Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:6-8

6 Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.

8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

The previous three verses established the simple facts of what happened at the Red Sea, today’s verses now add vivid imagery and artistry. The enemy wasn’t just drowned in the sea, they were “dashed in pieces,” and “consumed as stubble.” The water didn’t just withdraw to the side and then collapse back into place, it was gathered together by “the blast of the nostrils,” and it “stood upright as an heap,” and finally “congealed in the heart of the sea.”

Reading these parts of the song one has the image of sudden, dramatic destruction. It paints a picture of large movements happening sharply. This was no war of attrition, no gradual wearing down. Pharaoh’s will had been progressively broken by the gradual succession of plagues in Egypt, but the final scene in his story was one of immediate devastation. In a single moment, the charioteers were turned from the assailants to the victims.

And verse 6 makes perfectly clear that the hinge by which this sudden, dramatic turn came was the hand of the Lord. It was “become glorious in power,” not because it had obtained a power that it had lacked previously, but because this was the first time that power and glory was perceived so fully.

The miracles in Egypt had tended to follow a gradual, natural process. The plagues had primarily been ushered in by understandable means, such as slowly being blown in by a wind “from the east.” They were forewarned of and prepared for, and were for the most part situations that people actually already saw in their daily lives, just not to such extreme lengths and not all in the same year. The parting and collapsing of the Red Sea, on the other hand, was something immediate, unannounced, and unlike anything that had been seen before. This was what made it so momentous as to be worthy of a song!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:3-5

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.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:2

2 The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

The song continues, calling the Lord Israel’s strength, song, and salvation. They proclaim that He will be their God, instead of any strange gods, such as those they must have become acquainted with in Egypt. They will favor Him above all others and be true to Him. As we will see, sometimes they would make good on that promise and sometimes not.

Something else that stands out in their promise is that they would “prepare him an habitation.” Israel had already been commanded to keep “the Lord’s law in the mouth,” and to hold his lessons “upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes.” Paul would also speak of the law being “written in their hearts” in later years. All of this represents giving God a habitation in one’s own person. His home would be in their minds, their hearts, and their deeds.

But, of course, there would also be a literal manifestation of these words, and very soon. Moses and the Israelites are also speaking of the tabernacle that they will build in the wilderness, that the Lord may abide with them as they go along their way. They would literally make God a part of their community, complete with His very own house, an actual neighbor in their city!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:1

1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

We now return to the account of the Israelites, after they had finally rid themselves of the oppression of Egypt. After the miraculous escape through the Red Sea, it would appear that the Israelites understood that the Egyptian tyranny was permanently behind them, and so they wrote a song to commemorate the occasion.

Of course, the songs in the Old Testament lose much of their artistic merit in translation. They read awkwardly in their English counterpart, devoid of meter and tune. Instead it is the themes and ideas of the song that have been prioritized, and so those are the qualities that I will focus this study on.

This song was clearly meant to be a song of praise, focused on extolling the power and salvation of the Lord in freeing captive Israel. More specifically, it is focused on the event of God overthrowing the Egyptians in the sea. The song summons that particular image in its very first sentence, and will return to it again and again. The song is firmly tied to that event, and seems to have been written while the thrill of it was still fresh in the mind.

And this is the great power that rests in music. The thrill and rapture of an isolated moment can be imprinted into the notes and lyrics, like a mold, and then those emotions can be cast and recast into the hearts of future generations. I believe this was the purpose of this song, to transport all future believers to that singular moment of God’s power made manifest upon the waters of the Red Sea, though we never stood upon the shores ourselves.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Summary of Israel’s Liberation

Yesterday I considered the different attitudes that Pharaoh, the Israelites, and Moses showed towards God and their faith in the story of the exodus. Today I will conclude my retrospective by examining Israel’s moment of liberation.

The Wonders in Egypt)

In all, the Lord performed 17 miracles in the course of freeing captive Israel. There was turning the staff into the snake and the river into blood; invading the land with the frogs, the lice, the flies, and the grasshoppers; the murrain among the cattle, the boils among the people, the hailstorm, the three days of darkness, and the slaying of every firstborn. Also there was the miraculous dispersal of the frogs, the flies, the grasshoppers, and the hailstorms, which should all be considered as their own wonders. Then there were the pillars of cloud and fire to guide Israel and, finally, the parting of the Red Sea.

