Bible Discussion Thread

This amazing chapter in Exodus shows us the awesomeness of God's ability to turn nature upside down to deliver His people.

In the first few verses, we are told how YHWH instructed Moses to take a certain path into the wilderness. Moses most likely knew this area well in his 40 years away from Egypt. But YHWH was not going to have Moses decide the route. Sometimes our own knowledge seems best to follow, but it is always best to follow the directions of God. I was reading on a couple Christian archeological sites concerning the most likely route taken by the Israelites when they left Goshen and where the ities mentioned may be located. This was interesting reading.

Many of us learned the "traditional" route of the Israelites and location of Mt. Sinai at the southern end of the Sinai peninusla. Many of us were taught that the Israelites crossed the sea as the freshwater lakes of reed in the Suez canal area (where they or the Egyptians could have just gone around them) or at a place south of Goshen along the western shore of the Gulf of Suez.

In Chapter 11:37 it says that they traveled from Raamses in the Egyptian Delta to Succoth (believed to be east of Raamses but still in Egypt. In Exodus 13:17 it says that they came to a pass and the LORD would not let them go north through Philistia as it was near. So it makes me wonder if there was some type of pass over the mountainous terrain between Egypt and Philistia. The Bible says that this route was the shorter route. But YHWH was taking the Israelites by a circuituous route for a reason. Ex. 13:18 says that YHWH instead lead them around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. journeying from Succoth to Etham. In Etham they camped at the edge of the wilderness. Perhaps they camped along the shoreline were there was a sandy route between the sea and the wilderness going north and south.

So God knew what Pharaoh was going to think ahead of time. Knowing this already, He lead the Israelites to a dead end.