Exodus: Unimaginable Complexity

ChatGpt's depiction of the Israelite group traveling

 

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.  Exodus 14:21-22

According to Exodus 12:37, 600,000 men plus women and children left Egypt with Moses. This could mean that as many as 2 million people were marching out of Egypt together. I rather appreciated ChatGpt’s description:

Picture this:

* A vast sea of tents, animals, and carts stretching as far as the eye can see. Families walking together, carrying children and supplies.

* Dust rising** from countless feet on rocky ground, with flocks of sheep, goats, and cattle** interspersed among them.

* Groups organized by tribes, banners fluttering to mark each family line.

* Moses and Aaron leading from the front, perhaps on a rise or small hill, with elders assisting in keeping order.

* The golden light of dawn or dusk reflecting off simple garments — linen robes, leather sandals, head coverings to protect from sun and wind.

* At night, the pillar of fire illuminating the encampment; by day, a pillar of cloud guiding the way.

 I tried to picture what two million people would look like, and I couldn’t. I did some internet searching for pictures of one million people and here’s what I found: when you zoom out enough to see one million people, you can’t actually see any people at all. All you see are dots. Little, dark and light blogs all mushed together. At least, I think that’s what it was – my vision isn’t the best anymore 🤪. My mind can’t fathom one million. Can yours? You know whose can? God’s. That’s pretty incredible! Not only could God see all two million of those people, He knew them intimately. They were not little blobs to Him, they were people with stories, lives, hopes and dreams. He saw each of their hearts and knew their thoughts and fears. He saw that huge group of Israelites, more than a million of them, and He knew each of them intimately. He cared about what happened to them. He knew how to take care of them, all of them.

 In Exodus 14:2, God tells Moses to turn the Israelites around. We wonder at the Red Sea being parted, but consider what logistics it would take to stop a group of two million people and tell them to go the other way! What must that communication have entailed? Did they just pass the message along like a crazy game of telephone? By the time it got to the end of the group did the message turn into something like, “Moses has the head of an elephant!”? Evidently they figured it out though, because they went the other way and headed towards the Red Sea.

 Ah, but what part of the Red Sea? That’s an interesting question! I read some of an article that delved into this question (it was really long). The issue is that there are a few different points at which the Israelites may have crossed the sea since there are two “fingers”, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba, that jut out of the top of the sea and these are the more probable crossing points. The Red Sea itself is over 220 miles across, making a nighttime crossing impossible by foot, and the Gulfs are 12 to 20 miles across which is still challenging, but far more possible. I really appreciated the map they shared of the different possible routes as it stirred my imagination about what this journey may have looked like.

 So here the Israelites are, trapped with the Red Sea on one side and an army of Egyptians on the other. The situation looks hopeless. Many of them feel hopeless and Moses is inundated with complaints like, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:11-12). Gotta be honest, I might have left them. Moses is a better person than I! Instead of getting frustrated and abandoning them to their own weak faith, Moses inspires them saying, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14). And this isn’t a small group on the beach. I had a long conversation with ChatGpt where we came up with a conservative estimate of 8 square kilometers for the size of their group gathered together.

 I loved what the LGG Blog had to say about this situation, “Sometimes God allows us to find ourselves in circumstances that have no way out so we can realize He is our only way out.” Have you ever been there? In a situation that seems to have no hope, no escape? And yet here you are today, reading this post. God made a way. God will always make a way! In the Israelite’s case, God made a path of dry ground through the sea. I’ve seen God work in amazing ways, and in simple ways that made an amazing difference. From helping me get where I needed to go or figuring out how to make dinner when a key ingredient was missing, to waking me up from anesthesia when I had been unresponsive after nearly 24 hours, God cares about the big and little things in my life.

Here's the Thing: We shouldn’t despair when things look hopeless by human understanding. In fact, I often get excited in these circumstances because I know that this is when I get to see God at work the clearest!