Many other people went up with them. (Exodus 12:38)When we think of the exodus, we think of an entire nation of Israelites crossing the Red Sea. The truth is that the group might not have been quite as pure pedigreed as we take for granted. In fact, this is not the last time other people groups will be assimilated into Israel.
This gives rise to a simple observation: When God's people walk in freedom, there's no telling how many others will be delivered as a result.
I hadn't really considered that either - but it makes sense that folks likewise enslaved over the years might grab the opportunity to get out of Egypt too. And I still shake my head over how severe it had to get before they could leave, and the way God was so carefully laying the reminders of salvation in place with the ceremony of the Passover meal.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 14, v30, I noticed the wording: God delivered Israel that day from the oppression of the Egyptians (the Message) and in the NIV it said from the hands of the Egyptians, which gives similar implications. Even though the Israelites made comments about the way they were mistreated, they had been in Egypt for so long I think the oppression had become such a way of life for them that they no longer realized how oppressed their lives actually were. I found it interesting that God had them go a different route because they would have given up if they had encountered any resistance going that shorter way. We often think of the freedom the Israelites needed but this reminded me of the rebuilding God was beginning in their lives as well, to help them regain their strength and fortitude as a people.
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