Numbers 33:3, commentary and pictures

Israel departed from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month Abib or Nisan, on the morrow after the Passover kept on the fourteenth, journeying to Succoth with their dough before it was leavened and their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. They went out with a high hand, openly and boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians, in a hasty flight by night when they were thrust out. The date fixes the starting point for counting thirty days to the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month, where God gave bread from heaven and reminded them of the Sabbath, and on to the desert of Sinai on the fifteenth day of the third month, thirty days before they saw Mount Sinai and thirty-two days before God spoke the ten commandments. The weekly Sabbath rest is not a memorial of that midnight flight, for rest commemorates rest and fits God's rest on the seventh day of the first week, while a deliverance on a calendar day that recurs only once a year calls for an annual commemoration, not a weekly one. Beside this stands the teaching of those who held it that God by divine direction made the day of the exodus Israel's Sabbath as the first Sabbath of a new order, the sixth day by prior reckoning established as the seventh day ever afterward observed, with the year so ordered that the fifteenth of the first month would thereafter fall on the Jewish Sabbath.

Departure Date and Setting

Israel departed from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month Abib or Nisan, on the morrow after the Passover kept on the fourteenth. That fifteenth was the day of departure by divine direction, the starting date from which the journey is reckoned. On that day they journeyed from Rameses to Succoth carrying their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. They went out with a high hand, openly and boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians. It was a hasty midnight flight by night when they were thrust out.

The verse stands at the beginning of the record of Israel's encampments and journey from Egypt to Canaan. The place names in the chapter preserve the route even though most of the locations left no known trace. Though the chapter is full of names to pronounce it holds refreshing oases like the fountains and palm-trees of Elim. The wandering is illustrated by a map of the Sinai Peninsula. The verse belongs to Numbers 31 to 33 and teaches that no secret sin can be hidden from God.

Sabbath Doctrine and Chronology

The fifteenth day of the first month Abib, on the morrow after the Passover kept on the fourteenth, was the day Israel went forth out of Egypt by divine direction, journeying that day from Rameses to Succoth carrying their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. That day of departure was kept as the Sabbath by divine direction as the first Sabbath of a new order, so that what was the sixth day of the week in previous reckoning was established as the seventh day ever afterward observed by Israel. The next day, the sixteenth of Abib, though the true seventh day in regular succession from the day of the Creator's rest, was thenceforward reckoned the first day of the week. God so ordered the year that the fifteenth of the first month would thereafter fall on the Jewish Sabbath, or Saturday, making that memorable date of the exodus coincide with the Sabbath by divine appointment.

Resting on the seventh day of every week has nothing in it to commemorate a midnight flight on that monthly date, so the weekly Sabbath is not a memorial of the exodus. Because the fifteenth of the first month is a calendar day that recurs annually, remembering the exodus on that date calls for an annual commemoration, not a weekly one. Because the deliverance was a hurried rush on a single date that comes only once a year, in haste by night when they were thrust out, it cannot be commemorated by rest and it cannot be commemorated weekly. Rest commemorates rest, so the weekly Sabbath rest fits God's rest on the seventh day of the first week, not Israel's hasty flight.

The fifteenth day of the first month fixes the starting point for counting thirty days to the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month, where God gave bread from heaven and reminded them of the Sabbath before they reached Sinai. That departure began the journey that brought them openly and boldly in the sight of the Egyptians to the wilderness of Sin a month later, where God gave them manna and reminded them of the Sabbath. The count continues on to the desert of Sinai on the fifteenth day of the third month, proving God gave manna, reminded Israel of His Sabbath, and marked and guarded it with miracles thirty days before they saw Mount Sinai and thirty-two days before God spoke the ten commandments from the mount.

Israel's eating of the old grain and unleavened bread after Passover took place on the fifteenth, not the sixteenth; the date of the departure from Rameses establishes the date of the departure, not the timing of the first-fruit offering. The departure is dated to the fifteenth, not the fourteenth, which makes a proposed travel-day calculation unreliable; even if one day is assigned to each named station, the triumph at the Red Sea would fall on the eighteenth day, not the seventeenth. The same date places the last Passover eaten by Christ on the evening beginning the fifteenth of Nisan, with His sacrifice the next day on Friday, so that the fiftieth day, Pentecost, counted from the evening of Friday the second day of the Passover, falls on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday.