The Parting of the Red Sea

We have already covered quite a bit of ground here and I think I told you on the front end that I was going to primarily the bulk of the study was going to center on the actual exodus the events leading up to the exodus from Egypt and the plagues and the significance of the exodus.

The plagues and we spent quite a bit of time on that. As we move through the rest of the study that I have prepared we are going to hit some of the high spots.

Now we have already seen and are in this section right now God reveals his sovereign power and so we worked our way through a couple of those issues and the first one was the judgment upon Egypt.

The plagues and so forth. We have covered that ground. The second one and we are still involved with this right now. The deliverance. We see God's sovereign power in the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

And we have covered a great deal of that and we are working our way through that part. And we have spent a few weeks looking at the institution of Passover and its significance and kind of did a short little study on the progressive revelation of the doctrine of the Lamb.

And we have finished all of that. Just kind of bringing us up to speed here. Now we have come to what I guess other than maybe the plagues and the scriptures that deal with that.

Other than that maybe the most popular and most well known portion of Exodus is the parting of the Red Sea. Maybe that is number one on your list. You know when you think of the wows in the Bible.

And there are quite a few of them aren't there? Old Testament, New Testament. When you think of those wows. Certainly on your list would be the parting of the Red Sea.

What an incredible miracle. And an awesome miracle. And much debated. I would tell you. All the way from the ultra liberals who would say that really none of that ever happened.

It's all just myth. All just legend. To some who would say, well yeah it did happen. But not on the grand scale that some believe the scripture is talking about here.

That basically all it was was a couple of Israelites and a couple of Egyptians had a little skirmish on a little creek.

And the Israelites won. Seriously. There are those who would put forward that theory. So that's really what happened. And then over the years of course you know. As it was handed down.

The story got a little bigger and bigger and bigger. Until finally we have the entire Red Sea being parted. And two million some odd Israelites walking over on dry ground.

So they say all that's just simply fabricated. Embellished over the years. So you have quite a wide spectrum of views on these scriptures. I, and this should come at no surprise to you.

I take a very literal position on this. I just, you know, just believe the Bible. And the Bible presents it pretty clearly.

And I think it's meant to be literal. This is history. Albeit redemptive history. There is a spiritual lesson in everything throughout the Old Testament.

And it all ties together in God's redemptive plan that's been unfolding over the centuries. But God's working through history.

And so these events really did happen. And they happened just exactly the way the scripture records it. So that's going to be my position. And again, you're not going to be surprised by that.

A couple of points that we want to look at. Or divisions. Or maybe I could even say emphases or perspectives on the part of the Red Sea.

First of all, Israel's side of this. There are two sides to what's going on here when we talk about the parting of the Red Sea.

We have what God was doing in the life of his people, Israel. And then the second point we'll get to in a minute is what God was doing to Egypt.

And how his plan was unfolding for them. See, God very rarely just has one thing going on. There are multiple things happening.

Some things we see because they're revealed to us in scripture. A host of other things we do not see because God just did not reveal them to us. But God has multiple things going on.

And we can say that is true of his dealing with us and his hand in our own lives. God is working many, many things at the same time.

And that's why we have such trouble interpreting what God's doing. Because we only see just that small little bit.

And it's much bigger than that. And it's much bigger here too. So you can't look at really any of these events in Exodus. Even like we've already seen.

The deliverance out of Egypt and the plague. You can't look at that as just one thing going on. God is doing a number of things. And the same is true here with the parting of the Red Sea.

The first thing that we need to see Israel's side or God's dealing with Israel is, and this is how I have named it, the nation Israel is harnessed by God.

The nation Israel is harnessed by God. And the passage that I wanted to look at, and I've got it up here for you, is Exodus 13 starting with verse 17.

Let me read through this. And I want to make a few points along the way. A few observations. The Bible says that when Pharaoh let the people go, and we know that he did, alright?

The tenth plague, we would say, quote, broke Pharaoh's back, death of the firstborn, death of his own son. We've talked about all of that, the significance of that.

And so Pharaoh relented, and he let them go. All two million plus. I think there were way more than two million Israelites at this time.

