The Song of the Sea II (Exod 15:13-21)

When my husband and I go on holiday, we usually let our neighbours know that we’ll be away and sometimes ask them to put our bins out on the appropriate day. Their response is always, ‘Consider it done!’ and we know that we can do so because they are reliable. As we move to the second part of the Song of the Sea[1] (for the first part, see my post here) the focus turns from how God dealt with His people’s enemies, to what He will do for Israel more positively. Although most of this is still to come, oddly, the action is described largely as if it had already happened. Like our neighbours, God is saying to His people about the future, ‘Consider it done!’. When God has a plan, we can rest assured that He brings it about without fail.

There are a number of different strands to this description of the future. First, God has redeemed Israel (Exod 15:13), which evokes a picture of people in debt who had to sell themselves as slaves to compensate with services for what they owed. However, a near relative could pay the debt and thereby redeem these family members out of slavery. God treats Israel as His family. Through Jesus, He also redeems from the slavery of sin those who turn to Him today. Further, the second line of v.13 carries pastoral connotations using the same words (‘guide’ and ‘habitation/pasture’ in Hebrew) that elsewhere describe a shepherd who leads/guides his flocks to water (e.g. Ps 23:2; Isa 49:10) and to a resting place or pasture (e.g. Jer 33:12; Zeph 2:6). God then is Israel’s Shepherd who looks after the flock and leads them to a place of rest. It expresses the Lord’s care and gentle protection of His people. Why? Because of His ‘lovingkindness’ (ḥesed), a key word in the OT that expresses God’s covenant commitment and loyal love to those who are His.

The next few verses (Exod 15:14-16) describe the fear that comes on Israel’s future neighbours who will hear of the exodus events and will lose the courage to attack God’s defenceless flock. In fact, God’s arm will hold them motionless until Israel passes into the Promised Land. He protects His own. Moreover, we are reminded that this is a people ‘purchased’ (v.16) or possibly the meaning is ‘made’ or ‘created’ (as in Ps 139:13 ‘formed’; Deut 32:6 ‘made’; Gen 14:19, 22 ‘maker’). If the latter, then we are pointed back to the creation story.

This time, however, the song evokes Genesis 2-3 where the Lord created humanity and put them in a beautiful garden, a place of rest, we might say. There they had fellowship and walked with Him. Their sin, however, led to their exile, their expulsion from the garden. Yet, once again God created a new people (Israel) leading them into a place where His presence would dwell and where He would reign again as King (Exod 15:17). While the song is hopeful, even jubilant here, we know the rest of the story. Israel, like wider humanity, also sinned and was exiled (more than once), but God created a new people out of believing Jews and Gentiles who received His salvation in Jesus Christ.

What the song makes clear is that redemption is not the ultimate aim, only the means to an end: resting in deep fellowship with God in His presence. We can rejoice that God leads and cares for His flock and protects from enemies, but the purpose is that those who are His may be planted in that place of rest, to know God and be known by Him. This is why, I believe, the song says early on that God ‘has become my salvation’ (Exod 15:2). He is not simply the Saviour, the instrument of deliverance. Rather His presence in our lives is what salvation is really about. The Song of Songs says it best, ‘I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine’ (Song 6:3).

[1] The Song in Exodus 15 is sometimes entitled the ‘Song of Moses’, although we are not told who composed it. Scholars speculate that it may actually have been Miriam. This is because the second half of the poem focuses on the future and prophetically envisages Israel’s settlement with a temple built and then in Exod 15:20 Miriam is, suddenly and out of the blue, called a prophetess. This would make sense if she were the author of the Song.