God Fights for Israel Text: Exodus 14:21-25
Introduction: God Loves Cliffhangers
We come now to one of the central, load-bearing events in all of Scripture. The deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea is not simply a remarkable historical event; it is a paradigm. It is a pattern for how God saves His people throughout all generations. This event is cited and sung and referenced by prophets and psalmists, and it is the explicit typological foundation for our baptism into Christ. If you want to understand salvation, you have to understand the Red Sea.
And we must notice the kind of God we have. He is a God who loves cliffhangers. He does not deliver His people when it is convenient, or when the odds are merely stacked against them. He waits until deliverance is utterly impossible by any human standard. He waits until Pharaoh's chariots are thundering behind them, a terrified mob of recently freed slaves. He waits until the sea is lapping at their sandals. He waits until the situation is so hopeless that the only possible explanation for what happens next is Him. God orchestrates events so that His glory, and His glory alone, will be magnified. He puts His people in situations where they must "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord" (Ex. 14:13). This is a hard lesson for us, because we are practical men. We like contingency plans. We like to have a way out. But God's way is often to remove all the exits so that we are forced to look up.
This is also a profound act of divine warfare. The plagues were a systematic dismantling of the Egyptian pantheon. Each plague was a direct assault on a specific Egyptian deity, demonstrating Yahweh's total supremacy. Now, at the sea, God is not just delivering Israel; He is executing final judgment on the gods and the armies of the most powerful nation on earth. This is not a defensive action. This is God Almighty picking a fight to show the world who is God. He has hardened Pharaoh's heart for this very purpose, so that He might get glory over Pharaoh and all his host (Ex. 14:4). The world is a theater for the glory of God, and this is the main event.
What we are about to see is not just a miracle. It is a de-creation and a re-creation. God, who in the beginning separated the waters from the dry land, is now going to reverse that for a moment. He will make a path of dry land through the waters, leading His people through a watery womb into a new life, a new national existence. And that same water will become a tomb for His enemies. This is salvation through judgment, the fundamental pattern of the gospel.
The Text
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and Yahweh swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea into dry ground, so the waters were split. So the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Then the Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. Then at the morning watch, Yahweh looked down on the camp of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the camp of the Egyptians into confusion. And He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from Israel, for Yahweh is fighting for them against the Egyptians.”
(Exodus 14:21-25 LSB)
The Hand of Moses and the Wind of God (v. 21)
The action begins with the instrumental cause, Moses, and the ultimate cause, Yahweh.
"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and Yahweh swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea into dry ground, so the waters were split." (Exodus 14:21)
Moses, the man, stretches out his hand. This is an act of faith, but it is not the effective cause. The rod in his hand has no magical properties. Moses' arm has no intrinsic power. This is to teach us that God uses men, but God does the work. God delights in using weak and foolish things to shame the wise and the strong. All the power flows from Yahweh.
And how does Yahweh accomplish this? He uses a "strong east wind." Liberal theologians, in their desperation to explain away the supernatural, love to seize on this. "Aha!" they say, "It was just a natural phenomenon, a freak wind." But this is to miss the point entirely. The Bible is not embarrassed by God's use of secondary causes. God is the Lord of the wind and the waves. The miracle is not that the wind blew; the miracle is that the wind blew all night, with precise timing, with supernatural force, to accomplish a task that no natural wind could ever accomplish. It did not just blow the water back; it made the sea into "dry ground." This wasn't a muddy swamp; it was a road. The text says the waters were "split." This is a supernatural act accomplished through a natural agent, which magnifies God's sovereignty over His creation. He can use the ordinary to do the extraordinary.
The wind here is the Hebrew word ruach. This word means wind, but it also means breath, and most importantly, Spirit. Just as the Ruach of God hovered over the waters of creation in Genesis 1, so the Ruach of God now blows over these waters to perform an act of new creation for His people. This is the Spirit of God, the breath of God, doing the work.
A Wall of Water, A Path of Life (v. 22)
The result of God's mighty wind is a pathway to salvation for Israel.
"So the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." (Exodus 14:22)
The people of God walk through the very heart of the sea. The thing that was their greatest threat has become their path to freedom. The text emphasizes that the ground was dry, making their passage swift. But the most stunning detail is that the waters formed a "wall" on their right and on their left. This demolishes any naturalistic explanation. This is not a gentle slope of water held back by wind. This is a canyon of water, a liquid fortress. God's raw power is on display.
