Exodus 14:29

My Notes

What Does Exodus 14:29 Mean?

"But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left." Israel walks on DRY LAND in the MIDDLE OF THE SEA with WATER WALLS on both sides. The experience is simultaneously NATURAL (walking on dry ground — the most ordinary form of travel) and SUPERNATURAL (inside a sea with water-walls — the most extraordinary environment imaginable). The walking is normal. The location is impossible. The ordinariness of the travel and the extraordinariness of the setting coexist.

The phrase "walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea" (halekhu bayyabbashah betokh hayyam — they walked on the dry-land in the middle of the sea) makes the crossing PEDESTRIAN: they WALKED. Not flew. Not were carried. Not transported miraculously. They WALKED — one foot in front of the other, the most ordinary human locomotion. The miracle created the CONDITIONS (dry ground, water-walls). The people provided the MOTION (walking). God made the impossible possible. The people still had to WALK through it.

The "waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left" (vehamayim lahem chomah miyeminam umissemolem — the waters were for them a wall from their right and from their left) makes the WATER a WALL: chomah — a defensive wall, a city wall, a protective structure. The same water that should DROWN them stands as a WALL that PROTECTS them. The water doesn't just part. It becomes ARCHITECTURE — structural, load-bearing, protective. The threat becomes the shelter. The danger becomes the defense.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What threats have become walls of protection on your right and left?
• 2.What does still having to WALK (ordinary effort inside the miracle) teach about human participation in divine deliverance?
• 3.How does the same water being THREAT (to Egypt) and SHELTER (to Israel) describe position determining experience?
• 4.What corridor through the impossible is God creating — with walls on both sides and dry ground beneath?

Devotional

They WALKED. On dry land. In the middle of the sea. With walls of WATER on the right and the left. The walking is ordinary. The location is impossible. The travel is normal. The environment is supernatural. The miracle creates the CONDITIONS. The people provide the WALKING. God parts the sea. Israel walks through it.

The 'walked upon dry land' is the ORDINARINESS inside the miracle: the miracle didn't CARRY them. It created the PATH. They had to WALK — step by step, foot by foot, one person after another, families and flocks and belongings. The walking took TIME. The crossing took EFFORT. The miracle provided the opportunity. The people provided the locomotion. The extraordinary setting required ordinary human action.

The 'waters were a wall unto them' transforms the THREAT into PROTECTION: the water that should KILL them stands as the wall that PROTECTS them. The same element — water — serves TWO purposes simultaneously: it BLOCKS the Egyptians (it will collapse on them, verse 28) AND it SHELTERS the Israelites (standing as walls on both sides). The threat and the shelter are the SAME SUBSTANCE. The difference is the POSITION: inside the walls = protected. Under the collapsed walls = destroyed.

The 'on their right hand, and on their left' makes the protection BILATERAL: the wall isn't on ONE side. It's on BOTH — right AND left. The protection is COMPREHENSIVE. The walking path is ENCLOSED. The walls on both sides create a CORRIDOR — a supernatural hallway through the sea, walled on both sides, dry-floored in the middle. The corridor is as specific as it is miraculous.

What 'walls of water' — what threats that became protection — stand on your right and left as you walk through the impossible?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture