Recap of Exodus 11-13
In our study of Exodus, we come today to chapter 14. God has decimated Egypt with the ten plagues, culminating in the death of the firstborn and the Passover. Every house in Egypt, including the Israelite houses, were subject to the judgment of God if they weren’t covered by the blood of a spotless lamb. Those covered by the blood were saved, those not covered by the blood were judged. The penalty for not believing the word of the Lord was death.
In the midst of these horrific events, God gives Israel instructions about remembering the events. It seems that how they’ll remember the thing God does is almost more important than what he does, which is why he gives them instructions for it before he does it.
Why would he do that? Because if they forget what he’s done, they’ll forget who they are and who he is. If they forget they’ll start to lose their identity as his people.
When Pharaoh learns that his firstborn was dead, he tells Moses and the Israelites to leave Egypt. God led Israel out with a pillar of fire and cloud, taking them the long way to Canaan because they weren’t ready for war. So they left Egypt and headed out into the wilderness.
A Paradigmatic Event
This brings us to chapter 14 and the Red Sea crossing. What happens here is paradigmatic for how God works to save his people in all times and places. There are things here that help us understand the whole Bible.
We’ll see Israel’s greatest enemy (vv. 1-14), Israel’s greatest deliverance (vv. 15-31), and then consider how this event points to an even greater deliverance, not just for Israel, but for the whole world.
Israel’s Greatest Enemy
In verses 1-14, we see Israel’s greatest enemy, and it’s not what you might think it is.
The emphasis of these opening verses is that God is sovereign over what’s happening here. God tells Moses to tell Israel to “turn back” and make camp by Pi-hahiroth (v. 2). Why? Because he wants Pharaoh to think that Israel is lost. Why would he want him to think that? Because the Lord is setting a trap to catch Pharaoh, luring him out into the wilderness so that he can “get glory over him” (v. 4).
The word for “get glory” is a term that has to do with weight or heaviness. So the Lord is saying, “I will make myself heavy to Pharaoh.” He wants everyone to see that he’s a weightier consideration than Pharaoh. The Lord doesn’t want to just boast over Pharaoh, he wants him (and us) to know what reality is. The Lord wants to be acknowledged for who he is. He wants to be worshipped.
God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, making it “heavy,” so that he can “get glory over Pharaoh” so that Egypt “will know that I AM the Lord” (vv. 4, 18).
After all that God has done to Egypt and Pharaoh, you’d think that he would know this by now. But history is full of a long line of kings and governments who insist on defying God and think that they’ll somehow get out from under his “heaviness.”
Expect Persecution
Pharaoh changing his mind and going after the Israelites reminds us that God’s people will be persecuted by capricious rulers. Authoritarian figures and governments become more viable during seasons of turmoil and upheaval, and God’s people are often their first targets.
What do we do? We prepare for persecution. Yes, we strive to be good citizens, but our King is in heaven, not Washington. So we loosen our grip on personal and national treasures and put our hope fully in heaven.
In Acts 1, just before Jesus ascends back to the Father, his disciples ask him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He says it’s not for them to know the times of these things, but they’ll receive power from the Holy Spirit so that they can be his witnesses to the end of the earth (vv. 6-8).
What’s he saying? He’s saying that their primary goal isn’t political success, but faithful witness. Because pagan kings and governments feel threatened by people who don’t bow the knee to them, we can expect persecution. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John all promise persecution and none of them promise political success. As followers of King Jesus, our goal when the kings of the earth bear down on us is faithful witness in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Enemy of the Heart
So Pharaoh and his army of chariots come after the Israelites and catch up with them at the edge of the sea. But the text says that Israel’s greatest enemy isn’t Pharaoh and his army. It’s their own hearts (vv. 10-12). They’re understandably afraid and rightly cry out to the Lord (v. 10). But then they start to complain to Moses, telling him they’d rather be slaves than dead.
