Exodus 15-The Song Of Moses And Israel And The Lord Provides Water For Israel
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 1, 2012
Journey Through The Bible Series: Exodus 15-The Song Of Moses And Israel And The Lord Provides Water For Israel
Lesson # 16
Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 15:1.
Exodus chapter fifteen contains a song commemorating the Lord delivering Israel at the Red Sea by destroying the Egyptian army that was pursuing them.
The chapter is divided into two major sections: (1) Israel’s song of deliverance (1-18). (2) Israel begins to grumble against the Lord and the Lord providing water for Israel at Marah (22-27).
The song is divided into three sections: (1) Praise of God (1b-3). (2) The reason for praising Him (4-13) (3) The reaction of the surrounding nations to the Lord delivering Israel at the Red Sea (14-16). (4) God is a sanctuary for Israel (17-18).
Exodus 15:19-21 is a prose summation and contains Miriam’s reprise of the hymn.
The song emphasizes with the reader that God’s acts of deliverance of His people inspire praise of Him from His people.
It also emphasizes that God’s mighty acts deliver His people from those who commit evil.
The song also stresses that when God demonstrates His sovereignty by delivering His people from the forces of evil, He inspires in His people confidence in Himself.
This song is an appropriate climax to the story of God delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt.
It focuses upon the character and nature of God with emphasis upon His attributes of sovereignty and omnipotence.
Exodus 15:1 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.” (NASB95)
“Lord” is the proper noun yhwh (יהוה), which is the personal name of God emphasizing the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men whereas Elohim, “God” emphasizes the transcendent character of God.
It is the personal covenant name of God emphasizing that the Lord involved Himself in and concerned Himself with and intervened in the lives of the Israelites and fulfilled His covenant promises He made to the patriarchs.
“For He is highly exalted” emphasizes that the Lord demonstrated Himself as superior to the gods of Egyptians as a result of delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage by the ten plagues and destroying the Egyptian army at the Red Sea.
“The Lord is my strength” emphasizes a great spiritual truth that human strength is inadequate when faced with an impossible situation.
The Lord is “my song” emphasizes that the Lord and His mighty acts are the motivation for this song of joy.
“He has become my salvation” is an acknowledgement by Moses and the Israelites that the Lord had delivered them from Egypt and expresses a personal relationship with Israel.
“This is my God and I will praise Him” expresses a personal relationship in the Lord.
“My father’s God” expresses the relationship between Israel’s faith in the Lord and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s faith in the Lord and emphasizes that they both share the same faith in the same God.
“The Lord is a warrior” is an acknowledgement by Israel that victory on the battlefield is the direct result of the Lord’s intervention on their behalf.
Exodus 15:4 “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.” (NASB95)
Verses 4-5 reveals that the Lord destroyed the best the Egyptian army could offer.
The Egyptian military was the best in the world in the days of Moses.
They had the best soldiers and the best officers and here we have Moses telling the reader that the elite portion of this mighty military was destroyed by the Lord at the Red Sea, which would make this deliverance even more impressive.
The “right hand” in verse 6 speaks of God’s power as manifested at the Red Sea in drowning the elite portion of the Egyptian military.
Verse 7 teaches that God’s destruction of those who oppose Him and the manifestation of His righteous indignation are inherent aspects of God’s person and expressions of His holiness.
Verse 8 describes the miracle of the Lord parting the Red Sea where He employed a great wind to part the sea which produced a pathway for Israel to go to the other side that had a wall of water on each side.
“The blast of His nostrils” is a poetic metaphor to describe the wind used to produce this miracle as originating from the Lord.
In verse 9, we have insight into what the Egyptian army was thinking as they pursued the Israelites.
It expresses their great arrogance since they failed to remember that the Lord delivered the Israelites with the ten plagues and could deliver the Israelites from them at the Red Sea.
Verse 10 says that this elite force of the Egyptian military was soundly defeated by the Lord and would never cause Israel a problem again.
“Who is like the Lord among the gods?” is a rhetorical question that demands a negative response and expresses the uniqueness of the Lord and His infinite superiority over the fallen or non-elect angels (“the gods”) who are under the authority of Satan.
