Moses Parts the Red Sea

Free at last

For four hundred long years, God's people had been slaves in Egypt. They cried out to God day and night. And God heard them. He sent a man named Moses to lead them out, and after great signs and wonders, the king of Egypt — Pharaoh — finally said, "GO! Just go!"

And so they went. Hundreds of thousands of mommies and daddies, babies and grandmas and big brothers and little sisters — and their sheep and goats and donkeys too — all walking out of Egypt together, singing as they went. God Himself led them — by day in a tall white cloud, and at night in a tall column of fire.

Day after day they walked. Until one afternoon, they came to a place where they could go no further. In front of them was a sea — wide, deep, dark, and salty. The Red Sea.

The army behind them

Back in Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind. "What have I done? I let all my workers go!" He called for his army. He hitched up six hundred of his fastest chariots. The wheels thundered. The horses snorted. And they raced across the desert after God's people.

God's people looked behind them — and saw the dust cloud of an army. They looked in front of them — and saw the sea. They were trapped. They were scared. They cried out to Moses.

But Moses was not afraid. He looked at the people, and he said something brave.

A road through the sea

Then God told Moses to do something nobody had ever seen before. "Stretch out your hand over the sea, Moses. I will open it for you."

The tall pillar of cloud floated to the back of the people — and stood between them and Pharaoh's army, dark on Egypt's side, bright on Israel's side. Then Moses lifted his staff out over the deep water.

All night long the wind blew. WHOOOOOOSH. When the sun came up, there it was — a wide, dry road, right through the middle of the Red Sea. The water stood up on the right like a wall. The water stood up on the left like a wall. And right down the middle ran a path big enough for everyone.

God's people walked across — mommies and daddies, babies and grandmas, sheep and goats and donkeys — all of them on dry ground, with walls of water on either side.

The sea comes back

Pharaoh's army came galloping after them. Chariots and horses and soldiers, racing right into the path between the walls of water. But the wheels got stuck. The chariots slowed. The soldiers shouted, "Let's get out of here! The LORD is fighting for Israel!"

When the very last of God's people had stepped onto the far shore, God told Moses to stretch out his hand again. And Moses did. And the water came roaring back together — WHOOSH — and covered the chariots, the horses, and the army that had chased them.

God's people stood safe on the other side, soaked in the spray and blinking in the morning sun. They could hardly believe their eyes. So Moses and his sister Miriam picked up tambourines, and they sang. They sang one of the very first songs in the Bible.

God had made a road where there was no road. He had made a way where there was no way. He had set His people free.