Exodus 13:11-22 comments: led by a pillar of a cloud

Exodus 13:11 ¶  And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, 12  That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD’S. 13  And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. 14  And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: 15  And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem. 16  And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.

God repeats His special ownership of the firstborn of the womb. Matrix means the womb of a female. The firstborn of an ass must be redeemed with a lamb or it must be killed. How symbolic that is!

Job 11:12  For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.

Christ is the lamb that redeemed mankind.

John 1:29  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

The man who will reject that redemption will perish. Christ must be in control.

Zechariah 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Matthew 21:5  Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

Sanctifying to God of the firstborn signifies the death of the firstborn in Egypt as God removed His people.

The Levites are a tribe that is a substitute for the firstborn.

Numbers 3:11  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 12  And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine; 13  Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD.

Exodus 13:17 ¶  And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: 18  But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. 19  And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. 20  And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. 21  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: 22  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

We see again here that God did not let them go the way of the coasts where Philistine territory was. Repeating what I said previously, a coastal march would have been most efficient but that would have them walking right into a fiercely warlike group of people, descendants of Ham and Mizraim, the founder of Egypt; the Philistim or Philistines. See Genesis 10. So, they marched south into the wilderness of the Red Sea, the sparsely inhabited area bordering the Red Sea as logically the center of Pharaoh’s power would be in Lower Egypt, the most fertile and rich area with less control the further south one went.

Here is a definition of repent in verse 17. To repent is to change your mind and do something!

From Succoth they went to Etham. This is said to be in the edge of the wilderness, an unpopulated area near to the Red Sea. And remember, this is a huge body of people and animals walking, probably not very fast. Most of the speculation about where this place was is just that, speculation. You will read a lot of, “perhaps,” and, “maybe,” in the writings about this place’s location.

People will choose to believe their favorite Bible expositor as long as it doesn’t require them to think and pray themselves. Cross-references don’t help in this case. We just need to pray and use common sense. The Hebrews would naturally be moving east but God did not want them to go in the direction of the Philistines and He turns them in a southerly or southeasterly direction.

Verse 21 and 22 show that God went ahead of them operating in a very spectacular way.