Commentary - Exodus 14:10-14

Bird's-eye view

This short passage is a microcosm of the entire Christian life. Here we have the people of God, recently delivered from bondage by stupendous miracles, now trapped between an impassable obstacle and a murderous enemy. Their response is entirely predictable for fallen creatures: they panic, they grumble, and they look back fondly on the slavery they just escaped. It is a portrait of raw, carnal fear. In stark contrast stands the word of God through His prophet Moses. The command is not to devise a clever strategy, or to work up a certain quality of faith, but to stop, to stand still, to shut up, and to watch God work. The central theme is the utter inability of man and the absolute sufficiency of God. Salvation is not a cooperative venture; it is a divine accomplishment which we are called to witness. Yahweh will get the glory, Pharaoh will get the judgment, and Israel will get the deliverance, but only if they will be still and see it.

This is the pattern of salvation throughout Scripture. God brings His people to a place where they have no options, where all human resources are exhausted, precisely so that His power might be displayed in their weakness. The deliverance at the Red Sea becomes a paradigm for every subsequent act of salvation, culminating in the ultimate exodus accomplished by Jesus Christ at the cross. We too are pursued by a relentless enemy, with the sea of our own sinfulness before us. Our only hope is to look away from the crashing waves and the thundering chariots and fix our eyes on the Captain of our salvation, who fights for us while we hold our peace.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This scene occurs just days after the triumphant departure of Israel from Egypt. The tenth plague has fallen, Pharaoh has urged them to leave, and they have plundered the Egyptians. They are following the pillar of cloud and fire, a visible manifestation of God's presence and guidance. But God has not led them on the most direct route to the Promised Land. Instead, He has deliberately led them into a geographical cul-de-sac, with the Red Sea before them and the wilderness hemming them in on either side (Ex 13:17-18, 14:1-3). God has done this with the express purpose of baiting Pharaoh into one final, decisive confrontation. He intends to harden Pharaoh's heart again, draw him into a trap, and get glory over him and his entire army (Ex 14:4). The terror of the Israelites, therefore, is not an unforeseen circumstance; it is a central part of God's sovereign plan to display His glory and power in both salvation and judgment.

Key Issues

The School of Hard Knocks

God is a loving father, but He is not a sentimental one. He is training His infant nation for war, and the training is rigorous. After the euphoria of the Passover and the Exodus, the people are immediately thrust into a situation of extreme peril. This is by divine design. Faith is not forged in the classroom; it is forged in the crucible. God brings His people to the end of their rope, not to mock them, but to teach them that His rope is infinitely long. He orchestrates circumstances that are humanly impossible in order to demonstrate that with Him, all things are possible.

The Israelites' reaction is entirely human. They operate by sight, not by faith. They see the dust of Pharaoh's chariots, they hear the thunder of the hooves, and they conclude that God has led them out to be slaughtered. Their fear leads directly to accusation and rebellion. This pattern will repeat itself throughout their wilderness wanderings. But here, at the very beginning, God sets the standard. The answer to their fear is not a pep talk or a call to muster their courage. The answer is a command to be still and a promise that God Himself will enter the fray. This is the fundamental lesson of the Christian life: our victory is not won by our striving, but by our resting in the finished work of our champion, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse by Verse Commentary

10 Now Pharaoh drew near, and the sons of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very afraid; so the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh.

The scene is set for a massive collision. Pharaoh, his heart hardened once more by God, has mustered his elite chariot force and is closing in. The Israelites look up, and their worst fears are realized. The word "behold" captures the shock and immediacy of it. The result is stark: they became very afraid. This is not the holy fear of God, but the carnal, paralyzing fear of man. It is the kind of fear that chokes out faith. In their terror, they cry out to Yahweh. This might sound pious, but given what they say next, it is not the cry of faith. It is the shriek of panic. It is the cry of a cornered animal, not the prayer of a trusting child. They are crying out at God, not to God.

