SONG OF MOSES AFTER THE ORDERLY RETREAT FROM EGYPT. Exodus 15
God releases our spirits to sing praise to Him. The Israelites were entitled to laud their God as ‘Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! God laughed contemptuously at Egypt’s feeble opposition. The unnerving horse and over-confident rider floundered in the judgmental waters of the Red Sea. Please God for Moses’ child-like trust.
Isaiah 51:11 is memorable, ‘The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads; They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. God longs for his liberated children to respond with such jubilation and release. John in the Revelation surprisingly wrote the same, ‘They sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the saints. (15:3 )
Next is a personal recognition of the Lord, ‘The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise Him, my father’s God and I will exalt Him‘.
Our western training vigorously opposes this, teaching that we must build up our intellectual resources, our muscles for sport, and our own image. Moses acknowledged the Lord as the source of his strength; his refrain validating this; ‘i will prepare Him a habitation ‘. How can mere man offer such to his Lord? Isaiah 66:1 expresses this, ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house you will build Me? Where is the place of My rest? God intended us to be His home or dwelling place. Is your Lord at home with you? ‘I will exalt Him’ should be our greatest pleasure as the redeemed. Not ourselves but HIM.
Are you surprised to discover such warfare in our walk with the Lord? We read, ‘The Lord is a man of war. The Lord or Jehovah is his name.’(v3) Amazingly, in Revelation 19, the Rider on a white horse, is no other than our beloved Lord. ’In righteousness He judges and makes war.’ (v11) ‘He was clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, speaking of total conquest, and his name is called the Word of God. (v13) The armies of heaven followed Him on white horses. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. ‘’On his robe and on his thigh is a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS.’ We have softened the bible perception of our Lord as a man of war. He hates sin, the devil and all the forces of hell. And has gloriously and indisputably triumphed over them. Read the rest of this stirring chapter.
The word of God plainly reported Pharoah’s shattering eclipse and his impregnable army. ‘Pharoah’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea, his chosen captains, illustrious fellows, also are drowned in the depths of the sea‘. The preceding chapter 14 details Moses’ faith in holding out the rod ; the children of Israel’s trust in obeying him; the dogged foolhardiness of Pharoah’s men emulating the Israelites, and panic-stricken before the wall of water. Moses exhibited courage, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you this day. For the Egyptians which you see today, you will see no more forever ‘(14;13) Our omnipotent God has consoled His children in each generation when facing spiritual hostility. Be reassured!
Men brazenly challenge God‘s unfathomable word, insisting that reeds tangled the chariots, so that they sank to the bottom like a stone.’ They all submerged- none survived. Naive nonsense.
Accept with child-like faith the infallible word of the living God. The writer glories in the 119 th psalm, where every of the 176 verses ( except two ) refers to the eternal word, such as precepts, truth, law of the Lord, testimonies,, statutes, commandments, or judgments. Micah wrote, He will turn again. He will have compassion on us. He will subdue all our iniquities.‘ ( 7:19 )He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.‘ Thank God our sins are not smeared in the marshes of the Red Sea, but are unrecoverable in ocean depths. Confidently rest in the God-breathed word.
Moses wrote, ’Your right hand, O Lord ( where the Lord Jesus is seated in power ) has become glorious in power; Your right hand O Lord has dashed the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against you. ( v6,7) Hundreds of years later, King David extolled his Lord, ‘Blessed are you Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. Your’s, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty,
for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord and You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and glory come from you, and you reign over all; in your hand is power and might; In your hand is to make great an d to give strength to all. (1 Chron 29:11 )
Great hymns are biblical and historic; and therefore have survived from one century to another.
Count Zinzendorf , Martin Luther, Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Frances Ridley Havergal, Faber, Montgomery, John Newton like Moses and David bequeathed a timeless legacy of Bible truth. Such psalms, hymns and spiritual songs were born out of persecution, privation, suffering, triumphant survival with heavenly comfort. Contemporary music must vindicate itself.
Revelation 2:27 supports the truth ‘that you shall dash the enemy to pieces’ for it reads ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the potter’s vessels shall be broken to pieces.’ How understandably just that the sovereign Potter discards the vessels which did not fit His perfect purpose. Let no man challenge His God over this solemn truth, which is evident in our lives.
