Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon. You shall encamp opposite it by the sea. Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.’ I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will follow after them; and I will get honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies; and the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.” They did so.
The king of Egypt was told that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of 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?” He prepared his chariot, and took his army with him; and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, with captains over all of them. Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; for the children of Israel went out with a high hand. The Egyptians pursued them. All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baal Zephon.
When Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to Yahweh. They said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us out of Egypt? Isn’t this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘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.”
Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today; for you will never again see the Egyptians whom you have seen today. Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still.”
Yahweh said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward. 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. 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. The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten myself honor over Pharaoh, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.” 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. It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was the cloud and the darkness, yet gave it light by night. One didn’t come near the other all night.
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. 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. The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the middle of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. In the morning watch, Yahweh looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army. 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!”
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.” 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. 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. 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. Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 24, 25, 27, 31 So the Sea was before them, mountains on either…
So the Sea was before them, mountains on either side, and the enemies at their back: yet they obeyed God, and were delivered.
From toward the country of the Philistines.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Exo 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] It was of God, then, that the people fell into such straits: that where human help failed, divine might come in. {a}
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{a} Necesse est adesse divinum, ubi humanum cessat auxilium. - Philo Jud.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 Or rather, had spoken, to wit, before they came…
Or rather, had spoken, to wit, before they came to Succoth, Exo 12:37. For what was there briefly and generally expressed, is here more largely and particularly declared, together with the occasion of it, which was God’s command.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 15, 21 We have here,
We have here,
I. Instructions given to Moses concerning Israel's motions and encampments, which were so very surprising that if Moses had not express orders about them before they would scarcely have been persuaded to follow the pillar of cloud and fire. That therefore there might be no scruple nor dissatisfaction about it, Moses is told before, 1. Whither they must go, Exo 14:1, Exo 14:2. They had got to the edge of the wilderness (Exo 13:20), and a stage or two more would have brought them to Horeb, the place appointed for their serving God; but, instead of going forward, they are ordered to turn short off, on the right hand from Canaan, and to march towards the Red Sea. Where they were, at Etham, there was no sea in their way to obstruct their passage: but God himself orders them into straits, which might give them an assurance that when his purposes were served he would without fail bring them out of those straits. Note, God sometimes raises difficulties in the way of the salvation of his people, that he may have the glory of subduing them, and helping his people over them. 2. What God designed in these strange orders. Moses would have yielded an implicit obedience, though God had given him no reason; but shall he hide from Moses the thing that he does? No, Moses shall know, (1.) That Pharaoh has a design to ruin Israel, Exo 14:3. (2.) That therefore God has a design to ruin Pharaoh, and he takes this way to effect it, Exo 14:4. Pharaoh's sagacity would conclude that Israel was entangled in the wilderness and so would become an easy prey to him; and, that he might be the more apt to think so, God orders them into yet greater entanglements; also, by turning them so much out of their road, he amazes him yet more, and gives him further occasion to suppose that they were in a state of embarrassment and danger. And thus (says God) I will be honoured upon Pharaoh. Note, [1.] All men being made for the honour of their Maker, those whom he is not honoured by he will be honoured upon. [2.] What seems to tend to the church's ruin is often overruled to the ruin of the church's enemies, whose pride and malice are fed by Providence, that they may be ripened for destruction.
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II. Pharaoh's pursuit of Israel, in which, while he gratifies his own malice and revenge, he is furthering the accomplishment of God's counsels concerning him. It was told him that the people fled, Exo 14:5. Such a fright was he in, when he gave them leave to go, that when the fright was a little over he either forgot, or would not own, that they departed with his consent, and therefore was willing that it should be represented to him as a revolt from their allegiance. Thus what may easily be justified is easily condemned, by putting false colours upon it. Now, hereupon,
1. He reflects upon it with regret that he had connived at their departure. He and his servants, though it was with the greatest reason in the world that they had let Israel go, yet were now angry with themselves for it: Why have we done thus? (1.) It vexed them that Israel had their liberty, that they had lost the profit of their labours, and the pleasure of chastising them. It is meat and drink to proud persecutors to trample upon the saints of the Most High, and say to their souls, Bow down, that we may go over; and therefore it vexes them to have their hands tied. Note, The liberty of God's people is a heavy grievance to their enemies, Est 5:12, Est 5:13; Act 5:17, Act 5:33. (2.) It aggravated the vexation that they themselves had consented to it, thinking now that they might have hindered it, and that they needed not to have yielded, though they had stood it out to the last extremity. Thus God makes men's envy and rage against his people a torment to themselves, Psa 112:10. It was well done to let Israel go, and what they would have reflected on with comfort if they had done it from an honest principle; but doing it by constraint, they called themselves a thousand fools for doing it, and passionately wished it undone again. Note, It is very common, but very absurd and criminal, for people to repent of their good deeds; their justice and charity, and even their repentance, are repented of. See an instance somewhat like this, Jer 34:10, Jer 34:11.
2. He resolves, if possible, either to reduce them or to be revenged on them; in order to this, he levies an army, musters all his force of chariots and horsemen, Exo 14:17, Exo 14:18 (for, it should seem, he took no foot with him, because the king's business required haste), and thus he doubts not but he shall re-enslave them, Exo 14:6, Exo 14:7. It is easy to imagine what a rage Pharaoh was now in, roaring like a lion disappointed of his prey, how his proud heart aggravated the affront, swelled with indignation, scorned to be baffled, longed to be revenged: and now all the plagues are as if they had never been. He has quite forgotten the sorrowful funerals of his firstborn, and can think of nothing but making Israel feel his resentments; now he thinks he can be too hard for God himself; for, otherwise, could he have hoped to conquer a people so dear to him? God gave him up to these passions of his own heart, and so hardened it. It is said (Exo 14:8), The children of Israel went out with a high hand, that is, with a great deal of courage and bravery, triumphing in their release, and resolved to break through the difficulties that lay in their way. But the Egyptians (Exo 14:9) pursued after them. Note, Those that in good earnest set their faces heaven-ward, and will live godly in Christ Jesus, must expect to be set upon by Satan's temptations and terrors. He will not tamely part with any out of his service, nor go out without raging, Mar 9:26.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–31 And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Out of the…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Out of the pillar of the cloud in which he went before them; either while they were at Etham, or when journeying from thence, and a little before they turned off to the right, as they were now directed:
saying; as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31 Here is,
Here is,
I. The extreme distress that Israel was in at the Red-sea.
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1. Notice given of it to Moses before, ver. 1-4.
2. The cause of it was Pharaoh's pursuit of them, ver. 5-9.
3. Israel was in a consternation upon it, ver. 10-12.
4. Moses endeavours to encourage them, ver. 13, 14.
II. The wonderful deliverance that God wrought for them.
1. Moses is instructed concerning it, ver. 15-18.
2. Lines that could not be forced are set between the camp of Israel and Pharaoh's camp, ver. 19, 20.
3. By the divine power the Red-sea is divided, ver. 21. and is made,
1. A lane to the Israelites, who marched safely through it, ver. 22- 29. But.
2. To the Egyptians it was made,
1. An ambush into which they were drawn, ver. 23-25. And,
2. A grave in which they were all buried, ver. 26-28.
III. The impressions this made upon the Israelites, ver. 30, 31.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 28, 30, 31 The Israelites are commanded to encamp before Pi-hahiroth,
CHAPTER XIV
The Israelites are commanded to encamp before Pi-hahiroth,
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1, 2.
God predicts the pursuit of Pharaoh, 3, 4.
Pharaoh is informed that the Israelites are fled, and regrets
that he suffered them to depart, 5.
He musters his troops and pursues them, 6-8.
Overtakes them in their encampment by the Red Sea, 9.
The Israelites are terrified at his approach, 10.
They murmur against Moses for leading them out, 11, 12.
Moses encourages them, and assures them of deliverance, 13, 14.
God commands the Israelites to advance, and Moses to stretch
out his rod over the sea that it might be divided, 15, 16;
and promises utterly to discomfit the Egyptians, 17, 18.
The angel of God places himself between the Israelites and the
Egyptians, 19.
The pillar of the cloud becomes darkness to the Egyptians,
while it gives light to the Israelites, 20.
Moses stretches out his rod, and a strong east wind blows, and
the waters are divided, 21.
The Israelites enter and walk on dry ground, 22.
The Egyptians enter also in pursuit of the Israelites, 23.
The Lord looks out of the pillar of cloud on the Egyptians,
terrifies them, and disjoints their chariots, 24, 25.
Moses is commanded to stretch forth his rod over the waters, that
they may return to their former bed, 26.
He does so, and the whole Egyptian army is overwhelmed, 27, 28,
while every Israelite escapes, 29.
Being thus saved from the hand of their adversaries, they acknowledge
the power of God, and credit the mission of Moses, 30, 31.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31 Exo 14:1-2. The Lord spake — Or rather had…
Exo 14:1-2. The Lord spake — Or rather had spoken, before they came to Succoth, Exo 12:37. For what was there briefly and generally expressed, is here more largely and particularly declared, together with the occasion of it, which was God’s command. Speak unto the children of Israel — They were got to the edge of the wilderness, Exo 13:20, and one stage or two would have brought them to Horeb, the place appointed for their serving God; but, instead of going forward, they are ordered to turn short off on the right hand from Canaan, and to march toward the Red sea. When they were at Etham, there was no sea in their way to obstruct their passage; but God himself orders them into straits, which might give them an assurance, that when his purposes were served, he would bring them out of those straits. Before Pi-hahiroth — Or, the straits of Hiroth, two great mountains, between which they marched. Migdol and Baal-zephon were cities of Egypt, and probably garrisoned.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28 That they turn - i. e. away from the…
That they turn - i. e. away from the wilderness, and go southwards, to the west of the Bitter Lakes, which completely separated them from the desert.
Pi-hahiroth - The place is generally identified with Ajrud, a fortress with a very large well of good water, situated at the foot of an elevation commanding the plain which extends to Suez, at a distance of four leagues. The journey from Etham might occupy two, or even three days.
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Migdol - A tower, or fort, the “Maktal” of Egyptian monuments; it is probably to be identified with Bir Suweis, about two miles from Suez.
Baal-zephon - The name under which the Phoenicians, who had a settlement in Lower Egypt at a very ancient period, worshipped their chief Deity. There can be no doubt it was near Kolsum, or Suez. From the text it is clear that the encampment of the Israelites extended over the plain from Pi-hahiroth: their headquarters being between Bir Suweis and the sea opposite to Baal-Zephon. At Ajrud the road branches off in two directions, one leading to the wilderness by a tract, now dry, but in the time of Moses probably impassable (see next note); the other leading to Suez, which was doubtless followed by the Israelites.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 31 Beelsephon, means "the lord of the watch-tower." Some think…
Beelsephon, means "the lord of the watch-tower." Some think an idol was thus denominated, whose office it was to prevent people from quitting the country. How vain were his efforts against God’s people!
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30 the wilderness hath shut them in--Pharaoh, who would eagerly…
the wilderness hath shut them in--Pharaoh, who would eagerly watch their movements, was now satisfied that they were meditating flight, and he naturally thought from the error into which they appeared to have fallen by entering that defile, he could intercept them. He believed them now entirely in his power, the mountain chain being on one side, the sea on the other, so that, if he pursued them in the rear, escape seemed impossible.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 30 THE RED SEA DELIVERANCE, Exodus 14.
THE RED SEA DELIVERANCE, Exodus 14.
2, 3. That they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth — The Hebrews were now at Etham, near the head of the Gulf, whence the direct route to Palestine would be northeast, by way of the plain of Philistia, and the route to Mount Sinai southeast, along the eastern shore of the Gulf; but instead of taking either of these direct routes to their destination, they turned southwest into the great plain west of the modern Suez, came down the west shore of the Gulf, and encamped north and east of Mount Attakah. Thus the Sea was in front and Mount Attakah on the right flank, and partially in the rear. When, then, the Egyptians came upon them from the northwest, either by the Bubastis or Belteis road, they seemed to be completely entrapped, especially if Pharaoh sent a small detachment around Mount Attakah to block the defile and thus cut off all retreat on the south. (See map of Goshen.)
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Pi-hahiroth… Migdol… Baal-zephon — These were all known places in the time of Moses, all traces of which seem to have been lost in the changes of these thousands of years, although the names are all suggestive of the localities. Migdol, tower, implies that this was a fortified spot, perhaps on one of the summits of Attakah, Baal-zephon (צפה, to watch) was probably a frontier watch-tower, and the name Pi-hahiroth, if, as generally supposed, an Egyptian word meaning the “place of reeds,” seems to have been a coast fortress or station. They are entangled — Probably the word is better rendered by bewildered. (Gesenius, De Wette, Knobel.) Their “turn” into this trap between the mountain and the sea seemed to arise from confusion and perplexity when they found themselves “on the edge” of the terrible desert.
The wilderness hath shut them in — Literally, closed upon them, like a trap.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31 2. turn back] viz. from the route past Etham,…
2. turn back] viz. from the route past Etham, straight on to Palestine. The ‘turn’ is the same as that mentioned by E in Exo_13:18. The motive assigned for it is however a different one: in Exo_13:17 fear lest the Israelites should shrink from facing the Philistines; here (v. 4), that Jehovah might get Himself glory by the overthrow of the Egyptians. See further the last note on v. 4.
Pi-haḥiroth, &c.] None of these places have been as yet identified: they consequently afford no help in determining the place where the passage of the Red Sea took place. M. Naville’s identification of Pi-haḥiroth, with Piḳereḥet, which he argues was on the SW. edge of Lake Timsâḥ, depends upon most precarious grounds (see p. 122). And no independent data whatever exist for determining the sites of Migdol and Baal-ẓìphön: their sites can only be fixed conjecturally, after the place of the passage has been already fixed upon other grounds.
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On the sites of Pi-haḥiroth, Migdol, and Baal-ẓĕphôn (Exo_14:2)
(1) Pi-haḥiroth. M. Naville identifies Pi-haḥiroth with the Egypt. Piḳereḥet or Piḳeḥeret. In lists of the ‘nomes’ of Egypt (Naville, Pithom, ed. 4, p. 24b, cf. pp. 6b, 8a), sometimes the temple of Pithom, sometimes that of Piḳereḥet or Piḳeḥeret, is mentioned as the principal sanctuary of the 8th nome of lower Egypt, in the ‘region of Thukke’ (Succoth: Exo_12:37); and in the Inscription of Ptolemy II, found by M. Naville at Pithom (ibid. p. 18b), this temple of Piḳeḥeret is mentioned as an abode of Osiris; and it is stated (l. 7; ibid. p. 19b) that Ptolemy, in his 6th year, went to Nefer ab (i.e., probably, the capital of the nome, Heroopolis), visited the temple of Piḳereḥet, and dedicated it to ‘his father Etôm (see on Exo_1:11), the great living god of Thukke, at the festival of the god.’ A temple of Osiris would be called by the Greeks a Serapeum; and as the Itinerary of Antonine mentions a Serapiu, 18 miles from Heroopolis, and 50 from Klysma (Kolzum, a little N. of the modern Suez), M. Naville identifies the temple of Piḳereḥet with this, and places it at the foot of Jebel Mariam, on the SW. edge of L. Timsâḥ, 12 miles E. of Pithom (p. 25; cf. p. 22a, and see the Map at the end of his volume). Not only, however, does Piḳereḥet not agree phonetically with Pi-haḥiroth as closely as could be desired; but the arguments by which M. Naville seeks to fix its site are anything but cogent: in fact (Griffith) such data as we possess all tend to shew that the temple of Piḳereḥet was the shrine of a serpentine god (Ḳerḥ(et) = ‘serpent’) in Pithom itself, and not 12 miles E. of it (cf. W. M. Müller in DB. ii. 1439, n. 5)1[139]
[139] The identification (Kn. al.) of Pi-haḥiroth with ‘Ajrûd (12 m. NW. of Suez) is quite out of the question: the phonetic equation implied is, as Di. justly objects, too ‘grässlich’ (‘frightful’).
