“Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said: I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted; he has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I mentioned this earlier this week, but let’s come back to it. I remember when Osama bin Laden was killed. People were celebrating in the streets. There were hundreds of impromptu parties across the country, even in the middle of the night, when the news first dropped. Perhaps that sounds odd to say now. After all, isn’t it kind of ugly to rejoice that someone has died? Maybe, but this was the man ultimately responsible for the murder of several thousand Americans in the 9/11 attacks. He was the most wanted man in the world as far as our nation was concerned. We had finally gotten him, and we were happy about it. I say all of that by way of introduction to the next part of our journey through Exodus. The Israelites’ celebration of God’s action in rescuing them from the pursuing Egyptian forces that comprises the first two-thirds of Exodus 15 is full of language that is uncomfortable to read. Understanding their mindset as a people helps make sense out of it. Let’s start working through their song of praise today, and see what we can learn together along the way.

Come back with me just another moment to thinking about bin Laden’s death and our national reaction to it. There are some liberal and progressive elements in our justice system that do not like the concept of law and order as a matter of worldview. These same elements have had an active role in the prosecution of other perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Given that his being brought in alive and subjected to a judicial process could have gone the way of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-confessed 9/11 mastermind, who, it was recently announced (and on the anniversary of 9/11 no less), may receive a plea deal and life in prison instead of the death penalty, and still has not actually been put on trial for his role in the attacks more than two decades later, bin Laden’s being killed was a much quicker (and, as far as the nation was concerned, more emotionally satisfying) route to his receiving the justice he deserved. And so, people rejoiced in the streets.

The Egyptian army – and not just any part of their army, but the equivalent of a whole battalion of tanks – had been pursuing the Israelites with the intent to slaughter as many as they could and re-enslave the rest. For multiple generations before this time, they had held the people in a suffocating bondage. As I mentioned just yesterday, they had pursued means of population control that bordered on genocidal to keep them from producing enough males to one day mount an armed rebellion against the Egyptians. This, by the way, meant that the Egyptians understood they were treating the Israelites as a nation in a way they certainly didn’t want to be treated, but they didn’t care. They weren’t guided by anything like Jesus’ Golden Rule. They weren’t even guided by its weaker worldly predecessors. They were guided by the law of the jungle: the one with the most power wins (and can treat those without it however he pleases). Now, given that Israel was a nation of its times, would they have treated the Egyptians the same way if the situation were reversed? Perhaps, but that’s not speculation that justifies any of our thinking on this matter.

And now that army was destroyed. Totally. And it had been done right in front of them. What’s more, they hadn’t lifted a finger in the destruction. They hadn’t done anything at all except to take a walk. God literally did all the rest. Their rejoicing at Egypt’s destruction that is recorded for us in this song of praise is not unnecessarily boastful or bloodthirsty or otherwise inappropriate in any way. It is the spontaneous celebration of a people who had just been rescued from an enemy that planned to persecute them mercilessly. In fact, they planned to destroy them. And now they couldn’t. Rejoicing is exactly the right thing to do in that situation.

So, the people rejoiced. More to the point, they rejoiced in the Lord. In other words, they deserve credit here for recognizing and properly acknowledging the source of their deliverance. They didn’t experience this salvation and think, “Look what we did.” They didn’t pat themselves on the back for any kind of a role they played in their deliverance. They knew God had done it, and so they celebrated Him for it.

There is without question a lesson here for us. When something good has happened to us, we need to make sure the credit for that goes where it is due. And where it is due is to God. But what if, unlike Israel here, we have done all the work required to experience this good thing? Who do you think enabled us to do all of that? Israel could have rejoiced here at their fleet-footedness in getting across the Red Sea faster than the pursuing Egyptian forces could and stopped there. That would have been wrong. When we rejoice only in ourselves and what we have contributed to some blessing we are experiencing, and don’t go the further step of recognizing and acknowledging God’s role in whatever it is, that is equally wrong. As Jesus’ brother James once observed, God is the giver of good gifts. There is no other source for them but Him.

