3 The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.

4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.

5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.

The next three verses of song are short and to the point. First, we are told “the Lord is a man of war.” Admittedly, this is a role of God that we often forget in today’s sanitized/effeminate Christianity. John Eldredge has written extensively how our culture has lost the truth that our Lord is a warrior. In his book, Wild at Heart, Eldredge says, “Jesus is no ‘capon priest,’ no pale-faced altar boy with his hair parted in the middle, speaking softly, avoiding confrontation….He is the lord of hosts, the captain of angel armies.”

That isn’t to say that the Lord lacks warmth, compassion, and tenderness for His chosen people. He is capable of being both gentle to the innocent and fierce to the guilty. What the Israelites saw on the banks of the Red Sea was that fierceness of God, and they were so in awe of it that they repeated it over and over in their song!

Verses 4 and 5 recount in short manner the way that Pharaoh and his men were “drowned in the Red sea.” The statement “they sank into the bottom as a stone,” sounds to me like a derision. They were heavy, dull, and useless, judged by the water to be unfit of ascension, and so hastily condemned to the depths instead.

These three verses have related the pure and simple facts, with very little embellishment. Now, in the next set of verses, the drama of the situation will be better conveyed with more flowery and expressive statements. This song is laying out the experience in layers: facts first, flair following.