17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift 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. 17 And 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. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

19 Then 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, 20 coming 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.

21 Then 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. 22 And 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. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And 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, 25 clogging 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.”

26 Then 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.” 27 So 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. 28 The 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. 29 But 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.

30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel 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. (Exodus 13:17–14:31, ESV)

Today, we come to a defining moment for the Hebrew people. The story of the Red Sea meant that Israel's salvation was complete—Egypt's stranglehold on them was broken once and for all. It is a powerful story, one I hope to demonstrate that we still partake of today whenever we walk in the salvation Christ has won for us.

But before thinking about it as a type of our own deliverance from sin and death, we should pause to celebrate how the events of this chapter have comforted and encouraged God's people for thousands of years. How many times have you found yourself in a jam and considered this story? How often have you pled with God to make a way where there was no way? How many times have you been encouraged to stand still and watch God save?

From this passage, I want to draw out three lessons Israel learned—and that we should also know.

1. Embrace God's Leadership

First, we must embrace God's leadership. This section marks the beginning of a new era in Israel's relationship with God. Up until now, in Exodus, God has come to his people in their distress. But now he goes with them on their journey. Exodus 13-18 covers two months and contains six events—the Red Sea crossing (14:1-15:21), the bitter water turned drinkable at Marah (15:22-27), the manna from heaven in the wilderness (16:1-36), water provided from the rock (17:1-7), the defeat of the Amalekite raiders (17:8-16), and the arrival and counsel of Jethro (18:1-27). In each episode, God leads his people like a shepherd leads his flock.

And it is undoubtedly framed as a passage about God's close leadership of his people. Here, in the opening section, we learn that the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night (13:21). God's presence in this pillar of cloud or fire did not depart from before the people—he was ever-present, leading his people (13:22). And in the closing section, Moses' father-in-law Jethro joined up with them. As he and Moses talked about the previous months, they rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians (8-9). God had led them well. But that doesn't mean his leadership was straightforward. Of this section, one scholar called it, "An (unbeatable) illustration of the sheer oddity of life under divine leadership."[^1]

What can we learn about God's unconventional leadership from a passage such as this one? What would they have learned?

First, they would have seen the need to trust God's route. At the beginning of the movement, we see that God did not lead them by the straightest or most logical route, the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near (13:17). God did not want them to change their minds at the first sight of war and return to Egypt (13:17). But doesn't the passage indicate that Israel was equipped for battle (18)? This note probably only means that they had acquired weapons or were trying to march in formation, but they were not battle ready (18).

So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea—and this turn was the first in God's desire to stretch a ten-day trip into a one-year discipleship journey at seven distinct campsites. Israel simply wasn't ready for battle, so God led them in a different direction.

There are times we might not understand why he isn't taking a more direct approach, but he had his reasons then, and he has his reasons now. Many of us are linear, logical thinkers. We have our plans, and we see the direct route that must be taken to accomplish them. And in the work of the kingdom, we think we see the best, direct paths God should take us on. But God's way is often a circuitous, winding path.

Here, he needed to prepare the Hebrews for war by winning a massive victory without their help, and he wanted to completely disarm their Egyptian overlords. Had they gone straight to Philistine territory, they would not have known of God's power in battle, and the Egyptian threat would always have loomed over them.

Let God lead your life on unexpected routes. In the New Testament, Peter is a good example of this form of leadership. During the first ten years of the church, Peter proved to be an effective apostle and teacher in the Jerusalem church. Everyone in the church was Jewish, and everything was going great. But one day, God asked him to preach to a group of Gentiles in the north. At first, he objected, having never defiled himself in the Gentile world. But, finally, he relented, and his little trip led to the gospel outbreak throughout the nations that we are beneficiaries of even today (Acts 10-11). Had Peter gotten his way, the non-Jewish world would not have heard. Thank God for his plans!

