In an article in The Telegraph titled “Moses’ Parting of the Red Sea May Not Have Been A Miracle After All,” Sarah Knapton writes that “meteorological phenomena could be behind the parting of the Red Sea.”
She writes that two students from the University of Leicester’s School of Biological Sciences “argue there were four natural occurrences which could account for the drying of the area.” The article goes on to explain the four “physical feasible events” which could have aligned to be “perfect conditions.”
What does the Bible say? It says that God instructed Moses to purposely lead the children of Israel to a location by the Red Sea so that Pharaoh would think they are hemmed in, so that he would pursue them, and so that God would “gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord” (Ex 14:1-14). The Red Sea crossing was planned by God.
The dividing of the sea was directly related to Moses lifting up his rod and stretching out his hand over the sea: “But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (14:16). And when Moses obeyed, God caused the sea to go back and made the sea into dry land: “Then 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 into dry land, and the waters were divided” (14:21).
Israel passed through on dry ground with a wall of water on both sides of them: “So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (14:22). About six hundred thousand men, not counting women and children, had left Egypt (12:37).
And then God “troubled the army of the Egyptians, and He took off their chariot wheels so that they drove them with difficulty” (14:24-25). And then God commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea “that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen” (14:26). Moses obeyed divine command, and the Lord “overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (14:27).
The common man reads this divinely inspired record and understands this event was one of the greatest miracles in Israel’s history. Skeptics, scoffers, and the wise of this world find another way.
The article reminds us that there are two paths that can be followed: the wisdom of God, or the wisdom of men. The wisdom of men is the foolishness of God. But many people are just too smart for God and His word. And this stumbling block of human scholarship goes beyond questioning things like the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea or the creation of the heavens and the earth. It goes to the gospel of Christ, “for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Many reject simple Bible truths like God’s plan of salvation and the pattern of organization and worship of His church. The Bible teaching is not difficult to understand, but man’s own wisdom, reason, and scholarship stands in the way. Every man must choose the basis of his faith – human wisdom or God’s word; he cannot have both. The faith that comes through hearing the word of God has saving power for eternity. The fruit of the other is condemnation.
– Larry Jones