I was surprised when I saw in Scripture that God made the east winds to blow all night long to divide the river.
I had always been exposed to the movie version that had Moses hold up his arm to separate the waters.
When I learned it was the wind through the night it didn’t seem so much of a miracle from God as it would have been if it parted on Moses’s command.
We can’t blame the movie producer for the misrepresentation because verse 21 in chapter 14 of Genesis says, “Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and the Lord drove back the sea with a strong wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split.”
God was capable of splitting the sea at any time in any way. He did not need winds to do it.
But God chose to send the strong winds to part the waters.
Like most of God’s miracles He chose to use the manipulation of nature to do this miracle.
It seems likely that God chose to manipulate nature to prove that He was in charge of nature. He was God. Nature was not a God.
And we all know just how important Mother Nature is today. She actually gets more credit in the world than God does.
On the other hand by using nature God allowed and allowed skeptics to not believe God but to believe nature is in charge.
When we study God’s miracle it is easy to see that God is allowing free will.
God is allowing people to either believe Him or find reasons why they don’t want to believe Him.
By using nature to do His miracles He is allowing people to have free will, the freedom to accept or reject the God of the universe.
It’s interesting to think of those who would reject the God of creation when you consider this east wind dried the ground to walk on but also built a wall of water for them, both on their right and their left side’s.
And it worked, after the Israelites passed through the sea, the Egyptians confidently entered on that dry ground to follow the Israelites just as God had previously predicted the event to Moses.
We are then told it was at the morning watch, which lasted from about 2:00am until to about 6:00 am.
Then we remember that pillar of fire and the cloud, which then threw the Egyptian army into a panic.
God locked the wheels of their chariots. This is when the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt”.
Obviously the Egyptians are beginning to believe the Israelites really did have a God who cared for and protected them.
And though they believed, they believed too late. Alas, it was too late they drowned with that knowledge.
Then once again the Lord told Moses, “Hold out your arm over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, and upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.”
Moses did what the Lord instructed, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal status.
At that time any Egyptians who thought they had a chance to escape the sea, were hurled into the sea by God.
All this is done in a three hour period and daylight breaks at the perfect time for the Israelites’ to see the Egyptians drown.
Pharaoh’s entire army were all swallowed up in the sea. Not one remained.
The Israelites were delivered from the Egyptians. They could be certain of that because Israel saw the dead Egyptians on the shore of the sea.
And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the Lord had wielded against the Egyptian army, the people feared the Lord. They now had complete faith in God and in His servant Moses.
Well at least in this moment they had complete faith.
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