appears to us as a type of our redemption from sin and Satan; it was a work of peculiar difficulty-attended with the overthrow and judgment of the adversary-and directly effected by the power of God. Moses also, as the Deliverer, becomes a type of Christ our Redeemer: he was raised up-at an appointed and predicted_time-from among his brethren-and yet peculiarly of God. In all respects, indeed, Christ, as a son over His own house, was greater than Moses; especially in the last-mentioned particular, our Saviour being Himself, in the constitution of His person, divine. At the same time, in the Pillar of Fire and Cloud, we have, not only a symbol of God's providential care, but a type of Christ-the brightness of the Father's glory-dwelling among His people-for their guidance and protection.*

ELEMENTARY AND GENERAL QUESTIONS.

193. What was the Passover? When was it instituted?

.

194. Explain the meaning and origin of 'Passover,' Paschal.'

195. Describe the appointed rites and ceremonies of this festival.

196. Repeat 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.

197. Explain the Passover as a type of Christ.

198. What was the last and greatest of the plagues of Egypt, and what was its result?

199. What is the meaning of the word Exodus ?

200. How long were the Israelites in Egypt ?

201. Where did Moses assemble the people before they left Egypt?

202. What was the first station, or halting-place, on their journey? 203. What took place at that station?

204. What was the station next after Succoth?

205. Describe the passage of the Red Sea, and its results.

206. How did Moses and the people celebrate their deliverance?

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.

207. What is meant by 'typical' more than by symbolical'?

208. Distinguish the symbolical and typical meanings of the Passover.

209. How was the celebration of the Passover connected with agriculture, or the course of the natural year?

210. What was the number of the Israelites, men of full age, who quitted Egypt? and what, therefore, the probable number of all the people?

211. How did the Israelites obtain from the Egyptians raiment, gold, and silver? 212. Explain Exod. xii. 40.

213. What was the course of the Israelites from Etham ?

214. Describe their position when nearly overtaken by Pharaoh.

215. What circumstances plainly indicate the miraculous character of the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites ?

216. For what is the Song of Moses remarkable?

217. Give the meanings of-Succoth-Etham-Migdol-Baal-zephon-Pi-hahiroth.

218. Date the Exodus, B.C.-Describe its typical significance.

* See Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture, Mosaic Period, Part I. ch. ii. iii. iv. F

CHAPTER XIII.

JOURNEY OF THE ISRAELITES FROM THE RED SEA TO HOREB.

(Exod. xv. 22.-xviii.)

THE Israelites crossed the western arm of the Red Sea, now called the Gulf of Suez; but the points of their line of march cannot now be precisely determined. The traditional passage lies between the mouth of a valley (Wady Tawarik), near the promontory formed by Mount Atakah, on the Egyptian side, and a part of the eastern shore, near the place called the Wells of Moses, where the sea is about ten miles wide-a locality which some modern travellers regard as undoubtedly the true one; while others are of opinion that the real point of departure is to be found in the more immediate neighbourhood of Suez, some miles to the north of Wady Tawarik, where the sea extends only about three or four miles from shore to shore.* After their passage, the Israelites entered upon the large mountainous peninsula, embracing the greater part of Arabia Petræa, which lies in the angle formed by the two branches of the Red Sea, having Horeb and Sinai near its apex at the south, and bounded on the north, at its base, by Canaan and part of Egypt.

The part of this country which they first entered was the Wilderness of Shur. Hence they were conducted in a southerly direction along the eastern coast of the Gulf; the Divine purpose being to detain them in the wilderness for a time, rather than to lead them, in their weak and undisciplined condition, to encounter the Philistines in battle with a view to the immediate possession of Canaan. When they reached their next place of encampment, called Marah (i. e. bitterness; probably, a spot now called the Well or Fountain Hawarah), they were excited to murmuring against Moses, on finding the waters so bitter as to be unfit for use. Moses, however, by Divine commandment, cast a certain tree into the waters, which were thus, by a miraculous exercise of power, made sweet; and the Israelites were admonished henceforth to obey the voice of the Lord, and devoutly to regard Him as their healer. This first miracle after the passage of the Red Sea contrasts itself with the first plague of Egypt; in the latter case good water was rendered unfit for drinking, whereas at Marah bad water was made sweet.

The next encampment was at Elim (the trees, the palm

* [For another view see note on p. 63.]

grove), a pleasant and fertile spot distinguished by twelve springs and seventy palm-trees, most probably either Wady Ghurundel or Wady Useit: and here the Israelites appear to have remained a considerable time. Proceeding on their journey, they afterwards encamped by the Red Sea (Num. xxxiii. 10), most probably on the plain at the mouth of the Wady Taiyibeh. After this, having continued the same course, they pitched their tents in the Wilderness of Sin. The place thus denominated in Scripture is probably the plain now called El-Murkhah (Stanley), or (Robinson) the great plain, beginning with El-Murkhah, and extending a considerable way along the coast (i. e. the east coast of the Gulf of Suez). Some, however, find the locality of Sin in the Wady (valley) EshSheykh.

