Moses, our leader, does exactly what God tells him to do. "Stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it," (Ex. 14:16). Simple enough. Except… it doesn't work.
As Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval Midrash, tells us, "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea" (Ex. 14:21), but the sea refused to be divided." Can you imagine the frustration? The desperation? Moses, following divine instruction, and... nothing.
So what then? What could possibly make the sea, this immense, powerful force of nature, yield?
According to the text, God Himself intervened. But not in the way you might expect. He didn't just blast the sea apart with a divine thunderbolt. Instead, "He looked at the sea, and the waters saw the face of the Holy One, blessed be He, and they trembled and quaked, and descended into the depths." The sea saw God.
It's a profoundly evocative image, isn't it? The sea, a symbol of chaos and untamed power, beholding the divine presence. The impact was immediate and overwhelming. As it says in Psalm 77:16, a verse the Midrash directly connects to this moment, "The waters saw thee, O God; the waters saw thee, they were afraid: the depths also trembled."
The word "trembled" here isn't just about fear, though. It's about a fundamental shift, a recognition of something far greater than itself. The depths, the very foundations of the sea, were shaken.
What does this tell us? Perhaps that even the most insurmountable obstacles, the most resistant forces, are ultimately subject to the divine will. But maybe it's more personal than that. Perhaps it suggests that sometimes, the only way to overcome a seemingly impossible challenge is to truly see God in the situation. To recognize His presence, His power, and His ultimate control.
The sea didn't just part because of a command. It parted because it encountered the Divine. And that encounter changed everything.
What "sea" are you facing right now? And how can you see God in the midst of it? Maybe, just maybe, that's the key to parting the waters.