4/16/2025

Well, I missed it this year! Since 1975, I’ve caught at least part of The Ten Commandments on television during its annual showing. Normally, it’s broadcast on Easter weekend, but this year, because Passover was last Saturday, they showed it a week early! 

And I missed it. 

I mean, I have it on Blu-ray and DVD and VHS, so I can watch it anytime I want to. But since I was a kid, there was always something special about watching The Ten Commandments on television every year at Easter.

What does it have to do with Easter? I’m glad you asked! 

The movie is full of special moments, but the highlight is definitely the parting of the Red Sea. 69 years later, it is still cited as the greatest special effect in any movie of any era.

And it should be! The deliverance of God’s people, and the destruction of one of the most powerful armies the ancient world ever knew, was the second greatest miracle in all of history!

Think about it: After the night of terror (we don’t know what day of the week it was, but for convenience, let’s call it Thursday), when the death angel slew the first born of Egypt, the people boldly marched out of Egypt.  Leading them was Moses—but leading Moses was a great column of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 14:19 calls it “the angel of the Lord”). 

In The Ten Commandments, Pharaoh says, “The God of the Israelites is a poor general.” Pharaoh and all of Egypt still have not learned their lesson. Despite all they have been through, despite their gods being humiliated by the ten plagues, despite the death of the first born, they still have the arrogance to think the powers of this world can overcome the powers of God. 

So on Saturday, Pharaoh, the greatest power in all the world, armed his chariots and pursued the people of God, trapping them on the banks of the Red Sea. 

When the Israelites saw the Egyptian chariots bearing down on them, they panicked, but Moses told them, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.”

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. A strong east wind began to blow and split apart – the Hebrew word baqa’ is the word used for splitting wood with an ax – the waters of the Red Sea, forming a wall on either side of the dry seabed. 

All that Saturday night they passed through the midst of the Red Sea, with the chariots in hot pursuit!

But early Sunday morning, at the time of the morning watch – somewhere between 2:00 AM and sunrise – God threw the soldiers into a panic as their chariots became stuck in the mud of the Red Sea!

The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back up on the Egyptians, upon the chariots and chariot drivers.” (14:26) The great walls of water collapsed on the Egyptians – not one of them remained. As the sun rose on that Sunday morning, the scripture says: “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses (14:30-31).”

This was the story the people of Israel celebrated throughout the centuries and central to the yearly celebration of Passover, as we’ll see Thursday night,  was the hope that just as God saved them from the Egyptians, so he would save them from the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans . . . 

And God did! Just not in the way they expected. 

It was no accident that God chose Passover for Jesus to die. On Thursday night, Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate Passover and he took the elements of the Passover and changed their meaning forever. 

On that Friday, Jesus brought about the new Exodus, crucified by the Roman soldiers, dying on the cross to save not just Israel but the whole world from more than mere political enemies. Jesus died to save us from the ultimate evil that stands behind all human arrogance and violence. 

On that Saturday night, Jesus remained in the tomb, seemingly trapped by the powers of death, guarded by Roman soldiers, like the Israelites trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s soldiers. 

And on that Sunday morning, the angel of God, like the angel of God in the pillar of cloud, descended from Heaven, rolled back the stone, like the wind rolled back the waters, and the guards shook with fear—God threw them into a panic—and “became as dead men” (Matt. 28:4) like the Egyptian soldiers who lay dead on the seashore. Jesus was alive! And what was the message of the angel? “Come and see where He lay! . . .  Tell the disciples to go to Galilee, there they will see Him!” Hear  the echoes? “They saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did . . .”

So, yes, it’s appropriate that The Ten Commandments is broadcast at Easter (although I highly doubt the network execs understand why)! The miracle at the Red Sea, the second greatest miracle in history, foreshadows the greatest miracle of all: the resurrection of Jesus. And just as the deliverance from Egypt was the defining event for the people of Israel, the Resurrection is the defining event for the church. 

Blessings,

Pastor Terry