Crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 14:19-31)

19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. [The angel of God and the pillar of cloud are the same thing. God both leads and protects.] And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. [How can there be darkness and light from the cloud?”]

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind [as he did with the locusts] all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall [not a small retaining wall but a large wall towering over their heads] to them on their right hand and on their left. [The Hebrew words used mean the Israelites crossed a deep body of water, not through some shallows. What is a New Testament equivalent?] 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch [at dawn] the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” [Four difficulties thwarted the Egyptians: 1) They actually drove into the midst of the sea. 2) God drove them into a panic, messing with their minds. 3) Their wheels failed them, most likely sinking into the dry silt or sandy bottom of the sea. 4) They suffered a sense of defeatism. We can assume from this passage that the Israelites have passed through the sea and are on the other side or are almost across.]

26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” [Whereas the first symbolic action of Moses provided salvation and life, this action provided judgment and death.] 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared [so the Israelites could see everything]. And as the Egyptians fled into it [as though they had crossed the sea and now headed back into it], the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. [God gets all the credit and glory.] 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. [We do not know how long it took for the water to return to its normal place, but it was fast enough that not one Egyptian escaped.] 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. [Again there is a differentiation: the Israelites are alive and the Egyptians are dead.] 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. [This verse not only identities the point of the story of the deliverance at the sea for all generations, but foreshadows the New Testament emphasis on salvation by faith. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is seen as the greater Moses.]