Hebrews 11:29 (HCSB)
By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned.
The miraculous crossing of the Red Sea was a watershed moment for the whole nation of Israel. It was remembered in a single breath with the Passover and was and is widely acknowledged as the final act of their deliverance from Egypt and its bondage.
The writer of Hebrews saw the crossing of the Red Sea as an act of faith. Simply believing that God could divide the waters would have provided no deliverance, just a miraculous scene of a path through the sea. For the faith to be real, two things had to happen.
The first was that Moses had to obey God’s command is stop simply crying out to Him for help, and to take concrete, obedient action. In this case, that action was to hold out his staff over the sea, pointing toward their destination on the eastern shore. In response to that action, God created a powerful wind that blew the water to each side of the path He had chosen, and then He held the water in place, rising up like a wall on both sides (Exodus 14:15-16, 21-22).
The second act of faith was taken by Moses, but it had to be followed by the whole community. That act of faith was to walk the entire width of the sea with walls of water looming over them on each side. And they did it! They quickly followed Moses while God immobilized the Egyptians with darkness until they had nearly all gotten across (Exodus 14:19-20).
The Egyptians tried to follow the Israelites across, pushed forward by the Pharaoh. But God mired their chariots in the mud, and then drowned them all as he released the back pressure and allowed the water to fall instantly back into place (Exodus 14:23-28).
The miracle was so spectacular that word of it had traveled ahead of the Israelites into the Promised Land before they arrived, melting the hearts of the people of Jericho with fear (Joshua 2:10-11). That was because it was a clear demonstration that God was with the Israelites, and a clear demonstration of what He was capable of doing for people who trusted in Him and who acted to obey His commands.
Father, a point that frequently gets overlooked is that it was not just Moses’ faith that was necessary for Israel to be delivered; the people had trust in You strongly enough to follow Moses between those looming walls of water on either side, trusting that You could and would hold them suspended by Your breath until they had all crossed through safely. I imagine that most of them ran or walked as quickly as possible. But they would not have even started across unless they believed in You. Father, help me to use my own faith in You to at least start forward, even in those times when I cannot clearly see all the way to the end, so that You can move Your plan forward in and through me. Amen.