Sermon Tone Analysis

*Christ in the Old Covenant*

*Exodus 14:1-12*

* *

READ 13:17 – 14:12.

The week after Christmas I’ll preach more thoroughly on the crossing of the Red Sea, and what that means about God and for us.

This week is more of a transitional week to get us there.

I need to deal with a couple of factual things in the text, that aren’t especially spiritual sounding but they do affect our understanding of the text.

First of all, we have the question of how many people were in this group that left Egypt?

Exodus 12:37 says six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.

600,000 men would put the total population somewhere around 3-4 million – not including the large group of foreigners who went with them.

Many people have noted that this is nearly logistically impossible.

First, they lived up in a restricted area of the Nile Delta, the land of Goshen, which was not nearly large enough for that many people.

It makes little sense that they were afraid of 600 chariots from Pharaoh if they had 600,000 men.

It’s hard to understand why the spies were afraid of the Canaanites, or why they had trouble with any conquests in Canaan since archaeologists say the largest city in Canaan at this time had a population of 40,000.

In Exodus 22 God tells them that they’ll take over the land of Canaan gradually, so that the land won’t be desolate and the beasts of the field too numerous for them.

That is hard to understand if there were several million Israelites.

So were there really that many Israelites?

Now first of all, let me say, if the Bible says it, we believe it.

I am not in any way questioning the truthfulness of the biblical text.

The reason this is even an issue is because the Hebrew word translated “thousand” is a very broad word that can mean thousand but it can also mean family or tribe or division or clan.

And so there has been extensive study trying to understand Hebrew numbers, and what they mean.

And some people conclude that this does mean that millions of Israelites left Egypt, and others conclude that it is more likely that this means six hundred divisions of foot soldiers.

And many people have come up estimates ranging from 20,000 to 150,000 Israelites.

No one really knows for sure.

No matter what view you take, you run into some things that are hard to explain.

We’ll take the numbers as they are translated in the NASB, but I want you to be aware that there is another possible translation of these terms that renders a much lower number.

Now, we have another practical matter to address, and that is: What route did they take out of Egypt, and what body of water did they cross?

So let’s consider this briefly.

First, let’s note what the text says about this sea that they crossed.

14:7-9 we read that pharaoh took his army with him, at a minimum there were six hundred chariots and the accompanying soldiers.

It could have been much more than that, but clearly it was no less than that.

14:22 says that the waters were like a wall on each side of them.

So this has to be deep enough to be considered a wall.

14:23 says that all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen went in after them.

14:28 says that the waters covered Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them.

So the water was of sufficient breadth and depth to cover 600 chariots and their soldiers.

This was probably a very wide path, for all Israel to get across.

So if this was a wide path, several hundreds yards at least, I’m just guessing that you would probably need to be crossing a body of water a mile wide or more to cover 600 chariots.

So I think we can say that at the very minimum, the text calls for a body of water at least a mile across and 10 feet deep.

Now let’s ask this question: did they cross the Red Sea? Today we have a body of water that we call the Red Sea – it’s that long body of water between Saudi Arabia and Africa.

Up at the tip of that you have these two fingers – the Gulf of Suez on the West and the Gulf of Aqaba on the east.

So what we’re asking is, did they cross the gulf of Suez, that part of what we call the Red Sea today?

First of all, our Hebrew text doesn’t actually say “Red Sea.”

It says “reed sea.”

For a reason we don’t know, the Greek translators translated it Red, and the Latin translators followed them and translated it “red.”

And so still today our English Bibles say “Red Sea” when the Hebrew says “sea of reeds.”

So, what is the Sea of Reeds?

Is that the Gulf of Suez?

It could be.

Several places in the Old Testament use the phrase sea of reeds to describe the Gulf of Suez.

So it’s possible that the children of Israel crossed the Gulf of Suez.

The phrase “sea of reeds” could also be used for any one of a series of lakes that run from the Gulf of Suez up to the Mediterranean Sea.

Today the Suez canal runs through there.

But in ancient times there was a series of lakes that ran basically in a line up from the Gulf of Suez to the Mediterranean.

Those lakes had shores covered in reeds.

And some of those lakes were miles across; certainly large enough to prohibit the Israelites from crossing initially, and then drown Pharaoh’s army.

So it’s possible that the Israelites crossed the Gulf of Suez; it’s also possible that they crossed another of those lakes.

There is a chart in your notes that helps you see both of those possibilities.

The smaller dotted line along the coast of course isn’t the route they took, but it shows you where the coastal road was.

Now let’s talk about the route:

Not by the way of the Philistines (coastal road) (13:17)

“around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea” (13:18)

Looked like they were wandering aimlessly (14:3)

From Rameses to Succoth (12:37)

From Succoth to camp at Etham on the edge of the wilderness (13:20)

Turned back (14:2)

Camped before Pi-hahiroth (which faces Baal-Zephon), between Migdol and the sea, in front of~/opposite Baal-Zephon, by the sea.

(14:2, Num.

33:7)

Across the sea they came into the wilderness of Shur (15:22)

 

The part from Rameses to Succoth is pretty generally understood; but from then onit gets really fuzzy.

Either they went down along the cost of the Gulf of Suez, then came back up and crossed the tip.

Or else, they headed southeast, then turned back up and crossed one of the lakes.

My opinion is that they crossed one of those lakes.

One of my major reasons is that the Bible says that when they crosses they entered into the wilderness of Shur.

Now the wilderness of Shur is mentioned other places in the Old Testament, and it does not seem to refer to the area across the Gulf of Suez.

It refers to an area much higher, the area between Canaan and Egypt.

Archaeologists have discovered a couple things that I think help us understand why Pharaoh knew about their route, and why Pharaoh got excited about catching them.

First of all, we know that the Egyptians built a whole series of canals connecting those lakes, the Gulf of Suez, and the Mediterranean.

Why?

For defensive purposes.

It was like a moat for Egypt.

Even if a canal is only 20 or 30 feet wide, it’s still a big problem for an army or another big group of people to cross.

The second thing we know is that in the key places where you could get through, the Egyptians had built forts.

So how does Pharaoh know that the Israelites are wandering around?

Probably because he has soldiers at those forts who are sending reports back to him.

Why does Pharaoh get excited?

Because he knows there is a series of lakes and canals there that hems them in.

Unless they come up to the coastal road, they’re going to have a tough time getting through.

And they end up camped in some sort of a trap.

You see those three names in 14:2 – it’s possible that one or two of those are actually Egyptian forts.

So we can’t know for sure, but probably their situation is something like this: on their West are the Egyptians coming; on their south are ridges and hills difficult to get over; on their north is an Egyptian fort and soldiers.

And on their east is a large lake.

And so they are trapped.

And from Pharaoh’s perspective, it appears that they are wandering aimlessly, trying to figure out where they can get all of these people out of Egypt.

And Pharaoh can’t miss this opportunity.

So he takes off with his chariot force, to catch them.

Applications:

First, consider the timing.

Most of these people have only very recently turned to the Lord.

They don’t have a lot of spiritual maturity and experience.

Understandably, verse 10 says they became very frightened.