After leaving E'gypt, the great host of the Is'ra-el-ites journeyed in an easterly direction to a place called Suc'coth, where they pitched their tents. Here the LORD directed Mo'ses to remind the people of the gratitude which they owed to the One who had so miraculously delivered them from bondage in E'gypt. Ceremonies and duties in keeping with their new freedom were now announced by the Divinely appointed leader.
The Is'ra-el-ites were told that the eldest child in every family should be dedicated to God in a special manner, and that ever afterwards the first child born to a newly married couple should be set apart to God. In this way God established in Is'ra-el a perpetual memorial of His saving of the firstborn of the Is'ra-el-ites on the night when the eldest child in every E'gyp-tian family was taken by death. That eventful night would be kept alive in the memory of the chosen people of God forever. This requirement also taught the Is'ra-el-ites that the best of their earthly possessions were to be consecrated to the service of God; in offering sacrifices to Him, the people were to give the very best of whatever they had. In making this dedication of the firstborn to the LORD, a sacrifice of a lamb was to be offered as a reminder to Is'ra-el of the way in which their eldest children had been spared from the Angel of death in E'gypt.
Then Mo'ses repeated the orders which he had already given in E'gypt for the establishment of the Pass'o-ver as a ceremony to be kept for all time, and warned the Is'ra-el-ites not to overlook this duty after they were settled in the land of Ca'naan. It would be impossible for them to keep the Pass'o-ver Feast during their prolonged journey through the wilderness, but it must be renewed in Ca'naan. The people were told to explain to their children the meaning of the Pass'o-ver Feast, and to do everything in their power to keep alive in the memory of future generations their wonderful deliverance from bondage in E'gypt. Among all the children of Is'ra-el the observance of the Pass'o-ver was to mark their national birthday.
Following a brief rest at the place called Suc'coth, the Is'ra-el-ites resumed their journey toward Ca'naan. The most direct route over which they might travel was a caravan road around the northern end of an arm of the Red Sea, where there is now the Suez Canal. By taking this route they could have reached the southwest border of Ca'naan within five or six days. This route, however, would have led them through the territory held at that time by the warlike Phi-lis'tines, and it would have been impossible for Mo'ses to engage in battle while the He'brew warriors were accompanied by their wives and children, and encumbered with vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and large quantities of goods. The LORD also wished them to spend a year in the wilderness, where Mo'ses would be given special instructions for setting up the laws and religious rites of the nation, and for proclaiming the Divine laws which they were to observe in the Promised Land.
For these reasons the LORD directed Mo'ses to take a rather difficult and hazardous route in a southwesterly direction through the uncharted wilderness. For some two or three days the Is'ra-el-ites moved along in an uncertain course. Fully organized into five great groups arranged according to families and tribes, but without any definite idea as to where they were going, they reached the shores of an arm of the Red Sea. They were in the midst of a broken, mountainous desert, facing the Sea at a point where it was several miles wide and much too deep to be forded. They did not know where they were going, but the LORD had guided them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
