”  Because God had spared these on the night of the tenth plague, they were HIS.  (Did they wonder what this commandment would involve? What would God do with them?)

And when they came into the promised land, they were to continue this practice. Every firstborn male (man and creature) was to be set apart for the LORD. (Donkeys were to be exchanged for lambs.)  God would not “kill” these firstborn boy children (whew). No, the people were to “redeem them” (buy them back) for a later established amount. (See Mary/Joseph doing this for infant Jesus in Luke 2:22-23)  Every time the people consecrated and redeemed their babies, they would remember HOW the LORD brought them out of Egypt. 

Another annual observance was instituted to remind them of that night and that journey. Not only were they to celebrate a Passover feast, they were also to eat only unleavened bread, like what they ate on that night of escape, for seven days. All to remember their deliverance! (Also, to point a later generation to the sinless Lamb of God, sacrificed for their salvation.)

Interestingly, God did not lead His newly freed people directly to the promised land. This would have caused them to travel through the land of the Philistines. They were not ready for war. They might have been scared out of their minds and wanted to return to Egypt.  Instead, the LORD led them into the wilderness and towards the Red Sea. He had a lot of things to teach these ex-slaves first. 

The LORD went before them as the ultimate leader and guide. He appeared as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He was their shade from the heat and a light and warmth in the cool desert darkness. Ever-present beacons of an Almighty and loving, promise-keeping God.

Exodus 14.

The LORD instructed Moses to lead the people in a circle and make their camp near a town with their backs to the Red Sea. It would look like they were trapped between “a rock and a hard place.” God told Moses that He had hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would pursue them. “But I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his armies.  Egypt will KNOW that I AM the LORD.”

Meanwhile, the weight of the loss of all the people of Israel dawned on Egypt when they looked at their fields,  construction sites, empty kitchens, and piling laundry. “What have we done that we have let Israel go from serving us!”

Pharaoh had monitored where the mass of ex-slaves was moving. When he learned they were backed up against the Red Sea, a sly smile came to his haggard face.  “Hahaha. They are trapped!”  God made Pharaoh’s heart like granite, and he, with all his horses and chariots and horsemen and army, pursued Israel … and overtook them, encamped by the sea.

The people freaked out! 

“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us?  Didn’t we say to leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians? We would have been better off serving them than to die in the wilderness.”

Moses tried to calm them with words from the LORD. “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you today. The Egyptians that you see today, you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Can you imagine their terror, with the sea lapping at their heels and that massive hoard of armed and wicked chariots and soldiers charging fast right at them??? WOW!

Could the Israelites now see the whites of the eyes of the armies of Pharaoh? Could they see his evil grimace and raging eyes as he charged them???

“What are you waiting for, Moses? Lift your staff and stretch it out over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea ON DRY GROUND.”

And as Moses turned to obey, the pillar of cloud rose and moved between Israel and the enemy hoard.  Blinded, they screeched to a halt. And as the night fell, the pillar became fire: a light to Israel but pitch blackness to the army.

All night, an east wind blew, heaping up water to the left and right and making a wide pathway through the sea as dry as desert sand.  And Israel went down that path, through the walls of water and up to the ground on the other side. 

At daybreak, the pillar lifted, and the army of Pharaoh pursued Israel.  As soon as the last Israelite stepped on the other shore, the wheels of chariots began to sink into a mire of mud as the water began to leak. They and the horseman tried to turn back, but in the confusion, horses and men fell and were trampled. Confusion and panic grew.

Moses then stretched out his staff over the sea again.  The walls of water smashed together, covering the mad king with all his hosts. Not one escaped. 

Israel “saw the great power of the LORD used against the Egyptians, and they feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and His servant Moses.”

Exodus 15.

So, Moses wrote a song about the event. He and the people sang the song. Then Moses and Aaron’s sister, the prophetess Miriam (with a tambourine in her hand), led the women out dancing and singing the refrain. Wow. What a sight and sound!

• I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider, He has thrown into the sea!
• The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”

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Then reality crashed on the crowd. A three-day journey from the Red Sea used all the freshwater they’d brought. They were thirsty. They came to a water hole, but it was bitter and brackish. (think stagnant)

The people grumbled (a habit they would exhibit ALL their days in the desert). “What shall we drink,” they groaned.

Moses looked to God, and the LORD showed him a dead tree branch.  Moses threw it into the water, and the water … became pure and clean and sweet!! 

As they were filling their water skins, the LORD spoke and made for them a STATUTE and a RULE, testing them. 

“IF you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, THEN I will put none of the diseases (plagues) on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I AM the LORD, your healer.”

Then, surprisingly, the masses of Israel moved to Elim, an oasis with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. And they camped by the water.

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Tomorrow = next disaster (or test).