NOTES for Exo 13:17-14:31
When reading today's passage, attention is drawn first of all to the description of the sea waters parting (Ex 14:19-22). Yet this miracle, like all the miracles of the Exodus, could, if one wished, be explained by entirely natural causes, as critically minded commentators have already done more than once. God is unobtrusive, and miracles become miracles only for those who would like to see the hand of God in historical events. For those who do not want this, only the natural course of events remains. Indeed, a strong wind from the side of the desert could well have driven the water back into the sea and made impassable places passable, since the Hebrew text speaks not of the Red Sea proper but of the "Sea of Reeds," which was located in the area of the Bitter Lakes (today the Suez Canal runs through this territory). The Bitter Lakes were a system of lagoons connected with the Red Sea, so a wind from the desert, driving the water back into the sea, temporarily exposed the bottom, which allowed the Hebrews to escape into the wilderness.
But perhaps the most important thing is connected not even with the miraculous crossing of the Sea of Reeds, but with the very presence of God that accompanied the people on the way from Egypt to Sinai (Ex 13:21-22; 14:19-20). From now on this presence will accompany the people of God throughout their subsequent history, appearing in different forms and in different situations. And it is precisely this presence that makes the people of God the people of God. The parted waters are only one of the miracles, one example of God's intervention in a situation where His people needed help. No nation on earth is worthy in itself to become the people of God. Only the direct presence of God, His direct action, so to speak, can make worthy the people whom God chooses in order to make them His own people.
But even after being chosen, the chosen people remains chosen only as long as it keeps faith with the One who chose it. Therefore every generation will have to answer God's call again and again, for there is no chosenness without real and living relationship with God, which is not inherited and is not established by itself according to some special "right of the chosen." This is true for the Church of the Old Testament; still more is it true for the Church of Christ.