THE ROUND TABLE. FOR RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION. The numbers of the Israelites. The Wall of Egypt, and its effect on the route chosen. The Pillar of Cloud and of Fire, as a means of guidance. How much was the crossing a miracle, and how much Why were the Israelites permitted to be caught in Why did Pharaoh change his mind? THE LESSON IN ITS SETTING. Time. Within a few days after the Passover, in our last lesson. March or April, B.C. 1498 (Beecher); others place it at various later dates, especially in the thirteenth century B.C. Most put it in the 4th or 5th year of Merneptah, the son of Rameses II, but place them at different dates. Place. The first rendezvous was at Succoth, an encampment in eastern Goshen, near the present Suez Canal. The place where Israel crossed the Red Sea was the northern part of the Gulf of Suez, or possibly the Gulf extended further north at that time. THE PLAN OF THE LESSON. III. IV. ITES, Ex. 12: 37. THE GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION. V. THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE, VI. THE ENCAMPMENT BY THE RED VII. CROSSING THE RED SEA ON DRY THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. THE LESSON IN LITERATURE. Whittier's "The New Exodus." Lowell's "The Present Crisis." Mrs. Whitney's "Exodus." Mrs. C. F. Alexander, "The Red Sea." Ellen E. White, THE LESSON IN ART. Israelites Passing through the Red Sea, Raphael.* Destruction of Pharaoh's Host, Doré, Pharaoh's Horses, Herring. I. THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS AT SUCCOTH, Ex. 12:37. At midnight, while the Israelites were safe in their homes, the first-born of all the Egyptians were smitten by death, and there arose a great cry in Egypt. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were urgent that the Israelites should hasten away, " for we be all dead men." The Israelites were all prepared to start at any moment (Ex. 12: 11), the full moon shone upon them, and they quickly marched away, with their children and flocks and herds. 66 66 The first journey of the Israelites was from Rameses to Succoth." These were not towns but districts. Rameses was the land of Rameses," which is spoken of as identical with Goshen, or at least with the western portion of it. It lay along the Wady Tumilât, the line of the present Sweetwater Canal, and was shaped like a cornucopia with its broader end toward the Nile. From all portions of this land the people assembled at Succoth, as their place of rendezvous. Succoth, a place of tents," or booths, was a district lying at the eastern end of the Wady Tumilât, along the line of the lakes. Pithom, lately discovered by M. Naville, twelve miles west of Ismailia (Is mâe'lē â), on the Suez Canal, was probably the chief store city lying on its western border. This region was doubtless a usual camping-ground for caravans going east. Examples from History. I. "In our own times, in this very century [the 19th] we have witnessed an exodus from that very land of Goshen where the Israelites dwelt. Mohammed Ali wished to manufacture silk; so he planted Goshen with mulberry trees, and attracted Syrians from Damascus and Bedouin Arabs from Babylon, to whom he gave fertile pasture lands and freedom from taxation and military practice. They prospered and multiplied for many years. After the death of Mohammed Ali an attempt was made to tax and conscript them. Protests were disregarded. Therefore in one night the whole population with their herds and flocks moved away to their kinsfolk to the east of Egypt, leaving their houses empty and their valley a desolation, in which condition it was when De Lesseps dug his fresh-water canal. It is vain to criticize the truth of what we see accomplished under our own eyes." Bishop C. H. Fowler. 2. "In illustration of the event, a sudden retreat is recorded of a whole nomadic people 400,000 Tartars under cover of a single night, from the confines of Russia into their native deserts as late as the close of the last century [the 18th]." See Bell's History of Russia. II. THE NUMBERS OF THE ISRAELITES WHO ESCAPED FROM EGYPT, Ex. 12:37. Here, and in Numbers 1 and 26, the population at the time of the Exodus is given as a little more than 600,000 men, warriors, implying a population of 2,000,000. This seems impossible to those who have travelled over Eastern Egypt and the route of the Exodus, as, for instance, Rev. Franklin E. Hoskins, for a long time missionary at Beirut, Syria, who has travelled over the region more than once. Taking, for instance, one of the tribes, given in Num. 1, say Reuben, 46,000 men over 20 years old. The Hebrew word for " thousand," " 46 thousand," is most frequently translated “clan or family.' So that Reuben's 46,000 = 46 clans with 500 grown men. Dr. Hoskins therefore thinks that the whole number of the Israelites at that time was 100,000. 66 Several persons have studied the problem to learn whether we have rightly interpreted the figures. Prof. Willis K. Beecher, late of Auburn Theological Seminary, suggested that the enumeration may have been technical, just as we count an army. A regiment consists of a thousand men ; but often for various reasons not more than 400 or 500 are present, sometimes after a battle far less than these numbers, and yet we call these soldiers a regiment.' Six hundred thousand may be equivalent to 600 regiments, the "thousands " containing but a few hundreds, so that there may not have been more than 300,000 men or less than a million of people all told. And these were divided into smaller sections or clans, for the convenience of government and control. "The people were thoroughly organized in Egypt." 