In yesterday's passage we found Pharaoh and his officials mourning their decision to let the Israelites go. They are devoid of free labor now. Not only that, but perhaps they appear weak to the nations and tribes surrounding Egypt. Ancient Egypt had a number of enemies at that time who may have been on the alert for a good time to strike. Pharaoh intends to make a show of force and bring the people back, so in the passage we studied on Saturday he selected six hundred of the best chariots in Egypt along with all the other suitable chariots he could scrounge and assembled a unit of soldiers to pursue the Israelites and seize them in the desert.
The Lord does nothing to try to subdue the king's rage. The Lord doesn't delay the king's departure by sending a plague. The Lord doesn't use a human emissary to reason with him. Pharaoh has used up all his chances to heed the word of the Lord and the Lord is done with talking to him. Now there remains only defeat for Pharaoh. By maintaining his hard heartedness he is playing right into the hands of the Lord who has set a trap for him at the Red Sea. "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly." (Exodus 14:8) The Lord is finished trying to deal with the king's heart and says to him, "Be that way, then."
When Moses says in verse 8 that the Israelites were marching out "boldly" he doesn't mean "fearlessly". In the original language the word he uses means "pridefully, haughtily, lifted up, exalted". Is he telling us the Israelites left Egypt in a scornful attitude, looking down on the Egyptians? Is he saying they left without any regard for authority or that they are making more of themselves than they should? Or is he saying Pharaoh believes they are harboring these attitudes toward him and his nation? Honestly, it's unclear. I definitely think Pharaoh feels they are looking down their noses at him, but I am not certain that a group of people freshly escaped from centuries of cruel slavery is capable of feeling very lifted up in themselves. Are they elated by the destruction the Lord wrought upon Egypt? Probably, but who wouldn't feel Egypt got what was coming to her? Who wouldn't rejoice in the fact that it's going to take years for Egypt to recover? Compared to what Egypt's kings and citizens have done to the Israelites, it might even appear that Egypt didn't receive enough punishment, so it's easy for us to imagine that the Israelites may have gloated over the economic, agricultural, and familial tragedies that have befallen the land of their oppression. I can't blame them if they did. I am not sure Moses or the Lord is blaming them either when Moses says they marched out with heads held high. But Pharaoh can't abide the idea of anyone thinking they got the best of him. He's angry with God. He's angry with the Israelites. And I suspect he's angry with himself for budging even an inch. He intends to rectify his "mistake" immediately.
"The Egyptians---all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops---pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon." (Exodus 14:9) We don't know how many soldiers were in this group but they were numerous enough to block the Israelites' way out of their campsite. When the Israelites see the Egyptians coming, there's no place to flee. Their backs are against the wall, as the saying goes, except this particular wall is the Red Sea whose depths will swallow them up if they choose death in place of a return to slavery. Or at least, that would be their fate if the Lord didn't intend to step in and supernaturally provide an escape route.
"As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord." (Exodus 14:10) This is a distress cry, according to the original language. It's the type of shriek that emerges from the mouth of a person who is suddenly caught off guard and panic-stricken. They did not expect Pharaoh to come after them. They believe he's learned his lesson after the tenth plague and that he doesn't intend to oppose the Lord any longer now that the Lord has shown him who's boss. When the army appears on the horizon I think the entire assembly of Israel lets out a loud gasp at the same time and that gasp is one of horror, perhaps something like, "Oh, God! God help us, what will we do now?" If it were not for the following verses which we'll begin with tomorrow, we could easily conclude that when Moses says they cried out to the Lord he meant they called upon the Lord in this manner: "Lord, help us as You helped us in Egypt! Just as You rained plagues down upon our oppressors in Egypt, rain disaster down upon our pursuing enemies now! Lord, we have beheld Your power and might. Display Your power and might again and destroy our enemies. Send down fire and brimstone from heaven and obliterate them from the earth. We know You are on our side and we trust You to defend us and prevent us from being killed or captured." No, as we'll see in tomorrow's passage, their cry is one of despair and hopelessness. But we won't be judgmental toward them for their lack of bold faith in God's ability to come to the rescue. We will consider where they are coming from and why they don't yet believe their God will move mountains---or waters---to save them.
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