(2) Migdol is a Heb. word meaning tower; and in the Egypt, form Mektol occurs frequently in the inscriptions; but the situation of these ‘towers’ is mostly either uncertain, or unsuited to the present context1[140]. There is however one which, if the Israelites really crossed the sea at or near L. Timsâḥ, may be the ‘Migdol’ here mentioned. In the reign of Merenptah’s successor, Seti II, an officer who had been sent to overtake two fugitive slaves tells us that he followed them first to the sgr (fortified enclosure) of Thukke (see on Exo_12:37), then, turning to the S., to the khetem, or castle (see on Exo_13:20), of Thukke, and afterwards to ‘the northern wall of the mektol of Seti’ (see Authority and Archaeology, p. 60f.; W. Max Müller, Migdol in EB.)2[141] This mektol must certainly have been somewhere E. of Thukke (or Pithom): it might therefore well be near L. Timsâḥ, and so would fulfil all conditions for those assuming that the ‘sea’ which the Israelites crossed was a northern extension of the Gulf of Suez, at a point a little S. of this lake.
[140] The Migdol of Eze_29:10; Eze_30:6, mentioned as a frontier-city of Egypt (render each time as RVm.), is probably the Magdolo of the Itin. Anton., 12 m. S. of Pelusium: but this is far too N. for the present ‘Migdol’. See Migdol in EB.
[141] The ‘khetem which is in Thukke near the lakes of Pithom’ (L. Timsâḥ and the Bitter Lakes?) is mentioned also in another inscription: see Auth. and Arch. p. 59.
(3) The site of Baal-ẓĕphôn is quite unknown; all that can be said of it is that as the Israelites were to encamp over against it, i.e. (as we should now say) opposite to it, it will have been on the Asiatic side of the sea, opposite to Migdol (wherever ‘Migdol’ was).
The name ‘Ba‘al-ẓephon’ is interesting. We know that there were many local Baals (Ba‘al of Lebanon, of Tarsus, &c.), some of whom gave their names to places (as ‘Ba‘al of Peor’). Ba‘al-ẓephon either means ‘Baal of the North,’ or is a combination of Baal with the Phoen. god Ẓaphon (Rel. Sem.2[142], p. 95); cf. Baal-Gad. We know, now, from a treaty between Esarhaddon (b.c. 681–668) and the Phoenicians, that there was a Tyrian god, bearing the same name, viz. Baal-ṣapûna (KAT.3[143] 357), and also, from the annals of Tiglath-pileser and Sargon (ib. p. 479), that there was a mountain Ba’li-ṣapûnah, evidently so named from this deity. The place, Ba‘al-ẓephon, no doubt, either was, or had been, a sanctuary of the same deity. In Egypt itself, also, among the deities worshipped at Memphis, mention is made of a goddess Ba‘alath-ẓaphon (EB. s.v. Baal-zephon; W. M. Mülller, As. u. Eur. 315), who may have had some connexion with the corresponding male deity.
[142] W. R. Smith, The Religion of the Semites, ed. 2, 1894.
[143] Die Keilinschriften und das A T., 1903, by H. Zimmern (pp. 345–653) and H. Winckler (pp. 1–342).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31 (2) Speak unto the children of Israel, that they…
XIV.
THE PURSUIT BY PHARAOH AND THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.
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(2) Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn.—The march of the Israelites had been hitherto almost due south-east. They had reached the edge of the desert (Exo_13:20), near the head of the Bitter Lakes. If this direction had been maintained, their next day’s march would have taken them out of Egypt into the “wilderness of Etham”—a desolate tract, in which there was no water, and probably scarcely any herbage. The Bitter Lakes would have been upon their right hand, and, so far as the Egyptians were concerned, they would have been in safety. But at this point an express command was given them to “turn.” Kaiisch, Rosenmüller, and others understand this as a command to “return,” or “retrace their steps;” but this is clearly not what was intended, since their march was to bring them to “the sea,” which they had not reached previously. The question arises, What sea? Brugsch suggests the Mediterranean; but it is against this that the Mediterranean has not yet been mentioned in Exodus, and that, when mentioned, it is not as “the sea,” but as “the sea of the Philistines” (Exo_23:31). “The sea” of this verse can scarcely be different from “the Red Sea” of Exo_13:18, the only sea previously mentioned by the writer. To reach this sea it was necessary that they should deflect their course to the right, from south-east to south, so keeping within the limits of Egypt, and placing the Bitter Lakes on their left hand.
Pi-hahiroth . . . Migdol . . . Baal-zephon.—These places cannot be identified. They were Egyptian towns or villages of no importance, near the head of the Gulf of Suez, situated on its western shores. The names nearest to Pi-hahiroth in Egyptian geography are Pehir and Pehuret. Migdol would, in Egyptian, be Maktal; and there was an Egyptian town of that name near Pelusium, which, however, cannot be intended in this place. Baal-zephon was probably a Semitic settlement, which had received its name from some worshippers of the god Baal. Eastern Egypt contained many such settlements. The accumulation of names indicates an accurate acquaintance with Egyptian topography, such as no Israelite but one who had accompanied the expedition is likely to have possessed.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Exodus 14
Exodus 14
"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." (Ps. 107: 23, 24) How true is this! and yet our coward hearts do so shrink from those "great waters!" We prefer carrying on our traffic in the shallows, and, as a result, we fail to see "the works" and "wonders" of our God; for these can only be seen and known "in the deep."
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It is in the day of trial and difficulty that the soul experiences something of the deep and untold blessedness of being able to count on God. Were all to go on smoothly, this would not be so. It is not in gliding along the surface of a tranquil lake that the reality of the Master’s presence is felt; but actually when the tempest roars, and the waves roll over the ship. The Lord does not hold out to us the prospect of exemption from trial and tribulation; quite the opposite: He tells us we shall have to meet both the one and the other; but He promises to be with us in them; and this is infinitely better. God’s presence in the trial is much better than exemption from the trial. The sympathy of His heart with us is sweeter far than the power of His hand for us. The Master’s presence with His faithful servants, while passing through the furnace, was better far than the display of His power to keep them out of it. (Dan. 3) We would frequently desire to be allowed to pass on our way without trial, but this would involve serious loss. The Lord’s presence is never so sweet as in moments of appalling difficulty.
Thus it was in Israel’s case, as recorded in this chapter. They were brought into an overwhelming difficulty. They are called to "do business in great waters." "They are at their wit’s end." Pharaoh, repenting himself of having let them go out of his land, determines to make one desperate effort to recover them. "And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them....... And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid; and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord." Here was a deeply-trying scene - one in which human effort could avail nothing. As well might they have attempted to put back with a straw the ocean’s mighty tide, as seek to extricate themselves by ought that they could do. The sea was before them, Pharaoh’s hosts behind them, and the mountains around them. And all this, be it observed, permitted and ordered of God. He had marked out their position before "Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon." Moreover, He permitted Pharaoh to come upon them, And why? Just to display Himself in the salvation of His people, and the total overthrow of their enemies. "To him that divided the Red Sea into parts; for his mercy endureth for ever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it; for his mercy endureth for ever: but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for his mercy endureth for ever." (Ps. 136)
There is not so much as a single position in all the desert-wanderings of God’s redeemed, the boundaries of which are not marked off, with studious accuracy, by the hand of unerring wisdom and infinite love. The special bearings and peculiar influences of each position are carefully arranged. The Pi-hahiroths and the Migdols are all ordered with immediate reference to the moral condition of those whom God is conducting through the windings and labyrinths of the wilderness, and also to the display of His own character. Unbelief may ofttimes suggest the enquiry, "why is it thus?" God knows why; and He will, without doubt, reveal the why, whenever the revelation would promote His glory and His people’s good. How often do we feel disposed to question as to the why and the wherefore of our being placed in such and such circumstances! How often do we perplex ourselves as to the reason of our being exposed to such and such trials! How much better to bow our heads in meek subjection, and say, ’it is well,’ and ’it shall be well’ When God fixes our position for us, we may rest assured it is a wise and salutary one; and even when we foolishly and wilfully choose a position for ourselves, He most graciously overrules our folly, and causes the influences of our self-chosen circumstances to work for our spiritual benefit.
It is when the people of God are brought into the greatest straits and difficulties, that they are favoured with the finest displays of God’s character and actings; and for this reason He ofttimes leads them into a trying position, in order that He may the more markedly show Himself. He could have conducted Israel through the Red Sea, and far beyond the reach of Pharaoh’s hosts, before ever the latter had started from Egypt; but that would not have so fully glorified His own name, or so entirely confounded the enemy, upon whom He designed to "get him honour." We too frequently lose sight of this great truth, and the consequence is that our hearts give way in the time of trial. If we could only look upon a difficult crisis as an occasion of bringing out, on our behalf, the sufficiency of divine grace, it would enable us to preserve the balance of our souls, and to glorify God, even in the deepest waters.
We feel disposed, it may be, to marvel at Israel’s language, on the occasion now before us. We may feel at a loss to account for it; but the more we know of our own evil hearts of unbelief, the more we shall see how marvellously like them we are. They would seem to have forgotten the recent display of divine power on their behalf. They had seen the gods of Egypt judged, and the power of Egypt laid prostrate beneath the stroke of Jehovah’s omnipotent hand. They had seen the iron chain of Egyptian bondage riven, and the furnace quenched by the same hand. All these things they had seen, and yet the moment a dark cloud appeared upon their horizon, their confidence gave way, their hearts failed, and they gave utterance to their unbelieving murmurings in the following language: 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! ......It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness." (Ver. 11, 12) Thus is "blind unbelief," ever, "sure to err, and scan God’s ways in vain." This unbelief is the same in all ages. It led David, in an evil hour, to say, "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." (1 Sam. 27: 1) And how did it turn out? Saul fell on Mount Gilboa; and David’s throne was established for ever. Again, it led Elijah the Tishbite, in a moment of deep depression, to flee for his life, from the wrathful threatenings of Jezebel. How did it turn out? Jezebel was dashed to pieces on the pavement, and Elijah was taken in a chariot of fire to heaven.
So it was with Israel in their very first moment of trial. They really thought that the Lord had taken such pains to deliver them out of Egypt merely to let them die in the wilderness. They imagined that they had been preserved by the blood of the paschal lamb, in order that they might be buried in the wilderness. Thus it is that unbelief ever reasons. It leads us to interpret God in the presence of the difficulty, instead of interpreting the difficulty in the presence of God. Faith gets behind the difficulty, and there finds God, in all His faithfulness, love, and power. It is the believer’s privilege ever to be in the presence of God. He has been introduced thither by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing should be suffered to take him thence. The place itself he never can lose, inasmuch as his Head and Representative, Christ, occupies it on His behalf. But although he cannot lose the thing itself, he can, very easily, lose all enjoyment of it, the experience and power of it. Whenever his difficulties come between his heart and the Lord, he is, evidently, not enjoying the Lord’s presence, but suffering in the presence of his difficulties. Just as when a cloud comes between us and the sun, it robs us, for the time, of the enjoyment of his beams. It does not prevent him from shining, it merely hinders our enjoyment of him. Exactly so is it when we allow trials and sorrows, difficulties and perplexities, to hide from our souls the bright beams of our Father’s countenance, which ever shine, with changeless lustre, in the face of Jesus Christ. There is no difficulty too great for our God; yea, the greater the difficulty, the more room there is for Him to act in His proper character, as the God of all power and grace. No doubt, Israel’s position, in the opening of our chapter, was a deeply trying one - to flesh and blood perfectly overwhelming. But, then, the Maker of heaven and earth was there, and they had but to use Him.
Yet, alas! my reader, how speedily we fail when trial arises! These sentiments sound very nicely on the ear, and look very well upon paper; and, blessed be God, they are divinely true but, then, the thing is to practise them, when opportunity offers. It is in the practice of them that their power and blessedness are really proved. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." (John 7: 17)
"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." (Ver. 13, 14) Here is the first attitude which faith takes in the presence of a trial. "Stand still." This is impossible to flesh and blood. All who know in any measure, the restlessness of the human heart, under anticipated trial and difficulty, will be able to form some conception of what is involved in standing still. Nature must be doing something. It will rush hither and thither. It would fain have some hand in the matter. And although it may attempt to justify and sanctify its worthless doings, by bestowing upon them the imposing and popular title of "a legitimate use of means," yet are they the plain and positive fruits of unbelief which always shuts out God, and sees nought save the dark cloud of its own creation. Unbelief creates or magnifies difficulties, and then sets us about removing them by our own bustling and fruitless activities, which, in reality, do but raise a dust around us, which prevents our seeing God’s salvation.
Faith, on the contrary, raises the soul above the difficulty, straight to God Himself, and enables one to "stand still." We gain nothing by our restless and anxious efforts. "We cannot make one hair white or black," nor "add one cubit to our stature." What could Israel do at the Red Sea? Could they dry it up? Could they level the mountains? Could they annihilate the hosts of Egypt Impossible. There they were, enclosed within an impenetrable wall of difficulties, in view of which nature could but tremble and feel its own perfect impotency. But this was just the time for God to act. When unbelief is driven from the scene, then God can enter; and, in order to get a proper view of His actings, we must "stand still." Every movement of nature is, so far as it goes, a positive hindrance to our perception and enjoyment of divine interference on our behalf.
This is true of us in every single stage of our history. It is true of us as sinners when, under the uneasy sense of sin upon the conscience, we are tempted to resort to our own doings, in order to obtain relief. Then, truly, we must "stand still" in order to "see the salvation of God." For what could we do in the matter of making an atonement for sin? Could we have stood with the Son of God upon the cross? Could we have accompanied Him down into the "horrible pit and the miry clay?" Could we have forced our passage upward to that eternal rock on which, in resurrection, He has taken His stand? Every right mind will at once pronounce the thought to be a daring blasphemy. God is alone in redemption; and as for us, we have but to "stand still and see the salvation of God." The very fact of its being God’s salvation proves that man has nought to do in it.
The same is true of us, from the moment we have entered upon our Christian career. In every fresh difficulty, be it great or small, our wisdom is to stand still - to cease from our own works, and find our sweet repose in God’s salvation. Nor can we make any distinction as to difficulties. We cannot say that there are some trifling difficulties which we ourselves can compass; while there are others in which nought save the hand of God can avail. No; all are alike beyond us. We are as little able to change the colour of a hair as to remove a mountain - to form a blade of grass as to create a world. All are alike to us, and all are alike to God. We have only, therefore, in confiding faith, to cast ourselves on Him who "humbleth himself (alike) to behold the things that are in heaven and on earth." We sometimes find ourselves carried triumphantly through the heaviest trials, while at other times, we quail, falter, and break down under the most ordinary dispensations. Why is this? Because, in the former, we are constrained to roll our burden over on the Lord; whereas, in the latter, we foolishly attempt to carry it ourselves. The Christian is, in himself, if he only realised it, like an exhausted receiver, in which a guinea and a feather have equal moments.
