Reflections on Exodus 15

Exodus 15 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Moses and the Israelites sang this song in praise of the LORD: I sing praises to the LORD for his great victory! He has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.
   
2. The LORD is my strength, the reason for my song, because he has saved me. I praise and honor the LORD-- he is my God and the God of my ancestors.
   
3. The LORD is his name, and he is a warrior!
   
4. He threw the chariots and army of Egypt's king into the Red Sea, and he drowned the best of the king's officers.
   
5. They sank to the bottom just like stones.
   
6. With the tremendous force of your right arm, our LORD, you crushed your enemies.
   
7. What a great victory was yours, as you defeated everyone who opposed you. Your fiery anger wiped them out, as though they were straw.
   
8. You were so furious that the sea piled up like a wall, and the ocean depths curdled like cheese.
   
9. Your enemies boasted that they would pursue and capture us, divide up our possessions, treat us as they wished, then take out their swords and kill us right there.
   
10. But when you got furious, they sank like lead, swallowed by ocean waves.
    
11. Our LORD, no other gods compare with you-- Majestic and holy! Fearsome and glorious! Miracle worker!
    
12. When you signaled with your right hand, your enemies were swallowed deep into the earth.
    
13. The people you rescued were led by your powerful love to your holy place.
    
14. Nations learned of this and trembled-- Philistines shook with horror.
    
15. The leaders of Edom and of Moab were terrified. Everyone in Canaan fainted,
    
16. struck down by fear. Our LORD, your powerful arm kept them still as a rock until the people you rescued for your very own had marched by.
    
17. You will let your people settle on your chosen mountain, where you built your home and your temple.
    
18. Our LORD, you will rule forever!
    
19. The LORD covered the royal Egyptian cavalry and chariots with the sea, after the Israelites had walked safely through on dry ground.
    
20. Miriam the sister of Aaron was a prophet. So she took her tambourine and led the other women out to play their tambourines and to dance.
    
21. Then she sang to them: "Sing praises to the LORD for his great victory! He has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea."
    
22. After the Israelites left the Red Sea, Moses led them through the Shur Desert for three days, before finding water.
    
23. They did find water at Marah, but it was bitter, which is how that place got its name.
    
24. The people complained and said, "Moses, what are we going to drink?"
    
25. Moses asked the LORD for help, and the LORD told him to throw a piece of wood into the water. Moses did so, and the water became fit to drink. At Marah the LORD tested his people and also gave them some laws and teachings.
    
26. Then he said, "I am the LORD your God, and I cure your diseases. If you obey me by doing right and by following my laws and teachings, I won't punish you with the diseases I sent on the Egyptians."
    
27. Later the Israelites came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees. So they camped there.
    
    

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    A pattern begins to unfold in chapter 15 that becomes prevalent throughout the remainder of the exodus. God rescues the people and they celebrate His greatness, followed soon thereafter with difficulty and complaining and disobedience. They become a people with a short memory of God's mighty works and deliverance.
    
    The first 21 verses of this chapter comprise a song of praise to the Lord who "has become my salvation." (15:2) On the heels of God's full deliverance from the Egyptian oppression, Moses and his sister Miriam led the people in this song of praise for God's deliverance. It began with praise to God for His deliverance saying, "This is my God, and I will praise Him." (15:2) Whether or not they retained much identity with the God of their forefathers throughout their stay in Egypt, that identity was now being restored. What God did for Israel in this deliverance from Egypt had not been done for any other people. Next, the song praised God's power in controlling the waters of the Red Sea that drowned Pharaoh's army. God "unleashed Your burning wrath;" it says, and "it consumed them like stubble." (15:7) In its third section, the song praises God for what He will do in the future: "You will lead the people You have redeemed with Your faithful love; You will guide them to Your holy dwelling with Your strength." (15:13) Because of what God did in destroying the Egyptian army, the people that Israel will encounter on its way to God's "holy dwelling" for them will "be terrified." (15:15) This act of destroying the Egyptian army not only gave them deliverance from the Egyptians, it prepared the way for future deliverance.
    
    Israel's elation was short-lived, however. Just three days later it turned to grumbling. After a three day journey without water they found water only to discover that it was undrinkable. Did they remember God's deliverance just three days earlier and anticipate that He would again provide for them? No, that was not the pattern they chose to follow. Instead, they chose to complain to Moses asking what they were going to drink. God graciously delivered them once again, making the water drinkable. He also gave them a principle by which to live: "If you will carefully obey the LORD your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illness on you I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you." (15:26) Obedience brings blessing.