This is a picture of what God does for us in Christ. We are trapped, with the armies of sin and death behind us and the sea of God's judgment before us. There is no escape. But God, in Christ, makes a way through the judgment. Jesus entered the sea of God's wrath on our behalf. He went under the waves. And because He did, we can pass through on dry ground. The very judgment that should destroy us becomes our salvation. This is what Paul means when he says the Israelites were "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:2). Baptism is a picture of passing through the waters of judgment and coming out alive on the other side, identified with our savior.
The Arrogance of the Pursuer (v. 23)
The Egyptians, blinded by their rage and arrogance, follow Israel into God's divine trap.
"Then the Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea." (Exodus 14:23)
Here we see the insanity of a heart hardened by God. Pharaoh and his army see the miracle. They see the walls of water. A sane man would stop, terrified. But a man given over to his rebellion will not be deterred by reason or even by a direct display of God's power. He sees the path God made for His people and thinks he can use it too. This is the height of presumption. Unbelievers see the blessings of God on the church, the path of salvation He has made, and they think they can walk it on their own terms, without submitting to the God who made it. They want the salvation without the Savior. They want the dry ground without the God who dried it.
This is a solemn warning. The means of God's grace to His people become the means of His judgment to His enemies. The same water that saves Noah destroys the world. The same Christ who is a cornerstone to believers is a stone of stumbling to the unbeliever. The same gospel that is an aroma of life to life for us is an aroma of death to death for them (2 Corinthians 2:16).
The Gaze of God and the Confusion of Man (v. 24-25)
As dawn approaches, the battle turns. Yahweh Himself looks down from His command post.
"Then at the morning watch, Yahweh looked down on the camp of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the camp of the Egyptians into confusion... And He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from Israel, for Yahweh is fighting for them against the Egyptians.”" (Exodus 14:24-25)
The pillar of cloud and fire, which had been a source of light and guidance for Israel, now becomes a weapon. "Yahweh looked down." This is a terrifying anthropomorphism. The gaze of God upon His enemies brings not blessing, but terror and confusion. He looks, and their whole enterprise falls apart. This is not a battle between equals. This is the Creator swatting a fly.
God throws them into a panic. He clogs their chariot wheels. The Hebrew is more visceral; He "bound" or "removed" their wheels. Their technology, the pride of their military, is rendered useless. They are stuck in the mud at the bottom of the sea. Their strength has become their weakness. This is what God does to the proud. He takes what they trust in and makes it an anchor that drags them to destruction.
And finally, in their terror, the Egyptians come to the correct theological conclusion, but far too late. "Yahweh is fighting for them against the Egyptians." They finally recognize who their true adversary is. Their fight was never with Moses or with Israel. Their fight was with God. And that is a fight you cannot win. This is the confession wrung from the lips of the damned. It is the realization of the pagan, the atheist, the rebel, in the moment of judgment, that all their lives they have been fighting against the God who gave them breath. But this is not a saving confession; it is a scream of terror before the end.
Conclusion: Our Red Sea Deliverance
This grand historical drama is our story. Every Christian is an Israelite, standing at the edge of the sea. Behind us is Pharaoh, a type of Satan, the tyrant from whose kingdom of darkness we have been plundered. Before us is the sea of judgment we justly deserve for our sin. We are helpless.
But God has not left us there. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, He has stretched out His hand. He has sent His Spirit, the mighty Ruach, to blow through history. He has parted the waters of His own wrath. Jesus went down into those waters, into the grave, into the heart of judgment. He absorbed it all. And because He did, a path of dry ground has been opened for us. We pass through the waters of baptism, not as a tomb, but as a womb. We are born again on the other side, while our old master, sin, and his armies of accusation are drowned behind us.
The Egyptians realized too late that Yahweh was fighting for Israel. Let us realize it now, and rejoice in it. The Lord Jesus Christ has fought for us. He has won the decisive victory. The enemy is defeated, his chariots are broken, and he is drowned in the sea of God's judgment. Therefore, we do not stand in fear. We stand on the far shore, with the timbrel in our hand, and we sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, O King of the saints!" (Rev. 15:3). To Him be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.