Let them go. They had been slaves of Pharaoh and of Egypt for 400 some odd years. And in the latter years, they had been placed under extreme slavery, servitude to Egypt.

And now Pharaoh is letting them go. And the Bible says here that God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country.

Alright, so they're leaving Egypt. And where are they headed, by the way? Don't we know? They're headed, well, first they're going to go by way of Mount Sinai and get the law, but they're headed to the promised land.

The land that God has promised for them. Canaan land. So they're headed there. And so if you were to take a map, let's say you are, you know, Moses, and Pharaoh said, alright, gird up your loins, gather together all your stuff, and get out of here.

And here, by the way, here's some extra stuff. You know, we just want you out of here. And so you're Moses, and you get out the map, and Canaan land is here, the land of Canaan, the promised land is here, and here you are.

And you just kind of draw a straight line, you know, between Egypt and where you're headed. I mean, at least the straightest route you could take.

You know, they didn't have Google Maps or anything like that. But even with Google Maps, you know, you can pick a few different routes. You can move that little thing anywhere you want and go some crazy way to get where you're going, but you're not going to do that.

You're going to try to go the quickest, maybe the best route, and that's what Moses would have done. But Moses is not in charge here of this. Because what did it say? God led them.

The implication is God's leading them. And God did not, it says, lead them on the road through the Philistine country. I don't have a map up here to show you. You can check this out some other time.

But I assure you that the direct route would have been right through the land of the Philistines. God did not lead them that way. And why? Well, he's going to tell us that if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.

So God was, in effect, guarding them from having to deal with the Philistines that might have caused them to lose heart, maybe become discouraged.

And I don't think there's any doubt that they would have desired to return. I mean, it just seems like, you know, at every drop of the hat, they're ready to go back to Egypt.

And you see that happening over and over throughout the history of Israel as they are moving out of Egypt. All right, so God is going to do something else.

He's not going to take them to the Philistine country, though that were shorter, the Bible says. That would be the direct route. For God said if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.

So God led the people. There's that word led again. So who is leading? God. All right. It's not a trick question.

God led the people around. He led them around. That is, He led them the long way around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.

Now, we know what God said here, that He did not want them to have to deal with the Philistines and become discouraged and turn back and go back to Egypt.

But we're going to discover, you know, as we look at these scriptures, that God had something else in mind as well, though He doesn't mention it here. that is why God's leading them to the Red Sea.

He's going to do something incredible there, of course. All right. So He led them by the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks.

That's how it is translated in the New King James Version. If some of you have, anybody have a King James? Are there any King James Bibles left in the world today? All right.

Can I get a witness? Yes. Now, we've got a couple here. The word in the King James is quite interesting. The way they translated it is the word harnessed. And so the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

Now, the word in the Hebrew really is a word that, you know, fits in the context of military.

And so that's why, you know, most of the translations try to pull a literal translation out. And they'll say, you know, orderly ranks. And I'm not sure.

I checked some of the other versions, and I don't remember what they say, but something similar to that. You have an ESV. What does it say? Equipped for battle. Equipped for battle. See, that's something, again, almost totally different.

It's a difficult word, is the bottom line. A difficult word to translate. Most of the versions of the Bible try to interpret the word.

And sometimes you have to do that, because this is a word that appears nowhere else in Scripture. And it's difficult to know exactly what is meant here. Surely it could mean that they were orderly.

You know, they weren't just some rabble going out of Egypt. Everybody going their own way in different ways. Some kind of mob moving along. They did go in an orderly fashion.

I mean, there were a bunch of them. Again, I think easily there were two and a half million of them. So how do you get two and a half million people to move in the same direction at a speed that would be reasonable in some kind of orderly, organized fashion?

Well, you've put them in rank. So, yeah, it could mean that. Equipped for battle, that would be an interesting translation.

I'm sure in some secular sense that the word may have applied to something like that, been used in that way. King James is interesting, though. Because they are primarily, they primarily just brought the word out of the Hebrew, and it meant harnessed.

