The journey of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt to new life in the land of promise is a journey that will take 40 years - a symbolic number again, a number that seems to embody the sense of completeness, fullness. This exodus journey, which in some ways, has come to represent spiritual journeying generally will not be a journey planned out in any kind of detail. It will be rooted in faith and trust in the God Moses looks to.

Exod 13 – The journey will be celebrated and remembered through the rituals and priestly regulations that came to embody the experience and make it palpably present to the generations that would follow. The requirements for observing the Passover pilgrimage-festival are outlined.   The memory is made visible on their bodies; to circumcision, other outward symbols are added: the phylacteries worn on the body—are stressed.   The first-born (males) of every womb are dedicated to the Lord too (redeemed is the word they use).

The Jews are not led directly to the land of the Philistines—a route that is not that long.  God worries that the warfare they would face that way would discourage them and make them want to go back to Egypt.  So they “swing about by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds” (13:18).  It is not the Red Sea, a translation that is ancient, but rather “suf” or End Sea.  Schocken suggests perhaps a kind of mythological sea at the end of the world, but he admits no one knows.  They have Joseph’s bones with them, it says. They camp at Etam at the edge of the wilderness.  God “goes before them, by day in a column of cloud, to lead them the way, by night in a column of fire, to give light to them, to (be able to) go by day and by night (Schocken 21).

Exod 14  - Pharaoh decides to pursue the people and overtake them encamped by the Sea.  And the people are filled with fear, blaming Moses for putting them in this predicament (14:11).  Moses tries to comfort them, telling them not to be afraid: “YHWH will make war for you, and you—be still!”  YHWH, in turn tells Moses that they should march forward and that he should hold high his staff so that the waters will split (14:16).  The column of cloud is both before and behind them.  Then Moses stretches his hand out again and YHWH causes the sea to go back and a “fierce east wind [blew] all night, splitting the waters and making the sea into firm-ground.  The chariots follow, but they “drive with heaviness.”  The Egyptian camp becomes panicked, and then Moses stretches out his hand and the waters return at dawn  “The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s camp, now moved and went around behind them” (14:9). 

Exod 15 – The hymn (canticle—song used in liturgy) of Moses and Miriam, his sister, is said to be one of the oldest writings of the Old Testament. It is the exodus story distilled:

I will sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant;

                Horse and chariot he has cast into the sea. . . .

                In your mercy you led the people you redeemed;

                in your strength you guided them to your holy dwelling. . . .

               And you brought them in and planted them on

               the mountain of your inheritance—the

               place where you made your seat, 

       O Lord, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your

               hands established. . . .

         Miriam, Aaron’s (and Moses’s) sister is called a prophetess (15:20), but here she dances and sings this exultant song. They are led to the desert of Shur, to Marah, where the water is so bitter they cannot drink it. The people grumble, but the Lord helps Moses to sweeten the water.

Schocken points out that here the journey begins with complaints about the water, just as the exodus stage itself starts with a pollution of Egyptian waters.  Here rules and regulations are drawn up for the people to follow.  They move on to Elim, a large oasis and camp there. Schocken again points out something interesting.  The whole exchange between Pharaoh and Moses can be seen as an argument about who shall be king—the powerful earthly ruler, pharaoh of Egypt, or the Lord of the universe—and here the choice is definitively made.  The Lord is king, “magnificent in power” (15:6), “my savior” (15:2), “magnificent in holiness. . .terrible in renown, worker of wonders” (15:11), “Let YHWH be king for the ages, eternity”(18). This hymn is the celebration of that revolution in sovereignty. He also points out the way the entire Moses story is framed by Miriam’s presence—hence she is depicted as a prophetess. Here is a verse from the Schocken translation—a beauty.

                  You led in your faithfulness

                  your people redeemed,

                  guided (them) in your fierce-might

                 to your holy pasture (15:13).

The wilderness narratives follow – they represent the process by which spiritual maturity is to be arrived at (Schocken).  There are three desert themes: grumbling/rebellion; the hostility of the surrounding nations; and working out a scheme of government and law.  The process cannot be achieved in a single generation.  He points out that here again as in the Abraham narrative, despite the promise of much fertility there is not a single birth story recorded in the wilderness—the process here is one of preparation for entry into the promised land where child-bearing, planting and productivity will be central.