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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.

And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

“You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Ps.77:20).

This 31^st verse almost takes your breath away. It sounds quite daring. But then you remember it is the Bible itself saying this. We again see the Divine-human partnership. We also note the principle that God honours those who honour Him (1 Samuel 2:30); and he can raise up a human-being in the eyes of others, so that they follow that person’s lead. What God does is regularly mysterious to us, but it is His own business. The people “put their trust” in Moses, I believe, because they saw what God did as Moses obediently played his part.

But let’s not get too carried away. The court of public opinion is fickle and on more than one occasion this ‘congregation’ would give their leader cause for deep grief (e.g. 32:1). Let all leaders in God’s church take note and take heart. Like David, we must learn to encourage ourselves in the Lord. He is the source of everlasting encouragement – even when the stream of human support dries up.

On good days and bad, it is an enormous privilege to be used by God.

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.’ 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing towards it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen – the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.

‘Psalm 77:16-20 indicates that a severe rainstorm accompanied the high winds, and after Israel had crossed, the rain turned Israel’s dry pathway into a muddy road. When the Egyptian soldiers tried to follow, the mud disabled their chariots and impeded their progress, and when the waters returned, all the Egyptian soldiers were drowned. It was indeed a night to be remembered.’ Warren W. Wiersbe: Old Testament commentary, p.168.

In years to come, pious Jews would look back on the Exodus as the supreme demonstration, in their history, of God’s rescuing power. It is referred to many times in the psalms and in the prophetic books.

We should never lose sight of the fact that God is in control of history. He is able to deal decisively with tyrants (murderers, thugs, political bullies). He is the same God forever and ever.

We do not know what His purpose is in this historical moment, but let us not doubt for one minute that He is running the universe and ‘history is His story.’

PRAYER: Lord, you make wars “cease to the ends of the earth.” You break “the bow” and shatter “the spear”; you burn “the shields with fire” (Ps.46:9). We pray you will have mercy on the peoples of Russia and the Ukraine, and bring about a swift and lasting peace. Lord have mercy on your world; Christ have mercy on us all.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.’

‘The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still’ (14).

Alec Motyer explains in his commentary on ‘Exodus’ that in chapters 1-12 God comes down to the Israelites, to redeem them from slavery in Egypt; then in chapters 13-18 He accompanies them on their journey: leading, guiding, providing, protecting. This is something we see in today’s passage. It illustrates the great truth articulated by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Motyer also points out that this was a battle over who owned the Israelites (5). The Egyptians wanted their slaves back. But in truth, they were the Lord’s people, and He would not allow the Egyptians to make off with them.

When I was at secondary school, I was small for my age, and skinny, and looked incredibly young. I was regularly a target for bullying. But if I was out and about with my good friend David Butler, I did not fear anyone. He was big, very tall, and looked much older than his age. In my eyes he was like a fully grown-up man. I knew he would not let anyone intimidate me, and probably no-one would try while I was in his company.

Isn’t it so good to know that we walk through this hostile world with ‘Somebody bigger than you or I’?

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

As we often observe, God can make a way where there is no way (or there appears to be no way). He did this at the Red Sea in partnership with Moses. We are ‘workers together with God’(2 Corinthians 6:1), and when Moses did as he was commanded (see 16), God performed the miraculous.

If Moses had just taken it into his head to hold his staff over the sea, it would have been disastrous. But the point is, he played the part he was told to play, and got to partner with God in one of His wonders. It was God who did the supernatural thing, but Moses had his role to play.

When Billy Graham went to Cambridge for a student mission in the mid 1950’s, he was terrified. He was acutely aware that he wasn’t an academic, and he felt insecure. Had he been able to do so without complete loss of face, he would have cancelled the meetings or persuaded some-better qualified man to replace him. ‘I am scared stiff about preaching in Cambridge,’ he told the evangelist Stephen Olford. Interestingly, Stephen counselled him against a philosophical approach, or trying to do something out of his depth. He should remember he was preaching not to students but sinners, and keep things simple.

Graham found that hard to swallow, and in the first few meetings he attempted something somewhat intellectual, and it fell flat, so he resumed his normal approach, and he generated an enthusiasm among the students that some compared to D.L.Moody’s historic visit in 1882.

When we do what God has given us to do, using the gifts He has given us – well, that’s when the miracles happen.

PRAYER: Lord help me to be content to be who you have made me to be, and  do just what you have given me to do.

Then the angel of God, who had been travelling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other; so neither went near the other all night long.

‘The safest place in all the world is in the will of God, and the safest protection in all the world is the name of God.’ Warren W. Wiersbe.

‘Safety comes in our nearness to God, not in our distance from our enemies.’ Dillon Burroughs

God’s protection is very real. The point is repeatedly made in a number of Bible stories. God can protect His own people from any threat, if He chooses to do so.

Of course, as the book of Job shows, God’s people can suffer profoundly in this world. But the devil cannot touch anyone without first going through God. The Lord is in ultimate control, and this understanding should undergird us with a deep sense of security.

‘Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first.’ Shannon L. Alder.

But it needs to be said that ultimate safety is to be found only in the Cross of Jesus:

‘In Jesus Christ on the Cross there is refuge; there is safety; there is shelter; and all the power of sin upon our track cannot reach us when we have taken shelter under the Cross that atones for our sins.’ A.C. Dixon.

Although in this world we are vulnerable to all manner of suffering, and we all have to die, nevertheless, in Jesus, we are safe from eternal harm.

PRAISE: ‘Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.