All of these wonders cleaved through the land like a sword, with two distinct effects for each miracle. On the one hand they were destructive and damning for the Egyptians, but on the other hand they were liberating and life-saving for the Israelites. God’s miracles often work this way, simultaneously condemning the guilty while redeeming the innocent. Each of us should endeavor to make sure we are on the right side of things before God’s judgment is laid out, that we may be the benefactor of His wonders and not the victims.

The Fall of Pharaoh)

Speaking of being on the wrong side of God’s judgments, Pharaoh already began on the wrong side by continuing his forefathers’ enslavement of the Israelites, and he only made things worse from there. As I’ve mentioned before, his story is a theme of pride and of refusal to submit to the Lord’s will. He continually grinds himself against God’s immovable rock until it completely breaks him. It seems that he even lost his life, all because he was so stubborn as to march himself right into the jaws of death!

It seems feasible that Pharaoh would have initially doubted the Lord’s ability to make good on His promises. Pharaoh probably genuinely trusted in the power of his own gods, attributing to them the great success that Egypt had enjoyed, confident that they would prevail over the God of his measly slaves. But it seems impossible that he could have held this view all the way throughout. Through one defeat after another, he must have known that he was fighting a losing battle. In fact, on multiple occasions he admitted the worthiness and superiority of Israel’s God, so at least a part of him seems to have known that he would only be hurt if he continued to stand in defiance. And he still did anyway. One has to conclude that at some point Pharaoh was not defying the Lord from a place of belief or pragmatism or rationality. Pharaoh persisted in his defiance because his pride was more precious to him than the life of his people, of his firstborn son, and even of himself.

There are many people today who profess to reject God on a strictly practical basis. They claim that they do not believe in Him simply because they do not have sufficient evidence to do so. When pressed, however, many of them will admit that even if they were given sufficient evidence, they still would not become His disciples. It isn’t really about a lack of evidence, but an intense emotional rejection to the idea of submitting oneself to God’s will, even when God’s reality is undeniable. Some people, like Pharaoh, defy God just to defy God, unwilling to comply because they have molded themselves to be His enemy, and they would rather suffer and die than surrender.

The Redemption of God’s People)

On the other side of God’s judgments we have the Israelites. While it is true that they had moments of doubt and gave coarse words to Moses, they were not fundamentally opposed to God like Pharaoh was. The may not have been deeply faithful, but at their core they were aligned with wanting to obey and follow the Lord. So long as a people have that alignment towards rightness God is able to work with them, even while they are imperfect in their execution.

Also, the Israelites were the descendants of a people that had once been free and prospered by the Lord. From the Exodus account, it appears that they lost this status through no trespass of their own, and so the scales of justice required that they be restored to that free state once more. This initial restoration would come freely, though remaining in the Lord’s good graces would depend on their behavior.

Thus, the redemption of the Israelites was a sure thing, the outcome as certain as if it had already happened. It didn’t matter how stubborn Pharaoh might be or how mighty his army was. It didn’t matter whether the Israelites would be helped or hindered by their neighbors. It didn’t even matter whether the Israelites believed in God the whole way through. The purpose of having faith and trusting in God was not so that His plans would come to pass, those would all be fulfilled regardless, but so that the Israelites could be united with the truth and fulfilled in their souls.

Even today, God still has His chosen people and He is still carrying out a plan among them. The final result of that plan is sure and predetermined, and no doubt among the faithful or resistance by the wicked will prevent it from occurring. The purpose of our faith is only that we may be in alignment with God’s will before it consumes the Earth. What is different with today’s scenario is that God’s chosen people are the people that choose Him. His enemies are the people that choose to be His enemies. Each one of us gets to decide for ourselves which side of the story we end up on, and then we will be raised to safety or drowned in the sea according to our choice.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Summary of Pharaoh, Israel, and Moses’s Faith

Yesterday I reviewed some of the broad themes from Egypt conquering Israel, now let us consider what can be gleaned from Moses working miracles for the Lord in Egypt. As I looked back at the account, I saw that there were three different archetypes of faith in this part of the story.

The Unyielding Pharaoh)

First we have Pharaoh, who was repeatedly commanded to let Israel go but resisted at every turn. As the pressure from God grew increasingly more severe, Pharaoh would momentarily buckle, saying that he consented to God’s demands, only to recant as soon as the latest curse had been removed. Pharaoh would also try to compromise with God, trying to remove or modify some of His terms, but that approach never worked, and ultimately Pharaoh had to fully surrender to God’s will.

