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Miracles of the Exodus and Red Sea Crossing

Excluded Exodus Routes: Nuweiba Beech, Bitter lakes, Gulf of Suez, Mt. Musa, Mt. Karkom, Ein el-Qudeirat.

1. Many Christians falsely assume there is little information contained in scripture about the 50 locations of the exodus, much less the timing. Many preachers never give this subject a look stating that we don't even know for certain any more than 4 of the 50 exodus stops.
2. In fact, scripture specifically tells us the day they left, the day they entered the Wilderness of Sin, the day they arrived at Sinai and the total number of days the exodus took. There is a wealth of information in scripture about many of the 50 exodus locations.
3. We know four locations for certain and using key clues in scripture, we are able to discern several others. Using careful analysis, we have calculated the distances between each of the stops. We have calculated total distances as well as daily average travel rates.
4. An examination of the Wilderness of Sin allows us to calculate the days of the week. They left Goshen on Passover, which fell on a Thursday that year. They crossed the Red Sea on a Sunday and entered the Wilderness of Sin on a Saturday. They arrived at the Sinai on a Friday and Pentecost Sunday fell about a week later, 52 days after leaving Goshen. God descends on Mt. Sinai on the following Wednesday.
5. Before you snort in smug disbelief, or quote Deut 29:29 and dismiss this work, we suggest you take a close look at the material provided herein. While there are some assumptions that could be wrong, the basic overall data is correct. We know where they crossed the Red Sea, Mt. Sinai and Kadesh Barnea are located.
6. Directly below is a master summary table of the Exodus journey. There is a second table that itemizes the distances and travel rates.

1. The Bible tells us that it was a 44 day journey from Goshen to Sinai. They left Goshen on Passover (14th day of the first month) and arrived at the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the second month and arrived at the Wilderness of Sinai on the 1st day of the third month. This equals 44 days.
2. It took 24 days to travel 490 km to the Red Sea and they spent 8 days camped there waiting for Pharaoh's army to come. It took 20 days to travel 260 km to Sinai after the Red Sea including 7 days camping in the wilderness of Sin and 2 days battling the Amalekites at Rephidim.
3. Exodus 12:51 tells us Israel was driven out of Egypt by Pharaoh on Passover night (Nissan 14): "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover." Leviticus 23:5. "Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said." Exodus 12:31. "And on that same day (Passover) the Lord brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts." Exodus 12:51
4. Exodus 16:1 tells us that when they entered the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the second month (Iyar 15). This means they were only 15 days away from reaching the Mt. Sinai. "Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month (Iyar 15) after their departure from the land of Egypt." Exodus 16:1
5. Exodus 19:1 tells us they ended the trip when they reached the Wilderness of Sinai on the 1st day of the third month (Sivan 1): "In the third month (Sivan 1) after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai." Exodus 19:1

1. From Passover when they departed Egypt, Nissan 14 - Nissan 28 = 15 days
2. The second month of Iyar = 28 days
3. The 1st day of the third month = 1 day
4. Total: 44 days using the Jewish solar calendar of 28 days for each month.

1. The entire world today uses the Roman method of reckoning days from Midnight to Midnight.
2. Jewish days began at sundown. This means that if it is 5 pm on a Friday night and you are just getting off work, two hours later (Roman time 7 PM) would actually be Saturday.
3. This is helpful to know because in the Wilderness of Sin they arrived on a Saturday, and after sunset, that evening while they were in the camp, God revealed the Sabbath for the first time using manna as an instructor. So from Roman time, God revealed the Sabbath on Saturday evening 8 PM, but to the Jews, it was a the 1st day of the week (Sunday).
4. We are very glad because the Jewish method of time keeping would be awkward to implement today.

1. Biblical Jews counted days differently from how we count today. Jews used the inclusive counting system.
2. Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose from the dead on the first day (Sunday) Three days and three nights: Friday crucifixion - Sunday resurrection. For us this would only be two days, but for Jews it was three days.
3. On the Friday before "Palm Sunday", exactly one week before Jesus died, Jesus said: Luke 13:32 "Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today [Fri] and tomorrow [Sat], and the third day [Sun] I reach My goal."
4. Even during the Exodus there is an excellent example of Jewish inclusive time keeping. The Bible says: "The Lord also said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." Exodus 19:10-11
5. Notice that even Jesus counted three days as a duration from Friday to Sunday. He started counting today as day one.
6. We don't count this way. Today is day 0. For the Jews today is day 1.
7. We need to keep this in mind when calculating days the way the Jews did.
8. For example, when it says they went three days into the wilderness of Shur after crossing the Red Sea, this would be a Monday to Wednesday duration for the Jews.
9. They counted a day even if there was only one hour left in that day.
10. For a full discussion about Jewish time keeping see this.

