The parting of the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape from Egypt, and the drowning of Pharaoh's army remains one of the most dramatic demonstrations of God's power in the history of the world. It stands as a testament to God being able and willing to rescue his people from anyone or anything at anytime when they put their trust in him. When the children of Israel were camped on the shores of the Red Sea and Pharaoh's armies marched after them, God told his people by way of his prophet Moses to fear not.

Exodus 14:13
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

In recent times, fossilised bones and chariot wheels encrusted with coral have been recovered from the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba off the coast at Nuweiba. The Gulf of Aqaba is over a mile deep in places, with steep gradients to the bottom that would make it impossible to get down with children and animals. However, there is an underwater land bridge leading across the Gulf from Nuweiba to Saudi Arabia which lies not far under the surface, and it is here that chariot wheels and fossilised human and horse bones have been discovered by divers.

An ancient column was also found lying in the water at Nuweiba in 1978 by Ron Wyatt, but unfortunately the inscriptions had long been removed. Then a second pillar was discovered on the Saudi coastline opposite with the inscriptions still legible, containing the words Mizraim (Egypt), Solomon, Edom, death, Pharaoh, Moses, and God, indicating that King Solomon had set up these columns to mark the spot where the Israelites had crossed.

The Red Sea was divided at Nuweiba, the Israelites walked across on dry ground, Pharaoh and his army drowned, and all his chariots were wrecked. Archaeology can only confirm the biblical account. Let's now read Exodus and see if we can make sense of what happened. Read the details carefully, for they are important.

Exodus 14:13-30
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

And 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 dry land, and the waters were divided.

And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.

For years, I've had three issues with this record. First of all, how could a column of fire keep Pharaoh and his army from the Israelites all night? Why couldn't they just go around it? Then I saw photos from Nuweiba and it all made sense. There is only one narrow wadi leading through the mountains to Nuweiba, so a single column of fire would have been sufficient. Nuweiba is short for Nuwayba al Muzayyinah which means Waters of Moses Opening.

A view of Nuweiba from the sea, showing the wadiThe second issue I had was with the walls of water towering over the Israelites. We've all seen the pictures, right? These depictions are ridiculous. If the wind was this strong, how come the Israelites didn't get blown away? This is religious nonsense.

So what happened? The bible states that Moses held up his hands, there was a strong east wind, and God made the sea go back all that night. The easterly wind blew in one direction, it was strong, and it blew all night. All night in the middle east can be 10 hours or more. The sea going back means the sea level lowered like a tide going out. If God had simply parted the ocean without lowering the sea level, what would have been the point of the wind blowing all night?

Tidal motion is powerful. During high tides harbour walls can overflow, while during exceptionally low tides, boats can ground on the bottom. Every day there are naturally occurring tides where the sea level will drop 40ft or more. Water is also highly susceptible to wind motion. Have you ever blown water in a saucer? What happens? The water moves away from your mouth to the other side of the saucer. As this strong wind blew down the Gulf of Aqaba, the waters were blown down the Red Sea. This strong wind wouldn't have been in just one place, it would have blown from the top of the Gulf of Aqaba right down to the Indian Ocean. Waves 5ft high or more marched down the Red Sea all night, effectively skimming layers from the surface and lowering the sea level. Helped by a strong ebbing tide, the waters receded until the shallow land bridge broke the surface.

Once the land bridge appeared, there would have been water on each side of it, so the waters would have been divided. The children of Israel then marched down the gentle incline, their armed warriors bringing up the rear to ward off the advancing Egyptians, and they crossed on dry ground. As it's only 10 miles from Nuweiba to Saudi Arabia, they would have crossed in 3 hours or less. They'd just walked all the way from Egypt, so they would have been fit enough for a speedy crossing. If they'd begun walking while the tide was still an hour from it's lowest ebb, that would have given them enough time to cross before the waters returned. Nothing God did that day on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba contradicted nature.

My third issue was in verse 22 where it states that the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. How could this be? This no doubt is the scripture which conjures up the images above in artists' minds. Concerning David and his men, a few shepherds had this to say about them:

1 Samuel 25:16
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

Were David and his men walls? No, they were no more walls to those shepherds than the waters of the Red Sea were walls to Israel. The word wall was often used as a figurative reference to mean protection, that's all. Walls was used figuratively in Exodus to mean protection. It isn't difficult to see how this idiom became a part of their language.

The walls of Jerusalem - Creative Commons licence

People lived in walled towns and cities. Walls kept them safe. Walls protected them, so walls were commonly used figuratively to simply mean protection. Just as David and his men were walls to those shepherds, so the waters of the Red Sea were walls of protection to Israel while they crossed in that Pharaoh and his army couldn't flank them to attack their vulnerable sides.

Once the Israelite people had crossed, the sea returned to its strength, meaning the tidal flow going down the gulf returned in a flood that destroyed the Egyptian army. It may even have hit the land bridge like a tsunami. Good riddance, that stupid pharaoh deserved all he got. He was given 10 opportunities to allow God's people to leave peaceably and he refused. Neither did he have to chase after them with his army. God was only protecting his people, which he will do if they are attacked and they believe for deliverance. Now might be a good time to watch my video The Exodus to get the depth of this. If I were diving for Egyptian chariots and fossilised human and horse bone, I'd be searching the northern reaches of that underwater land bridge at Nuweiba over towards the Saudi coastline.