"The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Precious assurance How eminently calculated to tranquillise the spirit in view of the most appalling difficulties and dangers! The Lord not only places Himself between us and our sins, but also between us and our circumstances. By doing the former, He gives us peace of conscience; by doing the latter, He gives us peace of heart. That the two things are perfectly distinct, every experienced Christian knows. Very many have peace of conscience, who have not Peace of heart. They have, through grace and by faith, found Christ, in the divine efficacy of His blood, between them and all their sins; but they are not able, in the same simple way, to realise Him as standing, in His divine wisdom, love, and power, between them and their circumstances. This makes a material difference in the practical condition of the soul, as well as in the character of one’s testimony. Nothing tends more to glorify the name of Jesus than that quiet repose of spirit which results from having Him between us and everything that could be a matter of anxiety to our hearts. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee."
But some feel disposed to ask the question, "Are we not to do anything?" This may be answered by asking another, namely, what can we do? All who really know themselves must answer, nothing. If, therefore, we can do nothing, had we not better "stand still" If the Lord is acting for us, had we not better stand back? Shall we run before Him? Shall we busily intrude ourselves upon His sphere of action! Shall we come in His way? There can be no possible use in two acting, when one is so perfectly competent to do all. No one would think of bringing a lighted candle to add brightness to the sun at mid-day: and yet the man who would do so might well be accounted wise, in comparison with him who attempts to assist God by his bustling officiousness.
However, when God, in His great mercy, opens the way, faith can walk therein. It only ceases from man’s way in order to walk in God’s. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." It is only when we have learnt to "stand still" that we are able effectually to go forward. To attempt the latter, until we have learnt the former, is sure to issue in the exposure of our folly and weakness. It is, therefore, true wisdom, in all times of difficulty and perplexity, to "stand still" - to wait only upon God, and He will, assuredly, open a way for us; and then we can peacefully we happily "go forward." There is no uncertainty when God makes a way for us; but every self-devised path must prove a path of doubt and hesitation. The unregenerate man may move along with great apparent firmness and decision in his own ways; but one of the most distinct elements, in the new creation, is self distrust, and the element which answers thereto is confidence in God. It is when our eyes have seen God’s salvation that we can walk therein; but this can never be distinctly seen until we have been brought to the end of our own poor doings.
There is peculiar force and beauty in the expression, "see the salvation of God." The very fact of our being called to "see" God’s salvation, proves that the salvation is a complete one. It teaches that salvation is a thing wrought out and revealed by God, to be seen and enjoyed by us. It is not a thing made up partly of God’s doing, and partly of man’s. Were it so, it could not be called God’s salvation. In order to be His, it must be wholly divested of everything pertaining to man. The only possible effect of human efforts is to raise a dust which obscures the view of God’s salvation.
"Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward." Moses himself seems to have been brought to a stand, as appears from the Lord’s question, "Wherefore criest thou to me?" Moses could tell the people to "stand still and see the salvation of God," while his own spirit was giving forth its exercises in an earnest cry to God. However, there is no use in crying when we ought to be acting; just as there is no use in acting when we ought to be waiting. Yet such is, ever, our way. We attempt to move forward when we ought to stand still, and we stand still when we ought to move forward. In Israel’s case, the question might spring up in the heart, "whither are we to go?’ To all appearance there is an insurmountable barrier in the way of any movement forward. How were they to go through the sea? This was the point. Nature never could solve this question. But we may rest assured that God never gives a command without, at the same time, communicating the power to obey. The real condition of the heart may be tested by the command; but the soul that is, by grace, disposed to obey, receives power from above to do so. When Christ commanded the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth, the man might naturally have said, "How can I stretch forth an arm which hangs dead by my side?" But he did not raise any question whatever, for with the command, and from the same source, came the power to obey.
Thus, too, in Israel’s case, we see that with the command to go forward came the provision of grace. "But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." Here was the path of faith. The hand of God opens the way for us to take the first step, and this is all that faith ever God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I get light for the next. This keeps the heart in abiding dependence upon God. "By faith they Passed through the Red Sea as by dry Land." It is evident that the sea was not divided throughout, at once. Had it been so, it would have been "sight" and not "faith." It does not require faith to begin a journey when I can see all the way through; but to begin when I can merely see the first step, this is faith. The sea opened as Israel moved forward, so that for every fresh step, they needed to be cast upon God. Such was the path along which the redeemed of the Lord moved, under His own conducting hand. They passed through the dark waters of death, and found these very waters to be "a wall unto them, on their right hand and on their left."
The Egyptians could not move in such a path as this. They moved on because they saw the way open before them: with them it was sight, and not faith - "Which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." When people assay to do what faith alone can accomplish, they only encounter defeat and confusion. The path along which God calls His people to walk is one which nature can never tread - "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 15: 50) Neither can it walk in the ways of God. Faith is the great characteristic principle of God’s kingdom, and faith alone can enable us to walk in God’s ways. "Without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11) It glorifies God exceedingly when we move on with Him, as it were, blindfold. It proves that we have more confidence in His eyesight than in our own. If I know that God is looking out for me, I may well close my eyes, and move on in holy calmness and stability. In human affairs we know that when there is a sentinel or watchman at his post, others can sleep quietly. How much more may we rest in perfect security, when we know that He who neither slumbers nor sleeps has His eye upon us, and His everlasting arms around us!
"And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these; so that the one came not near the other all the night." (Ver. 19, 20) Jehovah placed Himself right between Israel and the enemy - this was protection indeed. Before ever Pharaoh could touch a hair of Israel’s head, he should make his way through the very pavilion of the Almighty - yea, through the Almighty Himself. Thus it is that God ever places Himself between His people and every enemy, so that "no weapon formed against them can prosper." He has placed Himself between us and our sins; and it is our happy privilege to find Him between us and every one and every thing that could be against us. This is the true way in which to find both peace of heart and peace of conscience. The believer may institute a diligent and anxious search for his sins, but he cannot find them. Why? Because God is between him and them. He has cast all our sins behind His back; while, at, the same time, He sheds forth upon us the light of His reconciled countenance.
In the same manner, the believer may look for his difficulties, and not find them, because God is between him and them. If, therefore, the eye, instead of resting on our sins and sorrows, could rest only upon Christ, it would sweeten many a bitter cup, and enlighten many a gloomy hour. But one finds constantly that nine-tenths of our trials and sorrows are made up of anticipated or imaginary evils, which only exist in our own disordered, because unbelieving, minds. May my reader know the solid peace both of heart and conscience which results from having Christ, in all His fullness, between him and all his sins, and all his sorrows.
It is, at once, most solemn and interesting to note the double aspect of the "pillar," in this chapter. "It was a cloud and darkness" to the Egyptians, but "it gave light by night" to Israel. How like the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! Truly that cross has a double aspect, likewise. It forms the foundation of the believer’s peace; and, at the same time, seals the condemnation of a guilty world. The self-same blood which purges the believer’s conscience and gives him perfect peace, stains this earth and consummates its guilt. The very mission of the Son of God which strips the world of its cloak, and leaves it wholly without excuse, clothes the Church with a fair mantle of righteousness, and fills her month with ceaseless praise. The very same Lamb who will terrify, by His unmitigated wrath, all tribes and classes of earth, will lead, by His gentle hand, His blood-bought flock, through the green pastures, and beside the still waters for ever. (Compare Rev. 6: 15-17, with Rev. 7: 13-17)
The close of our chapter shows us Israel triumphant on the shore of the Red Sea, and Pharaoh’s hosts submerged beneath its waves. The fears of the former and the boastings of the latter had both alike been proved utterly groundless. Jehovah’s glorious work had annihilated both the one and the other. The same waters which formed a wall for God’s redeemed, formed a grave for Pharaoh. Thus it is ever: those who walk by faith, find a path to walk in, while all who assay to do so find a grave. This is a solemn truth which is not, in any wise, weakened by the fact that Pharaoh was acting in avowed and positive hostility to God, when he "assayed" to pass through the Red Sea. It will ever be found true that all who attempt to imitate faith’s actings will be confounded. Happy are they who are enabled, however feebly, to walk by faith. They are moving along a path of unspeakable blessedness - a path which, though it may be marked by failure and infirmity, is, nevertheless, "begun, continued, and ended in God." Oh! that we may all enter more fully into the divine reality, the calm elevation, and the holy independence of this path.
We ought not to turn from this fruitful section of our book without a reference to 1 Cor. 10 in which we have an allusion to "the cloud and the sea." "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." (Ver. 1, 2) There is much deep and precious instruction for the Christian in this passage. The apostle goes on to say, "now these things were our types," thus furnishing us with a divine warrant for interpreting Israel’s baptism "in the sea and in the cloud," in a typical way; and, assuredly, nothing could be more deeply significant or practical. It was as a people thus baptised that they entered upon their wilderness journey, for which provision was made in "the spiritual meat" and "spiritual drink," provided by the hand of love. In other words, they were, typically, a people dead to Egypt and all pertaining thereto. The cloud and the sea were to them what the cross and grave of Christ are to us. The cloud secured them from their enemies; the sea separated them from Egypt: the cross, in like manner, shields us from all that could be against us, and we stand at heaven’s side of the empty tomb of Jesus. Here we commence our wilderness journey. Here we begin to taste the heavenly manna and to drink of the streams which emanate from "that spiritual Rock," while, as a pilgrim people, we make our way onward to that land of rest of the which God has spoken to us.
I would further add here, that my reader should seek to understand the difference between the Red Sea and Jordan. They both have their antitype in the death of Christ. But, in the former, we see separation from Egypt; in the latter, introduction into the land of Canaan. The believer is not merely separated from this present evil world, by the cross of Christ; but he is quickened out of the grave of Christ, "raised up together, and made to sit together with Christ, in the heavenlies." (Eph. 2: 5, 6) Hence, though surrounded by the things of Egypt, he is, as to his actual experience, in the wilderness; while, at the same time, he is borne upward, by the energy of faith, to that place where Jesus sits, at the right hand of God. Thus, the believer is not merely "forgiven all trespasses;" but actually associated with a risen Christ in heaven. He is not merely saved by Christ, but linked with Him, for ever. Nothing short of this could either satisfy God’s affections or actualise His purposes, in reference to the Church.
Reader, do we understand these things? Do we believe them? Are we realising them? Do we manifest the power of them? Blessed be the grace that has made them unalterably true with respect to every member of the body of Christ, whether it be an eye or an eye-lash, a hand or a foot. Their truth, therefore, does not depend upon our manifestation, our realisation, or our understanding, but upon "THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST," which has cancelled all our guilt and laid the foundation of all God’s counsels respecting us. Here is true rest for every broken heart and every burdened conscience.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31 Vers. 1-4. THE DIRECTION OF THE JOURNEY CHANGED. Hitherto…
Vers. 1-4. THE DIRECTION OF THE JOURNEY CHANGED. Hitherto the march of the Israelites had been to the south-east. Another day"s journey in this direction would have taken them beyond the limits of Egypt, into the desert region east of the Bitter Lakes, which was dry, treeless, and waterless. In this tract there would have been but scant nourishment for their flocks and herds, and absolutely no water for themselves, unless it had been obtained by miracle. God therefore changed the direction of their route from south-east to due south, and made them take a course by which they placed the Bitter Lakes on their left hand, and so remained within the limits of Egypt, in a district fairly well watered, but shut off from the wilderness by the Bitter Lakes and the northern prolongation of the Gulf of Suez, with which they were connected. This route suited the immediate convenience of the host; and, having no suspicion of any hostile movement on the part of the Egyptians, they not unnaturally made no objection to it. It had, however, the disadvantage, in case of a hostile movement, of shutting them in between their assailants on the one hand, and the sea upon the other; and this circumstance seems to have led Pharaoh to make his pursuit.
Vers. 1 4. God"s trials of His faithful ones.
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All hitherto had gone well with the departing Israelites. The Egyptians indeed had thrust them out had hurried their departure had felt insecure till they were beyond the borders. But they had freely given of their treasures to speed the parting guests, and had in every way facilitated their setting forth. The multitude, vast as it was, had in no respect suffered as yet; it had proceeded in good military order, (Exo_13:18) had found abundant pasture for its flocks and herds, and was now on the very verge of the desert which alone separated it from Canaan. Egypt was behind them; freedom and safety were in front; no foe forbade their entrance into the vast expanse which met their gaze as they looked eastward, stretching away to the distant horizon of hot haze, behind which lay the Promised Land. The question, how they were to support themselves in the desert had not perhaps occurred to them as yet. They had come out provisioned with bread for certain number of days, and probably with many sacks of grain laden upon their asses. If the spring rains had been heavy, as is likely to have been the case, since in Egypt there had been both rain and hail, (Exo_9:23-33) the desert itself would have been covered at this season with a thin coat of verdure and thickly jewelled with bright and. fragrant flowers" (Eothen, p. 180). The hearts of many were, no doubt, bounding at the thought of quite quitting Egypt at last, and entering on the absolute freedom of the illimitable desert. But at this point God interposed. Speak unto the children of Israel that they turn, and encamp before Pihahiroth" Egypt is not yet to be quitted; they are still to skirt it to remain among Egyptian cities to turn away from Palestine to interpose a sea between themselves and Asia to pursue a route which leads into one of the most unproductive portions of the whole African continent. Sore must the trial have been to those who had knowledge of the localities dark and inscrutable must have seemed the ways of Providence. What was the Almighty intending? How could Canaan ever be reached if they turned their backs on it? Whither was God taking them? Even apart from any pursuit by Pharaoh, the situation must have been perplexing in the extreme, and must have severely exercised the more thoughtful. What then must not the universal feeling have been, when it appeared that the monarch, informed of their movements, had started in pursuit? What but that they were God-forsaken or, worse, led by God himself into a trap from which there was no escape? Readily intelligible is the bitterness which showed itself in their address to MosesBecause there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us?" And so God"s people his faithful and elect children at all times and under all circumstances, are subject to severe trials. These come upon them either
I FOR THEIR MORAL IMPROVEMENT. The trial of our faith worketh patience," and God wills that patience should have her perfect work," that his saints may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing". (Jam_1:3, Jam_1:4) Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. " Difficulties, dangers, temptations, perplexities, disappointments, constitute a moral discipline which is to most men absolutely needful for the due training and elevation of their moral characters. By such trials the dross is purged away from them the pure metal remains. Their love of God and trust in God are tested, and by being tested strengthened. Tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed. " The man who is perfect in each good word and work has in almost every case passed through a furnace of affliction to attain his perfection.
II FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. Gods glory is often shown forth in the sight of men most conspicuously by the trials of his faithful ones. In Israel"s case this was brought about by miracle. But the rule holds good in the ordinary course of human affairs equally. What has so shown forth the glory of God in the past as the endurance of trials, insults, torments, death, by his martyrs? What even now so impresses men with the reality of religion, as suffering on account of the truth? Afflictions, crosses, disappointments, patiently borne, not only strengthen our own spirits, but are a witness for God in a world that for the most part disregards him, and. to a considerable extent get him honour.
