Miracle of the Sea
The splitting of the sea is one of the most dramatic and well-known scenes in the Torah. It is the final, grand event of the exodus from Egypt, after which the Children of Israel were finally free to go and serve God.
The Torah describes the scene this way:
“And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and God caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the 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.” (Exodus 14:21-22).
The dramatic scenes of the Bible have long inspired poets, artists and even scientists. In fact, in September of 2010, a group of scientists studied ancient maps and created a computer model simulating an overnight wind blowing strongly on six-foot-deep waters. The results were a scientific verification that a really strong wind blowing consistently could create a completely dry path in the middle of the sea.
As with other scientific explanations of Biblical miracles*, the fact that a strong wind could blow a path through the sea does not make the event any less miraculous. The fact that a strong wind split the sea at the exact moment that the Children of Israel needed it was the miracle! Timing is also a miracle!.
*For an interesting treatise on this topic, see Immanuel Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision.
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