Bible Commentaries
Exodus 14

Verses 1-21

IX

THE MARCH OUT OF EGYPT, THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA, AND THE TRIUMPHAL SONG

Exodus 14:1-15:21

Before taking up the regular discussion I will answer a question presented concerning the Passover Supper in connection with the Lord’s Supper, as follows: "Was the foot-washing supper at Bethany or at Jerusalem?" That Passover Supper, where the foot-washing was, occurred at the same place that the supper did; and if you put that foot-washing at Bethany you must put the Lord’s Supper there, because Christ took the material of the Passover Supper with which to institute the Lord’s Supper. They had just observed the Passover. Now when he got through that Old Testament feast he instituted the analogue ordinance, and used the unleavened bread of the Passover Supper and the wine that was used with the Passover Supper. All the elements were the same when he instituted the new ordinance for his church.

This chapter I will give catechetically.

1. What about the guide on this march? That is, what about the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night?

Ans.– When these people started from one country to another in fulfillment of God’s promise, viz.: "I will go with you; my Presence shall go with you," that’ pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, was first seen when they started that night; the night the first-born was slain there appeared a great fire column; its position was just over Moses, the place it occupied until the tabernacle was built, which we will see in subsequent discussions. The natural position of that cloud by day, and the fire by night, was over the tabernacle. . When they were moving, if that cloud stopped, everybody stopped. The next day, or if that cloud moved off in an hour, it meant to get ready to start, and then it would move forward, they moving after it. In the nighttime this cloud was a great, column of brilliant light, brighter than any electric light now to be seen in any great city, and all night long the radiance from that cloud brightly illuminated the entire camp; so that no night ever touched them in the forty years. As soon as day came and the sun rose, then that fire became a cloud, and it spread over them and kept between them and the sun, giving them a shade all day long; so that the sun never touched them in all that time. If an enemy was pursuing them that cloud moved around and got in the rear and turned a hot, fiery face, if it was night, to the adversary, very horrible; or it turned a dark face impenetrable in its blackness, and to the children of Israel brightness, the same face shining on God’s people, and frowning on his enemies. We see the last of this pillar when they got over into the Promised Land, i.e., you think you do. But that cloud becomes the Shekinah on the ark of the covenant and goes clear on to the building of Solomon’s Temple. Then it leaves the tabernacle and goes to the Temple; and when the Temple falls that cloud becomes the Holy Spirit, descended into the new temple, the church. The same thought runs all the way through the Bible, symbolizing the advocating presence of God to guide and guard and to cherish his people.

2. How many went out of Egypt and who?

Ans. – The record states there were 600,000. The women and children are not enumerated, but on that basis it is easy to determine that there were between two and three millions of people in all. There went with them a mixed multitude of people who had not been circumcised, following the fortunes of the Jews, and causing them much trouble later.

3. Where was the starting point of this march?

Ans. – On the map we shall see it to be Rameses. They were all over this land of Goshen; but they came together at Rameses as a rallying point for a start, the place which they built when they were slaves. And from this starting point there were three ways into the Holy Land.

4. What are the three ways to the Holy Land and why did they not go the first? Why not continue on the second, having started on it? Why the third?

Ans. – There are three ways: the first is nearest the coast line through the Philistine country, a straight way, the nearest of all the ways; that way is there now. Why did they not go that way? God says that the Philistines are a formidable people, and trained to war; and if he took the Israelites that way they would get there before they were ready to meet such adversaries as the Philistines. That is why. The second way is the middle one of the three, going straight through the desert. Now why, having started that way, did they stop? Here is an important piece of history in the war between the Egyptians and the Hittites. The Egyptians had built a high wall following the line now occupied by the Suez Canal from the most northern point of the Red Sea and it had towers on it every few hundred yards filled with armed men. Why could not God have blown up that wall, and given them an easy passage through it? He could have done it, but that would not have allowed him to deal with Pharaoh as he wanted to; so they make a turn and come out the long way, coming to the most northern point of the Red Sea. They came to the end of the wall, not crossing it at all, but going across the tongue of the sea. Then they came down to the Sinaitic Peninsula, and along round by the way where there was nothing to obstruct. Now why was that way selected? In the first place, God said to Moses when he met him at the burning bush, "The token that I have given you that you will deliver these people is, that you will bring them to this mountain, and here worship God." He wanted to take them a way sufficiently long for him to educate them for what he wanted them to do when they entered the Holy Land. Apparently he wanted to get them down there into this imperishable Sinaitic Peninsula, and there enter into a national covenant with them, giving them the moral law, the civil law, and the law of the altar, or the way of approach to God. He kept them there a year learning that lesson, and that is why he took the lower, more distant and most difficult road.

