When Israel crossed the sea, there was a visible manifestation of power to a double end — the rescue that Jehovah effected for them and the destruction with which He overwhelmed the pride and flower of Egypt. But the victory was so signally of God, so purely miraculous an interposition, in a way foreign to all human thought, that it fittingly portrays the crushing defeat of the enemy about to be displayed before all worlds — the final and total eclipse of every agency, human or Satanic, which has ever raised an impious front before God! Jehovah wrought so conclusively that day for His own glory, in vindication of His title to have and to hold His people, that one cannot but be struck with the sublimity and finality of the action. But how much more with its twofold fitness for stereotyping upon every heart, on the one hand, by the deliverance He wrought, His desire and His purpose to bless, and, on the other, by brushing away to utter destruction with the breath of His mouth all the hosts of Pharaoh which are but as a cobweb in the pathway of the onward march of His counsels from eternity!
Deliverance From Egypt
“Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and His servant Moses” (Ex. 14:30-3130Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. (Exodus 14:30‑31)). Now what could be more in keeping with these wonderful issues than that Moses (type of Christ, of course) should celebrate the achievement of Jehovah with a song, the only fitting mode of expressing the new and triumphant resurrection ground upon which the typical Redeemer stood in the midst of his typically redeemed brethren? For the very first time were lips opened, and opened of Himself, in melody before God, for He had wrought salvation — a salvation of which they knew not the full significance, it may be, but in all this it is our privilege to learn the higher lessons of His work of grace as now revealed to faith. They are now a saved people, not merely as sheltered by the Passover blood, but brought out of Egypt for God, and the power of Egypt broken under their foot! Under shelter of the blood, God had pledged His word for their safety as against judgment, but now they were saved indeed, and they knew it! They ate of the Passover standing, as it were — loins girt, staff in hand, “in haste” to leave, being yet on the enemy’s ground, and shackled beneath his stubborn power.
The very nature of the instruction given them precludes the thought of resting thus, and yet, how many tarry in such an attitude of soul, as though it were rest with God, whereas God took pains to prohibit the rest and was Himself outside. Clearly it was the prelude to departure, the sound of the silver trumpets, as it were, preparatory to the final break-up of their relations with Egypt, its associations and its penalties; they had been sheltered in Egypt that they might go forth to God. He who bought them with blood to make them His bondmen redeemed them by power to make them His freemen. He who, as the Paschal Lamb, would give His blood to shelter was also God’s Man of might to deliver them through His judgment. He would have them a separated, enfranchised people to Himself, and none should stay His hand. Nothing short of this is salvation, and short of this there could be no divine song. God has been pleased to make salvation and song correlatives, and thus song has become the unique privilege of the redeemed, whether earthly or heavenly saints, as looking forward or backward to that stupendous work of redemption which could alone give perfect rest to the conscience and suffice for leading the heart into communion with the Father and the Son. I require for this to know, not only that the blood has been shed to put away my sins and is my perfect security as against the destroying angel, but also that I have been brought to God in redemption effected once and forever, and thus I have perfect peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ!
It is God who is now between me and my sins instead of my sins between myself and Him. The One who has thus interposed has given me to know that in doing it He has brought me to Himself and tuned my heart to His own praise. He has borne the judgment due to my sins and condemned sin in the flesh; in the Person of my Substitute I am clear from and carried beyond the judgment forever. The power of death is annulled, and Satan’s power is finally broken. I raise with joyful heart a song of victory, for sin, death and judgment are behind me now, and even “as He is, so are we in this world”!
Redemption
Salvation is a singular interposition of God, when every other resource has failed, between us and the state of things into which we have plunged ourselves by our sins, not only averting from us, in a way consistent with His righteousness, the eternal penalties incurred, but also delivering us from our old position and translating us into a new one in the activity of His grace, to be permanently enjoyed with Himself, according to His eternal purpose. It is this which legitimately gives birth to song, and it is as natural to the saints of God as for a bird to carol when the shades of night are chased away by the morning sun. And what a song was that we are considering for compass and for power! How it must have gladdened the heart of God, as it ascended from the crowded ranks of Israel fresh from their baptism unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea! How suggestive of all the consequences of what God had achieved! For the first time an indulgent God permits us to speak of a habitation among His redeemed family for Himself; such a thought could only be acceptable to Him in connection with a people set apart, by blood and by power. Had Israel understood its rich and precious import, what a cheering, invigorating thought would it have been to their hearts, that Jehovah of hosts would deign to dwell in a habitation they should build for Him in their midst. God was pleased to withhold the revelation of this attribute of His character until redemption had been accomplished, for not only is it one of His attributes, but through grace are we made partakers of it, and without it shall not see Him. How beautifully, then, is it in keeping with His blessed ways that He should first present it as based upon the great redemption work!
The song is the celebration of victory, in view of the full accomplishment of the counsels of God for Israel, and is typical of our salvation. It accordingly takes no account of the wilderness, which is not part of His counsels, but rather of His ways. It looks on to Canaan, the setting up of His sanctuary in the land, and the establishment of His kingdom on earth.
Resurrection Ground
In conclusion, how beautiful and how significant is the fact that, though they sang in the wilderness, it was as upon resurrection ground, and thus they sang not a word about it. Faith, privileged to be occupied with the counsels of God, bridged all the distance from the sea to the promised land, from the cross to the glory. Not a note could be raised until the vanquished enemy sunk “as a stone,” and the people were free, but when that was achieved, the song which God inspired, and which Moses led them to take up on the farther shore of the sea, raised melodies in the desert which shall reverberate in mightier volume throughout eternity!
For us, along with this, a sweeter song is reserved (Rev. 5:99And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)). Here are our hearts tutored in its touching strains, its tender cadence, and, as in spirit, already within the scene which ever opens freshly to faith and where alone it can be fully rendered, we rehearse, but all too feebly, its heavenly harmonies. May He who is the theme of our song forever inspire, as He loves to do, our poor hearts to take up in loftier notes its blessed refrain, as the sweetest privilege we know this side of the glory!
Adapted from Bible Treasury