Their fear led to unbelief and grumbling. It’s understandable that they were afraid. They were cornered by the greatest army in the world. But how they handled their fear wasn’t good. The Lord already told them that he’s positioning all the pieces on the chessboard to save them (vv. 2-4). But their faith in his word was overcome by fear in their circumstances.
They “were going out defiantly” (v. 8) but at the first sign of trouble they start whining, complaining, and blaming. This trial reveals what’s in their hearts. Israel is a nation of sinners who don’t trust the word of the Lord. They’d rather serve the Egyptians than serve the Lord (v. 12). We always serve what we’re afraid of, and at this moment they’re afraid of Egypt, not the Lord.
Moses counters their fear with a call to faith (vv. 13-14). We, like Israel, often assume we know what’ll happen. In our fear, we create a story about what’s true and often leave the Lord out and try to manage our fears through anxiety and control, which usually results in grumbling and complaining. This is why our hearts are our greatest enemy.
Moses tells them, and us, that salvation will come, but they cannot save themselves. Yahweh will intervene and act, making it clear that Israel isn’t saved by their righteousness. Deliverance will come by grace and by grace alone.
Israel’s Greatest Deliverance
In verses 15-31, we see Israel’s greatest deliverance. Despite their lack of faith, the Lord fights for them, delivering them once again from Pharaoh and his army.
Before God delivers them, he protects them. In verses 19-20, God again makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel as his presence moves between Israel and Egypt. God’s presence in the cloud teaches Israel that God is not only powerful but also good. The cloud and fire offered shade and warmth during the journey, and now protection here at the sea. God isn’t just a big tough guy, he’s a loving, tender Father who cares for and protects his children.
Verse 21 says that the Lord used “a strong east wind” to divide the waters of the sea. God often uses natural things in supernatural ways, highlighting his complete control over the natural world. But notice that it says that the wind blew from the east “all night.” This means that the miracle wasn’t instantaneous and that the waters would’ve begun to part on the eastern side of the sea, meaning that the Hebrews had to wait all night before they could put one foot into the sea. God was performing a history-changing miracle before their eyes, but they had to be patient while God worked. God doesn’t do things quickly because we need time to see and understand his power and grace.
After the waters are divided, Israel walks into the sea on dry ground with the waters like fortress walls beside them. At some point, the Lord must’ve removed the barrier of the cloud because the Egyptian calvary and chariots went in after them (v. 23), probably expecting to overtake them quickly. But God literally makes the wheels of the chariots “heavy” (v. 25). Pharaoh and his chariots are subject to the hardening activity of God.
Then the Lord brings the waters down over the Egyptian army (vv. 26-28). The means he intended to kill the baby boys in chapter one becomes the instrument of his own punishment. Pharaoh drowned the Hebrew boys in the water so the Lord drowned his army in the water.
An Even Greater Deliverance for the World
This leads to my third and final point, that the Red Sea crossing points us to an even greater deliverance, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. Exodus 14 is called a literary masterpiece because of the way it connects the Red Sea crossing with the account of creation and Noah’s flood.
Connections to the Flood
The language of “dry land,” “the waters returning,” and “covering the chariots and horseman” (vv. 21, 28) is also found in Genesis 7 and 8, meaning that Moses is linking what happens at the Sea with what happened in the flood. He wants us to remember how the world was baptized in the flood and how Noah was delivered from the waters of judgment. Now, through the waters of judgment at the Red Sea, Israel is being saved.
This informs how Paul talks about Israel being “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:2) and how Peter talks about Noah and the flood and how it corresponds to baptism which “now saves you” (1 Pet. 3:21). The point of connection is that Jesus, like Israel and Noah, was plunged into the flood waters of God’s wrath when he died on the cross and yet brought safely through them by his resurrection, and that those who’re united to him through faith are also brought safely through the flood waters of God’s wrath and raised to new life with him.
