Isn’t it interesting that God led them through the wilderness rather than directly to the Promised Land? That route didn’t make sense to anyone else, but God had good reasons for His choice. Further, He stopped them at a campsite that left them between the sea (with no way across) and Pharaoh’s pursuing army, the mightiest army of its day, in all of its strength.
So it often is with God’s plans. Sometimes He makes circumstances change for the better miraculously quickly and easily, and sometimes we find ourselves taking what looks like the wrong route, or languishing in a nowhere place that is not where we want to be at all. Or in a hopelessly perilous place. This story is our reminder that God has His reasons for leading us into some of these places, and they not only make sense to the One who knows the truth, but they are designed for our good. The dangerous place ended up being an exciting display of God’s willingness and ability to protect His people, judge their enemy, and further their growth. After the stand-off at the Red Sea, Egypt was in no position to pursue the Israelites into Canaan for a long enough period of time for them to grow into an independent nation capable of protecting themselves.
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That doesn’t sound like the action of One who “doesn’t want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9) This is a part of God’s plan that we can’t understand. The Bible teaches that He is not unjust except mercifully. Pharaoh’s heart was already hardened by his own choices. What a frightening prospect, that one would harden his heart until God’s only work in that heart would be to harden it further. It grows from a series of choices that any of us are capable of making.
What a lesson in contrasts today’s reading is: the followers of God led on a ridiculous route into the wilderness and certain destruction that was transformed into an absolute victory, and Pharaoh’s hard heart leading the greatest power of its day to what looked like certain victory but was transformed into absolute destruction. What lessons can you apply to your own life from this account of God’s working in the affairs of men?
Appropriately, Israel paused to praise God. Do we do that? Their praise takes the form of ancient Hebrew poetry, which, again, does not make the most interesting reading for us. I challenge you to find in this psalm of praise one thing God’s people learned about God Himself that you can apply to your own life, and one thing about God’s works that you can apply to your life.