What is the importance of the parting of the Red Sea?

It is well to distinguish, for our souls' profit, the difference between the Passover and the Red Sea. For a person may hear the gospel and receive it with joy, and be rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins; he may see the loveliness of Christ, and have his affections drawn out towards Himself; but if full redemption is not known, as typified by the Red Sea, if he does not know himself to be risen with Christ on the other side of death and judgment, he is almost sure to lose his joy when temptation comes and he feels his own weakness. The joy of chapter 15 is that God has absolutely redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them in His strength to His holy habitation. A very different thing from the joy of the Passover - being delivered from just and deserved judgment. In the Passover Jehovah had made Himself known to them as the God of judgment. The blood on the door-posts screened them from judgment; it kept Him out, and He did not come into their houses to destroy. Had He come in, it must have been in judgment. At the Red Sea it was another thing - even God coming in strength as their salvation. The Passover delivered them from His judgment, the Red Sea from their enemies. The moment His people are in danger from Pharaoh, He comes in. The very sea they dreaded, and which appeared to throw them into Pharaoh's hands, becomes the means of their salvation. Thus through death God delivered them from death; like as Christ went down into the stronghold of Satan, went down under the power of death, and, rising again from the dead, delivered us from death. Thus was there an end of Pharaoh and Egypt to them for ever. The Red Sea is redemption out of Egypt; God Himself is their salvation. He whom they had feared, and justly, as a Judge, is become their salvation. They are redeemed; no longer were hoping for mercy, but able to rejoice that judgment was past, and to sing His praises for having brought them to His holy habitation - to God Himself; in the light as He is in the light; and brought there before they had taken one step in the wilderness, or fought one battle with their enemies.

The type or principle of this we have here for the first time when Moses says "this day" and speaks about the salvation of Jehovah; and again, later on in the chapter, "Jehovah saved Israel." How beautiful the accuracy of scripture! We might have put in that Jehovah saved Israel on the night of the paschal lamb; but nowhere then is such an expression heard. No; they were sheltered, but in the true sense not yet "saved." Salvation means the known destruction of their foes, God having risen up in the majesty of His power, and manifested it completely in their favour. Here they were clearly on the simple ground of grace; and immediately afterwards we have the triumphant song of Moses and the children of Israel — "I will sing to Jehovah, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea. Jah is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation." This last phrase then is not merely a casual expression; it is the purposed and suited language of the Holy Ghost. We are meant to take notice that now we can speak of "salvation," not before. (Ex. 15)

Nevertheless this was not all the blessing, even typically. The Paschal Lamb simply kept God outside, only stayed His judgment from falling on the persons of the Israelites themselves. Is this the full character of redemption — to shut God out from His own? It is the notion that too many have of redemption; but how far short it falls of redemption according to God! Most important as it unquestionably is, it is not the whole truth of the matter, but very far from it. And therefore it is we find that along with this God appends another type as its complement — namely, the Red Sea, where the flower of Egypt found a grave, and God gave the Israelites to pass through what seemed to be sure death to them, what in truth became in type life everlasting, and their best security. So it is precisely that the believer finds the death and resurrection of Christ. Then for the first time God deigns to speak of salvation in relation to His people. (Ex. 14:13, 30, Ex. 15:2.) He never speaks of anything, however glorious, wrought previously as "salvation."

We have before us now the completion of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt. Not till they crossed the sea were they fully delivered. Indeed, salvation is not spoken of until they come to it. It is manifest that salvation, as typified in the things we are considering, implies much more than deliverance from wrath and condemnation; and yet this is the sense in which we habitually use it. Here, at the sea, the question is no more between the people and God, but between them and their enemies. The question with God was settled on the night of the passover — fully and entirely settled. The question here was the old, the first question, that of servitude to Pharaoh or of liberty, but which they had learned could not be answered first. This question God Himself now takes up on their behalf, and they find God for them in a more manifest way than ever yet. Already, from the time of the Passover, God was with them; but how vividly the Red Sea makes this manifest to them.

And it is frequently so with the Christian. After the soul has been directed to Christ, there is often a coming into deeper waters than ever, and a deeper realisation of one's own sinfulness than ever. The sense of sin after we have looked to Christ is far more acute and intense than when we fled for refuge at the beginning. There was then a path of life through death. 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, and it is remarkable that here for the first time God uses the term salvation. He does not say salvation on the night of the paschal lamb, but when they have passed through the sea. Salvation is a great deal more than being kept safe. Salvation means that complete clearance from all our foes — that bringing us out of the house of bondage, and setting us free and clean before God, to be His manifest people in the world. It was only pronounced when God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness; it was when their foes were completely judged, and when they were so saved as never to pass under that kind of dread again.

Redemption or deliverance by blood was not complete redemption. It was necessary that the people should be taken out of Egypt. When all hope seemed to vanish as they were hemmed in by the Red Sea in front and the Egyptian host behind, God intervened and they passed through the sea as on dry land. What was their salvation became the destruction of their enemies!

When they multiplied in Egypt, the providence of God used a very efficacious means to separate them from others, and to knit them together as a people. Among human things there is no surer way of binding a nation together than by a common suffering. God in His wisdom used this for His purpose. There was not only a common descent, in which they always boasted — "We be Abraham's seed" (John 8:33) — but the additional one of being oppressed with a cruel bondage. Thus dissociated from the Egyptian by peculiar suffering, and distinguished among the nations by miraculous interposition of God, who was also displaying Himself as the God of the whole earth, as well as binding them together, for the report of His wonders in the land of Egypt spread far and wide. "I know that the Lord has given you the land," said Rahab. By His mighty power God would teach the nations that He is God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath. It was preparatory to His being known as Saviour-God by-and-by among all nations. But even then to Israel was given the knowledge of His great power in saving, and never more evident than when the sea stood up like a rock. It was a question of delivering His people from their enemies, not of their deserts: He would magnify Himself. And He brought them through the waters of death, giving in type, as in the passover, an important but most blessed truth for believers now. The passover afforded shelter from a sin-judging God, the Red Sea brought God over to us on our side against every foe; and if God be for us, who can be against us? Not only deliverance from the enemy, but the power of Him who is now for us exerted in their total destruction — never to be seen alive again. The praises of Jehovah's triumph naturally follow.