Connections to Creation
There are also connections between what happens at the Red Sea and what happens at creation in Genesis 1. At the Red Sea, God brings light into darkness, reminding us of day one of creation. He divides the waters, reminding us of day two of creation. Dry land emerges, reminding us of day three of creation. In Genesis 1, God saves the world, delivering it from the waters of chaos. In Exodus 14, God saves a people, delivering them from the waters of chaos.
The connection to creation goes even deeper. In the Bible, the sea symbolizes chaos and death (cf. Rev. 21:1). Israel’s entrance into and emergence out of the sea are therefore like a death and resurrection. Israel enters the sea during the night, but they find that the ground is dry land suitable for life. They journey through the darkness and emerge out the other side of the sea toward the rising sun (v. 27). As one scholar says, “Through the waters Israel has died to death and has been reborn, resurrected as the people of Yahweh. Salvation is an act of new creation.”[1]
The Death Chamber
The idea of the Red Sea crossing being a resurrection for Israel is further confirmed when we see how in the Bible Egypt symbolized death. The Bible often talks about people “descending” into Egypt or “ascending” out of Egypt (eg. the Joseph narrative in Gen 37-50), just as one “descends” into Sheol when they die. Going down into Egypt was like going down into the underworld. Living in Egypt was like living in a tomb.
The Egyptians were skilled in mumification and had elaborate designs and schemes for how to survive in the afterlife. They were the leading experts on death in their day. This brings out the sarcasm of Israel’s complaint in verse 11.
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is their deliverance from the death chamber. God takes them through the land of death and out the other side in a glorious resurrection at the sea. They’re brought through the waters of death to safety on the other side.
The Sea Dragon
Scripture takes the deadly nature of the sea one step further. The Bible often associates the sea with an evil dragon who lives in it (Job 9:8, 13, 26:12-13; Ps. 74:12-17). The waters of chaos are often personified by a sea dragon that lives in the waters. This monster is a power that humanity is unable to tame, dark and chaotic and evil and deadly.
This dragon symbolizes Satan. He’s “the monster who assaults life and order, beauty and goodness, light and gladness – a beast of chaos who opposes the cosmos of God.”[2] He’s the face of evil and hatred that threatens our lives daily. He’s the serpent who deceived humanity in the Garden and came to be depicted as a deadly monster who lived in the sea.
At the Red Sea, God delivered his people from the powers of evil and darkness and defeated them. He defeated the evil monster who was trying to kill his firstborn son.
The Sea Dragon Conquered by a Slain Lamb
The pattern that moves from creation through the flood through the exodus through Jesus is that God delivers his people from the waters of judgment and brings them into a land of life.
The Lord has always saved his people from the floodwaters of judgment and the deadly sea dragon in the same way: through death and resurrection. This was true for Israel in the Passover and the Red Sea crossing and for us in the cross and empty tomb. A spotless substitute had to die and God had to make a way through the waters of death.
On the cross, Jesus, the spotless Lamb, walked through the waters of judgment for us, taking on God’s wrath that we deserve. In the resurrection, God parted the waters of death so that Jesus could come out safely on the other side.
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection our greatest enemies, sin, Satan, and death, are defeated. The sea dragon is conquered by the slain Lamb.[3] The only way out of the land of death is by the death of another. The only way we get through the sea of chaos and darkness is if we’re raised by another.
Our proud and stubborn hearts are only changed as we realize the depth and power of what Jesus did for us. Verse 31 says that Israel went from fearing Egypt to fearing the Lord only after they saw his power at the Red Sea. Do you see the power of God in the cross of Jesus Christ?
As the song says, “With his arms stretched wide to heaven, see the waters part in two, see the veil is torn forever, cleansed with blood we pass now through.”
[1]L. Michael Morales, Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption, Essential Studies in Biblical Theology, ed. Benjamin L. Gladd (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), 50.
[2]Ibid., 62.
[3]Ibid., 76.