And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out thy hand over the sea, that the waters may return upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.
Israel has already walked through on dry ground, and the Egyptian army is still in the seabed behind them. Now God speaks to Moses again. The hand that opened the path must now close it. How can one act of God rescue one crowd and ruin another?
Moses stretches out his hand, and the rod he carries began as a plain shepherd's staff.
So it was the instrument of judgment and of grace in Egypt. It was only a weak shepherd's rod at first. That weakness made it all the more fit to become God's rod. He always perfects His strength in our weakness, and chooses the weak things to confound the mighty.
The water is not neutral. What held back as a wall for Israel now comes down as judgment on their pursuers.
In one sense the Red Sea had closed the whole history, if you take it by itself as to Egypt. In another sense it begins the life. But it closed the history by redemption and judgment, for God judged the Egyptians. Death, which was salvation to Israel, was judgment to the Egyptians.
That double outcome was not chance. One writer weighs it against what God had already said in this chapter.
The waters that defended the people of God, and were the means of their deliverance, became the instrument God used to destroy the enemy and his power completely, "for there remained not so much as one of them"… How solemn these events appear in the light of Exodus 14:17-18. That light lifts them far above the shallow thoughts and ideas of men. It shows them to be the expression of the sovereignty of God in His judicial dealings with those who refuse to bend their wills, contend with Him, and try to thwart what He has purposed for the blessing of His people.
One writer can find only one event in all of Scripture to compare with it.
God's work is always marked by thoroughness. God saved every soul of Israel in triumph, and every Egyptian lay dead on the shore, for we read, "there remained not so much as one of them." Has any army, before or since, been destroyed so completely? We doubt it; the only possible parallel is Sennacherib's army, recorded in 2 Kings 19:35.
Commentators read the returning waters as a figure of the death and judgment that Christ went through, so that they can never fall on those who trust Him.
Moses did so. The waters returned, and the sea swallowed up the whole host of the Egyptians. "There remained not so much as one of them." This is wonderful news for the believer, for the soul that has really turned to Jesus. He can look back and see the power of the enemy broken, his sins gone, the judgment past. The judgment fell on Jesus, and He is risen, having exhausted the judgment and destroyed the power of the enemy.
The freedom that follows is permanent, because the old masters are gone.
After the Passover and the Red Sea there was no going back for Israel to the slavery of Pharaoh; their taskmasters were overthrown and gone.
The Egyptians drowned in the very road God had opened. One writer turns that into a warning for anyone who hopes to meet death and judgment in his own strength.
All must pass through what lies on God's road to heaven. If we have come up to the Red Sea, we must pass through death and judgment. Where shall we be with all our Egyptian wisdom and learning, with all our chariots and horsemen, before death and judgment?… If we try to do this without God for us, and the question of death and judgment is not already and completely settled — as it was for Israel when by faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land — it must be our destruction.
- Same rod. A shepherd's weak staff carried both grace and judgment. The power was never in the wood, but in God, who chooses weak things.
- Same water. The sea that saved Israel became the grave of their pursuers. Death was salvation to one side and judgment to the other.
- Same thoroughness. Every Israelite came through and not one Egyptian survived. God never leaves His work half done.
- Same road, two travellers. The Egyptians drowned in the path God had opened. Anyone who faces death and judgment in his own strength meets destruction there.
- Same judgment, already borne. The believer looks back and sees sins gone, the enemy's power broken, judgment past. It fell on Jesus, and He is risen.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength toward the morning; and the Egyptians fled against it; and Jehovah overturned the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
The walls of water crash back on the army that chased Israel into the seabed. Why does God time this for daybreak, and why does one sea rescue one people and drown another?
The waters came back as day broke. One writer gathers other mornings in Scripture, where victory arrives at daybreak.
The Old Testament refers to the morning many times. As we look into them, we cannot miss how much these pictures matter to us today. The night of Egypt's bondage ended "when the morning appeared" (Exodus 14:27). … The Assyrian army lay completely defeated "in the morning" (2 Kings 19:35). In John chapter 16 the Lord Jesus speaks wonderfully to His own of the joy that would be theirs on that resurrection morning. Their sorrow would become joy! So the joy of victory "comes in the morning."
Nothing here is an accident. Moses stretches out his hand, but the verse says the LORD threw the Egyptians into the sea. One writer reads it as God carrying out what He had already announced.
At God's command, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared." The same waters had protected God's people and carried them to safety. Now God used them to destroy the enemy and his power completely, "for there remained not so much as one of them." … How solemn these events look in the light of Exodus 14:17 and 18. They lift the story far above the shallow ideas of men. They show the sovereignty of God as He judges those who set their wills against Him and try to stop Him carrying out what He has purposed for the blessing of His people.