And here we shall do well to take a brief general survey of the track of the Israelites while penetrating the peninsula. From Elim there are several routes to Mount Sinai: two of which especially lay claim to have been that traversed by the Israelites; namely the line through the great plain which extends along the coast as far as Tur, with an entrance into the mountains through the Wady Hibrân-and the central or inland line through the large Wadys (valleys) Shellâl Mukatteb (i. e. Written Valley, or Valley of Inscriptions, so called on account of its rocky sides being marked with a large number of inscriptions in characters now unknown*), Feiran, and EshSheykh. Of these two routes, the latter appears, on the whole, to be most probably that by which Moses, or rather the pillar of fire and cloud, led the Israelites. Dr. Robinson says, 'From their encampment at the mouth of Wady et Taiyibeh, the Israelites would necessarily advance into the great plain which, beginning near El-Murkhah, extends with a greater or less breadth almost to the extremity of the peninsula. In its broadest part, northward of Tur, it is called El-Ka'a. This desert plain, to which they would necessarily come, I take to be the desert of Sin, the next station mentioned in Scripture. From this plain they could enter the mountains at various points, either by the present nearer route through the Wadys Shellal and Mukatteb, or perhaps by the mouth of the Wady Feiran itself. Their approach to Sinai was probably along the upper part of this latter valley and Wady-esh-Sheikh.'† Dean Stanley observes, 'The central route, after leaving the plain of Murkhâh, mounts by the successive stages of the Wady Shellal, the Nukb Badera, and the Wady Mukatteb, to the Wady

[Respecting these see Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 57-62.]

† Biblical Researches, vol. i. sect. 3.

Feiran, and its great mountain Serbal, the pride of this cluster;' and he gives it as his opinion that the Israelites most probably took this road.

**

At the Wilderness of Sin, the Israelites, finding that they were plunging into a most desert country, began to apprehend a general scarcity of provisions; and, faithlessly unmindful of the resources of Divine Providence, they thought with regret of the flesh-pots of Egypt, and murmured against Moses and Aaron as having led them away from a land of plenty to die by famine in the wilderness.† Moses, who himself had displayed implicit faith in God by the very act of leading a vast host of people into a situation with the disadvantages of which he was already well acquainted, reproved the Israelites for their unbelief and discontent; but at the same time declared himself commissioned to promise a prompt and ample supply of flesh and of bread-a promise which was confirmed by the appearance of the glory of the Lord, and was speedily fulfilled by the arrival of quails, which came up and covered the camp in the evening, and by a fall of manna, which descended and lay round about the host every morning. Such was one of those great events which appear to have been necessary, in order to the effectual training of the Israelites in habits of faith and obedience and thus to the formation of that spirit and temper which were requisite in order to the fulfilment of the Divine purpose concerning them.

Manna was a small round substance, like coriander seed, with the taste of honey. When the Israelites first saw it, they exclaimed, Man-hu? What is this?-whence it was called manna. According to Divine appointment, it was to be gathered and eaten every day; but with a provision that none should be gathered on the Sabbath, and a promise that the wants of that sacred day should be met by the fall of a double supply on the sixth day. The miraculous nature of this food is manifest: it was regularly supplied during the whole forty years' journey in the wilderness, and during this period it met the wants of three millions of persons; and, at the same time, the exact amount of the supply was remarkable, since, after the people had gathered as much as they could, some more and some less, the whole quantity was found upon measurement to

*Sinai and Palestine, chap. i. part 1.

Ebn Ezra observes that a gradual increase is observable in the discontent of the Israelites: at Marah only a part of the people had murmured, in Sin the whole community; at the former place against Moses only, at the latter against both Moses and Aaron; there only for water, here for all other necessaries also, as bread and meat.'-KALISCH on Exod. xvi. 2.

The quail is a kind of partridge.

be precisely what was requisite according to the settled average of an omer for every man. Besides this, when some of the people distrustfully and disobediently retained a portion of one day's supply until the following morning, it bred worms and stank; and when others went out on the Sabbath with a view to gather, contrary to the Divine injunction, it was found that none had fallen; while it was also discovered that the Sabbath portion, which remained from the sixth day's supply, was fresh and good. All these things were plain indications of the Divine will, and manifest results of the direct operation of Almighty power. God ordered an omer (i. e. perhaps about five pints) of this manna to be preserved in a vessel (probably, a wicker vessel, afterwards, a golden pot), as a memorial of the miracle to all succeeding generations; which Aaron eventually deposited before the Testimony, and which we shall consider more particularly in a subsequent portion of this history. As to ourselves, this miracle may well encourage us to pray in faith for the supply of our daily bread, or our necessary food; and it is undoubtedly designed to carry our thoughts to that Saviour who is 'the true bread from heaven,' 'the bread of life' (see John vi. 27-65)—that, in relation to the soul, which manna was in relation to the body.

Still, however, the Israelites were not sufficiently convinced of the guardian care of Jehovah, nor had they learnt rightly to estimate that Almighty power by which He was able at all times to help and deliver them. Having passed two more stations (Num. xxxiii. 12, 13), Dophkah and Alush (which cannot now be identified), they encamped at Rephidim-a spot not far from the Horeb group of mountains, supposed by some to be Wady Feiran (which, however, others determine to be too far west, while the Wady el Ledja is too near). Here, not finding the expected supply of water, the complaints of the Israelites against Moses rose to the height of a seditious tumult. The Lord then commanded Moses to go, accompanied by the elders of the people, to the mountainous region of Horeb, and there to smite with his rod a rock, on which the Lord promised to stand before him: and no sooner had Moses obeyed the Divine mandate than water gushed forth from the rock, and flowed in abundance to the camp at Rephidim *—a fact which the New Testament recognises as a lively emblem of the continual supply of spiritual life and influence which the Saviour graciously imparts to His faithful people. (1 Cor. x. 4.) A rock, or rather a large fragment of rock, in a valley (El Ledja)

* The history of this event, distorted by tradition, is recorded by Tacitus, Hist. v. 3.