Exodus 14:5-9

"And it was told the king of Egypt that the people were fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, What is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with hire' and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them. And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: for the children of Israel went out with a high hand. And the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon."

"It was told that the people had fled ..." Some try to make a contradiction out of this by construing the word "fled" with the sense of "going away secretly," but this is disproved by what the people said, "What is this that we have done ... we have let Israel go ... etc." Besides that, as Fields pointed out "fled does not invariably imply secrecy."[9] It is easily seen here what caused Pharaoh to change his mind. The stupendous size of their loss had now been fully realized by the people, and they were all, including Pharaoh, utterly unwilling to face the consequences of it.

How strange it is that Pharaoh, after all the pain and loss he had endured by means of the ten plagues, would now determine once again to test his own strength against the will of God! What a blind and irresponsible folly was his! As Jamieson said, "Those whom the Lord has doomed to destruction are first infatuated by sin.[10]

"He made ready his chariot ... etc." This indicates that Pharaoh himself participated in this attempt, that he "took his people," that "he pursued"; and from this it is demanded that we understand Pharaoh himself to have been drowned by the returning waters of the sea. Clement of Rome in his First Epistle affirmed that:

"Pharaoh and his army with all the princes of Egypt, and the chariots with their riders, were sunk in the depths of the Red Sea, and perished, for no other reason than that their foolish hearts were darkened, after so many signs and wonders had been wrought in the land of Egypt by Moses the servant of God."[11]

Josephus and all the ancients were of the same opinion. "Horsemen ..." (Exodus 14:9) is called an anachronism by Harford,[12] but his mistake came about from misunderstanding of the text. Rawlinson noted that:

"`Horses and chariots' should be read `all the chariot horses.' There is no `and' in the original. `His rider' refers to those who rode in the chariots."[13]

"By the sea ..." The sea is mentioned three times in these first nine verses, and it is a matter of the most remarkable interest that God was about to effect the second great deliverance of mankind by means of water. Thus, the Israelites would take their place along with Noah and his house who were "saved by water." Thus:

Noah and his house were saved through water. The children of Israel were saved through water. A bride for Isaac was chosen in a water test. Jacob also found his bride at a well. The water delivered Israel from Pharaoh, and the water destroyed Pharaoh. The waters of the Jordan delivered them into Canaan. Gideon's three hundred were selected in a water test. Jesus' first miracle changed water to wine. The waters of Bethesda were the scene of another sign. The Pool of Siloam saw the blind man healed. Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee (Thus, four of the seven signs of John were water signs) Christ declared himself to be the Water of Life. Christ declared that men must be born of the water. Baptism doth now save us (as Peter declared). The pierced side of Christ yielded water and blood.

The ancients made a great deal out of this emphasis. Tertullian, for example, wrote:

"The nations are set free from the world by means of the water (their baptism), and the devil they leave quite behind overwhelmed in the water. How mighty is the grace of water. Christ himself was baptized in water, demonstrated his power in water when invited to the nuptials, invited the sinful to drink of the living water, cited a cup of water as glorious among the works of charity, recruited his strength at a well, and walked over the water; and even as he approached the cross, the water witnessed his innocence when Pilate washed his hands!"[14]