The Exodus.
It was in the beginning of the month of Abib, that Moses and Aaron received the first
commandment promulgated to those who went out of Egypt. It is well known, that the
Egyptians, although they are so highly celebrated for their learning and skill in various
arts, were silly enough to worship beasts, and amongst the rest the bull (Apis) and the
ram; for it is, I suppose, known to most classical scholars, that Jupiter Ammon was
represented with a ram's head. — As has been already related in the preceding
chapter, the time of Israel's redemption was fast approaching, and Moses and his brother
were then commanded to tell the whole nation of Israelites, that each family should
provide themselves with a lamb, which should be in their possession as early as the
tenth day of the month, but not be killed till the afternoon of the fourteenth. The
Egyptians never ate meat, for beasts were their gods; but now the Israelites, who had been
their slaves for many years, selected the idols of their masters as
sacrifices to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, thus showing the Egyptians, that the
descendants of the patriarchs were no longer afraid of them; whereas before this time the
Israelites were not permitted to kill animals in the presence of the Egyptians, (see
Exodus, chapter viii. v.22). — The Hebrews were also commanded, to sprinkle the blood
of the paschal lamb upon the door-posts; "to what purpose? Did not God know where the
Hebrews lived, without this mark?" Certainly, but the commandment was given to test
the faith of God's people. Those who, fearful of offending their taskmasters, omitted to
obey the will of God, were not deserving to be spared, when these suffered; but those who,
firmly relying upon the promise of their God, obeyed His word with alacrity, were indeed
worthy of being spared. Thus was the blood a true mark of discrimination to the Israelites
themselves, between him, who confided in God, and him, whose faith was weak and
wavering. — They were also commanded to be dressed as if prepared for a journey,
while eating the Passover-lamb; with their clothes well fixed, their sandals on their
feet, and their sticks in their hands, and to eat the meat hastily; thus was it indicated
to them, that immediately after the eating of the offering, they should be ready to leave
the land of their oppressors. They were further commanded that they themselves, and their
remotest descendants, should eat unleavened bread for seven days, from the fifteenth till
the twenty-first of the month in the evening. — The Passover was also to be eaten
with bitter herbs, in commemoration of the bitterness of the sufferings of the
Israelites in Egypt.
The above commandments were strictly observed; and when the night after the fourteenth
day had set in, the Israelites were celebrating the first Passover. The blood of
the sacrifice graced the doorposts of the habitations of the Hebrews, when just at
midnight the avenging God went forth over the land of Egypt, and slew every first-born of
man and beast in Pharaoh's dominion. "We are all dying," resounded through the
land, and when the tyrant's first-born dropped dead at his father's feet, even he
relented; he called Moses and Aaron, begged them to leave his land, and craved their
blessing. The Egyptians, who before could not bear the idea of letting their servants go,
now drove them fairly off, would not give them time to bake their bread, and gave them
gold, silver, and clothing, any thing to be rid of such dangerous inmates. And was Moses,
who was seemingly the author of all this misery, hated by them? No, he stood high in the
estimation and affection of Pharaoh's ministers, and the people of Egypt; for all
acknowledged that he was the servant and messenger of the true God, and that by his will
and permission alone Moses was enabled to do these great things. — The people of
Israel, therefore, who had been slaves for many years, were in this manner freed from
their oppressors, and they went out openly and unmolested, to meet their new destinies
under a leader beloved by his own fellow-believers, and respected even by his enemies.
— They were destined for the conquest of Palestine; but the Eternal did not wish to
lead them through the country of the Philistines to the immediate acquisition of their
inheritance; He preferred to let them pass through the wilderness of Arabia, to teach them
more fully, that they were altogether dependent upon his support. — He sent a pillar
of clouds to go before them by day, to point out the road they were to travel, and by
night, He illuminated their path with a pillar of fire, so that they were enabled
to travel by day and night.
When the terror of Pharaoh and his people had a little subsided after their late
calamity, they repented their having dismissed the Israelites, and all went out in pursuit
of them, to bring them back to servitude. — The Egyptians overtook the Israelites, as
they lay encamped along the shores of the Red Sea. They, who had been redeemed but a few
days ago, saw column after column of their revengeful pursuers arrive; and how should they
be able to withstand this well armed host of horsemen and charioteers? Behind them were
their enemies, and before them they saw the agitated waves of the Arabian Gulf; there was
therefore no possibility of retreating, no advancing; the danger was pressing, and six
hundred thousand freemen saw no alternative between death and slavery. The
very idea was maddening, to think that their wives should be swept off by the flood —
or that the necks of their tender children should bend under the heavy yoke of slavery,
under the pressure of which they themselves had groaned. — In their anguish, they
called upon their God to assist them, and He heard their prayer. — It is true, that
some began to grow faint-hearted, and accused Moses as the author of their present
distress; but let those, who may be disposed to think our ancestors so very blameable for
their want of confidence, only reflect how they themselves would have acted under equally
trying circumstances. — But Moses stood unappalled in this emergency — he, the
man of God, knew no fear, and he inspired his affrighted brethren with a share of the
confidence he himself felt. Secure of a happy issue, he ordered the Israelites to stand
quiet, and in the spirit of prophecy he assured them, that they should never again see the
Egyptians in the manner they beheld them that day. — All the nation became silent.
— all clamor was hushed, whilst Moses prayed to God, Who had through him so often
before manifested His power. — And soon was his prayer answered from Heaven; he was
ordered to stretch his staff, with which he had performed the other miracles, over the
sea, and behold! Its waters were divided, and were congealed, and stood up like two
walls, to the right and to the left. The tribes of Yeshurun boldly advanced into the dry
chasm of the ocean, and passed through unharmed. Their pursuers, being baffled in their
intentions, and disappointed of their prey, hurried onward after the retiring Israelites;
but soon they discovered, when it was too late, their inability to accomplish their
purpose; against their will they were dragged forward, and they arrived in their turn in
the middle of the sea. Moses was again commanded to stretch his hand over the sea, and all
the Egyptians were at once overwhelmed in one confused and sudden destruction; for the sea
ebbed down again to "the gate of tears," and buried under its mighty waves the
whole host of Pharaoh, and not even one was left to carry home to his countrymen an
account of the terrible catastrophe. — The destruction was complete; and when the
Israelites saw the corpses of their enemies thrown upon the seashore, they all
acknowledged the great power of their mighty Deliverer, and as our legislator expresses in
a few words: "And the people feared the Eternal, and they believed in the Eternal and
his servant Mosheh." When Moses and all Israel saw the great deliverance, and when
they felt that they were now and for ever free from Egyptian thralldom, they composed that
elegant hymn, which must ever remain an example of chaste and elevated poetry. In which
after rehearsing the great deliverance, by which they had been saved from slavery and from
death, they speak in terms of confidence of the fulfillment of the yet remaining
unaccomplished promises of God, and conclude with the following beautiful sentences:
"Thou wilt bring them, and Thou wilt plant them in the mountain of Thy
inheritance, in the place, O Eternal, Thou hast prepared for Thy residence; the sanctuary,
O Lord, which Thy hands have founded! — The Eternal will reign for ever and
ever!" May this be His will, and may all flesh speedily be brought to acknowledge Him
alone, and to the observance of his precepts. Amen.
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