Article January 16, 2012 Issue

Moses moments

By Mark DeGange

A well-known Bible story tells of the children of Israel fleeing from the Egyptians and finding themselves backed right up against the Red Sea. It looks like “curtains” as the Egyptian chariots are fast bearing down on them. 

The reaction of some of those fleeing is to rail on Moses, their leader, saying in essence: How could we have been deluded enough to follow you? You’ve brought us to this dead end! Why didn’t we just stay servants? At least we were safe.

It would seem natural to quake in the face of such a threat. But Moses is listening to another voice. God has told him to camp by the sea, so that “the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord” (see Exodus 14:1–4). Moses then reassures the people with an utterance that covers the whole ground: “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” (verse 13).