III FROM THE NECESSITY OF THE CASE, BECAUSE GODS WAYS ARE NOT AS OUR WAYS. If the children of Israel could have foreseen that God would divide the Red Sea for them and lead them through it, the route southwards to the point of crossing would have been seen to be the fittest and best, securing as it did the continuance of water and of forage, and avoiding one of the worst parts of the wilderness. But it was impossible for them to surmise this; and hence their perplexity, alarm, and anger against Moses. In our ordinary trials it often happens that our inability to understand how we are being dealt with lies at the root of our sufferings. The disappointment which most vexes us may be a necessary preliminary to the success of which we have no thought. The thorn in the flesh" may bring us to a higher moral condition than we should have reached without it. God"s ways are in the deep, and his paths in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known. " He deals with us as he sees to be best, and we cannot see that so it is best. He has surprises in reserve for us, sometimes as little looked for as the division of the Red Sea by the Israelites. Hence, if in cases of this kind we would suffer less, we must trust God more; we must give ourselves wholly up to him, place ourselves in his hands, accept whatever he sends as assuredly, whether we can see it or not, what is fittest for us.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-5. The command to encamp by the sea.
These verses introduce the narrative of what the Lord did in the Red, (Num_21:14) when his people passed through as by dry land; which the Egyptians, assaying to do, were drowned ". (Heb_11:29) This crossing of the Red Sea was no after-thought. God had it in view when he turned aside the path of the children of Israel from the direct route, and ordered them to encamp before Pi-hahiroth, near the northern end of the gulf. His design in this event was to give a new and signal display of his Jehovah attributes, in the destruction of Pharaoh"s host (ver. 4), and in working a great salvation for his Church. By the events of the Red Sea, he would be shown to be at once a God of mercy and judgment; (Isa_30:18) Supreme Ruler in heaven and in earth; (Psa_135:6) disposing events, great and small, according to his good pleasure, and for the glory of his name; making even the wrath of man instrumental to the accomplishment of his purposes. (Psa_76:10) Consider
I THE MYSTERIOUS TURN IN THE ROUTE. The command was to turn to the south, and encamp between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-Zephon (ver. 2). This route was
1. Not necessarily an arbitrary one. We need not suppose that God brought the Israelites into this perplexity shutting them up between the sea and the mountains, simply for the purpose of showing how easily he could again extricate them. The choice of routes was not great.
(1) The way of the Philistines was blocked. (Exo_13:17)
(2) The way by the north of the Red Sea between it and the Bitter Lakes probably did not then exist. The Red Sea seems at that time to have extended much further north than it does at present.
(3) To go round by the upper end of the Lakes would have been to take the host far out of its way, besides exposing it to the risk of collision with outlying tribes.
(4) The remaining alternative was to march southwards, and ford the Red Sea. The route was, nevertheless
2. A mysterious and perplexing one. Pharaoh at once pronounced it a strategic blunder (ver. 3). Supposing the intention to be to cross the Red Sea, no one could hazard a conjecture as to how this was to be accomplished. Ordinary fords were out of the question for so vast a multitude. Hemmed in by the mountains, with an impassable stretch of water in front, and no way of escape from an enemy bearing down upon them from behind, the Egyptian king mighty, well judge their, situation to be a hopeless, one. Yet how strangely like the straits of life into which Gods people are sometimes led by following faithfully the guiding pillar of their duty; or into which, irrespective of their choice, Gods providence sometimes brings them! Observe, further,
3. No hint was given of how the difficulty was to be solved. This is God"s way. Thus does he test his people"s faith, and form them to habits of obedience. He does not show them everything at once. Light is given for present duty, but for nothing beyond. Fain would we know, when difficulties crowd upon us, how our path is to be opened; but this God does not reveal. He would have us leave the future to him, and think only of the duty of the moment. Time enough, when the first command has been obeyed, to say what is to be done next. We walk by faith, not by sight". (2Co_5:7)
II GOD"S ENDS IN LEADING THEM BY THIS ROUTE. God had ends. He was not guiding the children of Israel blindly. His knowledge, his purpose, no less than his presence, go before his saints, as guiding pillars, to prepare places for them. God had a definite purpose, not only in leading the people by this route, but in planting them down at this particular spot between Migdol and the sea. His ends embraced
1. The humiliation of Pharaoh. That unhappy monarch was still hard in heart. He was torn with vain regrets at having let the people go. He had a disposition to pursue them. God would permit him to gratify that disposition. He would so arrange his providence as even to seem to invite him to do it. He would lure him into the snare he had prepared for him, and so would complete the judgment which the iniquity of Pharaoh and of his servants had moved him to visit upon Egypt. This was God"s hardening of Pharaoh"s heart (ver. 4). Note
(1) If God is not honoured by men, he will be honoured upon them (Scott).
(2) Retributive providence frequently acts by snaring men through the evil of their own hearts. Situations are prepared for them in which they fall a prey to the evil principles or dispositions which, in spite of warnings and of their own better knowledge, they have persisted in cherishing. They wish for something, and the opportunity is presented to them of gratifying their wish. They harbour an evil disposition (say lust, or dishonesty), when suddenly they find themselves in a situation in which, like a wild beast leaping from its covert, their evil nature springs out upon them and devours them. It was in this way that God spread his net for Pharaoh, and brought upon him swift destruction.
2. The education of Israel. The extremity of peril through which Israel was permitted to pass coupled with the sudden and marvellous deliverance which so unexpectedly turned their shadow of death into the morning ", (Amo_5:8) filling their mouth with laughter and their tongue with singing (Psa_126:1) while their pursuers were overwhelmed in the Red Sea, was fitted to leave a profound and lasting impression on their minds. It taught them
(1) That all creatures and agencies are at God"s disposal, and that his resources for the help of his Church, and for the discomfiture of his enemies, are absolutely unlimited. As said of Christ, even the winds and the sea obey him". (Mat_8:27)
(2) That the Lord knoweth, not only how to deliver the godly out of temptations," but also how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished". (2Pe_2:9) It was thus
(3) A rebuke to distrust, and a Powerful encouragement to faith.
3. The complete separation of Israel as a people to himself. Paul saysall our fathers Were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea". (1Co_10:2) Connect this with the spiritual significance of baptism. Baptism, especially as administered by immersion, figures dying to sin, and rising again to righteousness. (Rom_6:4) It is thus the analogue of the passage through the Red Sea, which was a symbolic death and resurrection of the hosts of Israel. By saving the people from the waves which engulfed their enemies, Jehovah had, as it were, purchased the nation a second time for himself, giving them life from the, dead. " The baptism of the sea was thus a sort of outward and visible sign" of the final termination of the connection with Egypt. Its waters were thereafter a silver streak" between the Israelites and the land of their former bondage, telling of a pursuer from whom their had been delivered, and of a new life on which they had entered. J.O.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-12. Israel stricken with terror by reason of a deliverance not yet completed.
It is plain that the Israelites, going out of Egypt. in such circumstances as they did, must have gone out in a state of great exhilaration, almost beside themselves with joy at such a complete reversal of all their past experiences at the hands of Pharaoh. Moreover we are assured in Exo_14:8 that they went out with a high hand. The power of God for the deliverance of Israel was manifested in great fulness. What he had done in the past, and especially in the recent past, if only well considered and kept in the mind, was sufficient to inspire trust, banish fear, and show the wisdom of most diligent obedience to every direction that he gave. Nevertheless in verse 10 we find this humiliating statement, they were sore afraid sore afraid, so soon after deliverance, and such a deliverance! Whence could their danger have come, and what could have made them so quickly to forget their God? These are the matters we have now to consider.
I CONSIDER WHAT THERE WAS TO EXPLAIN THE LOCAL POSITION WHICH PRODUCED THEIR FEAR. They were in an awkward and dangerous position from an ordinary point of view. That position cannot be more forciby indicated than in the words of Pharaoh himself. They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. " They were going into a cul-de-sac. Before them lay the sea; on either hand, as we imagine, rose high ground; it only needed that Pharaoh should come in at the rear and close them up altogether, then they would be compelled to surrender. How then had they come into this position? It was not through any ignorance or carelessness on the part of their leader. Any general leading an army into such a trap would have been deservedly put to death for gross incompetency. It was God who had brought them exactly here, and if the word trap" is to be mentioned, it was a trap with regard to Pharaoh and not with regard to Israel. The God who had led the Israelites out with a high hand, led them on with the pillar of cloud, and led them into the very position which, if they themselves had been consulted, was the last they would have chosen. It was not the only way God could have taken them, but it was the way in which, most effectually, speedily, and impressively, he could deliver them from Pharaoh. For God, of course, well knew that the deliverance of his people was not accomplished, simply because they had got out of Egypt. The exodus had been a miracle in many ways, and not least in this, that it had. compelled Pharaoh and his servants to act in contradiction to all the most dominating elements of their character. Just as afterwards in dealing with the waters of the Red Sea, God made the force of the wind to overcome the force of gravity; so he had already by another east wind, in the shape of the death of the firstborn, completely set aside for a night all the most settled habits of Egypt. These habits had stood up on the right hand and on the left, and made a broad and open way for Israel to go out of the land. But presently, immediately and according to the natural order, these habits resumed their former sway. What else was to be expected? It mattered not in what direction Israel took their flight. Pharaoh and his hosts, smarting with injured pride, panting for vengeance and recovery of lost treasure, would be after them. There was a void in Egypt because of the death of the firstborn, but after all the mothers would feel that void the most. There was another void by reason of the loss of all these slaves, these useful labourers, these accumulators of Egyptian wealth, and this void, we may be sure, was more operative in the vexation it produced than the loss of the first-born. It is a humiliating truth, but men, as a rule, can more easily bear the loss of kindred, even one so dear as the first-born, than the loss of fortune. A failure in business is more discomposing and fretting than a dozen bereavements, considered simply as bereavements; and thus it is certain that Pharaoh and his generals were very speedily in council as to the best way of securing the fugitives. While so engaged, the news comes to them of the direction in which the Israelites had gone. This news was the very thing to decide Pharaoh and make his preparations large and overwhelming, especially when God came to harden his heart to a greater pitch of stubbornness than it yet had reached. Either recapture or destruction seemed now certain. Therefore, seeing Pharaoh was now bound by the very force of the passions raging in his heart and the hearts of his people to follow Israel, it was well as soon as possible, to remove all danger to Israel consequent on this line of action. No good purpose was to be served either towards Israel or towards Pharaoh himself, by allowing him for any length of time, to harass their rear. A catastrophe of the Red Sea magnitude had to come, and the sooner it now came, the better. Israel had dangers enough in front and within; from Amalekites, Amorites, Canaanites, and all the rest of their opponents; from their own character, their own depravity, blindness of heart, sensuality, and idolatrous disposition. God does not allow all possible dangers to come upon us at once. Do not let us be so occupied, with the dangers that are present and pressing as to forget those which he has utterly swept out of the way, overwhelmed in a Red Sea, whence they will emerge against us no more for ever.
II CONSIDER WHAT THERE WAS TO EXCUSE AND EXPLAIN THE FEAR WHICH ISRAEL EXPRESSED. In itself this fear was indefensible. There was no ground for it in the nature of things. God had done nothing to produce fear; everything indeed, if only it could be rightly seen, to produce the contrary; everything to call forth the utmost reverence and obedience from every right-minded Israelite. He was now, even while the Israelites were entangled in the land, Jehovah as much as ever, the great I Am, leading Israel by a way which, though they knew it not, was the best way. But we must also look at things from Israel"s point of view; we must really remember what God really remembers, that men are dust, and that even when they have the greatest reasons for confidence, those reasons get hidden up, or even presented in such forbidding aspects as to make them powerful in producing unbelief. Our great adversary, who can make evil appear good also makes good appear evil. Look then at what there was in the state of things, to excuse the Israelites in being sore afraid.
1. The magnitude of Pharaoh"s preparations. In spite of all the crippling effects of the plague, he was able to muster a great array. Doubtless he had a big standing army, for chariots are not got ready at a moments notice. We may infer that he was a man who always had on hand some scheme of ambition and aggrandisement, and because the Israelites had long dwelt in his land, they knew all about the skill, valour and crushing force of the charioteers. Whatever strength there might be in the natural resources of Egypt they knew it well. When the unknown Caanan had to be faced, they gave Moses no rest, till spies were despatched to report on the land; but they needed no report of Egypt. The military strength of Pharaoh was only too deeply impressed on every mind.
2. There was the exasperation of a great loss. The people not only knew the strength with which Pharaoh came, but the spirit in which he came. He had lost 600, 000 men, with their flocks and herds, and all the choice spoils of Egypt, in the way of gold, silver and raiment. Then there was a further loss of population in the mixed multitude. There was everything to exasperate the despot, and not one thing to soothe his pride or lessen his calamities. If only he had failed in trying to get hold of a new possession, it would not have been so hard. But he had failed in keeping the old; he had gone through ten plagues, and yet lost his treasures after all. We may fear that only too many among the Israelites, had just that spirit of greed and grasping in their own hearts which would enable them to appreciate the spirit of Pharaohs pursuit.
3. There was the degrading effect of the long oppression in which the Israelites had been kept. The spirit of the slave comes out in the way they talk. These are not imaginary words put in their lips; the very touch of nature is in them. These are the language and conduct that reveal a real experience. The present generation, and one knows not how many generations before, had been born in servitude. They had not only been in servitude, but they had felt and acknowledged the bitter misery of it. And now the servitude was ended in due course. Freedom was a necessity, a blessing, and a glory to Israel; but they could not be made fit for it all at once. Jehovah could show signs and wonders in many ways; he could by one blow slay the first-born of Egypt and let the oppressed go free; but it required an altogether different power and method to infuse into the liberated the spirit and courage of freemen. Y.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART Vers. 1-9. Trial and Judgment.
I GOD LEADS INTO TRIAL BUT ASSURES Or VICTORY.
1. The command to turn and. shut themselves in between the wildernessand the sea. God leads us where troubles will assail us. Jesus was driven of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
(1) It proves us, and reveals needs which otherwise we might not have suspected. Our weaknesses are manifested.
(2) It reveals God. Through experiences of help his glory brightens for us.
1. The circumstances of God"s people are taken advantage of by their foes. Pharaoh imagined his time had now come. Earthly foes may strike at such a time; Satan surely will
2. The result will be God"s triumph over the foe, not the foes over us.
II THE WICKED CANNOT BE SAVED BY JUDGMENTS.
1. Terrors are soon forgotten. Repression of evil is not conversion. Sosoon as the repressive force ceases, evil reasserts its sway.
2. Justice done through fear only is regretted, not rejoiced in, by the doer. Why have we done this," etc.? As the dog returneth to his vomit.
3. Past lessons are forgotten. Pharaoh might have asked what armies coulddo against the God of Israel; yet he assembles his forces, never dreaming that they are only marshalled for destruction. Those who have known only the discipline of terror have not found salvation. They have only heard a cry to flee and seek salvation. To linger upon the way is to allow evil to overtake them and lead them again into captivity. U.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 30 Encamp before Pi-hahiroth.
Exo_14:1-4
Encamp before Pi-hahiroth.
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The good in the trying situations of life
I. That the good are often brought, by the providence of God, into the most trying situations in life (Exo_14:1). It is in the trying situations of life that we get the best revelations of the love and power of God. When men feel that they cannot help themselves, then God helps them. Thus they are humbled. They are brought to despair of creature aids. Then the promises become precious. The circumstances of life are all divinely ordered with immediate reference to the moral culture of the good; the Israelites were taught a great lesson before Pi-hahiroth. When God fixes our position, it is sure to be a salutary one, even though it be perplexing.
II. That the trying circumstances into which the good are providentially brought are vigilantly observed by the wicked (Exo_14:3). Satan watches the best opportunity of frustrating the march of the soul into freedom. But the wicked often misinterpret the providence of God in reference to the good, and hence pursue their plans to their own ruin.
