The Passover night has happened. The firstborn of Egypt have been slain and Pharaoh has finally relented. The Israelites are free to go. But they aren't out of the woods (figuratively speaking) yet.
Instead of taking the Way of Horus, the road on the Mediterranean Coast, which was dotted with Egyptian fortresses and deposited the Israelites right into Philistia, Yahveh takes them along a more southerly route which will lead them into Canaan via the back door. The Bible says that 600,000 men marched out of Egypt, not counting women and children. Whether that number actually means 600,000 or something else is unknown and largely irrelevant. The point is that Israel was finally free and heading to the Promised Land.
But Pharaoh wasn't done yet. As his grief and shock at what had just happened began to wear off, his old fears and prejudices came roaring back. With horror, he realized that he had let a potentially massive army walk out on him, losing valuable slaves in the process. So he marshaled together his army, gathering his 600 best chariots and tearing off after the Israelites.
Oblivious to all of this, the Israelites had peacefully made camp on the shores of the Red (or Reed) Sea. The exact location of this camp is unknown but it was in a place large enough to accommodate several hundred thousand people (at least) and massive herds yet it was enclosed enough to essentially put the Israelites in a trap. They were quite relaxed, convinced that they were finally free from the cruel and borderline genocidal Egyptians. That peace was suddenly shattered when they say the Egyptian chariots racing towards them on the horizon and the Israelites did what would become their MO for the rest of Moses's days.
They freaked.
Now granted, I can understand their fear. Despite obviously outnumbering the Egyptians, the Israelites were at a serious disadvantage. The Egyptian army was one of if not the best army in the world and Thutmose III himself was an accomplished warrior and tactician while the Israelites were untrained slaves. Additionally, the Egyptians were coming at them with 600 chariots which were the ancient equivalent to tanks, mobile firing platforms that would rain devastation down on whoever they encountered. The icing on the cake was that the Israelites had hills to the north and south and the sea at their backs, so they had nowhere to run.
So their reaction is somewhat understandable. They immediately turn on Moses and said, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone and let us server the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"
For Moses, this should've been a clue as to how the next 40 years of his life were going to go. Something would go wrong and the Israelites would freak out and blame him. Then Moses would have to go to Yahveh for answers and help.
A few weeks or months earlier, Moses might have freaked out too. Remember that when Moses first showed up to Pharaoh and Pharaoh essentially doubled the Israelite work load, Moses asked Yahveh why this was happening. Moses was prone to despair like the others.
But something had changed in Moses in the intervening time. There was a new confidence about him that hadn't been there before. Instead of asking Yahveh why this was happening or if Yahveh was trying to bring trouble on the Israelites, he simply replies to the Israelites, "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians that you see today you will never see again. The LORD is fighting for you; you need only be still."
There are so many ways to go with that passage the books could be written. But what I find interesting about this is that Moses says this before he talks to Yahveh. Now granted Yahveh had intimated that something was going to go down before they even got to that campsite, but Yahveh had also told Moses that Pharaoh's heart was going to be hardened and Moses still complained when Thutmose didn't just let them go.
The point is that Moses, in the face of total annihilation, didn't flinch. He doesn't even half to speak with Yahveh to know that Yahveh is going to rescue them. He already knew it, so absolute was his confidence. But it wasn't confidence in himself that gave him courage to stand so strong in the face of danger; it was confidence in Yahveh.
That is the difference between Moses and the Israelites, a difference that would be highlighted time and time again over the course of the next 40 years. Moses had absolute faith in Yahveh's word. Yahveh had said that he would lead the Israelites into the Promised Land and Moses believed that promise. He knew that no matter what happened, no matter how bleak things looked, Yahveh would come through with his promise.
Let's recap Moses experience with Yahveh thus far: he had turned Moses's staff into a snake and back; he had turned Moses's hand leprous and back; he had turned the Nile into blood; covered Egypt with frogs, gnats, locust, and flies; killed all the livestock of the Egyptians; rained down the hailstorm of the century; dropped boils on everyone; blacked out the sun; and finally had executed all the firstborn in Egypt.
