Recap, Circumcision, and Magic
- Moses reminds the people how big a deal their liberation from Egypt was, and proclaims that the festival of the Lord will occur every year to commemorate the event.
- This was the guy who said he wasn't qualified to do the job. Just look at him now!
- Circumcision is established as a way to mark God's covenant on males.
- In a not-so-great turn of events, God steers the Israelites away from the land he promised them. He does this because the Philistines, a coastal nation, are in the way of Canaan, the land God promised the Israelites.
- God is worried that if the Israelites get into a war with the Philistines, they will forget that he, God, just saved them. So they go the long way around.
- God leads the people "in a pillar of cloud by day," and "a pillar of fire by night" (13:21-22). Whoa.
- Moses takes the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had wanted to be moved with his people.