FEAR AND THE RED SEA...from portion BESHALACH (Exodus 13:17 – 17:16)

“Moshe answered the people, ‘Stop being so fearful! Remain steady, and you will see how ADONAI is going to save you. He will do it today – today you have seen the Egyptians, but you will never see them again! ADONAI will do battle for you. Just calm yourselves down!’”
Ex 14:13-14

Fear can cause us to say and do some pretty stupid things. Here, with Pharaoh facing the Israelites down at the Red Sea, the Hebrews acted in fear. In fear they blamed Moses. In fear they questioned why he brought them out, why they couldn’t have just remained slaves, and why they should die here as opposed to in Egypt. What they did not know is what we also fail to see when fear grips us. Freedom was knocking on their door, for it is God who fights for us just as He fought for them. God was their man of war, their ISYH MILCHAMAH (Ex 15:3), and He was about to prove Himself. So then, with the word of the LORD, Moses worked to calm the people’s fears by announcing that this would be the last day the Egyptians would ever be seen. “Moshe answered the people, ‘Stop being so fearful! Remain steady, and you will see how ADONAI is going to save you. He will do it today – today you have seen the Egyptians, but you will never see them again! ADONAI will do battle for you. Just calm yourselves down!’” (Ex 14:13-14). God was about to roll up His sleeves and do battle on their behalf.
Let me pose a thought here, though, perhaps maybe a challenge. The manner in which Pharaoh pursued the Israelites is a great example of how the enemy pursues us. For the Israelites, the difficulty in which they had in breaking free from Pharaoh’s slavery can be compared to the breaking free we experience from our own addictions. We make strides to break free, and perhaps see some release. Yet with each little moment of success the enemy is simply planning his chase to re-slave us. As the First Fruits of Zion's Torah Club puts it, “The devil does not willingly let go of his thralls, nor does he allow them to escape without pursuit.”
But on the flip side, the people of Israel also prove an important point that we must be weary not to mimic. Seeing Pharaoh coming, their first reaction was to complain to Moses and question why they couldn’t have just stayed slaves in Egypt. I heard this same concept shortly after I remarried and came face to face with blending a family. Life becomes set in its way as a single parent, and then the challenge of the blending comes. The typical response in these moments can be to wish you were single again, to wish you were back in Egypt again instead of trying to work through the challenges that are staring you in the face. Trust me, I know this firsthand. However, why should we consider going back to slavery when we know that true freedom, the Promise Land, is only a Red Sea away?
Within all the surrounding panic of Pharaoh closing in on the Hebrews, as well as the Hebrews blaming Moses for what looked like a bad day, God spoke to Moses. The words may not have been what Moses was expecting, but they were the words advised. “’Lift your staff, reach out with your hand over the sea, and divide it in two’” (Ex 14:16a). I am pretty sure they didn’t teach that miracle in Leading the Nation 101, yet still Moses obeyed. And why not, each of the other times God had told Moses or Aaron to stretch out their hand in Egypt God followed through. So once again Moses’ hand was outstretched and the waters parted.
With parted waters, the people of God walked across on dry ground. As the Torah reads, “Moshe reached his hand out over the sea, and ADONAI caused the sea to go back before a strong east wind all night. He made the sea become dry land, and its water was divided in two. Then the people of Isra’el went into the sea on the dry ground, with the water walled up for them on their right and on their left” (Ex 14:21-22).
The weather patterns that God had placed in front of those being delivered now, the fire and the cloud, moved from the front to the back to prevent Pharaoh and his army from pressing in further. It stationed itself to where the Egyptians were in the darkness and the Israelites were in the light. Then, with the light from the fire of God shining a path for them, they watched as a strong wind pulled back the waters, congealing them and dividing them in two walls of water. Dry ground covered the land for the nation to walk across.
The Torah speaks that Pharaoh and the Egyptians continued their pursuit, but were seen by God. To this, Moses was then commanded to reach out his hand again, now from the other side, and watch the sea return to its original form. It was God who caused the waters to split. It was God now who also allowed the chariots, horses, and cavalry to get stuck in the passage way. Wheels were broken off, stuck, and rendered useless. In even this, as with the plagues, Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened while his people saw clearly that the battle was one sided. God was fighting for His people, they had no reason to fear any longer. And neither do we.