Exodus 14:13-31

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Summary

  • God delivers Israel from the Egyptian army.
  • God allows the Israelites to cross the Red Sea (near its northern tip), but destroys the Egyptians who attempt to do so.


Details and Comments

  • Israel is to trust God, and he will deliver them.
  • God will get honor from the Egyptians, who have dishonored him by the way they treated Israel (enslavement and infanticide). (He will also be honored by Pharaoh, who has dishonored him by his arrogant refusal to let Israel leave the land.)
  • God sends a strong wind that blows the waters, creating a passage through the sea. The Israelites cross.
  • God stops the wind. The waters return when the Egyptians are crossing - and the rushing water destroys the Egyptian army.


The Location Where They Crossed

  • There is some degree of difficulty in identifying the modern-day areas that correspond to the areas described in the Bible.
  • It is probable that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea at its northern end (based on attempts to identify the locations mentioned in the Biblical account).
  • Today, the probable point of crossing is marshy or dry land; but it was not so in the past. Because of movements in the earth itself, the northern part of the Red Sea has risen, and the sea has receded many miles.
  • The Old Testament name is probably best translated "Sea of Reeds" - which would point to this northern area of the Red Sea (today marshy or dry). The New Testament name is "Red Sea" (not "Sea of Reeds"), which would not designate the specific point of crossing. (Also, "Sea of Reeds" would not have been a good choice of words, if by the New Testament era, the point of crossing had become relatively shallow!)


Scripture

Exodus 14:13-31 – Israel crosses the Red Sea

See also: Red Sea.

Scripture Passage Comments and Links
Exo 14:13 Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them again.

Exo 14:14 Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still."

God will fight for them.

By the time they got to this place, the Egyptians would have thought the Israelites had made a serious military blunder - that they were now trapped. But with God as their supreme military commander, it was the best move Israel could have made. Once they cross the sea, it would be impossible for any Egyptian army to follow (if there were any regiments still alive).

Exo 14:15 Yahweh said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.

Exo 14:16 Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.

Tell the people to start going forward; (then) divide the sea! The obedience (walking toward the sea) may have started before the solution to their problem became evident (the parting of the waters).
Exo 14:17 I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall go in after them: and I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.

Exo 14:18 The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have gotten myself honor over Pharaoh, over his chariots, and over his horsemen."

I (God) will harden Pharaoh's heart so he will go after you, and I will "get myself honor."

Pharaoh dishonored God by refusing to obey his command to let Israel leave the land. The whole nation dishonored God by the way they mistreated the Israelites.

Exo 14:19 The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them.

Exo 14:20 It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud and the darkness, yet gave it light by night: and the one didn't come near the other all the night.

God stayed between the Israelites and Egyptians. But he showed his presence in different ways to the two groups. (The Egyptians probably saw the dark clouds but didn't recognize it as God's presence.)
Exo 14:21 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

Exo 14:22 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.

God divides the Red Sea when Moses stretches his hand toward it. He uses a WIND to do so (all accounts in the Bible say this); the people pass over. He uses a natural cause in a very unexpected way - an expression of Providence.
Exo 14:23 The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea: all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

Exo 14:24 It happened in the morning watch, that Yahweh looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army.

Exo 14:25 He took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, "Let's flee from the face of Israel, for Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians!"

The Egyptians follow; God creates confusion in the army. God causes the chariot wheels to come off. Though we are not told how it came to pass, this could also be a providential act of God!
  • Were the chariots too heavy for the lakebed soil - now dry on the surface (see v. 16 and 22), but probably still waterlogged beneath the surface? Had the Egyptian army's "maintenance department" (if such a department existed) been negligent in its duties to properly lubricated the friction points between the wheels and axles? Whatever the cause, the Egyptians recognize the hand of God at work.
Exo 14:26 Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen."

Exo 14:27 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. Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Exo 14:28 The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh's army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.

God returns the water when Moses stretches out his hand over the sea again.

When God performs a providential miracle, the entire event occurs at the exact moments that fit with precision with all the other activities going on. At the very moment Moses did what he did, God providentially did what he did. Even the timing of everything was a demonstration of God's power.

All God needed to do was to "turn off" the wind, and everything that followed would "naturally" occur. The waters went back to their original place, with the mighty force of flood waters moving across the ground (lakebed). (People tend to underestimate the power of water. Even a shallow flood, moving at a moderate speed, will devastate whatever it hits!)

Exo 14:29 But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.

Exo 14:30 Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Exo 14:31 Israel saw the great work which Yahweh did to the Egyptians, and the people feared Yahweh; and they believed in Yahweh, and in his servant Moses.

More details – the water was like two walls with dry land between. The "walls" did not have to be vertical, like the walls of buildings. Even a gentle slope would suffice - especially when viewed from a distance (which is most likely the way they viewed them), and in the dark.


1:15-21  •  1:22 - 2:10  •  3:1-8  •  3:16-22  •  4:1-9  •  7:1-25  •  8:1-32  •  9:1-35  •  10:1-23  •  11:1-10  •  13:11-15; 21-22  •  14:13-31  •  15:1-21  •  15:22-27  •  16:1-36  •  17:1-7  •  19:3-25  •  20:1-21  •  20:22-26  •  21:12-36  •  22:1-15  •  22:21-27  •  23:1-9  •  23:10-12  •  23:20-33  •  Ch. 24 (selected verses)  •  Ch. 25, 35 and 36 (selected verses)  •  30:11-16  •  32:1-35  •  Ch. 33 and 34 (selected verses)

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—— To avoid any copyright issues, all Scripture is either from a public domain translation (such as the World English Bible), my own translation, or a combination of these. ——
The name "Yahweh," when present in an Old Testament passage, represents the Hebrew name for the God of the Bible.
Unless otherwise noted, all notes and comments are © by Dennis Hinks.