When the day broke over the sea, its waves, driven by the west wind, were washing up the corpses of the Egyptian army upon its eastern coast. The magnificent chariots and cavalry were destroyed, the might and the glory of Egypt had perished, “and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore” (Ex. 14:30). The incredible was realized, the impossible had come to pass, the enemy lay bruised and dead under Israel’s feet; Jehovah had gotten to Himself “honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen” (vs. 18). The king was “cut off” according to the warning word, he and his host were overthrown in the Red Sea (Psa. 136:15).
Mace, sword and spear, and daintily-wrought dagger, were strewn in a harvest upon the shore; Israel could help themselves to weapons of war in abundance. The people came and gazed upon the slain, they looked with amazement upon their former oppressors, and they “saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and His servant Moses” (Ex. 14:31).
The tradition of Pharaoh’s overthrow still lingers upon the borders of the Red Sea. Thus runs the Arab legend: “When our lord Moses had quarreled with Pharaoh, and determined to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt, he found himself stopped by the salt sea, but at the command of God Most High, he raised his staff and smote upon the waters, whereupon they parted on the right hand and the left, and the Children of Israel found a dry passage in the bottom of the deep. Then Pharaoh and his soldiery essayed to follow, but when they had come midway, Moses again raised his staff, and, smiting the waters, said, ‘Return, O sea, into thy former course,’ and the waters closed over the Egyptians, and the Children of Israel saw the corpses of their enemies floating on the waves. But Pharaoh was a mighty man, and struggled with the billows; then seeing Moses standing on a rock above him, he waxed exceeding wroth, and gave so fierce a gasp that the waters boiled up as they closed over his drowning head.”
Border forts were close at hand, and the infantry was not included in the overthrow; hence it is easy to follow the recovery of Pharaoh’s body by his people. When Israel went on their way, the dead would be brought back for customary embalmment and burial. The scientific riflers of the tombs of Pharaohs and royal priests, have already unrolled the windings that were wrapped about at least one king’s corpse, the battered skull of which evidences death in battle. Until definite information is obtained, we may be content to consider the mummy of Meneptah, now lying at Gizeh, as that of the Pharaoh who perished in the struggle between Egypt and Israel.
Israel emerged from the Red Sea a nation. If Egypt has no history chronicling its birth, if it appears mighty and glorious upon the earth, whence and how we scarcely know, Israel arises out of death the nation of Jehovah born in a day, and its history can be read aright only in the light of the glory of God.
The deliverance was at once celebrated by a triumphal service of song, so organized that every Israelite might add his and her voice to the praise of Jehovah. “I will sing unto Jehovah, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea” was its burden; and its refrain, sung by the women, and accompanied by timbrel and measured dance, “Jehovah hath triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1-21).
Slavery was over. Hitherto no song to God from human lips had been recorded by the pen of Moses, but now, since men were blessed by divine salvation, a moral fitness marks the outburst of their joy in the Holy Scriptures.
In the early ages of the Church the spiritual application of the victory at the Red Sea was commonly taught, and truths now almost unheeded, or considered fanciful, delighted the hearts of the spiritual. The apostle instructed the Gentile believers of Corinth on the signification of the Jewish nation’s passage through the sea (1 Cor. 10:1-2) and we may be assured that the typical signification of Israel’s history, as the early Church understood it, arose from apostolic teaching. Christ’s “passage through the Red Sea of His passion, His rising again from the depths of the grave to a glorious victory, His overthrow of Satan, death and the grave, thereby, are not His triumphs only, but ours.” As Israel stood on the far side of the sea, their position of deliverance and victory pictorially illustrates these immutable verities which pertain to the redeemed people of God – “Dead with Christ” (Rom. 6:8), “Buried with Him” (Rom. 6:4), “Risen with Christ” (Col. 3:1).
The magnificent triumph of Israel was not merely a song of salvation, or a hymn of praise for deliverance, it was more, even a grand celebration of the glory of God in the overthrow of those who had risen up against Him; it was, therefore, a song of judgment. Pharaoh had used magic and all the force of his kingdom against Jehovah, he pitted his power against that of the Almighty. In this the facts of the past are prophetic of the facts of the future. The strength of the united world, in conjunction with the power of Satan, shall yet make the supreme effort to wrench the earth’s kingdom from God, and to destroy His people. Satanic forces, great and marvelous, will be in evidence in the affairs of men (Rev. 13:1-7). What was enacted in Egypt will yet be enacted on a larger scale upon the earth, generally. The world, in the coming time, will be one in heart as one kingdom, and man will have arrived at unity of mind, to combine with Satan to “make war with the Lamb”... the “Lord of lords, and King of kings” (Rev. 17:14). At the end of the plagues and signs which will then visit the earth, the victors will sing the “song of Moses, the servant of God” (the song of judgment upon evil), and the “song of the Lamb” (the song of salvation). The similarity of the prophetic triumph of the future and the historic triumph of the past is most remarkable indeed, we can almost attribute these words to Israel at the sea: “Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of nations (see margin); who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy Name? For Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest” (Rev. 15:3-4).