1. The primary way we have used to calculate the days of the week for the exodus journey is based solely on their visit to the Wilderness of Sin. It is there God first revealed the Sabbath.
2. We believe with some level of confidence, that we have enough information to actually calculate the days of the week for the journey between the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai.
3. In Ex 16:1 God revealed the Sabbath for the very first time in world history. Contrary to the unbiblical ravings of Seventh-day Adventists, Adam and Abraham never kept the weekly seventh day Sabbath (Saturday). In fact the word Sabbath is never even used once in the book of Genesis. The Sabbath was a Jewish holy day that was abolished by God when he nailed the first covenant to the cross. Col 2:14-17 clearly teaches that the Law of Moses, including the 10 commandments, were nailed to the cross. The New Testament passage specifically states that Christians are free to eat "unclean foods" (pork) and that all the system of Jewish holy days, yearly (Passover), monthly (new moon) and weekly (7th day Sabbath) are all nailed to the cross. Christians do not keep the Jewish Sabbath, but worship on the first day of the week: Sunday. Christians assembled every 1st day (Sunday) for the Lord's Supper: Acts 20:7 and are commanded to give every Sunday: 1 Cor 16:2.
4. Now from the narrative of Ex 16, it seems that Moses revealed the six days of rest and the 7th is the Sabbath starting on a Sunday. In other words, when God said to Moses: "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." Exodus 16:4-5. These words would have been spoken on the Sabbath they arrived and grumbled about having no food. The very next day had to be a Sunday, or the 1st day of the week.
5. What is clear, is that God used Manna to teach them, for the first time, about the weekly Sabbath day. In order to do this, it would mean that they are camped in the Wilderness of Sin for the full week (Sunday - Saturday).
6. Since manna fell in the early morning and melted by mid day, this also proves that God instructed Moses the words of Exodus 16:4-5 on the day before the first morning Manna fell: Saturday.
7. From this, we can quite safely determine that they arrived in the Wilderness of Sin on a Saturday and grumbled about being hungry. God gave them Manna for 6 days, then on the Sabbath they rested for the first time in world history. Then they departed early Monday morning to continue the journey in stages, since the terrain ahead was difficult and narrow.
8. The only variable is if God spoke the words of Exodus 16:4-5 on a Saturday or not. However, since we know the Holy Spirit has told us in Exodus 16:1, that they arrived in the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the second month, we also know that they only had 15 more days to make it all the way to the Wilderness of Sinai. We know this because we are told they arrived in Sinai on the 1st day of the third month. This means there is little time to spare, so it is likely we are correct that God spoke the words of Exodus 16:4-5 on a Saturday, not one or two days earlier. This urgency of 15 days to arrive at Mt. Sinai, also means it is very reasonable to have them leave early Sunday morning after the first Sabbath is over. They might have even traveled at night. The Bible says that they travel by night by the pillar of fire.
9. Now that we have determined the day they arrived and left the Wilderness of Sin, we can use this as a benchmark to determine the days of the week before and afterwards.

1. In a most natural calculation backwards from the wilderness of Sin, we discover something incredible, that they crossed the Red Sea on a Sunday. This would fit the New Testament antitype of water baptism very well. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 10:1-4 that passing through the Red Sea with the wall of water on either side and the cloud over head was an antitype of our full immersion into Christ for the remission of our sins. Israel was "baptized into Moses" and Christians are Baptized into Christ. The Hebrews were saved from the slavery of Egyptian bondage, Christians are saved from the slavery to sin. Any Hebrew who refused to cross the Red Sea and be Baptized into Moses would be killed the Egyptian army. Likewise anybody today who is not water baptized will be lost in hell because their sins are not forgiven. See these verses: Mk 16:16; Acts 2:28; 22:16; Rom 6:2-4; 1 Pet 3:21 and take this on line interactive study on water baptism.
2. Rom 6:3-4 tells us that our baptism is a symbol of the death burial and resurrection of Christ and that we are raised from the dead to new life when we rise from the waters of Baptism. Since Christ was raised from the dead on a Sunday and since water baptism is a symbol of this resurrection and since the crossing of the Red Sea was an antitype of water baptism, it is most natural to expect that God would orchestrate, through his power and providence, that Israel would be baptized into Moses on a Sunday.
3. Israel crossed the Red Sea on a Sunday.

1. Since the Bible tells us the fact that the entire trip was 44 days from Goshen to Sinai, we can now calculate the day of the week that Passover fell upon when they left Goshen.
2. This is done by knowing they arrived on a Saturday at the Wilderness of Sin, which the Bible tells us is 15 days before they reached the Wilderness of Sinai (Ex 16:1)
3. If 15 days before the end of a 44 day journey fell on a Saturday, then it turns out that the first Passover fell on a Thursday.