III. That the trying situations into which the good are brought are designed ultimately to enhance the glory of God and the retribution of wicked men. I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, That the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. Lessons:
1. Rest patiently in the circumstances in which God has placed you.
2. God is greater than all the hindrances to your true freedom.
3. Follow God, even though it be through the great waters. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
In a fix
I was led to take this subject from seeing a sheet almanac upon which was painted a boy who had got his satchel full of apples, which, I presume, he had been stealing. He was hanging by the tips of his fingers from the top of a wall, and just above the wall on the other side was the owner, while at the bottom was a big bulldog, chained to a kennel--he could not go up for fear of the owner, he dare not drop down for fear of the dog; and it said at the bottom, In a fix. It would be very well for us if that represented the only fix in which we had ever been. I might talk for a considerable time in a general way about men who have been in a fix, but now I want you to give me your attention while I try to point out to you a nation that was once in a fix, and, if I can, teach some lesson, s that may be of use to you and me. There they are--the river before them, rocks on either hand, and the Egyptians behind them. They could not make boats to cross the sea; they could not fly; and were unable to fight--they had not the skill, neither the weapons. The most remarkable thing is this, that God, who had sent Moses to deliver them, had brought them into this very position! Observe, they were in the path of duty--doing just as He had commanded them; suggesting to us the thought that if we would serve our God faithfully, sometimes we may find ourselves in a fix. There will be times when dark clouds will gather, and we cannot see our way, and we shall feel inclined to give up in despair. But wait a bit. If God has brought them into this fix, He will bring them out of it. There they are; and, see! Pharaoh is following. He did not let the people go until he had been compelled; and, like a man shamed out of half-a-crown for some charitable purpose, he repented afterwards. He went after them designing their ruin, but God designed to ruin him. He designed to put the Lords people into a fix, and the Lord--who always protects His own--designed to fix him. And then comes this thought: That what seems to tend to our ruin is often over-ruled to our good. A great many years ago there used to be the old stage coach, and in those days they were the chief means of travelling. I have heard some old men say what a terrible thing it was to take a long journey. One day the locomotive was invented; they were going to take goods and people in such quantities and at such a speed as the stage coach never could. The owners of the coaches might declare they were all to be ruined! What would become of them? The stage coach was ruined, but what of its owners? They shared the common advantages of the puffing billy. This same principle will apply to things of the present day. Years ago, tailoring was said to be a good business. Their sewing was then done by hand. By and by the sewing-machine was invented; and when it was brought to something like perfection, clothing was sewn with it. The tailors were in such a state--it would destroy their prospects! it would ruin their trade! And the dressmakers were in the same excited condition. When were tailoring and dressmaking better than now? They are, I am told, more profitable than they ever were. I give you these illustrations to prove my statement--that very often that which seems to tend to our injury is over-ruled by a merciful Providence to our good. These Egyptians were following the Israelites, and were about to destroy them; they appeared now in the jaws of death, but it was over-ruled. The wicked, says Solomon, diggeth a pit, and falleth into it. He layeth a snare, and his own feet are taken therein. Ah I there are many things you and I cannot understand now. Many a cloud sweeps over our path; many dark things we cannot quite see through. If we could rise above all these things, and see Gods doings, perhaps we should rejoice that He sometimes puts us in a fix. We do not see through it all now; we shall by and by. Sometimes God brings us into straits that He may bring us to our knees. You know that to be true. Often in your sorrow you have looked unto your Father for the help you could not get elsewhere. Observe, if they were in a fix, Moses was not. What did he do? He cried, Fear not, God will fight for you; though God has led you here, He will lead you elsewhere. He knew they could do nothing, so he commanded them to stand still. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. Have you never been in a fix like this? Your business has failed, your prospects blighted, your heart smarting through some bereavement. A darling child or wife has been snatched from you. In utter helplessness you have cried, What can I do? You can do nothing. You have been doing too long. God has brought all this to teach you to stand still, and let Him do. Stand still. Oh! there is reason in that. If your God brings you to see your helplessness and poverty, and He reveals His true riches to you, it is worth your while to stand still. Have salvation; you may. Get His love into your hearts; stand till He makes you free; and when once He does, then comes the cry as Moses gave it, Forward! and though there be before you a dark night and a troubled sea, you may go forward with safety. There is this further thought: that though sometimes God allows the enemies of His people to bring them into a fix, be assured the Lord will turn the scales, and bring the enemies into a fix. What He did for these Egyptians--the haters of the friends of God--He may do for you. Many a faithful man o! God has been annoyed, perhaps by you; but be assured, God will annoy you. See what He did for these Egyptians. There was, first, darkness. That which gave light to His people became dark to His enemies. It is dark where the enemies of God are--so dark! Secondly, God troubled them. The children of God crossed the sea, and you know how in following them the Egyptians all perished in the waters, through which the Israelites had passed in safety. One word more. If you are on the side of God and truth, He will be with you, and bring you out of every fix into which you may get whilst serving Him. On the other hand, if you refuse to acknowledge Him, you may get into a fix which you will never be able to get out of. (Charles Leach.)
Right beginnings; or, no progress
Every true and strong life has its sharp transitions, its critical choice, its decisive moment between Migdol and the sea. It is true enough, most of our time we move on in a path no way remarkable, or in a routine with nothing signal or memorable about it. Day takes after day, and the scene, the occupation, the company, helps and hindrances, are much the same from month to month. But look longer, and you find that, however the wheels of habit may run on in a kind of groove, with few startling outside changes, yet somewhere there was a spot where this regular drift got its start and its new direction. You stood alone somewhere, at a parting of two ways, and you chose; and then, as the consequence of that choice, your life went thenceforth in a particular channel, pure or filthy, straight or crooked, heavenward or hellward, long after. And there is nothing exceptional about this. The same law governs national concerns, processes in nature, and mechanics. War, for instance, is well-nigh the staple of history; and yet historians count but fifteen decisive battles of the world, all other vast movements of ages and empires winding like a whirlpool around these bloody centres. So in mechanics. Only now and then, on its turn-table, the engine is set in its new direction; but all it does, or draws, afterwards, proceeds from that momentary pivotal determination. The grain grows clay and night all summer till harvest; but there is a single time of planting. The patriarch lodged only one night at Bethel; but then, afterward, all his journeyings over the Eastern lands were at the bidding of his God. How did you come to be the man you are to-day? There was most likely some hour of choice. Two forms of apparent good lay before you. Two voices spoke. Among all the common questions that rise, this one question rose. It was the question of your souls eternity. Very likely it had relation, too, to some other soul besides your own--your affection, your duty, to him or her. Perhaps it was in the line of your common doing, only an emergency of larger and uncommon concern. How did you act? Did you say Yes, or No? Did you go or stay? Did you accept the partnership, the companionship, the offer--or refuse? The question is not one of expediency, or taste, or convenience, or profit. It has to do with your souls life, honour, uprightness, salvation. Such periods can be recalled in memory, I think, by most persons; but never recalled in fact. The rest of life depends on them, and on the way we meet them. We are between Migdol and the sea. Egypt and Pharaoh--an old, bad life, and its despotism of darkness--are behind; the other way the road runs where God will. With Israel it was well that it ran to the baptism in the cloud and in the sea. We have only to enlarge the reach of such a decision, carrying it through the roots and springs of character, to find in it that one all-including, all-controlling choice which turns a bad man into a good one, or creates a living Christian. Indeed, it is of that one radical renewing that the exodus of Israel has always been regarded as the type. (Bp. F. D. Huntington.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER XIV.
THE RED SEA.
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Exo_14:1-31.
It would seem that the Israelites recoiled before a frontier fortress of Egypt at Khetam (Etham). This is probable, whatever theory of the route of the Exodus one may adopt; and it is still open to every reader to adopt almost any theory he pleases, provided that two facts are borne in mind: viz., first, that the narrative certainly means to describe a miraculous interference, not superseding the forces of nature, but wielding them in a fashion impossible to man; and second, that the phrase translated "Red Sea"[25] (Exo_18:18, Exo_15:4) is the same which is confessed by all persons to have that meaning in Exo_23:31, and in Num_21:4 and Num_33:10.
Checked, without loss or with it, they were bidden to "turn back," and encamp at Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. And since Migdol is simply a watch-tower (there were several in the Holy Land, including that which gave her name to Mary Magdal-ene), we are to infer that from thence their inexplicable movements were signalled back to Pharaoh. It was the natural signal for all the wild passions of a baffled and half-ruined tyrant to leap into flame. We are scarcely able to imagine the mental condition of men who conceived that a God Who had dealt out death and destruction might be far from invincible from another side. But ages after this, a campaign was planned upon the ingenious theory that "Jehovah is a god of the hills but He is not a god of the valleys" (1Ki_20:28); and plenty of people who would scorn this simple notion are still of opinion that He is a God of eternity and can save them from hell, but a little falsehood and knavery are much better able to save them from want in the meanwhile. Nay, there are many excellent persons who are not at all of opinion that the prince of this world has been dethroned.
Therefore, when his enemies recoiled from his fortresses and wandered away into the wilderness of Egypt, entangling themselves hopelessly between the sea, the mountains, and his own strongholds, it might well appear to Pharaoh that Jehovah was not a warlike deity, that he himself had now found out the weak point of his enemies, and could pursue and overtake and satisfy his lust upon them. There is a significant emphasis in the song of Miriam's triumph--"Jehovah is a man of war." At all events, it was through an imperfect sense of the universal and practical importance of Jehovah as a factor not to be neglected in his calculations, through exactly the same error which misleads every man who postpones religion, or limits the range of its influence in his daily life,--it was thus, and not through any rarer infatuation, that Pharaoh made ready six hundred chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them. And his court was of the same mind, saying, "What is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"
These words are hard to reconcile with the strange notion that until now a return after three days was expected, despite the torrent of blood which rolled between them, and the demands by which the Israelitish women had spoiled the Egyptians. Upon this theory it is not their own error, but the bad faith of their servants, which they should have cried out against.
At the sight of the army, a panic seized the servile hearts of the fugitives. First they cried out unto the Lord. But how possible it is, without any real faith, to address to Heaven the mere clamours of our alarm, and to mistake natural agitation for earnestness in prayer, we learn by the reproaches with which, after thus crying to the Lord, they assailed His servant. Were there no graves in that land of superb sepulchres--that land, now, of universal mourning? Would God that they had perished with the firstborn! Why had they been treated thus? Had they not urged Moses to let them alone, that they might serve the Egyptians?
And yet these men had lately, for the very promise of so much emancipation as they now enjoyed, bowed their heads in adoring thankfulness. As it was their fear which now took the form of supplication, so then it was their hope which took the form of praise. And we, how shall we know whether that in us which seems to be religious gladness and religious grief, is mere emotion, or is truly sacred? By watching whether worship and love continue, when emotion has spent its force, or has gone round, like the wind, to another quarter.
How did Moses feel when this outcry told him of the unworthiness and cowardice of the nation of his heart? Much as we feel, perhaps, when we see the frailties and failures of converts in the mission-field, and the lapse of the intemperate who have seemed to be reclaimed for ever. We thought that perfection was to be reached at a bound. Now we think that the whole work was unreal. Both extremes are wrong: we have much to learn from the failures of that ancient church, in which was the germ of hero, psalmist, and prophet, which was indeed the church in the wilderness, and whose many relapses were so tenderly borne with by God and His messenger.
The settled faith of Moses, and the assurances which he could give the agitated people,[26] contrast nobly with their alarm. But his confidence also had its secret springs in prayer, for the Lord said to him, "Wherefore criest thou unto Me? speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward."
The words are remarkable on two accounts. Can prayer ever be out of place? Not if we mean a prayerful dependent mental attitude toward God. But certainly, yes, if God has already revealed that for which we still importune Him, and we are secretly disquieted lest His promise should fail. It is misplaced if our own duty has to be done, and we pass the golden moments in inactivity, however pious. Christ spoke of men who should leave their gift before the altar, unpresented, because of a neglected duty which should be discharged. And perhaps there are men who pray for the conversion of the heathen, or of friends at home, to whom God says, Wherefore criest thou unto Me? because their money and their faithful efforts must be given, as Moses must arouse himself to lead the people forward, and to stretch his wand over the sea.
And again the forces of nature are on the side of God: the strong wind makes the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over. History has no scene more picturesque than this wild night march, in the roar of tempest, amid the flying foam which "baptized" them unto Moses,[27] while the glimmering waters stood up like a rampart to protect their flanks; the full moon of passover above them, shown and hidden as the swift clouds raced before the storm, while high and steadfast overhead, unshaken by the fiercest blast, illumined by a mysterious splendour, "stood" the vast cloud which veiled like a curtain their whole host from the pursuer. This it was, and the experience of such protection that the Egyptians, overawed, came not near them, which gave them courage to enter the bed of the sea; and as they trod the strange road they found that not only were the waters driven off the surface, but the sands were left firm to traverse.
But when the blind fury of Pharaoh, "hardened" against everything but the sense that his prey was escaping, sent his army along the same track, and this after long delay, at a crisis when every moment was priceless, then a new element of terrible sublimity was added. Through the pillar of cloud and fire Jehovah looked forth on the Egyptian host, as they pressed on behind, unable to penetrate the supernatural gloom, cold fear creeping into every heart, while the chariot wheels laboured heavily in the wet sand. In that direful vision at last the question was answered, "Who is Jehovah, that I should let His people go?" Now it was the turn of those who said "Israel is entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in," themselves to be taken in a worse net. For at that awful gaze the iron curb of military discipline gave way; their labouring chariots, the pride and defence of the nation, were forsaken; and a wild cry broke out, "Let us fly from the face of Israel, for Jehovah"--He who plagued us--"fighteth for them against the Egyptians." But their humiliation came too late,--for in the morning watch, at a natural time for atmospheric changes, but in obedience to the rod of Moses, the furious wind veered or fell, and the sea returned to its accustomed limits; and first, as the sands beneath became saturated, the chariots were overturned and the mail-clad charioteers went down "like lead," and then the hissing line of foam raced forward and closed around and over the shrieking mob which was the pride and strength of Egypt only an hour before.
But, as the story repeats twice over, with a very natural and glad reiteration, "the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left" (Exo_14:29, cf. Exo_14:22).
ON THE SHORE.
Exo_14:30-31.
After the haste and agitation of their marvellous deliverance the children of Israel seem to have halted for awhile at the only spot in the neighbourhood where there is water, known as the Ayoun Musa or springs of Moses to this day. There they doubtless brought into some permanent shape their rudimentary organisation. There, too, their impressions were given time to deepen. They "saw the Egyptians dead on the sea-shore," and realised that their oppression was indeed at an end, their chains broken, themselves introduced into a new life,--"baptized unto Moses." They reflected upon the difference between all other deities and the God of their fathers, Who, in that deadly crisis, had looked upon them and their tyrants out of the fiery pillar. "They feared Jehovah, and they believed in Jehovah and in His servant Moses."
"They believed in Jehovah." This expression is noteworthy, because they had all believed in Him already. "By faith 'they' forsook Egypt. By faith 'they' kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood. By faith 'they' passed through the Red Sea." But their former trust was poor and wavering compared with that which filled their bosoms now. So the disciples followed Jesus because they believed on Him; yet when His first miracle manifested forth His glory, "His disciples believed on Him there." And again they said, "By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God." And after the resurrection He said, "Because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed" (Joh_2:11, Joh_16:30, Joh_20:29). Faith needs to be edified by successive experiences, as the enthusiasm of a recruit is converted into the disciplined valour of the veteran. From each new crisis of the spiritual life the soul should obtain new powers. And that is a shallow and unstable religion which is content with the level of its initial act of faith (however genuine and however important), and seeks not to go from strength to strength.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] The Sea of Zuph, or reeds, the word being used of the reeds in which Moses was laid by his mother and found by Pharaoh's daughter (Exo_2:3, Exo_2:5), rendered "flags" in the Revised Version.