The Egyptians took the same route Israel had taken. The path did not decide their end. Who walked it did.
The close of our chapter shows us Israel triumphant on the shore of the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's armies sunk beneath its waves. Israel's fears and Pharaoh's boasting alike proved completely groundless. Jehovah's glorious work had wiped out both. The same waters which formed a wall for God's redeemed formed a grave for Pharaoh. So it always is: those who walk by faith find a path to walk in, while all who merely imitate them find a grave.
One writer marks two separate things here. The blood answered the charge of sin. The sea brought them out of Egypt.
Then you get a second thing — not the blood that meets the Judge, but the power that delivers. … It was death and judgment which really secured Israel. The sea that let Israel out swallowed up Pharaoh and all his armies. For believers that is in fact the judgment that came in Christ. Death and judgment are what has saved us; only Christ took it for us, of course. … It is redemption, which is a great deal more than forgiveness. The blood met the charge of sin against them. But it did not bring them out of Egypt. In fact they did not get out of Egypt until they passed through the Red Sea.
The next verse gives the count: not one Egyptian survived. One writer turns that count into ground for the believer's confidence.
Moses obeyed, the waters returned, and the sea swallowed the whole Egyptian army. "There remained not so much as one of them." Wonderful news for the believer, for the soul that has really turned to Jesus. He can look back and see the power of the enemy broken, his sins gone, the judgment past. The judgment fell on Jesus. He is risen, having exhausted the judgment and destroyed the power of the enemy.
The verse says the Egyptians fled into the sea. One writer sets their panic beside what the New Testament says about the crossing.
They were now convinced the fight was hopeless and would gladly have fled, but it was far too late. … "By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned" (Hebrews 11:29). 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 safely. … There can be no escape apart from Christ.
- One sea. The same waters were a wall for Israel and a grave for Pharaoh. One path, two ends.
- One command. The sea came back at God's word and at God's hour, "when the morning appeared." God did what He had said He would do.
- One deliverance. The blood met their guilt. The sea broke the power that held them. Forgiveness and redemption — Christ's death gives both.
- One count. "There remained not so much as one of them." The believer looks back on an enemy destroyed, sins gone, judgment past.
- One warning. Egypt tried the road of faith without the blood. Face death in your own strength, and the place of salvation becomes the place of ruin.
And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the host of Pharaoh that had come into the sea after them; there remained not even one of them.
Israel reaches dry land. Behind them the water that had stood open falls back on Pharaoh's army. The same sea saves and destroys in one night, and the verse ends with a line the commentators keep returning to: not one of them remained.
The wording leaves no survivors on one side and no losses on the other. One writer looks for anything to match it in the rest of Scripture:
God's work is always marked by thoroughness. Every soul of Israel was saved in triumph. Every Egyptian lay dead on the shore, for we read, "not one of them remained." Has any army, before or since, been so completely destroyed? We doubt it. The only case that comes near it is Sennacherib's army, recorded in 2 Kings 19:35.
The water did not change. What changed was who walked into it, and that difference divides the whole story of the exodus:
In one sense the Red Sea closed the whole history, if you take it by itself as regards Egypt. In another sense it begins the life. But it closed the history by redemption and judgment, for the Egyptians were judged. Death, which was salvation to Israel, was judgment to the Egyptians.
Moses makes the same gesture twice in this chapter, and the second undoes the first:
Again at God's command Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The first time it was to open a way for Israel; this time it was to close up the way that had been opened. The sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. That path through its depths was shut, never to be reopened... There they met their death; there, too, they were buried.
Earlier in the chapter God said what He intended to do. This verse is the outcome:
How solemn these events appear in the light of Exodus 14:17 and 18. Those verses lift them far above the shallow thoughts and ideas of men. They show them to be the expression of the sovereignty of God in His judicial dealings with those who set their wills against Him and try to thwart what He has purposed for the blessing of His people. "I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will follow them; and I will glorify Myself in Pharaoh and in all his host, in his chariots and in his horsemen."
The Egyptians tried to copy a path they had no right to walk. Commentators read their end as a caution, not merely a piece of history:
The lesson is solemn: to face the power of death in human confidence is certain destruction. Only the blood-bought people can pass through in safety. All others will surely be overwhelmed; and yet how many a soul dares to meet death and judgment in its own strength. Let all such be warned by the fate of Pharaoh and his army. "By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned." (Hebrews 11:29)
In the morning light Israel looked back at an empty shore. One writer turns that scene into news for the believer:
Moses did so, the waters returned, and the whole army of the Egyptians was swallowed up. "Not one of them remained." Blessed news for the believer, for the soul that has really turned to Jesus. He can look back and see the power of the enemy broken, his sins gone, the judgment past. The judgment fell on Jesus. He is risen, having exhausted the judgment and destroyed the power of the enemy.
