The night hung heavy over the encampment by the sea. Behind the children of Israel, the ground trembled under the thunder of approaching chariots. Pharaoh had changed his mind. His army—horses, chariots, and horsemen—pressed hard after the people who had only just been set free.
Ahead of them stretched the Red Sea, dark and unyielding. There was no bridge, no ford, no path. The wilderness had closed them in. Escape seemed impossible.
When the Israelites lifted up their eyes and saw the Egyptians marching after them, they were sore afraid. They cried out unto the LORD. Then the complaints rose against Moses. “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.” Fear had turned their memory of deliverance into bitterness.
The miracles that brought them out of Egypt now felt distant against the sight of armed soldiers closing in. Moses stood before the people and answered with words that cut through the panic. “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
He did not promise a clever strategy or a sudden retreat. He called them to stillness and to watch what the LORD Himself would do. The LORD spoke to Moses. “Wherefore criest thou unto me?
speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” The command was clear and beyond human power. Moses was to lift the rod he had carried through the plagues and stretch his hand over the water. God would divide the sea.
As darkness settled, the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them. The pillar of the cloud that had guided them by day and the pillar of fire that lit their way by night shifted position. It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. To the Egyptians it was a cloud and darkness.
To the Israelites it gave light by night. All that night the two camps remained separated; the Egyptians could not come near. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night.
The wind blew without pause, driving the waters until the sea became dry land and the waters were divided. The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground. On their right hand and on their left the waters stood as a wall. They walked where moments before there had been only deep water.
Families, livestock, and all the host of Israel passed through on ground that was dry beneath their feet while walls of water rose on either side. The Egyptians pursued. All Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen went in after them to the midst of the sea. 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.
He took off their chariot wheels so that they drove them heavily. Confusion spread. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.” 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.”
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea. The sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. The Egyptians fled against it, and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 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 one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.
They saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians. The people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses. When the way forward looked closed and the enemy pressed from behind, God opened a path no one else could create. He required His people to go forward in obedience while the outcome still lay beyond their sight.
He held back the waters with a wind that blew all night and then brought those same waters down upon the pursuers. He stood between His people and their enemies in the pillar of cloud and fire. The deliverance was not partial. Not one of Pharaoh’s host remained.
On the far shore the Israelites stood in safety and placed their faith in the LORD who had fought for them. The same God who parted the sea still calls His people to trust Him when circumstances appear impossible. Fear may rise when the path is unseen, yet faith answers with the same stillness Moses commanded: stand still and see the salvation of the LORD. Obedience moves forward even when the dry ground is not yet visible.
The walls of water that once rose on either side remind us that God’s power is greater than any army, any sea, or any night of waiting. Remembering that faithfulness strengthens the heart for every new moment when there seems to be no way forward. The LORD still fights for those who belong to Him. He still makes a way where none exists, and He still receives the praise of those who see His hand and believe.
