In Egypt, the children of Israel sighed because of their bondage (Ex. 2:23). But by Exodus 15:1, God turned their sighing into singing. The Lord worked ten plagues upon Egypt, showing His immense power over all of nature and all the false gods of Egypt (Ex. 7:14-11:1). In preparation for the tenth plague, God instituted the Passover as a memorial of His sparing the firstborn of each family of Israel (Ex. 12:12-14). Exodus 12:25-27 provides further explanation:
And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
God wanted this deliverance remembered from generation to generation by this observance.
The Lord was not done working when Israel was released from Egypt. Pharaoh and his army pursued Israel (Ex. 14:9). The Lord said, “I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD” (Ex. 14:4). The children of Israel were terrified because the world’s mightiest army was breathing down their necks and they were, seemingly, trapped at the border of the sea. But Moses said to the people, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Ex. 14:13, 14). The Lord parted the waters of the sea, and the children of Israel passed through the middle on dry ground with a wall of water on each side (Ex. 14:21, 22). However, when Pharaoh’s army pursued after them and attempted to traverse the path the Lord had opened in the sea, the waters of the sea came crashing down upon them and they were drowned in its depths (Ex. 14:23-28).
The Lord’s great power displayed in their deliverance caused Israel to fear and believe the Lord (Ex. 14:31). They then sang the song recorded in Exodus 15:1-18. The first thirteen verses alternate between describing who the Lord is and what He has done. Verses fourteen through eighteen describe the repercussions of the Lord’s mighty work, namely that the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, to which the Lord was leading Israel, would fear the Lord. When the spies were sent into the land, Rahab hid them for she said, “I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed” (Josh. 2:9-10). The inhabitants of Canaan knew the Lord had the power to destroy them, but sadly most of the congregation of Israel did not have confidence in the Lord’s power when they first spied the land (Num. 13:26-14:10).
It is good for us to be reminded of what the Lord has done. When God was about to give His commandments on Mount Sinai to Israel, He said, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex. 20:2). Before He gave them what He expected them to do, He reminded them of what He had done. The New Testament contains the same pattern time and again. One example is 2 Peter 1. Before he gave the exhortation to give diligence in adding Christian virtues (2 Pet. 1:5), Peter reminded his brethren about what God had done through His power: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:3-4).
My faith is strengthened when I clearly see what the Lord has done for me. Faith is the dynamic of an obedient life. Without faith there is no true motive for obedience. Most of the Israelites forgot what the Lord had done and allowed their faith to wane; thus, they did not enter the land of rest. Hebrews 3:19 concludes, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Now the New Testament is in effect, and the Lord has established His supper as a memorial to be observed each first day of the week (Luke 22:19, 20; Acts 20:7). The Lord’s supper reminds us of what the Lord has done for our salvation so that our faith remains strong until He returns (1 Cor. 11:26).
Paul commanded, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16). When we sing, we teach and admonish. We sing of the wonderful works God has done. We admonish or warn each other about departing from God after all He has done for us. Fill your heart with the word of God. Take every opportunity to assemble with God’s people to speak these words to one another, participate in mutual encouragement, and hold firm to our convictions (Heb. 10:22-25). Frequent worship reminds us of what the Lord has done, so we can live by faith. When we forget the Lord’s help, there is sighing, but when we remember His great works, there is singing.
–Mark Day