27/4/03 10.30 a.m. Exodus 15:1-21
This sermon is by Shaun Morris, and was preached at our church...
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:
"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 my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.
4 Pharaoh's chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh's officers
are drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
6 "Your right hand, O LORD,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O LORD,
shattered the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty
you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
it consumed them like stubble.
8 By the blast of your nostrils
the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 "The enemy boasted,
`I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
and my hand will destroy them.'
10 But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
11 "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?
Who is like you--
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand
and the earth swallowed them.
13 "In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.
14 The nations will hear and tremble;
anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
16 terror and dread will fall upon them.
By the power of your arm
they will be as still as a stone--
until your people pass by, O LORD,
until the people you bought pass by.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain of your inheritance--
the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
18 The LORD will reign
for ever and ever."
19 When Pharaoh's horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. 21 Miriam sang to them:
"Sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea."
Opposite my house on the estate where I live there are a few shops, and in the evenings these are where the young people hang around. On Friday night I walked over to the shop with my daughter who is 9, and we saw this lad and his girlfriend entwined in each other's arms. And my daughter said to me in absolute horror, "Did you see what those teenagers were doing? They were touching each other's tongues! They had them in each others mouths!" And then she added, "I know what they were doing, they were snogging! That's sometimes called smooching!"
Now my daughter had no real idea what was going on there ? to her it seemed bizarre that two people would want to stick their tongues in each other's mouths ? and in the cold light of day it does seem a strange thing to do!
And at first sight what is going on in our reading seems equally as strange. Thousands of people had just drowned; probably there were bodies floating in the Red Sea, and yet thousands more were dancing and playing music and singing a song. What is going on?
So what I'd like to do this morning is to look at the song they were singing, and then ask the question, what can we learn from this'? Why has God put this in the bible for us? What is he saying to us through these verses?
In this song there are three themes ? and I've somehow engineered it so they all begin with the letter 'D':
The Israelites were singing to the mighty God who had given them Deliverance.
They were singing to the awesome God who was giving them Direction.
And they were singing to this holy God who would give them a Destination.
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:
"I will sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
4 Pharaoh's chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh's officers
are drowned in the Red Sea.
You will remember the story of Joseph, and how Pharaoh king of Egypt put him in charge of the whole country. And right at the end of Genesis, all of Joseph's brothers (the sons of Jacob), moved to Egypt and they stayed there and grew and prospered. Everything was great for the next 200 years but then there was a new Pharaoh in Egypt. He was a nasty piece of work. He saw the huge numbers of Israelites in his country, he saw their success, and so, very simply, he took all of their land and possessions off them, and turned them into slaves.
The Egyptians used and abused them ruthlessly.
I don't know if any of you saw the film about Ann Frank that was on Channel 4 last weekend? Ann Frank was the teenage Jewish girl who hid with her family from the Nazis in an attic in Amsterdam. I didn't see all of it, but the film portrayed the horror and evil of the Holocaust ? and there were sobering scenes of Jews being herded onto cattle trucks ? beaten and abused ? and taken to Auschwitz to be murdered in their millions.
That was Hitler in the 20th Century AD ? and he was uncannily similar to Pharaoh in 1500 BC. At one point Pharaoh too decided that the Jews were too numerous, so he ordered that every male Jew be drowned at birth.
And yet there is a wonderful passage in Exodus where God says, "I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them."
God saw, he heard, he was concerned ? so he acted.
You know the story ? of how he raised up Moses ? and how after the plagues that hit Egypt Pharaoh finally agreed to let God's people go. Moses led them out of Egypt ? but Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them.
They came to the Red Sea and Moses held out his stick ? and miraculously the water piled up on either side of a dry path through the sea. The people of God went through ? in their thousands ? followed by the Egyptians ? and as soon as the Israelites reached safety the waters flowed back and destroyed the Egyptians.
The people of God sang. Who did they sing to? They sang to the Lord because he had saved them, he had delivered them.
2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.
6 "Your right hand, O LORD,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O LORD,
shattered the enemy.
And their conclusion:
11 "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?
Who is like you--
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
Who is like God? Nobody. There is no one, no power, no thing ? there is nothing to compare with God. Verse 9, their enemies were boasting about how they were going to catch them, and torture them, and plunder them and kill them. But God, verse 10, just breathed, and they were dead.
