to their aid. God can help us, when all other help is useless. The greater the need, the nearer is God!
Apparent conversion. Pharao was not really converted. The death of the first-born so frightened and staggered him that he let the Israelites go. But when the first terror was over he returned to his former obduracy, and again defied God. He wished to overcome God’s will, and bring back His people by force of arms. But at last the measure of his sins was full. He had despised the warnings of God’s mercy, so now God’s justice overtook him, and he died a miserable death. He was like those sinners who in times of tribulation, such as sickness or misfortune, promise to amend their ways, but who, when the trial is removed, do not keep their promise, and fall back into their old habits and forgetfulness of God. — Such sinners will die an impenitent death, as Pharao did, and be lost eternally. '‘Hell is paved with good intentions.”
The object of miracles. The people feared God, because they saw His power and justice with their own eyes; and they believed that Moses was sent by God, because it was through him that His great miracles were wrought.
The Passage of the Red Sea, a type of Baptism. The passage of the Red Sea was (according to 1 Cor. 10, 1) a type of holy Baptism. As the Israelites had to pass through the Red Sea in order to escape from the slavery of Pharao, and reach the Promised Land, so must we pass through the waters of Baptism in order to be freed from the slavery of sin and Satan, and finally attain to heaven.
Faith, our guide. We also want a guide on our way through life. Who will be our guide ? God leads us through the wilderness of this life to the promised land of heaven, by His holy faith, which Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, taught and deposited in His Church. If we follow the light of faith, that is, if we live up to our faith, we are sure to arrive at our heavenly home. “I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8, 12).
Application. Moses and the children of Israel sang a canticle of praise in thanksgiving for their wonderful deliverance. It began by the words: “Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified: the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea.”
You too should thank the Lord God frequently for your creation, preservation and redemption. Thank Him daily for your Baptism, and for the holy Catholic faith.
