Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:22-24

22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

There was a rich symbolism in the plagues that befell Egypt, each one corresponding to the effects of sin upon mankind, mirroring the natural consequences that we face for our evil deeds. Unsurprisingly, that same rich symbolism is present in the account of Israel’s journey into the wilderness. As we encounter each setback the Israelites faced, hear their reaction to it, and see God’s solution, I will pay close attention to how it is a type for the hardships that we, who are faithful, also face in our journeys.

Indeed, if there is any lesson to be learned from the stories of Israel in the wilderness, it is that hardship is not only for the wicked. Yes, the Egyptians received a singular sort of suffering for their crimes, but the Israelites would be tried by fire as well!

And so, in today’s verses, the Israelites found themselves finally free, out on their own, but there wasn’t any water to be found. They pressed on a little further, and there the water was bitter, so much so that they could not drink of it.

As a person who has been a slave of addiction, and associated with many others in the same boat, I have seen the euphoria that befalls a freed soul when he leaves his captor by making a confession of his sins. All at once, that man is out of the place he thought he would never leave, just like the Israelites, and he is sure that the worst is behind him. But now he faces the world without his drug of choice. He still faces difficult relationships, financial pressure, feelings of inadequacy, long spells of boredom, and he has none of his sinful wine to slake his thirst. He is in the bare, open desert, a man alone, and he can see no water.

Then the man might murmur to his mentor, much like Israel did to Moses, “well what am I supposed to do now?” Our slave masters might have been evil, but they also provided a structure that protected us from the harshness of the world. Who will protect and provide for us now?

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:18-19

18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

Today we reach the end of the song. Israel observes that “the Lord shall reign forever,” and their justification for that claim is that He has already proved Himself stronger than the chariots of Pharaoh, and also able to preserve His people, Israel. In essence the argument is that God is mightier than the greatest power in the world, so He shall reign, and He has even shown power over life and death, so that reign will never die.

Verse 19 once again contrasts the differences in experience that befell the Egyptians and the Israelites. They each tried to walk the same path, the passage through the sea, but they came to two completely opposite outcomes. The Egyptians ventured forth with ill purpose of heart, and so were destroyed by that path. The Israelites moved forward in obedience to God’s commands, and so they were saved by that path. We learn from this that God’s way is both a way of salvation and damnation, depending on the state of the soul that walks along it.

Israel’s song is either a song of hope or warning, depending on the sincerity of your heart. By all means, come and join the throng of believers and see the miracles of God lift and preserve you, but only if you are sincerely turning your life over to Him, otherwise you will come to a terrible end!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:14-16

14 The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.

15 Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.

Sandwiched between two verses that speak of God’s salvation of Israel, we have the contrasting description of fear being invoked in the hearts of every pagan nation. This structure seems to convey a message that Israel would have peace, but it would come by the destruction of their enemies at the hand of the Lord. The dissolution of evil is the core of peace for the righteous.

Throughout these verses we hear that Palestine, Edom, Moab, and all the other inhabitants of Canaan would be made to feel afraid, sorrowful, amazed, trembling, and dread. In other words, every enemy of the Lord would be given to every negative emotion. Bold words from the Israelites, a people not known for any military prowess since Abraham rescued Lot hundreds of years earlier! But having a military mismatch and being outnumbered didn’t really matter. This song was not saying that these pagan nations would be put to fright by Israel, but “by the greatness of thine arm, O Lord.”

I wonder whether the Israelites understood yet that they would be the tool in the Lord’s hands for this particular work. They had just witnessed what things He could do by commanding the winds, the heavens, and the sea, but did they realize that He would be commanding them, too? It would, even as they say here in this song, be God’s work, and by His hand, but it would be done by His arm becoming flesh through them.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:13, 17

13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.

The song shifts, at least temporarily, from describing the destruction of the Egyptians to the salvation of the Israelites. It has two verses dedicated to their redemption, though in between them are three verses describing the fear and fame of the Lord that will spread through every other kingdom.

These two verses speak of God redeeming the people of Israel, guiding them, bringing them in, and planting them in their new home. They are expressing great care and attendance from the Lord, His presence actively and constantly helping them.

There is also a prevailing notion of Israel coming into the abode of God. They are being brought to his “holy habitation,” God “shalt bring them in,” they are planted “in the mountain of thine inheritance,” and kept “in the Sanctuary.” Remember that in verse 2 of this song Israel promised to create a habitation for the Lord, and now they are describing being brought into His home, thus creating a reciprocal balance: His home within their home within their home within His home, a cycle without end. John would describe the same state in 1 John 4:13 when he wrote, “we dwell in him, and he in us.” The Israelites are describing a closeness with God that is more enmeshed and intimate than any other relationship one can possibly have, the ultimate relationship that we are all meant to seek for.

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

Loving Your Enemy vs Renouncing Evil- God’s Judgment

The Old Testament gives accounts of the people of Israel being an extension of the Lord to bring judgment and condemnation upon the pagan nations of Canaan. It also gives accounts of them going to war when not as an extension of the Lord, and suffering disastrous results.

As an example of the first we have God instructing the Israelites to circle the city of Jericho, following a very precise ritual that resulted in the walls of the city collapsing to the ground. The Israelites charged in and won a tremendous victory that day. As an example of the second we have the Israelites going up to battle with the Philistines with the Ark of the Covenant in 1 Samuel 4. God had not commanded them to go up to this fight, and as a result Israel lost 30,000 footmen, were forced to retreat, and the Ark of the Covenant was lost to their enemies.

I think in these opposing examples there is a lesson for when we should battle with the enemies of the church, and when we should hold our peace. We must always remember that we are the foot-soldiers and God is the general. This is His fight to fight. It is up to Him to decide when the field is right for battle and when it isn’t. The choice is His, not ours. Our duty is simply to obey. In both of the stories, the Israelites were willing to fight the Lord’s enemies, the difference was that the time to do so was right in the first instance, and not in the second.

As you see the enemies of God’s kingdom throwing their insults and barbs at the walls of the church, claiming victories and taking souls as they go, you may feel a great desire to leap into the fray, tearing them down in similar manner. But it is imperative to ask yourself, has God actually called you to fight that fight? And has He called you to fight that fight right now?

Having the courage and the desire to fight for God’s kingdom is, in-and-of-itself, a good thing, but it must be bounded by God’s will for when and how. Wage the right war when the time is right to do so, and in the meantime hold the line and be faithful.

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.