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In your unfailing love you will lead

    the people you have redeemed.

In your strength you will guide them

    to your holy dwelling.

This was first and foremost Israel’s story. God redeemed His people out of slavery in Egypt. Then He lovingly led them through the wilderness, and finally, in His “strength” He guided them into Canaan, ‘the promised land.’

Reflecting on this beautiful verse, I find myself thinking, this is also our story and this is our song. The Lord has graciously dealt with our past, and He undertakes for our present and future:

• He has redeemed us from slavery to sin;
• He is leading us through all of life;
• He will bring us home.

Someone said the idea behind “holy dwelling” is ‘homestead.’ It speaks of a shepherd’s home where He also keeps His sheep. We can say of all the believers who have gone before us through ‘the swelling torrent’ and landed ‘safe on Canaan’s side’, that they have ‘gone home’.

As the chorus of the beautiful Steve Green song, ‘Safely home’, goes: ‘They are strong, they are free. They are safe with me.’

(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3HX2Pz3TBv4)

PRAYER: ‘Guide me O thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty; hold me with thy powerful Hand.’

Who among the gods

    is like you, Lord?

Who is like you –

    majestic in holiness,

awesome in glory,

    working wonders?

12 ‘You stretch out your right hand,

    and the earth swallows your enemies.

13 In your unfailing love you will lead

    the people you have redeemed.

In your strength you will guide them

    to your holy dwelling.

As we see in the book of Daniel, for example, there are spiritual battles taking place behind the scenes (see Daniel 10). We may not understand exactly how prayer plays a strategic role in the battle, but it certainly does, and believers need to pray, and be led in prayer by the Holy Spirit. (This is a theme we will return to when we look at chapter 17).

Alec Motyer says: ‘There is always a cosmic and spiritual dimension to the Lord’s historical acts.’He goes on to quote another writer who says, ‘The historical victory…participates in the cosmic victory.’ Then Motyer adds: ‘What happens in history is real, but part of its reality is its place in the warfare in the heavens.’ ‘The message of Exodus’, p.167.

Where we read of the Lord “working wonders” (11b), the idea is literally that He ‘does wonderfully/supernaturally.’ It is apparently the closest the Hebrew language gets to the idea of the supernatural or miraculous.

Prayer: Lord God, we ask for your miraculous intervention in history today, that your Name may be highly exalted and the plans of evil thwarted

Your right hand, Lord,

    was majestic in power.

Your right hand, Lord,

    shattered the enemy.

7 ‘In the greatness of your majesty

    you threw down those who opposed you.

You unleashed your burning anger;

    it consumed them like stubble.

8 By the blast of your nostrils

    the waters piled up.

The surging waters stood up like a wall;

    the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy boasted,

    “I will pursue, I will overtake them.

I will divide the spoils;

    I will gorge myself on them.

I will draw my sword

    and my hand will destroy them.”

10 But you blew with your breath,

    and the sea covered them.

They sank like lead

    in the mighty waters.

There are two sections of this song on the theme of the Lord’s “hand” (6-10/11-13).

‘The hand is the organ of personal intervention and action.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.166.

Note what Motyer refers to as the ‘enemy’s vainglorious confidence in his own hand’ (9). See the proud and boastful repetition of “I” (9), and contrast this with the “Your” and “you” throughout this section. This victory was God’s alone. His people got to experience and enjoy it and enter into its fruits, but it was God who did it. He gets all the glory.

Human leaders can say what they like in their boastful arrogance (9), and they do! “But” (10) God always has the last, and decisive, word.

Again, Motyer points out that in verse 7 “stubble” is used as a picture of ‘the speed and irresistibility of divine hostile action’, p.167. As with yesterday, we continue to note expressions of overwhelming power: e.g. “shattered” (6); “you threw down”, “unleashed” and “consumed” (7); “blast” (8).

May we again take encouragement from God’s Word, and pray that he will show His mighty hand. May His Name alone be glorified in all the earth.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

‘I will sing to the Lord,

    for he is highly exalted.

Both horse and driver

    he has hurled into the sea.

2 ‘The Lord is my strength and my defence;

    he has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will praise him,

    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a warrior;

    the Lord is his name.

4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army

    he has hurled into the sea.

The best of Pharaoh’s officers

    are drowned in the Red Sea.

5 The deep waters have covered them;

    they sank to the depths like a stone.

I have to say I marvel that we have reached these Red Sea deliverance passages at this dramatic moment in history. I could not have planned or organised it. Until just a few days ago, we did not even know that an invasion of Ukraine would take place. So is it just coincidence that we are reading these words today? Well it could be, but you will no doubt sense my leanings are in another direction.

How good it is to be reminded that “The Lord is a warrior” and more than once, in Scripture, we see Him dealing with tyrants and their armies. We could say God has a ‘track-record’ in this area.The word “hurled” (coming twice inverses 1 and 4) is a strong word, and indicates the display of overwhelming power. Furthermore, Alec Motyer says that the idea behind “I will praise him” (2b) is that of decorating a war hero with military honours. God is our great ‘Hero’ and He is able to deliver His own from tyranny. Let’s keep reming ourselves that He is the same God today.

Earlier this morning (Tues 1^st March) I was in a prayer meeting, where we praying mainly for the situation in the Ukraine, a verse came to mind:“Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.” Isaiah 37:29. God spoke them to another cruel and ruthless tyrant, and did as He said.

I’m sure you will join me today in praying, ‘Do it again Lord! Do it again!!

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

‘I will sing to the Lord,

    for he is highly exalted.

Both horse and driver

    he has hurled into the sea.

2 ‘The Lord is my strength and my defence;

    he has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will praise him,

    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Sinners saved by grace tend to become singers saved by grace. When the Lord ‘becomes’ your salvation, He puts a song in your heart. You will see the repeated ‘I” and “my” in these verses. Personal salvation leads to personal praise. This is the first song of praise recorded in the Bible. Many more such songs were to be written, both in Scripture and in church history. All the way down to present times the song composition continues, in an outpouring of thanks to the saving God.

Notice here:

• A statement of theological truth: God is “highly exalted” (1). He is far above all;
• An expression of personal praise: “…and I will exalt him” (2b). To “exalt” the Lord does not mean we can lift Him any higher than He already is, but it means to recognise and acknowledge Him in the highest place. It is another way of saying that we “praise him” (also verse 2).

“Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvellous things” (Psalm 98:1).

‘They had no part to play in, or contribution to make to, the acts they were celebrating, and so their song expressed their joy at entering freely into the good of what the Lord had done for them…the whole people were caught up in the excitement of what the Lord had done and they had experienced.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, pp.164, 165.