Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, 'They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD." And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
Exodus 14:1-9
The direction in which the children of Israel were now commanded to turn is not certain - either southwards from their south-east course, which would take them to Etham and lead them over the wilderness of Shur, or northwards, towards the direction of what is now Port Said. But either way, it was a turn back into the teeth of the enemy, so to speak. There is deep significance in this. It tells us that the Israelites were not so much in flight from Pharoah as on the initiative against him. It is almost as if the Lord were 'dangling' Israel before Pharaoh's eyes to entice him out to battle. There is something very grim about this, and something the enemies of the Lord should learn to fear. When God deals with them in such earnest the game is up. From the human point of view one would have thought that after the terrible judgment on the firstborn of Egypt Pharaoh would have recognised the sovereignty and superiority of God and let well alone, but doubtless the strength of his heart's perversity drove him on to this final attempt on the people of God. But there is something else also that must be said. What we see here is God drawing out evil into the open, giving it its full rein in order that He might finally destroy it. It is this that serves to explain the continued and seemingly inexplicable persistence of evil in human experience long after we may think that God should have dealt with it. He is not slow to exercise His power; it is rather that He is patiently giving evil its head so as to draw it out of all its lurking hiddenness and deception, and thereby deal with it at its roots and put it away forever. We may surely trust Him to make a final end of all that opposes His good and perfect will.