Perhaps we might try to imagine a “Pharaoh” who was wiser, one who would have said to Moses:
You want to leave Egypt? – Go ahead, leave!
You want to settle in the land of Canaan? – We will help you!
We will find you good places to live!
If enemies rise up against you – Egypt will go to war and defend you!
All of this, however, based on one absolute, non-negotiable condition:
You will remain subject to “Pharaoh”! Subjects of Egypt!
The Egyptian sun-god will remain above all your gods, and only “Pharaoh” will determine the laws and ordinances that will apply to you in the land of Canaan!
A riddle: which of the leading politicians in Israel would agree to this?
In this way, perhaps it would have been possible to spare all the hardships of the wilderness – all the failures and the plagues – an entire generation that would not have had to die in the desert – to return to the land under the protection of the Egyptian “superpower.”
Wouldn’t that be preferable to the so very difficult path of God’s Torah?
One thing is certain:
Had we followed such a path, we would never have survived as an independent people. We would have been erased together with Egyptian culture and its idols!
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that the people of Israel would leave Egypt for eternal freedom, receive God’s Torah, and endure for all generations the difficult paths of an independent nation – one that is not subject to any “Pharaonic” ruler, but only to the one Creator of the world, who is the God of Israel, the giver of the Torah to the people who walk in His ways for all generations.
- The splitting of the Red Sea was a war! The Israelites could not fight against Pharaoh’s chariots, and therefore “the Lord fought for them against Egypt” (Exodus 14:25)—with a mighty wind, with the pillar of fire and cloud, and with the waters of the Red Sea. The drowning of the Egyptian army turned the Israelites into an independent people.
- But if the Lord brought His people to the Red Sea for war—why not by the shorter route, “the way of the land of the Philistines” (13:17)?
- The explanation given in the Torah is: “lest the people regret it when they see war and return to Egypt.” This must be understood according to the meaning of “returning to Egypt” in other places in the Torah and the Prophets—as a return in order to receive help and protection! In the words of the prophet Isaiah:
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong”—“to seek refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh, and to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt” (Isaiah 31:1; 30:2). And in the language of the Torah, regarding the king of Israel:
“He shall not cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you: You shall never again return that way” (Deuteronomy 17:16)—that is, you shall not return to Egyptian patronage. - “The way of the land of the Philistines” (in northern Sinai) was an Egyptian military route, and it is known from Egyptian depictions (published by Gardiner) showing Pharaoh’s chariots, fortresses, and wells of water. Had the Israelites gone that way, they would have passed from fortress to fortress, saluted the Egyptian commander, presented Pharaoh’s letter of release—and remained a protected, dependent people.
Whenever they encountered war, they would return to Egypt to seek help in horses and chariots. According to Canaanite documents found in Egypt (at el-Amarna), the kings of Canaan as well would fall at Pharaoh’s feet in submission, regard him as lord and as “sun,” and request help against their enemies. - In our own time as well—the UN resolution resembles Pharaoh’s authorization to depart, and to this day the UN believes that the State of Israel can exist only under UN patronage! But the Egyptian army invaded in 1948, and threatened Jerusalem (through Jordan) in 1967—the War of Independence and the Six-Day War established the borders of Israeli sovereignty.
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