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.
The peoples heard it, they were afraid A thrill seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
Israel had just watched Egypt's army sink in the sea. Their song now looks down the road ahead, and says the news of what God did will reach the nations first.
Israel sang this line before walking one step of the wilderness. They had not yet met a single enemy.
Faith had the privilege of being occupied with the purposes of God. So it bridged the whole distance from the sea to the promised land, from the cross to the glory. They could not sing a note until the beaten enemy sank "as a stone" and the people were free. But when that was done, God inspired the song, and Moses led them to take it up on the far shore of the sea. It raised music in the desert that will echo in greater volume for ever.
Israel sang it as prophecy. Forty years later a woman inside Jericho repeated it as fact.
Look at the bolts and bars on the gates of Jericho, and at the witness of Rahab: "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us … for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt … And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted." That was a rebuke to the Israelites for not going up at first. When God gives a command, He also sets things moving to carry it out. This woman mentions the crossing of the Red Sea, forty years earlier, as the thing that filled the nations of Canaan with terror. From the first, the way into the land was open.
Writers connect that shaking with the cross:
We have little idea of the great shaking that took place among the rulers and authorities when the Lord Jesus went into death and came out victorious. He "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him" (Colossians 2:15).
The song does not stop at Egypt. It moves down the nations along Israel's route, and commentators read each one as a type.
This fourth section does not speak only of Egypt's defeat. The greatness of the Lord's power would subdue other nations too. Hearing of Israel's deliverance, they would be afraid (v. 14). The inhabitants of Palestine would feel anguish, for this was the land God had promised to Israel. The chiefs of Edom (self-important men) would lose heart, and Moab's rulers would tremble for fear. Edom speaks of the self-importance of the flesh. Moab illustrates the self-indulgence and self-satisfaction of easy-going religion. The true testimony of God disturbs both. All the inhabitants of Canaan would "melt away," finding no strength to resist God's army. Canaan means "trader," a picture of those who make merchandise of the things of God.
The song names the land after the Philistines. Older translations read "Palestina" here, where the ESV has "Philistia."
These people held only a very small strip of the land of Canaan. Yet, remarkably, the land has taken its name from them, for Palestine means the land of the Philistines. Scripture gives it that name only when it foretells judgment on it: Exodus 15:14; Isaiah 14:29, 31; Joel 3:4.
God never uses the name Palestine when He speaks of His people's heritage. It always marks out a hostile country. Faith looks on it as an enemy's land until the people of God take it.
Israel later stood at the border of that same land and said the opposite of this verse.
In Exodus 15 their eyes were only on the Lord, so they could sing the song of victory… In Numbers 14 it was Israel that was afraid, and sorrow took hold of them… In short, it completely reverses the picture. The sorrow, the trembling, and the fear take hold of Israel instead of their enemies. And why? Because the One who filled their vision in Exodus 15 is completely shut out in Numbers 14. This makes all the difference. In the one case, faith is on top; in the other, unbelief.
This is a song, not a calculation. It is the voice of settled confidence.
Will you meet enemies? Plenty of them. What will happen? They will all go down before God. Every difficulty becomes a new opportunity for God to display His power. The Lord comes in to show Himself strong. My friend, is all the world against you? God and you are a match for them. God and I together are invincible.
- Heard. The verse turns on a report. Israel had done no fighting; the news of what God did at the sea went ahead of them.
- Sung early. Faith spanned the whole distance from the sea to the land, from the cross to the glory, before they had taken a single step.
- Confirmed late. Forty years on, Rahab repeated that Red Sea report inside Jericho. The way in had been open from the start.
- Named enemies. Philistia, Edom, Moab and Canaan each picture a kind of opposition. Scripture calls the land "Palestina" only when it announces judgment.
- Reversed by unbelief. At Numbers 14 the trembling moved to Israel, because they shut out the God who had filled their view at the sea.
Then the princes of Edom were amazed; The mighty men of Moab, trembling hath seized them; All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Fear and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of thine arm they are still as a stone; Till thy people pass over, Jehovah, Till the people pass over that thou hast purchased.
The song at the Red Sea does not stop at Egypt's defeat. It looks ahead to Canaan and names nations Israel had not yet met. Verse 16 says what will happen to those peoples — Edom, Moab, Canaan — and why: God's arm goes ahead of a people He has purchased.
The fear described here was not poetry. One writer points out that the people of Canaan later said this of themselves.
"Fear and dread" really did fall on the people of Canaan when they heard how Pharaoh was destroyed. They themselves said, "And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you" (Joshua 2:11). So at the moment of triumph, Israel, following the inspired words given to them by Moses, said what was literally true.
The same words landed on Moab a whole generation later, when a king watched Israel camp on his border.
This came true to the letter forty years later, when the King of Moab and his people saw the Lord's pilgrim host camped on their borders... Balak grew alarmed, all the more because Israel had just destroyed three military powers that dared to oppose their march.
"Still as a stone" means frozen. Fear holds the enemy in place, and God's people get a clear road.
All the inhabitants of Canaan would "melt away," finding no strength to resist God's army... The greatness of God's arm would make all these enemies "still as a stone" through fear and dread. So God's people would pass over without difficulty and take possession of their land. They were God's special people whom He had purchased.
