The waters divided (Exod 14:15-31)
Exod 14:15-31
God’s address to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me?’, sounds surprisingly accusatory. Surely it is not wrong for Moses to seek God’s help! Perhaps, his reassurance to the people is short-lived and he, too, needs encouragement. Since the same word is used of Israel crying out to God (Exod 14:10-12), perhaps the implication is that Moses had the same attitude. Like the disciples who, panic-stricken by the storm, shake Jesus awake in the boat and plead for help (Mk 4:37-38), so Moses may have adopted a similar stance of desperation. The issue is not that the disciples or Moses, or earlier the Israelites, seek out the Lord, but that their attitude carries an assumption that God is unconcerned with their distress. Sometimes we can cower and adopt a pitiful posture, like beggars or victims, to evoke God’s sympathy, but this is unnecessary. We can come to Him with our requests and needs with dignity and in trust: He cares and is able to help.
Alternatively, Moses may cry to God because his authority as leader has been questioned again as in the early days (Exod 5:21-22). If so, then God is telling him to buckle up and get on with the job. When I did my teacher training, I well remember my instructor commenting that in a teaching session I came across as insecure and too apologetic. She smiled at me with understanding but said, ‘The doubts may be in there’, and she pointed at my heart, ‘but outwardly, “we” are confident’. Moses has gone through the questioning phase and now it was time to trust God and move in full assurance of the identity God has given him as leader of Israel. What is sometimes needed is not another pity-party or having our doubts out with God but beginning to act in line with what we know is true even if we do not feel it.
As we read the rest of the chapter, it is instructive how God brings about Israel’s deliverance. He is involved both through direct action and indirectly through nature. The Lord protects Israel more directly through His presence in the pillar of cloud/light which moves between the Israelite and the Egyptian camp,[1] and uses nature (the east wind) to sweep the waters back and create dry ground (Exod 14:19, 21). He also strengthens the Egyptians’ resolve, obstructs their progress in their chariots and brings confusion, so much so that they flee right into the waves that are coming together again rather than away from them (Exod 14:17, 25, 27). God today likewise acts through a mixture of circumstances, direct intervention and even through influencing the attitudes of others.
It is also important to note that whatever means He employs, God involves us in the process in some fashion. For Israel, this meant going through the midst of the waters (Exod 14:22), which required an act of faith. Human participation is necessary as we move from enslavement to service of God because He does not save us against our will. It speaks of our worth and dignity in God’s eyes that we are not mere puppets, as well as of the need to relate to God in trust. Moses, as co-worker with God has a greater role to play (Exod 14:16, 21), though it is abundantly clear that ultimately it is God’s power that achieves the parting of the waters. Nevertheless, Moses’ contribution speaks once again of how much God values us that He involves us in His work. Israel’s deliverance from slavery then is a watershed moment through which God’s people learn both that He cares for them and is powerful to save and that they are called into a life of trust and partnership with God.
[1] Exod 14:20 is confusing and the Hebrew is hard to make sense of. Verse 19 speaks of a pillar of cloud only, while v.20 has a cloud and darkness on the one hand, but also light and seems to imply that these were two separate things. Potentially, the cloud was dark towards the Egyptian camp and light towards Israel (just like in the ninth plague – Exod 10:22-23).