“Holiness” in verse 11 refers to the absolute perfection of the Lord’s character, expressing His purity of character or moral perfection and excellence, thus making God totally separate from sin and sinners.
In Exodus 15:12, “You stretched out Your right hand” refers to the exertion of God’s power at the Red Sea.
Exodus 15:13 tells the reader that in His “lovingkindness” the Lord led the Israelites. “Lovingkindness” is the noun ḥě∙sěḏ, which refers to God’s “unconditional love” describing that He is loyal or faithful to His covenants with men and characterizes how God acts towards His covenant people Israel.
Exodus 15:14 “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.” (NASB95)
These verses describe the impact upon the nations as a result of the Lord delivering Israel from Egypt with the ten plagues and destroying the flower of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea by the exertion of His divine omnipotence.
“Philistia” is mentioned first since the Philistines would have been the first people to have heard of the Red (Reed) Sea crossing.
“Edom” was located south and east of the Dead Sea, and “Moab” was immediately north of Edom.
Exodus 15:16 describes the psychological effect upon the Philistines, Edomites and Moabites as a result of the Lord destroying Egypt with the ten plagues and the flower of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, which is absolute terror.
Exodus 15:17 “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.” (NASB95)
Verse 17 expresses the Israelites assurance that the Lord would bring them into the land of Canaan, which the Lord promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as the Israelites who were their descendants.
Verse 18 makes clear that the Lord will reign over Israel forever, which is the eternal reign of the Lord over this nation as well as over every nation and all of creation.
Exodus 15:19 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.” (NASB95)
Verse 19 makes clear that the entire Egyptian army was not destroyed in the Red Sea but only their chariot warriors and cavalry for it does not mention food soldiers or infantry.
This verse summarizes what happened to this elite force of the Egyptians at the Red Sea and repeats the reason for this song of praise that the Israelites sang as a result of the Lord delivering them at the Red Sea.
Verse 20 mentions Moses and Aaron’s sister, Miriam who is the first woman in the Bible to be called a “prophetess.”
Micah 6:4 implies that she along with her two brothers provided a leadership role in Israel’s journey in the wilderness.
Exodus 15:22 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. (NASB95)
Verse 22 tells the reader that after leaving the lakes region the Israelites entered the wilderness or desert of Shur, which was located in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
The Lord is leading them into this wilderness to test their faith in Him.
The name “Shur” means “wall” and was a city on the borders of Egypt and Palestine and a comparison of Genesis 20:1, 25:18, 1 Samuel 15:7 and 27:8 indicates that it clearly lies near the northern border of Egypt in the Sinai peninsula in the modern Suez region.
The whole desert extending from the southern borders of Palestine to the edges of the Egyptian northern border was called the “wilderness of Shur” (Ex. 15:22).
Verse 23 reveals that when the Israelites arrived at Marah they could not drink the water there because it was bitter.
The response of the Israelites was to complain to Moses revealing that they had quickly forgotten all that the Lord had done for them in delivering them from Egypt.
They saw the ten plagues and an elite division of the Egyptian army destroyed by the Lord at the Red Sea and yet, they forgot all of this since they immediately complain when confronted with an adversity.
Verse 25 tells the reader that the Lord was testing the Israelites’ faith.
The Lord will test the believer’s faith after conversion in order to produce endurance in them (James 1:2-3) and He will reward the believer after his faith has been tested (James 1:12).
In Exodus 15:25, we read that in response to the Israelites’ complaint, Moses cried out to the Lord for help in this matter.
The Lord showed him a tree and instructed him to throw it in the waters of Marah, which instantly became sweet, which was another demonstration of the Lord’s omnipotence and sovereignty over creation.
This miracle was to teach the Israelites that He cared for them and that He would faithfully provide for them.
In verse 26, the reader is told that the Lord issued a decree or a law in order to provide the Israelites a general understanding of His policies and principles and what He required from them as His people.
This spiritual law taught that if they obey the Lord, the Lord will bless them but if they disobey Him, He will discipline them.
This verse summarizes what is taught in detail in Deuteronomy 28.
Exodus 15:27 says that the Israelites moved from Marah to Elim, which was probably Wadi Gharandel, which was approximately seven miles south of Marah.
Water was in abundance in Elim as is the case today.