Who is like unto thee, Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like unto thee, glorifying thyself in holiness, Fearful [in] praises, doing wonders?
Israel has just walked out of the sea, and the army that enslaved them lies dead on the shore. Their song now turns from what God did to who God is, and it asks a question no one can answer.
The question about "the gods" was not abstract. Months earlier these singers were slaves in Egypt, where every temple carried a god's name. The writers quoted here use older versions, which read "Jehovah" where the ESV reads "LORD," and "glorious in holiness" where it reads "majestic in holiness."
About six months before Israel's sudden freedom, the name of Jehovah was almost unknown on the earth. There were very few exceptions. His people were slaves. It seemed as if the enemy had the kingdom of this world completely in his own hand. Every temple carried the carved names of the gods of the nations, and all peoples honoured them... a few months earlier, Israel had quarried and dragged the huge stones for the temple-cities of these gods. Now every god of Egypt lay struck down. Every temple was desolate. Their bodies still bore the brand, but the people were free. He who is glorious in holiness had laid the unholy worship of the gods low.
An outsider later reached the same conclusion. Moses told his father-in-law Jethro the whole story of the rescue, and Jethro answered on the note of this verse.
It is beautiful to see that Moses' account made his father-in-law rejoice and bless Jehovah. It truly brought him into the spirit of the song recorded in Exodus 15... Jethro adds, "Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods, for He was above them in the very thing where they acted proudly."
Here, for the first time, Scripture calls God holy.
It is now, after redemption, that God reveals Himself as "glorious in holiness." He never did before. Unless a person looks into the Bible and bows to the truth, he would never believe this: God could write a whole book and never once speak of holiness before this... In Scripture, holiness rests on redemption. So does God's ability to come and dwell among us in righteousness. How could He do this until sin was gone?
The timing is the point.
In fact, man can bear the full revelation of God's holiness only after redemption is accomplished... But as soon as redemption is pictured, in Jehovah working deliverance, even the Israelites can speak without fear. In their measure they rejoice and praise His name.
One writer names the quality that comes first in God's praise — and the one people least want to hear.
Holiness has first place in this cluster of glories... And yet it is the very trait of His nature that men are most averse to, and most likely to overlook. He has therefore reminded us over and over again in His Word that He is holy. In this attribute of His being He is incomparable.
Older versions read "fearful in praises" where the ESV reads "awesome in glorious deeds." Israel had no excuse for missing what worship owes God.
But ever since the crossing of the Red Sea, they had all heard and sung this song... They may not have understood that the sanctuary, its vessels and its furnishings spoke only of what God is to His own in Christ, and what He is for them to God. Even so, Sinai left them in no doubt: everyone owed God fear, and holiness especially suits the priests who draw near to Jehovah.
Israel's rescue was a picture. One writer traces the same holiness to a greater deliverance.
Christ's death showed God's holiness in full. During the three hours of darkness He had to forsake His own Son, who was made sin for us. When made sin for us, we hear the Son of God cry, in spirit, in Psalm 22:3, "But you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel." ... How glorious indeed is the holiness of God as seen in the death and resurrection of His Son.
The same mouths that asked who is like God later demanded a golden calf.
Who would have thought that the worshippers on the shore of the Red Sea would ever say, "Make us gods to go before us"? In their magnificent song they had said, "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?" ... Had they now found someone like Him? It would seem so. And who? A golden calf! How dreadful! And yet this is man. Yes — man, in every age.
- Rescue first. The song is only possible on the far side of the sea; deliverance comes before the singing.
- Then holiness. Only after redemption does Scripture first call God holy.
- Then nearness. Holiness does not push the redeemed away; it is the ground on which God can dwell among them.
- Then fear. Worship carries awe: everyone owes God fear, and holiness suits those who draw near to Him.
- Then vigilance. The people who asked "Who is like you?" soon made a calf. Ask the question again; do not just remember it.
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Israel stands safe on the far shore, singing. One line in the song points to God's outstretched hand and to the ground that closed over the army chasing them.
The song keeps returning to God's right hand. One writer traces what Pharaoh learned by challenging it.
Pharaoh was foolish enough to challenge the power of God when he refused to let Israel go. As a result he learned how great God's power is. He learned it in the destruction of the land of Egypt, and in the overthrow of his army in the Red Sea. Whether it is man or Satan, he has to learn that he cannot interfere with God's people and get away with it. God may wait in patience until the evil is ripe. But when He steps in, His right hand shows itself glorious in power — a power that nothing can resist.
The next line of the song turns from the enemy to Israel. One writer reads the two lines together.
On the one hand, He stretched out His hand in holy judgment, for He hates evil: the earth swallowed the enemy (v. 12). On the other hand, in tender mercy He led forth the people He had redeemed (v. 13), for He loves to do good.
That judgment flows from God's holiness. The same writer describes how holiness shapes the way God uses His power.
His holiness involves His love of what is good and His hatred of evil. He acts out of the purity of His sanctuary, on this basis of holiness. He does not use His greater power in a selfish way. He uses power in perfect truth, and so He does amazing wonders.
The song says the earth swallowed them, yet the army went down in the sea. One writer points to the sea bed itself as the grave God dug that night.
That same night He dug a grave for Pharaoh and his chariots in the bed of the sea, wrapping its waters around them in one mighty burial cloth. This calls to mind the prophetic words of Hosea 13:14. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be your plagues. O grave, I will be your destruction."
The Hosea line there is quoted from an older translation.
The act was complete on both sides — for Israel and against Egypt.
