Exodus 15
THE SONG OF MOSES
Full of gratitude, joy, and
happiness — burning with a desire to vent in devotional utterance
of the most fitting kind, his
intense and almost ecstatic feelings, Moses, who to his other
extraordinary powers, added the
sublime gift of poesy, composed, shortly after the passage,
a hymn of praise, and sang it
with a chorus of the people as a thanksgiving to the Almighty.
The hymn itself is generally
allowed to be one of transcendent beauty. Deriving probably
the general outline of its
form and character of its rhythm from the Egyptian poetry of the
time, with which Moses had
been familiar from his youth, it embodies ideas purely Hebrew,
and remarkable for grandeur,
simplicity, and depth. Naturally, as
being the first outburst
of the poetical genius of the
nation, and also connected with the very commencement of
the national life, it exerted
the most important formative influence upon the later Hebrew
poetic style, furnishing a
pattern to the later lyric poets, from which they but rarely deviated.
The song divides itself
primarily into two parts: — the first (vs. 1-12) retrospective,
celebrating the recent
deliverance; the second (vs. 13-18) prospective, describing the
effects that would flow from
the deliverance in future time. The verbs indeed of the
second part are at first
grammatical preterites; but (as Kalisch observes) they are
“according to the sense,
futures” — their past form denoting only that the prophet sees
the events revealed to him as
though they were already accomplished. Hence, after a
time, he slides into the
future (v. 16). The second part is continuous, and has no
marked break: the first
sub-divides into three unequal portions, each commencing with
an address to Jehovah, and
each terminating with a statement of the great fact, that the
Egyptians were swallowed up.
These three portions are:
* vs. 2-5, “The Lord is my strength,” to “They
sank into the bottom as a
stone.”
* vs. 6-10, “Thy
right hand, O Lord,” to “They sank like lead in the
mighty waters.”
* vs. 11-12, “Who
is like unto Thee, O Lord,” to “The earth swallowed
them.” The first verse stands separate from the whole, as an
introduction,
and at the same
time as the refrain. Moses and a chorus of men
commenced their
chant with it, and probably proceeded to the end of v.5,
when Miriam,
with the Hebrew women, interposed with a repetition of
the refrain (see
v. 21). The chant of the males was resumed and carried
to the close of v.
10, when again the refrain came in. It was further
repeated after
v. 12; and once more at the close of the whole “song.”
Similar
refrains, or burdens, are found in Egyptian melodies.
vs. 1-21 - “Then sang
Moses and the children of
LORD, and spake, saying, I
will sing unto the LORD, for He hath triumphed
gloriously” - Literally “He is gloriously glorius” - “the
horse and his rider hath
He thrown into the
sea. The LORD is my strength and song,
and He is become my
salvation: He is my God,
and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God,
and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a man of war” - A strong anthropomorphism,
but one that
could scarcely be misunderstood — “a man of war,” meaning commonly
“a warrior,” or “one mighty in battle” (Psalm
24:8). God’s might had just been
proved, in that
He alone had discomfited and destroyed the most potent armed force
in the whole
world. “The Lord is his name.” - Jehovah — the alone-existing One
“truly
describes Him,” before whom all other existence fades and
falls into nothingness.
On the full
meaning of the name, see the comment on ch. 3:14. “Pharaoh’s
chariots
and his host hath He cast
into the sea” - Or “hurled.” The
verb commonly expresses
the hurling of a javelin or the
shooting of an arrow - “his chosen captains also are
drowned in the
bottom as a stone” - The warriors who fought in chariots commonly wore
coats of mail,
composed of bronze plates sewn
on to a linen base, and overlapping one another. The
coats covered the arms to the
elbow, and descended nearly to the knee. They must have
been exceedingly heavy: and
the warrior who wore one must have sunk at once, without
a struggle, like a stone or a
lump of lead (v.10). “Thy right hand,
O LORD, is
become glorious in power:
thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the
enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou
hast overthrown them
that rose up against thee:
thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as
stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters
were gathered together,
the floods stood upright
as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart
of the sea.” -the
sea giving up its nature, formed with its waves a firm wall, and instead
of streaming like a fluid,
congealed into a hard substance. - “The 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.” This relates what were the
thoughts of the soldiers who
flocked to Pharaoh’s standard at his call.
Rage and
hate were the passions to be
satiated, rather than lust. The drawn
sword points to
death rather than the
Israelites recapture. “Thou didst blow
with thy wind, the sea
covered them: they sank as
lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee,
O LORD, among the gods?
who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in
praises, doing
wonders?” Moses makes three points in which God has no rival!