Note the tense of the verse: the passing over is still ahead. (Where the ESV says "pass by," older translations read "pass over," the wording the writers quoted here use.) Israel sings about a crossing that has not happened yet. One writer marks the difference between what is already settled and what still lies ahead.
They sing of God's deliverance, note, before they have taken a step in the desert... But we still see the redeemed one as on the way to glory, not yet in possession of the promised dwelling-place of God. We have come to God's habitation, to God Himself, but the prepared place is future. Edom and Moab will be still as a stone, but the people have yet to pass over.
The verse ends by naming Israel as bought property. That word carries a claim on the ones purchased, not only a comfort.
What, then, is the difference between purchase for the believer and for the unbeliever? Here is the difference: faith accepts the purchase, while unbelief despises it and every responsibility that rests on it. The believer owns it, and is bound to glorify God in his body, as no longer his own. So we find Israel acknowledging both in the song of Moses.
Why could they speak of nations melting away before ever facing them? Because what God had just done at the sea settled what He would do at the end.
The power God had shown at the Red Sea was the guarantee. First, that He would carry out all His purposes for Israel. Second, that this power would at last appear in His everlasting reign. Faith is born through the knowledge of redemption, and it takes hold of this. It takes in the whole scope of God's purposes, and looks on them as if already done. It is so in the letter to the Romans: "And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Romans 8:30).
Later, in Numbers 14, the whole picture turned around. One writer sets the two scenes side by side.
Instead of this, it was Israel that was afraid, and sorrow took hold on them... In short, it is the most complete reversing of the picture. The sorrow, the trembling, and the fear take hold of Israel instead of their enemies. And why? Because the One who filled their vision in Exodus 15 is completely shut out in Numbers 14. This makes all the difference. In the one case faith is in the ascendant; in the other, unbelief.
- Price. The verse calls Israel the people God purchased. Faith owns that purchase and lives as no longer its own. Unbelief despises it.
- Power. Not Israel's army but "the greatness of your arm" turns the nations to stone. Then the people pass over and take the land.
- Panic. The dread was real history. Canaan's hearts melted, and forty years later Moab's king trembled at the border.
- Passage. In the song the crossing is still ahead. The enemies will be still as a stone, but the people have yet to pass over. The place is prepared; they have not entered it.
- Pledge. What God did at the sea guarantees what He will finish. So faith looks on God's whole purpose as already done. Israel lost that song only in Numbers 14, when they shut God out of view.
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, The place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling, The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared.
The song of Moses does not stop at the shore of the Red Sea. It praises God for the escape from Egypt, then leaps ahead to a settled land and a home for God Himself among His people.
Israel sang about a land they had never seen. One writer treats this as the instinct of faith. It works forward from what God has already done.
Moses' song reckons on the end at the beginning. (See Exodus 15:17-19.) It is a fine exercise of the soul. Faith knows what the end must be from what the beginning has been. As we know, Israel's road from Egypt to Canaan — Exodus 12 to Joshua 4 — gives a fine picture of the whole journey.
Earlier in the song Moses wanted to build God a house. Here the promise turns around: God builds the house, and He brings His people into it.
As Moses recounts God's acts of power and delivering grace (Ex. 15), his first thought is the desire to make Him a house: "He is my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation." But verse 13 gives us a fuller thought of faith: "You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation." This is the redemption song of the Lord's strength and power. In verse 17 we get the clear promise of this new thing — a dwelling-place with God, which He Himself has made. That is what He will do for them. It is not just a rest in the wilderness. God's blessed purpose is to bring His people into His sanctuary which He has made. What! man to dwell with God! Wondrous fact!
(The words about preparing Him a habitation follow an older translation.)
Why does God's holiness come into view only here, and not earlier in the Bible? One writer links both that holiness and His dwelling among people to redemption.
It is now, after redemption, that God reveals Himself as "glorious in holiness." He never did before... Scripture makes holiness rest on redemption. God's coming to dwell among us in righteousness rests on it too. How could He do this until sin was gone? And how could sin be gone without redemption, so that God might have a holy resting-place among people?
The mountain, the place, the sanctuary — every one of them belongs to God in this verse. That shapes how a believer holds the promise: already brought to Him, not yet brought in.
"You shall plant them in the mountain of your inheritance," v. 17. God had not done this yet; but they were already with Him in His holy habitation — not theirs but His. And so we are in His presence, brought to God, though not yet in the place prepared for us on high. So, in Ephesians 1, the apostle prays "that they may know what is the hope of His calling, and the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Israel was to dwell in God's land; our home shall be in the Father's house. It is His glory, and He will bring us into it. No fear of the enemies along the way: to faith they are powerless. Full confidence belongs to redemption.
(The older translation reads "the mountain of your inheritance"; the ESV has "your own mountain.")
One writer traces this sanctuary through three stages.
God's purpose to dwell among a redeemed people comes out fully in verse 17, where it becomes a revelation. (See also Ex. 29:42 and 46.) This was a material sanctuary. His dwelling-place is now a spiritual house, the one foreshadowing the other. Yet a material sanctuary will have its place again on the millennial earth.
