I ness impenetrable by human eye and felt to be preternatural Into this murky cloud, which reminded of the plague recently endured, no Egyptian would venture to plunge. Thus Israel was free to act during the night, as if there had been no enemy near. And, while the Egyptian host was thus plunged in deep darkness, the Israelites enjoyed a superabundance of light. The cloud turned to them its "silver lining," and shone with a lustre that changed night into broad day. The orders which Moses gave were easily executed. Divinely instructed (vers. 15-18), he commanded the Israelites to form in column, facing a particular portion of the shore, to load their beasts, bring together their cattle, and have everything in readiness for a start. Then he stood at the head of the column, and stretched out his hand over the sea. At once an east, or south-east, wind arose, and drove the upper water of the shallow bay that lay before him towards the north-west, while probably a strong ebb-tide set in at the same time and drew the lower water southwards, so that the bed of the sea was for a considerable space laid bare. A sort of broad causeway, guarded by water upon either side, was formed, and upon this the column advanced, the pillar of the cloud still lending them its brilliant light and clearly showing them their path. The distance to be traversed may not have been more than a mile, and the entire column may easily have accomplished the passage in five or six hours. As the last Israelites entered the sea-bed, the pillar of the cloud withdrew itself from the shore and followed up the retiring column, protecting it like a rearguard. Then the Egyptians began to see what had happened. Israel had quitted its camping-ground, had entered the sea-bed, and was traversing it—their prey was on the point of escaping them. The sight woke in them a burning anger, and an intense longing for revenge. It was no longer vexation at the loss of so many and such useful labourers, and the desire of recovering them, that formed their animating motive, but sheer rage and malice, with a certain mixture of cupidity. "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy then " 'The people of Memphis had a tradition to this effect. They said, that Moses, being well acquainted with the district, watched the ebb of the tide, and so led the people across the dry bed of the sea. (Artapan. ap. Alex. Polyhist. Fr. 14.) (Exod. xv. 9). Without waiting for orders, as far as appears, they rushed to satiate their lust of carnage and of spoil. "The Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his riders" (Exod. xiv. 23). The soft sand and ooze of the sea-bed was unsuited for the passage of chariots; the wheels sank into it up to their axles, and were in consequence clogged,' and "made to go heavily." In addition to this, "the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of the cloud and of fire, and troubled the host of the Egyptians" (ver. 24). As Josephus explains, "Showers of rain came down from the sky,and dreadful thunders and lightning, with flashes of fire; thunderbolts were also darted upon them; nor was there anything wont to be sent by God upon men as indications of His wrath, which did not happen upon this occasion." A Psalmist thus describes the event-" The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of Thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters; and Thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest Thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron " (Ps. lxxvii. 17–20). The result was, that the Egyptian host never came in contact with the Israelites. Before they could do so, God gave a command to Moses to "stretch out his hand over the sea" a second time, "that the waters might come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their riders" (ver. 26). Moses obeyed, and "the waters returned." From the northern end of the bay, the waters held there by the "strong east (¿.e., southeast) wind" came back with a rush so soon as the wind lulled; from the south the flood tide rushed furiously in. Those who know the danger of crossing estuaries (e.g., Morecombe Bay) under an advancing tide, and how easily travellers are under such circumstances lost, will at least partially apprehend the peril of the situation. Here, however, water threatened on both sides; the hungry waves rushed in upon either flank, surged, boiled, united their seething waters, and soon went over the heads of the host. Encumbered with their heavy armour, the Egyptian warriors "sank like lead" (Exod. xv. 10) in the * See the Septuagint version of Exod. xiv. 25. • "Ant. Jud." ii. 16, § 3. " angry flood-went to the bottom as a stone" (ver. 5). The horses, plunging, rearing, mad with fear, struggled wildly, but had to succumb; the chariots stuck fast in the wet sand. In vain the Egyptians "fled against " (Exod. xiv. 27) the advancing tide, when they first saw it coming; tried to race it, and to get to shore before it was upon them. The surge was far swifter than they. Probably the struggle to escape did not occupy half an hour. Before that space of time had elapsed "the waters covered the chariots, and the riders, and all the hosi of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them" when morning fully broke (ver. 28). Later in the day a ghastly mass of floating corpses was borne in by the waves and cast upon the Asiatic coast; and Israel took its last look upon the Egyptians lying “dead upon the sea-shore" (ver. 30). Mighty, marvellous, and most complete was the deliverance. The army that had pursued Israel was utterly destroyed. The Pharaoh had either perished, or was a disgraced and awestruck fugitive, never likely to lift a hand against Israel again. The whole Egyptian military force