Perhaps you are frustrated here because you'd like to always understand God's leadership. I would encourage you to go play checkers with a little child—or maybe even chess. Your mind will see the board in such a more detailed and strategic way than they will. They will see a move that will lead to their demise a turn or two later, but they cannot yet think that far out, so they will make terrible decisions that an savvy (or ruthless, we're talking about playing checkers against a small child!) opponent can take advantage of. Maybe this game of checkers will help you get an illustration for how God's way of thinking is high above our own.

Second, they would also have seen that it is important to move forward even when it seems like there is no way. After Pharaoh realized the people weren't returning after a few days of sacrifice, and after it had sunk in that their free workforce had just departed, Israel found itself in his crosshairs once again. Pharaoh saw that God had led the Hebrews to a place where the wilderness had shut them in, so he gathered his army of horses and chariots and pursued Israel (14:3).

This led to widespread panic among God's people. They spoke to Moses about their impending deaths: "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?" (12). Their words dripped with sarcasm; Egypt had dedicated massive amounts of their land to the burial of their dead. Plenty of graves existed there. Some of them—the pyramids—were regarded as one of the wonders of the ancient world.[^2]

Then they told Moses this is why they'd told him to leave them alone to serve the Egyptians (14:12). We don't know if they ever really said this to Moses—it isn't recorded in Exodus—but they claimed to have wanted to put their heads down and keep on slaving in Egypt rather than listen to Moses the meddler. And their thinking became rather binary. They could die in the wilderness or slave in Egypt. No gray area. No nuance. No faith. The curse of the two-option mind came over them.

So Moses told them, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today" (14:13). He told them that they would never again see these Egyptians because the Lord would fight for them (14:13-14). All they had to do was be silent (14:14). I am the first to say we too often attach an unnecessarily harsh tone to phrases in Scripture, but I have serious doubts about considering these the comforting words of a gentle shepherd. The words themselves sound like the terse rapid fire of a frustrated parent. It will become clear later that Moses was often bothered by this type of attitude.

But the big clue that this wasn't a gentle whisper to merely stand still and watch, but more of a rebuke to be quiet and stop complaining, is what God said. He said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? (14:15). Moses was the representative of the people, so God threw him in with this complaining lot. Because this was not a time for complaint, but instead of action, God said, "Tell the people of Israel to go forward" (14:15). Where? They were hemmed in by the land, and Pharaoh's chariots were behind them. The way forward was into the sea.

This story was meant to help them see with eyes of faith rather than continually interpret life by their natural vision (2 Cor. 5:7). As they assessed the situation with their natural sight, they were trapped on all sides by either land, water, or armies. But God's commission to move forward meant there was a way they could not see.

I can recall some early morning or bad weather trail runs when I would take someone to a set of trails I knew well. Our lack of visibility did not matter to me—I always knew where I was and how to get where we were going. But often, without visibility, and having never gone that route before, my running partners would question and wonder, or simply be surprised, by various turns we would make. This is like our journey with God. He can see. He knows the path and the destination. We do not. We are hiking in the dark or running without visibility. So we must trust our guide.

What a lesson this episode is for us! We often spend so much time arguing with God's directives because we feel they are incompatible with what we see, hear, or feel. Rather than deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him, we complain. But our God can part the waters, cut the lake, and part the stream—he can even walk on top of the waters. He commands the sea. And, just as he did at creation, after he tells the waters what to do, dry land appears. So let us move forward in obedience to the word—without complaining—and watch God open up paths to us we had not previously seen.

2. Walk in God's Salvation

The second lesson from this passage is that we must walk in God's salvation. When Moses lifted up his staff, God split the sea, and he showed us what his victory looks like. They sang about this Red Sea crossing in Exodus 15, but the song reverberates throughout the story of God's people.

The Red Sea song was on their mind when they finally arrived in Canaan forty years after this episode, and God parted the Jordan River to give them entrance. The Red Sea song was on their mind when foreign powers invaded them, even stealing the ark of God. The Red Sea song was on their mind when their disobedience landed them in Babylonian exile—their return to the land was thought of in terms of a new exodus.