Like a wild horse that is broken, and then the bit and bridle and everything is put on the horse so that the horse becomes usable, so the horse will respond to guidance.

And the imagery is, to me, quite interesting. Especially when you put all this together and you realize that God had delivered them out of Egypt.

It was all God who did that. He used Moses as His instrument and worked His wonders through Moses, but it was God who did all of this and delivered them out of Egypt with a strong hand, judging all of Egypt's gods and Pharaoh at the same time.

And it's God now leading them in the way that He wants them to go. and He has, in a sense, harnessed them so that they go exactly where He wants them to go.

It's an incredible imagery. And so, they went out, harnessed, out of the land of Egypt. And where are they going? They're going to the Red Sea. Now, here's where, you know, we have one of those perplexing things in Scripture.

And I guess if we didn't know the rest of the story, and we do know it, if we didn't know it, we would think, what is this? You know, He led them to a dead end.

I mean, literally a dead end. In fact, it's described for us exactly where He wanted them to go. We'll read that here in just a minute in chapter 14. But when you analyze all of the place names and such, as best that archaeologists can tell us, they came to a place that was right at the edge of the Red Sea, so the Red Sea was in front of them.

There were mountains on the left and on the right of them. And so, essentially, God led them to a dead end.

There was no way out. And then, of course, you know, eventually the Egyptian army is going to be coming and they're going to be right behind them. So here's Israel trapped.

And who's to blame? Not Moses. Because he's not leading them. Now, God's leading them through him, but it's God who's in charge.

He called all the shots. And he wanted them exactly there. He didn't take them the direct route. And there was a reason for that.

The Philistines. It just wasn't a good time for them to have to deal with the Philistines. They were a warring people. It would have been very difficult for them. But he had another thing in mind, which we're going to get to here in a minute.

But the point that we need to get from this, if we want to make a, and I think we should, make a spiritual application, is that God often leads His people to dead ends.

Have you ever been and experienced a dead end? I'm not just talking about a dead end job. You know, you hear that all the time. I'm in a dead end job. No chance of promotion.

No chance of raises or anything like that. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a host of different things where you've been trying to follow God, follow His Word.

You've prayed. You've desired answers. You've desired direction. And so you have been moving along as you believe God has been leading you. And it got you instead to a place where the horizons were open for you and some of your prayers were answered.

God brought you to a dead end. Well, first, maybe He sent you on a detour like He did Israel. Sometimes God sends us on detours.

And we're wondering what in the world, God? Why this turn of events? And we don't see what God is ultimately going to do, but we're on this detour way out here in left field.

Or God finally brings us to a place where we just can't seem to even go forward. We're at a dead end. And we don't understand it. But God is leading and God is planning something and He is going to accomplish His work in our lives.

And this is what He has done with God's people. Now, we do know some of God's plan here. And that brings us to the second part of this and that is the Egyptian army is overthrown.

So it's a two-fold thing that God is doing as He's revealing His sovereign power. A two-fold thing that He is accomplishing through the parting of the Red Sea.

One, He's leading His people and they are obeying Him and they're going exactly where God wants them. Staying right in His will. And two, He is going to quote, overthrow the Egyptian army.

Going to again, once again, judge Egypt, Pharaoh and all of his army. And it's going to be devastating. Let's look at... I didn't put this scripture up because it's too long.

I want us to look at chapter 14, Exodus chapter 14 and just kind of walk our way through it. It's an incredible chapter. If you've got your Bibles there, you may have a different version.

That's alright. In chapter 14, let me just begin reading. Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pihaharoth between Migdal and the sea opposite Baal-Siphon and you shall camp before it by the sea.

Alright. Very specific instructions. Alright. Nothing vague about it. He didn't just say, Moses, you tell the people let's just kind of go off this direction. You know, go due east or something.

Well, that would be east. That would be south. He's very specific. And again, we don't have time to delve into all these places, but best we can tell and understand by the names here that God is commanding them to go where they have no way of escape.

No way of escape. No way of retreat. In fact, even even if the Egyptian army had not decided to pursue them, he would have led them to a place where where it made no sense.

