The Victory Song
Exodus 15
This is the first recorded “song” (15:1) in the Bible. The first recorded song in the Word of God was composed by Moses who wrote two other songs (Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 90). This song was sung “then” i.e., immediately after Israel’s faith was tested and God supernaturally delivered the children of Israel through the miraculous parting of the Red Sea.
Do you have a song in the midst of your testing circumstances? Are you singing or crying? Are you praising God or complaining to the Lord?
Israel lost their “song” because of sin according to Psalm 137:1-4. They had no joy out of which they could sing. Sin or circumstances can rob us of laughter and singing. But there is hope. God gives a “song” in the night according to Job 35:10. Jesus sang a “song” the night before his crucifixion (Mt 26:30). In Jesus’ most trying hour, He could sing.
Notice this congregation sang this song “unto the Lord.” The Lord or pronouns referring to Him are found 45 times in this one song. Paul in Ephesians describes Spirit-filled believers as those who are “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (5:19). Singing is the overflow of Spirit produced joy. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace in Galatians 5:22. The fruit of joy is expressed in singing to the Lord.
We don’t sing because circumstances are great but because the Lord is great. Again, Paul in prison for preaching the gospel commanded, “Rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 4:4).
This song has four stanzas that express worship to the Lord.
First Stanza (15:1-5) Worship of God for Salvation
A. The worship
The entire congregation of 2 million believers sings God’s praise. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord.” One day in heaven all of God’s people will sing God’s praise. This song of Moses will be sung again in Heaven according to Revelation 15:3. Martyred believers will stand by a sea of glass instead of the Red Sea. They sing of the victory God gave them not by saving their lives but by taking them to heaven for their witness of the gospel.
Yet each sang individually to the Lord: “I will sing unto the Lord.” Their singing was not ritualistic. Each worship together and personally.
B. There are two parts to their worship.
They sing and worship the Lord is the first part. They worship Him because He overthrew their enemy in the Red Sea (15:1b). The next four verses expand on the two reasons for praise.
1) First they focus on the Lord who delivered them in 15:2, 3
He is my strength for my Red Sea test. He is also my song. Nehemiah connected these items of praise when he said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10). He is my salvation “Then” that is, after their deliverance from Egypt. Before they cried in 3:7. Now they can sing. The Psalmist once said, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” He is my God. He is my father’s God. He is my Man of War who overcomes the enemies of the sinner’s salvation.
Paul and Silas sang at midnight (Acts 16) and saw God fight their battles.
2) The overthrown enemy in 15:4, 5.
Four times they sing of the judgment of Pharaoh’s army in the sea. Just as Pharaoh made Israel’s parents “cast” the little boys into the Nile River in 1:22 now Pharaoh and his army are “cast” into the Rea Sea. “Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.” The harvest, however, is always greater than the sowing. Hosea the prophet warned, “You sow to the wind you reap the whirlwind.”
3) The result was the enemy sank like a stone in water.
Matthew Henry said, “Their sin had made them hard like a stone, and now they justly sink like a stone.” There are enemies who seek to hinder sinners from getting saved. But God is greater. Satan does not want you saved. If God is giving you a desire to be saved Satan is persuading you to wait. The world, the Godless society run by Satan, does not want you saved. It wants your support. When Billy Sunday would go to a city to hold a 5 or 6-week preaching campaign, the liquor industry would oppose him and even threaten his life. The reason for their opposition was that after the revival and hundreds of people were saved the liquor businesses folded. Your sinful flesh does not want you saved. Some sinners will not get saved because of the sinful pleasures they will give up. There are pleasures in sin only for a season. But at God’s right and there are pleasures evermore. God is greater than Satan, the world, your flesh. Just like God defeated Pharaoh and his mighty army, God can defeat the enemies of your soul.
Second Stanza (15:6-10) Worship for God’s Omnipotence
A. Worship and praise for God’s omnipotence in 15:6 “Your right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: your right hand, O Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemy.” God is Almighty. With God nothing is impossible. God’s omnipotence defeated the greatest army on the face of the planet because they were opposing God (15:7).
B. The omnipotence of God was demonstrated when with the blast of his nostrils he produced the “strong east wind” in 14:21 that supernaturally parted the waters. The first blast of God’s breath caused the waters to gather together, stand up as two great heaps, and congeal as if they were solid ice (15:8). As the Egyptians are hotly pursuing the Israelites through the Rea Sea between two giant walls of supernaturally held up water, the author quotes the almost breathless Egyptian army saying in arrogant pride in 15:9,
“I will pursue”
“I will overtake”
“I will divide the spoil”
“my lust shall be satisfied upon them”
“I will draw my sword” They were fighting “The Lord” who was Israel’s “man of war.”
“my hand shall destroy them”
While the focus of the hymn is on the Lord, the focus of the unbelieving Egyptians was themselves: “I.”
The second blast of God’s breath caused the Red Sea walls to collapse on God’s enemies in 15:10. With one breath God destroyed the most powerful army on the earth. The result was the enemy sank as a lead in water. God will destroy the enemies who seek to hinder the sinner from being saved.
Third Stanza (15:11-16a) Worship for God’s Incomparability
A. Worship of God’s uniqueness or incomparability in 15:11. Egypt had many gods but none was a match for the one true God. Each of the ten plagues was a defeat for an Egyptian god.
B. Three acts of God for God’s people are praised in 15:12, 13
God gave victory at the sea. God guided them. God promised to lead them to His house in the Promised Land. The verbs in 15:13 are called “prophetic perfects” because they are considered done. This is also found in Isaiah 53:5 and also Romans 8:29, 30. For Israel to enter the Promised Land of God’s will, her enemies who will seek to stop her from entering God’s will must be defeated.
C. God’s acts cause fear among the unsaved in 15:14-16a
First, there is a summary statement in 15:14a. Next, four of Israel’s enemies are listed who will oppose Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land with fear for Israel’s unique God. Seven expressions of fear are predicted. A future example is found in Joshua 2:10-11. The early church also saw this effect in Acts 2:43; 5:11. These enemies will be easier to defeat than the more formidable Egyptians who were the most powerful nation at that time. David said he could defeat Goliath with God’s help because of his past victories. He had already defeated the lion and the bear. The result again was the enemy would sink as a stone that lies silent at the bottom of the ocean. What was true of their Egyptian enemy will be true of their Canaanite enemy. There are not only enemies who seek to hinder the sinner from being saved, but there are also enemies who seek to hinder the newborn babe in Christ from entering into God’s will.
Fourth Stanza (15:16b-19) Worship for God’s Deliverance Into His Will
A. Worship of God’s deliverance in 15:16b
B. God will bring you not only out of Egypt but into the Promised place of His will and also to His sanctuary to worship Him. God wants to do more than to save the sinner from hell. God wants that new convert to grow and serve Him and worship Him. There is a final burst of praise in the crescendo of the song: “The Lord shall reign forever and ever.” Israel just witnessed the fall of the world’s most powerful leader, Pharaoh, at the hands of God. Israel has just been promised the defeat of enemy nations and their leaders by God who reigns forever and ever.