April 18

The Departure

Exodus 12:20-40

Good reason had Egypt to mourn that the obduracy of its rulers had brought down upon it a judgment, such as had not been known since that day in which God brought down a flood of waters to destroy the earth. We cannot sufficiently dwell on the fact, that a judgment not less severe than this had been, by this obduracy, rendered necessary to produce the intended result. Let us not think only of the judgments of God, but of his mercy and forbearance. The Egyptians had, from the first, deserved the utmost severity of judgment for the most atrocious deeds of which a nation, as such, is capable—that of reducing a free and generous people, not only to political, but to personal bondage—and by murdering the children to prevent the increase of the race. Yet when the appointed time of deliverance came, God did not at once bare the arm of vindictive justice against this people. He acted forbearingly and leniently with them; and had they in time relented—in time agreed to relax the iron yoke they had laid upon Israel’s neck, all had been well, and their great wrong would have passed unpunished. Wonder at the forbearance and long-suffering of God, no less than at the awful severity of his justice. The hand of man, armed with irresistible might, would not thus long have forborne to inflict the consummating horror—would not so long have endured these repeated evasions and breach of promises—not so long have tried, by successive steps, with how little of compulsory judgment they might be induced to let the oppressed go free. And even terrible as this last infliction—the death of the first-born—was, it was not one jot more than necessary to produce the result; for, after all this, was yet one more relapse to hardness of heart—yet one more act of bold defiance, which rendered another exterminating sweep of God’s fiery sword necessary.

The immediate effect, however, of the death of the firstborn, was exactly such as had been calculated. It was a strange art of faith, when an entire nation stood in the dead of the night awake, ready for a journey, in the conviction that a certain judgment was to be inflicted by the hand of Heaven, and that this infliction would infallibly ensure their departure from the house of bondage. In that conviction much labor had been undergone, and large preparations completed—for we may conceive that it was no light matter for so vast a body of people, with all their flocks and herds, and with numerous women and children, to have completed its arrangements for a sudden departure without confusion or disorder. That all this had been done, and that every direction of Moses and Aaron was implicitly followed, show that the judgments of the Lord upon the Egyptians, and their own exemption from the plagues which had been showered upon the land, had not failed of their effect in bringing up to the proper pitch of faith, confidence, and resolution, a people whose spirits had naturally and excusably become enfeebled by the slow poison of slavery.

They waited not long or vainly. Moses had declared when he last quitted the presence of Pharaoh, that he would see his face no more; but he foretold that the time was near, when “All these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee.” And so it came soon to pass. When the stroke had fallen, the people were terrified to think of the danger which the detention of the Israelites had brought upon them. In the apprehension that the visitation that rent their hearts, might be the precursor of one more dreadful, which would sweep off all the population in a mass, they became urgent for their instant departure; and, for all that appears, would have driven them out by force, had they evinced the least disposition for delay. It is clear that the people were wrought up to such a frame of mind, that it would have been as much as the king’s crown was worth for him to attempt to detain the Hebrews one moment longer. But it does not seem that even he was now so inclined. That very night he sent to Moses and Aaron a more urgent command to do at once all that they had so long and vainly sought his consent for: “Rise up, and get you from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said.” Nor is this all. We remember how stoutly he held out before for the retention of the flocks. But now his imperial pride is so effectually humbled, that he hastens to remove any idea of reservation or evasion which past conduct may have awakened—and he therefore quickly adds—“Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and begone.” Still more extraordinary; he is desirous not to part in anger, he craved to be allowed to feel that he was no longer under the ban and exposed to the wrath of the great and terrible God—terrible to him—whose hand had abased him so low. Therefore his last words were—“And bless me also.” Is it then come to this—that he who declared that he knew not Jehovah, and would not obey his voice, is now constrained to crave the blessing of his servant, that the anger he has so daringly invoked may no longer hang over his head?

So now there is nothing to impede the free course of the Israelites, and forth they march. “Such an emigration as this,” as a recent writer well remarks, Note: Smith’s Sacred Annals, ii. 47. London: 1850. “the world never saw. On the lowest computation, the entire multitude must have been above two millions, and in all probability the number exceeded three millions. Is the magnitude of this movement usually apprehended? Do we think of the emigration of the Israelites from Egypt as of the emigration of a number of families twice as numerous as the population of the principality of Wales, or considerably more than the whole population of the British metropolis (in 1841), with all their goods, utensils, property, and cattle? The collecting together of so immense a multitude—the arranging of the order of their march—the provision of the requisite food for even a few days, must, under the circumstances, have been utterly impossible, unless a very special and overruling Providence had graciously interfered to obviate the difficulties of the case. To the most superficial observer it must be evident that no man, or number of men, having nothing but human resources, could have ventured to undertake this journey. Scarcely any wonder, wrought by divine power in Egypt, appears greater than this emigration of a nation, when fairly and fully considered.”

It is said, in the authorized version, that they went up out of Egypt “harnessed” (Exodus 13:18), which means fully equipped for war or for a journey, in which latter sense only it is now used, and is that intended by the translators here. The marginal reading is, “by five in a rank;” but although there is, in the original Hebrew word, an obscure reference to the number five, the word probably means, as the translators in their textual rendering understood, that they went out in an orderly manner, fully equipped for the journey, as we indeed know was the fact. It is possible they may have marched in five large divisions, and hence the choice of this particular word; but that it meant “five in a rank” could only be fancied by those who had no real conception of the numbers of the people. At this rate, if we allow the ranks of only the 600,000 men fit to bear arms, to have been three feet asunder, they would have formed a procession sixty miles in length, and the van would almost have reached the Red Sea before the rear had left the land of Goshen; and if we add to these the remainder of the host, the line would have extended, by the direct route from Egypt, quite into the limits of the land of Canaan. This fact is stated, not only to correct an erroneous impression, but to assist the reader to a tangible idea of the vastness of that body of people which Moses led out of Egypt, and which the Lord sustained in the wilderness for forty years.

The computation of the numbers of the Israelites is formed in this way. Our information is that the efficient men in the Hebrew host amounted to 600,000. Now, it is known that the number of males too young and too old for military service, is at least, in every average population, equal to that of efficient men. Note: Strictly, the number of males under twenty is about equal to that over twenty. Allowing that the age of military services commences under twenty, the number thus gained to the class of efficient males, is counterbalanced by the number too old for military service, that the duplication is good either way. This raises the number to 1,200,000 males of all ages; and then, when this number is to be doubled for the females of all ages, raising the whole to 2,400,000—or we may safely say two millions and a half—especially if we take account of “the mixed multitude,” who, we are told, went out with the Israelites. These we take to have been native Egyptian vagrants, and convicts, and foreign captives, whom community of suffering had brought into contact with the Israelites, and who, with or without their consent, quitted the country along with them. These were like the camp-followers of an army; which, in the case of an eastern army, are often as numerous as the soldiers themselves. That they were numerous is historically known. It is quite safe to calculate that they raised the whole number from somewhere about two and a half to three millions; but this number is not calculable like that of the Hebrews, which, on the data given, we feel assured must have been about 2,400,000 or 2,500,000. The presence of this “mixed multitude” proved a great inconvenience and danger to the Israelites, not only from their being foremost in all discontent and rebellion, but from their keeping idolatrous tendencies alive in the camp. If they did eventually conform to the outward observances of Hebrew worship, it is clear that the bulk of them were, in fact, idolaters, absorbed in the mere externals of their condition, and having no real share in the hope or faith of Israel.