They didn't have boats. They couldn't, you know, I guess maybe they could have put together some rafts and two million some odd people could have started floating across the Red Sea.

That doesn't make any sense. Alright. So, very specific. So, very detailed. And why? Why does he want them there? Verse 3, For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are bewildered by the land.

That's how it's translated in the New King James. I think other versions use the word entangled. Maybe that's King James. I can't remember. Entangled.

There will be other words that are similar. I think the idea is that they would be trapped. And so, he says, I'm going to lead you to this one spot and want all the people go here and encamp right here where there's no retreat, no way out, so that Pharaoh will say that the children of Israel are trapped.

They're trapped. They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has closed them in. So, no way of escape. verse 4, here's God's purpose.

Then, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. He's been doing that right along, hasn't he? From the very beginning, he has said, this is my purpose to harden Pharaoh's heart.

Of course, to judge him. I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.

And they did so. That is, God's people did what God commanded them. They did so. Now, I was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people and they said, why have we done this that we have let Israel go from serving us?

They changed their minds all of a sudden. It seemed a little confusing. It almost sounds like Pharaoh didn't even realize they were leaving. Well, he did. There's this kind of dynamic of the monarch and the voice of the people and the voice of the people are now saying, why did we do that?

Let our servants go. I read an interesting parallel with this because now Pharaoh is going to pursue after them.

He's not going to let them go. He says, I'm going to let them go and then he let them go and then he says, I don't want them to go and so he's going to pursue after them. Even though God has delivered them with a strong hand, Pharaoh is not going to give up.

You know, as believers by the cross, we have been delivered. I mean, once and for all permanently delivered from the bondage of sin, the condemnation of sin.

we are free people. And yet, has Satan let us go? Now, he continues to pursue after us. And now, one day, God's going to once and for all finally judge Satan.

He's going to get his comeuppance. And Pharaoh's going to get his. So, it's an interesting kind of parallel there. All right, so, here are the people. They say, why, king, have you let these people go from serving us?

So, he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. That is, his administration, I guess, or his head generals. Also, he took 600 choice chariots.

600 of them. That's a bunch. These are just his choice chariots. because then the very next phrase, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.

He's taking his entire army after Israel to bring them back. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with boldness.

So, the Egyptians pursued them. All. There's an all-inclusive word. Pharaoh did not just simply send out a brigade or some special unit within his army.

All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pihiroth before Baal Siphon.

Now, you know what's going to happen. The anticipation, you know the rest of the story. Think about this.

Here, all that Egypt has gone through, as God has judged them, all the plagues, the misery, the death, and finally the death of the firstborn.

You would think that Pharaoh would get it, you know. But God has hardened his heart, and he will not let these people go. You would think that Satan would get it, that he is already defeated, but he will not let us go.

He will not let us go. And he pursues, and God will judge him, and God is going to judge Pharaoh. And he's going to judge Pharaoh, devastate Egypt, in an incredible way.

we know what's going to happen to the entire army, his entire army. I think I agree with those scholars that placed the date of the exodus at a time in Egypt's history when they were at their pinnacle, the pinnacle of their glory and greatness.

And God judged him at that very time and think about a country that lost its entire army in one day.

Devastated. And God did this. He hardened Pharaoh's heart. Alright, when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.

So they were very afraid. And you would be too. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. At least they cried out to the right person.

So the first thing, fear. I mean, here they are. The sea in front of them, mountains to the left and right of them, and the Egyptians, they look back and here comes the Egyptian army. All of them. All their chariots, with captains in each one, and all their army, all their horses, they're coming up behind them.

Hopeless. Right? Sure would see it that way. And so they cry out. And they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us out of Egypt? So first they cry. They're afraid. And they cry out.

And then they start playing the blame game. Have you ever done that?

When it seemed you were at a dead end? Or on some major detour? Or in some kind of dry hole? You know? Fear grips you, you cry out, and then you start blaming others for it.

You know, it was my wife, or my husband, or my kids, or it's the government, or it's the bank that wouldn't lend me the money that I needed to get out of this dead end of mine.

