The Mekhilta tells a parable about a man walking along a road with his young son. At first, the father leads his child in front of him, keeping the boy in sight. But then robbers appear ahead on the road, ready to snatch the child. The father quickly moves his son behind him, placing himself between the boy and the threat.
No sooner has he done this than a wolf appears behind them, stalking from the rear, ready to seize the child from behind. The father pulls the boy forward again. Now the danger is on both sides — robbers ahead and a wolf behind. Threats in every direction, no safe position left.
So the father does the only thing he can. He lifts his son onto his shoulders and carries him above all the dangers. The robbers cannot reach him. The wolf cannot reach him. The child rides above it all, borne by his father's strength.
The Mekhilta connects this parable to the verse from Deuteronomy (1:31): "And in the desert, where you saw how the Lord your God bore you, as a man bears his son." The father in the story is God. The son is Israel. The road is the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land. The robbers and the wolf are the enemies who threatened Israel from every side — Pharaoh's pursuing army behind them, hostile nations ahead of them.
When danger surrounded Israel on all sides and no earthly strategy could protect them, God lifted the entire nation onto His shoulders. This was not a metaphor the rabbis used lightly. It captures the essence of the Exodus — a people carried through impossible circumstances by a Father who refused to let any threat, from any direction, touch His child.