66 The matter cannot be decided authoritatively. Each person must decide for himself. III. THE GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION. In order to understand the movement of the Israelites, and of Pharaoh's army later, it will be necessary to study the map in the front of this volume. No one can form a clear and vivid picture of the scenes of this lesson, and the reasons for the movements of the Israelites, unless he traces the journey on a map, and knows the general situation in a number of interesting particulars. Note First, the Great Wall that defended Egypt from its eastern enemies, like the immense Chinese wall, nearly 1500 miles long, built to defend China from the invasion of the Tartars on the north. There is evidence that, at the time of the Exodus, a great wall extended from Pelusium on the Mediterranean across the whole isthmus to the Gulf of Suez. It was east of, and nearly parallel with, the present Suez Canal. It was dotted with special fortifications, and was the defense of Egypt against invasion from the east, and must have been specially guarded at the entrances to the three great roads. This, of course, could be made a great barrier to the Exodus. But at first the Israelites were not fugitives, but emigrants, and doubtless had permission to pass the wall. The same reason which led Pharaoh to urge the Israelites to leave Egypt would open these gates, and make the garrisons aid the emigrants. 66 The Three Great Roads across the Desert. (1) The northern route along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea was the way of the land of the Philistines." It was, and still is, the great caravan route from Egypt to Syria, and the road by which the great armies of Egypt went to war in Palestine and Syria. Naturally the Israelites started first for this way of reaching their Promised Land. MEDITERRANEAN SEA (2) "The Way of Shur," 'the wall road," was the central road, starting from the northern end of Lake Timsah, near the modern town Ismailia. It went straight into the desert, and led to Palestine by way of Beersheba and Hebron. It was probably along this road that Abraham and Jacob went to Egypt, and Joseph went to Hebron to bury his father. But this road led immediately into a long stretch of desert, and it would require a continuous miracle to sustain the people and their flocks. (3) The Way of the Red Sea," the southernmost of the three roads, was the road which swept across the wilderness, between the two arms of the Red Sea, from the head of the Gulf of Suez to the head of the Gulf of Akaba." It is to-day the great route of the pilgrim caravans to Mecca. It went for some distance along the Red Sea, and then into a mountainous region, where it was much easier for the people to find sustenance than by the Central Road. This region was also familiar to Moses through his life there for forty years and was the road by which they reached Palestine. IV. THE SUDDEN CHANGE OF ROUTE, Ex. 13: 17; 14: 1-4. The Israelites without doubt moved toward the northern, or Philistia route. This was the nearest, and seemed the safest way, and it was natural that they should choose it in their haste to get away from Egypt. So long as Pharaoh did not change his mind, and decide to pursue the Israelites and force them to return to slavery, it is most probable that the authorities would have permitted them to go through the great wall. But it was very uncertain how long he would keep his present intention. The Israelites had a long experience of his almost yielding, of his promising to let them go, "if," and then withdrawing all permission as soon as the suffering was relieved. Doubtless very many feared that this permission, given in the dead of night when his heir lay dead in his palace, would be withdrawn when the first terror had passed. would, therefore, have seemed the wisest plan to get through the wall while the permission was still in force; lest he change his mind, and the great gates in the wall be shut, leaving them at the mercy of Pharaoh. = It They therefore moved away from Succoth till they came to Etham (Num. 33 : 6) fortification,' not the name of a particular place, but of the wall. They probably took the most direct route to the wall. The people doubtless expected now to turn northward and take the short, well-travelled, well-watered Philistia road. But it would not have been wise. They were not able to fight their way against the Philistine warriors. Even if they could have done this, they were totally unprepared to settle down in a new country, and make good use of it. They needed the wilderness training, and the chance to make and practice national religious institutions, and a more definitely organized government. So God said, No, "lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.' Therefore unexpectedly they were commanded to turn to the south to take the way of the Red Sea. "It was a strange and bewildering order. Well-nigh the entire eastern border of Lower Egypt must be traversed by that restless, undisciplined multitude. They were still in Egypt, with the mighty Barrier shutting them in." V. THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE, Ex. 13: 21, 22. It was during the retreat from the " Way of the Philistines" in the north, that at some point the guiding pillar of cloud and fire first appeared to the Israelites. It was probably soon after their starting on their journey of some eighty miles to the Red Sea. It was the presence of Jehovah, manifested in a supernatural fire, which gave off a lofty column of smoke, visible afar over the host by day, while at night the flames were reflected brightly upon the smoke, like the inner fires of Vesuvius that illuminate the cloud cap of the volcano. Some such signal was needed to guide the great mass of people. Moreover, the cloud was a protection against the heat of the sun; and, best of all, it afforded a constant assurance that God had not left them to themselves. "When Israel, of the Lord beloved, An awful guide, in smoke and flame. 