The chapter calls Israel "saved" only after the sea closes. One writer builds a distinction on that:
"Thus the Lord saved Israel that day." We do not read of Israel being "saved" while they were still in Egypt, though God had sheltered them from judgment. Egypt pictured the world, and Pharaoh pictured Satan, the god and prince of the world. Israel is said to be saved only after full deliverance from both. In the same way, salvation in the New Testament means not only that we have been forgiven and justified. It also means we have been delivered from the authority of Satan and from the world-system he rules.
- One sea. The same water carried Israel through and buried Egypt. Death was salvation to Israel and judgment to the Egyptians.
- One hand, twice raised. The first stretch opened a road; the second closed it for good, and the sea returned to its strength.
- One purpose. God had said He would glorify Himself in Pharaoh and his host. The sea carried out His judgment; nothing here was an accident.
- One warning. To face death in your own strength is certain destruction. The Egyptians took the path of faith without faith, and drowned.
- One result. Nothing remained to chase them. The rescued people look back on a broken enemy, and only then does Scripture call them saved.
And the children of Israel walked on dry [ground] through the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Israel stood trapped between Pharaoh's army and the sea. Two questions follow: how did the barrier become a road, and why did the same water save Israel and drown Egypt?
One writer sets the plain record beside the song Israel sang afterwards:
"The waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left" — so runs the historical record. "At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea" (15:8). So sang Moses and Israel, describing in poetic language the passage made through the waters. It was a passage of dry land, while the waters on each side were piled up.
What looked like the end of the road became their defence:
Israel marched forward in the pathway through the mighty waters. The depths were concealed in the heart of the sea. The light of God's glory-cloud lit up the crystal walls on either side of the pathway through death. The sea had lost its strength, and the powers of nature were both suspended and used for the salvation of Israel. Death, as it were, became a wall of defence to Israel on right hand and left as they passed through the sea.
The verse says only that they walked. Everything else was God's doing:
Their first experience of God's power on leaving Egypt was the sea turned into dry ground before them. Pharaoh's host drowned in the very waters which had been to them a protecting wall on the right hand and on the left. There was but one way through the sea, lit by the glory in the cloud. They had only to walk in it and enjoy the deliverance God had worked, in which they had had no hand whatever.
It is at this point, and not earlier, that the Bible starts calling it salvation:
God was for them; but that was not all, He was against the Egyptians. And so when the Israelites had passed over, the Red Sea closes upon their enemies and all are dead. Then Israel was saved. Here, for the first time, God uses the term salvation — and that is remarkable. He does not say salvation on the night of the Passover lamb, but when they have passed through the sea. Salvation is a great deal more than being kept safe. Salvation means complete clearance from all our foes. It means bringing us out of the house of bondage, and setting us free and clean before God. Israel's foes were completely judged, and they were so saved that they never came under that dread again.
The same water did two opposite jobs:
Condemnation and judgment are entirely over, as a question of the soul's acceptance. The dreadful ordeal has been gone through — but by Another. So it becomes my deliverance from it, according to the righteousness of God. The floods which destroyed the Egyptians were a wall to Israel on the right hand and on the left, the path of safety out of Egypt. The salvation of God was there.
Commentators read the crossing as a picture of what Christ has done:
So God opened a way through death for His people. On the one hand He shielded them from Satan's power; on the other, He used death itself to deliver them from death. This is what the Red Sea pictures — death, and also resurrection — because God brought the people through to the other side… They "went into the midst of the sea on dry ground." Why? Because — we mean the picture it gives — Christ had gone down into death and exhausted its power.
Another writer ties that pathway to the resurrection of Christ:
The believer is saved according to God's perfect salvation. God "raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:24-25)… Christ's own blood has answered for our offences. He Himself, raised from the dead, is the Witness that our sins have been atoned for. Christ risen has made for His people by His resurrection the pathway through death.
The path through the sea was not open to everyone:
As they went through the Red Sea the waters were a wall on the right hand and on the left. Who could go in there? Nothing but faith. Nature might try it, and did, but only to meet judgment. It is a very serious thing to try the path of faith in the power of nature.
- Barrier. The sea that looked like a trap became their defence. They walked on dry ground with the water piled up on both sides.
- Gift. They had no hand in it; there was one lit path, and their whole part was to walk in it.
- Name. Scripture calls it salvation here for the first time. It is far more than being kept safe: it is complete clearance from every foe.
- Verdict. The same floods that walled Israel in safety drowned the Egyptians. One event, two endings.
- Christ. The dry ground is a way opened through death itself. Christ made that pathway by His resurrection, and only faith walks it — nature that tries it meets judgment.