Unfortunately, I can absolutely relate to Pharaoh’s shifting loyalties. Though my circumstances are nowhere near as extreme as his, my attitude is very similar. I am full of moments were I partially relent to God’s will, then mostly relent, then fully relent, then take it all back and go back to my old ways. I may not be enslaving God’s people, but I am holding back a part of my heart, struggling to fully surrender.

I think Pharaoh’s example shows us how it is easy for us to have moments of conviction, but that moments are insufficient. We need to have our faith baked into our character, have it as our default mode of operation.

The Blessed Israelites)

The Israelites represent a different sort of attitude towards faith. While they did struggle when things were difficult, they basically desired all the same things that God wanted. And, when things were relatively easy, they did comply with all of God’s commands.

The Israelites were not self-sustaining in their faith. They needed a Moses to lead them, guide them, and bring out the best of them. In many ways they were blessed by association, better off for being allied with such a great man of faith.

At some point, each one of us is similarly blessed by association with those of greater faith. We lean on the testimony of parents, teachers, or friends who have already walked the way that we want. By their encouragement and direction we participate in good patterns that give us good rewards. I think of my parents who took me to church and read me the scriptures, which things I would not have chosen to do on my own, but which still opened my mind and heart to the spiritual dimension. Of course, we are all meant to develop a more self-sustaining faith, but there is nothing shameful in requiring spiritual training wheels for a time.

The Stalwart Moses)

Of all the qualities that we saw from Moses, I am so grateful that we saw that he, too, had his doubts and insecurities at first. His hesitation and half-compliant attitude at the burning bush should give hope to all of us who identify more with the Israelites and Pharaoh. If Moses, too, once struggled to fully devote himself to the Lord, but he was able to grow past that, then so can we.

Admittedly, it isn’t abundantly clear how and when he fully gave himself over to the Lord’s will. Somehow and somewhere, though, it is clear that he just stopped worrying about social norms or the expectations of others. He came to have no regard for the opinion of the Israelites or Pharaoh, and whether they would believe in him, He only did what God commanded him to do.

I do wish we had more details on how and why Moses made this transformation. From my own experiences, I believe that this sort of transformation involves a simple, honest surrender, where we just let go of all our own ideas about what we need to get out of life and who we are supposed to be. It does not have to be a grand gesture of surrender, in fact I think more often than not it isn’t, but that simple, total surrender to God will always change the course of an entire life.

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I will continue with my retrospect of Israel’s liberation from Egypt tomorrow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Summary of Israel Subjugated by Egypt

I just finished the first fourteen chapters of Exodus, which covers the enslavement of Israel, the wonders performed by Moses in Egypt, and the eventual redemption of God’s chosen people. I wanted to pause at this moment to reflect on some of the themes and lessons from these stories. I will do this over the next few days, then I will briefly pause my scriptural analysis as I publish one or two spiritual studies that I have been wanting to do, after which I will resume my scripture study with Exodus 15.

Forgetting God)

At the beginning of Exodus we heard how a new Pharaoh arose “which knew not Joseph.” Looking back, I believe the phrase “which knew not” has been a theme throughout all this story of Egypt. The Egyptians forgot both the debt of gratitude that they owed to the Israelite prince who saved them during the famine, and also his God who had proven Himself to be Lord and Master over all.

By forgetting who the Israelites were and who their God was, the Egyptians felt emboldened to take extreme liberties on the chosen people, which in turn would bring terrible retribution on their own heads. Whenever a people forget God and His fundamental laws of good they inevitably come to dabble in matters that they don’t understand. They start digging out the foundation of a wall, completely ignorant of how it supports the great edifice that hangs overhead. When they are crushed, they will be completely surprised but also completely culpable.

An Unexpected Protection)

At certain points in their history, the Israelites were conquered because they had abandoned God and had to be chastened back into faithfulness. In the case of their subjugation to Egypt, though, we are not told that such was the case. We are given reasons for the conquering, and none of them are morally justified, so as far as we know the Israelites were still an innocent and faithful people, and Egypt wronged them without cause.

