The Exodus From Egypt
by Chad Pennington
Advent Devotional ~ Day 10
Read Exodus 15:1-21
Christians of all ages, even my younger children, can generally recount the story of the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt. The parting of the Red Sea as described in Exodus 14 is one of the most dramatic narratives within the totality of Scripture. Even unbelievers who have never opened a Bible could tell you what happened there. After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, God rescued his people from that land of servitude, fulfilling his promise to Abraham in Genesis 15. The crossing of the Red Sea was such a monumental event in the history of Israel that we have two versions of it in the book of Exodus, first in narrative, and the second in poetry in the Song of Moses.
In the passage above, we read that the people of Israel, after crossing the Red Sea, where so in awe of what the Lord had done for them that they stop and take time to sing praises to the God that had just led them out of slavery. In the lines of this song, Moses, and the Israelites, sing some of the most powerful and beautiful truths about God. “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation,” “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.”
The people were also so in awe of what the Lord had done that they recounted all that had transpired during their exodus in the song as well. The power, love, and mercy that God showed his people was so overwhelming that it seems the people had to sing the praises of the Lord. Judging by the congregations that I have been apart, it is likely that there were many of the two million Israelites that could not sing very well, but they sang anyway. How could they not sing? All God’s people must sing because all God’s people have been saved.
In this passage, we begin to see the biblical pattern where God saves, and his people sing. The Bible has songs by Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Barak, David, Hannah, 150 Psalms, and doxologies scattered throughout. We still come together and sing the praises of the Lord. We may have not been led out of slavery in Egypt, but we have been redeemed from our slavery to sin. Because of this, like the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea, we sing The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him,
Just as we sing about the wonders and pain we experience in this life, we must also remember what the Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians, “be filled with the Spirit,speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18b-19). We should rejoice in the Lord and all he has done. We should sing about the Red Sea, the glassy sea, about God’s justice, about his power, might, and salvation. We should sing about the cross and the empty tomb. As those filled with the Spirit, we should never stop singing.
Application questions
1. Will you join the chorus? Will you sing the song of the redeemed? Notice what Moses said in verse 2: “The Lord is my strength and my song…”
2. What are you singing about these days? What do you sing about when you’re free to sing about whatever you want to? You may know the national anthem. What is your personal anthem?