The Miraculous Parting of the Red Sea

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Exodus 14:3) “For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ (4) And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.

In the last study, we learned the Lord was not leading the people by a direct route, because He had said when they met opposition by the Philistines, they would have turned and run back.  The Lord told Moses to tell the people exactly where to camp which seemed to hem them in on two sides with the Red Sea in front of them.  Now we learn there is another greater motive in this decision.  When Pharaoh heard that the people were not in a direct path straight out of Egypt, but appeared to be wondering around in the wilderness, he would assume they were lost and confused, and were now hemmed in with no chance of escape should his army come up behind them.  Even after all he had seen and had experienced, Pharaoh, in his pride and hard heart, would see a chance to go after the Israelites.  The scripture said that God Himself would harden Pharaoh's heart.  As has been discussed before (more completely in the post on Exodus 4, especially verse 21), God would never harden the heart of an otherwise innocent human being, but He did not soften the heart of an unrepentant man such as Pharaoh.  He allowed him to have and act on his prideful thoughts that he might overcome the children of Israel after all.  The purpose for this, as explored in that previous post, and confirmed here, is that by delivering His people from what appeared to be an impossible escape, His glory and honor would be magnified upon the actions of Pharaoh and his army, and the Egyptians would have no doubt that He alone was the Lord.  By knowing the true God, the Egyptians, those enemies and persecutors of the children of God, might actually be spiritually saved by seeing and coming to the truth.  How simply God could have swept His people right out of Egypt, but by delivering them miraculously time after time after time, He was patiently teaching those who witnessed the miracles and those of us who would read the history of them centuries later, that He alone was and IS the one true Lord.  When the last part of the scripture above said, "And they did so", that referred to Exodus 14:2, which was studied in the last post, when God told the people exactly where to camp.  They did as He said.

(5) And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

Pharaoh knew that the people had left, but he might have imagined that they still just intended to go three days' journey into the wilderness to serve their Lord, and would return, as Moses had first asked of Pharaoh.  After all that had happened as a result of his refusal, you would think he would know better, but that is part of the hardening of his already proud and obstinate heart.  When he knew for certain that the Israelites had fled Egypt with no apparent intention of returning, Pharaoh and his servants questioned why they had ever "let" them go.

(6) And he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. (7) And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.

Pharaoh readied his own chariot for the pursuit, and took "his people" with him.  It seems he took more than his servants and his army with him.  He took 600 chosen chariots which could have been the ones chosen as his personal army, but then it added that he took all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them.  Much discussion was made among the old commentators about just who was meant by all these people.  Perhaps Pharaoh took all the people along with their chariots and they were made captains over them, or maybe he just took their chariots for his service and his own men captained the use of the chariots.  I tend to believe that since the purpose of this hardening of Pharaoh's heart to pursue the Israelites was to show the Egyptians that God alone was Lord, it was certainly a huge number of the Egyptians who did indeed go.  For maximum impact and impression on the people who would witness the next miracle, I believe there was a maximum number of Egyptians who went in pursuit.

(8) And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with a high hand. (9) But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon. (10) And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

The Lord indeed hardened the heart of Pharaoh, as He had said He would, and Pharaoh indeed pursued after the children of Israel, who had gone out with boldness.  However, when Pharaoh and the Egyptians caught up with them at their camp and they saw them approaching, they became afraid and cried out to the Lord.

(11) And they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? (12) Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

The people cried out to the Lord who was their true help, but then they became bitter and sarcastic toward Moses, and blamed him for bringing them out of Egypt into this wilderness where they felt sure they would die.  They even told Moses, in effect, "we told you so", by referring to a time in Egypt when they had told him to leave them alone and just let them serve the Egyptians--possibly a reference to the time Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people go and serve their Lord, and Pharaoh then made it harder on the people by taking away their straw.

(13) And Moses said to the people, “Fear you not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will show to you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. (14) The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

Moses answered the people's gloom and sarcasm with calm and comfort, telling them not to be afraid, to just be still and watch the Lord act on their behalf.  Moses spoke in great faith; either God had told him what He would do, or he knew it by spirit of prophecy from the Holy Spirit, or maybe he had even learned to trust the Lord completely.  God said he would harden Pharaoh's heart to come after them; Moses surely understood it was not to now let him overtake them after their miraculous departure from Egypt!  Moses told them after today they would not see those Egyptians again.  Once again, he told the people to be still, be silent, and the Lord would fight for them.

(15) And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. (16) 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."