*
Holiness
*
Awfulness
*
Miraculous Power
“Thou stretchedst out thy
right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Thou in thy
mercy hast led forth the
people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them
in thy strength unto thy
holy habitation. The people shall hear,
and be afraid:
sorrow shall take hold on
the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the
dukes of
shall be amazed; the
mighty men of
all the inhabitants of
accomplishment
when “it came to pass
that all the kings of the Cannanites heard
that the Lord
had dried up the waters of
(Joshua 5:1). “Fear and
dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine
arm they shall be as still
as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the
people pass over, which
thou hast purchased.” By bringing His people out of
bought them. (See
chps. 6:6-7; 19:5.) “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them
in the mountain of thine
inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast
made for thee to dwell in,
in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have
established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.” In terms most simple yet
most grand, often
imitated (Psalm 10:16; 29:10; 146:10), but never surpassed, the
poet gives the
final result of all God’s providential and temporary arrangements, to
wit, the eternal
establishment of His most glorious kingdom. And here reaching the
final
consummation of all things (I Corinthians 15:28), He will not weaken the
impression
made by adding
another word, but ends his ode. “For 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
land in the midst of the
sea” - The next two verses relate the
part taken by Miriam in
the recitation of the
ode. “And Miriam the prophetess” - Miriam is regarded by the
prophet Micah
6:4, as having had a share in the deliverance of
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 is
placed below that
of Moses. She is the first woman whom the Bible honors with the
title of “prophetess.”
- “the sister of Aaron, took a
timbrel in her hand; and all
the women went out after
her with timbrels and with dances. And
Miriam
answered them, Sing ye to
the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the
horse and his rider hath
He thrown into the sea.”
THE JOURNEY FROM THE
After a stay,
which cannot be exactly measured, but which was probably one of
some days, near
the point of the Eastern coast of the
emerged from the
sea-bed, the Israelites, under the guidance of the pillar of the cloud,
resumed their
journey, and were conducted southwards, or south-eastwards, through
the arid tract,
called indifferently “the wilderness of Shur” (v. 22), and “the
wilderness of
Etham” (Numbers 33:8), to
a place called Marah. It is generally
supposed that the
first halt must have been at Ayun Musa, or “the springs of Moses.”
This is “the only
green spot near the passage over the
at present
seventeen wells, and is an oasis of grass and tamarisk in the midst of a sandy
desert. When
Wellsted visited it in 1836, there were abundant palm-trees. It does not lie
on the shore, but
at the distance of about a mile and a half from the beach, with which it
was at one time
connected by an aqueduct, built for the convenience of the ships,
which here took
in their water. The water is regarded as good and wholesome, though
dark-colored and
somewhat brackish. From Ayun Musa the Israelites pursued their way
in a direction a
little east of south through a barren plain where sand-storms are
frequent — part
of the wilderness of Shur — for three days without finding water.
Here their flocks
and herds must have suffered greatly, and many of the animals
probably died on
the journey. On the last of the three days water was found at a spot
called
thenceforth “Marah,” “bitterness,” because the liquid was
undrinkable. After
the miracle
related in v. 25, and an encampment by the side of the sweetened spring
(Numbers 33:8),
they proceeded onward without much change of direction to Elim,
where was
abundance of good water and a grove of seventy palm-trees. Here
“they encamped
by the waters,” and were
allowed a rest, which probably exceeded a
fortnight.
vs. 22-27 - “So Moses brought
the wilderness of Shur;
and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no
water. And 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. And the
people murmured against
Moses” - As they had
already done on the western shores
of the
wanderings were
over. (See ch. 16:2; 17:3; Numbers 14:2;
16:41; Deuteronomy 1:27)
“Murmuring” was the common mode in which they vented
their spleen, when anything
went ill with
them; and as Moses had persuaded them to quit
chiefly against
him. The men who serve a nation best are during their lifetime least
appreciated. “saying,
What shall we drink?” - Few
disappointments are harder to
bear than that of the man,
who after long hours of thirst thinks that he has obtained
wherewith to quench his
intolerable longing, and on raising the cup to his lips, finds
the draught so nauseous that
he cannot swallow it. Very unpalatable
water is
swallowed when the thirst is
great, but there is a limit beyond which nature will not go.
There “may be water, water
everywhere, yet not a drop to drink.”
“And he cried
unto the LORD; and the
LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into
the waters, the waters
were made sweet:” - The miracle
consisted in God’s pointing
out the tree to Moses, who
had no previous knowledge of it - “there He made for
them a statute and an
ordinance” - See the next
verse. God, it appears, after healing
the water, and
satisfying the physical thirst of His people, gave them an ordinance,
which He
connected by a promise with the miracle. If they would henceforth render
strict obedience
to all His commandments, then He would “heal” them as He had
healed the water,
would keep them free at once from physical and from moral evil,
from the diseases
of
proved them.”