The song by the sea opens with individual and appropriative faith – “My strength and song... my salvation... my God.” Each Israelite alike, whether the warrior or babe bound upon its mother’s shoulders, had alike passed through the sea. And in the joy of their deliverance, the faith of the people leaped onward, and with one voice Israel declared, “I will prepare Him an habitation.”
The peculiar title, “Jehovah is a man of war,” arose out of their very amazement at the triumph. They had cried out in despair, and the enemy had shouted, “I will destroy them,” when, suddenly, Jehovah’s arm got the victory. He was “a man of war,” warring and victorious over the gods of the heathen, and so again will He be known on the earth.
The song is arranged in three parts; at the close of the first, “The depths have covered them, they sank into the bottom as a stone,” most probably the women uttered the refrain, “Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” Miriam (or Mary), the prophetess, took her timbrel and, lifting up her voice, led the song of the women as Moses led that of the mete. Her praise was responsive to his. Moses is thus a figure of Christ risen from the dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5) leading the praises of the Church (Isa. 22:22; Heb. 2:12), and Miriam, responding to the song, is a figure of the Church.
The second part of the song is an intensification of the first. Each opens with ascribing glory to God, and extolling His power, and ends with a declaration of the absolute nothingness of His enemies. It is a great and noble testimony to divine rule over all things material, and over all worshippers of creation. At the divine word, the flowing sea became suddenly like a solid mound, its waves were bound together like walls of ice, and at the same word, the sea returned to its strength, and the wind drove the floods upon the host of the enemy, who “sank as lead in the mighty waters.”
At this point a pause occurs, and we shall hardly err in picturing Miriam and all the women of Israel giving utterance again to their refrain: “Sing unto Jehovah, for He bath, triumphed gloriously.”
The third, and last part of this grand praise-song opens with an outburst of wonder “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Ex. 15:11). Only a few months before Israel’s suddenly given freedom, probably six, the very name of Jehovah was unknown on the earth, excepting a very few instances, and His people were slaves. It seemed as if the enemy had the kingdom of this world absolutely in his own hand. The names of the gods of the heathen were graven upon every temple, and were honored by all nations. According to the custom of Egypt, the slaves taken in war were given to the gods, and had branded into them with hot iron the names of the kings whose slaves they were, or those of the deities to whose service they were specially dedicated; thus on stone temples and on the temples of human flesh the mark of the demon prevailed; only a few months previously, Israel had quarried for and had dragged the monster stones for the temple-cities of these deities; now every god of Egypt was smitten and every temple was desolate. Branded as were their bodies, the people were free, and the unholy worship of the gods was laid low by Him who is glorious in holiness. “Who is like unto Thee, glorifying Thyself in holiness?”
Once more Israel’s faith sprang forward, and counted the things that are as though they were not. Faith bridged the way to Canaan; “Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation”! An expression remarkably akin to the triumph-strain in the Christian’s victorious song, “Whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). The powers that held the promised land or the entrance to it were regarded as the dead Egyptians “as still as a stone,” for thus did faith prevail, and in like manner faith still triumphs: “If God be for us, who can be against us?.... neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vss. 31-39).
As a matter of fact, “fear and dread” did fall on the inhabitants of Canaan when they heard of Pharaoh’s destruction – “As soon as we had heard these things our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man” (Josh. 2:11); so that at the moment of triumph, Israel, in following the inspired words given to them by Moses, expressed that which was literally true.
Yet we must not miss the deeper meaning of the song, or pass by its prophetic character. “Thou halt guided them by Thy strength unto the abode of Thy holiness,” refers not only to Israel’s entrance into the promised land, but to the divine purpose respecting that land, and Israel dwelling there the nation of God. “His holiness” Pharaoh was no more. The unholy religion and the unholy power that boasted themselves in sanctuaries, sacred deities, sacred priests and kings all of which were abominations in relation to the Eternal God were smitten and laid low. In like manner, “holiness,” and “holy,” whether relating to persons or things on the earth, which are opposed to the divine Word, will all be smitten and laid low in the time that is at hand. Pharaoh was not holy because he was designated “His holiness,” neither were the sanctuaries and shrines of his gods holy, because they were so regarded by Egypt, any more than sanctuaries, shrines, and deeds are holy now, because they are thus denominated by the world.
The song ends with the celebration of the establishment of the Sanctuary, and the glory of the coming kingdom, praising “the mountain of Thine inheritance the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in; the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever” (Ex. 15:17-18). How often through the Psalms occurs the echo of the last strain of this song, “The Lord shall reign forever and ever”! How frequently do the prophets of both old and new Testaments foretell that kingdom! “The Lord shall reign forever and ever,” is inscribed upon the banners of God’s people in all ages, and the faithful look forward to the coming kingdom, and ever and anon, in different eras of the world’s history, as they see what the hand of God accomplishes, they lift up their voices in praise-songs, anticipating His reign, while their constant prayer is, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”