It would seem that although Moses spoke in faith to the people, he was inwardly crying out to the Lord, as the Lord spoke directly to Moses when He asked why cry to Him?  I suppose He could have been asking why do "you" the children of Israel as a whole, cry out to Him.  Perhaps this was the voice Moses was hearing when he answered the children in great faith that caused him to know the Lord was about to act in a big way on behalf of the Israelites.  God told Moses to tell the children to go forward.  Go forward!  Toward the sea!  Don't stand there crying; keep going forward!  The Israelites would be asked to go forward in faith before they saw what God would do!  God told Moses to then lift up his rod, stretch it out over the sea, and divide it!  As simply as that!  The children would then walk through the midst of the sea on dry ground. 

(17) “And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them; and I will gain honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen. (18) And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained honor for Myself upon Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

In my attempt to retype the best translation for my study, I almost fell for the simplicity of the NKJV that didn't omit as many words as the NIV, but still would have missed something important.  I once did a study of the different Bible translations and saw just how much the NIV, especially, deleted from the original Bible texts (see here), but I sometimes go with the plainer, easier to understand, language of the NKJV, but here it omitted words that seemed redundant, but to Bible scholar Matthew Henry, they were important purposeful words--"And I, behold, I will..."  The NKJV would have us believe it should be just, "And I indeed will..."  The NIV considered all the words redundant, and just translated, "And I will..."  Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, wrote that this phrase was expressly used to show God's sovereignty--"I, see here, I alone will do this thing..."  So much of God's sovereignty, and especially the divinity of Jesus Christ, is missed in the NIV and newer translations of the Bible; I can't say enough about that, and strongly encourage a thorough study on the subject.  I have many great links in my past blog post entitled, "Which Version of the Truth Will You Use?"

Returning to the scripture above, God alone would harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they would follow the Israelites into the sea.  Seeing the children of Israel run through the sea, they would be fearless and thoughtless about the dangers, and run straight through the sea themselves.  With this final miraculous act against and over Pharaoh, completely destroying him so that he could not again rise up against the children of Israel, the Egyptians would ultimately know that the Lord of the Israelites was the one true omnipotent and eternal God.

(19) And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. (20) And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these; so that the one did not come near the other all that night.

How dramatic this must have been!  The Angel of God, who may have well been Jesus Christ Himself, as touched on in the last blog post (especially Exodus 13:21), in the pillar of cloud, moved from His location as leader in front of the Israelites, to go to the rear of the congregation.  The Lord in the cloud was now positioned to protect the Israelites from the Egyptians who were behind them.  The same cloud was darkness to the Egyptians, but was light to the Israelites by night, so that neither camp came near to the other all that night.

(21) And 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 dry land, and the waters were divided.

It appears that Moses must have stretched his rod out over the sea that night, and the Lord caused an east wind all that night that divided the waters of the sea and made a path of dry land in the midst.

(22) And 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.

The children of Israel went through the midst of the sea probably in the very early morning, as will be confirmed a couple of verses later.  For all the naysayers who through the years have tried to explain the natural phenomenon that created a way through the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross, the verse above stated that the Israelites specifically went through on dry ground with the waters as walls on either side of them.  No natural occurrence could have managed that!  Besides, God had already stated that He, behold, He alone would accomplish this.

(23) And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. (24) And it came to pass that in the morning watch the LORD looked upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and troubled the army of the Egyptians. (25) And took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them with difficulty; so that the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”

Since neither camp came near to the other during the night, it can be assumed this is indeed in the early morning that the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea, and now the Egyptians began to pursue them.  In the morning watch, probably the last night watch right before dawn, which I assume is the time when all this activity began, the Lord looked upon the Egyptians now pursuing the Israelites, and "troubled" them.  The original word, "hamam", meant "to put into commotion" or "confuse".  The Lord created chaos for the Egyptians.  He caused the wheels of their chariots to come off, and this must have been so dramatic and impressive, that they knew it was the Lord Himself doing it.  They understood that the Lord fought for the Israelites against them and they desired to turn away and flee from them.

(26) And the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” (27) And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it, and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. (28) And the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

After confusing the Egyptians, probably both to slow them in their pursuit of the Israelites and to keep them in the midst of the sea longer when they tried to retreat, the Lord told Moses to stretch his hand out over the sea so that the waters that stood as walls would now return as they were and would come down upon the Egyptians.  Moses did so, and as dawn broke and morning appeared, the sea returned as it had been before, and the Egyptians were caught trying to flee against it, which was, of course, futile, and they were covered by the waters of the Red Sea.  All the chariots, which most assuredly included the chariot of Pharaoh himself, all the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh, who had gone into the sea after the Israelites, were drowned.  Not a single one of them remained.  In keeping with the possibility that the Lord may have used this great miracle to save even some of the Egyptians who would come to know Him as Lord and Savior (as discussed in the post on Exodus 4, especially verse 21), I don't believe the scripture necessarily meant that every last Egyptian was drowned, but only those who had followed the Israelites into the sea.  I believe it is possible that some not in the midst of the sea remained to tell of this awesome miracle.  Now the sea kept them from pursuing even if they wanted to, but I believe it is possible that there were Egyptians who now knew the true Lord (verse 4) because of what they had just witnessed, and lived to tell about it.

