Moses, Leader of 603,550 people Out Of Slavery Of 400 Years

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

     12 Tribes of Israel, Others, slaves of Egypt, Leaving

Moses of the tribe of Levi, the Lawgiver of Judaism, prophet for his people, and founder of the Jewish religion, was born in Egypt to  Jochabed and Amram in 1391 BCE, slaves of the Egyptians, 3,417 years ago in the city of Avaris, in Goshen. Levites did not have a state of their own, commanded to live in all of them to teach their religion. Avaris, the ancient Hyksos capital in the eastern Nile Delta, is most famously referred to in the Bible as Rameses (or Raamses). In the book of Exodus (1:11), it is described as one of the "store cities" built by the Israelites for Pharaoh.                                      

    Egypt's Goshen area and area of Canaan where slaves came from

The people first taken into slavery had been the children, descendants of Jacob and his family of Israelites, for the past 400 years. To understand time; that's like the 1900's when horse and buggies were being used for transportation to the time of 2300 or today.  However, Egypt in that period was not inventing new transportation at all.  They had slaves to do everything.  The Israelite slaves were used to build storage buildings needed in Goshen, so they lived there.                      

Moses and been saved by the pharaoh's daughter at a time boy babies were thought by the pharaoh to grow up and take over Egypt, so they had them all killed that year, and Moses was in great danger.  His mother hid him in the bull rushes growing in the Nile's marshy shallows that emptied into the Mediterranean Sea.  

He was raised as  Prince, so one day he saw an overseer whipping a slave almost to his death, and he stopped him but the overseer fell, hit his head and died in the process.  

 I imagine this is the same chariot that Moses used to get to Midian.

Even a Prince couldn't do that legally so Moses hid his body and left town, seeking refuge in Midian (Saudi Arabia) , a land next to Egypt, making it 420-440 miles to Midian. 

 

He came upon several women who were watching their sheep and being harassed by some other men, and Moses stepped into help them.  That's how he met his wife, Zipporah, daughter of the local priest, Jethro.  He spent his life there, becoming father of 2 sons, Gershom and Eliezer  until he was 80 years old, and then felt he must go back after seeing and hearing a vision in a burning bush, burning unusually from something other than fire,  and help his people escape from slavery. He felt it was a message from G-d.  

He followed the route he had taken 40 some years before back to Egypt and found in the slave's homes his brother, Aaron.  They went together to plead with a younger pharaoh for the Slaves to be freed.

Aaron did the talking as Moses had a lisp.  Snakes of each decided the debate of letting the slaves go with Moses.                                             

After some quick preparation, the people were ready to leave, and Moses took a census and counted 603,550 male Israelite slaves with others mixed in the tribes with:  The book of Numbers explains that before the camp was arranged, a census was taken of the Israelite men who were able to fight. More than 600,000 men were counted, not including women and children (Numbers 1:45-46). This means the camp may have included over two million people, making it like a moving city in the wilderness.

Reuben:  46,500       Zebulun:  57,400     Asher:       41,500

Simeon:  59,300      Dan:         62,700     Ephraim:   40,500

Judah:     74,600     Naphtali   53,400      Manasseh: 32,200

Issachar:  54,400    Gad          45,650      Benjamin:  35, 400

By day, a pillar of cloud rested over the Tabernacle, and by night, a pillar of fire lit up the camp (Exodus 40:36-38). When the cloud of God’s presence lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would pack up and march in the same order as their camp. 1. Judah’s tribe led the way, followed by 2. Reuben’s, then the 3. Levites carrying the holy objects, then 4. Ephraim’s tribe, and finally 5.Dan’s tribe as the rear guard. This order protected the Israelites and kept them together on their journey through the wilderness.

During their wilderness journey, the Israelites camped at night under the brilliant glow of the pillar of fire. Organized by tribe, the massive encampment featured thousands of tents surrounding the central Tabernacle, with Moses' Tent of Meeting placed at a distance for communing directly with God. 

       Fighting against  the Amaleks 

Moses had learned how to move army groups in his Egyptian classes, so knew how to have them make camp at night, and how to walk during the day.  I doubt if his training had allowed for women to give birth, or rest so many, at times..  The men did have to fight off attackers, though, as they went through certain towns, and the Amaleks were after them, too.  The ones last in the Exodus line were attacked as slower people were there, the aged, more feeble ones finding it hard to keep up.  

Resource:

The Tanach (Old Testament, the Stone Edition, ArtScroll series.