CHAPTER 15

(1491 B.C.)

THE SONG OF MOSES

¹Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spoke, saying (there was no singing in Egypt; there was groaning; singing only follows Redemption; Moses began and ended his wilderness life with a song; that of Deuteronomy, Chapter 32 is the one referred to in Revelation 15:3; this song portrayed in this Chapter is the oldest song of praise in existence; its theme is Jehovah Jesus; it begins with Redemption, and ends with Glory), I will sing unto the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the Sea. (The Lord is given the praise here. This song, accompanied by musical instruments [Vs. 20], proclaims at least one of the greatest, if not the greatest, means of praise and worship found in the Bible. We know this, simply because the Book of Psalms, which contains 150 songs, is the longest Book in the Bible. By devoting this much space to music and singing, the Holy Spirit is telling us here of its value, as it regards the worship of the Lord.)

²The LORD is my strength and song (the phrase actually says in the Hebrew, My strength and song is JAH; in fact, the name JAH had not previously been used; it is an abbreviated form of Jehovah), and He is become my Salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation (means, in the Hebrew, I will glorify Him); my fathers God, and I will exalt Him. (The pronouns, as it refers to the Lord, He, Him, Thy, Thou, and Thee, are found 33 times in this Psalm! How significant and how searching is this!)

³The LORD is a Man of War (not we ourselves; when we try to place ourselves in that position, we get defeated every time; in fact, the only fight that we are called upon to fight is the good fight of Faith [I Tim. 6:12]): the LORD is His Name (could be translated, Jehovah, the Alone-Existing One; before Him, all other existence fades and falls into nothingness).

⁴Pharaohs chariots and his host has He cast into the Sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. (It would be some time before Egypt would recover. One thing is certain, they didnt try to follow Israel into the wilderness.)

⁵The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone (covered with armor, it served only as a weight to drown them, which it did).

⁶Your Right Hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: Your Right Hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy. (The right hand, as it refers to the Lord, is used as a figure of speech. It signifies power.)

⁷And in the greatness of Your Excellency You have overthrown them who rose up against You: You sent forth Your Wrath, which consumed them as stubble. (The verbs in this Verse are future. Consequently, it should read, You will overthrow them who rise up against You. And then, You will send forth your wrath. The last phrase, which consumed them as stubble, is present tense, and concerns the victory over the Egyptians. So, in this Verse, we have an account not only of what the Lord has done regarding the Egyptians, but the Promise that He will fight thusly for us as well!)

⁸And with the blast of Your Nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea. (Concerning the word congealed, some have taken it to mean that the waters froze; however, considering the climate of Egypt, that is unlikely; and yet, it definitely could have happened. Still others have asked the question, Are we justified in taking literally the strong expressions of a highly wrought poetical description?

We definitely are justified. It is the Holy Spirit Who gave Moses these very words, and, to be sure, the description in no way stretches the truth as it regards what God has done, and, above all, what He can do.)

⁹The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. (If the Devil could do all the things that he claims that he will do, he would have done them a long time ago. He hasnt done them, because he cant do them. He is a liar, and the father of it [Jn. 8:44].)

¹⁰You did blow with Your Wind, the Sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. (Here we have another fact that is not mentioned in the account, but yet which is implied. The immediate cause of the return of the waters was a wind. As a strong east wind had caused the water to part, now this new wind, and that which had been devised by the Lord, must have arisen contrary to the former wind, blowing from the northwest or the north, and thus produced the effect described.)

¹¹Who is like unto You, O LORD, among the gods? (gods mentioned in this Verse pertain to the gods worshipped by the Egyptians) Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (How few today glory in Gods Holiness! How few praise Him for His Faithfulness! How few are acquainted with His wonders!)

¹²You stretched out Your Right Hand, the Earth swallowed them. (His Hand Alone defeated one of the mightiest armies in the world, and did so by the use of the elements.)

¹³You in Your Mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed (to purchase the slave out of the marketplace): You have guided them in Your Strength unto Your Holy Habitation. (The ultimate conclusion of this holy habitation is the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Believer, which has been made possible by the Cross [I Cor. 3:16].)

¹⁴The people shall hear, and be afraid (what is the world presently hearing as it regards the Church?): sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina (and this is exactly what happened!).

¹⁵Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

¹⁶Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Your Arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Your People pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which You have purchased. (All of this portrays in Type what Christ accomplished at the Cross [Col. 2:14-15]. As these enemy nations feared Israel, likewise, all fallen angels and demon spirits, even Satan himself, greatly fear the Child of God who understands and knows that he has passed over into the inheritance, purchased for us by the Lord Jesus Christ.)

