Exodus 13:18b The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. (As His people left Egypt, the Lord led them through what would be both a physical and a spiritual boot camp. The battle reference pictures this massive group of people exiting Egypt, through hurried and pressured, in an orderly manner, and that the Lord would use this coming journey to prepare them for the very real battles they would soon face. Rather than taking His people on the shorter, northern route where they would face battles against experienced armies that stood against and between them and their entry into the Promised Land, the Lord would take His people on a path where they could experience solitude and isolation after their enslavement and uprooted displacement, a route that would give them time to harden themselves to the challenges of travel and battle preparation. And He intended to perform signs and wonders for them in this journey that they could only experience if they had to depend on Him, miraculous deliverances such as the Egyptian army being destroyed at the very place that appeared to be a trap for Israel, miraculous provisions of water and food in the desert wasteland, and miraculous manifestations of God's appearances and commandments. The Lord has delivered us today and is equipping us for battle. As He takes us out of the Egypts in our lives, He leads us into the isolation of desert places where we have no resources upon which to draw except to depend on Him, into a place of regrouping, into a place of miraculous deliverance, and into a place of His great demonstrations and manifestations.)
