14:15
¶ And the LORD said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go
forward: 16 But lift thou up thy rod,
and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of
Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17 And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of
the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon
Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
18 And the Egyptians shall know that I
am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and
upon his horsemen. 19 And the angel of
God, which 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 came not near the other all
the night.
God commands Moses to raise the rod in his
hand and hold it out towards the sea. There are two northern arms of the Red
Sea. On the west is the Gulf of Suez and on the right is the Gulf of Aqaba
separated by the Sinai Peninsula. Some commentators have the Hebrews crossing
the Gulf of Suez while others have them traversing across the Sinai Peninsula
to get to the Gulf of Aqaba and crossing there into what is now Saudi Arabia.
The angel of God now moves from His
position of leading the children of Israel to getting in between them and the
Egyptian army. To the Egyptians He was darkness but to the Israelites He gave
light.
14:21 ¶
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. 22 And the
children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the
waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after
them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his
horsemen. 24 And it came to pass, that
in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the
pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,
25 And took off their chariot wheels,
that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the
face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 26 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out
thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the
sea, and the sea returned to his 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, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came
into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry
land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto 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 upon the sea shore. 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.
In what had to be a terrifying picture in
front of them the sea divided over the night under the influence of a strong
wind, creating a dry pathway to the other side. The Israelites exited across
the dry pathway that God had made with the waters standing high on either side
of them. Pharaoh and his army plunged in after them furiously. One can easily
imagine what happened next. The dry ground starts to become a mass of mud and
chariot wheels come off. Panic sets in among the soldiers between the walls of
water. Due to the time frame allowed this event clearly happened at a branch of
the Red Sea that was just wide enough for this many people to make this trip in
these hours.
Moses raised his rod and the waters
returned on the Egyptian army and all of them including the Pharaoh himself,
are drowned. This is celebrated in the Bible in many places.
Deuteronomy
11:4 And what he did unto the army of
Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the
Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath
destroyed them unto this day;
Nehemiah
9:11 And thou didst divide the sea
before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land;
and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty
waters.
Psalm
78:53 And he led them on safely, so that
they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Hebrews
11:29 By faith they passed through the
Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
The best part of the mightiest army of the
world’s greatest superpower is now destroyed. The leadership of Egypt is
crushed with the Pharaoh following his heir, his firstborn, in death. There is
now a vacuum of power in that part of the world. A human leader and his mighty
army have come up against God and been vanquished in a moment in time.
2Thessalonians
2:8 And then shall that Wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming:
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