[26] But his assurance is, "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." When Wellhausen would summarise the work of Moses, he tells us that "he taught them to regard self-assertion against the Egyptians as an article of religion" (History, p. 430). It would be impossible, within the compass of so many words, more completely to miss the remarkable characteristic which differentiates this whole narrative from all other revolutionary movements. Expectancy and dependence here take the place of "self-assertion."
[27] Not the adults only; nor yet by immersion, whether in the rain-cloud or the surf.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 15, 19, 23, 29 Exo_14:2. Pi-hahiroth.] Probably a Coptic word, meaning “the place…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_14:2. Pi-hahiroth.] Probably a Coptic word, meaning “the place of sedges”—Gesenius, Fürst, Davies, Kalisch. We can scarcely expect to determine the precise route taken by the Israelites in their march out of Egypt, or the exact spot at which they crossed the Red Sea. “Positive identifications,” says Kalisch, “of ancient localities are the more precarious in this region, as it is certain that the northern part of the Gulf of Suez has formed itself, in the course of centuries, into firm land, a fact which, besides other reasons, is indisputably established by the circumstance that towns, as Muzza, which are mentioned by the ancients as sea-places and harbours, are now situated in the interior of the land.” Two or three points alone, bearing on the Israelite’s line of march, seem to be of any real importance; viz.,
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(1) that the passage through the sea must have been at a spot where the bed of the sea was narrow enough to be crossed by the Hebrew host in one night;
(2) that the breadth of the waters must yet have been great enough to make the passage on “dry land” the evident result of Divine interposition;
(3) that, relatively to the ancient extension northward of the Gulf, the line of the Israelites’ approach to it must have been observably and notoriously too far to the south, to consist with the most southerly caravan route around the northern point of the Gulf;
(4) that the route actually taken was a deflection from that on which the Hebrews started, so as to disappoint natural anticipation, and give the Egyptians the impression that their late slaves were entangled in the (Egyptian) desert, and had lost their way; and
(5) that all this took place under express Divine guidance (ch. Exo_13:17-18; Exo_13:21-22), indeed there can be little if any doubt that Jehovah Himself, by His angel, in the “cloudy pillar,” assumed the Leadership of the departing host at least as far back as where the short north road to the land of the Philistines was left. To attribute the ordering of the whole line of march to the Red Sea to the sagacity of Moses, as Kalisch does, is as little complimentary to him, who by this hypothesis missed his way, as it is reverential to the sacred narrative, which it thus hopelessly contradicts.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_14:1-4
THE GOOD IN THE TRYING SITUATIONS OF LIFE
The children of Israel had now arrived near the head of the Red Sea, and at the limit of the three days’ journey into the wilderness, for which they had appealed to Pharaoh. It was a critical time with them. Will they return to Egypt? Will they go forward on their march of freedom? At the command of God, as made known to Moses, they continue their journey, and soon find themselves in very perilous circumstances. We cannot advance far into life without meeting with things to perplex us. The Israelites are commanded to change the direction of their march; now they go south to a place called Pi-hahiroth. They could not have been in a more trying position, and yet here they are Divinely lead.
I. That the good are often brought, by the providence of God, into the most trying situations in life (Exo_14:1). The children of Israel were commanded by God to encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal zephon (Exo_14:1). Here they are led south, in an opposite direction to the Land of Promise. How often are the good conducted along paths which are apparently contrary to their high destiny. This is a trial of their faith. If, at such times, they obey the Divine word, they go right, even though they may seem to be going wrong. No situation could have been, to all appearance, more adverse to the Israelites than that into which they are now Divinely led. The white crest of the great billows was before them. The huge mountains, which they could not climb, were on either side of them Pharaoh and his enraged hosts were behind them. It was indeed a trying situation for them. They could not help themselves. Their best prowess was vain, they could not defeat their enemy. Their best ingenuity was futile, they could not level the mountains. Here they are brought by God; this is to the carnal mind a mystery. Thus, we have a type of the trying circumstances into which the good are sometimes conducted by the wondrous providence of God. They are in search of moral freedom. They are led by Heaven, and yet are brought into great peril. Had they been led by their own judgment, they would have avoided the southward route, and have escaped the sorrow in which they now find themselves. But the sequel of this history proves that God’s way is the wisest, even though it be the roughest, for if between Migdol and the sea we realise our greatest peril, we also realise His richest mercy and His most glorious help. It is in the trying situations of life that we get the best revelations of the love and power of God. When men feel that they cannot help themselves, then God helps them. Thus they are humbled. They are brought to despair of creature aids. Then the promises become precious. The circumstances of life are all divinely ordered with immediate reference to the moral culture of the good; the Israelites were taught a great lesson before Pi-hahiroth. When God fixes our position, it is sure to be a salutary one, even though it be perplexing.
II. That the trying circumstances into which the good are providentially brought are vigilantly observed by the wicked. “For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land; the wilderness hath shut them in” (Exo_14:3). It is probable that Pharaoh had employed spies to report to him the movements of the Israelites; at all events, he would be kept well informed in reference thereto. Thus we see how soon the wicked repent of any good action they may have done: they give up their sins, but soon go after them again. The besetting sin of the King was only subdued for a time by judgment,—affliction is not necessarily regenerative. It would seem as though the Spirit of God had now ceased to strive with Pharaoh, and that he is given up to pride and malice. With the keen eye of a warrior he sees the position of Israel in the wilderness.
1. The wicked are vigilant observers of the life and circumstances of the good. Pharaoh watched with the utmost vigilance the flight and circumstances of the Israelites, and all connected with their march was eagerly reported to him. Satan sets the wicked to watch the good, with malicious intent, that they may observe the most favourable opportunity of doing them moral injury. He is politic in his effort to ruin the soul,—he not merely leads a host against it, but seeks to render circumstances helpful to its overthrow. Hence, when the good are in difficulty, they are generally pursued by the devil.
2. The wicked are malicious observers of the life and circumstances of the good. Why did Pharaoh follow the Israelites in this great haste? Did he wish to render them assistance in their perplexity, and to aid them in their march of liberty? No! he came to render their circumstances more trying, and, if possible, to complete their defeat. But malice is not always right in its calculations; it cannot always achieve its unholy purpose, especially when seeking the ruin of the good. It cannot pierce the shield which Heaven throws round about the life committed to its care.
3. The wicked are politic observers of the life and circumstances of the good. Pharaoh watched the march of the Israelites, and when he saw them surrounded by the mountains and the waters, he sought by his army to put the final obstacle in the way of their escape. And so Satan watches the best opportunity of frustrating the march of the soul into freedom. But, the wicked often misinterpret the providence of God in reference to the good, and hence pursue their plans to their own ruin.
III. That the trying situations into which the good are brought are designed ultimately to enhance the glory of God, and the retribution of wicked men “I will be honoured upon Pharaoh,” “That the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” God could have conducted the Israelites through the Red Sea before Pharaoh came to their encampment, but that would not have so fully glorified His name,—it would not have shown the terrible retribution of sin. The Divine Being so works the deliverance of the good as to destroy their enemies, and to teach a lesson of trust for the future. Men learn much about God when they are shut in by the land, and when earthly succour is denied them; they learn their own weakness and the all-sufficiency of Jehovah. God is honoured in the overthrow of the sinful. He teaches nations by terrible judgments. Thus all the trying circumstances in which the good are placed will work the glory of God. LESSONS:—
1. Rest patiently in the circumstances in which God has placed you.
2. God is greater than all the hindrances to your true freedom.
3. Follow God, even though it be through the great waters.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo_14:1-4. God alone orders the Church in all its varied movements.
God’s orders to the Church are generally made known through His ministers.
Ministers must speak, and Israel must hear the mind of God in reference to them.
God’s charge sometimes draws the Church back again when they are forward in redemption.
In the way of redemption, God brings His people into straits overwhelming to sense.
God is pleased to give a sufficient account of the perplexity of His people beforehand.
The plans of wicked persecutors are foreknown to God.
Upon such wicked prospects of persecutors, God gives them up to heart-hardening.
God provides for His own glory in the ruin of such persecutors.
Upon the discovery of God’s will, the Church may submit calmly to sit down in straits.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Exodus—Route! Exo_14:2. It is supposed that Moses started from Rameses with the main body—that other divisions took their route from different points in the land of Goshen. If so, all would meet at Succoth—the place of booths. Thence, they proceeded to Etham (Pithorn) on the edge of the wilderness, about three or four miles west of the head of the Gulf of Suez. Thence their natural route would be round its head into the Sinaitic peninsula. But God ordered them to turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth. There were two ways by which Israel could reach Canaan: the near through Philistia—the far by the wilderness. The near or direct route to Palestine and to Sinai itself lay between Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes. These lakes at that time formed part of the Gulf of Suez, and near them stood the frontier city of Etham. They are now distinct from the gulf, but communicate with it by means of the Suez Canal—that wonderful structure which runs across the straight course of Israel to Palestine and to Sinai. These lakes were a kind of salt water marsh—the higher grounds being dotted on the eastern side with tamarisk shrubs, and strewn with shells, presenting almost the appearance of a sea-beach. Through this region Israel wished to pass as the nearest, and, therefore, the most natural route to Syria and Sinai; but God selected for them the far path.
1. Israel was incapable of contending with the warlike hosts of the Philistines.
2. Israel must acquire vigour and experience through the moral discipline of the wilderness.
3. Israel must receive instruction in the great principles of Divine morality and truth at the foot of Sinai. Therefore, at Etham, the way was suddenly changed; and Israel was directed to march towards Pi-hahiroth, i.e., the place where sedge grows—or, the bed of reeds. Clearly this was a more or less marshy locality, and would prove a terrible barrier to any beleaguered host. Behind it stood the frontier watch-tower of Migdol, and on the other hand was Baalzephon, another watch-tower towards the sea. Thus surrounded and entangled, they would seem an easy prey for the vengeful and pursuing foe, who, with twin-horsed chariots, drove madly over meads and sands in fierce array. Like the prophet’s servant, Israel saw but the human foe; while Moses, like the prophet himself, descried the Divine Friend. The eye of faith saw
“The distant hills with flaming chariots gleam,
The wild waste valleys with God’s legions teem.”
—Shipton.
First Steps! Exo_14:2. An emigrant’s first night at sea, or in the remote backwoods, how dreary the scene! How lonely his heart! How weary the frame! How full of home-longings the heart! Often during the silent night-watches, he hears the fitful meaning of the wind and wave at sea, or the screech and howl of the beasts of prey on land, he wishes himself back in the old country—wishes that he had never left the familiar haunt, even though but the land of brown heath and shaggy wood. The emigrant host of Israel were thus circumstanced. The first joy of setting out had subsided; the terrors of the desert, the mounts, and the sea—the weariness, the hunger, and thirst of their long march over yielding sand and amid soaking marsh, now made them long for Egypt. The green pastures of Goshen—the waving palms—the blooming gardens—the shining water-courses of their forsaken homes rise up before them. They become heartsick. So the Christian pilgrim—as he plunges into the Slough of Despond, falls heavily on the jagged rock, and cuts himself cruelly, or is pursued by armed robbers—wishes himself back in the city, with its palaces of marble and gold—its halls of beauty and light—its homes of gaiety and merriment. It is the first backwater of temptation—the early subsidence of the flood of spiritual enthusiasm!
“When the sky is black and lowering, when the path in life is drear,
Upward lift thy steadfast glances; ’mid the maze of sorrow here.”
—Luther.
Entangled! Exo_14:3. History tells too vividly the story of Flodden field. The strongly embattled host of Scotland, with its Royal leader—the well-nigh impregnable position, which made Surrey’s heart sink as he led his English ranks within sight of it—the inexplicable folly of the brave monarch in forsaking the place of safety, and placing his army in such a position as to make defeat certain, are all too familiar to the schoolboy. The Scottish soldiers wondered, yet obeyed. Israel wondered at the course their leader took, but they followed. They do not know where they are going, or why they are being led into an inextricable network of difficulties. Well might Pharaoh, trained in all the art of military tactics, feel confident that the vast host were at the mercy of his panoplied warriors. It is said that when the gallant six hundred were bidden ride into the jaws of death at Balaclava, they looked at each other significantly and obeyed. Each read his fellow-soldier’s glance to mean: “A mad act, ending in our death; but English soldiers always obey.” The Russian chronicler has left on record that the Muscovite generals and staff were confident of the total hemming in of the English armies upon the Crimean sea-shore. Pharaoh had a similar conviction that an easy triumph, ending in the complete extirpation of his hated serfs, was before him. He was soon to learn that
“Morning is ever the daughter of night;
All that is black will be all that is bright.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 These words speak to us of the temper with…
Exo 14:13
These words speak to us of the temper with which we should meet the great trials and crises of life, the temper which does all that can be done and leaves the result to God. Let us look at this temper or character and its opposite as they are seen working in politics, in religion, in the lives of individuals.
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I. The question was once asked by an eminent thinker, whether nations, like individuals, could go mad. There certainly have been movements, like the Reformation or the French Revolution, of which no one could foretell the existence or power. But such movements, like the cataclysms of geology, have been rare, and they seem likely to be rarer as the world goes on. Yet this is not the aspect of the world which our imagination presents to us. There are the two opposite poles of feeling, the one exaggerating, the other minimising actions and events; the one all enthusiasm and alarm, the other cynical and hopeless. The true temper in politics is the temper of confidence and hope. "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." Be patient, and instead of changing every day with the gusts of public opinion, observe how curiously, not without a Divine providence, many things work themselves out into results which we never foresaw.
II. A temper of confidence and repose is needed in matters of religion. The great changes in religious opinion during the last forty years have taken two directions—Rome and Germany. These changes are far from unimportant, but the temper of alarm and exaggeration is not the right way of dealing with them. Amid the changes of religious opinions and the theological discord which distracts the world, we may possess our souls in peace. If sometimes our ears are thrilled and our minds confused by the Babel of voices which dins around us, we may turn from without, and listen calmly to that voice which speaks to us from within, of love, and righteousness, and peace.
III. Let us apply the same principle to our own lives. We need to see ourselves as we truly are, in all our relations to God and to our fellow-men. We need to carry into the whole of life that presence of mind which is required of the warrior who in the hour of conflict is calm, and sees what he foresaw.
B. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 193.
I. These words which to fleshly Israel must have seemed so strange, and which to weak faith echo so strangely still, contain two parts, a duty and a blessing. They were to "stand still," and so should they see the salvation of God. And this condition of blessing runs continually through the whole history of the Jewish and Christian Church. When God has tried His chosen servants or His chosen people, the most frequent trial perhaps has been this, whether they would tarry the Lord’s leisure, be content to receive God’s gift in God’s way, hasten not, turn not to the right hand or the left, but "stand still" and see the salvation of God. By patient (the word implies suffering) waiting for God, an unresisting resistance unto blood, did the Church take root in the whole world.
