Exodus 14: 21-31: “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. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 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.”
We know that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6: 23) and we know that Pharaoh had many opportunities to know that the Lord is the Lord but chose to sin and reject the Lord instead. Pharaoh had chosen a course of action and the Lord kept him to the choice that he had made. The wind blew all night and in the morning there was a dry pathway right through the middle of the sea. The Egyptians were behind and the mountains were on either side so they had to go through the dry pathway in front of them and they did. When the Egyptians followed Israel in their chariots they discovered that their wheels didn’t travel so well in the seabed and they struggled to go forward. When all Israel had passed through the sea then Moses stretched out his rod again and the sea returned drowning the entire Egyptian army. Before long some of the soldiers’ bodies washed up on the sea shore. The Lord achieved three things by this miracle. The first was to give Israel more confidence in what the Lord could do. The second was to allow the Israelis to travel free from fear that the Egyptians might chase them. This was also a warning to the nations of Canaan so that they could see the Lord’s power and accept that He is the Lord, another example of the Lord’s grace.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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