11 Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What is this you have done against us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Here the panic curdles into bitter sarcasm and accusation. Their complaint is aimed at Moses, but its real target is God. The question about graves in Egypt is a piece of high insolence. Egypt was famous for its necropolises, its pyramids and tombs. Their point is that if God simply wanted them dead, He could have accomplished it much more conveniently back in Egypt. This reveals the depth of their unbelief. They interpret their deliverance not as an act of love, but as a cruel and elaborate plot to destroy them. They accuse Moses of doing something against them, when everything he has done has been for their salvation. This is what unbelief does; it twists every grace into a grievance.

12 Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than for us to die in the wilderness.”

Their unbelief now blossoms into a full-blown desire to return to slavery. They engage in a bit of revisionist history, claiming they had told Moses to leave them alone back in Egypt. While they certainly grumbled (Ex 5:21), this sounds more like a post-facto justification for their current cowardice. The final sentence is the pathetic climax of their rebellion: it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than for us to die in the wilderness. They prefer the familiar misery of bondage to the terrifying uncertainties of freedom. They would rather have full bellies under a whip than follow God into the unknown. This is the slave mentality, and it is a profound offense to the God who has just redeemed them. It is to look at the gift of liberty and spit in the Giver's face.

13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of Yahweh which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.

Moses' response is a magnificent word of pure gospel. He does not rebuke their grumbling, at least not yet. He addresses their root problem: fear. The first command is negative: Do not fear! This is not a suggestion; it is a command. In the face of overwhelming evidence for fear, they are commanded to not fear. Why? Because the basis for their courage is not in themselves, but in God. The next commands are positive: Stand by and see. They are to do nothing. They are to be spectators. Salvation is not something they achieve; it is something they are to watch God achieve. The word for salvation here is yeshua, the very name of Jesus. They are to stand still and see the Jesus of Yahweh. And this salvation will be total and final. The enemy that seems so invincible today will be permanently and utterly obliterated.

14 Yahweh will fight for you, and you will keep silent.”

This verse distills the principle to its essence. It sets up a stark contrast between God's role and Israel's role. God's role: He will fight. Israel's role: they will keep silent. The Hebrew implies not just a cessation of speaking, but a state of rest and stillness. They are to shut their mouths. Their grumbling, their panicky cries, their faithless accusations must all cease. God is taking the field. When the divine warrior unsheathes His sword, the part of His people is to stand back in silent awe and watch Him work. He needs no help from them. He requires no strategic advice. He demands only one thing: that they be still and let Him be God. This is the posture of faith.

Application

Every Christian finds himself, sooner or later, standing on the shores of the Red Sea. We are confronted with impossible circumstances. Behind us, the sins and failures of our past, embodied by Pharaoh's army, are in hot pursuit, threatening to drag us back into bondage. Before us lies an impassable obstacle, a challenge at work, a crisis in the family, a collapse in health, a threat to the church. We feel trapped, and our natural, fleshly response is identical to Israel's. We panic. We fear. And then we grumble. We accuse God of leading us into this mess. We look back with a sick nostalgia on previous, easier times, even if those times were a form of slavery.

In those moments, God's word to us is the same word Moses gave to Israel. "Do not fear." Your fear is a liar. It is a form of atheism, because it operates as though God is not in control or not good. "Stand by." Stop your frantic striving. Cease your anxious planning. Quit trying to figure a way out of the trap. Your cleverness cannot save you. "See the salvation of the Lord." Your job is to be a spectator of God's power. Look to Christ. He has already won the decisive victory. The exodus He accomplished at Calvary is the ultimate reality of which this Red Sea deliverance was just a shadow. "Yahweh will fight for you." The battle is not yours, but the Lord's. Your responsibility is not to fight in your own strength, but to trust in His. "And you will keep silent." This is the hardest part. We must silence our complaints, our doubts, our fears, and our arrogant advice to God. We must hold our peace. True faith is not loud and boisterous; it is often quiet, still, and watchful, waiting for the salvation of God.