God's work is always marked by thoroughness. He saved every soul of Israel in triumph, and every Egyptian lay dead on the shore. We read, "not one of them remained." Has any army, before or since, been destroyed so completely?
The blood of the lamb had already sheltered Israel in Egypt. One writer shows why that shelter was not the end of the story.
The blood of the lamb sheltered Israel from judgment. In the same way, the blood of Christ is before the eye of God, and everyone who believes this is sheltered from the judgment. But Pharaoh and the Egyptians still oppressed Israel after that shelter. In the same way, the power of Satan and the flesh still oppresses the believer. There is no peace until he takes hold of the death and resurrection of Christ, pictured by the passage through the Red Sea.
This song is more than the record of one escape. One writer hears in it a judgment that will come again on a far larger stage.
The magnificent triumph of Israel was not merely a song of salvation, or a hymn of praise for deliverance. It was more — a grand celebration of the glory of God in the overthrow of those who had risen up against Him. It was, therefore, a song of judgment... What happened in Egypt will happen again on a larger scale across the earth. At the end of the plagues and signs that will then visit the earth, the victors will sing two songs. One is the "song of Moses, the servant of God" — the song of judgment on evil. The other is the "song of the Lamb" — the song of salvation.
- The hand acts. God stretches out His right hand, and no man or power can resist it or interfere with His people and get away with it.
- The hand judges. It comes down in holy judgment because God hates evil — power used in perfect truth, not for its own sake.
- The hand buries. The enemy's grave was dug in the bed of the sea, and not one of them remained.
- The hand leads. The hand that judged the enemy led out the redeemed people in tender mercy, because God loves to do good.
- The hand will act again. Egypt's overthrow is the pattern for a larger judgment still to come, when the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb sound together.
Thou by thy mercy hast led forth the people that thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness.
Israel's song at the Red Sea turns from what God did to Egypt to what He did for His own people. Verse 13 names the two things that carried them: His steadfast love and His strength. Where was He leading them, and what is the "holy abode" at the end of the road? Older translations read "mercy" and "holy habitation", and the writers quoted below use those words.
In Egypt the blood sheltered Israel from judgment. But something more had to happen before they could sing these words.
God brought His people through the Red Sea, and it delivered them from Egypt forever. That sea was a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ. There He met the whole force of death and judgment, and the power of the enemy too, on His people's behalf. So redemption is not spoken of until they stand on the far side of that sea of death and judgment. On its shore they also saw their enemies dead. Then they could sing, "You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed." In Egypt the blood sheltered them completely. But through their passage across the Red Sea they were redeemed from Egypt and its doom, and from death, judgment, and the power of Satan.
Verse 13 sits right beside the line about the earth swallowing the enemy.
On the one hand, He stretched out His hand in holy judgment, for He hates evil: the earth swallowed the enemy (v. 12). On the other hand, in tender mercy He led forth the people He had redeemed (v. 13), for He loves to do good. More than this, the song looks ahead to the end God has in view. It sings with full confidence, as though that end were already reached.
The verse names strength because they had none of their own. As one writer puts it: "He guided them in His strength (when they had none) to His holy habitation" (J. N. Darby).
The destination is not first of all a place. It is a Person.
How was I reconciled? As redeemed, made alive, and brought back to God according to the work He has done. And I have not come halfway to God: "You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation." "I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." He has brought me to Himself in a way that is consistent with Himself.
Later the song speaks of God planting His people in His own mountain. One writer reads the two verses as two stages.
In Exodus 15:13 you find a difference that shows the thing in picture form: "You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation" — that is, to Himself. But in verse 17 it is, "You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance," and there you have the heavenly places pictured.
Earlier in the song Moses said he would prepare God a dwelling. God's answer comes back with an added word.
Note here, my soul, that God adds the word "holy" when He speaks of His habitation. It is not just "habitation", as Moses desired, but "holy habitation". Further, Scripture calls it "the sanctuary." These expressions stamp the character of God's dwelling-place according to His mind.
A dwelling of God among people is new here. Before redemption there was no such thing: "God did not dwell with Adam in innocence, nor with Abraham... But when redemption was accomplished, God stood fully revealed, and man perfectly redeemed" (J. N. Darby).
They sang this before a single step into the wilderness. Commentators differ on how to read that. Some hear faith taking hold of the end God has in view. One writer hears people saying more than they had yet lived.
Later in the song they seem to anticipate the end God has in view — "You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation" (v. 13). Clearly they expressed something beyond their own experience and affections, as we often do too. These were truths they did not yet hold with power in their hearts.
God has led His people to where He lives. Do they feel at home there?
He has brought us home to Himself. And what then? He has put His Spirit into our hearts, so that it may be our home... We are at home when the Spirit is working in our hearts, giving the joy of our portion in the presence of God. We may have to go out into the world to work, to push ourselves, and to be busy in a thousand ways. But when we get back again, what a change! We only go out to come back.
- Mercy starts it. Israel can only sing this song on the far side of the sea. In Egypt the blood sheltered them; redemption brought them right out of Egypt, death and the enemy's power.
- Strength carries it. His strength guides them because they had none of their own. The same hand that judged the enemy leads the redeemed.
- He is the destination. The "holy habitation" is God Himself; He does not bring His people halfway, but all the way to where He is.
- Holiness marks it. Moses offered to build a habitation. God answers with a holy habitation, a sanctuary stamped with His own character.
- Glory completes it. Verse 13 brings them to God. Verse 17 plants them in His inheritance. Faith sings the whole journey before taking one step of it.