The parting of the Red Sea is a story that I grew up with.  The fundamentals of the story are that Pharaoh is chasing the Israelites through the desert, the Israelites reach the shore of the Red Sea, Moses stretches out his hand as commanded by God, the seas part, the Israelites walk through on ‘dry’ land (presumably a bit damp though).

Today, the BBC news reported that this bible story is now backed up by evidence from science: ’

‘Simulations by US scientists show how the movement of wind could have opened up a land bridge at one location.This would have enabled people to walk across exposed mud flats to safety.’

The bible recounts the story like this:

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Now let’s look at the findings of the scientists, with the parallels in bold:

The researchers show that a strong east wind, blowing overnight, could have pushed water back at a bend where an ancient river is believed to have merged with a coastal lagoon.

With the water pushed back into both waterways, a land bridge would have opened at the bend, enabling people to walk across exposed mud flats to safety.

As soon as the wind died down, the waters would have rushed back in.

Now I don’t see any difference in the two accounts.  A strong east wind blew overnight, the water was pushed back, so there was an exposed route for people to walk across. 

Carl Drews, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder said:

“What this study shows is that the description of the waters parting indeed has a basis in physical laws.”

In English: What the bible described all those thousands of years ago and has sometimes been treated as nonsense, a fairy tale or impossible - now has a proven basis in science that the parting of the Red Sea as described in the bible could have happened.

Don’t expect this to get as much coverage as a ‘revelation’ by Hawkins or Dawkins would (they have books to sell).  More take this as proof that the Bible and Science can go hand in hand, not just with this event but others like it - maybe miracles aren’t so far-fetched?

The question now is not ‘did this happen?’, because we’ve seen that it could (science) and did (bible), but more ‘did God make this happen?’

For what it’s worth, I believe fully that this was something that happened in God’s timing and through him, I believe he did rescue the Israelites as outlined in Exodus.

My hope is that this now sees good and balanced discussions between those already in Church and those not in Church.  I hope that it doesn’t become an ‘I told you so’ from Christians, more that Christians can enter into healthy discussion about God’s role in this and equally in peoples lives today.