Some sites are great for finding hot deals on wedding invitations, but at MessianicMusings.com, we’re all about the Torah, the Brit haDasha, the Messiah Yeshua and worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth. Here’s my commentary on B’shalach. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is B’shalach, or “When he let go,” and covers Exodus 13:17 through 17:16. The main focus of this week’s parashah is the escape of the Jewish people from their bondage in the land of Egypt. And the parashah opens with a verse that is very telling, but easy to overlook.
Exodus 13:17
When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them on the road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
Notice those first few words. “When Pharaoh finally let the people go.” What does that tell us, straight off the bat? Well, for one thing, it tells us that Pharoah is still alive, doesn’t it? And if Pharaoh is still alive, what else does that tell us about him? That he was not a first-born son. Because if he had been a first-born son, he wouldn’t be left alive by the angel of death that passed through Egypt on the night of the first Passover, would he?
This is one of the final insights we can gain from the plagues. One of the most nagging questions of the Exodus experience is, why the plague of the first-born? Well, it is actually a continuation of the same judgments against Egypt and their false gods as the previous nine plagues were, but with a different target.
You see, the previous nine plagues were all aimed at dissolving the trust of the Egyptians in their false gods. Now, with their gods discredited, The L-RD is also destroying their priesthood. How is the priesthood of Egypt related to the slaying of the first-born? We get this insight from the:
Jewish Encyclopedia
The passage referred to, however, did not introduce this right, for the preference of the first-born, as the issue of the “first strength” of the father, existed in patriarchal times. It is generally assumed that the prerogatives of the first-born consisted in a kind of potestas over the family; in a double share of inheritance; and in the right to the priesthood.
You see, those things were established by the L-RD in the earliest of times, especially those prior to the flood, and after it, and were considered commands for the whole world, not just the Jewish people alone. That included the idea that the responsibility of priesthood for each family would fall to the first-born of each family.
This tradition was passed down and observed even in pagan societies like Egypt, through a right called the right of “primogeniture of inheritance.”
That’s just a fancy word that means the first-born of any family gets some added benefits, but also some added responsibilities, and one of those is the priesthood of the family.
So this is what Adonai accomplished with the slaying of the first-born! Not only did he take away their trust in all their false gods, but everyone who, by tradition, ought to be a priest of those gods was slain on that night.
It is an act by The L-RD that completes an attempt to wipe out the false gods of Egypt; first destroy the trust of the people in the power of their gods, then destroy the priesthood that teaches about those false gods.
With so many people dead, Pharaoh is finally reduced enough in humility that he allows the people to go. And in studying the path of the Exodus, we come to an area of some mystery in the Exodus account. We are told this in:
Exodus 13:18, 20
So God led them along a route through the wilderness toward the Red Sea, and the Israelites left Egypt like a marching army. Leaving Succoth, they camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
This is where the disagreement first begins. Some Bibles translate the location as we see here, Red Sea. Others translate it as “the Sea of Reeds.” While this may seem like a small matter, it’s actually critical for understanding the nature of the Exodus.
Now, the actual words used here are yam soof:
3220 yam {yawm}
• from an unused root meaning to roar; TWOT – 871a; n m
• AV – sea 321, west 47, westward 21, west side 4, seafaring men 1, south 1, western 1; 396
• 1) sea 1a) Mediterranean Sea 1b) Red Sea 1c) Dead Sea 1d) Sea of Galilee 1e) sea (general) 1f) mighty river (Nile) 1g) the sea (the great basin in the temple court) 1h) seaward, west, westward5488 cuwph {soof}
• probably of Egyptian origin; TWOT – 1479; n m
• AV – Red 24, flags 3, weeds 1; 28
• 1) reed, rush, water plant 1a) rushes 1b) sea of rushes 1b1) of Red Sea 1b2) of arms of Red Sea 1b3) of Gulf of Suez 1b4) of sea from straits to Gulf of Akaba
Yam, as you can see, is not controversial; it simply means “sea.” But soof has several meanings. It could mean reeds, weeks, the color red, or even flag. Now, for thousands of years, many Bibles have traditionally translated this phrase as “the Red Sea.” This is due to the sensible observation that the Red Sea is located near Egypt, surrounding the Sinai Peninsula. However, in recent years, more and more the same words have begun to be translated as “the sea of reeds.”
