Exodus 14:1-9 - Shall know that I am the Lord

14:1-4

We now come to the crossing of the Red Sea. The first thing to note is that God deliberately led the Israelites so that they would be trapped between the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptian army. The situation was not one that took God by surprise, He was not responding to a particular situation that had arisen. This was all a deliberate part of God’s plan. 

I noted in comments on the previous chapter that God wanted the Israelites to trust Him. We do not realise how much we can trust the Lord, and are most reluctant to find out! As a rule we will only live by faith once we have exhausted all the other options. However, the primary purpose given here is so that Pharaoh and the Egyptians will realise that God is the Lord. We see many ungodly forces at work in society today and we may be perplexed at the way God acts, or doesn’t seem to be acting at all. We should remember that part of God’s purpose is that all will realise that He is the Lord.

14:5-9

Pharaoh and the Egyptians had driven the Israelites out, glad to see the back of them, and had given them silver and gold to see them on their way. These actions were driven by the horror of what was happening with the death of the first born. Once the Israelites had gone and the last plague had stopped they looked at things again. They were then struck by the realisation that a large segment of their slave labour was now no more. Therefore Pharaoh assembled an army of six hundred chariots and more. As usual there are debates over the numbers. One approach is to say that the numbers are wrong, or are rough estimates, or merely symbolic. Another would be to say that the number here is consistent with the number given for the number of Israelites who left Egypt. So the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites.