Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Exodus 15:1) Then sang Moses and the children of Israel 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!"
The Lord had just led the Israelites through the midst of the Red Sea and had drowned their enemies, the Egyptians, there. Moses had told the people to hold their peace and watch what God would do, and now that He had delivered them, they broke out in a song of praise to the Lord. This is the first song recorded in scripture, and it appears to have been composed by Moses. They would sing to the Lord because He had gloriously triumphed over Pharaoh and the Egyptians, leading and then drowning Pharaoh's horses and horsemen in the sea.
(2) “The LORD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him."
The name Moses used for the Lord in verse 2 is "Yah" or "Jah", an abbreviated form of Jehovah, the name he used in the first verse. The strength of Moses and the children of Israel to stand against Pharaoh and the Egyptians and to enter the Red Sea was made possible only by their faith in the Lord alone. He was their strength and because of all He was and for all He had done for them, He was the subject of their song. By delivering them out of the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, He had literally physically been their salvation, but He had also become their salvation spiritually and eternally. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:2, that the children of Israel "were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea". The Lord is their God and they will prepare him a "navah". "Home" might be a better translation than "habitation"; the sense is that the Lord will have a home with them, in their hearts, or rather, they would be at rest with Him. He was their fathers' God, for what He had done for them now, He had promised their fathers and had done for their sake and for their descendants. They would exalt Him and lift Him up in their eyes and in their hearts with song and praise and worship.
(3) "The LORD is a man of war;
The LORD is His name.
(4) Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
(5) The depths have covered them;
They sank to the bottom as a stone."
"The Lord is a man of war." Like the heavily armed battleship by the same name, the Lord was well able to deal with all who would strive against Him. Jehovah was His name, "the self-existent and eternal one". The Lord had cast Pharaoh, his chariots, his army, and all his chosen captains into the sea. Note that it was not said that they wandered into the sea and then the Lord drowned them. The Lord Himself drove their enemy into the sea where they were drowned. The depths of the sea had covered their enemies and they sank to the bottom, never to rise up against them again.
(6) “Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power;
Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy.
(7) And in the greatness of Your excellency
You have overthrown those who rose up against You;
You sent forth Your wrath;
Which consumed them as stubble."
The right hand of the Lord, signifying that the Lord Himself and no one else, completely destroyed their enemy. Now that right hand had become "adar", or I believe the best translation is "magnified" in glory and power. In verse 7, I again think there is a better translation. Rather than "greatness" for the word "rob", it is more often translated as "abundance" or "multitude". Certainly the Lord's excellency or majesty is great, but it is abundant in excellency; once again His excellency has been magnified as He alone overthrew those who rose up against Him. The word translated as "wrath" is "charon", and literally means "burning of anger", like a fire that consumed their enemies like stubble or straw.
(8) "And with the blast of Your nostrils
The waters were gathered together;
The floods stood upright as a heap;
And the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea."
The blast of God's nostrils was that east wind which drove the waters back, and gathered them together to stand as mounds. The waters were made firm to stand as walls.
(9) “The enemy said, ‘I will pursue,
I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
My lust shall be satisfied on them;
I will draw my sword,
My hand shall destroy them.’"
Pharaoh, the enemy of Moses and the Israelites, sorry he had let them go, set his mind to pursue the children of Israel, took a huge army with him to overtake them, and surely planned to get into his hands all the riches the people of Israel took with them when they left Egypt. Certainly Pharaoh's desire for revenge and gain would be satisfied when he captured the Israelites, but I believe there was more to it. That word translated as "lust", which is a good translation, but that word "nephesh" literally means a "breathing creature" and is most often used for "life" itself, or "soul". Pharaoh had become consumed with keeping the Israelites as slaves. His stubborn pride always led him to resist Moses even when he had just witnessed what the Lord of the Israelites could do. This lust of his would be satisfied when he overtook them and completely destroyed them this time once and for all.
(10) "You blew with Your wind,
The sea covered them;
They sank as lead in the mighty waters.
(11) Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
(12) You stretched out Your right hand;
The earth swallowed them."
Their enemy had planned to destroy them, but their Lord blew His wind and covered the enemy with the sea, and they sank like lead. The Lord had proved more powerful than all the Egyptian gods. There was none like Him! The question became a rhetorical one. He alone was magnificent in holiness or sacredness, so holy He could not be approached without the deepest reverence and fear, doing miraculous wonders that no false god could duplicate. The Lord exerted His power and the earth seemed to swallow their enemies as they sank out of sight.
