Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 14:26-28

26 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as done of them.

Now the Egyptians were bogged down in the middle of the channel and the Israelites were clear on the other side. There was no need to keep the passage open any longer, and God commanded Moses to seal the way shut. Notice how in a single action, the closing of the sea, God both saved His people and destroyed His enemies. The same act can be both salvation and damnation.

Verse 27 once again makes reference to the time of day, stating that the sea returned to its proper place “when the morning appeared.” Pharaoh’s army, it would seem, first came into the view of the Israelites in the evening, causing them to despair as the sun set on them, literally and figuratively . But then, in the night, when they were their most powerless, God worked a miracle for their salvation, and in the rising of the sun their future was made hopeful once more. A new dawn, once again both literal and figurative.

And so the sea’s walls cascaded together in a sudden, dramatic flood. The Egyptians, we are told, tried to flee, but they could not outrun the rush of water. All the army was covered. The chariots, the horsemen, the host, none of them survived.

Note that verse 28 specifies that “all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea” were destroyed. The phrase “that came into the sea” might suggest that not all of Pharaoh’s army charged between the waves and that some of them could have been spared. This is what fuels hypotheses that Pharaoh might have actually survived that day. Given the arc of his story, and his stubbornness thus far, and God’s prior comments about gaining honor upon Pharaoh specifically, and verse 23’s declaration that “all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen” charged into the sea, I am inclined to believe that Pharaoh did not survive. Indeed, I find it most likely that verse 28 is merely saying that the Lord destroyed “all Pharaoh’s army, which army came into the sea,” and thus there were no survivors whatsoever.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 14:23-25

23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians.

Eventually the Egyptians were able to get around the fiery, cloudy pillar and gave chase to the Israelites. Verse 24 makes it clear that the pillar did not vanish, but perhaps by the light of rising sun, during “the morning watch,” they were able to see well enough to navigate around it and follow their quarry into the sea.

Meanwhile, God watched all of the Egyptians’ doings from within the pillar. He watched as they stubbornly continued in their efforts to molest His people, and so He took away their chief advantage: their chariots. It says that He “took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily.” This might mean that the wheels became sloughed down in the wet sand or mud that had been saturated by the Red Sea. No matter how hard they drove their horses, the dragging sludge was apparently too great, even to the point of breaking the wheels under the stress.

Now, at last, a panic fell upon the Egyptians. They were on foot, deprived of their speed, and caught between two great walls of water. Perhaps the Israelites had still been finishing their journey through the channel, and they had judged that they would be able to catch them before they were all out, thus God would not be able to close the channel without destroying His own people. But then, by getting partway through before losing their chariot wheels, they may have suddenly found themselves not able to reach one side or the other before the Israelites would fully vacate the chasm and God could close the channel with no friendly casualties.

They had stepped willfully into the trap, practically daring the Lord to destroy them, and finally they could see with their own eyes the manner of their destruction. They attempted to flee, acknowledging that God, Himself, was at war with them. It was, however, too late.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 14:21-22

21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

Here is the last wonder that the Egyptians would see, though not at all the last for the Israelites. Moses stretched out his hand, and a powerful wind blew from the east, the direction of Israel’s Promised Land, parting the sea. Notice that the parting of the Red Sea was not an instantaneous effect, though, but rather that it occurred over “all that night.” This was why the pillar of fire-on-one-side-and-cloud-on-the-other had been necessary. The Egyptians needed to be held in place for hours as the parting was accomplished.

Interestingly, the story becomes all the more incredulous by its the usage of natural phenomenon. When all the Egyptian firstborn were slain there was not any reference to a natural cause, and so we assume that an unseen heavenly figure from another plane of existence must have been responsible. But with the parting of the Red Sea, we are told it was effected by something as basic and familiar as the wind. The wind we are perfectly familiar with, and its behavior in this instance defies our typical experience.

Of course, in our everyday experience wind does move water, but enough to carve a channel through it? That might seem a stretch, though it does occur to me that we are never told the layout of the sea at that point. It seems like the most far-fetched thing would be if the wind was carving a channel through a large, convex shape, like an oval, but what if the sea in that area was bent and twisted, passing in front of the Israelites in a narrow channel? To me it seems like it might be possible that a strong enough wind could create a temporary bubble through that sort of narrow body, with the water pressed down on either side of the sustained air pressure.

Or perhaps there is some other physical phenomenon that can make such a thing possible, or perhaps there actually was a supernatural element to the parting. In either case, the way had been opened for the Israelites’ escape, though it would certainly require a step of faith and courage to take it!