This is not due to a new insight in translating Hebrew to English, or a new understanding of the term theologically. Instead, the change has come about primarily because, through the early and mid-20th century, archaeology and science have failed to turn up any evidence of the Exodus.
So, it has been proposed that the Exodus was smaller than the Bible claims, took place in a shallow lake bed without much water to be moved… a “sea of reeds,” rather than a sea of water. By changing the wording in various new translations, the translation is now reflecting a new theological viewpoint that comes not from Bible scholars, but from skeptics – many of whom doubt the Exodus ever took place.
Well, what I want to share with you today is that none of these new views or new translations line up with what the Torah says. Let’s take a closer look at what we are actually told about the route taken and the crossing site.
Exodus 14:1-3
Then the L-RD gave these instructions to Moses: “Tell the people to march toward Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Camp there along the shore, opposite Baal-zephon. Then Pharaoh will think, ‘Those Israelites are confused. They are trapped between the wilderness and the sea!’
The traditional route of the Exodus, according to those who believe yam soof is the sea of reeds, takes the Israelites north and east out of Succoth, but there are troubles with this. First, there’s not much further north to travel, and such a route would not take the Israelites out of the way of the Philistines. Furthermore, most of the theories that propose this route place the mountain of Moses in an area still controlled by Egypt.
Naturally, it is highly unlikely that the Israelites would flee Egypt, cross the yam soof, and encamp before a mountain that was still in Egyptian territory, all without ever being attacked again by Egypt during their 40 years in this wilderness, before the mountain.
For these and many other reasons, I prefer the theory that places the route of the Exodus in more of a south and easterly direction, following a wilderness path surrounded by mountains, known as Wadi Watir, leading to a peninsula into the Gulf of Acquba – part of the Red Sea – known as Nuweiba.
I have prepared a handout for those of you who are interested, which shows both drawings and a satellite image of this area, and I think you may agree that it’s a better fit to the description of the area given in Exodus. There’s also some extra information on the handout, including some pictures of possible underwater Roman chariot wreckage, now turned to coral, that may provide archaeological proof of the Exodus and this possible route for it. Unfortunately, the pictures turned out a bit darker than I’d hoped, but they should give you an idea.
But ultimately, the point here isn’t about which route for the Exodus is most convincing. The point is that, as with so many things in the walk of faith, you will often encounter things that challenge what you believe. We are told in:
Exodus 14:21-22
Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the L-RD opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!
Does this sound like the description of a shallow lakebed filled with reeds? The text describes deep waters, walls of water all around, enough water to drown the entire army of Pharaoh when they rush back in.
How big was the contingent of the children of Israel? Well, the Torah describes it as consisting of 600,000 men of military age. When one accounts for women, children, and those either too old or too young to be of military service, as well as a “mixed multitude” adding perhaps an additional ten percent to their number, it is not unreasonable to estimate that the number of people who left Egypt in the Exodus was anywhere between one to two million strong.
How large was Pharoah’s army? We are told in:
Exodus 14:6-7, 9a
So Pharaoh called out his troops and led the chase in his chariot. He took with him six hundred of Egypt’s best chariots, along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with a commander. All the forces in Pharaoh’s army–all his horses, chariots, and charioteers–were used in the chase.
No matter how much we think we know about the Exodus from movies and archaeology and science, it remains important that we base our belief on the words of the Torah. As impressive as Cecil B. DeMille’s film of the Exodus was, the reality was greater than anything that could ever be caught on film, and on a far grander scale.
It comes to this; most believers will say that the L-RD split history once: with the birth of Messiah Yeshua. What I believe we see revealed in the Torah, however, is that the L-RD has never been afraid to split history.
Whether it was the move from the Garden to the world; the move from the world before the flood to the world after the flood; the move from captivity in Egypt to a world of freedom, the Torah and a Promised Land, we serve a God who can move not only the waters of the Red Sea, not only mountains, but history itself. He’s done it before, and as we wait for the return of our Messiah Yeshua, we know that the L-RD will indeed do it again. We serve a God of power, unintimidated by any situation that, in our limited human view, seems inescapable. Through Him, all things are possible.
Shabbat Shalom.