The Waters Divided
15 Yahweh said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward. 16 Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. Then the children of Israel shall go into the middle of the sea on dry ground. 17 Behold, I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in after them. I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, over his chariots, and over his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten myself honor over Pharaoh, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.” 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. 20 It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was the cloud and the darkness, yet it gave light by night. One didn’t come near the other all night. 21 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on the dry ground; and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the middle of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 In the morning watch, Yahweh looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army. 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!” 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.” 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 middle of the sea. 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. 29 But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 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.
The sea opens for a people commanded to walk into it, and the army that follows discovers that the same road is not open to everyone.
Yahweh said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.
The reply comes to a man who has just told the people to stand still, and it reverses him. There is a time for waiting and it has lasted one night. Prayer is not rebuked as such; what is refused is prayer offered instead of the next step, when the next step has already been made clear.
Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. Then the children of Israel shall go into the middle of the sea on dry ground.
The same shepherd's staff from the wilderness of Midian, still the only equipment.
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. 20 It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was the cloud and the darkness, yet it gave light by night. One didn’t come near the other all night.
The pillar changes station and becomes a rear guard, and the same object is dark on one side and bright on the other. It is one of the most compact pictures in Scripture of a single act of God experienced two ways: the identical presence that lights the road for one company blinds the other, and nothing has changed except which side of it a person stands on.
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
A mechanism is named — a wind, blowing all night — and it does not reduce the event. The wind arrives when the rod is raised, it opens a corridor rather than a mudflat, and the water stands a wall to them on their right hand and on their left Exodus 14:22. Ground that a nation with livestock and carts can cross is described as dry, not merely fordable. Attempts to relocate this at a shallow lake have to account for a returning tide that drowns a chariot corps in the same place.
The Egyptians follow, and the collapse comes in stages: confusion in the morning watch, then he took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily Exodus 14:25. A chariot army is a machine for moving fast over flat ground, and it is destroyed by the surface it is standing on. Their own conclusion is the plainest statement of the book's thesis, spoken by the losing side: Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians Exodus 14:25. Understanding it does not save them; they are already in the corridor.
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.
The deliverance and the judgment are the same act. The road that carried Israel over drowns the army behind them, which is why this crossing is afterward used as an image of both salvation and death to the old life 1 Corinthians 10:1–2.
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.
The belief is genuine and it is dated. Three days later they are complaining about water, which is not hypocrisy but the ordinary short life of faith founded on a spectacle.
settled What this mark means