B'shallack ("after he had let go"): How Israel Crossed the Red Sea!

[Rebbe]

B'Shallack

Parsha: Exodus 13.17-17.16
Haftarah: Judges 4.4-5.31

A BRI/IMCF Historical Exposition

THE ISRAELITE CROSSING OF THE RED SEA -- STARTLING FACTS!
by
Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Rebbe

Copyright © 1981, 1995
All Rights Reserved Worldwide

It is commonly assumed that a great wind was caused by the Lord to part the waters of the Red Sea, forming a sort of tunnel through which the Israelites were able to cross "dry shod" on the Sea bed in order to escape the pursuing Egyptians. When Israel had safely crossed to the other side the "angels" allowed the waters, which were banked up as huge walls on either side of them, to close back over the pursuers, drowning them. And this seems at first glance to be what the biblical text says. Certainly it is the general populace impression shared by Hollywood film-makers and novelists. But when we put all the biblical texts together and compare them we come up with conflicting difficulties. We shall consider these problems in a moment. One thing for certain, the biblical epic describing the Egyptian plagues is in actual fact narrating a worldwide phenomenon.

In the second millennium before this present era the earth underwent an enormous cosmic cataclysm. The sacred volume of the Maya Indians tells us that the sun's motion was interrupted and the waters, rivers and streams turned into blood (Brasseur, History of the Nations and Civilisations in Mexico and Central America, 1857, Vol.I, 130).

Ipuwer, an Egyptian eyewitness to the chaos that descended upon Egypt, lamented: "Plague is through-out the land. Blood is everywhere. Men shrink from tasting; human beings thirst after water. That is our water. That is our happiness.  What shall we do in respect thereof? All is ruin!" (Alan H. Gardiner, Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage from a hieratic papyrus in Leiden, 1909).

The Altai Tartars record a time when "blood turns the world red." These tribal peoples of Central Asia inform us that following this spectacle, a massive cosmic disturbance followed hot on its heels (Holmberg. Finno-Ugric: Siberian Mythology, 1927, 370). The Finns add that the world was covered with "red milk" in the days when chaos reigned (Kalevala, Rune 9). Babylonian myths tell of the slaying of a monster, whose blood covered the earth (King, The Seven Tablets of Creation, 1902). The Thracians named their highest mountain "Haemus" (from which we get our word for 'blood') due to the "stream of blood which gushed out on the mountain" during a cosmic war between Zeus and Typhon (Apollodorus, The Library, VI). Writes Moses, "All the waters that were in the river were turned to blood... There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt... And the river stank... And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river" (Ex 7.20,21,24).

The Egyptians call the Red Sea the "sea of disaster" -- Shari. The Hebrews refer to it as Yam Suf -- the Sea of the Passage. Some scholars, not wishing to attribute miracles to a super-technological alien intelligence, see in the Exodus account of the crossing of Yam Suf an error in translation. They believe the words Yam Suf refer to a 'Sea of Reeds.' Comprehending that a universal upheaval is in view in the account of the liberation of Israel from Egypt we should note that "hurricane" in the Hebrew tongue is suf or sufa. Moses writes that "Adonai caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the Sea dry land, and the waters were divided" (Ex 14.21).

We have noted that when we put all the biblical texts together referring to the Red Sea crossing by Israel, we are confronted by a mass of difficulties -- if they crossed on the sea bottom. For one thing, while it seems to say that the Israelites went across on dry ground or land (cf Ex 14.21,22,29; 15.19), and the waters were a wall on each side of Israel's passageway (14.22,29), Pharaoh and his host of Egyptian warriors "were thrown into the sea" (Ex 15.1,21) and "cast into the sea" (15.4). "Thrown and cast" into the Sea implies, if language means anything, a jettisoning from at least a height! Certainly the Psalmist agrees with the assessment of Moses, "But (God) overthrew [margin, shaked off] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea" (Ps 136.15). Again, if the Red Sea had parted in such a manner that the Israelites could cross on the bottom of the sea bed with walls of water piled high on each side like a canyon then why would Moses write that the Egyptians were "swallowed [down]" (Ex 15.12)? Egyptian records, referring to the death of the Exodus Pharaoh, have told us that "His Majesty leapt" into the Red Sea (F.L. Griffith, The Antiquities of Tell el Yahudiyeh and Miscellaneous Work in Lower Egypt during the Years 1887-1888, 1890, 73).

