The March and the Pursuit.
The night of the fourteenth day of the first month was one to be long and gratefully remembered. Little sleep was there in the homes of Israel or in the dwellings of Egypt on that eventful night. The feast of the Paschal Lamb beginning with the early evening; the dread visitation upon Egypt of the angel of death at midnight; the hasty preparation for their journey throughout all the families of the children of Israel; the gathering and mustering of their hosts for the march of the next day:—such was the work of that memorable night. The stages of their march are definitely chronicled; one day from Rameses to Succoth (Ex. 12: 37); another day from Succoth to Etham, “inthe edge of the wilderness” (Ex. 13: 20); another from Etham to Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the Sea over against Baal-zephon (Ex. 14: 2). The same stages appear in the official record (Num. 33: 3–8) in which it is added that “Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians, for the Egyptians buried all their first-born whom the Lord had smitten among them;upon the gods also, the Lord executed judgment”[33]—so that the shock of such and so much death and their funeral services for the dead diverted their attention from Israel and detained them from the pursuit for a season, giving the slow moving hosts of Israel time to reach the Red Sea before Pharaoh’s swift chariots could overtake them.
The guiding Pillar of cloud and fire.
At this stage commenced that striking but most precious manifestation of God’s guiding presence, of which the first record is—“And the Lord went before them in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light; to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people” (Ex. 13: 21, 22). If the order of the narration corresponds in time to the order of the events, this manifestation of the pillar commenced on the second day of their march as they moved from Succoth to Etham “in the edge of the wilderness.” All through those otherwise dreary days of their marching and halting for forty years in the wilderness, this pillar was before them, appearing as a pillar of cloud by day but of fire by night—the symbol of Jehovah’s presence in all their way, leading their path as they journeyed; marking their place of rest where they were to halt and pitch their tents.——Subsequent allusions to this pillar of cloud or of fire are somewhat numerous, e. g. Ex. 29: 43—showing that in this pillar God met his people and sanctified the tabernacle with his glory: Ex. 40: 34–38,setting forth that when the tabernacle was in readiness, the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord filled the most holy place, making that henceforth his special locality. Yet the pillar of cloud was lifted above the tabernacle as the signal for striking tents and moving forward. Its service as the signal for marching or resting is detailed minutely and beautifully in Num. 9: 15–23; and the prayer of Moses on these special occasions in Num. 10: 35, 36. When the ark set forward—“Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee”; and when it rested—“Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel.”——Other allusions may be seen, Deut. 1: 23 and Neh. 9: 12, 19 and Ps. 78: 14, and 99: 7, and 105: 39 and Isa. 4: 5.
Remarkably when the Egyptian chariots and horsemen drew near toward evening of the third days’ march, “the Angel of God, [embosomed in this pillar] which had been in front of their host, removed and went behind them”—putting himself thus between the men of Israel and the armed hosts of Egypt—“And it was a cloud and darkness to Egypt’s hosts but gave light by night to Israel, so that the one came not near the other all night.” Thus the angel of God in the cloud became, not their guide only, but their protector, their guardian angel.If there were godly men in Israel who like Moses could appreciate the salvation and the glory of Jehovah’s presence, their hearts must have been a thousand times gladdened, and inspired with inexpressible hope and consolation as they lifted up their eyes in their otherwise deepest darkness to see the pillar of fire ever near, the witness that God was near in all their wanderings. But especially there with the Red Sea before them and the chariots of Pharaoh behind—how safe they might have felt! for who is not safe under the wing of God’s pillar of fire?