5. What was the hazard of the encampment by the sea in which he led them?

Ans. – When he brought them down there they could not get out that way for the wall; then a mountain was on either side of them, and they could not go forward because of the I sea; nor backward because Pharaoh was coming behind closing up that way, a regular cul-de-sac; he wanted to get them’ in that corner where, humanly speaking, they could not dig: under a channel, and get out of the cul-de-sac; they could not go forward; they could not climb the mountains on the right F and left, nor could they go back because of Pharaoh’s armed chariots in hot pursuit. That was the hazard of the situation. God wanted to teach them that important lesson.

6. Explain the "stand still" of Moses and the "go forward" of God.

Ans. – When the Israelites saw the situation they were frightened, perplexed inside and outside, and they whimpered like a whipped dog howling, or a whipped man cursing: "Why could you not let us abide over yonder in Egypt?" Moses says, "Stand still and see the salvation of God." The thought of Moses is, "You have arrived at a position where there is nothing you can do, humanly speaking; and that cloud is not moving; and God, having brought you here, is going to save you. So don’t get scared; keep a stiff upper lip; stand still and have faith in the deliverance of God; he will get you out." They felt a good deal like the fellows I saw during the Civil War the first time I was ever detailed by my company, lying down behind a battery, fighting four batteries. We were just right there on the ground. They would not let us shout, nor hoot nor stand up; and the shells from the enemy came hissing round, the battery popping off all around us, every w and then taking a fellow’s head off; and there we had to lie still. Now take the case of the Lord, "Say unto the people that they go forward." And they beheld that pillar of cloud beginning to move. You stand still in a matter where you cannot do anything, but if there is anything you can do, do not stand still, but go forward. Now God is going to test their faith. Right in front of them is that sea, from one to three miles wide. "Go forward, forward, forward!" "Well, do you mean for us to just step off into that sea?" "Forward!" Directly Moses lifted his rod up, the staff of authority, and as he did it there came a mighty wind like a wedge and split that sea wide open, clear to the center. They did not have to step into the sea; they lifted their feet up at the edge of the sea, and when they were ready to put them down it was dry. The wind had split the sea open and they got on the other side.

When I was a boy my father preached a sermon on "Stand Still and See the Salvation of the Lord," showing also that when the Lord says "Go forward," you are to go forward. There was a Negro boy who could imitate to perfection my father’s preaching, especially as to voice. Standing on a box, he reproduced that sermon of my father’s, giving all the points, gestures, and intonations of voice. It beat anything I ever heard. Of course it very much impressed that sermon on my mind.

7. What is the natural explanation of this deliverance, and why is it not sufficient?

Ans. – The natural explanation is that there was no miracle; that about this time the wind came and cleared away that water. History tells us about the Rhine being cleared away once by the power of the wind, just as the ebb of the tide will leave a strand almost dry, and the flux of the tide will put the feet in the middle. But why is that not sufficient explanation? In the first place, what was done took place at the hand of Moses; and in the second place, in the song of deliverance? that immediately followed the passage through the Red Sea, are these words: "The waters stood up in heaps and congealed." What does congeal mean? To freeze. I never saw wind do that. There was an ice wall, perpendicular on each side, not that it was natural ice, but it stood as firm in that perpendicular position as if it had been frozen. The power, of the Lord held it there, as smooth-faced as a mirror. Then in the third place, it certainly was a remarkable coincidence that the wind should come just exactly at that time and by bringing those waters together again swallow up those that came after them. You must not depend much on their explanation; but take the coincidence, as the good boy said about I his father finding cow bells. He said that his papa had brought home a cow bell that he had "found" and his mamma, was glad that he found it because the cow needed a bell, and the next day he found another cow bell and his mamma was glad because they needed that cow bell; but the next day he found one for the calf, and the third day his mamma and he suspected where those cow bells came from. Things do not happen just that way. You don’t find three bells in succession. And when he found the third one something, they knew, was up.

8. What question of historical criticism comes up here?

Ans. – Here are two or three millions of people leaving Egypt, one of the most prominent nations of the world, passing with their hordes of women and children through a point of the sea, migrating to another country. Is that history? That is the historical criticism. My answer is that this was just as much a historical transaction as the fact that you were born; it is true history.

9. What are the proofs that this incident was history?

Ans. – The proofs are remarkable: (1) It was celebrated immediately afterward, and that memorial is preserved for all relations. We have it yet. Just as I would prove that something occurred at Bunker Hill; there stands a monument which tells on the very face of it in commemorative power that that incident took place.

