And it came to pass in the morning watch, that Jehovah looked upon the camp of the Egyptians, in the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and embarrassed the camp of the Egyptians.
The Egyptians have chased Israel into the seabed, and all night nothing stops them. Then, before dawn, God does one thing — He looks — and the whole army falls apart.
Israel strikes no blow in this verse. The One who acts does it from inside the cloud.
There is One who has made that cloud His dwelling place, and His look will overthrow all who plot harm against the camp. The finest of Egypt withers under it; Pharaoh's horses and chariots are drowned in the Red Sea before it.
Verse 19 calls Israel's guide an angel. This verse calls Him the LORD. Commentators read the two together and ask who this guide really is.
This passage, chapter 14, and others as well, clearly ascribe divine attributes to Him… Exodus 14 first speaks of Him as an angel, and then identifies Him with Jehovah (compare verse 24 with verse 19). That He is divine is therefore clear. The inference is justified — one drawn by godly students of the Word in every age — that in this angel we have none other than the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, Jehovah.
The cloud that had been shining on Israel all night is the very thing that now troubles Egypt. Nothing about it changed; only which side you stood on.
What gave light to the children of Israel was a cloud and darkness to their enemies. How secure they were, if only they had known it, behind this impenetrable shield of invincible power. No enemy could reach them without first meeting and overcoming God Himself. The blood of the Passover lamb had sheltered them; now divine power shielded them.
The verse fixes the hour: the last stretch of darkness before dawn. One writer puts a clock time on the look, and points to a psalm for what that night was like.
The Lord's look from the pillar of fire and cloud came at about two o'clock in the morning — about the middle of that stormy night (Psalm 77:17-18). Israel had reached the far shore. It was early morning, and God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea once more, and the sea returned to its strength.
Others read the timing itself. The look falls in the morning watch, and the sea closes as morning appears.
Notice that it is "in the morning watch" that the Lord looked on the army of the Egyptians and threw it into a panic. Notice this too: the sea came back to its strength when the morning appeared, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. Christ is "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father." Here is the morning for us. God accepted His work. God accepted Him as the representative of His redeemed people, and in Him is now our standing.
One writer sets this beside the night of Jesus' arrest. Jesus steps between His disciples and the men sent to seize them.
On a similar occasion Jesus acts exactly as the cloud and the glory did on the banks of the Red Sea. He comes between the disciples and their pursuers. "If you seek me, let these men go." He defends them. Then, as long before on the edge of Egypt, He looks through the veil and troubles the enemy again. And all this with the same ease and the same authority as in the day of Pharaoh. He only, as it were, looked out again. He only showed Himself, saying, "I am he," and the Egyptians lie on the shore again.
The pillar of fire stood in Egypt's way, and Egypt went in anyway. One writer draws out what that means for anyone facing death.
That pillar of fire did not even hold them back. With empty confidence in their own strength, they pressed on — but to certain doom… They were now sure the fight was hopeless, and would gladly have fled; but it was all too late… The solemn lesson is this: to face the power of death in human confidence means certain destruction. Only the blood-bought people can pass through in safety. There is no escape apart from Christ, who alone has met and overcome death.
- The look. God fights by looking. The One dwelling in the cloud overthrows Egypt's finest without Israel lifting a hand.
- The Looker. Verse 19 calls Israel's guide an angel; verse 24 calls Him the LORD. Commentators identify Him as God the Son.
- The two sides. The same pillar lights Israel and troubles Egypt; to touch God's people, an enemy must first get past God.
- The hour. The look falls in the last watch of a stormy night. The sea closes at daybreak — a morning that speaks of Christ raised, and of our standing in Him.
- The warning. Egypt entered the sea trusting its own strength and never came out. Only the blood-bought pass through.
And he took off their chariot wheels, and caused them to drive with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, Let us flee before Israel, for Jehovah is fighting for them against the Egyptians!
Israel is walking through the sea on dry ground, and Egypt's army has driven in after them. This verse is the moment Egypt sees who it is really fighting, and the question is whether flight can still save them.
The change starts with a look. God looks out of the pillar, and the army feels it at once — in their courage, in their speed, and in what they admit.
In the morning watch the LORD looked at the army through the pillar of fire and cloud. He showed them where they were. He troubled the army, and its courage vanished. He checked their boasted speed by taking off their chariot wheels, so that they drove heavily. They said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians." The pride of the army was broken. Israel had seen the protecting walls shining in the glory of the light of the pillar of fire. The Egyptians saw, when it was too late, that the path through death to life for Israel was to them the path into destruction.
Up to this point Israel had been the ones running. The ESV says God clogged the chariot wheels; older translations, which the writers quoted here follow, say He took them off. Either way the chariots stall.
In our chapter, the way God checks and overcomes the enemy is very interesting. Pharaoh gets a solemn warning as the pins of his wheels all fly out. Losing his chariot wheels checks him when he least expects it. The effect is electric… The tables are completely turned. It is not God's people fleeing now, but their enemies who fly.
The wheels came off before the waters came back. That gap gave Egypt time to heed the warning.
The enemy goes on. Then God gives him his first check: the wheels of his chariots come off (v. 25)… God gave Pharaoh his warning before he met his doom. When their chariot wheels came off, that was a warning from God to those who were pursuing His people that night. The Egyptians died with Pharaoh, because they ignored the warning God gave them.
What the Egyptians say is true. It is also the last thing Scripture ever reports them saying — and saying it did not rescue them.
Difficulties beset the Egyptians. Into the sea they went. Would they ever get out of it? To pursue further they now saw was hopeless. "Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians" (14:25). This was their last word that we have any record of. By it they confessed their defeat. But was there safety for them in flight?
Another writer notes the direction of their flight. They wanted to get away from the LORD, not to come to Him.
How serious those "last words" of God are to souls at times! Words like these had perhaps often been spoken to people who refused them. They never imagined they would not hear them again… While He was judging, Pharaoh tried to flee from the LORD (Ex. 14:25). It was now too late to flee to Him.
The Egyptians name the reason for their defeat: the LORD is fighting for Israel. The LORD had already said He would, and that left Israel with nothing to do but watch.
Israel might have thought, Someone will have to fight if we are to be saved. The LORD answered this with the words, "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." Not one word was required from Israel in this conflict. The fighting and the salvation were both to come from the God who had brought them out of Egypt. Israel were only to be witnesses of His mighty power. Once the salvation was secured, God let Israel join the song of praise led by Moses.
- The look. God looked at Egypt's army through the pillar of fire. Their courage vanished before a single wave fell.
- The check. God took their chariot wheels off before He destroyed them. That was a warning, and they ignored it.
- The confession. They admitted the truth: the LORD was fighting for Israel. But words said in panic are not the same as turning to Him.
- The flight. Pharaoh tried to flee from the LORD while judgment was falling; the time to flee to Him had already passed.
- The silence. Israel added nothing to the victory their enemies announced. They watched in silence, then sang.