When Pharaoh’s chariots and horsemen came in sight, rapidly gaining upon the slow-marching footmen of Israel’s host, the latter were sore afraid and cried unto the Lord (Ex. 14: 10). This crying to the Lord would have been all right if only they had believed and trusted; for then they would have honored their great Protector, and they would not have chided Moses for leading them out of Egypt, nor would they have thought so readilyof turning back to their cruel bondage.——With touching forbearance and grace the reply of Moses (from God) breathes scarce a whisper of rebuke: “Fear ye not; stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will show to you to day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see no more again forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” The Lord did not propose to bring the people into direct battle with the trained hosts of Egypt at this early stage of their new life of freedom. They were in no manner prepared for the conflict of arms. This time the Lord alone would go into battle against Egypt. Israel might stand still and look on!
Moses, it seems, cried unto God; but whether because there was some implied unbelief in it, or because there was no time and no further need of prayer, the Lord answered—“Why criest thou unto me? Speak unto the people that they go forward!” The time for action and for placid trust in God had fully come.——But that deep Red Sea lies across thy path; lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and divide it; let Israel march through it dry-shod. The uplifted rod of Moses was the signal for the uplifted hand of God by which he forced the waters from their channel by a strong east wind all that night and made the bed of the sea dry for his people to pass over. The miracle in this case was exerted upon the wind rather than upon the water. God caused the east wind to blow strongly just when its effect was needed for the end in view. He turned the wind and hurried the waters back upon the Egyptians just when the opportune moment came for burying them beneath its mountain waves. If his wisdom had chosen to do so, his Almighty hand could just as easily have annihilated so much of the Red Sea waters as lay in the way of his people till they had passed its dry bed, and then have reproduced them for the destruction of Egypt. But in his mighty works God does not seek display but rather results, and these ordinarily by using only the least amount of supernatural agency which will suffice. It is of little account to attempt to fix the law of miracles, yet we may not infrequently observe the same method as is apparent here.
The historian alludes to yet another element of divine agency. In the morning watch as the host of Pharaohwere pressing on through the very midst of the bed of the sea, “the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and troubled [rather confounded, smote with panic] their marching hosts; and took off their chariot wheels that they drave them heavily;so that the Egyptians said—“Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Jehovah fighteth for them against the Egyptians.”——It may not be possible, certainly is not specially important, to draw the line here between the natural and the supernatural. We may suppose that the pillar of cloud which had been darkness to them blazed forth fearfully in their faces, appalling the stoutest hearts with fear; that both horses and drivers were confounded; that wheel crashed into wheel and made advance impossible; that turning back for flight, their disorder and confusion became a rout, and that in this hour of crisis the returning waters surge and dash upon them and bury them en masse beneath the mountain waves! So perished the slave-holders and oppressors of God’s ancient people! Thus signally did Jehovah exalt his name and win glory to himself as the Avenger of the oppressed and the faithful God of his Israel.The case falls into the same class with the flood and the fires on Sodom, to show before the ages how readily the Lord can find fit instruments of retributive justice for the swift punishment of the wicked even in this world whenever examples are needed to set forth his displeasure against sin, and the certainty of his retributions upon the wicked. Under a system which normally puts over this retribution till after death, it might obviously be wise in the early ages of time to give some exceptional cases to stand as illustrations squarely before the eyes of living men, witnessing to the terrors of that retribution which can not linger long under the government of a just and holy God.
The night of doom to Pharaoh was the night of redemption to Israel. With the morning light they “saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore”—men in their armor of battle; horses in the proud trappings of Egypt; broken chariots, all powerless now—are dashed up by the waves of the turbid sea and lie strewn upon the eastern shore—memorials at once of the danger that was and of the victory and triumph that are, and thatare to be, the joy of God’s redeemed people. Most fitly the deep emotions of the people seek expression in song. The oldest song known to history and one of the grandest, is here before us. “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:”—Ah, indeed, it was the Lord who wrought the victory; who went down alone into that eventful battle and who came back the mighty conqueror! “The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” Over and over this central idea appears: “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea; his chosen chariots also are drowned in the Red Sea.” “Thou didst blow with thy wind; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” Let the Great God of Israel be praised for all this! Appropriately this is the burden of the song: “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation.” “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like to Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders”?