The Royal Seed

As the Israelites walked on a dry seabed, the Angel of God, who has been a pillar of cloud before the Israelites, moves behind them to create darkness to the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:16, 21-22 NASB). Simultaneously, the pillar became a pillar of fire to provide light to the Israelites (Exodus 14:20) in order for them to walk at night (Exodus 13:21). These twin pillars of cloud and fire guided the Israelites for the next forty years (Exodus 40:34-38 NASB). As the sun rose, God instructed Moses to stretch out his hand to let the waters be restored to their normal level. Consider these two points: First, the Israelites marched on dry ground, yet at dawn, the Egyptian chariot wheels came off (maybe due to mud?). Second, from sunset to sunrise, three million Israelites and great multitudes of animals cross the sea, whichever sea it may have been. The point is this dry pathway could not have been just a narrow trench or footpath. It had to be very wide to accommodate millions of people and thousands of plodding animals in just one ten-hour night.

In Exodus 12 is a wonderful tidbit. Verses 35-36 describe the fulfillment of Exodus 3:22 when God utterly defeated the Pharaoh’s magicians and Egyptian gods. Verse 36 states the departed slaves even found favor in the sight of the Egyptians, as the Egyptians gave them their jewels, silver, and gold. Now we know how the slaves obtained the gold Aaron used to fashion their golden calf. This also explains where Moses found the gold to make the Ark of the Covenant, cherubim, altars, candlesticks, utensils, and other tabernacle equipment. These will be the golden fixtures used in the Tent of Tabernacle, and then later in the Temple for over six hundred years. Exodus 38:24-25 tells us that forty-one thousand ounces of gold and one hundred forty-one thousand ounces of silver will be used for these spiritual purposes. At today’s prices, that is over $50 million in gold and almost $4 million in silver. These collected gold and silver amounts are used only in the tabernacle tent and its furnishings. Scripture notes that it is three months from the time of the Exodus until the Israelites’ arrival in Sinai (Exodus 19:1). .

Another informative tidbit of Exodus 12 is discovered in verses 37-38. Verse 37 gives us a census of six hundred thousand men, with the babies, children, women, and elderly added to the six hundred thousand men available for warfare. Verse 38 describes a “mixed multitude” of others accompanied the children of Israel. We do not often hear it mentioned, but Exodus 9:20 and 12:38 makes note of the Egyptians or others who “feared the word of the Lord.” When the plague of hail was pronounced, these Egyptians retreated to their homes, taking their livestock inside along with them. In addition, the verse declares “flocks, herds, and very much cattle” also made the Exodus. All the Egyptian cattle were killed in the fifth plague (Exodus 9:6).When the slaves leave, they are taking with them the remaining “very much cattle.” .

Exodus 16:1 informs the reader the Exodus journey was just six weeks old by this time. Verses 2, 7, 8, 9, and 11 tell us about the three million people complaining to Moses. In verse 3, they complained about having no “pots of flesh.” Yet a huge number of livestock traveled with the Israelites in a desert area with little vegetation for nourishment. Did the sheep, goats, and cattle give no milk? As livestock breeders and shepherds, the Israelites did not think of their animals as food but as their investment accounts, their retirement plans. Although surrounded by thousands or millions of head of livestock, the people complained about having no pots of meat. This may also attest to the Seventh Day Adventist point of view that, while God gave Noah’s family the permission to eat meat, it was not eaten very often by the Israelites. .

A more modern thought: if livestock were the Israelites’ “mobile wealth,” when Moses instructed Aaron to sacrifice goats, sheep, and cattle, what God was asking for was their savings accounts and their IRA’s. The Israelites’ emergency funds were their livestock. God required sacrifices of the very cattle they had willingly denied themselves as food. God was asking for their net worth to be freely offered to him as acts of obedience, devotion, love, and trust. Hopefully, they remembered how God had provided a sacrificial animal to Abraham, in lieu of Isaac, five hundred years earlier. .

God heard their grumblings and provided quail for these wanderers. There are several interesting points about those quail. Before the winter months arrive, quail and other birds migrate from Europe down into the Sahel region of West Africa. This flyway may be the largest in the world. It even has a name—the Eastern Mediterranean Flyway. Some ornithologists estimate over three hundred species totaling possibly one billion birds make this semi-annual migration following the Sinai flyway. .

This route mimics the Jordan River rift to the south end of the Dead Sea. At that juncture, rather than continuing due south and having to fly one hundred twenty miles over parched desert and then another one hundred fifty miles over the Gulf of Aqaba, the quail fly in a southwesterly direction into the heart of the Sinai Peninsula. Once over the central portion of the Sinai, the course is redirected due south again. In the spring, the quail make the reverse journey from the Sahel of West Central Africa across the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. Exodus 13:4 remarks the Exodus occurred during the month of Abib. Abib corresponded to the months of March or April. By knowing this fact, it is apparent the quail would be migrating northward in the spring and they had just flown over the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez. After their extended flight over a body of water, naturally these birds sought land on which to light and rest. .