A wonder before the Gospels
The Parting of the Red Sea
Trapped between Pharaoh's chariots and the sea, Israel watched God open a road through the deep. They walked out of slavery on dry ground, and Paul later called it a baptism unto Moses.
“And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD 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.”Exodus 14:21
What happened
What happened. In Exodus 14 the freed slaves came to the edge of the Red Sea, and behind them thundered Pharaoh's army, having second thoughts about losing his workforce. The people were terrified and cried out. Moses answered, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD. Then the LORD told Moses to lift up his rod and stretch out his hand over the sea. The angel of God and the pillar of cloud moved between Israel and the Egyptians, giving darkness to the one and light to the other through the night. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD 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. The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued into the sea. Then God told Moses to stretch out his hand again, and the sea returned to its strength, and the waters covered the chariots and the horsemen, all the host of Pharaoh. Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and the people feared the LORD and believed Him.
What it revealed
What it revealed. The deliverance at the sea revealed that salvation belongs entirely to God. Israel was told to stand still, for the LORD would fight for them, and they had only to hold their peace. It revealed His power over the created order, that the sea itself obeys His command and becomes a wall or a grave at His word. It revealed His judgment and His mercy in one act, for the same waters that saved Israel destroyed the army that had enslaved them. And it revealed a decisive break. Israel could not return to Egypt because Egypt's power lay drowned behind them. The exodus was not a negotiation but a rescue, God reaching into slavery and bringing His people through death waters into new life on the far shore, where they sang the song of Moses to the God who had triumphed gloriously.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Paul makes an explicit connection in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, saying that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. He reads the crossing as a picture of baptism, a passage through the waters that marks the end of the old bondage and the beginning of belonging to a deliverer. In Christ this becomes the greater exodus. He leads His people out of a deeper slavery, sin and death, and brings them through the waters of judgment safely because He Himself went down into death for them. The crossing also frames the whole hope of Scripture; just as God opened a way where there was none, Christ is the way through what would otherwise drown us. Israel's song on the far shore anticipates the song of the redeemed in Revelation 15, the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
Questions people ask
How did the sea part?
Exodus 14:21 says the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land. The text names God as the cause and the wind as the means. It does not invite a purely natural explanation, and the point is God's deliverance, not the mechanics.
Does the New Testament connect the crossing to Christ?
Yes, though it names baptism specifically. Paul says Israel was baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). Reading the whole event as the pattern of the greater exodus in Christ is a well grounded extension of that explicit baptismal link.