Exodus 14:30, commentary and pictures

On that day the Lord saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians by opening a dry path through the sea with waters walled on the right and on the left, then returning the waters in the morning to destroy the whole pursuing host so that not one remained, and Israel standing safe on the farther shore saw the Egyptians dead upon the shore and the great work done upon them. Christ Himself was their invisible leader enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night as a wall between them and Pharaoh's army, holding back the winds and congealing the waters until every soul was safely over, then troubling the Egyptians and removing their chariot wheels before commanding Moses to stretch his hand so the sea returned to its strength. The sea did not open until Israel in faith did all in their power and marched down to the water at His word, showing that God divides the way when His people advance in obedience. He did this to execute judgment upon all the gods of Egypt and reveal Himself as Ruler above idols, to keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob after nearly four hundred years of bondage, and to teach a helpless multitude of more than a million bondmen unused to battle to know their need, trust His power, and follow their heavenly Guide by a path they would not choose. Seeing it they feared the Lord and believed Him and His servant Moses, breaking into the song of Exodus 15, and that complete deliverance in one night of extreme danger stands as the pledge that the same mighty power will turn the captivity of His church in the final crisis when earthly powers are arrayed against them.

Events at the Sea

That day the Lord saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians by destroying the whole pursuing army in the Red Sea in the morning, so that not one of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, horsemen and host remained. The Egyptians had pursued expecting to recapture Israel and had entered the dry path God had prepared for His people, and at the Lord's command through Moses stretching his hand over the sea the waters returned to their strength and covered them. In the morning watch the Lord had looked on them through the pillar of fire and cloud and troubled them, and remembering the judgments in Egypt they knew the Lord was fighting for Israel against them, became terribly afraid, and were turning to flee when the sea closed over them.

Israel walked on dry land with the waters as a wall on the right and on the left and reached safety on the farther shore, while the returning sea engulfed the Egyptians who had entered the divided sea expecting to recapture them. The Lord rescued Israel from the Egyptians through the Red Sea by bringing the people safely through on dry ground, while the pursuing army that tried to follow perished in the sea when the waters closed over them. Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore and saw the great work the Lord did upon the Egyptians, including mail-clad bodies cast upon the shore as all that remained of their mighty foes. That sight of the overthrown pursuers lying dead on the shore witnessed the deliverance God had worked for them by His miraculous action.

The deliverance was complete in one night by Jehovah alone after a night of extreme danger, with the sea before Israel and the mighty army pressing behind at the moment of expected triumph. The helpless Israelites had not won deliverance by their own strength, for Jehovah alone opened their way through the waters and overwhelmed the pursuing army. God had brought them into mountain fastnesses before the sea on purpose to manifest His power in their deliverance, though He could have saved them in any other way. The helpless throng so saved was a vast multitude of bondmen unused to battle, with women, children and cattle, numbering more than a million, caught as a helpless and terrified multitude of slaves before the mightiest army of the mightiest nation on the globe. Though in themselves utterly helpless they were brought safely to the other side, every soul of Israel, while not one soul of that vast army escaped.

Means of Deliverance

In the morning watch the Lord looked out upon the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and troubled them, and angels took off their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily and slowly. Remembering the judgments that had fallen in Egypt, they understood that the Lord was fighting for Israel against them, became terribly afraid, and were turning to flee when, at the Lord's command, Moses stretched his hand over the sea and the waters returned in their strength and covered them.

Jesus held back the impatient winds, controlled the tempests, calmed the angry sea and rolled up the mighty deep, piling up the walls and congealing high walls of water on either side, not suffering the hurricane of waters to pursue their natural course until every soul of Israel was safely on the other side. Then at His word, through the human agent lifting the rod, that simple stick, the impetuous waters that had been held back rushed on as before. God works by His own laws as a God of order, giving the sea its decree, placing the elements in the power of angels who at His bidding hold back winds and waves to shield His people from destruction, mixing mercy in deliverance with judgment on enemies.

