The Road Not Taken

But God made the people take a round-about way, the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the Children of Israel were armed when they went up out of the land of Egypt.                                              Exodus 13:18

God chose not to lead Israel on the most direct route to its Land, lest they return to Egypt upon encountering war. Instead, God led us into the Sinai desert. Among other things, the choice of the route through the Sinai required God to perform the miracle of splitting the Red Sea. We may ask: as long as God needed to use a miracle to save the Children of Israel, why did He not lead us directly along the coastal route and defeat the Philistines for us? That would seemingly be the more economical approach.

My father explained that the answer lies in the restrictions God placed upon Himself in performing miracles. God expects man to do his part before He will provide miracles. Since the Children of Israel were not ready to fight for their freedom, should they encounter opposition on the road to their land, God would not fight for them. God would and did help Israel to throw off the shackles of slavery, but the desire for freedom had to come from the people themselves.

Despite the fact that the Israelites were armed, God took led them in the route that avoided confrontation with the Philistines, because being armed without the will to fight is essentially meaningless.

Indeed, at the shore of the Red Sea, Moses declared to the Israelites: “God will fight for you, and you will be quiet.” [Exodus 14:14] Yet God corrected Moses and said “Why do you cry unto Me, speak to the Children of Israel that they go forward.” [Exodus 14:15] Our Sages tell us that the Red Sea split only when Naḥshon ben Aminadav, Prince of Judah jumped into the water and the water reached his neck. The lesson is clear, only when the Israelites did their part did God provide the miracle.

In essence, at the Exodus, God had taken the Israelites out of Egypt, but taking Egypt out of the Israelites could be done only by the Israelites themselves.