And, of course, when Jesus arrived, a greater than Moses parted waters greater than the Red Sea. We were entrapped by our sin, our world, and the principalities and powers of darkness. Though it seemed we were doomed, Christ took on human flesh and fulfilled the law for us so that through his death and resurrection, the waters parted, and we found life.

And one day, the final conquest, the last exodus, will occur. The people of Israel, in their Ancient Near East setting, thought of the sea as chaotic, dangerous, and evil. When God parted the Red Sea and held back the Jordan River, or when Jesus walked on water or calmed the storm, it spoke of a power over wicked chaos in their world—God's dominance over danger. And in the final pages of the Bible, when the Apostle John recorded his vision of the future, he said the new heaven and new earth had no more sea (Rev. 21:1). This is not meant to sadden surfers and others who enjoy life on the coast; it is meant to communicate that God will one day defeat the powers of chaotic darkness once and for all.

So, this Red Sea crossing has been relived many times in the pages of Scripture. One critic of the Bible said that exodus "is the only thing that ever happens" in the Bible—sounds good to me![^3] And the story of exodus happens countless times in the lives of God's people. It is like a recurring cinematic concept that appears in movie after movie—I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. As Paul said to the predominantly Gentile church in Corinth, the generation that crossed the Red Sea were their fathers (1 Cor. 10:1-5). In a way, the Red Sea story is our story.

So, if the salvation they walked in is the salvation we should walk in, what does this episode show us God's salvation is like? There are many ways we could describe it from this passage. It is God-initiated—he does the work and makes the way. It must be entered into by faith—the mustard-seed steps of faith Israel took were needful; God would not throw them onto the Red Sea road. They had to step onto it. But the word I want to use today is this: total. God's salvation is total.

On that day, Pharaoh's hard heart clouded his mind and caused him to rush his armies into the sea in pursuit of the Israelites (23). He wanted his slaves, but Yahweh wanted his sons, so God threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels in the midst of the sea (24-25). They realized that The Lord was fighting for Israel, so they became determined to flee, but when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, the Egyptian army was completely defeated (25-27). And, alarmingly, something mysterious occurred at those waters that day—Exodus says ,as the Egyptians fled into the Red Sea, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the Sea (27). Their confusion and madness had climaxed to the point of madness, so they ran into the sea, cooperating with God's plan to judge them completely, thereby giving his people total victory.

The victory Christ won for us is also total. Through his death and resurrection, Christ has "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them" (Col 2:15). It was Christ's aim that "through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Heb. 2:14-15). "According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (1 Pet. 1:3-4). So we have become "more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Rom 8:37). And now we give "thanks...to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession" (2 Cor 2:14).

In God's view of things, trusting Christ means we are baptized into his death and will be joined with him in his resurrection, making newness of life our destiny today (Rom. 6:4). When he died, we died, "our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin" (Rom. 6:6-7). And since "we died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with him," because we know that he "will never die again" and "death no longer has dominion over him" (Rom 6:8-9). Put another way, Jesus "died to sin, once for all," so now "he lives to God" (Rom. 6:10). And, because we are now tied to him, we must "consider" ourselves to be in the same condition—"dead to sin and alive to God" just like he is (Rom. 6:11). Total.

But, if the salvation God wins is total, why do we often feel we are still bound and enslaved to our fleshly impulses? First, we must remember that the front half of Exodus is about pulling the Hebrews out of Egypt, but the second half is about pulling Egypt out of the Hebrews. Centuries of the Egypt-way would require intricate and comprehensive rewiring in the Hebrew heart, so God gave them feasts and festivals, laws and commandments, and a tabernacle with offerings as a way to perform his long surgery on them. And God will do the same for us—we know it as the process of sanctification. God is working and warring to help us experience the newness we have in Christ.

