Exodus 14:23-31

²³ Meanwhile, The Egyptians pursued and went in after them ; all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen were there in the middle of the sea. ²⁴ At the morning watch the LORD looked down upon the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic., ²⁵ clogging their chariot wheels so that they had difficulty advancing. So the Egyptians were saying, “Let us flee from before Israel, because the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” ²⁶ Then the LORD told Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the water will return upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD shook off the Egyptians into the middle of the sea. ²⁸ The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them survived. ²⁹ But the people of Israel had walked on dry ground through the sea, the water had been a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ³⁰ This is how the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹ Israel had witnessed the great hand that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

witnessing the great hand

The great hand of the LORD proved more powerful than the Egyptian armies. He looked down from the pillar of cloud and fire and decided to deal with this enemy once and for all. He turned the water back and the army was left to hopelessly bob up and down in the sea for eternity… What? You say that is not what he did? He what? He destroyed the armies of Pharaoh?

Yes, that is what he did. In this great miraculous event, the LORD is showing us that we should fear him because he is able to destroy all his enemies, body and soul, in the lake of fire. We should follow him because he is leading us to our deliverance. But our enemies cannot follow us there. At the end of the day, the Israelites alone had survived. The Egyptian armies were not stuck somewhere being tormented for eternity. God had defeated them, and defeated them utterly. Their dead bodies washed up on the shore.

It is sad that so many believers are not being taught this truth today. The wages of sin is not an uncomfortable eternal life. The wages of sin is death. In the end, we will witness the great hand of God completely destroy every soul whose name is not in the Lamb’s book of life. Those who by God’s grace will be on the other side of the sea will worship him for eternity, because we will have the life to do so.

LORD, thank you for being the great God with the great hand – the hand which can destroy your enemies, and deliver us completely from sin and Satan.