(13) "You in Your mercy have led forth
The people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength
To Your holy habitation."
Their merciful Lord had led His people out of bondage in Egypt. He had physically saved His people, yes, but they were spiritually redeemed or ransomed from the bondage of the enemy, Satan, and sin. They were God's people and He led them out of Egypt by His strength, and He would continue to guide them to His holy land He had chosen for His people. Again I believe this could mean spiritually, too, as He had redeemed His people and still was guiding them or refining them to be His holy people.
(14) "The people shall hear, and be afraid;
Sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestine.
(15) Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed;
The mighty men of Moab,
Trembling will take hold of them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away."
The inhabitants of the lands in their path would hear of their great God and what He had done and would be afraid. With sorrow, amazement, fear and trembling, all the inhabitants of Canaan, their promised land, as well as the inhabitants of the lands adjoining and leading to their promised land, would melt away before them because of their God's reputation and the knowledge of what He had done for His people.
(16) "Fear and dread will fall on them;
By the greatness of Your arm
They will be as still as a stone,
Till Your people pass over, O LORD,
Till the people pass over
Whom You have purchased."
Fear and dread would fall on the inhabitants of the lands they would pass through, including the inhabitants of the promised land to which the Lord would bring them. Because of the Lord's awesome power and might, they would be still as stones not daring to stir a foot to act against the children of Israel until they crossed over into the land that the Lord had procured for His people. The original word "qanah" meant "procured", "purchased" or "redeemed", again I believe a reference to the fact that God's people have been redeemed with a price by Jesus Christ who shed His blood for them. Jesus Christ as God Himself paid the price for our salvation! God actually PAID for it! What a mind-blowing thought! The God of the universe cared enough for us sinful shameful wretched creatures to come to earth in human form and shed His blood in an excruciating manner to pay for our sins! The thought brings me to tears.
(17) "You shall bring them in and plant them
In the mountain of Your inheritance,
In the place, O LORD, which You have made
For You to dwell in,
In the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established."
The Lord would not only bring them in to their promised land, but He would plant them, giving them a fixed permanent habitation in Canaan, in the "mountain" of the inheritance He was giving to His children. "Mountain" might refer to the hilly or mountainous nature of the land, as described later in Deuteronomy 11:11, "a land of hills and valleys", or may be used figuratively. The Lord was planting them in the place that He had made for He Himself in which to dwell. The Lord literally made everything and every place, but this was a place He had prepared for His people where He would dwell among them in a sanctuary, or a holy consecrated place that He had established for His people to worship Him.
(18) "The LORD shall reign forever and ever.”
This was the end of Moses's song, and I like what Adam Clarke suggested in his Commentary on the Bible, that it was "the grand chorus in which all the people joined". The KJV said "...for ever and ever". Interestingly, the two words both translated as "ever" are two different words. The first, "olam", was very interesting to me. It meant "concealed" or "the vanishing point", which was understood to mean "until there is no more", or "eternity". The second "ever" was "ad" and meant "perpetuity" or "continuing onward". The sense of both together is that it is forever till the end of time and continuing after that. The Lord will reign forever and ever with no end! Amen!
(19) For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.
This verse marks the return of scripture from the song back to the narrative. It summarizes what had happened just previous to Moses's song. Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen had followed the Israelites into the sea. The Israelites had crossed on dry land when the Lord parted the sea for them, but He brought the waters back down to drown their enemy.
(20) And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her
hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with
dances. (21) And Miriam answered them:
“Sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously;
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!”
Miriam would have been the sister of both Moses and Aaron, and is also called a prophetess, as it appears she may have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to lead the women, and we will later learn that the Lord spoke by her as well as by Moses and Aaron (Numbers 12:2). The word "nebiyah" also meant "poetess" and may have meant someone with a gift of song, although Dr. John Gill in his Exposition of the Entire Bible pointed out that it surely couldn't have been for singing alone, as all women who sang would have been called prophetesses, which was not the case, "though sometimes in Scripture prophesying intends singing". Miriam took a timbrel, or a tambourine, and led the women with their tambourines in dance and in a repeat chorus of the song (note it is a repeat of verse 15:1).
No comments:
Post a Comment