Exodus 14: Parting of the Red Sea

Although I’ve heard some of these Old Testament stories since I was a child, I always forget the details. So reading through the Old Testament is proving to be an adventure. Just as I finished reading about how the Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt after ten plagues, including death of every firstborn Egyptian male and cattle, here comes a twist in chapter 14.

It begins with Pharaoh and his officials changing their minds and saying, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” And so begins a pursuit. Pharaoh and his army of horses and 600 of his best chariots, in addition to “all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over them,” horsemen and troops. They overtake the Israelites. The Egyptians pursued and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth (see map).

(Click on the map link above to enlarge the map.)

And as I read about the Israelites desperation in the desert, I find a little bit of comic relief in Exodus 14:10-12. As Pharaoh and his tremendous army approach the Israelites, who had been boldly marching out of Egypt up to now, they are suddenly terrified and cry out to the Lord. They said to Moses,

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” 

Moses answered the people,

“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Then the Lord questioned Moses as to why he was crying out to God? He commanded the Israelites to keep moving, and reminded Moses that he had been given a supernatural staff to be used to accomplish miracles, or “signs and wonders.” As explained in Exodus 4:5, “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

So Moses listened and did as God told him:

“Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved to behind them, separating the Israelites from the army of Egypt. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side, so the two armies remained distant.

This is a tiled mural of Exodus 14 from Mozaico.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided and the Israelites were able to go through the sea on dry land with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

One of many famous paintings done by artist Arnold Friberg for the Hollywood movie, "The Ten Commandments."

Pharaoh’s tremendous army of more than 600 chariots, horsemen, troops and officials pursued, but the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots.

The Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”

Then at daybreak, the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back…” The entire army of Pharaoh was covered by the sea. None of them survived (Exodus 14:26-27).

"But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (Exodus 14:29-31).