Israel's destination shapes the road they walk.
They are a holy people on the road, and they are going to the sanctuary. That is the spot where there is neither enemy nor anything evil happening. And, dear friends, we are going to it, and what ought to mark us along the way is holiness.
- Brought out. Redemption comes first in the song. Both God's holiness and His dwelling among people rest on it. Until sin was gone, He had no resting-place among them.
- Brought in. The God who took them out of Egypt promises to plant them in. Faith reads the end from the beginning and sings about a land it has not seen.
- His place. Mountain, place and sanctuary all belong to God. His people are already with Him, though not yet in the home He has prepared.
- His hands. Moses wanted to build God a house. The promise here is greater: a house God's own hands established, where man dwells with God.
- His road. A people headed for the sanctuary should be holy on the way. Commentators see that sanctuary as a spiritual house now, with a material one still to come.
Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever!
The song at the Red Sea ends with God's throne, not with Israel's freedom. Why would a people just set free, still standing on the shore, close their praise with a reign that never ends?
Commentators note where this line falls in the Bible's story. It comes from people who days earlier were slaves.
It is well worth noticing that the very first mention of the Lord's reign in Scripture comes when Israel first appears as a nation, on the banks of the Red Sea… Israel only appeared as a nation at the redemption out of Egypt. The people were many, and they kept growing. But they were only Hebrew slaves of the Egyptians, who held them in bondage. God judged the Egyptians, and the blood of the Passover saved the children of Israel from that judgment. So He redeemed them out of the land of Egypt.
The verse before this one speaks of a sanctuary, a place God made for Himself to live in. Writers point out that God had never done this before.
Another thing found in this beautiful song is the desire to build a tabernacle for the Lord. This is one of the great privileges that come out of redemption. God did not dwell with Adam in innocence, nor with Abraham… But once redemption was finished, God revealed Himself fully on the one hand, and on the other, man stood perfectly redeemed. Then God naturally, so to speak, comes to dwell with men, among them.
The closing line matches the opening line. One writer counts what the song is about, and draws a warning for how we sing today.
It begins with Him: "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously." It ends with Him: "The LORD will reign forever and ever." In all, His sacred Name occurs twelve times in the song. Moses did not lead the people to sing about themselves. He did not even lead them to sing about their own wonder and delight at all they had seen. We think one weakness in our modern hymn-singing is how often our hymns lead us to sing about the depth of our own feelings and experiences in praise and worship.
The words run far ahead of where Israel actually stood. Everything God intends for the nation is packed into one short piece of praise.
In short, the song celebrates victory, in view of the full accomplishment of God's purposes for Israel, and also, in type, for us. So it takes no account of the wilderness… but the crossing of the Jordan is in it (Ex. 15:16), and the conquest of Canaan, the setting up of His sanctuary in the land, and the establishing of His kingdom on earth… All the special features of God's purposes of blessing to Israel are before us in this divine song: salvation for a redeemed people, a dwelling place for God in their midst, God revealed in holiness, the enemy dashed in pieces, the Jordan crossed, all opposition subdued, the land enjoyed, the LORD King forever and ever!
Nothing in verses 17 and 18 had happened yet. What made it safe to sing was what had already happened behind them.
The power God had shown at the Red Sea was the guarantee. First, that He would carry out all His purposes concerning Israel. Second, that He would display this same power at last in His everlasting reign. Faith is born through the knowledge of redemption, and it takes hold of this. It takes in the whole range of God's purposes and looks on them as if they were already done… If anything could stop God's purposes, He would not be God. There may be enemies in the way, and they may set themselves against the carrying out of His declared will. But faith says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Does this line point to a kingdom on earth, or to something wider?
In this Scripture the reign spoken of clearly applies first to the earth. It is the everlasting kingdom of the LORD — the thousand-year rule of the Messiah, who must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. But in principle it goes further, for He shall reign forever and ever. This too will be the fruit of the cross. There He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. As a result He is exalted now, and will be forever.
The song does not stop at the Red Sea. Commentators link that shore with a later victory over a far greater oppressor.
Thinking of the future gives weight to the prophetic element in Israel's song at the Red Sea. It swells into the song of Moses and of the Lamb — the song of judgment and of salvation. As we hear Israel singing, we almost hear the future redeemed singing along with them — people set free from the idol-tyrants of the earth… For one greater than Pharaoh will be laid low. Pharaoh called himself a god, people worshipped him, and he resisted the LORD by magic and miracle. But that greater one will never enslave and deceive anyone again.
- Redeemed — Scripture first names God's reign at the moment He redeems a people. Slaves become a nation, and only then is there a King.
- Housed — Redemption gives God something He never had before: a home among men. He did not dwell with Adam or Abraham, but He comes to dwell with a redeemed people.
- His — The song opens and closes on God, and His Name runs through it twelve times. Praise takes its shape from that: about Him, not about our own feelings.
- Certain — What God did at the sea guarantees everything not yet done. Faith sings the ending while still standing at the beginning.
- Forever — The last word is a reign with no end. It starts on earth, and the same song rises again from people set free from a far greater oppressor.