But these difficulties disappear when we come to realise that the words "land" and "ground" in most versions of the Bible (in the Exodus section) are in italics. These words do not appear in the original. All we are told is that Israel went across the Red Sea on a dry substance. Read these Scriptures again without "ground" or "land" to get the point. The refugees and the Egyptians that followed after them crossed on a massive bridge or slab of ice. The word "wall" in Hebrew is ghohmah. Reflect that the prophet Nahum uses ghohmah to describe the waters which walled the royal city of Thebes. Notice in what way the prophet used the term. "Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river [Nile] was her defense, the waters her WALL [ghohmah]" (Nahum 3.8 NIV). The city of Thebes was not submerged by walls of water. She rose high above sea level, yet the waters were called "walls"! The walls of the Red Sea were not perpendicular rising up from the dry floor of the Red Sea! In no way! For, Moses tells us that the Red Sea was "divided" (bah-kag) and this same word for comparison's sake is also found in 1 Chronicles 11.18 where an army is divided and Jeremiah 52.7 and 2 Chronicles 21.17 where the wall of a house or a city is breached in two.

Most of these facts are becoming common public knowledge with the recently published research work of Professor Ernest L. Martin, an American historian of some note. This understanding of an ice bridge was discussed by my own father when I sat on his knee as a child in front of our fireplace in the depths of winter over sixty six years ago [dating from this year 2018]. Although principally an agnostic, he was also a great student of ancient records and bequeathed to me a unique and enthusiastic appreciation for the past. In the case of the crossing of the Red Sea the super-technological aliens (angels) caused a frigid hurricane to act as the agent in freezing a massive section of the Sea in order for the freed captives to cross "dry shod." Martin points out that icebergs stand out of the surrounding "walls of water" about 10% above sea level. After spending an entire night in freezing (almost 'Arctic') conditions, the Israelites having crossed to the east shore safely under the guidance of Moses, the Egyptians dared to follow. Half way across, Moses tells us that the Egyptian chariots started to experience "slippage" and therefore the charioteers "drove the horses heavily forward" (Ex  14.25 Heb). All of this information was also grasped very early by Finis Dake as noted in his Dake's Annotated Reference Bible.

Why the sudden slippage? Israel crossed by night. The Egyptians started to cross as the sun came up! The iceberg began to melt. This is why "The horse and his rider has he thrown into the Sea" (Ex 15.1,4,21). The unknown writer of the circular letter to the Hebrews also recognised that this was the case.

"By faith they passed through the Red Sea AS by dry ["land" does not appear in the original Greek of this verse]: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned" (Heb 11.29).

The angelic archons made the water AS something "dry." The Psalmist tells us that God "TURNED [transformed] the Sea into DRY [substance]" (Ps 66.6). Moses adds that "With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together" (Ex 15.8) so much so that they congealed as a solid mass of ice "STANDING UPRIGHT as a HEAP" (Ex 15.8). Not like two heaps of rocks but a single heap or mass like a bridge or slab linking one shore with the other and walled by chilled, icy water on either side. Even calling the bridge or slab of ice "dry land" is really not a problem for what is ice but a congealed solid mass? Moses again informs us, "The horse and his rider has he thrown into the Sea... Pharaoh's chariots and his host has he cast into the Sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; THEY SANK to the bottom as a stone... thou hast shaken them off... and with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap and the depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea... the Sea covered them, they SANK as lead in the mighty waters... [they were] swallowed" (Ex 15.1,4,58, 10,12).

Such detail as this given to us in the biblical revelation cannot depict mighty walls of water collapsing on the Egyptians from awesome heights. Our author of Hebrews says they walked across as it were on a dry substance. And walls of water surrounded them as they did so. The Egyptians didn't make it and they perished, slipping off and falling into the Sea. Moses said the "depths were congealed." And so they were! As Professor Martin has rightly stated, "The Israelites actually crossed the Red Sea on top of the water, not in a "canyon-like" roadway on the bottom of the sea" (Ernest L.Martin, 101 Bible Secrets That Christians Do Not Know, 1993, 18-21, 161-165). Oh, the depths of the power and the majesty of God!

The Bible is historically accurate even in the minute details. It is our reading of it that must improve.

The biblical facts and history itself clearly evidences that a large portion of the Red Sea had become ice.

Rebbe

[Sharon]

Fascinating. Thank you brother Les.

[Pamela]

I too found this so fascinating in terms of knowing that HIS WAYS are so far above even our greatest imaginations!!!