Or it's this or that. And we blame others, everybody but ourselves. This is what Israel is doing, and then they lie. They're self-deceived.

Verse 12, is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? Did they really say that? I think it was just the opposite.

God was, of course, God had His sovereign and had His plan all along. But the Bible does say that He heard their cries because of the press of their taskmasters.

They were crying out. They were desperate. At no time did they say, Moses, just let us stay. We love it here in Egypt. It's like a vacation, like a resort here on the beaches of the Nile.

You've got to watch out for the crocodiles, but it's a great place. We love it here. We've raised our children here, and just let us stay right here. That's not what they said. And so, it's kind of what happens.

We get in a tight spot. God's leading us, and we're not trusting Him. And because God has a plan, a purpose, and it's manifold, manifold purposes, God leads us to a dead end, or a dry hole, or a deep, takes us on a detour, and instead of trusting Him, we fear and cry out and blame others and then lie.

we're self-deceived about it, allow ourselves to be. And Moses, verse 13, said to the people, do not be afraid. Here, by the way, a good formula for deliverance here.

First, don't fear. Don't fear. Stand still. You know, sometimes what we need to do in certain situations of life is nothing.

We need to wait on God. Wait on Him. Trust Him. We're kind of more prone, more geared toward doing something.

Don't just stand there, do something. That's kind of our motto, you know. But sometimes it's don't just do something, stand there. That's what God is saying through Moses.

Stand still. Don't get worried. Maybe some of them were thinking about swimming for it. I don't know. Or like I said, maybe they were looking for some trees, make a raft.

Some of them were going to do some mountain hiking and try to get out of there. Maybe some of them were grabbing everything they had that they could find. They're going to do battle against Pharaoh's army, these captains of his army, these choice soldiers.

And they're going to try to, you know, sometimes doing something is the wrong thing. We need to stand still and wait on God.

And so, Moses is saying, don't be afraid, stand still. And then, what did he say? He can see the salvation of the Lord.

I think, really, that is the primary reason God will put us sometimes in places where we have no way out. So that our salvation is not something that we accomplish.

Salvation in the sense of deliverance. You know, the salvation is God. See His deliverance. Just don't be afraid, stand still, don't do anything yet, let's wait on God and let Him be the deliverer.

I'm not sure at this point if Moses knew exactly what God was going to do. I kind of doubt that he knew at this point that God was going to part the Red Sea.

I don't think it is wildest imagination he ever expected that. At some point, God revealed that to him. But he is a voice for God and God is telling them, don't fear, stand still, see my salvation.

Trust me. And he says, which he will accomplish for you today, this salvation, for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, and this is kind of an interesting thing that God said to Moses, why do you cry to me?

Tell the children of Israel to go forward. It does come a place, I mean, the first thing to see here, there does come a time when it's now time to act.

And you put these in the order in which they appear in Scripture, it's a good formula. Don't fear, stand still, wait on me, trust my deliverance, not your own, now it's time to go.

Now it's time to move. And this thing about what God said to Moses, why are you crying to me?

Why do you cry to me? You need to understand that God's communication to Israel and Israel's to God came by way of Moses.

So Moses in this sense is representing the entire people. It's not that Moses is crying. It is, he's saying, why are the people crying?

They need to stop this, this inordinate emotion and despair, and that really is what's behind this idea of crying.

They're discouraged, despaired, they're hopeless. And God's saying, why? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Go forward. What was forward, by the way?

The Red Sea. You think that made any sense to Moses? Maybe it did. I can't read between the lines and know exactly what God had revealed to Moses. Moses did know that God was going to fight for them.

He said that. Moses did know that he was going to do this in some mighty way. That this Egyptian army that's threatening them right now, they're not going to ever see them again.

Moses somehow knew that the judgment and God's actions would be final, devastating to the army, that Israel didn't need to worry about him. But he's saying to him, go forward.

And then he's going to tell him how, verse 16, but lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow them, so I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots and his horsemen.

Then the Egyptians shall know something. They'll know that I am the Lord. It doesn't mean that they're going to know him in a saving way. In fact, many of those Egyptians there that day, if they know he's the Lord, they'll know it for an instant, then they'll be dead because they're all going to perish here.

