⁵ Is Egypt a more reliable savior than Jehovah? Those unfaithful Jews have apparently forgotten the events that led up to the birth of their nation centuries earlier. Jehovah asks them: “Has my hand become in fact so short that it cannot redeem, or is there in me no power to deliver? Look! With my rebuke I dry up the sea; I make rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink due to there being no water, and they die because of thirst. I clothe the heavens with obscurity, and I make sackcloth itself their covering.”​—Isaiah 50:2b, 3.

⁷ Jehovah stopped the Egyptians in their tracks by positioning a pillar of cloud between them and the Israelites. On the Egyptians’ side of the cloud-mass, there was obscurity; on the Israelites’ side, there was light. (Exodus 14:20) Then, with the Egyptian armies held at bay, Jehovah “began making the sea go back by a strong east wind all night long and converting the sea basin into dry ground.” (Exodus 14:21) Once the waters were parted, all the people​—men, women, and children—​were able to cross the Red Sea to safety. When his people were well on their way to the opposite shore, Jehovah lifted the cloud. In hot pursuit, the Egyptians dashed headlong into the seabed. When his people were safely on the shore, Jehovah released the waters, drowning Pharaoh and his armies. Thus Jehovah fought for his people. What an encouragement that is for Christians today!​—Exodus 14:23-28.