I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him—my father’s God, and I will exalt him! The Lord is a warrior; Yahweh is his name! [Exodus 15:1-3 (NLT)]
Following the Israelites’ successful passage through the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army, we find Moses and the people singing a song of deliverance and praise in Exodus 15. This beautiful and powerful psalm vividly describes the warrior God Yahweh hurling Pharaoh’s chariots and army into the sea. This is Moses’ song but he doesn’t figure in the account at all. A paean to the supremacy and unrivaled power of Jehovah, all of the glory is given to God.
This psalm, however, doesn’t stop at Israel’s rescue from Egypt; looking ahead, it warns God’s enemies with its prediction of Israel’s successful entrance into the Promised Land. This is a victory song of both past and future divine deliverance with its promise that the Canaanites would “melt away” as terror and fear fell on them. Following this song, Miriam led the women as they danced and sang of God’s triumph. The confident words of their songs were quickly forgotten when, several months later, the fearful people, ignoring God’s promise of victory, rebelled and refused to enter the Promised Land. Walking through the sea on dry ground, witnessing the destruction of Pharaoh’s army, and having sung of God’s power and promised victory in Canaan were but a distant memory.
This psalm may be the oldest recorded song in history. With its expression of faith in God and recognition of Him as both protector and warrior, it could be considered the founding song of Israel. Jews know it as the Song at the Sea or Shirat Hayam. Recited every day at morning prayers, it has become a focal point of Jewish tradition and liturgy.
Many Christians know this psalm as the Song of Moses. It’s found in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and other Christian liturgies at the Easter vigil when the history of salvation is recounted. Just as the exodus story defines Israel’s history, it also defines ours. Like the Israelites, we have been redeemed from slavery, not to Egypt, but to sin. Like the Israelites, we passed through the water, not of the Red Sea, but the water of baptism. Like the Israelites we have a redeemer who redeemed us in the past and will give us victory in the future. For both Jews and Christians, it is a song sung by people redeemed from slavery to the redeemer about their redemption. The difference is that the Jews are still awaiting the Messiah while we know that He has come!
The Song of Moses is the first song in the Bible and we find reference to it in the last song found in Revelation 15. Moses’ song was sung at the Red Sea and this one is sung in heaven at what appears to be a crystal sea. The first one, the song of Moses, celebrates God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt; the second one, the Song of the Lamb, celebrates God’s deliverance of His people from sin.
After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hid from God in the garden. Did they think God wouldn’t know what they had done and come looking for them? Did they really think trees could hide them or that fig leaves would cover their transgressions? We’re not much different. I remember when my brother used his questionable artistic skills to crudely enhance the illustrations in one of my mother’s favorite art books. Thinking she’d never look for it, he then hid the defaced book at the back of the bookcase. She, of course, did find it; like God, parents have a way of discovering our misdeeds!
Since we’ll be held accountable for our words, I wondered how many words that might be. In 1984, Gyles Brandreth claimed that by the time a typical American dies, he (or she) will have uttered more than 860 million words. Since Brandreth is an actor, writer, and Scrabble fanatic rather than a scientist, his number seems questionable. In 2006, Louann Brizendine claimed that women speak an average of 20,000 words per day while men speak a mere 7,000. Based on her numbers, in a lifetime of seventy years, women would have to account for over 511 million words while men would answer for about 179 million. While Brizendine’s qualifications as a neuro-psychiatrist lend credence to her statements, she provided no source for her statistics. Skeptical of her lopsided numbers, psychology professor James Pennebaker conducted a systematic study in 2007 that recorded the daily conversational word output of both men and women. He found that women averaged 16,215 words a day and men 15,669. Based on his numbers, both men and women will speak well over 400 million words in a seventy-year lifetime.
Knowing that God’s people must be fully committed to their cause in battle, Deuteronomy 20 provided several exemptions from combat. An anxious man wouldn’t have his mind on battle and could make blunders that might endanger the entire army. Because men too preoccupied with concerns at home wouldn’t fight wholeheartedly, those who were engaged to be married, had built a house and not yet dedicated it, or planted a vineyard and not harvested it were released from service. Moreover, anyone who admitted to being afraid was also sent home. This was done to keep their negativity and fear from infecting the entire army’s morale. A small army of faithful men was better than a large army of worried, frightened or fainthearted ones.
Two disciples, Philip and Andrew, are mentioned in John’s account of the day Jesus fed over 5,000 with a boy’s lunch. When Jesus asked Philip where they could find food enough for all of the people, the right answer would have been, “Lord, you have the power to feed them all.” Instead, Philip, who may have been the first century equivalent of an accountant before following Jesus, immediately did a feasibility study and figured the massive expense. Ignoring the solution standing in front of him, he only saw impossibility.