II. It is for instruction only that we may ask why God should so have annexed the blessing of conquest to enduring suffering, and made patience mightier than what men call active virtues. (1) It may be that it has some mysterious connection with the sufferings of Christ. Vicarious suffering may be so far well-pleasing to God as having a communion with the sufferings of His beloved Son, and doubtless it may make those who are partakers of it more capable of the communication of the merits and influence of His passion. (2) Then, also, it may be needful, in the wisdom of God, for the perfecting of His saints. As all trial implies pain, so the trial of the most precious vessels, it may be, is to be accompanied by pains proportionate. (3) It is evident, that so God’s power and glory are most shown in averting suffering, or in crowning the enduring faith by His blessing. (4) Since man’s self-will was the cause of his fall, God would thus teach him to renounce dependence upon himself, to quit his own wisdom and his own schemes, and do God’s will.
F. B. Pusey, Nine Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford, No. ix.
References: Exo 14:13.—T.Arnold, Sermons, vol. i., p. 66; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 206; G. Moberly, Plain Sermons, p. 256; A. Raleigh, Rest from Care and Sorrow, p. 186; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 541.
Exo 14:13-14
I. It was not the children of Israel who had brought themselves out of Egypt. They were a set of poor crouching slaves. It was not Moses who brought them out. It was the Lord who brought them out. This was what the Passover told them on the night they left Egypt, what it was to tell all future generations. The Lord was fighting for them. They were simply to follow where they were led, to accept the deliverance which He gave them and to remember whence it came.
II. The most wonderful of God’s processes of education was the institution of sacrifices and the whole economy which is connected with them. The ground of the national existence was laid in sacrifice. The killing of the lamb, the blood token upon the door, the consecration of all the firstborn, were the witnesses that the slaves of Pharaoh were redeemed to be the people of God. Sacrifice was not merely the redress of an evil: it was a return to the rightful, orderly state of each man and of the people. The setting up of a self-will is the disturbance of order; the sacrifice or giving up of the will is the restoration of it. Therefore the sacrifices in the Book of Leviticus are not like the heathen sacrifices—schemes to bring about a change in the Divine mind. They proceed, just as much as the law proceeds, from that mind.
III. A Jew who ate the paschal lamb mainly that he might commemorate the destruction of the Egyptians or the favour shown to Israelites may have hoped that the same power which slew one enemy of the nation would slay another. Yet this hope must often have been feeble, for analogies are but poor supports to the heart when crushed by actual miseries. But he who counted it his chief blessedness to see God asserting His order through Egyptians and Israelites, in despite of the unbelief and rebellion of both, would naturally conclude that He who is and was and is to come would go on asserting His order till He had put down every enemy of it, till He had completely made manifest His "own character and purposes." The enemies of God’s order are sensuality, self-will, selfishness. It is God’s intention to wage perpetual war with these, till He has proved whether they or He are the stronger.
God must be the Deliverer in the least case as in the greatest. Man must be the instrument of deliverance. It must be a deliverance wrought by the Firstborn of many brethren for His brethren, by a High-Priest as the Representative of a society.
F. D. Maurice, Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 186.
Exo 14:15
I. The story from which these words are taken is a story of national progress. It is also one of supernatural progress. For us the supernatural is, in the highest and truest sense of the word, natural, for it is the revelation of the nature of God. We accept the possibility of the supernatural and miraculous, but all the more for that do we hold that if God interferes in the affairs of men miraculously, He will not do it capriciously, unnecessarily, wantonly. Upon the whole story of these Jewish miracles there is stamped a character which marks distinctly the reason for which they were wrought; that reason was the religious education of the world. By these miracles the Jew was taught that for nations and men there is a God, an eternal and a personal Will above us and around us that works for righteousness. This great fact was taught mm by illustrated lessons, by pictures illuminated with the Divine light and so filled with the Divine colour that they stand and last for all time.
II. The lesson that seems definitely stamped on the story of the miraculous passage of the Red Sea is the lesson of fearlessness in the discharge of duty, of resolute walking in the way that we know to be God’s way for us. We find this true: (1) in the case of individuals; (2) in the case of nations. For individuals and for nations God has appointed a law of progress. All who have ever striven to raise the tone of a nation’s life, to bring the nation onward on the path that leads to peace and righteousness, have been preaching to mankind this great word of God’s, "Go forward where God would have you go."
Bishop Magee, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 55.
Exo 14:15
Progress is the great test of a Christian. It is not what we are absolutely, but what we are relatively, relatively to what we were. Religion must always be "a walk," and the child of God a traveller. Old things get further and further behind, and as they recede look smaller and smaller; new things constantly come into view, and there is no stagnation. The man, though slowly, and with much struggle, and with many humiliations, is stretching on to the ever-rising level of his own spiritual and heaven-drawn conscience.
I. We may be discouraged because of past failures. Still we have no choice but to go on. Life is made up of rash beginnings and premature endings. We have nothing for it but to begin again.
II. We may feel ourselves utterly graceless and godless. The remedy is, at once to determine to be a great Christian. We must aim at things far in advance. We must go forward.
III. Perhaps some great temptation or sin bars the way. Then we must not stand calculating. We must not look at consequences, but simply "go forward" to the new life of self-denial and holiness.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 7th series, p. 15.
References: Exo 14:13-15.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 152. Exo 14:15.—C. J. Vaughan, The Days of the Son of Man, p. 251; Outline Sermons for Children, p. 17; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 120; J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, pp. 428, 436; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 52; S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 45; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 548; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 18; J. Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 166. Exo 14:15-31.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., pp. 130, 132. Exo 14:16.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 320. Exo 14:19, Exo 14:20.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1793.
Exo 14:20
The guiding cloud severed the camp of Egypt from the camp of Israel. It marched between them. To the one it was God’s presence, cheering despondency, comforting weakness, guaranteeing victory; to the other it was a perplexing, baffling, vexing apparition, betokening they knew not what, yet this at all events, that Israel had a friend, a guide, a comforter, and they must drive after him their chariots of earth, with such hope and such might as earth fighting against Heaven can muster.
I. Every word of God is at once a cloud and darkness to Egypt and a light by night to Israel. So far as revelation goes, it is to the believing what it calls itself—a light and a lamp. The real mysteries of our being were there before revelation: the mystery of life, the mystery of death, the mystery of an omnipotent God resisted, and the mystery of a holy God co-existent with evil. Whatever revelation does in reference to these aboriginal mysteries is in the direction of explanation.
II. Trinity Sunday is, in an especial sense, the Festival of Revelation. Trinity and unity are not contraries. The word Trinity was invented to preserve the unity. Trinity is tri-unity. The doctrine of the Trinity is this, that Holy Scripture, while tenaciously clinging to the unity, does present to us our Lord Jesus Christ as very God, and does present to us the Holy Spirit of God, not as a thing, but as a Person. Leave out of sight for one hour the Divinity of Jesus, and darkness settles again upon the soul which He died, which He lives, to redeem. Leave out of sight for one hour the personality of the Spirit, and darkness settles again upon the soul of which He is the Light, because the Life. We may listlessly dream or purposelessly loiter; but when a work is proposed to us, and we must do it or die, then we want that help, and must have it, which only a Trinity in unity can supply.
C. J. Vaughan, Half Hours in the Temple Church, p. 143; also Good Words, 1870, p. 747.
Reference: T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 114.
Exo 14:30-31
Had it not been for this great deliverance, the children of Israel would only have been remembered in the after history of the world as the slaves who helped to build the Pyramids. Their religion was fast perishing among them, their religious rites forgotten; and they would soon have been found among the worshippers of the monster gods of Egypt. But God had better things in store for them when He led them through the Red Sea, making a path for them amid the waters.
I. It was one of the greatest blessings for the human race that during the preservation of the Jewish people the great truth of the personality of God and His nearness to His people was set before them in language which could not be mistaken. And it is one of the greatest blessings which we enjoy that we have the same Lord thus personally presented to us, revealed in the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.
II. God is set before us in this passage, not only as a Person, but as a Person who cares with all a father’s love, with all a father’s watchfulness, for His own people. Our hopes in days of doubt and difficulties are directed to the same personal fatherly care of the great God who loves all His creatures, and who loves Christians above all in the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. When a great national victory is achieved, what boots it to him who loses his life in the hour of victory? The question for us is, not whether God has wrought a great deliverance, but whether we as individuals are partakers of that deliverance, partakers of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A. C. Tait, Penny Pulpit, No. 3, 100.
References: Exo 14:30, Exo 14:31.—J. Jackson, Sermons at St. Paul’s, No. 22. Exo 14:31 (with Exo 19:7 and Exo 36:5).—Parker, vol. ii., p. 100. 14-15.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 127. Exo 15:1, Exo 15:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1867. Exo 15:1-21.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 106. Exo 15:1-22.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 162. Exo 15:2.—Bishop Thorold, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 40; Parker, vol. ii., p. 317.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v19 Exo 14:19 - - Exo 14:31.
Exodus
A PATH IN THE SEA
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Exo 14:19 - - Exo 14:31.
This passage begins at the point where the fierce charge of the Egyptian chariots and cavalry on the straggling masses of the fugitives is inexplicably arrested. The weary day’s march, which must have seemed as suicidal to the Israelites as it did to their pursuers, had ended in bringing them into a position where, as Luther puts it, they were like a mouse in a trap or a partridge in a snare. The desert, the sea, the enemy, were their alternatives. And, as they camped, they saw in the distance the rapid advance of the dreaded force of chariots, probably the vanguard of an army. No wonder that they lost heart. Moses alone keeps his head and his faith. He is rewarded with the fuller promise of deliverance, and receives the power accompanying the command, to stretch forth his hand, and part the sea. Then begins the marvellous series of incidents here recorded.
I. The first step in the leisurely march of the divine deliverance is the provision for checking the Egyptian advance and securing the safe breaking up of the Israelitish camp. The pursuers had been coming whirling along at full speed, and would soon have been amongst the disorderly mass, dealing destruction. There was no possibility of getting the crossing effected unless they were held at bay. When an army has to ford a river in the face of hostile forces, the hazardous operation is possible only if a strong rearguard is left on the enemy’s side, to cover the passage. This is exactly what is done here. The pillar of fire and cloud, the symbol of the divine presence, passed from the van to the rear. Its guidance was not needed, when but one path through the sea was possible. Its defence was needed when the foe was pressing eagerly on the heels of the host. His people’s needs determined then, as they ever do, the form of the divine presence and help. Long after, the prophet seized the great lesson of this event, when he broke into the triumphant anticipation of a yet future deliverance,-which should repeat in fresh experience the ancient victory, ‘The Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward,’ In the place where the need is sorest, and in the form most required, there and that will God ever be to those who trust Him.
We can see here, too, a frequent characteristic of the miraculous element in Scripture, namely, its reaching its end not by a leap, but by a process. Once admit miracle, and it appears as if adaptation of means to ends was unnecessary. It would have been as easy to have transported the Israelites bodily and instantaneously to the other side of the sea, as to have taken these precautions and then cleft the ocean, and made them march through it. Legendary miracle would have preferred the former way. The Bible miracle usually adapts methods to aims, and is content to travel to its goal step by step.
Nor can we omit to notice the double effect of the one manifestation of the divine presence. The same pillar was light and darkness. The side which was cloud was turned to the pursuers; that which was light, to Israel. The former were paralysed, and hindered from advancing a step, or from seeing what the latter were doing; these, on the other hand, had light thrown on their strange path, and were encouraged and helped to plunge into the mysterious road, by the ruddy gleam which disclosed it. So every revelation is either light or darkness to men, according to the use they make of it. The ark, which slew Philistines, and flung Dagon prone on his own threshold, brought blessing to the house of Obededom. The Child who was to be ‘set for the fall,’ was also for ‘the rising of many.’ The stone laid in Zion is ‘a sure foundation,’ and ‘a stone of stumbling.’ The Gospel is the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. The same fire melts wax and hardens clay. The same Christ is salvation and destruction. God is to each of us either our joy or our dread.
II. The sudden march of the Egyptians having thus been arrested, there is leisure, behind the shelter of the fiery barrier, to take the next step in the deliverance. The sea is not divided in a moment. Again, we have a process to note, and that brought about by two things,-Moses’ outstretched rod, and the strong wind which blew all night. The chronology of that fateful night is difficult to adjust from our narrative. It would appear, from Exo 14:20, that the Egyptians were barred advancing until morning; and, from Exo 14:21, that the wind which ploughed with its strong ploughshare a furrow through the sea, took all night for its work. But, on the other hand, the Israelites must have been well across, and the Egyptians in the very midst of the passage, ‘in the morning watch,’ and all was over soon after ‘the morning appeared.’ Probably the wind continued all the night, so as to keep up the pressure which dammed back the waters, but the path was passable some hours before the gale abated. It must have been a broad way to admit of some two million frightened people with wives and children effecting a crossing in the short hours of part of one night.
But though God used the wind as His besom to sweep a road clear for His people, the effect produced by ordinary means was extraordinary. No wind that ever blew would blow water in two opposite directions at once, as a man might shovel snow to right and left, and heap it in mounds by the sides of the path that he dug. That was what the text tells us was done. The miracle is none the less a miracle because God employed physical agents, just as Christ’s miracles were no less miraculous when He anointed blind eyes with moistened clay, or sent men to wash in Siloam, than when His bare word raised the dead or stilled the ocean. Wind or no wind, Moses’ rod or no rod, the true explanation of that broad path cleared through the sea is-’the waters saw Thee, O God.’ The use of natural means may have been an aid to feeble faith, encouraging it to step down on to the untrodden and slippery road. The employment of Moses and his rod was to attest his commission to act as God’s mouthpiece.
III. Then comes the safe passage. It is hard to imagine the scene. The vivid impression made by our story is all the more remarkable when we notice how wanting in detail it is. We do not know the time nor the place. We have no information about how the fugitives got across, the breadth of the path, or its length. Characteristically enough, Jewish legends know all about both, and assure us that the waters were parted into twelve ways, one for each tribe, and that the length of the road was three hundred miles! But Scripture, with characteristic reticence, is silent about all but the fact. That is enough. We gather, from the much later and poetical picture of it in Psa 1:1 - Psa 1:6, that the passage was accomplished in the midst of crashing thunder and flashing lightnings; though it may be doubted whether these are meant to be taken as real or ideal. At all events, we have to think of these two millions of people-women, children, and followers-plunging into the depths in the night.
What a scene! The awestruck crowds, the howling wind, perhaps the thunderstorm, the glow of the pillar glistening on the wet and slimy way, the full paschal moon shining on the heaped waters! How the awe and the hope must both have increased with each step deeper in the abyss, and nearer to safety! The Epistle to the Hebrews takes this as an instance of ‘faith’ on the part of the Israelites; and truly we can feel that it must have taken some trust in God’s protecting hand to venture on such a road, where, at any moment, the walls might collapse and drown them all. They were driven to venture by their fear of Pharaoh; but faith, as well as fear, wrought in them. Our faith, too, is often called upon to venture upon perilous paths. We may trust Him to hold back the watery walls from falling. The picture of the crossing carries eternal truth for us all. The way of safety does not open till we are hemmed in, and Pharaoh’s chariots are almost come up. It often leads into the very thick of what we deem perils. It often has to be ventured on in the dark, and with the wind in our faces. But if we tread it in faith, the fluid will be made solid, and the pathless passable, or any other apparent impossibility be realised, before our confidence shall be put to shame, or one real evil reach us.