(2) The next argument is the permanent impression it made on subsequent Hebrew literature. Looking at the nearby literature of that people, the references that you see in the book of Numbers and in Deuteronomy are still fresh and are living witnesses. Then turn to the great hymnbook of the nation, the poetry of the nation (every reader ought to do it), and read the portions of Psalm 66; 70; 74; 77; 106; 114 that refer to this incident. Is there on earth a poetry of a nation in such remarkable measure as these, and even of such a nature if there were no history? Then turn to the pages of Habakkuk and Zechariah, where you find it mentioned in days long afterward; and turn to the New Testament and here it is discussed, as in I Corinthians 10 and Revelation 19. So that at least 1,500 years after the event the literature of that nation is thrilling with it.

(3) Then consider this remarkable fact with the fact that the Egyptians in their monuments and in their hieroglyphics are profuse in telling of the glorious deeds of one king and another king, but they are silent about the triumphs of this one. Why is it that the preceding reigns of the Egyptian kings who had ended well are chronicled, as also the succeeding reigns, and they are silent concerning this king? Egypt lies helpless for many years after this event; its power was smitten. The historians did not like to tell about what caused it. They furnished corresponding facts.

10. Where in the New Testament is this passage through the Red Sea called a baptism? Explain it.

Ans – 1 Corinthians 10 says, "I would not, brethren, have you ignorant that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Our fathers were baptized eis Moses. In our chapter in the New Testament we will learn about the baptizo plus eis – unto Moses. We will now explain how that was a baptism. In this way it was a baptism: On the right hand a perpendicular wall of water stood; on the left hand also was a perpendicular wall of water; and between, if was like a grave, and the cloud spread itself over the grave like the lid to a coffin, only that cloud lid was as bright as the brightest day that earth ever knew. This cloud and the two walls of the sea entirely encompassed the children of Israel, There in that grave they were buried in baptism, with the light of the pillar of cloud above them. The light was reflected in the mirrored face of the icy water; and the wall on the left flashed back in its reflection, striking the icy wall on the right, which in turn flashed back its reflection to the other side – mirrored across; mirrored in light. All about them was stark darkness, but they were safe in the light. It was a baptism in light.

11. What did a Methodist preacher have to say about the explanation of it?

Ans. – He quotes Psalms 77:16-17, concerning this passage through the Red Sea, thus: The waters saw thee, 0 God; The waters saw thee, they were afraid: The depths also trembled. The clouds poured out waters; The skies sent out a sound; Thine arrows also went abroad. He says that the clouds poured out water, and in the rain from that cloud they Were baptized. I debated with him one day, and said to him, "That passage in I Corinthians says they were baptized, not in clouds, but in a particular cloud." I then asked if that particular cloud was a rain cloud. Did it ever rain anything? I said, "You have the cart before the horse. After they got through the cloud did pour out rain and there was nothing like it, but it fell on the Egyptians and not on the Israelites; they never got a drop of water on them. It was a figurative baptism. Cloud above them, cloud around them they were buried in a cloud of light."

12. Was Pharaoh himself destroyed in the Red Sea?

Ans. – The record seems to make it so. Historians say that be himself did not go down into the sea. But Egyptian historians would naturally hide that account of the death of their great king.

13. How was this event celebrated?

Ans. – Moses wrote a song, a grand one, a song of deliverance. Talk about singing! That was an antiphonal, voice against voice, a responsive song; the choir or a man would sing one line and the rest of the congregation or the women with timbrels would sing the chorus; the men their part, and the women handing it back in the form of a chorus, accompanied with ’instrumental music.

14. What of the effect on Egypt for many years?

Ans. – It caused her to lie dormant for a long time.

15. What of the effect on the Canaanites?

Ans. – It filled them with fear.

16. What of the effect on Israel?

Ans. – It strengthened their faith in God and Moses.

17. Give and explain the last New Testament reference.

Ans. – The last historical reference in connection with this passage is the passage in Revelation referring to this baptism. The redeemed host in heaven are represented as standing on a sea of glass mingled with fire, the glass reflecting the fire; as if you were to put a mirror here and another yonder, and you had a light between them. So this second type is the final redemption of God’s people in their emergence on the resurrection day. From the burial of death they come triumphantly and stand between the shores of heaven and look back on what is, as it were, a sea of glass, mingled with fire; that is, the light of redemption is shining into all of the graves from which they have emerged, and they are saved forever.