It was my observation while browsing Exodus, the Red Sea scenario was an early demonstration of the Grace of God. The Hebrews left the Pharaoh, meandered to the Red Sea, and found themself trapped. Behind them was an aggressive Egyptian force and in front of them the Red Sea. The Hebrews had no weapons, no training, and no strategy. Every person with Moses could have died, but God intervened.

These people begged to go back to Egypt. They said to Moses – “you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:11-12). However, it was not God’s intention to let them go back to bondage. God prepared them for deliverance. His solution was an early example of baptism and faith.

Moses approaches the Red Sea with the rod that brought the plagues, the rod that was used in Egypt to deliver Israel. He takes that specific rod, holds it up, and the waters roll back. The children of Israel passed through the chasm to dry land. We read in the book of Hebrews — “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians, attempting to do, were drowned” (Hebrews 11:29). The route that brought deliverance for them, brought death to the Egyptians. Why? Because the Hebrews were redeemed by blood (Passover), and redemption by blood leads to resurrection. The Egyptians were not covered by the Passover — no redemption, just death. The Hebrews passed through the water to life.

It was faith that caused the people to enter the Red Sea and start walking. It was Faith that kept Moses on task. When the waters first parted, the Hebrews had little faith in God, but because Moses believed God, that sea opened, the people gained assurance, and the Hebrews passed through the sea. When they got on the opposite bank, they saw the Egyptians coming, watched the water collapse, and saw the entire Egyptian pursuit force engulfed in the water and destroyed.

Safely on the other side, they start singing. The song of Miriam emerged. Her song centered on the spectacular power and unrivaled supremacy of Yahweh. The song had two themes – the redemptive overthrow of Egyptian forces and the future acquisition of the promised land. Yet, we know about the 40 years of wandering they needed to complete an 11-day journey, AFTER they were recipients of a massive rescue. They had much to learn; they took a long time. In the same way, it takes us time to learn how to Walk with God. Change happens incrementally, we gradually leave the old life behind.

The deeper truth — Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  The Red Sea is a symbol of the believer’s connection to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Paul says, “I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1–4).

Paul makes the connection between the exodus and salvation. Paul says all “were baptized into Moses” suggesting the Israelites were dedicated into Moses. In a similar way, Christians are baptized into Christ for our spiritual freedom. So, the parting of the Red Sea prefigured the reality of God’s redemption from slavery to sin through the work of Christ.

How then shall we live this year? Move forward or wait for somebody else with faith to get it done?

I choose Jesus.