The Anthem of a Redeemed People Text: Exodus 15:1-19
Introduction: Worship as Warfare
We live in a soft age. Our worship is often soft. Our theology is soft. Our expectations of God are soft. We want a God who is manageable, a divine therapist who affirms our choices and soothes our anxieties. We want a Jesus who is endlessly meek and mild, a celestial Mister Rogers. But the God of the Bible, the God who reveals Himself in Scripture, is not soft. He is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God. And as this magnificent song thunders across the centuries, we are reminded that He is something else our modern sensibilities find distasteful. He is a warrior.
This song, the Song of Moses, is the first great anthem recorded in Scripture. It is not a quiet, reflective hymn sung in a hushed cathedral. It is a triumphant, roaring, conquering war chant, sung by a newly liberated people on the banks of a sea that has just become the liquid tomb of their enemies. They have just witnessed the definitive act of salvation in the Old Testament, a deliverance so profound that it will be the paradigm for every deliverance to come, including the final one. And their response is not quiet contemplation. Their response is to sing. Their response is worship.
And this is the point we must grasp from the outset. For the people of God, worship is not an escape from the world; it is an engagement with it. True worship is spiritual warfare. When we sing praises to God, we are not just making a joyful noise; we are declaring His sovereignty over all rival claimants. We are announcing His victory to a rebellious world. This song is a polemic. It is a direct assault on the gods of Egypt, the most powerful empire on earth. It mocks their impotence and celebrates their utter humiliation at the hands of Yahweh, the God of slaves. This is what happens when you pick a fight with the God of Abraham.
So as we come to this text, we must shed our sentimentalism. We are not just studying an ancient poem. We are learning the grammar of redemption. We are learning the vocabulary of victory. We are learning how to sing in a world that is still very much at war. The enemies may have changed from chariots to ideologies, from Pharaoh to the principalities and powers, but the God who saves is the same. And the response of the saved must be the same: loud, corporate, God-exalting song.
The Text
Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to Yahweh and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. Yah is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him. Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are sunk in the Red Sea. The deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Yahweh, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O Yahweh, shatters the enemy. And in the greatness of Your exaltation You pull down those who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, and it devours them as chaff. And at the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be fulfilled against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will dispossess them.’ You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like You among the gods, O Yahweh? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Fearsome in praises, working wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them. In Your lovingkindkindness You have guided the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have led them to Your holy habitation. The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling seizes them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are still as stone; Until Your people pass over, O Yahweh, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased. You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O Yahweh, which You have made for You to inhabit, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. Yahweh shall reign forever and ever.” For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea.
(Exodus 15:1-19 LSB)
Yahweh the Warrior King (vv. 1-5)
The song begins with a declaration of intent and a summary of the whole glorious event.
"I will sing to Yahweh, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. Yah is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him. Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is His name." (Exodus 15:1-3)
The first thing to notice is the personal nature of this worship. "I will sing." "Yah is my strength." "This is my God." Corporate worship must be composed of individuals who have been personally apprehended by the grace of God. This is not the vague spirituality of a mob; this is the covenanted confession of a people made up of persons. They sing because God has acted for them. Their theology is born from their experience of His salvation.
The reason for the song is God's exaltation. He has triumphed gloriously. And how? By hurling the supreme symbol of pagan military might, the horse and rider, into the sea. The chariot was the ancient world's equivalent of a main battle tank. It was the pinnacle of technology, power, and terror. And God treated it like a child's toy, tossing it into the water. This is a profound statement of God's absolute sovereignty over human pride and power.
Verse 2 is a dense confession of faith. Yahweh is their strength, the source of their power to stand. He is their song, the object of their worship. And He has become their salvation. Salvation is not an abstract force; it is a person. Yahweh Himself is their salvation. This is why they praise and extol Him. Note the covenantal continuity: "My father's God." They are not inventing a new religion. They are entering into the ancient promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their deliverance is the fulfillment of God's covenant oath.
And then we have the central, shocking declaration in verse 3: "Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is His name." The Hebrew is stark: Yahweh ish milhamah, "Yahweh is a man of war." This is not a metaphor God uses occasionally. This is His nature. This is His name. His name, Yahweh, represents His covenant-keeping, self-existent character. And that character is one of a warrior who fights for His people. A God who will not fight for His people against evil is not a good God. He is a pacifist deity in the face of wickedness, which is another way of saying He is an accomplice. But our God is not an accomplice. He takes sides. He fights. He wins.
Verses 4 and 5 describe the totality of the defeat. Pharaoh's chariots, his army, his elite officers, all of them are sunk. The deeps, which were a source of terror in pagan mythologies, are here merely God's instrument of judgment. They go down "like a stone." There was no struggle. There was no fight. It was an absolute, effortless, and final judgment.
The Right Hand of God (vv. 6-12)
The song now shifts to an adoration of the power by which this victory was accomplished.
