Reflections on Exodus 14

Exodus 14 (Contemporary English Version)

1. At Etham the LORD said to Moses:
   
2. Tell the people of Israel to turn back and camp across from Pi-Hahiroth near Baal-Zephon, between Migdol and the Red Sea.
   
3. The king will think they were afraid to cross the desert and that they are wandering around, trying to find another way to leave the country.
   
4. I will make the king stubborn again, and he will try to catch you. Then I will destroy him and his army. People everywhere will praise me for my victory, and the Egyptians will know that I really am the LORD. The Israelites obeyed the LORD and camped where he told them.
   
5. When the king of Egypt heard that the Israelites had finally left, he and his officials changed their minds and said, "Look what we have done! We let them get away, and they will no longer be our slaves."
   
6. The king got his war chariot and army ready.
   
7. He commanded his officers in charge of his six hundred best chariots and all his other chariots to start after the Israelites.
   
8. The LORD made the king so stubborn that he went after them, even though the Israelites proudly went on their way.
   
9. But the king's horses and chariots and soldiers caught up with them while they were camping by the Red Sea near Pi-Hahiroth and Baal-Zephon.
   
10. When the Israelites saw the king coming with his army, they were frightened and begged the LORD for help.
    
11. They also complained to Moses, "Wasn't there enough room in Egypt to bury us? Is that why you brought us out here to die in the desert? Why did you bring us out of Egypt anyway?
    
12. While we were there, didn't we tell you to leave us alone? We had rather be slaves in Egypt than die in this desert!"
    
13. But Moses answered, "Don't be afraid! Be brave, and you will see the LORD save you today. These Egyptians will never bother you again.
    
14. The LORD will fight for you, and you won't have to do a thing."
    
15. The LORD said to Moses, "Why do you keep calling out to me for help? Tell the Israelites to move forward.
    
16. Then hold your walking stick over the sea. The water will open up and make a road where they can walk through on dry ground.
    
17. I will make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will go after you. Then I will be praised because of what happens to the king and his chariots and cavalry.
    
18. The Egyptians will know for sure that I am the LORD."
    
19. All this time God's angel had gone ahead of Israel's army, but now he moved behind them. A large cloud had also gone ahead of them,
    
20. but now it moved between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud gave light to the Israelites, but made it dark for the Egyptians, and during the night they could not come any closer.
    
21. Moses stretched his arm over the sea, and the LORD sent a strong east wind that blew all night until there was dry land where the water had been. The sea opened up,
    
22. and the Israelites walked through on dry land with a wall of water on each side.
    
23. The Egyptian chariots and cavalry went after them.
    
24. But before daylight the LORD looked down at the Egyptian army from the fiery cloud and made them panic.
    
25. Their chariot wheels got stuck, and it was hard for them to move. So the Egyptians said to one another, "Let's leave these people alone! The LORD is on their side and is fighting against us."
    
26. The LORD told Moses, "Stretch your arm toward the sea--the water will cover the Egyptians and their cavalry and chariots."
    
27. Moses stretched out his arm, and at daybreak the water rushed toward the Egyptians. They tried to run away, but the LORD drowned them in the sea.
    
28. The water came and covered the chariots, the cavalry, and the whole Egyptian army that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them was left alive.
    
29. But the sea had made a wall of water on each side of the Israelites, so they walked through on dry land.
    
30. On that day, when the Israelites saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the shore, they knew that the LORD had saved them.
    
31. Because of the mighty power he had used against the Egyptians, the Israelites worshiped him and trusted him and his servant Moses.
    
    

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    God was not through with Pharaoh even though he had finally capitulated and let the Israelites leave the country. What He was about to do in the crossing of the Red Sea served not only as a judgment on Pharaoh but to finally get the attention of the Israelites. They sorely needed this demonstration of God's power on their behalf for their crossing of the wilderness. Not only was it important in building their faith in God, but was important in striking fear into the nations of the area who they would encounter. When the Israelites saw what God had done to the Egyptians, they are said to have "believed in Him and in His servant Moses." Despite God's miraculous working through the plagues, they had not come to this belief until God's intervention in their crossing of the sea.
    
    It seems rather amazing that after all God did through the plagues that the Israelites and the Egyptians were equally ignorant or unbelieving of God's intervention coming into this event. In addition to the plagues did not the movement of the "pillar of cloud . . . from in front of them" to stand "behind them" clue them in that God's hand was orchestrating events? When both camps, Egyptian and Israelite, awoke the next morning and saw the waters of the sea parted, did it not occur to them that God was at work? From the narrative, it would seem that the first clue the Egyptians had that God was involved in this event was when they found themselves in the midst of the parted waters and began having difficulty going forward.
    
    According to Psalms 77:17-18, there was more involved in the confusion that came upon the Egyptians as they attempted to cross the Red Sea than what this passage in Exodus reveals. Exodus tells us that God "threw them into confusion" by causing "their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty." (14:24, 25) Psalms adds that "The clouds poured down water. The storm clouds thundered; Your arrows flashed back and forth. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightning lit up the world. The earth shook and quaked."
    
    As for the Israelites, the first clue from the narrative that they recognized God's hand was when "Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore" they recognized "the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians." Then we are told, "the people feared the LORD and believed in Him and in His servant Moses." (14:30, 31)