Exodus 15:1-27 (NASB) 1 Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. 2 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father s God, and I will extol Him. 3 The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name. 4 Pharaoh s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea. 5 The deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. 7 And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff. 8 At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be gratified against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them. 10 You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? 12 You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them. 13 In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation. 1
14 The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased. 17 You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. 18 The LORD shall reign forever and ever. 19 For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea. 20 Miriam the prophetess, Aaron s sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. 21 Miriam answered them, Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea. 22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25 Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. 26 And He said, If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer. 27 Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters. 2
3. PRAISING THE LORD (EX. 15:1-21) With their enemies drowned and their freedom secure, the people of Israel burst into song and praised the Lord. We don t read that they praised God while they were enslaved in Egypt, and while they were going out of the land, they were complaining to Moses and asking him to let them go back. But it takes maturity for God s people to have a song in the night (Job 35:10; Ps. 42:8; Matt. 26:30; Acts 16:25), and the Jews were very immature in their faith at that time. This hymn of praise has four stanzas: God s victory is announced (Ex. 15:1-5), God s weapons are described (vv. 6-10), God s character is extolled (vv. 11-16a), and God s promises are fulfilled (vv. 16b-18). God s victory is announced (Ex. 15:1-5) The Lord is mentioned ten times in this hymn as Israel sang to the Lord and about the Lord, for true worship involves faithful witness to who God is and what He has done for His people. God s victory was a glorious victory, for it was wholly the work of the Lord. The Egyptian army was thrown into the sea (vv. 1 and 4), and the soldiers sank like stones (v. 5) and like lead (v. 10). They were consumed like burning stubble (v. 7). Pharaoh had ordered the Jewish boy babies to be drowned, so God paid him back in kind and drowned his troops. The statement The Lord is a man of war (v. 3) may upset people who feel that anything relating to warfare is alien to the Gospel and the Christian life. Some denominations have taken the militant hymns out of their hymnals, including Onward Christian Soldiers. But Moses promised the 3
people, The Lord shall fight for you (14:14; see Deut. 1:30); and one of God s names is Jehovah-Sabaoth, which means Lord of hosts, Lord of armies, a title that s used 285 times in the Old Testament. Martin Luther wrote in his Reformation hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God : Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right Man on our side, The Man of God s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle. If there is in this world an enemy like Satan, and if sin and evil are hateful to God, then He must wage war against them. The Lord will march out like a mighty man; like a warrior He will stir up His zeal; with a shout He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over His enemies (Isa. 42:13, NIV). Jesus Christ is both the Lamb who died for our sins and the Lion who judges sin (Rev. 5:5-6), and one day He will ride forth to conquer His enemies (Rev. 19:11). To emphasize only God is love (1 John 4:8, 16) and eliminate God is light (1 John 1:5) is to rob God of His attributes of righteousness, holiness, and justice. 4
On three special occasions recorded in Scripture, the Jews sing, The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation (Ex. 15:2): 1. when God delivered Israel from Egypt, 2. when the Jewish remnant laid the foundation of the second temple (Ps. 118:14), 5-6 3. and when the Jews are regathered and return to their land to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom (Isa. 12:2). 5-7 In each instance, the Lord gives strength, salvation, and a song. 5-8 God s weapons are described (Ex. 15:6-10) The Lord is a man of war who doesn t fight with conventional weapons. Using human characteristics to describe divine attributes, 5-9 the singers declare that His right hand is glorious in power, His majesty throws His opponents down, and His anger consumes them like fire eats up stubble. The breath from His nostrils is the wind that blew back the waters and congealed them so they stood like a wall. When the overconfident Egyptian soldiers thought to catch up with the Jews, God simply breathed and the waters returned and drowned the army. What a mighty God is He! God s character is extolled (Ex. 15:11-16a) In the ten plagues that He sent on the land, the Lord had already proved Himself greater than the gods and goddesses of Egypt. No wonder His people sang, Who is 5
like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? (v. 11; see Micah 7:18) The answer, of course, is nobody, for no other being in the universe is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders (Ex. 15:11, NIV). This stanza goes on to praise God for His power (v. 12), His mercy to deliver, His wisdom to guide (v. 13), and the awesomeness of His person to bring fear to the hearts of His enemies (v. 14). The nation anticipated their march to the Promised Land, knowing that the news of the Exodus would travel quickly to the other nations and bring fear to the hearts of their enemies (vv. 14-16a). When the spies entered Jericho, they discovered that the people of the land were indeed paralyzed with fear as Israel arrived on the scene (Josh. 2:8-13, 24; see Num. 22:3; Ps. 114). The heathen nations knew that the true and living God was more powerful than their gods and would give Israel the victory. God s promise is fulfilled (Ex. 15:16b-18) This stanza looks forward to Israel s conquest of Canaan and points out that God purchased Israel and they are His people. The nations in Canaan would be as still and dead as stones as the Jewish army conquered the land and the tribes claimed their inheritance. God brought them out of Egypt that He might bring them into Canaan and plant them in their own land (Pss. 44:2; 80:8, 15; Isa. 5). God would put His sanctuary among His people and dwell with them in glory. The Lord shall reign forever and ever (Ex. 15:18) is the climax of the song, emphasizing that God is sovereign and eternal. 6
When you read verse 19 in the Authorized Version, you get the impression that Pharaoh himself accompanied his army and led them into the sea where they all drowned, but the NASB clears up this misunderstanding. It reads, For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea. Pharaoh was apparently on the scene (14:6), but he certainly wasn t leading the army. Not only did Moses lead the men in the singing of this anthem of praise (15:1), but Miriam 5-10 formed a special choir of Jewish women who assisted her as she repeated the first words of the song. Their joyful enthusiasm was expressed as they sang, played their tambourines, and danced before the Lord (see 1 Sam. 18:6; 2 Sam. 1:20). Miriam is called the prophetess, which explains why later she had the courage to criticize Moses (Num. 12:1-2). 5-11 And the waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then believed they His words; they sang His praise (Ps. 106:11-12). However, that isn t the end of the story, for the nation s singing soon turned into complaining as they entered the wilderness and headed toward Mt. Sinai. They soon forgot His works; they waited not for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert (Ps. 106:13-14). It wasn t easy for them to carry the burden of freedom, and God had to teach them how to live a day at a time. 7