Crossing the Red Sea

A strange camp. God told Moses to camp “by the sea” (14:2). God said Pharaoh would think, “They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in” (14:3). God was setting the stage to show His power. Pharaoh changes his mind. “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” (14:5). Pharaoh took “six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt” (14:7). Trapped. “When Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord” (14:10). Blaming Moses. “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (14:11). They even said, “it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians” (14:12). Fear made them want to go back to slavery. They forgot all the amazing things God had just done in Egypt. Crying out. Even so, they did one thing right. They “cried out to the Lord.” God hears His people when they call, even when their faith is weak.

A trap on purpose (14:1-4). God deliberately leads Israel to a place that looks like a dead end: between “Migdol and the sea.” The purpose is stated: “I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” What looks like a mistake is God's design. Hardened again (14:4, 8). As in the plagues, God's Word says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and also that Pharaoh and his servants turned against the people (14:5). Pharaoh's own regret, “Why have we done this?”, shows that his choices were still his own. “With boldness” (14:8). Israel “went out with boldness,” literally “with a high hand.” The ICB says “victoriously.” Yet two verses later the same people are terrified. Faith that rests on what is going on around us melts when things change. The pull of Egypt (14:11-12). The people's complaint is the first of many “murmurings” in the wilderness. Their words reveal a preference for familiar slavery over uncertain freedom, a pattern that will return (16:3; Numbers 14:4). Fear rewrites memory and makes bondage look safe. Moses' answer in the next verse does not scold them. It points them to God.

God told Moses to camp by the Red Sea. God knew the king would think they were lost. Soon the king changed his mind. “Why did we let our slaves go?” he said. He got his best chariots and his whole army. They chased God's people across the desert. God's people looked up and saw them coming. The sea was in front of them. The army was behind them. There was nowhere to run. It looked like a trap. They were very afraid. They cried out to the Lord. Then they blamed Moses. They forgot how God had already helped them.

The king chased God's people with his army. God's people were trapped by the sea. They were very afraid. But God had a plan.

Do not be afraid. “And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today’” (14:13). Salvation means rescue. God fights. “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (14:14). To “hold your peace” means to be quiet and calm. The people did not have weapons that could beat Pharaoh's army. They did not need them. Go forward. Then God said, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward” (14:15). There is a time to stand still and trust, and a time to step forward and obey. Lift the rod. “But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (14:16). The same rod that had become a serpent before Pharaoh would now open the sea. God's purpose. God said the Egyptians would know “that I am the Lord, when I have gained honor for Myself over Pharaoh” (14:18). This rescue would show everyone who the true God is.

“Stand still” (14:13). The Hebrew hityatsvu (say: hit-yats-VOO) means “take your stand” or “station yourselves.” It is not passivity but steady trust. The same words appear centuries later when King Jehoshaphat faces a great army: “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 20:17). Salvation as God's work (14:13-14). The word yeshu'ah (say: yeh-shoo-AH), salvation, is the root of the name Joshua and, in Greek form, Jesus. Here salvation is something Israel will “see,” not something they will achieve. “The Lord will fight for you” is the message of this whole rescue. “Why do you cry to Me?” (14:15). God's question may point to the people's cry (14:10), which Moses brought before Him. God answered with a command to move. Prayer and obedience belong together. Stand and go. Verses 13 and 15 seem to pull in opposite directions: stand still, go forward. Together they describe faith: stop trusting your own strength, and then move when God says move. The order matters. Israel could not march into the sea until God had made a way, but once He did, standing still would have been disobedience.

Moses was not afraid. He trusted God's promise. He told the people, “Do not be afraid!” “Stand still and watch God save you.” “The Lord will fight for you.” They did not have to fight the army. God would fight for them. Then God told Moses something surprising. “Tell the people to start moving.” Where would they go? They would walk into the sea! That seemed impossible. God told Moses to lift his walking stick. God was about to make a path. God always has a way. He has a way even when we cannot see one.

Moses said, “Do not be afraid.” “The Lord will fight for you.” God was going to save them.

Protection. “And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them” (14:19). God put Himself between His people and the danger. Dark and light. “It was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night” (14:20). The sea divided. “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided” (14:21). Walls of water. “So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (14:22). Hebrews says, “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land” (Hebrews 11:29). It took faith to walk between those walls of water in the dark. They trusted that God would hold the water back until every person had crossed.

The Angel and the pillar (14:19). The Angel of God and the pillar move together. God Himself was present with His people, standing guard between them and danger. Many Christians believe the Angel of the Lord in passages like this was the Son of God, before He was born as a man in Bethlehem. One cloud, two effects (14:20). The same presence is darkness to Egypt and light to Israel. All through Scripture God's presence works this way: comfort to those who trust Him, terror to those who oppose Him. A wind and a miracle (14:21). God used “a strong east wind all that night,” but He also did what no wind alone could do: “the waters were a wall” (14:22). God often works through the things He has made, and still His own hand is plain to see. A picture of baptism. Paul writes that Israel “passed through the sea” and “were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). Paul uses the crossing as a picture of baptism: passing through water from the old life into the new. Israel left slavery behind on the far side of the sea, and a believer who is baptized shows that the old life is left behind and a new life with Christ has begun.

The pillar of cloud moved behind God's people. It stood between them and the army. On the army's side, it was dark. On Israel's side, it gave light. The army could not reach them all night. Then Moses held his hand over the sea. God sent a strong wind from the east. The wind blew all night. The water split apart! The ground became dry. It was not even muddy! God's people walked through the middle of the sea. A wall of water stood on each side. Only God could do something like that! Everyone made it across safely.

God made a path through the sea. The water stood up like walls. God's people walked on dry ground!

The army troubled. “The Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army” (14:24). He “took off their chariot wheels.” The Egyptians admit it. “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians” (14:25). Moses had said the Lord would fight, and even the enemy saw it. The water returns. At morning “the sea returned to its full depth… So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (14:27). It was a terrible day for Egypt. God says elsewhere, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11). Pharaoh had refused God's warnings again and again. Saved. “So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians” (14:30). “So the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses” (14:31). Seeing what God had done, they trusted Him. The same people who had been so terrified the night before now stood safe on the far shore.

The morning watch (14:24). The last watch of the night, just before dawn, is when God acts. The ICB says “between two and six o'clock in the morning.” Deliverance arrives at the darkest hour. The enemy's confession (14:25). “The Lord fights for them” echoes Moses' promise in 14:14 almost word for word. All through the plagues God said Egypt would know that He is the Lord (14:4, 18). Now Egypt's own soldiers confessed it. Judgment and sorrow (14:27-30). God's Word says simply, “Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” It does not celebrate cruelty. This was God's righteous judgment on an oppressor who refused mercy again and again, and Ezekiel 33:11 reminds us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Fear and faith (14:31). Israel had been “very afraid” of Egypt (14:10). Now they feared the Lord. The fear of man is replaced by the fear of God, and fear of God becomes faith: “and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.” Next, that faith would burst out in a song.

The Egyptian army chased them into the sea. But God made their chariot wheels stop working. The soldiers shouted, “Let's get away!” “The Lord is fighting for them!” Then God told Moses to hold out his hand again. At sunrise the water came back. It covered the whole army. It was a very sad day for Egypt. God had warned the king many times. The king had chosen to fight against God. That day the Lord saved His people. They saw God's great power. They respected God and trusted Him. They trusted Moses too.

God saved His people. The army could not hurt them anymore. God's people trusted Him. They saw how great He is.