Chapter 15
The Song of Moses:
4 "Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. [Exo 15:4 ESV]
If by host is meant his foot soldiers, then Pharoah's entire military was annihilated. Surely Egypt would have been conquered after this?
This verse:
13 "You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. [Exo 15:13 ESV]
Here is that word redeemed again. Perhaps we are to see the entire nation of Israel as the firstborn of God. And he has redeemed them. It shows up again in the last part of this verse:
16 ...till the people pass by whom you have purchased. [Exo 15:16 ESV]
Ahh! Israel is a type of Christ in that He has brought them out of Egypt by His own will and power - it is God's doing that they are now free from Egypt, Egypt being "sin". God also sends Christ to pay the price of sin and purchase His people out of its despair and inevitable justice. In both instances, it is God who is the Redeemer.
2023 - Go back though...look at this verse! 14 The people shall hear, [and] be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. [Exo 15:14 KJV]. Palestina? In the OT? IN the Torah? What does this mean??? I looked it up in BLB. The transliterated word is "pelaset". The literal meaning is "land of sojourners". It is Strong's 6429. In the KJV it is used 8 times: As Palestina 3 times, Philistia 3 times, Philistine once and Palestine once. Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah, and Joel. I believe the designation of modern day Palestine as Palestine goes way further back than some people seem to think. EITHER it is modern Palestine going all the way back to the Torah, OR it is not a place name at all, but a reminder of the fact that NO ONE living in that particular part of the world is NATIVE to that particular part of the world. Wow! I missed this seven times!
What kind of a people, after seeing a miracle like this, could be doubting God again in a few week's time? They go three days into the desert, and start to murmur when they get to Mara because the water is bitter. It says they could not drink it, but I am not sure it was undrinkable if one were about to die of thirst. Surely the livestock could drink it, but they whined about it. It tasted bad. Moses throws a log in it and it gets drinkable. Then this, the first test:
25 ...there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, [Exo 15:25 KJV]26 saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer." [Exo 15:26 ESV]
This is most definitely a conditional promise. If you do what I say, you won't get Egyptian diseases. This could be referring to the boils that he gave the Egyptians. But could refer to other diseases also. But they had to obey. Since we know they did not, we would expect that people were constantly succumbing to diseases, and some, perhaps many, dying of them as they traveled through the desert.
2021 - I think this was a very big deal, though it perhaps does not read that way. The people murmur - God is testing them here. Testing to see if they will look to Him when they are in need, if they will look to Him when the impossible is required, and will trust Him to provide all their needs. Perhaps this was a low level test. There was water there, but it was bitter. They were thirsty, but not for long. God demonstrated quite quickly that he would provide for them, and then He made it very clear that His doing so was conditional. He gets them right out of this jam, and explains to them that the rest of their lives can be this way - with God providing whatever they need whenever they need it. And they won't get sick. That seems an odd thing to promise at this early point. Perhaps it is all they were capable of understanding concretely at this early point. I believe that later, when Moses strikes the rock he should have spoken to, that we are looking back at this first incident, when God tested them, and showed them the formula for how things should work. But they murmured again, and as I recall, threatened to kill Moses over the situation. It all seems to link back to here. Try and remember this passage when that one comes up.
He tells them He is Jehovah Rafa (written phonetically here), the Lord their healer. So the part about keeping them from disease is right here in the title God gives Himself for them to remember.
2021 - This is better read aloud, and in the KJV, at least vvs 1-18 are. The rhythm of it, the repetition of words and phrases to make it flow on and on. I want to memorize vs 18 in Hebrew. Yehovah malach olam ad. I wish I could hear it read together in Hebrew. I know I am only guessing based on Strong's pronunciations. It means "The Lord will reign forever and ever".
2023 - So now that the forward inline is available in BLB, I looked at this verse again to see the inflected forms of each word. Turns out I memorized it quite wrong. Not only were the words pronounced wrong, but I had them in the wrong order. In order, it says "and ever, For ever, shall reign the Lord. Here is the phonetic version: Vay'ed, ...oh, let's face it. I have no idea how to read this. The forward inline has the "right" words - the inflected forms - but it reads left to right in Hebrew...which is NOT how you read Hebrew! In Hebrew it reads The Lord shall reign forever and ever, just as in our Bible, in English. But I don't know how to pronounce it. I sure wish I did. And it's Biblical Hebrew, so there's no guarantee that if I found a Hebrew speaking person that they would be much help either!
2023 - So at Mara - at bitter water - God tests the whole nation of Israel for the first time. He lays down "Rule #1". If you will listen...and DO...and GIVE EAR...and KEEP ALL. So later, when Moses strikes instead of speaks...in that scene it this very first rule from God to Israel that is being flaunted. They had not learned the very first thing that God told them. This first time, God just takes care if it right away. He does not wait for them to ask. He has shown them he is stronger than Egypt and now he shows them he is Lord of nature. He can fix anything...he is on their side...and if they listen and do, he will take full care of them. THAT is why God is so angry, not just with Israel, but at Moses, at the waters of Meribah later, per this verse: 51 because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. [Deu 32:51 ESV]. Rule #1.