Christ Himself was Israel's invisible Leader and guide, wrapped in the fold of the cloud and enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night so that His glory would not destroy them, leading them in person and communicating God's will to them. He stood as a wall of protection between Israel and Pharaoh with his armies, chariots and horsemen. The deliverance required faith and obedience, for if Israel had held back when bidden to advance God would not have opened the path, but in marching down to the very water though they could not see where they were going they showed belief in God's word and did all in their power to do, and then God divided the sea.

Purposes for Deliverance

That day at the sea was the last display of divine power before the Egyptians, in fulfillment of the word that judgment would be executed against all the gods of Egypt. The Egyptians were an idolatrous nation that did not acknowledge God and refused to listen to His voice, and by mighty acts guiding and protecting Israel while destroying the pursuing army God revealed Himself to them as Ruler of the universe, greater than all heathen deities. The rescue from an army come to overtake and enslave again, and the utter destruction of that host, was that revelation and fulfillment.

God acted to keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by freeing Israel after a sojourn of nearly four hundred years marked by long, grievous slavery and oppression. To rescue His people from temporal bondage He desolated the fertile land of Egypt with plagues, laid it desolate, and slew the firstborn. That freeing from slavery was completed when He delivered His chosen people in awful grandeur from the army that pursued them into the sea, so that not one pursuer was left alive.

Pharaoh had regretted letting Israel go once the judgments ceased and the dead were buried, and pursued with a well-equipped army of priests of idol gods, rulers, great men and the mightiest of Egypt. That host was chosen to intimidate Israel with power and greatness, to redeem Egypt's glory before other nations, and to force Israel back to service. Long resistance had hardened them, so that even seeing the Hebrews walking in the morning on a dry path prepared in the sea with high walls of water congealed by divine power on either side only increased their rebellion, and in blindness they rushed into the path miraculously prepared for God's people and were destroyed.

God brought Israel on purpose into mountain fastnesses before the sea where escape seemed impossible, though He could have saved them in any other way, to manifest His power in their deliverance. The purpose was to humble the pride of the oppressors, to teach Israel their helplessness and need for divine aid, and to test the faith of His people and strengthen their trust. The demonstration of power and mercy when the people were helpless and needed divine aid led them to love and trust God and bound them to Him as their deliverer from temporal bondage, grateful that He could help them.

The deliverance was given so Israel would keep the Sabbath day holy and fulfill the precepts of God's law. Long living amid idolatry in Egypt had shaped their religious life after idolatrous customs, so God then taught them by feeding them with manna in the wilderness with a double miracle sealing the sacredness of the Sabbath institution. He came down in awful grandeur on Mount Sinai where the Son of God gave the law of Ten Commandments with the rules and statutes of heaven and earth.

By this deliverance God was teaching obedience to their heavenly Guide and faith in His power to deliver. He can lead His people by a path they would not choose and save them when they trust and follow His direction, as Israel followed through the sea while He overthrew the Egyptians. That bringing of His people through a difficult place showed He could reveal His power and glory in such a strait, and it stood as a lesson in trust and obedience and a reason to trust Him when later trials tested them.

Israel's Believing Response

Seeing the great work done upon the Egyptians turned the hearts of Israel to gratitude and faith. They feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His servant Moses, loving and trusting God and bound to Him as their deliverer from temporal bondage. Jehovah alone had opened their way through the sea and overwhelmed the pursuing army after a night of extreme danger, and in the morning they saw their defeated enemies dead upon the shore, so that helpless people who needed divine aid learned His power and mercy. That sight was evidence meant to make them true and loyal, trusting and fearing God even under discouraging circumstances.

Their feeling broke out in songs of praise and thanksgiving. Moses led them under the Spirit of God, and they chanted the song of Exodus 15 with voices ringing over the waters in glorious triumph. Reaching safety on the farther shore while the returning waters engulfed the Egyptian army and left its dead upon the shore gave Israel reason for such thanksgiving.

Though in themselves utterly helpless, Israel trusted God's word and so withstood the power of the whole world. They were a helpless and terrified multitude of bondmen, caught with women and children before the mightiest army of the mightiest nation on the globe. Their rescue out of the hand of the Egyptians illustrates how people who trust God's word can stand against overwhelming human power.