"Your right hand, O Yahweh, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O Yahweh, shatters the enemy... You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like You among the gods, O Yahweh? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Fearsome in praises, working wonders?" (Exodus 15:6, 10-11)
The "right hand" is a classic anthropomorphism for God's active power in the world. It is His executive strength. And it is majestic. It shatters the enemy. God's power is not just constructive; it is deconstructive. He builds His kingdom, and He does so by tearing down the strongholds of the enemy. The greatness of His exaltation is demonstrated by His pulling down of those who rise up against Him. His anger is not a petty human tantrum; it is the holy, righteous, burning opposition of a good God to all that is evil, and it devours His enemies like dry chaff in a furnace.
The song delights in the poetic details of the miracle. The waters were piled up by the "blast of Your nostrils." The sea congealed. This is the language of awe and wonder. This is a people trying to find words for the impossible thing they just saw. But then, in verse 9, the song brilliantly shifts perspective. It gives us a direct quote from the enemy. We hear the arrogant, boastful voice of Pharaoh's army: "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil." This is the voice of godless pride. It is the voice of satanic confidence. And the song sets this boast up only to knock it down with the simple, devastating power of God in verse 10: "You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them." That is all it took. One breath from God, and the mightiest army on earth sank like lead.
This contrast leads to the rhetorical question of verse 11, which is the theological heart of the song: "Who is like You among the gods, O Yahweh?" The answer is, of course, no one. This is a direct challenge to all forms of idolatry and polytheism. The so-called gods of Egypt, the gods of the river, the sky, the sun, were all proven to be nothing. They are nullities. Yahweh alone is majestic in holiness, which means He is in a class all by Himself, utterly set apart. He is "fearsome in praises," meaning the very act of praising Him should evoke a holy terror, a reverent awe. And He is a worker of wonders. Our God is a God who acts.
From Redemption to Habitation (vv. 13-18)
The song's focus now broadens. It looks back at the character of God that motivated this rescue and looks forward to the ultimate goal of it.
"In Your lovingkindness You have guided the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have led them to Your holy habitation... You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance... Yahweh shall reign forever and ever." (Exodus 15:13, 17-18)
Here we see the other side of God the warrior. He is a God of hesed, of lovingkindness, of covenant faithfulness. His wrath against His enemies is the flip side of His love for His people. He did not redeem them simply to leave them on the beach. He has a destination in mind: "Your holy habitation." This song, sung at the very beginning of the wilderness journey, looks forward in faith to its successful completion. It sees the end from the beginning.
And the news of this great act of God travels. The song becomes prophetic. The peoples, the inhabitants of Philistia, Edom, Moab, and Canaan, hear about it and they tremble. They melt away in fear. This is a key part of God's strategy. The victory at the Red Sea is not just for Israel's benefit; it is a press release to the world. It is an announcement that Yahweh is on the march, and that He is clearing the way for His people. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and here, it is also the beginning of the conquest of Canaan. Terror and dread fall upon them, and they are paralyzed "as stone" until God's purchased people pass over.
The ultimate goal is stated in verse 17. God will "plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance." This is language of security, permanence, and fruitfulness. It points to the temple mount in Jerusalem, the place where God will establish His sanctuary and dwell with His people. The Exodus is not just about getting out of Egypt; it is about getting into God's presence. It is a journey from bondage to communion.
And the song concludes with the only possible response to such a mighty work of salvation. It is a declaration of eternal kingship: "Yahweh shall reign forever and ever." This is the foundation of all Christian hope. Our God is not a temporary ruler. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endures throughout all generations. Pharaoh's reign lasted for a time. Yahweh's reign is forever.
The Song of the Lamb
We cannot read this song without hearing its echoes in the final book of the Bible. In Revelation, we see the saints who have been victorious over the beast and his image, and what are they doing? They are standing on a sea of glass, and "they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Revelation 15:3).
The deliverance at the Red Sea was a type, a foreshadowing, of the greater deliverance accomplished by Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Pharaoh is a type of Satan, the great enslaver. Egypt is a type of the world system, the kingdom of darkness. The bondage of Israel is a type of our bondage to sin and death.
And the Red Sea? The Red Sea is the cross and the empty tomb. It is the place where God, in the person of His Son, met the full force of our enemy. Satan, sin, and death pursued us, boasting, "We will pursue, we will overtake." They cornered Christ at Calvary and thought they had won. But God blew with His Spirit, and on the third day, the stone was rolled away. The grave could not hold Him. The cross, which seemed to be the place of ultimate defeat, became the place of ultimate victory. Our enemy was not drowned in water, but in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ has hurled the horse and its rider, sin and death, into the sea of God's triumphant grace.
And so we, the redeemed, stand on the other side. We have been purchased, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. We have been led by His lovingkindness. And we are being guided to our holy habitation, the New Jerusalem. And because this is true, we must sing. We must sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. We must declare that Yahweh is a warrior. We must extol Him as our strength and our salvation. We must announce to the trembling nations that our God reigns, and He will reign forever and ever. This is our story. This must be our song.