12 You stretched out your right hand
and the earth swallowed them.
So first 'D', they sang of this Mighty God who had delivered them.
13 "In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.
Second 'D', they sang of the God who would now direct them. This awesome God had not only caused the destruction of their enemies, he would direct and guide and continue with them on their journey.
Periodically we read in our newspapers or we see on the television the story of someone who has been abused as a child. These stories make us feel sick, don't they, children have been betrayed by the people that they ought to be able to trust. If you can't trust your father or your priest or your foster parent, who can you trust? The answer is no-one. So what often happens is they become isolated (certainly emotionally) and they have an increasing feeling of hopelessness and futility.
How can people win their trust? With great difficulty. Words alone are meaningless ; if trust is to be built up it will only because people prove themselves by their love and by their action.
The Israelites as a nation had been abused. And yet here they are singing about a God they trusted, who they felt able to count on to lead and guide and direct them. Why? Why should they trust this God given all the suffering they had experienced from their previous ruler?
Do you see the point I'm making? If I've been betrayed I trust no-one. As an Israelite my life to date has been the pits ? why should I suddenly start blindly following this God?
13 "In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
It isn't blindly trusting; they were able to trust God because he had already proved himself. He had demonstrated his unfailing love. This is not blind trust ? this is not blind faith.
They trusted in God to direct them in the future because God had proved himself faithful in delivering them in the past.
And as we know, God directed them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He provided water and manna and quail whilst they were in the wilderness.
So the people of Israel sang to the God who had delivered them, who was directing them ? and, thirdly, who would give them a destination.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain of your inheritance--
the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
Years previously, God had made a promise with Abraham that he would give his people the land of Canaan. God would be their God, they would be his people in the Promised Land. He would dwell amongst them.
The Israelites, therefore, not only sang to their God about what he had done in delivering them, what he was doing in directing them, but what he would do in giving them a destination.
That is what was going on in 1500BC in only the second book of the OT. What's this got to do with us today?
And the answer is ..everything! Do you remember Jesus talking to the Scribes and Pharisees and telling them, "You diligently study n the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life? These are the Scriptures that testify about me"?
And after his resurrection Jesus sat down with his disciples and opened the Scriptures to them (the NT wasn't written then, so the Scriptures were the OT). Luke says, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
What's my point? Well quite simply that the OT is about Jesus. The key to understanding anything in the OT is to realise that it's all looking towards Jesus.
For God so loved this tiny people who were being oppressed in Egypt that he sent Moses, that all who followed him through the Red Sea should not perish but would enter the promised land.
Does that sound familiar?
It is a shadow, a prelude; it is an introduction to us understanding what God would do in Jesus.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
God has given us the events of the OT so that we can more fully understand what he has done in Jesus.
The people sang to God because had delivered them from the slavery of Egypt. God has delivered us from the slavery of sin and death.
The people sang to God because he was directing them. Jesus before he left promised his disciples the Holy Spirit ? to dwell in his disciples ? to direct us. Is trusting God to direct us, blind faith? It isn't for us, just as it wasn't for the Israelites, because we can look to the Cross and see what he has already done for us in delivering us.
The people sang to God because he promised them a destination. The apostle Peter in his letter writes that, "We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for us."
The OT people came before their God, with joy, with excitement. And simply they spoke with their God of what he had done.
What is God saying to you this morning through this passage?
Has he truly delivered you from the consequences of sin? Are you trusting him to direct you and guide you on a daily basis? Are you constantly focussing on the destination that he has for you ? heaven?
And if so, are you taking time to rejoice in all of this. When did you last spend time with God? Not rattling off your own needs, but simply talking through with him what he has done for you, what is he is doing, and what he will do?
And as a church, are you coming together enough to sing? The Israelites had the tambourine and the dancing. Is that so inappropriate. And how do you guard against the danger of rattling through the hymns (its so easy to do isn't it)?
As I finish, perhaps I can give you one very practical suggestion that I've found helpful this week. Just look at verses 11-13 ? lets say those verses together now to God.
11 "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?
Who is like you--
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand
and the earth swallowed them.
13 "In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.
My suggestion - why don't you read these to God every morning this coming week?
We worship:
A God who has given us deliverance
A God who is directing us