must, when news reached it of what had happened, have become utterly demoralized. Israel had stepped from a position of imminent peril to one of absolute security, so far as Egypt was concerned. They had passed from Africa into Asia, from the Dark Continent into the region of Light, the Land of the Rising Sun, the "Land of Promise." Old things were passed away—all things were become new with them. "Behind the African hills, which rose beyond the Dead Sea, lay the strange land of their exile and bondage—the land of Egypt, with its mighty river, its immense buildings, its monster-worship, its grinding tyranny, its over-grown civilization. This they had left to revisit no more; the Red Sea flowed between them; 'the Egyptians whom they saw yesterday they will now see no more again for ever.' And before them stretched the level plains of the Arabian desert, the desert where their fathers and their kindred had wandered in former times, where their great leader had fed the flocks of Jethro, through which they must advance onwards till they reached the Land of Promise. Further, this change of local situation was at once a change of moral condition. From slaves they had become free; from an oppressed tribe they had become an independent nation. It is their deliverance from slavery. It is the earliest Israel recorded instance of a great national emancipation." had burst its bondage, had passed through its first great trial in the furnace of affliction, and entered on a new phase of its existence. It was free; it was under direct Divine guidance; to a certain extent, it knew Jehovah ; untold possibilities of advance, progress, and usefulness to the world lay before it ; in a certain sense it might be said to have "passed from death unto life," from the power of Satan to the free service of God. The biographer naturally asks, before turning his eye from this great crisis, What was Moses' share in producing the result; how far may it be considered to have been brought about, not only through, but by, him? If the crisis be compared with those which ordinarily determine the history of nations, there can be no doubt that the part which was played in it by any human agency whatever, must be pronounced to be small. Moses had not to design, or to plan, or to contrive, or to persuade, or to undertake a campaign, or to display any extraordinary activity, or energy, or practical power. The deliverance was of God. "Stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah,” was at once its watchword (Exod. xiv. 13) and its principle. The object of the whole series of transactions, was that God's power might be shown forth, and His name declared throughout all the earth (Exod. ix. 16). It was intended that the Israelites should be compelled to look to Him, and not to themselves, nor to any "arm of flesh," as the source of their triumph. To Moses, therefore, a much smaller proportion of the results achieved under his leadership is to be attributed, than we rightly assign to such active and stirring chiefs, the prime movers in all that they effected, as Joshua, and Gideon, and Samson, and David, and Judas Maccabæus. In the main, he was a passive instrument in God's hand for working out His purposes. Yet, still, he was not merely this. His consciousness was not absorbed, his individuality was not swallowed up. Through the whole struggle with his proud and powerful adversary he showed unwavering firmness, coolness, and strength of mind. In the final scene, the great climax and crisis, he displayed intense faith, profound confidence in God, and a contempt of danger rarely exceeded by any military hero. The dogged perseverance, which, however difficult his task appeared, “bated no jot of heart or hope;" the boldness, which bearded the Pharaoh in the midst of all • Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 128. ΙΟ his courtiers and lords; the patience, which endured all, and never let itself be driven to any false step; and the firm faith, which nothing could shake—were great qualities, and largely conduced towards the result, which God miraculously brought about. God works through men as instruments; but He fashions His instruments with extreme care, and fits each of them marvellously for the work which He has in hand. "Moses was a man of marvellous gifts, raised up by Divine Providence for the highest purpose to which man could be called." In the crisis at the Red Sea, as in the previous struggle, these gifts were brought into play; and we shall do less than justice to Moses if we do not allow that they had no small share in producing the result. I On finding himself, with his people, safe on the Arabian shore of the Red Sea, the first instinct of Moses was thanksgiving. As in the Christian world each national escape or victory is celebrated by the solemn singing of a Te Deum, so was the first deliverance of the Jewish Church commemorated by a song of triumph. Moses composed, and the minstrels of Israel sang, on the day following that wonderful escape, the magnificent psalm, which is at once "the first burst of Hebrew national poesy," and the pattern Thanksgiving Hymn for the Church of God through all ages. The psalm was sung by "Moses and the children of Israel" (Exod. xv. 1); Miriam and her maidens, accompanying themselves with instruments of music, sang the chorus. The song was as follows: I. Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. My strength and song is JAH; And He is to me for salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him. Jehovah is a man of war ; Jehovah is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea; The depths covered them; they sank to the bottom as a stone. • Stanley in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," vol. ii. p. 428. |