66 "By day, along the astonished lands Rebecca's Hymn in Scott's Ivanhoe. A great host, marching through a country, without roads or other marks of civilization, must be provided with some conspicuous object to serve as a signal to the main body, and to all straggling bodies connected with it. "Oriental caravans," says the S. S. Times, are often guided by a natural agency similar in appearance to this supernatural agency. Alexander the Great adopted this plan for his army in the East. 'Fire was to be the signal by night; smoke by day,' says a historian of his campaigns. And there are traces of this mode of guidance in the campaigns of the Pharaohs." "In an inscription of the Ancient Empire, an Egyptian general is compared to a flame streaming in advance of an army.' Canon Cook. The ancient Persians Alexander's signal was a fire on a tall pole over his tent. carried a sacred fire in silver altars before their armies, and other ancient nations observed a similar custom. It is not suggested that the pillar of cloud and fire was like these, but only that it accomplished the same purpose in a far larger and better way. Travelling by night is a frequent practice with Eastern caravans, because of the heat of the day, in contrast with the coolness of the night." - Kadesh Barnea. VI. THE ENCAMPMENT BY THE RED SEA, Ex. 14: 1-15. The Israelites had marched southerly to reach the gates in the great wall which opened into the Red Sea Road to Palestine. This was near the head of the Red Sea. They had, without doubt, had permission to go through. But they soon found that everything had been changed. The garrison gates through the Wall were closed, the "fortified wall of granite whose battlements are square stone and every gate of it is iron." It was strongly garrisoned, and closely guarded along its entire stretch. There were watchers upon the Wall in daily rotation. It was strengthened by added fortresses and by special towers. Specimens of an Egyptian Wall. tion of spear heads. Here, therefore, the Israelites went into camp. But they soon found that they were shut up in a trap from which there seemed no escape. Pi-hahiroth was probably the place of Israel's encampment near the sea, Baal-Zephon a mountain range sloping down to the sea, an impassable barrier, and Migdol the tower at the end of the Great Wall. The wall coming down to the water prevented them from going round the head of the sea. On two sides were high mountains. In front of them the wide expanse of the sea. The only open way was that by which they came, and, lo, they see "Before, the pathless deep, And on their track with vengeful haste Till in the sunset's last red glow -- Ellen E. White. 21. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. We are to remember that several days have now passed since the Israelites, in an hour of great excitement, were given their freedom. But soon the laborers were missed from their places, the houses were empty, the fields had no flocks, the public works were stopped for want of bricks and men to lay them. When, therefore, Pharaoh saw that the Israelites had turned back, as if afraid, and were again in Egypt, he thought they were confused and bewildered (so the word " entangled" [143] means), and had no good leadership. They were a poor, helpless, unarmed multitude, and they were in his power, because he held the defences of the Great Wall, which reached to the impassable Red Sea. At first he had said, "A good riddance!" "But soon his feeling must have been: I will go down and drive back those poor fools to their work again.' And the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots, 600 of them, of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-Zephon.' An Egyptian Chariot and Horses in Perspective. Designed from a comparison of different Egyptian sculptors. At the sight of the Egyptian army marching upon them, the people were struck with hopeless terror. They wanted to save their lives by returning to Goshen. They were sore afraid : and cried out unto the Lord (v. IO). Israelites to Moses: Better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness (vs. II, 12). Moses: Stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah. Jehovah shall fight for you (vs. 13, 14). The Jehovah Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward (v. 15). VII. CROSSING THE RED SEA ON DRY GROUND, Ex. 14: 16-31. Place of the Crossing. Scholars are divided between two places. Trumbull, who has been over the ground, thinks that it was at the north end of the present Gulf of Suez, just below the terminus of the Great Wall, so that in crossing the Israelites marched around the end of that barrier. The water was not deeper than four or five feet. Rev. F. E. Hoskins of Beirut, who has lately traversed the whole route, accepts this view. So does J. Rendall Harris, in Hastings' B. D. Another theory is that advocated by Prof. G. F. Wright, the geologist, who has been over the route several times. He believes that at the time of the Exodus the land between Suez and the Bitter Lakes was several feet lower than at present, and the Red Sea extended to the Lakes, and that the crossing was through the shallow waters not far below the Lakes. It makes no real difference which theory we accept, as in either case the circumstances were quite similar. We would prefer, as most probable, the crossing near the present Gulf of Suez. The Way through the Sea. 21. As the Israelites stood on the shore Moses, at God's command, stretched out his hand holding the rod, the symbol of God's power which had wrought the plagues, and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land. The wind was God's agent. He used his own natural laws to compel them to do |
