Week 3

12/15/2024

Winter 2025

 

Egypt was at war with the God of creation, and Moses/Israel were witnesses. These final few chapters of the Exodus event continue God's polemic against Egyptian paganism. Just as God showed His sovereignty over the Egyptian pantheon of gods and goddesses during the ten plagues (see the youth Sunday school handout on Exodus for more details), he continued to do so in these chapters.

 

God set the stage to display His power over Pharaoh one final time during the Red Sea crossing. Once more, God hardened Pharaoh's heart (see last week's recap). Pharaoh hardened his heart out of sin; God hardened Pharaoh's heart to demonstrate His glory before Israel and Egypt (14:17-18). Additionally, God used the east wind to part the Red Sea. This wind was a harsh, hot, dry, dusty wind that blew in from the deserts to the south and southeast of Palestine. This wind had the power to destroy crops (Gen 41:6; Ezek 17:10), harm people and animals (Isa 27:8; Jonah 4:8), cause shipwrecks (Ps 48:7-8; Ezek 27:26), and become a catastrophic whirlwind (Job 27:20-23). God's activity behind this catastrophic east wind and the chaotic, uncontrollable crashing sea shows that He is the sovereign creator over all things.1

 

And finally, God defeated Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. Despite the might of their chariots, they were swallowed up so that even Egypt might know who Yahweh is (Exodus 14:18). Evangelical scholars still debate on the date of the Exodus, but if you place the events in the 1400s, Amenhotep II (1450-1425 BC) is a likely candidate for the pharaoh during the Exodus. Unlike his predecessors, Amenhotep II had no major military campaigns for 9 years, perhaps because his army drowned in the Red Sea. God decidedly won the war against Egypt and their god-king pharaoh for His stubborn, stiff-necked people to see.

 

Israel complained almost as soon as they began than journey out of Egypt (Exodus 14:11). They continued this pattern of complaining against God, particularly throughout Numbers. Moses, as God's mediator and missionary to Israel, would need to lead people in remembering these glory-displaying events of their covenant Lord. For this reason, they sang the song of Exodus 15. It seems strange to us that they would have felt the need to sing a poetic summary of these events they had just witnessed. But Moses knew the power of ritualized songs. Ritual (cf. Exodus 13:11-16) is a powerful tool to shape habits that captivate and cultivate hearts pointed in the right direction. Putting facts to song to be sung ritually does much more than aiding memory. Music captures hearts with beauty that causes us to long for the transcendent. Consider the poetic and musical beauty of many of our hymns of Advent this season. These hymns that capture the gospel story and mission do more than just restate facts; they imaginatively capture our hearts and minds with the same story we have heard so often.

 

Thus, Moses was a faithful missionary to paganized, stubborn Israel. As they grumbled and likely began to view the stunning sight of God's never-departing presence in the pillar of fire/cloud as humdrum monotony, beautiful music can take hold of hearts. As they likely forgot that God was behind the events at the Red Sea, song creatively reminded them (Ex 15:8). Never underestimate how powerful creative music can be for capturing the hearts of even the most stubborn.

1. pagans would have considered the wind and sea to be the domain of different gods