They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.
Numbers 33:3 opens the record of Israel's journeys, and it starts with a date, a starting city, and a manner of leaving. Where the ESV says they went out "triumphantly," older translations read "with a high hand."
The starting point already had a long history for Israel.
A district in Goshen in Lower Egypt, east of the Nile, where Jacob and his descendants were placed, and where they built a treasure city of the same name for Pharaoh. It was from there the Israelites began their march out of Egypt.
The date matters. The night before had split the country in two, and Israel's ancestry was not what spared them.
Though the Lord made known to them the only way of deliverance, they were in themselves no better morally than the Egyptians. Suppose some of them had rested their hope of safety from the coming judgment on being part of a favoured people. They would have been mourning and burying their firstborn on the fifteenth day of Nisan, along with the Egyptians.
The verse packs four facts into one sentence.
So the divine record gives the date they left, the place they left from, the manner of their going out, and the fear that lay on the Egyptians.
The "manner" is the striking part. Slaves marched out in formation while their masters stood by, unable to stop them.
On that brilliant moonlit night, the former slaves of Egypt fell into their appointed positions according to tribe and family... Egypt was terror-stricken. The fear of God had so fallen on its people that even the dogs reflected the spirit of their masters. They did not move a tongue against Israel. The Lord had redeemed Israel; He had made them free. We may say they were "more than conquerors through Him who loved" them. In the excellence of their freedom they lifted up their heads, crowned with "the helmet of salvation."
Commentators differ here. Others stress how hurried and frightened that exit looked.
They were like a crowd of timid, frightened creatures, running from an angry enemy. They were "thrust out of Egypt," so they left in haste, and "the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled." They were not marching out at a slow, grand pace. They went out running for their lives. They fled for refuge, afraid of the pursuing enemy.
The boldness of the march did not come from the marchers. Someone else set the pace and the direction.
What a sight it must have been! The vast crowd moved out from their homes in orderly ranks, with one object before them. It was an object never seen before: a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, so that they could travel by day and by night. The Lord God of the Hebrews put Himself at the head of the exodus. He, not Moses, was leading; the people were following.
This verse is the first entry in a register that runs all the way to the Jordan.
You cannot read it without being deeply moved by the tender love and care of God shown throughout... Think of Him stooping to keep such a record of the journeys of His poor people. It runs from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan — from the land of death and darkness to the land flowing with milk and honey... Here He retraces the whole way His hand had led them, and He notes each stage of that remarkable pilgrimage with care.
One writer carries the record forward to a review still ahead of us.
What a day it will be at the judgment seat of Christ! There He will review our whole pathway with us, pointing out our failures and His faithfulness.
- Out from — Rameses was the store city they had built as slaves; the march began at the monument to their own bondage.
- Out through — they left the day after the Passover. Being a favoured people would not have saved them; God's way of deliverance did.
- Out openly — they left in full sight of Egypt. Commentators differ: some picture conquerors lifting their heads, others fugitives fleeing in haste.
- Out behind Him — the pillar of cloud and fire went first, so the Lord, not Moses, led the exodus.
- Out on record — this verse opens a register God kept of every stage, pointing to the day He reviews the whole path with us.
And the Egyptians buried those whom Jehovah had smitten among them, all the firstborn; and upon their gods Jehovah executed judgments.
Numbers 33 records every stage of Israel's journey, and it starts with the exodus itself. Verse 4 tells us why the road out of Egypt was clear, and how far God's judgment reached.
The verse fills a gap in the story: why a nation of slaves got away before the army came after them.
But why had Pharaoh let them escape at all? Numbers 33:4 tells us. The Egyptians were too busy burying their dead at first to pursue them. But now Pharaoh set his well-trained army in motion, in all haste. He was confident of taking his revenge on a people he thought were defenceless.
That same morning meant two very different things to the two peoples.
The Egyptians were busy burying their dead (Numbers 33:4). Meanwhile the persecuted, downtrodden nation of slaves was waking up to the reality of being the Lord's firstborn, redeemed by Him out of the house of slavery.
The second half of the verse is not new information. God had said in advance what He would do, and here He does it.
"Who is the LORD," said Pharaoh, in the pride and dense ignorance of his heart, "that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." Those were the words of a mortal creature. But the LORD is known by the judgment He carries out. Pharaoh found this out at his own cost, and so will men one day. He had foretold it (Exodus 12:12). He fulfilled His word (Numbers 33:4). Through these judgments the Egyptians found out how empty their idols were. When the LORD rose up in judgment, the gods of Egypt were powerless. There was no shelter, no help, no deliverance.
Commentators differ here. One says Scripture does not tell us what these judgments were:
"On their gods also the LORD executed judgments." What these judgments were, we are not told. But we can be certain they were definite and specific, and well known to those who turned to these deities.
Another writer sees the plagues themselves as those judgments, each blow shaming a god of Egypt:
Every blow insults and humbles some of them. Serapis blushes until his Nile waters, once so clear, turn blood red. Ra, the sun-god, is forced to smile on Israel and frown on Egypt. The sacred frog and fly become objects of disgust. The bull-god, Apis, cannot protect himself or his fellow cattle from the plague. Osiris and Isis are blotted out in the sky. Then the last and most horrifying judgment falls on Hapi, the god the Egyptians looked for in the firstborn of each family. Egypt had oppressed the Lord's firstborn; now Egypt's firstborn is killed.
The line about Egypt's gods shows who God was fighting. The quarrel was not just with a stubborn king.
He dealt with Pharaoh as the oppressor of His people, and as a picture of the god of this world. So His fight was with Pharaoh and with everything Pharaoh trusted in. We therefore read that He executed judgment on the gods of Egypt. So it was a brilliant display of God's victorious power in Satan's stronghold. If Satan rises up against God, the outcome can only be his total defeat.
Nothing in Israel's own character kept them off the mourners' list.
Israel were clearly the objects of God's special favour, yet they still had to use God's way of shelter from the entry of death into their houses. Though the Lord made known to them the only way of deliverance, they were in themselves no better morally than the Egyptians. Suppose some of them had rested their hope of safety on belonging to a favoured people. They would have been mourning and burying their firstborn along with the Egyptians. At that time they were themselves idolaters who had refused to put their idols away.
This verse sits inside a long list of place names, and the list has a purpose.
Numbers 33 testifies to another beautiful truth: the Lord remembers all the past. He remembers all our journeys, all the scenes of difficulty caused by our weakness, and sometimes worse, and the solemn judgments too. It is therefore far from being an unimportant chapter, or, as it might seem to the superficial, a dry list of names.
- Foretold — What God said in Exodus 12:12 He carried out; this verse records the promise kept.
- Executed — The blow fell twice: on Egypt's firstborn, and on the gods Egypt trusted to protect them.
- Exposed — Behind the idols stood Satan's power, and God broke it in its own stronghold.
- Excepted — Israel escaped the burials by shelter, not by being better than Egypt.
- Engraved — The Lord remembers the whole journey, and this chapter of names is His record of it.