1513 BC The Exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt

In the spring of the year 1513 B.C., JHWH commanded the people of Israel to prepare for their liberation and departure. He ordered them to see to it that on the 10th day of the first month of spring, they would have a lamb or a goat in their homes and they would slaughter it on the 14th day. In the evening of that day, they would have to sprinkle some of the blood of the slaughtered animal on the door posts and the threshold of their outer doors and stay at home the whole night. In that way, the angels that would go by all the streets of Egypt that night to give the people the last and final blow, would know which houses belonged to Israelites and would have to be passed by.

The people followed God's instructions. During their last night, in Egypt they slaughtered their lamb or goat, sprinkled the blood on the door posts and roasted the slaughtered animal. In accordance with the instructions they had received, they hurriedly ate the meat, ready to leave the following morning. Moreover, they kept their clothes on that night and did not go to bed. The next morning, it became clear how the final the tenth and last blow that God gave the Egyptians had been. In that memorable night, God had killed all the firstborn children of all the Egyptians.

The Pharaoh and all the Egyptian people begged the Israelites to leave as soon as possible. They did this, but not with empty hands. The Bible says that they asked the Egyptians to give them as much of their gold and silver objects as they could, to help them on their way. Obviously, they could ask the Egyptians anything: they got everything they asked for. They cleared out almost everything that the Egyptians had.

The 14th of the first month in spring became the liberation day for the Israelites. JHWH gave the people a special name for this: Passover. He also instructed Israel to celebrate this Passover feast or liberation day on the 14th day of the first month in spring every year. Later on, He gave the people highly-detailed instructions on how to celebrate the Passover.

The exodus (going away) out of Egypt had been prepared very carefully and was carried out in an orderly fashion. This was very necessary: in the course of the 215-year stay of the people of Israel in Egypt, the number of Israelites had grown from 70 people in 1728 B.C. to between two and three million people in 1513 B.C. (Exodus 12:37 mentions 600,000 able-bodied men who were strong enough to take part in the military battles that the Israelites expected).

From the very beginning of Israel's journey through the desert, JHWH showed them that He was their God. By actually proving that He was there and that He was there for them, He sanctified His name and demonstrated that His name accurately defined His essence. He showed the people the way through the desert by going out in front of them in the form of a pillar of cloud in the daytime and in the form of a pillar of fire by night. After some time, Pharaoh began to realize that he was really losing his Israelite slaves. He quickly mustered a large army and began to go after them.

The Israelites had to cross the Red Sea to be able to leave Egypt and enter the desert that separated Canaan from Egypt. Even before they were able to do this, they found out that they were being pursued by Pharaoh's army. They had nowhere to go: in front of them was the Red Sea and behind them, the army that was in pursuit of them.

Moses reassured them when they started to panic. He told them that JHWH would again prove that He was their God. Indeed, JHWH stopped the current of the Red Sea so that the Israelites could walk across it. When the Egyptian army tried to avail themselves of the same opportunity, JHWH let the current run its normal course again. As a result, the entire army was drowned in the Red Sea. Through this great miracle performed by JHWH, Israel was now definitively liberated.

Following the way that God showed them, the people walked through the desert for a couple of months. They did not head towards the north, which you would expect because Canaan was in that direction, but in a southern direction towards a high mountain: Mount Sinai. The people began to complain about hunger and thirst. They did not hesitate to point out to Moses and Aaron how good their food and their drink had been in Egypt. In this situation, God proved again that He was with them. Throughout their journey in the desert, God saw to it that all the hundreds of thousands of Israelites always had enough to eat and drink. They got meat (quails) at night. In the morning, they ate a delicious sweet kind of bread: manna. At the start of their journey through the desert, God also introduced a weekly resting day for the people: the Sabbath.