Let me offer an example. I got into a conversation with two of my boys yesterday about the current housing market. We drove past a new cookie cutter neighborhood advertising houses that are around half the size of ours for way more than half the price. The conversation eventually wound its way around to my telling them that in spite of the fact that it is not our dream house on multiple different fronts how profoundly grateful we should be for all God did in providing us our current place to live. We bought this house a time when housing values generally were around half of what they are now. That meant we could actually afford to purchase it. A year later we were able to refinance our good interest rate to an even better one, saving ourselves thousands of dollars over the time we live here (and we don’t have any plans to go anywhere anytime soon).

Now, we could pat ourselves on the back for making such a smart purchase after saving wisely and living frugally for many years, and for paying such close attention to interest rates so that we were able to refinance at the right time. Because the truth is that we could not even begin to imagine buying a house – especially this house – given the current market environment. It’s not even close. The much bigger and more significant truth, though, is that God did all the moving around of parts and pieces so that things worked out like they did. He is the one who worked out all the timing. The whole thing winds up serving as a giant confirmation that He has us right where He wants us for the time being. In other words, if there is praise to be offered, He deserves it.

Israel got this. And so they praised Him. They praised Him for rescuing them from Egypt. They praised Him specifically for the means by which He did that, namely, by throwing “the horse and its rider into the sea.” They are not glorifying the horrible deaths of thousands of people whose families will now mourn, whose wives will now be widows, and whose children will grow up without fathers. They are rejoicing in God’s actively saving them from the hands of people who wanted to destroy them. What’s more, they chose this path of murder. This was not a provoked attack on Egypt’s part. It was a conscious decision to go after a mostly defenseless people in order to murder and enslave them. This was much more along the lines of what Hamas unleashed on Israel than what we are tempted to imagine its being. And so they rejoiced in the Lord.

They recognized that their salvation in this moment came from nowhere else but God. “He has become my salvation.” How many times do we look to other things and people and places for our salvation? If only we can buy this thing or meet this person or get to this place, everything will be better. Yet there is no salvation to be found in any of these. There never has been. There never will be. Salvation is and only ever will be found in the Lord.

He is our God, just like Israel proclaimed. Now, He may or may not be your father’s God, but the point of this particular statement is not necessarily to describe the religious beliefs of their parents. It is rather to acknowledge that God has been for them for a very long time. They are recognizing here that His help for them didn’t come out of nowhere. By putting in a place a lens of gratitude, they are able to see that He has been for them for a very long time. His work on their behalf started before they were born. That is true broadly speaking, but it is true in very literal terms as well. The man who was leading them was a full generation older than most of them. Two generations older than some of them. And God planned his birth all out before he was born. That’s three to four generations’ worth of investment on God’s part to bring them to this moment. He was indeed worthy of being exalted for that.

Think about the ways God has been working to bring you to the place you are in right now. Now, it could be that you are not in a good place. It could be that you are suffering mightily and not for reasons of your own sinfulness (because then that would be on you, not Him). Israel was once there and pretty recently. Yet here they were. Saved and free. Your challenge is to not get bogged down in seeing only what is. Open your eyes to see the ways God is already working to bring grace and good to your situation. Look carefully to see how He is already moving to bring redemption to your brokenness so that beauty is all that remains. Such a perspective shift will have a profound impact on your outlook.

Finally here, they acknowledge God as their warrior. He was the one who fought their battles for them. This is something that would become increasingly important in the days ahead of them as there were many battles left to be fought. When they tried to fight for and by themselves, they always lost. The same thing is true for us today. God is still a warrior. He will fight for us if we will let Him. Our job is like Israel’s job was: to follow Him faithfully and keep His commands. And what is His command? Jesus gave us that one. We are to love one another as He loved us.

Ours is not to battle the world around us or fight against our enemies. Remember: while God hasn’t changed, we have. We are not Israel. We aren’t looking to fight anyone. That’s how the world operates. The Lord is our warrior. So, we let Him do the fighting as only He can do. We, on the other hand, do what He has called us to do. We love one another. We love our enemies. We practice compassion and kindness everywhere we go. We pursue justice and righteousness in all of our dealings. We demonstrate Gospel boldness every chance we get. When we do all of this, victory will indeed be ours. And, like Israel experienced and rejoiced in here, this will not be because of anything we have done, but rather because of everything He has done. That will be a very good day indeed.