Who Is Like You, O Lord?

At the Red Sea, the same body of water is a place of both judgment and salvation. Paul said the Israelites were baptized into Moses (1 Cor 10:1-4) as we are baptized into Jesus (Rom 6:3; Gal 3:23). They were identified with him, as we are identified with Christ. As Moses led his people through the waters of judgment to the other side, those who are in Christ will pass through the waters of death to the other side safely because of His mighty resurrection. That is exactly what the ordinance of baptism represents: passing from death to life. I like to keep candidates under longer to get the full effect! Sometimes people say, “I’m scared to death of water.” Great! That’s even better! In baptism, we are saying, “I have died with Christ, I have been buried with Him, and I have been raised with Him!” (see Rom 6:1-4).

The story of the exodus is a picture of what has happened to us in salvation and in the Christian life. There are three parts to their getting out that we identify with as believers in Jesus.

The Israelites were delivered from their enslavement. This is a picture of salvation. They were now free. But there was a problem (vv. 11-12).86 They got out of Egypt physically, but Egypt had not gotten out of their hearts (cf. Acts 7:39). Later some would contend that they would have been better off if they were still in Egypt (16:3).

How does this relate to us? God redeems us from bondage, also. But our bondage has many “layers” (Keller, “Getting Out”). Objectively, we are free from condemnation through Jesus. We have positional freedom. The penalty of sin is gone. There was an objective guilt on us, but through Jesus we are freed. We can say, “no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Subjectively, however, we still struggle with going back to Egypt, to our old way of life. We are not slaves, but we tend to live like slaves.

We can recognize three ways this slavishness of the heart may be explained. First, we can fall back into the slavishness of sin (Rom 6:1-23). We are free from the law and live under grace, but Paul said, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (6:12). Every day we must put sin to death. Second, we can revert to works righteousness. An example of this would be the Galatians. They wanted to go back to a works-based system of salvation. Our hearts want to create a performance-based Christianity. We have to fight every day to believe our salvation is in Christ alone. Third, we still deal with our old idols. We fight the temptation to yield to our old masters that say, “Serve me or die” (Keller, “Getting Out”).

Therefore, on the one hand we can say, “I’m free,” but on the other hand we wrestle in this body of flesh. What we call objective and subjective issues in theology are justification and sanctification and glorification. We have been saved from the penalty of sin (justification). We are being saved from the power of sin (sanctification). We will one day be saved from the presence of sin (glorification). Exodus gives us a story to see these things.

In verses 13 and 14 Moses told the Israelites to stand quietly and “see the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today” (v. 13). He said, “The Lord will fight for you” (v. 14). The principle of grace could not be clearer here. Salvation is not about what we do but about what God has done for us in Jesus. God saves sinners by grace through faith, not by human works. Paul said,

Notice how the Old Testament teaches the same gospel. Do you know this blessing of having your sins forgiven by the God of all grace?

The Israelites crossing over the Red Sea is another great picture of salvation. The minute they crossed over the sea, they crossed over from death to life. This reminds me of Jesus’ words about eternal life: “I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). John also spoke of crossing over from death to life: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14).

This idea makes Christianity different from every other religion. In other systems of belief, everyone is trying to get to the other side, but they must work at it. They give alms, pray five times a day, make a holy pilgrimage, and more. But this is not the case with biblical Christianity. God does the work. You embrace Him, and boom! you cross over. Everything changes.

Everyone is either justified or condemned. You either are adopted or you are not adopted (Keller, “Getting Out”). Have you crossed over? Are you a Christian? If your answer is something like “I’m trying,” then you do not understand what Scripture is saying. You cannot earn it with good works or religious efforts; you simply receive salvation by grace through faith.

Think about the power of this. Consider Paul: he persecuted people before he came to Christ. Yet he could later write that there is no condemnation (Rom 8). He did not say, “Now I need to pay God back.” No. He crossed over. He still had room to change on the inside, as we talked about with the subjective nature of sin, but Paul knew that he was free and forgiven.

Tim Keller points out that the quality of the faith of those who crossed over really is not mentioned (“Getting Out”). One might imagine that some went through the Red Sea scared to death but believing while88 others went through confidently. Keller reminds us that we are saved by the object of our faith, not the quality of our faith. Do you have faith in this Savior? If you are a Christian, you have crossed over. Your greatest enemy has been defeated.

It is important to consider why the Israelites did not drown in this event (what some call “The Eleventh Plague”). We have already recognized God’s grace as the basis for their salvation. Without grace, they too would have been swallowed up. They were not saved because of their goodness but because of God’s mercy. But we can go a step further. Why did the Israelites not get crushed? They had a mediator.