IV. The next stage is the hot pursuit and the panic of the Egyptians. The narrative does not mark the point at which the pillar lifted and disclosed the escape of the prey. It must have been in the night. The baffled pursuers dash after them, either not seeing, or too excited and furious to heed where they were going. The rough sea bottom was no place for chariots, and they would be hopelessly distanced by the fugitives on foot. How long they stumbled and weltered we are not told, but ‘in the morning watch,’ that is, while it was yet dark, some awful movement in the fiery pillar awed even their anger into stillness, and drove home the conviction that they were fighting against God. There is something very terrible in the vagueness, if we may call it so, of that phrase ‘the Lord looked . . .through the pillar.’ It curdles the blood as no minuteness of narrative would do. And what a thought that His look should be a trouble! ‘The steady whole of the judge’s face’ is awful, and some creeping terror laid hold on that host of mad pursuers floundering in the dark, as that more than natural light flared on their path. The panic to which all bodies of soldiers in strange circumstances are exposed, was increased by the growing difficulty of advance, as the chariot wheels became clogged or the ground more of quicksand. At last it culminates in a shout of ‘Sauve qui peut!’ We may learn how close together lie daring rebellion against God and abject terror of Him; and how in a moment, a glance of His face, a turn of His hand, bring the wildest blasphemer to cower in fear. We may learn, too, to keep clear of courses which cannot be followed a moment longer, if once a thought that God sees us comes in. And we may learn the miserable result of all departure from Him, in making what ought to be our peace and blessing, our misery and terror, and turning the brightness of His face into a consuming fire.
V. Then comes, at last, the awful act of destruction, of which a man is the agent and an army the victim. We must suppose the Israelites all safe on the Arabian coast, when the level sunlight streams from the east on the wild hurry of the fleeing crowd making for the Egyptian shore. What a solemn sight that young morning looked on! The wind had dropped, the rod is stretched out, the sea returns to its strength; and after a few moments’ despairing struggle all is over, and the sun, as it climbs, looks down upon the unbroken stretch of quiet sea, bearing no trace of the awful work which it had done, or of the quenched hatred and fury which slept beneath.
We can understand the stern joy which throbs so vehemently in every pulse of that great song, the first blossom of Hebrew poetry, which the ransomed people sang that day. We can sympathise with the many echoes in psalm and prophecy, which repeated the lessons of faith and gratitude. But some will be ready to ask, Was that triumphant song anything more than narrow national feeling, and has Christianity not taught us another and tenderer thought of God than that which this lesson carries? We may ask in return, Was it divine providence that swept the Spanish Armada from the sea, fulfilling, as the medal struck to commemorate it bore, the very words of Moses’ song, ‘Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them’? Was it God who overwhelmed Napoleon’s army in the Russian snows? Were these, and many like acts in the world’s history, causes for thankfulness to God? Is it not true that, as has been well said, ‘The history of the world is the judgment of the world’? And does Christianity forbid us to rejoice when some mighty and ancient system of wrong and oppression, with its tools and accomplices, is cleared from off the face of the earth? ‘When the wicked perish, there is shouting.’ Let us not forget that the love and gentleness of the Gospel are accompanied by the revelation of divine judgment and righteous retribution. This very incident has for its last echo in Scripture that wonderful scene in the Apocalypse, where, in the pause before the seven angels bearing the seven plagues go forth, the seer beholds a company of choristers, like those who on that morning stood on the Red Sea shore, standing on the bank of the ‘sea of glass mingled with fire,’-which symbolises the clear and crystalline depth of the stable divine judgments, shot with fiery retribution,-and lifting up by anticipation a song of thanksgiving for the judgments about to be wrought. That song is expressly called ‘the song of Moses’ and ‘of the Lamb,’ in token of the essential unity of the two dispensations, and especially of the harmony of both in their view of the divine judgments. Its ringing praises are modelled on the ancient lyric. It, too, triumphs in God’s judgments, regards them as means of making known His name, as done not for destruction, but that His character may be known and honoured by men, to whom it is life and peace to know and love Him for what He is.
That final victory over ‘the beast,’ whether he be a person or a tendency, is to reproduce in higher fashion that old conquest by the Red Sea. There is hope for the world that its oppressors shall not always tyrannise; there is hope for each soul that, if we take Christ for our deliverer and our guide, He will break the chains from off our wrists, and bring us at last to the eternal shore, where we may stand, like the ransomed people, and, as the unsetting morning dawns, see its beams touching with golden light the calm ocean, beneath which our oppressors lie buried for ever, and lift up glad thanksgivings to Him who has ‘led us through fire and through water, and brought us out into a wealthy place.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Crossing the Red Sea
Crossing the Red Sea
2. At Etham the Israelites reached the Egyptian frontier, travelling in a northeasterly direction. Instead of crossing the frontier to the E. side of the Bitter Lakes they are commanded to turn southwards, keeping the Red Sea on their left. The reason for this change of route may have been a repulse by the garrison of one of the line of fortresses on the E. border of Egypt. None of the places mentioned here has been identified with certainty. There is even a doubt as to what is meant by the sea. Some have understood it to be the Mediterranean, in which case the host must have turned northwards, and the supposed Red Sea (Heb. 'sea of reeds'; see on Exo_10:19) would be the Serbonian Lake, a large bog lying on the shore of the Mediterranean between Egypt and the SW. extremity of Canaan. It is usual, however, to understand by the 'sea of reeds' what is now called the Gulf of Suez. There is little doubt that at the time of the exodus the Gulf of Suez extended much further north than it does now, and that the modern Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes were connected with each other and the Gulf of Suez by necks of shallow water which in certain conditions might be swept almost dry. It is pretty certain that the Israelites crossed at some point north of the modern Suez.
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3. The wilderness is the Egyptian wilderness, a tract of desert land lying between the Nile and the Red Sea. To the south, in front of the advancing host, rose an impassable mountain chain, so that they found themselves entangled in the land.
7. The Egyptian chariots were low two-wheeled cars open behind and drawn by two horses abreast. Each chariot contained a driver and a warrior, sometimes two. The chosen chariots were probably those of the king's bodyguard. The Hittites are known to have brought 2,500 chariots into the field against Rameses II.
8. With an high hand] Confidently, boldly.
9. Horsemen] It is doubtful whether the Egyptians at this time used cavalry. The horsemen may be the charioteers.
11. No graves in Egypt] cp. Num_14:1-3.
14. Hold your peace] The victory will be entirely the work of Jehovah. It is the part of His people to trust in Him and cease from murmuring: cp. Isa_30:15; 2Ch_20:15-17.
19. Angel of God] see on Exo_3:2, and cp. Exo_13:21.
21. In delivering His people, as in bringing the plagues on the Egyptians, God may have made use of natural means. A strong east wind blowing all night, and acting with the ebbing tide, may have laid bare the shallow neck of water joining the Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross in safety: see on Exo_14:2. Indeed, an Egyptian tradition says that Moses waited for the ebb tide in order to lead the Israelites across. The real difficulty in connexion with the passage of the Red Sea lies not in the baring of the sea bottom, but in the fact that the Israelitish host must have numbered about three millions: see on Exo_12:37; This enormous multitude, encumbered as it was with young and old herds of cattle, must have taken a long time to cross the soft floor of the estuary. It is not impossible, however, that the number stated was the total of those who escaped from Egypt, but that they left in several companies, that led by Moses being the main detachment: see on Numbers 1.
22. A wall unto them] This need not mean that they stood up like a wall, but that the water on each side was a defence, preventing a flank attack by the enemy: cp. for this use of the term 'wall' 1Sa_25:16.
24. In the morning watch] between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., the last of the three watches into which the Hebrews divided the night, in earlier times: cp. Lam_2:19; Jdg_7:19; 1Sa_11:11. The Roman division was into four watches: see Mar_13:35; Mat_14:25. It is here implied that the previous part of the night sufficed for the passage of the Israelitish host: see on Exo_14:21.
25. Took off] RM 'bound': made them stick fast. They became clogged with the soft ooze in the sea bed.
27. The sea returned] In Exo_15:10 this seems to have been effected by a change of wind.
28. And all the host] RV 'even all the host.' It is not said that Pharaoh himself perished. The supposed discovery in modern times of the mummy of Merenptah is no argument against his being the Pharaoh of the exodus or against the truth of this narrative. Even though, he did lead his host in person into the middle of the sea and perished with the others his body might afterwards have been recovered and preserved: see on Exo_1:8.
31. This notable deliverance naturally made a deep impression upon the Israelites. It justified their faith in Jehovah and it also confirmed the right of Moses to be regarded as their leader. And believed the Lord, and his servant Moses] But when they turned away from the scene of their deliverance and faced the stern realities of the desert march, they were only too ready to give way to mistrust and murmuring: cp Exo_15:24; Exo_16:2-3 etc.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv19, 30, 31 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 14 The Pursuit of the Enemy and Redemption…
CHAPTER 14 The Pursuit of the Enemy and Redemption by Power
1. The coming of Pharaoh announced (Exo 14:1-4)
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2. The pursuit and Israel troubled (Exo 14:5-12)
3. Moses speaks to the people (Exo 14:13-14)
4. The Lord speaks to Moses (Exo 14:15-18)
5. The passages through the Red Sea (Exo 14:19-22)
6. The Egyptians overthrown (Exo 14:23-29)
7. The great work accomplished (Exo 14:30-31)
While the marching host of Israel was ignorant of Pharaoh’s device and the threatening danger, Jehovah’s eye was watching every move the enemy made. He knew what Pharaoh would do and Jehovah had planned how to deliver Israel completely by His power from the Egyptians. That Jehovah might be honored upon Pharaoh and all his host, He told His people to encamp in a place which made their position, from a human standpoint, almost hopeless. They were hemmed in by mountains and the sea was in front of them and behind them the Egyptian host was soon to appear. Only the outlook upward to heaven was unobstructed. From there help had to come. Pharaoh appeared to bring them back into bondage. Then the unbelief of the redeemed people, whom Jehovah had so marvelously led forth, is manifested. Though their lot had been so severe in Egypt and Jehovah’s power upon Egypt had been seen in the terrible judgments, yet they regretted that they had left Egypt . It was unbelief. They feared that the God who had taken such pains to deliver them out of Egypt , who had led them out and was visibly present with them, would now abandon them, so that they would die in the wilderness. How many Christians give way again and again to such an unreasonable doubt. “Unbelief leads to interpret God in the presence of the difficulty, instead of interpreting the difficulty in the presence of God. Faith gets behind the difficulty and there finds God in all His faithfulness, love and power.”
Exo 14:13 and Exo 14:14 are the words to faith. The Lord was now taking up their case and fighting their battles. It was no longer the question of Pharaoh and Israel , but Pharaoh and Jehovah. But notice the words are Moses’ words, as given to him by the Spirit of God. After he had spoken them and assured the people that all their enemies were to be wiped out, he began to pray, for the Lord said to him, “wherefore criest thou unto Me?” This is followed by the command to go forward, to stretch out the rod over the sea and the assurance that the sea would be divided so that they should pass through to the other side.
In Exo 14:19 we learn that the Angel of God--that is Jehovah--who went before the camp of Israel , removed and went behind them. Thus the pillar of cloud descended between them and their enemies; they were involved in the deepest darkness, while Israel had light throughout the night. Moses did according to the word of the Lord. The east wind from the Lord caused the sea to go back; a strong wind, which blew all night, divided the sea. Higher criticism has tried to explain this miracle as a natural occurrence, but they overlooked the fact that on the right and on their left the waters were a wall. It was a grave; so to speak; into which Israel passed, when God’s power had made the way through it. It was faith which led them through. “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land; which the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned” (Heb 11:29).
When Pharaoh and his army followed to pursue them, Jehovah acted in judgment. “in the morning watch Jehovah looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire.” It was not a thunderstorm which confused them, but they saw the Lord in His majesty and the fearful judgment overtook them after Moses had stretched out his hand over the sea. The overthrow of the Egyptians came “when the morning appeared.” Not one of them remained, but Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.
This great deliverance by the power of God has many lessons. It foreshadows the future judgment which is in store for the enemies of Israel , when the Lord “in the morning watch” looks upon them. Greater still are the typical lessons in connection with our redemption “in Christ.” The Red Sea is a type of the death of Christ. Deliverance from sin by being dead with Christ is the aspect which the Red Sea passage illustrates. It is the truth so fully brought out in Romans 6, 7 and 8. When Israel had passed through the Red Sea and reached the other side, we have a type of resurrection. Dead with Christ and risen with Him; our old enemy is gone, and we can look upon our enemies as dead. Many pages of annotations could be given in following this story. We must leave the fuller application to our readers. Victory is on our side. Redeemed by blood, God’s power is with us, the power of His Spirit, who is given to us of God. We are not asked to fight our enemy, the old man, or to subdue him. God has done this for us in the death of Christ.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 19 Pharaoh Pursues Israel
Pharaoh Pursues Israel
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
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v. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon; before it ye shall encamp by the sea. Instead of proceeding on their journey into the desert, the children of Israel were to turn back, toward the west, and pitch their tents over against Hahiroth and Baalzephon, on the west side of an arm of the Red Sea.
v. 3. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, their turning back from Etham might seem like an act of bewilderment, of uncertainty, causing them to march back and forth without definite object; the wilderness hath shut them in; there was no road toward Canaan on the west side of the Gulf of Suez, and so the children of Israel would be held fast in the desert.
v. 4. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. This was the final hardening which the Lord wanted to inflict upon Pharaoh, and it would result in bringing honor and glory to the Lord as the one true, just, and mighty God. And they, the children of Israel, did so; they encamped at a place where they were apparently shut in as in a prison, a fact which caused Pharaoh to plan their capture and return to their former slavery in Egypt.
v. 5. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled, the report of all the events that transpired was brought to him; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? What foolishness possessed us that we let these excellent workmen go? The apparent aimlessness of the journeying may have caused Pharaoh to believe that the Lord had withdrawn His hand from the people, and that he would have no difficulty in recapturing them.
v. 6. And he made ready his chariot, he had his servants hitch the horses to his own chariot, and took his people, his army, with him, all the soldiers that were available upon short notice.
v. 7. And he took six hundred chosen chariots, the pick of his supply, the flower of his army, and all the chariots of Egypt, whatever other wagons were available, and captains over everyone of them, all the necessary officers.
v. 8. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel, he was blinded in his foolishness by the apparent helplessness of his former slaves. And the children of Israel went out with an high hand. It was not a case of secret flight with them, but of a bold departure in the sight of all the Egyptians.
v. 9. But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon. The detailed enumeration of Pharaoh’s host serves to emphasize the greatness of his destruction. It is thus that obdurate sinners deliberately close their eyes against the manifest works of God and force God, as it were, to execute justice and judgment upon them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, 26, 29 Pi Hahiroth ... Migdol ... Baal Zephon
Pi Hahiroth ... Migdol ... Baal Zephon
These are towns on Egypt's eastern border. (See: How to Translate Names)
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You are to camp
Here the word "You" is plural and refers to Moses and the Israelites. (See: Forms of You)
Pharaoh will say about the Israelites, 'They are wandering in the land. The wilderness has closed in on them.'
This can be stated as an indirect quote. AT: "Pharaoh will say the Israelites are wandering in the land and the wilderness has closed in on them" (See: Direct and Indirect Quotations)
The wilderness has closed in on them
Pharaoh speaks of the wilderness as a person who has trapped the Israelites. (See: Personification)
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Israel
Pharaoh
desert
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19, 22, 25, 31 14:2 The precise locations of Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, and Baal-zephon…
14:2 The precise locations of Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, and Baal-zephon are unknown. • the sea: See study note on 13:18.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.