¹⁷You 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. (While this pointed to Canaan, Jerusalem, and the future building of the Temple, more than all, its total meaning has to do with the Believers position in Christ, for Biblical history has always strained toward this conclusion.)

¹⁸The LORD shall reign forever and ever. (This closes this great and beautiful Song. It ends as it began with the Lord. Faith views the eternal future without fear.)

THE SONG OF MIRIAM

¹⁹For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the Sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the Sea upon them; but the Children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the Sea. (This is the song of Miriam, which will be explained more fully in Verse 21.)

²⁰And 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. (Miriam was the sister of both Moses and Aaron. She is the first woman whom the Bible honors with the title of Prophetess. Pulpit says of her: Miriam is regarded by the Prophet Micah [Mic. 6:4] as having had a share in the deliverance of Israel, with her claiming the prophetic gift in Numbers 12:2. Her claim appears to be allowed both in the present Passage, and in Numbers 12:6-8, where the degree of her inspiration, however, is placed below that of Moses.)

²¹And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the Sea. (The idea seems to be, that the men would sing a Verse of the song, with Miriam, and tens of thousands of women, answering them with the words of Verse 19. This would have been quite a moment, with all of these women, led by Miriam, answering each Verse. Thus, we see how the Lord uses the women here in praise and worship, with Miriam also being used as a Prophetess.)

THE BITTER WATERS

²²So Moses brought 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. (God tests Faith in order to strengthen and enrich it.)

²³And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. (Marah means bitter. Pink says: While the wilderness may and will make manifest the weakness of Gods Saints and, as well, our failures, this is only to magnify the Power and Mercy of Him Who brought us into the place of testing. Further, and we must understand, God always has in view our ultimate good. The bitter waters of Marah typify life and its disappointments.)

²⁴And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? (Three days before, the Children of Israel were rejoicing on the shores of the Red Sea. Now, some 72 hours later, they are murmuring against Moses. Such presents a lack of Faith. Tests brought upon us by the Lord portray what is in us. Regrettably, it doesnt take much to bring out the unbelief.)

²⁵And he cried unto the LORD (Moses set the example; there is no help outside of the Lord, but man, even the Church, seem to find difficulty in believing this); and the LORD showed him a Tree (the tree is a Type of the Cross [Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Gal. 3:13; I Pet. 2:24]), which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet (we must put the Cross into every difficulty and problem of life, which alone holds the answer; only by this means can the bitter waters be made sweet): there He (God) made for them a Statute and an Ordinance, and there He proved them (tested them! We must understand that God doesnt give victory to men, only to Christ; His Victory becomes ours, as we are properly in Him [Jn. 14:20; Rom. 6:3-5]),

²⁶And said, If you will diligently hearken to the Voice of the LORD your God, and will do that which is right in His Sight, and will give ear to His Commandments, and keep all His Statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD Who heals you. (It is demanded that all these Statutes and Ordinances be perfectly kept; however, no man can boast of such; Christ has perfectly kept all the Commandments and, as our Substitute, kept them perpetually. Looking to Him, we can claim this blessing. As well, the healing Promised here has to do not only with physical diseases but, as well, of emotional and spiritual diseases. The Cross is to be put into the bitter waters of these problems, whatever they might be. They can then be made sweet. The name LORD, in the Hebrew, as used here, is Jehovah-Ropheka, which means Jehovah, the Healer. Jehovah has proven Himself as the Deliverer of Israel, and now He proclaims Himself as their Healer.)

²⁷And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water (the number twelve is the number of Gods Government; but we must remember, this is Gods Government, and not particular governments devised by man; it symbolized the Twelve Tribes of Israel and, futuristically, the Twelve Apostles, on which, in a sense, the New Covenant would be built, because they were eyewitnesses of Christ, regarding His Life, Ministry, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and, by faith, His Exaltation), and threescore and ten palm trees (the 70 Palm Trees are symbolic of Ministry, which must be built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone [Lk. 10:1, 17]): and they encamped there by the waters (signals the place in which the Believer is to rest [Mat. 11:28]; as long as the Doctrine is Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, which speaks of the foundation, Typed by the twelve wells of water, and the Ministry, Typed by the threescore and ten Palm Trees, Christ will be found in all His Glory, and will be to the Believer what He desires to be).