NOTES for Exo 14:28-29

Freedom! That is the chief miracle that happened at the Red Sea: behind the Israelites the fertile land of slavery came to an end, and ahead of them the desert of freedom opened up. More than once they will regret choosing this way, because freedom and death always walk side by side. All the other miracles, the pillars of fire and smoke, the journey through the sea on dry ground, and everything awaiting Israel in the desert, are only testimony that God is near. This will not keep them from doubting and grumbling at every convenient moment. But it is precisely here, in the possibility of believing or not believing, in God and not in miracles, that salvation from slavery is realized, where everything had been reliable and constant. Now before Moses and his companions there is only the desert and the sky, ideal conditions for understanding much and deciding much. God invites us too to take this step from slavery to freedom, from certainty to faith.