Commentary - Exodus 14:5-9

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we are witness to the anatomy of unrepentant rebellion. Pharaoh's brief moment of compliance, coerced by the terrifying plague on the firstborn, has evaporated. What we see here is not true repentance, but rather a carnal regret born of inconvenience and economic loss. This is the kind of sorrow that leads to death. God, in His absolute sovereignty, uses this very rebellion for His own glorious purposes. He does not merely permit Pharaoh's change of heart; He orchestrates it, hardening Pharaoh's heart to set the stage for the final, definitive act of judgment and deliverance at the Red Sea. This is not a contest between two equal powers. This is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth laying a trap for His enemies, using their own pride and fury as the bait. The pursuit of Israel is not a sign of Pharaoh's strength, but a testament to his blindness, a blindness judicially imposed by God Himself to demonstrate His power over the most arrogant of men and the most powerful of nations. The scene is set for a salvation so profound that it will be sung about for the rest of redemptive history.

The conflict is covenantal at its heart. Pharaoh, representing the kingdom of man and the seed of the serpent, is making one last, desperate attempt to hold onto the people of God. Israel, marching out "with an exalted hand," is a picture of the church militant, freed from bondage but not yet in the promised land. The clash at the sea is therefore a microcosm of the entire spiritual war: God's redeemed people, seemingly trapped and helpless, are pursued by a furious enemy, but their deliverance is already secured by the God who goes before them and fights for them.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This section follows immediately upon the heels of the Passover and the departure of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 12-13). After ten devastating plagues, culminating in the death of every firstborn in Egypt, Pharaoh had finally urged Moses and the Israelites to leave. The Israelites departed with great plunder, as God had promised Abraham centuries before. God did not lead them on the most direct route to Canaan, via the Philistine highway, but rather took them south toward the Red Sea. This was a strategic move on God's part, designed to accomplish two things: first, to protect a new and vulnerable people from an immediate war they were not ready for, and second, to lure Pharaoh into the trap that is about to be sprung. The pillar of cloud and fire has already appeared, signifying God's tangible presence leading His people (Ex 13:21-22). This pursuit by Pharaoh is therefore not just an attack on Israel; it is a direct assault on the manifest presence of Yahweh Himself.

Key Issues

The Hardening is the Point

One of the central theological challenges in the book of Exodus is the repeated statement that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Our modern, sentimental view of God finds this troubling. We want a God who is always pleading, always offering, but never decisively intervening in the human will. But the Bible is not sentimental. God's sovereignty is absolute, which means He is in control of all things, including the sinful inclinations of rebellious men. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is not an injustice; it is a judicial act. God is giving Pharaoh over to the sin that already defines him. Like a man who loves poison, Pharaoh is given a whole barrel of it to drink.

This does not negate Pharaoh's responsibility. The text says both that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex. 8:15, 32) and that God hardened it. This is not a contradiction; it is a statement of two concurrent realities viewed from different perspectives. Charles Spurgeon once said he did not need to reconcile friends, and the same is true of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Pharaoh freely chose his path of defiance. God, in His sovereignty, ordained that this defiance would serve His ultimate purpose of displaying His glory and saving His people. God's hardening is a strengthening, a fortifying of Pharaoh's will in the direction it already wanted to go. God is not making a good man bad; He is taking a bad man and using his badness to accomplish an incalculable good.

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 Then the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

The news comes to Pharaoh that the people have "fled." This is likely the spin his courtiers put on it; they did not simply leave as permitted, they escaped. And notice the immediate reaction. The heart of Pharaoh and his servants "was changed." This is not repentance. Repentance is a change of heart toward God. This is a change of heart based on a cost/benefit analysis. The pain of the tenth plague has subsided, and now the economic reality of losing a massive slave labor force sets in. Their sorrow was not over their sin of oppression, but over the loss of their assets. "What is this we have done?" is the cry of a man who regrets a bad business decision, not the cry of a sinner who has offended a holy God. They are not mourning their rebellion against Yahweh; they are mourning the hit to their gross domestic product. This is the sorrow of the world, which, as Paul tells us, produces death (2 Cor. 7:10).

