Surrendering the Impossible

Exodus 14:15-31

¹⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. ¹⁶Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. ¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” ¹⁹Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, ²⁰coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. ²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ²²And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ²³The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, ²⁵clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” ²⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” ²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. ²⁹But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ³⁰Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

The Children of Israel are now literally between the devil and the deep blue sea. (That cliché doesn’t appear to come from this story – but it should!) They appear to be in an absolutely impossible situation. The Red Sea is at their backs and the army of Pharaoh is heading straight for them. Their fate would appear to be sealed. They will either die or be enslaved again. God’s love for the impossible situation shines through with clarity in this pivotal event. Even those who stand outside of the faith probably know this story, at least in part. It is positively epic in scope and impact. Two nations are forever changed by the actions of the Almighty God that day.

The text is fairly clear on about one thing – God is in control of this entire event from start to finish. He is the one who leads the Children of Israel to the shores of the Red Sea. He is the one who places a barrier between His people and the coming army. He is the one who opens the path between the waters of the sea so that His people may cross. He is the one who slams that water back together when His people have reached the opposite shore, entrapping the Egyptians. He is the one who moves the Egyptians to make a very bad choice and pursue the Hebrews. This is such a clear example of the sovereignty of the Lord. He determined all of the events that took place. He even controlled the emotions of the Egyptians, prompting them to make the foolish and arrogant decision to follow the Hebrews into the Sea. God clearly had a plan in mind that finally ended the contentious relationship the Hebrews had with their former captors.

A closer examination of the Hebrew text points to just how amazing this story truly is.

The text says that the wind actually pushed one part of the sea away from the other part (“drove the sea back … the waters were divided,” v. 21) and created a “wall of water on their right and on their left.” The term used for “wall” here, ḥōmāh, connotes a very large wall—not a small stone wall or retaining wall but always a massively large (usually a city) wall, towering above the Israelites, who marched on dry land with walls of water on either side of them. It is clear from the descriptions given that the sea through which the Israelites walked was deep water, not something shallow. A city-wall sized wall of water on either side of them implies the division of a deep body of water, not merely the drying out of a shallow one or the drying out of wet terrain. Even the use of the term yam (“sea”) here implies the depth of the water. Yam is never used for swamps or mud flats but is used consistently to describe large bodies of water (what we would call either lakes or oceans).

Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 342). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The only way we can even get close to this experience would be in one of those aquariums where you are surrounded by glass and thus water. Of course in an aquarium the water is held back by glass. But as the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea the water is help back by God. You could have run your hand through it as you passed to the other side of the sea. The  mind boggles.

I pray that you are able to see the hand of God moving with sovereignty over your own life. If we believe His Word there is nothing left to chance. Just as He saved the Hebrews from death and enslavement so too He has worked His plan to save all of us from sin, death, and the devil. Who would have ever thought that God would come to earth as human only to be killed by us to pay for the sins of the world? But that was His plan all along and He worked it out because of His great love for us. The story of the crossing of the Red Sea captures our imagination, as well it should. But so too should the story of Jesus grab our hearts and minds with wonder and awe as we recognize what God has done and continues to do every single day.