That faith proved short-lived when tested by three days without water. Instead of crying to the Lord as Moses did, they murmured against Moses asking what to drink. A faith that lives only while everything moves prosperously is not genuine.

Remembering the Deliverance

The rescue at the sea was a striking display and mighty work of God that should have been remembered rather than forgotten in distrust and rebellion. Remembering that deliverance, in which the pursuing foes were destroyed, should keep hearts in firm faith that God will bring victory on the way to the heavenly Canaan. Forgetting it when focusing on present hardships leads to feeling abused, mourning and lamenting, desperation and distrust of God in trials. To murmur in doubt is ingratitude and forgetfulness of that deliverance and repeats the sin of rebellious Israel.

Israel should have remembered this rescue of opening a path through the sea and destroying Pharaoh's pursuing forces and trusted God to fulfill His promise to give Canaan. Instead of remembering that past demonstration of God's power and care when fear arose over entering Canaan, they acted as if they had to win the land by their own strength.

Despite witnessing God's power at the sea, with Christ Himself as their invisible Leader and defense against Pharaoh's vast army, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and communicating God's will to them, Israel later turned to idolatry. That deliverance, joined with feeding them when hungry, quieting their murmurings with cool water from the Rock, and manifesting His glory, was a blessing of great light and precious opportunity to know God's will, yet they still turned away to follow Satan's suggestions against Moses and Aaron and against Joshua and Caleb. They passed the boundary of God's forbearance and patience until His anger was awakened to smite and disinherit them. Their crisis at the sea tested their faith, and had they continued trusting God's guiding hand they would have seen His salvation, an experience illustrating the testing of faith during the Advent movement's great disappointment.

The history was recorded for the benefit of later generations, and faithfully studied it teaches reliance on the Word of God as counsel and guide. It urges repentance for breaking God's law and shows the importance of keeping His commandments, for though the people trembled as Pharaoh and his army pursued them, God made a path across the sea on dry land and destroyed the Egyptians while leading Israel through though they could not see where they were going. Israel's freedom from servitude through that miraculous deliverance was a gift they were to value above the pleasures they had known in Egypt.

Broader Doctrine and Prophecy

The same mighty power that divided the sea to save Israel from the Egyptians will be manifested again in the final crisis when earthly powers are arrayed against God's people and they, like captive exiles, fear death by starvation or by violence. As He turned Israel's captivity at the sea, He will turn their captivity, sparing them as a man spares his own son, hiding them in His pavilion, and giving glorious deliverance to those who have patiently waited for His coming and whose names are written in the book of life. At that time the righteous cannot be left to fall a prey to their enemies, for that would be a triumph for the prince of darkness. Their death then would not be as martyr seed for a harvest, because mercy has been finally beaten back and will return no more.

The verse shows that the Lord delivered Israel from Egyptian power after the sea closed over the pursuing army, leaving Israel to see the Egyptians dead on the shore, and that the deliverance came through God's miraculous action while Pharaoh's hardened resistance led him and his army into destruction. It illustrates that God alone could wrench enslaved people from desperate, relentless oppressors. Pharaoh's hardened conscience and the Egyptians' resistance to releasing Israel stand alongside slaveholders' hardened consciences and determination to preserve slavery, with judgment awaiting those who uphold it.

The deliverance spread far and wide and was known as far as Mesopotamia. It proves how terrible it is for finite man to war against the infinite God and shows the destruction that falls on those who set themselves in defiance of Omnipotence. It proves God was on Israel's side, so Balaam's curse could not harm them, and so long as they were true to Him no adverse power of earth or hell could prevail against them.

By His mighty power in saving Israel out of the hand of Pharaoh, God demonstrated His rule over the whole earth. The bondmen in Egypt whom He delivered He made into His church, purchased by Christ as His own property, a representation of His church in every age. They belonged to Christ, and all they held was held in trust from the Lord to share His riches and grace with others, but by misusing their gifts and misappropriating their talents they kept others from being benefited. Israel was already God's son while suffering oppression; the deliverance on the shore came later and did not make them His son.