6-7 So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him; and he took six hundred choice chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

Regret quickly turns into action. Pharaoh does not sit and stew; he mobilizes. He personally prepares his own chariot, leading from the front. This is the pride of a monarch who cannot stand to be defied. He musters the elite of his military might: six hundred "choice" chariots, the special forces of their day, along with the entire chariot corps of Egypt. This was the ancient equivalent of an armored division. It was a force designed for shock and awe, meant to ride down fleeing infantry with terrifying speed and lethality. The mention of "officers over all of them" emphasizes the organized, total, and official nature of this response. This is not a rogue posse; this is the full military power of the Egyptian state being brought to bear on a nation of refugees. It is a picture of overwhelming worldly power arrayed against the seemingly helpless people of God.

8 And Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, with strength, and he pursued the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out with an exalted hand.

Here is the divine explanation behind the human action. Why did Pharaoh's pragmatic regret flare up into such a self-destructive rage? Because Yahweh "hardened his heart." The Hebrew word here for hardened can mean to strengthen or make firm. God gave Pharaoh's rebellious heart a backbone of steel. He confirmed him in his wicked decision. He gave him the courage to do the stupidest thing he could possibly do, which was to pursue the people who were being led by a pillar of fire. And notice the glorious contrast. Pharaoh pursues in his hardened rebellion, while Israel is going out "with an exalted hand" or a "high hand." This is a Hebrew idiom for acting boldly, openly, and defiantly. They are not slinking away in the night. They are marching out as a triumphant, liberated army under the banner of their God. The conflict is set: the hardened heart of a pagan king against the high hand of God's redeemed people.

9 Then the Egyptians pursued them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

The narrative builds the tension. The full weight of Egypt's military machine is listed again: horses, chariots, horsemen, army. The repetition drives home the terrifying nature of the threat. And they succeed in their initial objective: they overtake Israel. The geography is crucial. God has led His people into a place that, from a human perspective, is a tactical nightmare. They are boxed in, with the sea in front of them and the desert on their flanks. There is no escape. The place names, Pi-hahiroth and Baal-zephon ("lord of the north," a pagan deity), remind us that this is happening in enemy territory. The trap appears to be set for Israel. But as we know, the trap is actually for Egypt. God has led His people to this very spot to demonstrate that what looks like a dead end to man is the stage for God's greatest miracles.

Application

This passage is a stark reminder that the heart of unregenerate man is desperately wicked and deceitful. Pharaoh's regret was entirely self-centered. We must examine our own repentance. When we are sorry for our sin, is it because we have been caught and are suffering the consequences? Or is it because we see the ugliness of our sin before a holy and loving God? Worldly sorrow only leads us to try and fix the consequences, often by doubling down on our sin, as Pharaoh did. Godly sorrow leads us to Christ, to true forgiveness and a changed life.

Secondly, we must take immense comfort in the absolute sovereignty of God. The most fearsome enemy, the most powerful state, the most hardened heart, is nothing but a tool in the hand of our God. He does not just react to the plans of wicked men; He writes their plans into His own grand story. When it feels like the enemy is closing in, when we are trapped by the sea with chariots at our back, we must remember that this is precisely the kind of situation where God loves to display His glory. Our dead ends are His opportunities. He did not bring us out of our own personal Egypt to abandon us in the wilderness. He who began the good work of our salvation will bring it to completion.

Finally, we see the nature of our redemption. We were slaves in Egypt. We were set free by the blood of the Lamb. We are marching out with a high hand, not because of our own strength, but because God leads us. And the old master will not let us go easily. He will pursue. The world, the flesh, and the devil will muster their chariots. But the victory has already been won. The waters will part for us, and they will crash down upon our enemies. Our job is to stand still, trust our God, and see the salvation of the Lord.