(29) But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. (30) Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. (31) And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.

The Lord had drowned every last Egyptian who had gone into the sea after the Israelites, but all the children of Israel had walked upon dry land in the midst of the Red Sea, with walls of water on each side of them.  In this way, the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, for up to that point, He had delivered them out of Egypt, yes, but now they had been completely saved from their enemy when the Egyptians were totally destroyed.  The Israelites saw the dead Egyptians on the shore, meaning the tides of the sea must have deposited them all on the shore.  Many of the old Bible commentaries point to this as the time when the Israelites, by the spoils of the Egyptians, were probably furnished with riches, clothing, and arms, that were later used in their wars on the way to the promised land.  Even the historian Josephus wrote that the arms of the Egyptians were cast upon the shore where the Israelites camped, and Moses gathered them up and armed the Hebrews with them.  This was how they came to have arms, since it was not likely they came out of Egypt with arms; and it was how they were able to fight battles as they did in the wilderness and when they came into the land of Canaan.

The children of Israel saw what a great work the Lord did in completely delivering them from the Egyptians and destroying their enemy, that they now feared and revered their Lord, and they believed and trusted Him and Moses as His servant, now that they had seen Him so mightily fulfill all His promises that He had made through Moses.

The chronological Bible study I follow set forth by Skip Andrews, now takes me to Hebrews, chapter 11:

(Hebrews 11:27) By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

Hebrews, chapter 11, told of the great Biblical heroes of faith.  Hebrews 11:23 began telling of the life of Moses, and it continued here in verse 27. By faith, Moses left Egypt behind, not fearing the wrath of the king, as he did fear him many years before when he fled to Midian (Exodus 2:15).  Moses patiently persevered through all the many appearances before the king, through all the trials and difficulties, to lead the people out of Egypt.  He was able to endure because he had great faith in God as if he personally saw Him before him leading him all the way.

(28) Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

"Kept" is a weak translation of the original word, "poieo", which literally meant "to make".  Through faith in God, Moses instituted the Passover, beginning with the very first Passover when the children of Israel sprinkled blood on their door posts so that the destroying angel who struck all the firstborn in Egypt would pass over their houses.

(29) By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians attempting to do were drowned.

Finally, by faith in God, Moses led the people right through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, which it actually was, but it was as if there had been no sea blocking their escape, at least not in their path between the walls of sea on either side.  When you imagine such a sight, it must have taken tremendous faith in God to walk through those huge walls of water that were a seeming impossibility to the natural mind. They passed through, but when the Egyptians attempted to follow them the same way, they were drowned. Although Moses was the real hero of faith who first led them through the Red Sea, the scripture above said, "By faith, they..."  It would seem it would take faith to trust that one could pass through walls of water and not have them pour back down on them and drown them.  When the Egyptians attempted to follow just because they had seen the Israelites do it, they were drowned.  I don't know that this means it was by faith alone that they were saved, and that all who were allowed passage had saving faith.  I believe God planned to save His people Israel, at any rate, but it did prove to the children of Israel that this passage way was made by God alone, confirming that they should place their faith only in the One who could save them.  The drowning of the Egyptians by the return of the waters was in accordance with natural laws, and showed the Israelites that they, too, would have been destroyed if God had not made the way for them.

By way of conclusion to this post about the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, I refer back to the last verse in Exodus, chapter 14, where the people "saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses."  Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, wrote, that after reading that, we would "have been led to conclude that this people would have gone on their way rejoicing, trusting in God with their whole heart, and never leaning to their own understanding; but alas! we find that as soon as any new difficulty occurred, they murmured against God and their leaders, despised the pleasant land, and gave no credence to his word.  Their case is not a solitary one: most of those who are called Christians are not more remarkable for faith and patience. Every reverse will necessarily pain and discompose the people who are seeking their portion in this life. And it is a sure mark of a worldly mind, when we trust the God of Providence and grace no farther than we see the operations of his hand in our immediate supply; and murmur and repine when the hand of his bounty seems closed, and the influences of his Spirit restrained, though our unthankful and unholy carriage has been the cause of this change. Those alone who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, shall be lifted up in due season. Reader, thou canst never be deceived in trusting thy all, the concerns of thy body and soul, to Him who divided the sea, saved the Hebrews, and destroyed the Egyptians."