The Parting of the Red Sea
Parting the Red Sea was God’s final act of deliverance to the Israelites from the Egyptian slavery (Psalm 66:6; 78:13; 106:9; 136:13). After the death of Joseph, a new Pharaoh that didn’t know him ruled Egypt and enslaved the Jews (Exodus 1:8-11). But God prophesied to Abraham that He will judge Egypt. “But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions” (Genesis 15:14).
The Lord raised up Moses to deliverer His people. But Pharaoh “hardened his heart. So, God sent His Ten plagues to humble Pharaoh that he may set the people free (Exodus 7-11). After the final plague of the death of the first born, Pharaoh finally released the people. But after they left, he changed his heart again and chased after them with his army (Exodus 11).
The Israelites were faced with the Red Sea before them and the Army of Pharaoh behind them. Their death was sure. But God once more parted the Red Sea and they went safely to the other side and the Army of pharaoh that pursued them perished in the Sea (Exodus 14).
The exodus from Egypt, represented delivering God’s children from the slavery of sin (John 8:34, 36). And the passing through the Red Sea is symbolic of baptism or the death and burial and Resurrection of Christ. Paul writes, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1–4).
And the apostle adds, “all were baptized into Moses.” Just as the Israelites were “baptized into Moses,” so too Christians are baptized into Christ: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
While the parting of the Red Sea was a great deliverance to the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, today this story gives us hope of God’s redemption of all the believers from the slavery of sin through the work of Christ.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