If that was the case, then it occurs to me that one reason why God may have permitted this travesty was that it actually served the purpose of protecting the Israelites during a vulnerable period. We know that while they were in Egypt the Israelites grew from 70 souls to approximately 2 million. We also know that there were various hostile tribes and kingdoms growing to power in Canaan while they were being held captive in Egypt. It may be that if the Israelites had stayed in Canaan and multiplied there, that one of the other kingdoms would have seen them as a growing threat and just wiped them out. Being enslaved meant that they would have been protected from all the other worldly powers, guarded by the mighty armies of Egypt, allowing them to develop to the point that they could face those other powers as equals.

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This concludes my retrospect on the enslavement of Israel in Egypt, tomorrow I will continue with a summary of Moses’s miracles and the liberation of Israel.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 14:30-31

30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.

31 And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.

Today’s verses find the Israelites safe on the other side of the sea, and the Egyptians dead, their bodies strewn across the shore. This image of the Israelites safe above the waterline and the Egyptians having been drowned in its depths has a strong similarly to that of Noah and his family safe above the water in the ark while all the world was smothered down below. The Israelites and the Egyptians had just carried out a sort of reenactment of that scene, reinforcing its lessons. Lessons that too much of the world, especially Egypt, had forgotten.

I also want to note how verse 31 stresses the faith and trust that the people had in the Lord and Moses at this moment. Just a few verses before we had heard of their despair and doubt when the Egyptian horde came charging into view, but now they have a moment of perfect belief, trusting not only in the Lord, but also in His prophet and mouthpiece, Moses.

I believe that sometimes we are saved by God, not because of who we are, but because of what He knows we can become. Pharaoh had proven that in spite of miracles he would still not believe, and so he had been destroyed. The Israelites, though they had disbelieved before the miracle, would believe after it, and so they were preserved. We will see how the Lord would continue to test the Israelites with future hardships, and they would not see the Promised Land until they showed that they were ready to start believing before the miracle.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 14:29

29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

Verse 29 describes a most awe-inspiring situation for the Israelites. “The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.” Thus, they went forward with the potential for absolute destruction raised on either side of them! It must have taken great faith to put themselves in such a situation. Of course, faith in a safe crossing would be strengthened by the fact that God had already proved He could part the sea in the first place, so He should be able to keep it parted for as long as needed to reach the other side. The God who brings us into the path by a miracle will also be able to sustain the path by continual miracles.

Recently, I observed how some of the symbolic expressions in the Judeo-Christian theology were literally manifested among the ancient Israelites. There is another example of this in today’s verses, too. Here, in the image of the Israelites walking down the parted sea we have the literal manifestation of the straight and narrow way “which leadeth unto life,” a way that is marked by God and provided to us by His grace and power. Meanwhile, on either side of the narrow path stood the broad expanse of the sea that led unto destruction.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 14:26-28

26 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as done of them.

Now the Egyptians were bogged down in the middle of the channel and the Israelites were clear on the other side. There was no need to keep the passage open any longer, and God commanded Moses to seal the way shut. Notice how in a single action, the closing of the sea, God both saved His people and destroyed His enemies. The same act can be both salvation and damnation.

Verse 27 once again makes reference to the time of day, stating that the sea returned to its proper place “when the morning appeared.” Pharaoh’s army, it would seem, first came into the view of the Israelites in the evening, causing them to despair as the sun set on them, literally and figuratively . But then, in the night, when they were their most powerless, God worked a miracle for their salvation, and in the rising of the sun their future was made hopeful once more. A new dawn, once again both literal and figurative.

And so the sea’s walls cascaded together in a sudden, dramatic flood. The Egyptians, we are told, tried to flee, but they could not outrun the rush of water. All the army was covered. The chariots, the horsemen, the host, none of them survived.

Note that verse 28 specifies that “all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea” were destroyed. The phrase “that came into the sea” might suggest that not all of Pharaoh’s army charged between the waves and that some of them could have been spared. This is what fuels hypotheses that Pharaoh might have actually survived that day. Given the arc of his story, and his stubbornness thus far, and God’s prior comments about gaining honor upon Pharaoh specifically, and verse 23’s declaration that “all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen” charged into the sea, I am inclined to believe that Pharaoh did not survive. Indeed, I find it most likely that verse 28 is merely saying that the Lord destroyed “all Pharaoh’s army, which army came into the sea,” and thus there were no survivors whatsoever.