Imagine you are the logistics officer in charge of moving and supplying 2.5 million troops housed over a 450-square-mile area. Your job is to gather them at a preset, central staging area, line them up by division, and march them off. Of course, you also have the numerous assorted baggage that goes with this many people—equipment, food, and other supplies.
Additionally, you must do this without mechanical or electronic help. No cars, trucks, trains, planes, telephones, radios, fax machines, etc. And you have ample time to get this done, let's say . . . five hours!
What's that? You say it cannot be done? I would agree with you. But that is just what some would have us believe occurred in Egypt 3,500 years ago!
New Understanding?
The Jews believe Passover is on the 15th of Abib/Nisan, the night we observe as the Night to Be Much Observed. Some, even in the church, believe that God instituted Passover as the 15th of Abib/Nisan, and Christ moved it back a day.
In discussing this "new understanding" with friends, some have said, "What difference does it make when the Israelites kept the Passover as long as we keep it on the right day?" Well, it made a big difference to the Israelites! If they kept it on the wrong day, they could have died! And for us, if we accept error without proving it, one way or the other, then we have set ourselves up to accept other errors.
We will take a common-sense look at this simple question: Can 2.5 million people, on foot, move out of an area in five hours?
Goshen, where the Israelites lived, is approximately 30 miles wide by 15 miles long. Within it is the city of Rameses, built by Israelite labor as one of Egypt's treasure cities. The children of Israel left Rameses and headed for Succoth, about 25 miles to the southeast. Without any of our modern conveniences, 2.5 million people—including children, the elderly, the disabled, not to mention baggage, the riches of Egypt, and their herds of livestock—had to assemble in Rameses and march out in order (Exodus 12:51).
But under the "new understanding," the events of the Passover and the beginning of the Exodus are compressed into half the time as that of the church's traditional teaching. When this "new understanding" was discussed at a Bible Study many years ago, I asked the associate pastor how this massive undertaking was accomplished in half the time it was previously thought to take. His answer: "Their loins were girded"! End of discussion.
For the sake of argument, though each can be disproved in its own right, we will make a few concessions to make this theory work. For instance, a day must begin at full dark instead of sundown. The Israelites must have spoiled the Egyptians entirely before the last plague. They have to assemble in Rameses for the Passover rather than observe it in their homes. They must slay, clean, prepare, roast, eat, and burn the Passover lamb in absolute record time. Then, they have to leave Egypt in the middle of the night. Even with these concessions, could the children of Israel have physically left Rameses in five hours?
The Logistics
The earliest the Israelites could have received permission to leave their homes after the Death Angel passed through at midnight would be 1 AM, giving Pharaoh time to send a messenger to Moses, and Moses time to inform the elders, who then, in turn, tell the people. In the spring, day and night are about equal, so sunrise would occur at around 6 AM. Since the Bible clearly says that they left at night, their window to leave Rameses was the five hours between 1 and 6 AM.
As a former general in the Egyptian army, Moses knew all about logistics, the moving, feeding, and supplying of an army. But even Moses was not this good!
Some believe the Israelites left Egypt directly from their homes, but Exodus 12:37 plainly shows them leaving from Rameses. So, on the road outside Rameses, 2.5 million people are lined up to leave for Succoth. To keep their movement manageable, we will use a column a mile wide, meaning it also stretches for at least ten miles to the rear. It is highly probable that the column was actually much narrower and thus, correspondingly longer.
How fast could the children of Israel move? A trained army can march at between 2 and 2½ miles an hour. But Israel was not a trained army. They had children, the elderly, animals, and baggage, and it was dark! They would be fortunate to average one mile an hour.
To put this in perspective, during the Boer War of 1900 in South Africa, 21,000 English soldiers set out to relieve the siege of the town of Ladysmith. Their supply train, consisting of thousands of wagons pulled by 15,000 oxen, stretched for 15 miles and required two days to pass a spot, even when moving sharply. This is well under one mile an hour.
Given that the Egyptians were urging them to leave and that their adrenaline was pumping, we will concede an average pace of one mile per hour. From the moment the first person stepped out toward Succoth until the time the last person in line crossed that same point would be over ten hours! Under this scenario, the last group would leave Rameses long after sunrise—actually around lunch time.
This "new understanding" just will not work, even though "their loins were girded"! The truth is simple and clear, but this deception is not. It depends on so many twists and perversions of Scripture to fit everything in, and even then, it still collapses.
History tends to repeat itself. Satan has attacked and subverted God's people before over the subject of the Passover. And he is doing it again! Don't let him fool you!
