And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. So the Israelites did this. The hardening, the pursuit, and the glory are all explicitly connected. The glory God will gain through Pharaoh is the knowledge of God's identity — the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. The crossing of the sea is not merely an escape; it is a revelation. The Egyptian army that enters the sea to recapture Israel will exit the sea knowing — in the only form knowledge takes at maximum intensity — who the God of Israel is. Romans 11:33–36 meditates on the depths of God's wisdom in his ways, which are past finding out. Exodus 14:4 is one of the most concentrated displays of that wisdom: the most powerful army in the ancient world becomes the occasion for the most famous demonstration of divine power in the Old Testament.

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