September 13, 2026
Sermon title: “The Lord Opens the Sea”
Scripture: Exodus 14:19-31
(Other lectionary suggestions include Exodus 15:1b-11 and 20-21, Romans 14:1-12, and Matthew 18:21-35.)
Exodus 14:19-31
19The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. 20It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. 21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. 22The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. 25He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”
The Pursuers Drowned
26Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. 28The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. 29But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 30Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
The movie “The Ten Commandments” came out in 1958, I think, and I went to college in the Fall of 1960, graduating in 1964. I tell you this because an upperclassman urged me during my freshman year to take a course on the Old Testament, and I did the following year as a sophomore. It was a wonderfully taught course, probably my most favorite, and it happened during my sophomore year. Because of that Old Testament course, I majored in Religion, and eventually went to seminary, and that’s probably why I’m standing before you today. I was a fairly religious kid in high school, and I just LOVED the Ten Commandments movie. So, I was ready for that Old Testament course during my sophomore year!
By the way, did you ever hear - as I did as a college sophomore - that the RED SEA might have been in actuality the REED SEA? Would it damage your faith if Moses and the Israelites, traveling light, went through marshy ground while the tide was out, and then saw the tide come back in and swallow up the heavier Egyptian forces? It did not bother my faith then or now, but how about you? In my mind and in my faith, God acts in mysterious ways, and perhaps when the ancient Hebrews escaped Egypt, God used the lighter marshy ground for them to escape (through the REED SEA!) and then had the tide come back in and swallow up the heavier Egyptian forces! We don’t know, of course - but God can do ANYTHING, right? How God led the Hebrews out of Egypt is his business, whether it was through a reedy marsh or the deep Red Sea - but the point is, the Israelites escaped, and who knows how God achieved his miracle?
((Read the Song of Miriam, from Exodus 15: 1b-11 and 20-21)) Exodus 15:1b-11 and 20-21 1b“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. 2The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. 4Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea. 5The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. 6Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power— your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy. 7In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble. 8At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. 9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’ 10You blew with your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” 20Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. 21And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”
Here is what Ralph Klein, Christ Seminary-Seminex Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, IL had to say on this topic. I found his commentary on www.working preacher.org.
This fourth semi-continuous selection from the Book of Exodus focuses on what most people mean by the Exodus: the escape from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.
Sermon preparation may not seem like an ideal time to revisit the vagaries of the Pentateuch, but it is good to know that there are at least three accounts of that deliverance from Egypt in the Book of Exodus.
The Song of Moses
One account of the victory at the sea is poetic in form in Exodus 15:1-18 (the Song of Moses) where Yahweh attacks the Egyptians like a divine warrior, climaxing in the doxology of verse 18: “Yahweh will be king forever and ever.” This picture of divine kingship, therefore, is not hierarchical, but shows rather that God’s kingship in the Bible often refers to God’s care for the poor and oppressed, in this case the Israelites.
The Priestly Account
In chapter 14, verses 21-23, 26, and 28-29 come from the priestly writer and depict what most of us naturally imagine when we think of this crossing — waters piled up on the left and right, with the Israelites marching through the sea on dry land, as if it were a liturgical procession.
The Egyptians followed in hot pursuit, but when Moses raised his hand over the sea, the sea collapsed and destroyed the whole Egyptian army. This fits well with a priestly theme that in the Exodus Yahweh is manifesting his glory over the Egyptians and exposing Pharaoh and all other tyrants as hollow, burnt out cases (Exodus 14:4, 17-18)
The Yahwist Account
The remainder of our semi-continuous selection comes from the Yahwist source (verses 19b-20, 24, 25b, 27a, 30-31). Here the pillar of cloud and fire settles down between the Israelites and the Egyptians, preventing any kind of violent confrontation between the two peoples. At daybreak Yahweh threw the Egyptians into a panic and they plunged foolishly into the sea and perished.
It is the climax of this account that offers additional materials for preaching. As a result of this saving action (verse 30), Israel reverenced (or feared) Yahweh and believed in Yahweh and in his servant Moses. This brings to a fitting conclusion a theme that has been explored since the time of the call of Moses in chapters 3-4.
As you will recall, Moses came up with every possible excuse not to follow Yahweh’s call (many preachers have travelled this Moses route before they finally answered God’s call). In Exodus 4:1 Moses says, “They won’t believe this story or that you, Yahweh, even appeared to me.”
Moses was then given three signs — a staff that turned into a snake and back into a staff; a hand that turned leprous and then was restored; and water from the Nile that will turn into blood when poured out on the ground. When Moses and Aaron showed up back in Egypt, however, the people believed (Exodus 4:31)! No doubt many of them fretted about the ultimate outcome during the protracted negotiations with Pharaoh and the ten plagues. But now when they had escaped from Egypt without a scratch we read in Exodus 14:31: They believed in Yahweh. Oh, and also in his servant Moses.
Preaching God’s Good News for Contemporary Bad Situations
In the twenty-first century, many Christians struggle to maintain their faith. If Luther worried about finding a righteous and forgiving God, we worry about finding God at all. What made the Israelites believe in the Book of Exodus? Was it really the three trick signs that Moses was able to pull off? Was it the supernatural power of the Exodus experience itself? Perhaps.
But chances are it was the fact that God had heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites and took notice of them (Exodus 2:24-25). A literal translation of Exodus 2:25 reveals an even more poignant depiction of Yahweh’s compassion: God looked upon the Israelites, and God knew. God knew what they needed, God knew what they were going through, and then God came up with good news for their bad situation. God knew.
As we struggle to live out the life of faith, we have a God who knows us, knows our problems, knows our failings, knows our needs. As we preach to and for the people of God, we try to describe a God who provides good news for whatever bad situations our people are going through — unemployment, family discord, depression and serious illness, doubt, fear, loneliness — you name it.
How does God’s activity in Jesus provide hope and the basis for faith for such people and such situations? Moses underestimated God. “They won’t believe me; they won’t believe you.” That’s a mistake we dare not make. Exodus presents a well-defined situation of oppression and how Yahweh met that need. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to articulate the means of grace in ways that intersect with the current real plight of our people. Then people will believe in God and will trust the word delivered by us latter day Moses’ or Miriam’s. Here ends his commentary.
We can understand the terror the Israelites felt. And we should not be surprised that they turned on Moses. Says the commentator H. L. Ellison, “we know from experience that, however much we have experienced God’s power and care for us, an entirely new experience leaves us with the uncomfortable feeling, ‘Can God really cope with this situation?’ Moses realized, as the people did not, that the situation was one of God’s creating, and so he met the people’s fear with strong words of comfort and confidence....” “Both Moses and Israel had to learn that God was as much controller of chaos, as symbolized by the waters of the sea (Remember how God created order in the first chapters of Genesis) as he was of the ordinary course of nature.” And thus God saved Israel.
By the way, the Pharaoh did not follow his troops into the water, and there is no account that a Pharaoh was drowned in the effort! He was probably told by his men that it would be “unseemly” for the mighty ruler to be chasing runaway slaves! He might send his men after them, but it would be beneath his dignity to follow!
As I mentioned above, “Thus the Lord saved Israel.” How about us? Quoting Ellison here, “Once or twice ....the average Christian finds himself in a position like Israel’s. When he knows that it is God who has brought him into it, he will find that God’s command is to go forward.”
Amen.
Pastor Skip