- From the moment of their quitting
God was ever “proving”
His people — trying them, that is — exercising their faith, and
patience and
obedience and power of self-denial, in order to fit them for the position
which they were
to occupy in
when He let them
be shut in between the water and the host of the Egyptians — He proved
them now at Marah
by a bitter disappointment — He proved them again at Meribah
(ch. 17:1-7); at
Sinai (ch. 20:20); at Taberah (
Numbers 11:1-3); at
Kibrothhattaavah
(ib, v.
34); at Kadesh (ib, 13:26-33), and elsewhere. For forty years He led
them through
the wilderness to
prove them, to know what was in their heart” (Deuteronomy 8.), to fit
them for their
glorious and conquering career in the land of promise “And said, If thou
wilt diligently
hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and
wilt do that which
is right in His
sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His
statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon
thee, which I have brought upon
the
Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. And they came
to Elim,
where were twelve wells of
water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they
encamped there by the
waters.”
of life:through
life.
last, the desert all around them — and no
water! (v.22) No refreshing draughts
from that living
spring, which becomes in them that drink it “a well of water
springing up into
everlasting life” (John
4:14).
of earthly water for three days. Many poor
pilgrims through the wilderness of life
are debarred the
spiritual draughts of which Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman
for twenty, thirty,
forty years! Debarred, it may be, by no
fault of their own, born
in heathenism, bred up
in heathenism, uneducated in what it most concerns a man to
know. How sad their
condition! How thankful those should be who may draw of the
water of life freely:
ü
from
the written word;
ü from the Living and Eternal Word who has
said — “if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink!” (John 7:38)
The long sought for treasure — of whatever
kind it may be — is announced as
found. Now we are about to enjoy
ourselves, to take our fill of the delight long
denied us. Alas! the dainty morsel as we taste it proves to
be —
“As
Yet turns to
ashes on the lips.”
(It seems as if man wants what he
cannot get. Then when he gets it, that
wasn’t
what he wanted after all? CY - 2010) - The delicious draught, as we
expected it
to be, is “Marah,” “bitterness.”
Most of life is to most men made up of such
disappointments. Men crave
happiness, and expect it here, and seek it through
some earthly, some temporal means —
wealth, or power, or fame, or a peaceful
domestic life, or social success, or
literary eminence — and no sooner do they
obtain their desire, and hold it in
their grasp, than they find its savor gone — its
taste so bitter that they do not
care to drink. Then, how often do they turn
to vent the anguish of their heart
on some quite innocent person, who, they
say, has led them wrong! Their disappointment should take them
with
humbled spirits to God. It actually takes them with furious words to the
presence of some man, whom it is a
relief to them to load with abuse and
obloquy. They imitate the Israelites, not Moses — they murmur, instead of
crying to the Almighty.
·
UNEXPECTED
RELIEF. God can turn bitter
to sweet. Often, out of the
bitter agony of disappointment God makes
gladness to arise. Sometimes, as in
the miracle of Marah, He
reverses the disappointment itself, turning defeat into
victory, giving us the gratification
of the desire which had been baulked of fruition.
But more often He relieves by
compensating. He gives something unexpected
instead of the expected joy which he has
withheld, lie makes a temporal evil
work for our spiritual
good. He takes away the sting from worldly loss, by
pouring into our hearts the spirit of contentment. He causes ill-success to wean us
from the world and fix
our thoughts on Him.
·
A TIME
OF REFRESHMENT. Marah led to
Elim. If there are time of severe
trial in life, there are also “times of
refreshing from the Lord” - (Acts 3:19) —
times of enjoyment —
even times of mirth (Ecclesiastes 3:4; Psalm 126:2-3). But
lately toiling wearily
through an arid wilderness, only to reach waters of bitterness,
on a sudden the
Israelites found themselves amid groves of palms, stretched
themselves at length on
the soft herbage under the shadow of tall trees, and listened
to the breeze sighing
through the acacias, or to the murmur of the babbling rill which
flowed from the “twelve
springs” adown the dale. ‘Encamped there by the
waters” (v. 27) they were allowed to rest for a
while, secure from foes, screened
from the heat, their eyes charmed by the
verdure, their earssoothed by gentle sounds,
their every sense lapped
in soft enjoyment by the charms of a scene which, after the
wilderness, must have
appeared “altogether lovely.” And so it is in our lives.
God does give us, even here in this world, seasons of repose, of satisfaction, of calm
content. It were ingratitude in us not to accept
with thankfulness such occasions when
they arise, He knows
what is best for us; and if He appoints us an Elim, we were
churlish to withdraw ourselves from
it. The Church has its festivals. Christ
attended more than one banquet. “Times
of refreshing” are to be received
joyously, gratefully, as “coming from the Lord,” and designed by Him to
support, strengthen, comfort us. They are, as it were, glimpses into the
future life.
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