Moses appreciated his Lord’s excellence, having overthrown those who rose against you. (7) Moses had written earlier in (9:16) of the greatness of our God, ‘ Indeed, for this purpose I have raised you up that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’ God has a sublime plan in raising His special servants; for He yearns to release His power in such lives, who will declare His Name in all the earth.’ I recall the Javanese pastor who preached nightly from evening till the following dawn the precious truths of the Word. The Lord had raised him for this revival work. Yet, assisting him was an English gentleman, graduate of England’s prestigious university, himself having mastered another Asian language, yet was committed to support, pray and accompany this aged, indomitable evangelist. Only the Lord could implement such a delightful affinity, which brought such overflowing harvest.
We may unwisely bypass special parts of God‘s word, seemingly severe, and judgmental- yet revealing our God as sovereign and rightly operating as originator and preserver of His universe. ‘You sent forth your wrath, and consumed them as burning stubble.’ (v7) seems harsh and destructive. Remember Sennacherib: ‘The angel of the Lord went out, ( not man but angel) and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty five thousand; and when people arose in the morning, there were the corpses - all dead.’ ( Isaiah 37:36) Confirm this history, appreciating the wrath of God as an attribute of the holy ONE. In the light of Calvary, the Father laid our immense weight of sin on His beloved Son.
Often in scripture, God is pictured breathing His wrath on disobedient children. 1 Samuel 22 tells of the retreat from Egypt, ‘The foundations of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were uncovered. At the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils. (v16)
Moses used this language in the song of Moses, ‘With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright like a mound; and the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.’ (v8) In the preceding chapter, Moses wrote, ‘ The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground’ and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.’ ( 14:22 ) Moses’ song was justified, having seen the Lord so dominantly and dramatically separate redeemed and lost . It pictures our Lord also delivering us at Calvary.
Verse 9 is egocentric, and highlighted in God’s Word. ‘The enemy said, ‘ I will pursue, I will overtake, i will divide the spoil, My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, My hand shall destroy them.’ As though the enemy had the last word, when God makes the final decision. In this bragging, ‘I’ and my’ recur. Diabolical Jezebel did the same when she threatened Elijah’s life, ‘ Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, ;So let the gods do to me ( mark you they were false ) , and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’ (1 Kings 19;2 ) A vain threat, although Elijah apprehensively fled from her presence. Our Lord Jesus expanded this, ’ When a strong man, fully armed guards his own palace , his goods are in peace, but when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armour in which he trusted, and divides his spoils,‘ God reassures His people with His total knowledge ( omniscience ). Scripture comforts us, for our great Captain has schemed the campaign; and He blue-prints our complete deliverance.
Notice Moses Response, ‘ You blew with your wind., the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.’ The Lord commanded the forces which He had created. Noah enjoyed God’s deliverance when ‘God remembered him, and ever living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.’ They were shielded for almost an entire 12 months, isolated in the ark, when the Father intervened with a powerful, drying wind. The Creator utilized His resources: faith in Him dispels doubt about His ability to supervene. Atheists reject God’s over-rulings in the natural realm, but do not concede the Lord’s mighty movements in tsunami, earthquakes, sustained drought or heavy rainfall. Moses enlarged on this in 14;21, telling the source of the wind, under cover of night, and its persistence until dawn. ’ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. ’ Little wonder Moses sang. Shouldn’t we?
Our Lord Jesus showed His Lordship over His own created universe. Matthew records in 8:27 how’ The men marveled, saying,‘ Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him.’ ‘A great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves, But He ( the Lord of glory ) was asleep.’ He was perfect God and entire man: while mysterious to every believer, it is fundamental to our faith in our beloved Lord. ‘Then the disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us! We are perishing‘, prompting an electric response, ‘Why are you fearful
( even as the children of Israel trembled, facing the ocean, with a furious enemy following. ) ’O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.’ The Old and New Testaments consistently show our Lord controlling His ordained natural forces.
Moses threw out a challenge, ‘Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. (v12) David supported the exclusive character of the Lord, ‘Who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those who are around Him. O Lord of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds you.’ (psalms 89:6) We must contend for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints, for many audaciously and brazenly challenge our unsurpassed, living Lord.
Like Moses compose your own song of the Lord’s mighty deliverance and glorify Him.
Choose your psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Offer your sacrifice of praise.
Take one such as ’How great Thou art ‘, composed in our life-time and appropriated by many nations: and magnify your glorious Lord.