Consider Moses’ role. On the one hand he was identified with the Israelites, and on the other he was identified with God. You have one man so identified with the Israelites that their guilt was on him. He got rebuked for the Israelites’ sin in verse 15. God said, “Why are you crying out to Me?” There is no indication that Moses himself was crying, but he got rebuked anyway. He was also so identified with God that God’s power was working through him (vv. 21, 26). That is a mediator. He is the man in the middle. But there is another mediator, a better one, Jesus Christ. He was not just rebuked for one sin in one verse, but this mediator took God’s wrath for all our sin. And this mediator was God (John 1:1). Jesus is the only way we cross over. He is our mediator.

Exodus 15:1-21

This song of praise is magnificent! It is the first song in the Bible. Apparently Moses penned it right after the deliverance. Notice just a few truths about it.

Moses and all the people sang of the Lord’s triumph. Miriam went out with all the women and sang of His glorious triumph with dancing and a tambourine (vv. 20-21)! Everyone was singing because everyone had been rescued.

Every believer should sing to the Lord, not because they have a good voice, but because of what God has done for them! Praise is the 89natural response from those who have experienced God’s grace. The exodus was the most important event in the Bible until the cross. What did they do after it? Sing! That is what saved people do. This pattern continues throughout the Bible all the way to Revelation 5, where we see everyone worshiping the Lamb who redeemed a people with His blood. The Song of Moses is similar to other songs or psalms in both the Old Testament and New Testament. Examples include

The exodus song is rich with lyrics, as are the other songs in the Bible. We have no melody for these songs, but we have the words. That shows us how important the lyrics are in music. Here they were narrating God’s work: His mercy and His judgment. This is important. It is not just “mood music.” It is a good model for reminding yourself of God’s redeeming grace. Songs help us remember. Songs are portable theology. Everyone should sing from their heart to the Savior for the great deliverance they have received.

It is difficult to outline the structure of this song. It has been done various ways by different scholars. One way to look at it is like this: In verses 1-5 and 18 the song is about God, and in verses 6-17 the song is sung to God. Notice the shift in verse 6 to “You.” We sing about who God is, and we sing to Him, personally, in worship, expressing to Him our love for Him and gratitude for His salvation.

This song talks about who God is, what He has done, and what He will do as God and Savior.

God’s Glory. This song tells of the splendor of God and His attributes. First, we see the name of God. “Yahweh is His name” (v. 3). Here there are clear echoes of chapter 3, where God revealed His name to Moses. God is self-existent and self-sufficient.

90Second, we see God is the personal God. He is “my strength and my song” and “my salvation” (v. 2). You can know this same God. The exact representation of Him is found in Jesus (Heb 1:3).

Third, God is the covenant-keeping God. Moses described Him as “my father’s God” (v. 2). Just as God demonstrated His power and glory in the past, so He does now.

Fourth, God is a warrior (v. 3). God will reign triumphantly over all His enemies, as He did over Pharaoh (vv. 4-10, 12, 14-16). Throughout the Bible God was opposing the enemies of Israel or, at times, opposing Israel themselves. Then at the cross God was in Christ triumphing over our greatest enemies. In Revelation we see that He will return to triumph over Satan (Rev 20:7-10).

Fifth, God is unique. “Who is like You among the gods?” (v. 11) Moses asked. These words are echoed in Psalms 86:8 and 89:6. God is without peer. He is incomparable and utterly unique.

Finally, God is loving. “You have redeemed with Your faithful love” (v. 13). In God’s great grace and mercy, He rescues and leads us.

God’s Salvation. This song also highlights the greatness of God’s salvation. He is sovereign over salvation. God was not acting arbitrarily in all of this; He was working out His sovereign purposes, leading His people out to His holy abode (v. 13). And all the kings of the nations would be silent when God would bring His people to His sanctuary (v. 17). Notice how they sang in faith about future events as if they had happened already! It would be a hard, complicated journey to Canaan, but they were singing of the Lord’s triumph (v. 15).

God also redeems. Here again is that wonderful word “redeem” (v. 13). The song’s reference to God’s redemption points back to 6:6. Redeem (ga’al) means to “reacquire” or “get back for oneself” or “buy back” (see 6:6; Ps 74:2; 77:15; 106:10; Isa 41:14; 52:9; 62:12). Christ did not redeem us with money but with His own blood (1 Pet 1:19). He rescued us from our awful situation with the payment of His life. In addition, the text says that Yahweh is going to bring Israel to His “dwelling” (v. 17). Stuart summarizes this verse:

The Lord will also reign forever (v. 18). This is an obvious note about the eternal nature of God’s salvation. Gloriously, John the apostle heard God’s people in heaven singing “the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the Lamb” (Rev 15:3), a song which is new, but is as old as the exodus!

Indeed, we have experienced the greater exodus. And we shall forever sing His praise. Our souls will forever say, “There is no one like You, O God!”