“And in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians, locking their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.” (Ex. 14:24, 25)
Red Sea Briefing, by Barry H Downing
In 1968 I published the book The Bible and Flying Saucers, in which I argued that the beings we are now seeing visit our world in UFOs or flying saucers, and the beings from another world the Bible called angels, were the same reality. I also argued that a biblical UFO, called a “pillar of cloud and fire” (Ex. 13:21,22) was a spaceship which led Israel through the Exodus for forty years, and used its advanced technology to do many things, including parting the Red Sea. This essay is a brief argument that summarizes what I wrote in 1968, as well as further reflections in Chapter 4 of my book Biblical UFO Revelations (2017), in regard to the Red Sea.
I will from here on refer to the “pillar of cloud and fire” as the Exodus UFO. The text makes the interesting observation that after Israel escaped Egypt on Passover night, the Lord “did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, ‘Lest the people repent when they see war, and return to Egypt.’ But God led the people round by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.” (Ex. 13:17, 18)
This appears at first to be disastrous planning on the “Lord’s” part. The Egyptian chariots will soon be pursuing Israel, why take the hard way, and then be boxed in at the Red Sea? Of course the Lord saves the day with the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea. Some scholars have tried to explain the parting as a “lucky wind” showing up at just the right time. But if the Exodus UFO is a spaceship, it makes more sense to suppose the parting of the Red Sea was planned ahead as a way to get rid of the Egyptians once and for all, and the extraterrestrial pilots of the UFO knew they had the technological power to do what human history remembers so well.
When Israel arrives at the Red Sea, the Egyptian army is close behind. The Exodus UFO takes defensive action. “Then the angel of God who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt, and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness, and the night passed without one coming near the other all night.” (Ex. 14:19,20)
Moses at this point stretched his hands out, a strong east wind blew all night, and the waters were divided. What I believe happened is that while it was dark, the Exodus UFO moved to a position directly over the Red Sea, and used some kind of technological power to part the Red Sea. This force would not only part the water, but would draw air down into the open channel, and this air would then be forced out each open end of the channel. Israel was on the west shore, facing east, they had an east wind in the face. I believe if they had been on the other shore, they would have reported a west wind. During the time they traveled through the open channel, wind is never mentioned again. What kept the walls of water in place if there was no wind?
“And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” (Ex. 14:22) Israel was amazed not only by the walls of water, but also by the dry ground. They expected to find mud where the water had been, but the ground was dry.
The wind blowing on the surface of the sea bed during the night helped dry the ground, but in many modern UFO cases, heat is reported when people are near a landed UFO, or have one fly overhead at low altitude. Whatever energy was used to part the sea, heat was probably one of the properties of that technology.
The Egyptian chariots then followed Israel into the open channel. This would get the attention of Israel. At that moment, it must have seemed like a cruel joke. God has given them this great miracle, only to have the Egyptians destroy them using the parted sea that was supposed to save them. Most of us remember, “But then the walls of water fell on the Egyptians.” And this is true. But it is not what came next. Next came what I find to be some of the most amazing verses in the Bible, because why not just end the story with falling walls of water?
We now have the Exodus UFO brought back into the story. “And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily; and the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.’” (Ex. 14:24,25) Then Moses raised his hands, and the walls of water fell in on the Egyptians.
I want to draw attention to several things. Notice that the Exodus UFO is now directly over the open sea channel. When did it take this position? The text does not tell us, but I believe it moved to this position after dark. Notice this text begins “in the morning watch” so it is just getting light.
Notice also that even though Israel was now on the eastern shore, and should be safe, they are not safe. They are saved by “the Lord’s look down.” Remember this text is about 3000 years old. Israel is a shepherding culture, a chariot is hi tech from their point of view. There is no way they are going to call the Exodus UFO a spaceship, or understand its power. Nevertheless, they made a connection between some kind of invisible power from the UFO up above, and problems with the wheels of the Egyptian chariots below. What kind of problems?
The RSV translators had a problem with what is said here. They concluded the chariot wheels were stuck in mud, the Lord looked down “clogging the chariot wheels” so that they drove heavily. This is plausible.
But the Exodus text states three times Israel crossed on dry ground. Where did the mud come from? Furthermore, the RSV translators put a “q” after clogging, as a sign that they did not translate the Hebrew properly. The Hebrew says the chariot wheels were “bound” or “locked up.” This did not make sense to the RSV translators. The wheels simply stopped turning? On dry ground? Not likely.
But if the “Lord’s look down” involved a tremendous force of heat, such as was probably used to dry out the sea bed earlier, this heat could easily cause the iron hubs of the chariots, and the iron axles to become hot. Metal expands when heated. If the hubs and axles expanded too much, the wheels would lock up. And I believe that is what Israel saw, and reported, before the walls of water collapsed. If the wheels stopped rotating, the chariots would indeed “drive heavily.”
After the Red Sea, the Exodus UFO leads Israel toward Mt. Sinai, where the Ten Commandments would be given, as well as the building of the Tabernacle, and the rules forming of the Jewish priesthood, in other words, the beings in the Exodus UFO were doing all this to form the Jewish religion, and establish the Jewish nation, with its twelve tribes, with a unique identity that lasted until this day.
Although this version of the parting of the Red Sea has been available to the public for more than fifty years, it is mostly unknown and unacknowledged. It is in conflict with the accepted conservative interpretation of the Red Sea parting, that the parting was a supernatural, not a technological event.
It is also in conflict with the liberal interpretation of the parting, that it is mythology. It is a story the people of Israel made up. It never happened. Some go so far as to say Moses never existed. Of course this division between conservative and liberal mirrors our current red church/blue church American political division we know only too well.
Liberals and conservatives do not agree on much. But they agree on hating my interpretation of the parting of the Red Sea. My belief is we have to look at Exodus, and the biblical angels, from a space age point of view. It is really no ones fault we could not do this much before the year 1950. Government denials about the UFO reality have helped religious leaders be blind to what the Exodus text says. But it is now time to do what needs to be done. Religious leaders need to know what the United States government secretly knows about our extraterrestrial visitors.
How long have the aliens been here? Why are they here? We need to know if modern UFO technology could have parted the Red Sea as I have described it. Am I right to suggest that our modern aliens, and the biblical angels, are the same reality, and if so, does this reality relate to the ultimate God, the ultimate creator of the Universe? This is not truth that only secret government officials have a right to know, we all have a right to know.
~Barry H. Downing