Second, we must always consider ourselves to be as God says we are. This is why Paul said we must "consider" ourselves to be like Jesus, "dead to sin and alive to God" (Rom. 6:11). We must count, reckon, believe, and consider ourselves just as close to God and impervious to sin as Jesus is, all because we are tied to him.

In the Old Testament law, when a leper was healed, they were to report to the priests to be declared clean before God and his people (Lev. 14). I often imagine the lepers Jesus touched, cleansing them of their leprosy, often wondering if Jesus' work would stick. Every time an itch or rash developed, I bet they fretted—Will my leprosy return? Am I again what I once was? But that is not the way of Christ. His victory was total. And for us, when the old itch of sin beckons, we must count ourselves as new with Jesus. It is who we are.

3. Be Grounded in God's Love

Our final lesson from this passage is that we must be grounded in God's love. By "love," I am not alluding to warm feelings or general permissiveness but to the covenant promise of love that bound God to these descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had told them they would inherit the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, and this generation was becoming grounded in that promise—grounded in God's covenantal love.

We can see them growing in this understanding at the beginning of our episode when, on their way out of Egypt, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him" (19). Joseph was the first Hebrew to move to Egypt over 400 years earlier; his story is found in the final movement of Genesis. God had made him the second most powerful man in Egypt, and he made it possible for the rest of his Hebrew family to move there during a long famine. They were days of peace and prosperity for the sons of Jacob. But, for as much as Joseph believed it was good for them to live in Egypt for a season, he also knew God would fulfill his promises and bring them back to Canaan. And when God fulfilled his promise and visited them, Joseph wanted them to carry up his bones with them from there (19, Gen. 50:25).

Moses got wind of that old story, so they carried Joseph's coffin with them from Egypt. Joseph was long dead, but his mummy was a message. He was the reason the Hebrews were in Egypt in the first place. To put it another way, God had led them there so many years ago. And he was still leading them.

Those bones should have reminded the entire multitude that God was delivering them because he'd promised to do so. That coffin was a reminder that God is covenant-keeping and faithful, and that his covenant of love cannot be broken.

We also need reminders of God's covenantal love. The more secure we are in it, the better we will be led into the future with him. We will trust that he is for us, not against us, with a future and hope in store for us. Just as the roots of a tree go down deep, providing a way for the tree to grow to great heights, so we must be rooted and grounded in God's love.

I want to conclude today with an announcement: the Red Sea Road has not been closed. It is still open for all who want to receive the salvation Christ won for humanity on his cross. The path will close someday, but today, it remains open. Run into it and be saved.

Study Questions

Head Questions:

How does God's leadership of Israel, though unconventional, demonstrate his wisdom and transcendence? What does this teach us about following His leading even when it confuses us?
How does the Red Sea crossing foreshadow the greater salvation Christ would accomplish? What parallels can we draw between this event and Christ's victory?
Why was it significant that Moses took Joseph's bones with them when they left Egypt? What did this communicate to the Israelites about God's covenant love?

Heart Questions:

When has God's leadership taken you in unexpected directions that were difficult but ultimately for your good? How did you process this emotionally?
Do you tend to see your victory in Christ as partial or total? How does grasping the fullness of His triumph impact your sense of identity and security?
In what ways do you need to become more grounded in the truth of God's unconditional covenant love for you? How might this change your heart posture?

Hands Questions:

What practical actions can you take to embrace God's leadership even when His path doesn't align with your preferences?
How can you walk in greater freedom and boldness this week based on the truth that Christ has totally defeated sin and death? What actions will flow from this?
What practical steps can you take to preach God's covenant love to yourself daily? How can you remind your heart of this truth?

[^1]: Motyer, Alec. The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005.

[^2]: Wikipedia contributors. “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Oct. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World&oldid=1180889358.

[^3]: Morales, L. Michael, and Benjamin L. Gladd. Exodus Old and New – A Biblical Theology of Redemption: A Biblical Theology of Redemption. IVP Academic, 2020.