But maybe speaking to the Egyptians as a whole, Pharaoh and the Egyptian nation, they will know that I'm the one true God.

And so this is God's purpose here. This is what he's going to do. And there are a number of things in these verses that we might have questions about and would like to dwell on, but they're going to be repeated.

Some of these issues will be repeated, so I'll wait on that. Like, for instance, dividing the Red Sea. What exactly was that? And dry ground, ground, that's a significant part of the story.

How deep was the water? You know, those are questions. And I think some of that will be answered as we go along here. But let me go ahead and read on because we're out of time.

Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And then verse 19, And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.

Now, you know, the pillar of cloud had been there in front of Israel and had been leading them. There's part of the answer to them being harnessed, being led.

They were following. This pillar of cloud, pillar of fire by night, pillar of cloud by day. It was out in front of them and they were following it. And it was way up in the air so that all two million some odd of the Israelites could see it.

They would know the direction. But now here this angel of the Lord, it says, moved behind them so that the pillar of cloud was positioned between Israel and Egypt.

Who is this angel of the Lord, by the way? Angel of God, rather. I think it was Jesus. Second person of the Trinity. I hold this position that throughout the Old Testament, where you have God directly intersecting the lives of people in a visible manifestation, be it in the form of a man, like the angel that visited with Abraham, or in some other manifestation that it's always the second person of the Trinity.

That this pillar of cloud was actually God himself manifested in this way. And so it was God who was leading them, and God then moves in between them as a barrier between Israel and Egypt.

So he moves behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, verse 20. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, the Egyptians, and it gave light by night to the other, the Israelites, so that the one did not come near the other all the night.

It made a definite barrier. I think, and it's a difficult passage to interpret it, and many versions will word it a little bit differently.

I think the idea is that this cloud to the Egyptians was darkness, like a thick fog, they couldn't even see the people of Israel.

They didn't even see them. And they couldn't enter into it because they would be lost. It was a barrier, and so it's a cloud, like a thick black darkness. On the other side, it was light, so that Israel could see.

And they needed to see because God had said, it's time to go forward. And they needed some time to get ready. How long would it take?

Two million Israelites who had encamped there, set up camp, set up tents, whatever it was to set up, and tear all that down, get everything packed on anything that they had to transport stuff, and they needed some time.

And so God afforded them the time to get prepared because He's about to do an incredible thing. Let me move on real quickly. I really need to stop.

I want to finish this. So, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The word sea is yom, by the way, and it always is used in scripture of depth of sea, a body of water.

It was not as some of the liberal scholars would like to have us believe, it was not some little marshland that they walked over. And some wind came and dried it up enough so that they could walk.

This was a sea. It was deep, I think, probably very deep. And we go on, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night.

So this east wind is blowing all night. It made the sea into dry land. So it dried the ground, it parted the water, dried up the ground because you can imagine how difficult it would be to walk over the ground under a sea, the muddy and such.

So he dried that out. And the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground and the waters were, now this is key to note, a wall to them.

This was not some little marshland. you know, with a few inches of water. It was a wall. And the word here is hama in the Hebrew and it means a very large wall.

You know what I think? I think God led them across the deepest part of the Red Sea. The very deepest part. Not the easy part, not the most narrow portion of it.

there are some narrow parts of the Red Sea. Not some marshy area, but the absolute deepest part of the Red Sea. And he sent this east wind and it parted the water and dried up the land so that they walked across and there was a wall of water, towering way up above them as they crossed over the Red Sea.

and the Egyptians pursued, went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen. Now it came to pass in the morning, watched, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians, and he took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty.

Actually, the word is probably more, they got them stuck, bound, I think is a word in some versions.

They just wouldn't roll. And so, it drove them with difficulty. The Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians on their chariots and on their horsemen. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth.

Those are not words you'd use for little marshland. Returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it.

So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, not so much as one of them remained.

Absolute, total destruction. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, so the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses.

What an incredible chapter. verse!