Moses was all too familiar with the atmosphere of Pharaoh’s court. He had been raised in it and was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). The scholars who took Moses in hand, at the request of Pharaoh’s daughter, had their work cut out for them, for what they taught was contrary to what his people taught. When he came to manhood, Moses rejected the wisdom, the wealth, and the ways of Egypt. He was not impressed by a later Pharaoh’s scornful, “I know not the Lord” (Exod. 5:2). Pharaoh thought he was a God, Ra, the incarnation of the sun. But if Pharaoh did not know the Lord, Moses did. And that was the difference between them. Moses knew God; therefore, Pharaoh was no match for him. By the time Moses was finished with him, having visited him with plague after plague and having left him at last with a dead child in every Egyptian home, Pharaoh was terrified of both Moses and his God. At least he was terrified for twenty-four hours or so. The Pharaoh of Moses’ day was the great, red dragon of the Nile. He was controlled by “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), and Pharaoh had his army and thousands of men to march at his word. Moses had a little lamb, a Passover lamb. The various miracles of Moses did not bring about Israel’s release. They only made the monarch mad. He was broken at last by means of the death of the lamb. Its blood was shed, and it was roasted with fire, making a feast for the people of God. The people believed God, and some three million of them were saved in one spectacular night. Israel was “a nation born in a day.” The emancipated people marched out of Egypt by the thousands, carrying with them a sizable share of the wealth of the land. The sight and sound of them disappearing in the distance was too much for the Egyptian king. He reacted against his decision to let them go. He mobilized his men! He marched after them! He would bring them back! He would make them pay! The fools were heading for the sea! He would trap them there with his soldiers behind and the Red Sea before. All too soon Pharaoh had forgotten about God. The intended military move of encirclement, followed by a swift cavalry charge, was halted by a miracle, as though Pharaoh had not had more than enough of miracles. The Shechinah glory cloud, which had been leading Israel, now moved to the rear and stood between the Egyptians and their prey. The fiery, cloudy pillar was the visible token that God was on Israel’s side. To get at the people, the Egyptian cavalry would first need to get past God Himself. And Pharaoh, puppet god of Egypt as he imagined himself to be, was no match for the true and living God. “Go forward!” Those were God’s words to His people. But how? Then it happened. A wide way opened up through the sea, and seizing their opportunity they crossed over. The foolhardy Egyptians seized what looked like a golden opportunity to overwhelm the fleeing Hebrews. The Shechinah pillar stood aside, making way for the Egyptians to march. The cavalry troops of the Egyptian army lashed their horses. The chariots and horsemen surged into the gap between the piled-up seas. Then disaster struck them. The wheels fell off their chariots. The waters suddenly returned. The Egyptians perished in the sea. The pathway to Canaan now opened before the victorious Israelites. They followed the guiding pillar. It led them along a grand highway— separation, song, security, sanctification! First there was separation. The water of the Red Sea came between the Hebrews and their old way of life. Next there was song. “Thus the Lord saved Israel,” we read (Exod. 14:30). “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel” (15:1). Security followed as a matter of course—their every need was met by miracle after miracle: bread from heaven, water from the riven rock, victory over Amalek! Then, finally, there was sanctification. The redeemed Israelites were brought to Sinai and taught how to order their lives. Moreover, God Himself came down and pitched His tent in the midst of His own, to walk with them, and talk with them, and treat them like no other nation on earth. All these blessings were heaped up for them along the wilderness way, all this and Canaan too! When God says, “Go forward,” it is always best to obey.