We see that after the much drama that took place in Egypt, Pharaoh eventually released the Israelites to begin their uncertain journey, of which even Moses did not know the route. He kept on telling Pharaoh that God wanted His children to go and sacrifice to Him in the wilderness, a case that the Bible didn’t mention in Moses’ several conversations with God. Moses got a release order with a cloud of uncertainty as to the real direction he was to lead the multitude through. However, he didn’t have much to worry about, as the one who had performed extreme signs was capable of leading them out and taking them into their promised land. I can imagine the air of discomfort that hovered over Moses every time he went to his kinsmen and boasted that there was a promised land which would be their final destination. Did someone ever ask him for a map of the route they were going to take? Did people ever wonder where he appeared from forty years after he disappeared from Egypt with no clues to his whereabouts? Let’s face it! It surely was not that easy for Moses to wake up and stand before a people who had known no other place other than Egypt for over 400 hundred years. To convince them that they would have to leave their present zone, no matter how uncomfortable it was, to move to a location he called the Promised Land was a tough task. Moses Himself had never been to the place, neither anyone he was leading. So he not only had to lead the people, he had to lead himself.
Fast forward. They are now exited from bondage and breathe the air of freedom. They are not just laden with their properties, but with much wealth as God had promised. Now was the important task of where to go and what direction was the course. The story clearly tells us that God did not lead them through the shortest distance to the Promised Land; a route that ran through the territory of the Philistines, a belligerent people. He directs them instead towards the Red Sea. The story shows that Pharaoh suddenly woke up from his slumber and wondered how on earth he let those Israelites escape. He began pursuing them and the children of Israel heard about this. How on earth would Moses convince them that their lives were not in danger? They had lived in the constant fear of Egypt that suddenly, every knowledge of the display of God’s power suddenly fizzled from their memories, and fear overcame them. Yet Moses was again called to task in delivering the word from God to a people that we railing invectives accusations against him. Moses just stood there and wondered how he was just doing his business and got intercepted by God. For no fault of his own the people had turned against him, and his prophecy for a moment seemed to fall through and his ability to conjure up something strange again had ebbed. He had successfully found a profession, was diligent at it, and was made to stand before a king. He was successful as he swallowed up the thing that could have had him swallowed up; all by the rod. Now what?
It may interest you to know that the Red Sea was a salty sea just over 190 miles (300 km) across at its widest point, and about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) in length. There’s a measured maximum depth of 8,200 feet (2,500 m), and an estimated average depth of 1,640 feet (500 m). So this was not a stream or some lake they were going to confront, it was something huge. Moses himself had not confronted that kind of challenge before and he only followed God’s plan to this point. Where were they going to get boats that would transport over 600, 000 men alone, then their families, their cattle, and all their goods? They probably needed something like over a thousand ocean liners to begin the journey and how could that be? Well, my modern mind may never comprehend appropriately what the nature of the challenge was, but believe me, it was not as sweetly sung as we often read it to be. Imagine the children crying, the mothers wailing, and the fathers downcast. Moses had real trouble in his hands. But something else was in his hands; something he was already familiar with.

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