1. Pentecost means "the 50th day" after Passover. But the counting did not always start immediately after Passover as we will see.
2. Recent Jewish tradition states that the Law was given on Pentecost, which is 50 days after the first Sabbath following Passover. Although we cannot trace this Jewish tradition very far back in history, it is very likely correct. On the other hand even the Jews of Jesus' time were notorious at adding to or changing God's Law.
3. Pentecost always fell on a Sunday. Pentecost was calculated by counting 50 days, where day #1 is the first Sabbath after Passover. Since Passover could fall on any day of the week, sometimes there was up to a 6 day wait until the first Sabbath came by and you started counting the 50 days. When that Sabbath came, it was day one, then you would count seven additional Sabbath days for a total of 49 days. They next day after the seventh Sabbath was Pentecost.
4. This means that if Passover fell on a Sunday, for example, they would not start counting the fifty days until the next Sabbath 6 days later.
5. Therefore the actual number of days between Passover and Pentecost could vary from exactly 50 days if Passover fell on a Friday to as many as 56 days if Passover fell on a Sunday.
6. After they arrived in the Wilderness of Sinai on a Friday, day 44 of their journey from Goshen. They had arrived at their destination. The next day they rested on the second Sabbath day of world history. But this Sabbath was only day 42 of Pentecost. So they had an entire week to settle in at Mt. Sinai.
7. That last week before Pentecost, Moses gave them water out of the Rock at Mt. Sinai that was promised several days earlier at Rephidim (Meribah).
8. Pentecost fell on the Sunday after the next Sabbath day. This was day 52 after leaving Goshen.
9. On Pentecost, Moses ascended ascends Mt. Sinai and returns with law (Ex 19:3-6). Jewish tradition fits very nicely into this time scale.

1. The day after Pentecost (Monday) after Moses had told the people their message from God, Moses ascends Mt. Sinai 2nd time to give God the people's reply. This time God says be ready on the third day because God will dawn from Seir and descend upon Mt. Sinai: Ex 19:7-14.
2. Moses told them that God would descend on Mt. Sinai three days later and to prepare themselves during these three days.
3. The Bible says: "The Lord also said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." Exodus 19:10-11
4. This means the duration would be a Monday - Wednesday. This method of counting is typical of the inclusive counting system of the Jews. This further illustrates how Jesus was in the tomb three days, yet it was a duration of Friday 3 PM to Sunday 6 AM.

1. You must also keep in mind the supernatural help that God gave the Hebrews during the exodus.
2. Exodus 13:21 says they traveled day and night by the light of the pillar of fire. "He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to illumine by night. " Psalm 105:39
3. There are only a few stops mentioned in the Bible between Goshen and the Red Sea: Succoth, Etham, Pi-Hahiroth, Migdol, then they crossed the Red Sea.
4. Most people falsely assume the trip took only seven days. This assumption is based upon an inference about the 7 days of unleavened bread which was a memorial of when Israel left Egypt so quickly, that they did not have time for their bread to rise. But nowhere does the Bible say they ate unleavened bread for 7 days, only that there would be a seven day period to remember that first day they left with unleavened bread. Day two, they ate leavened bread again.
5. The Bible does not say, "Because you ate unleavened bread for 7 days after leaving Egypt, you will east unleavened bread for 7 days each year as a memorial." Instead the Bible says, (paraphrased) "You will not eat leaven for 7 days in remembrance of that one day you ate unleavened bread, when you first left Egypt.
6. Now even if it was 7 days, there are only 3-4 cities mentioned. Yet they would be moving every day. This proves that there are "cities" missing in the list of places they rested each night.
7. Herodotus (450 BC) said that the 150 km trip from the Mediterranean sea to the Red Sea was a four days journey. This means they traveled 38 km (23 miles) per day. "Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea - a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian - the length of which is four days' journey, and the width such as to admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. (Herodotus 2.158)
8. The Bible does tell us that the entire 750 Km trip from Egypt to Mt. Sinai took 44 days. It was day 25 when they crossed the Red Sea and day 44 when they reached Sinai. So it took 24 days to travel 490 km to the Red Sea and they spent 8 days camped there waiting for Pharaoh's army to come. It took 20 days to travel 260 km to Sinai after the Red Sea including 7 days camping in the wilderness of Sin and 2 days battling the Amalekites at Rephidim.
9. Distance traveled from Egypt to Jebel Al-Lawz based upon actual route, not line of sight is 750 Km. From Goshen to the crossing point of the Red Sea is 490 KM. These distances include the Etham and back the way they came, to the camp at the Red Sea before they crossed. Etham was 30 km past the point where they crossed, so the round trip was 60 km extra. The distance Pharaoh's army traveled from Goshen to where the pillar of cloud stopped them is 400 km. It was 19 km across the Straits of Tiran. After they crossed into the wilderness of Shur, the distance to the camp in the wilderness of Sinai was 260 km.
10. Average rates of travel must be based upon the total distance and the actual days they were moving. The total distance is 750 km and the total number of travel days is 28. (44 days less 8 at the Red Sea, less 7 in wilderness of Sin, less 2 in Rephidim) This gives an overall daily rate of travel of 27 km (16 miles) per day.
11. The average daily rate from Goshen to the Red sea is 490 km / 17 actual travel days = 29 km (17 miles) per day. This is very realistic especially considering they traveled day and night.
12. The average daily rate from the red sea to Sinai was 260 km / 11 actual travel days = 23 km (14 miles) per day. We would predict that their rate of travel would be lower after crossing the Red Sea, given the urgency of fleeing Egypt was gone. So the rate of travel figures are realistic easily possible for a large crowd.
13. Remember Herodotus said that the same basic area was traveled at a rate of 38 km per day.

By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.

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