Redeemed
and Rejoicing
Exodus
15:1-21
March
28th, 2010 Palm Sunday
A sense of patriotism came over me this week as I
prepared this lesson. Not sure where it
came from but I pray and believe it was from the Lord. I was reminded of what President Dwight D.
Eisenhower spoke in his inaugural address on January 20th, 1953. Listen to what he said: “History does not
long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid”. This is the man who helped lead the Allies to
victory in WWII. This is a man who knew
a great deal about the high cost of victory as well as the heavy burden of
freedom that always follows. British
novelist Charles Kingsley put it this way: “There are two freedoms – the false,
where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true, where a man is free to do
what he ought”. Throughout their
history, the nation of Israel struggled with both of these
freedoms, just as God’s people struggle with them today.
It is a mark of spiritual maturity when we learn that
freedom is a tool to build with, not a toy to play with, and that freedom
involves accepting responsibility.
Israel’s exodus experience taught
them that their future success lay in fulfilling three important
responsibilities: (1) following the Lord
(Ex. 13:17-22), (2) trusting the Lord (14:1-21) and (3) praising the Lord
(15:1-21).
Israel’s exodus from
Egypt wasn’t the end of their
experience with God; it was the new beginning.
You have probably heard this one: “It took one night to take Israel out
of Egypt, but forty years to take Egypt out of Israel” Moses continually told the people that; “He
(the Lord) brought you out of Egypt ….. to bring you
in, to give you the land as an inheritance” (Deut. 4:37-38).
The same thing can be said of the redemption we have in
Jesus: God brought us out of bondage that He might bring us into blessing. A.W. Tozer used to
remind us that “we are saved to as well as
save from”. When you were saved you were born into the
family of God, but that was just the beginning of an exciting new adventure that
should lead to growth and conquest. God
liberates us and then leads us through the varied experiences of life, one day at a time, so we might get to know Him better
and claim by faith all that He wants us to have. At the same time we come to know ourselves
better; we discover our strengths and weaknesses, and we grow in understanding
God’s will and trusting His promises.
I came across this in a new letter from a church I once
pastored.
Listen: Our will is probably one of the largest factors hindering God
from working. Our will must step aside
before God can take full control. A
minister once paraphrased the Lord’s prayer (Matt.
6:9-13) by saying:
“Thy kingdom come and my kingdom must
leave.
Thy will be done and my will must be
smashed”.
There is nothing more important than God’s will, and it
can only be found by denying my will.
With Easter being only a week away, I thought it would
be good for us to get ready to Praise the Lord.
Chapter 15 is a song of praise with four stanzas: (1) God’s victory is
announced (1-5), (2) God’s weapons are described (6-10), (3) God’s character is
extolled (11-16), and (4) God’s promises are fulfilled
(16-18).
First,
God’s victory is announced (1-5). There is a lot to learn from the OT about
praise and worship. For example, the
Lord is mentioned ten time in this hymn as Israel sang to
the Lord and about the Lord. Note: The to Him
and about
Him. True praise and worship involves
faithful witness to who God is and what He has done for His people.
If you don’t know this about me, I am from the old
school. I like singing the old songs for
the hymn book. I don’t like singing off
the walls, if you know what I mean. My
favorite music is the old time country gospel.
When I start talking about the “good old days”, my grand children simply
say, “Pepaw, don’t even go there”. Oh well…..
God’s victory
was a glorious victory, for it was wholly the work of the Lord. The Egyptian army was thrown into the sea and
the soldiers sank like rocks and like lead.
They were consumed like burning stubble.
Pharaoh, remember, had ordered the Jewish boy babies to be drowned, so
God paid him back in kind and drowned his army.
You reap what you sow.
The statement “The Lord is a man of war” may upset some
people who feel that anything related to warfare is alien to the Gospel and the
Christian life, but I don’t feel that way.
Some denominations have taken the “militant” hymns out of their hymnals,
including “Onward Christian Soldiers”.
These are the same ones who have taken the songs about the blood out
too. Moses had already said that “The
Lord shall fight for you” in chapter 14 and one of the names for God is
“Jehovah-Sabaoth”, which means “Lord of hosts, Lord of
armies”, a title used 285 time in the OT.
How can you take that out?
Martin Luther wrote in his Reformation hymn “A Mighty
Fortress is Our God”:
Did we in our own strength
confide,
Our striving would be
losing,
Were
not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own
choosing.
Dost ask who that may
be?
Christ Jesus, it is
He;
Lord Sabaoth His name,
From age to age the
same,
And He must win the
battle.
Listen to me! If
there is in this world an enemy like Satan (and there is) and if sin and evil
are hateful to God (and they are), then God must wage war against them. “The Lord will march out like a mighty man;
like a warrior He will stir up His zeal; with a shout He will raise the battle
cry and will triumph over His enemies” (Isa.
42:13). According to Rev. 5:5-6, Jesus
is both the Lamb who died for our sins and the Lion who judges sin, and one day
He will ride forth to conquer His enemies (Rev. 19:11). You can’t just preach that “God is love”, you
must also preach that “God is light” and light destroys
darkness.
Three times in scripture the Jews sang this song, “The
Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation” (Ex. 15:2, Ps.
118:14, Isa. 12:2).
In each case, the Lord gave them strength, salvation, and a
song.
Second,
God’s weapons are described (6-10).
“The Lord is a man of war” who does NOT fight with conventional
weapons. Using human
characteristics to describe divine attributes, the singers declare that His
right hand is glorious in power, His majesty has thrown His opponents down, and
His anger consumes them like fire eats up stubble. The breath from His nostrils is the wind that
blew back the waters and congealed them so they stood like a wall. When the overconfident Egyptian soldiers
thought to catch up with the Jews, God simply breathed and the waters returned
and drowned the army. What a might God
we serve!
Third,
God’s character is extolled (celebrated - 11-16) In the ten
plagues that He sent on the land, the Lord had already proved Himself greater
than the gods of the Egyptians. No
wonder the people sang, “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?” The answer, of course, is NOBODY, for no
other being in the universe is “Majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working
wonders” (v. 11). This stanza goes on to
praise God for His power (v. 12), His mercy to deliver, His wisdom to guide (v.
13), and the awesomeness of His person to bring fear to the hearts of His
enemies (v. 14).
The news of their exodus spread. Remember when they went in to spy Jericho, the people had
already heard of them and they were afraid.
The heathen nations knew that the true and living God was more powerful
than their gods and would give Israel the victory.
Fourth,
God’s promise is fulfilled (16-18).
What I am about to say is very important so listen
closely. This stanza of praise looks
forward to Israel’s conquest
of Canaan and points out that God purchased Israel and they
are His people and always will be. The
nations in Canaan would be as still and dead as
stones as the Jewish army conquered the land and the tribes claimed their
inheritance. God brought them out of
Egypt so He might bring them
into Canaan and plant them in their own land
(Ps. 44:2; 80:8, 15; Isa. 5). God would put His sanctuary among His people
and dwell with them in glory. And there
He shall reign forever and ever (Ex. 15:18).
This ends the song
emphasizing that God is sovereign (supreme ruler) and eternal.
Not only did Moses lead the
men in this song of praise but Miriam formed a special choir of Jewish women who
assisted her as she repeated the first words of the song. Their joyful enthusiasm was expressed as they
sang, played their tambourines, and danced, yes danced before the Lord. Freedom is not an easy burden to carry. You need God’s
help.