Moses had given up doubting Yahveh. He had seen far too much to believe that Yahveh would let a little thing like the sea or Pharaoh's army stand in the way of him accomplishing what he set out to do. Moses knew that no matter how big the problem was Yahveh would overcome it. Yahveh had promised to take the Israelites to Canaan and Moses knew that Yahveh would let anything stop him from doing just that. This unflappable, unshakeable confidence that Moses possessed is called faith.
Faith often comes across as a vague and almost mystical thing. Most Christians look at faith kind of like Jedi view the Force. It's this mystical energy or power and we have enough of it, we can do stuff. Of course this is very vague, which is part of the point: we're not entirely sure what "it" is. Just that we're supposed to have it.
But faith is something else entirely. The book of Hebrews defines faith as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of we do not see" and then proceeds to devote an entire chapter giving example after example of what faith is. Every example can be essentially summed up as Yahveh said thus and then the people did it. People of faith, like Moses, simply took Yahveh at his word and believed him even if they couldn't see the endgame.
Boiled down, faith is an attitude of confidence in Yahveh. Faith is doing what Yahveh commands even when those commands don't make a whole lot of sense. Faith is living in confidence of Yahveh's promises no matter how unlikely or bleak the prospects might be. Faith is ultimately trusting that Yahveh is who he says he is.
True faith is not blind; Yahveh had given Moses plenty of proof of who he was and he's given us plenty of proof too. It's merely a matter of accepting that proof or not. That is real difference between Moses and the Israelites; he accepted the proof of Yahveh's power and love while they did not. They persisted in doubting Yahveh and that is why they panicked in the face of the Egyptian onslaught.
Faith is power but not in the way that people often think. Possessing true faith frees us fear and doubt, allowing us to live lives in full confidence. That freedom grants us the power to do whatever Yahveh's commands without hesitation and without holding back, no matter how ridiculous the command might be, say for example stretching out your staff and splitting the ocean in half.
Which happens to be exactly what Yahveh told Moses to do. Moses stretched out his rod over the Red Sea and a "strong east wind" drove the sea back, dividing the sea and allowing the Israelites to cross on dry land.
This event is often satirized in comics and movies but let us make no mistake on exactly how epic this moment was. The Red Sea was split in two. I can't decide which I would rather see: the sea splitting or the look on the Israelites faces as the sea opened up around Moses.
Crossing the Red Sea must have been quite an unforgettable experience. Imagine walking through the biggest and most diverse aquarium ever. Towering on either side of you was a massive wall of water and on the other side you could make out fish, sharks, and maybe even the occasional whale. Underneath your sandals was the coral and sand of the ocean.
As the Israelites climbed out on the other side, the Egyptians, who up to that point had been blocked by a wall of darkness, came charging in after them. At this point, you would think that no matter how hard-headed Pharaoh was he would've seen enough to make him leave well-enough alone. Or at least his troops to say to Pharaoh, "With all due respect sir, screw you. We are not going in there."
But in any event, they charged into the middle of the sea after Israelites and when they got to the middle, they realized that they had made a horrible error. The wheels on their chariots began to come off and they realized that they were stuck at the bottom of the freaking Red Sea. Not a tenable position. From the other side, Moses again stretched out his hand and the sea collapsed back in on the Egyptians, washing them all, Thutmose III included, away.
The story concludes in Exodus 14:31 saying, "And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant." That's the Bible's way of saying that their mouths hung open awe.
I guess the sad thing in all of this is that it took Yahveh opening up the Red Sea for the Israelites to finally put their trust in him (a trust, by the way, that would soon be forgotten). It wasn't like this was the first epic thing they'd seen him do; they had seen miracle after miracle up to this point and yet they were still afraid in the end.
The question I must ask is that are we so different. Many of us, myself included, like to think that if we had seen the plagues we wouldn't have doubted Yahveh the way they did. Maybe not. But we have seen many great and wondrous things in our own lives (a five minute reflection on your past will reveal that) and yet we still ultimately doubt Yahveh.
We have all had and will have Red Sea moments, moments were we feel like we've been led into a trap and we can't see a way out. Sometimes we've even been led into these moments by Yahveh himself. Who are you in those moments? Are you an Israelite who quails under the pressure? Or are you a Moses, who boldly trust that Yahveh is who he says he is? Will you have the faith to split the sea?
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