Stroll through Scripture for Sunday October 11, 2026

Based on Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29

Last week we looked at the retelling of the Passover story with portions of chapters 12, 13, and 15. This week we are in the middle of the story when Israel is at the Red Sea.  We know how the story ends, so let’s focus on a few points in the story.

First off is something I hadn’t thought about before.  We are told in Exodus 12:37 that 600,000 men left Egypt, not including little ones.  And it is safe to assume this number didn’t include women, or the elderly either.  The 600,000 number is probably inflated. The main point though is that there are a large number of people leaving Egypt.  

Exodus 14:7 tells us that when Pharaoh changes his mind to pursue the Israelites, he takes his army with him, including 600 elite chariots and all of the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.  

I can remember watching epic 1956 “The Ten Commandments” movie.  In that version we only see the 600 chariots chasing the Israelites.  The TV adaption doesn’t capture the full sense of the army that Pharaoh sent.   According to the 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, it is estimated that the pursuing force included 50,000 horsemen and 200,000 foot soldiers, though modern historians treat this estimate as a later extrapolation rather than a verified ancient census.

Those are big numbers we are dealing with – regardless of whether we are talking about Israel or Egypt.  It takes great effort to move that many people any distance.  In some ways we can say with crowds like that, it would take a monumental effort.  

Which is why this story is so great.  Even though the Israelites outnumbered the Egyptians, we can see very clearly that the Egyptians are the superior military force.  You would expect to read about a slaughter given the circumstances.  

A slaughter does happen, but not in the way the reader expects.  Egypt, and every empire since, has lived by three core foundational beliefs – the strong survive, might makes right, and the ends justify the means.  In this story, those core foundational beliefs are shown to be false.  The strong do not survive.  In fact, the entire army of horsemen and chariots end up wiped out and at the bottom of the sea.  Might doesn’t make right.  Rather God prioritizes the weak and the oppressed.  It’s not might that makes right, it is justice.  And finally, it is not the ends that justify the means.  That entire belief system makes everyone disposable, even those that live by it and think they can use it for their own advantage.  The reality is that the belief will also consume those that live by it.  And we see that in the sea consuming the Egyptian army.  

This isn’t just a story of Israel escaping enslavement in Egypt. It’s a continuation of the judgement that was taking place in Egypt. The judgement came in the form of plagues against the pantheon on Egyptian gods. This crushing of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea is a final judgement against the idolatry of empire, exposing it for what it is.