Red Sea Was Crossed on an Ice Bridge

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Another Hollywood depiction of a biblical event is also completely filled with errors. When the House of Israel crossed the Red Sea dry shod, most people imagine that the sea opened up and that a stretch of the sea bottom (now made dry by the wind) was made available for them to escape the Egyptians. It is also assumed that there were walls of water being held back on each side of the "canyon-like" walk way so that the bottom (the sea bed) of the Red Sea became dry. Also, when Pharaoh and his hosts the next morning entered this "canyon-like" roadway then the walls of the water on both sides collapsed and the Egyptians were drowned. This is the classic interpretation of this event, but is it true? In no way does this describe the real event.

 

Actually, something very different took place. Note that when Moses composed his song of victory after Pharaoh and the Egyptians were destroyed by the waters of the Red Sea, Moses said: "They sank into the bottom as a stone" (Exodus 15:5). Again. "They sank as lead in the mighty waters" (verse 10). These two verses seem to show that Pharaoh's army was on top of the waters. How could they sink as stone and lead if they were already on the sea bed? Besides that, Moses said that the Egyptians "were cast into the sea" (verse 4) as if they were on some kind of a bridge and hurled overboard into the waters.

A bridge? Now don't throw this book away and say this is the opinion of some "kook" who must be as batty as a barn owl. If you will slow down and read the text for what it actually states you will be amazed how clear the whole thing becomes (though one should read the evidence two or three times to get a proper re-thinking on this matter).

That's right, the Israelites went across the Red Sea on a bridge -- a natural bridge that God had created out of the water -- composed of ocean water at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. The water was turned into something. The Israelites actually crossed the Red Sea on a type of bridge which was floating on the surface of the Red Sea. That's right, it was a bridge constructed from ocean water. There are several clues that Moses gives which allow us to understand the matter.

Moses said something happened to the waters when God began to "blow a wind with his nostrils." With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together (verse 8 -- that is, the wind caused the waters to begin to pile up and they became compressed). Now look also at the last part of verse 8. As a result of the "gathering together" (or, "piling up" of the waters), the text goes on to relate that "the floods stood upright LIKE AN HEAP [like a single HEAP of stone -- not like two heaps (or walls) of water on each side]." Psalm 33:6,8 uses similar language. It says that God with the breath of his mouth gathers the ocean waters in a heap and that he places those heaped up waters into places for storage. What? Can God place waters which look like a heap of stones into some storehouses of the deep? He not only can, he does! Read the next verse of Moses' song (verse 7). Moses said "The floods stood upright LIKE AN HEAP, and the depths WERE CONGEALED in the heart of the sea." Now we can know what happened to the water in that part of the Red Sea. The waters were "congealed." And how does water "congeal"? Every school child knows this. It is by being frozen. This was just like the Psalmist (33:6,7) who said God has placed heaps of frozen water in vast storehouses. The huge ice cap regions of the Arctic are certainly "in storage within the deep."

Moses then said the blast of God's nostrils caused the waters in that part of the Red Sea (when they were congealed) TO STAND UPRIGHT like a single heap of stone (NOT two heaps). Similar language is also found in Job 37:10. "By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of waters is straitened." In other words, water becomes hard when ice is formed and people can walk on it if the ice is thick enough. Frozen water (that is, any slab of ice) also "stands up like an heap" when it floats on the surface of water. When a slab of ice is in water, about 10% of it will stick up above the surface (it will, as Moses said, "Stand Up") because ice is lighter in weight than water. Indeed, in the Arctic today, huge trucks can cross over lakes in wintertime on ice bridges that cover the lakes. But the whole of the Red Sea did not freeze. Only a wide roadway that "stood up as an heap" by being miraculously frozen (it stood up about 10% of its height above the surface of the water, like icebergs do in the ocean) while there remained open water on both sides of the ice bridge.

For more information on this topic, see Appendix 1, More on Crossing the Red Sea.

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