There is another point to be remarked. Israel came up to the Red Sea, trembling, pressed by Pharaoh, the prince of the world, shut in with death and judgement or destruction before them. God acts for them, and death and judgement are turned into deliverance, because Christ undergoes death and judgement, so securing us and letting us get out free on the other side.

I have no doubt whatever that the Red Sea — the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea — is a figure of the death and resurrection of Christ for His people, for us, i.e., that He died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification. The result is, that the moment Israel got through the Red Sea they began to sing. While they were in Egypt there was no song. What were they doing? Sighing, crying, weeping, groaning — they were miserable slaves. Even when they were at Pi-hahiroth (Ex. 14:2, 9), what were they doing? Fearing and trembling; they were in dread, and distress of soul. But the moment they had gone through the Red Sea, by the path which God had opened for them — the moment typically they had accepted death, and got into resurrection — what do I find? They begin to sing; they sing a triumphant song to the Lord. And what is the burden of the song? "The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation" (Ex. 15:2). It is what the Lord is, and what the Lord has done. Well might they sing, because, from the sunny heights of resurrection, they look down and see all their foes dead on the seashore, not one of them left. They are brought now to have to do with God, and to know God as their Saviour, and they can sing with happiness and truth, "The Lord is become my salvation." They are saved, and they know they are saved.

I meet a great many people nowadays who are hoping, trying, and longing to be saved, but I do not meet many who are bold enough to say, "Thank God, I am saved, for He has saved me." Can you say that yet? Come, honestly, my friend, can you say, "I have obtained God's salvation, I am a saved soul by divine grace"? Is it presumption to say so? No, it is not presumption to boast in what God does. It would be great presumption if it were something in which you and I had any hand. But you will observe here that the people of Israel stand still, and the Lord does everything, and, when He has done everything, what do they do? They turn and exalt, and praise Him, and give Him glory. We read, "Thus the Lord saved Israel" (Ex. 14:30). Why do you not let Him save you, and then you could likewise sing to Him, as the Author and Source of your salvation? There are many souls today who are desiring salvation, and would like to have it, but they have not got it, because they have never learnt what this precious scripture unfolds, in figure, viz., that Christ not only died for our sins, but that He rose again for our justification, and that consequently the one who believes in Him who has died and been raised again, is linked with Him in the place where He now is — in resurrection. And as a result, there is peace and joy and gladness in the soul.

The last thing to be noted is the destruction of the Egyptians. In the temerity of their daring presumption they "pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen." That pillar of fire even did not keep them back, but, in vain confidence in their own strength, they pressed onward, but to a sure and certain doom. "And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily." They were now convinced of the hopelessness of the contest, and would fain have fled; but it was all too late. At the Lord's bidding, once again Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and it returned and covered all Egypt's host, so that "there remained not so much as one of them." (v. 28.) "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned." (Heb. 11:29.) The solemn lesson is thus conveyed, that 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. There can be no escape apart from Christ. He only is the way of safety, because He alone has met and overcome death, is the One who has died, has risen again, and is alive for evermore, and has the keys of hades and death.

Three things conclude the chapter. There is first the repetition of the fact that Israel walked through the sea upon dry land, and found the waters a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. It is the contrast emphasized between the salvation of Israel and the destruction of the Egyptians There are only then two classes. There could be no other — the lost (the Egyptians) and the saved (the Israelites). The former were swallowed up in death and judgment, while the latter were brought through in safety, because they were covered with the value of the blood of the Lamb. We then read that "the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians." (v. 30.) He had before sheltered them from judgment, but now He saved them from the foe. Satan's power was brought to nought, and they were consequently delivered. The full meaning of this term will appear in the next chapter; but it may be remarked that it is here for the first time that the word "saved" acquires its full significance. Lastly, the effect produced upon the minds — in the souls of the children of Israel — is noted. They "saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and His servant Moses." Such a display of power — destructive on the one hand, and redemptive on the other — had bowed their hearts and begotten reverent fear in their souls. In Egypt they had no doubt feared the Lord in the sense of dread — dreading Him as a holy Judge; but now it was fear of another kind — fear begotten by the manifestation of His wonder-working power, and which led them to look upon Him as their Lord. It was the fear of an intimate relationship — the fear which would desire to please, and dread above all things to offend. It was the offspring of recognizing the holiness of God in their salvation. This is shown by the fact that they also believed the Lord, and His servant Moses. The testimony of what and who He was had been unfolded before their eyes. They received it, and now not only had Jehovah chosen them to be His people, but they also by faith recognized and owned Him as their Lord. They also believed Moses — as their divinely-appointed leader. Indeed they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. (1 Cor. 10:2.) There was therefore both a work wrought for them and in them — and both alike proceeded from the power and grace of God. He who so marvellously brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, produced a response in their hearts to what He was, and what He had done for them. Salvation is never entered into or enjoyed until these two things are united. Thus the work, on the foundation of which God can save sinners, has long been completed; but until it can be said that the sinner believes he is not saved. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ("the judgment") but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24.)