Israel Passes through the Sea

Chariots gave ancient armies a great advantage when they used them to do battle on flat, dry terrain. They were unsuitable for fighting in marshy or swampy areas, however, because the wheels would get stuck in the softer ground and mud. That Pharaoh used them at all when he pursued the Israelites near the Red Sea was a monumentally foolish decision (Ex. 14:5–9), and it points to God’s hand in the choice. No military leader in his right mind would choose to use chariots in that situation, but the Lord had said that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart to pursue Israel (v. 4). He is sovereign even over wicked men and their plans, and when He hands people over to the hardness of their hearts, they take foolish actions, becoming more irrational the more they sin (see Rom. 1:21).

Today’s passage describes Egypt’s further pursuit of the Israelites by chariot into the Red Sea. As the Lord had commanded in Exodus 14:16, Moses stretched out the staff over the sea, and God sent a “strong east wind” that divided waters in two with a path on the now dry ground of the seabed in between them (v. 21). Verse 22 confirms that the body of water that the Israelites passed through was deep by describing the waters as forming a wall on either side of them. The word for “wall” is used to describe the towering walls of ancient cities. This was no small pond or creek that Israel traveled through but a great sea. We have already noted the sovereignty of God as displayed in His driving Egyptian chariots after Israel, but His control is also seen in His use of a wind to part the waters. John Calvin comments, “Although it was competent for God to dispel the waters without any motion of the air, yet, that He might show that all nature was obedient to Him, and governed at His will, He was pleased to raise the strong east wind. Meanwhile it is to be remembered, that the sea could not be dried by any wind, however strong, unless it had been effected by the secret power of the Spirit, beyond the ordinary operation of nature.”

After Israel made its way through the waters nearly to the other side of the sea if not all the way, the Egyptian army went in after God’s people (v. 23). Then the army saw its folly at last. God threw the soldiers into a panic, the wheels of their chariots got stuck in the seabed, and they realized their doom (vv. 24–25). But the Lord had Moses stretch out his staff again, and the waters came crashing down on the Egyptian fighters, drowning them all (vv. 26–29).