[Scripture: Exodus 15:1-7]
Today I want to talk about when Moses sang a song of joy when they crossed over the Red Sea. Do you know what is meant by singing a song of joy? A song of joy is what people sing to express their joy after experiencing an amazing thing. Some people even shout to express their joy with others. One day, I was watching a baseball game, and a boy in the audience caught the ball. After catching the ball, the boy was so happy that he jumped from seat and shouted for joy.
Some people sing songs of joy when their hearts are overflowing with joy. My father was such a person. If he sang a song, it meant he was in a good mood. When I said, “Dad, I heard you sing.” He would say, “Yes, I am very happy.”
What is a song of joy to Christians? It’s when unstoppable joy springs from your heart, and it tells your brain to express that joy. When God’s pure joy, which He pours out upon us by His Holy Spirit makes us sing with joy, we cannot be silent.
This is my confession. When I was young, like 5 or 6 years old, I wouldn’t have said I liked singing in church because I was not happy and could not find the joy in my heart to sing. However, when I went to the Philippines for a short-term mission trip, one day, God told me that He loved me.
I heard the voice of God in my heart. “I love you.” Before that, I was grumbling like a firecracker. I thought I was a loser. I never thought that anyone loved me, but God said He loved me. God’s voice was a game-changer in my life. After that, God poured out the Holy Spirit of love, peace, and joy so that I can sing with joy.
Joyful Song in Exodus
Today’s passages contain a song of Moses. “I will sing to the Lord, for He is praised for His greatness. He has thrown the horse and horseman into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He is the One Who saves me. He is my God and I will praise Him. The Lord is a fighter. He has thrown Pharaoh’s army into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s leaders are under the Red Sea. The water covers them. They went down in the deep water like a stone. In the greatness of Your power, You destroy those who fight against You.”
Before that happened, the Israelites could not sing for joy to the Lord because they were sandwiched between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. However, when God stretched out His mighty hand to open the waters and let them cross the sea and destroy their enemies, they could sing to the glory of God.
Behind the Story
You know what? Moses and the people of Israel were gripped by an extreme fear of water. For them, deep water meant death.
When Moses was born, the king of Egypt ordered that all Hebrew male babies be killed at birth. Pharaoh commanded all the people, “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile.”
Moses’ mother hid him for three months, but she could not keep him any longer than that and put him in the water. Perhaps she hoped that Moses would be found by a merciful Egyptian and be saved from death. It was her hope and only option to save her son.
Her prayer was answered. An Egyptian princess rescued him from the water. God’s saving grace reached out to Moses and protected him from death in the water. So, Moses’s name means “saved from the water.” When Moses thought about water, he was gripped by fear, and it was the same for all Israelites.
However, water is used in a variety of metaphorical ways in the Bible. For example, in the Old Testament:
- Sometimes it is used in punishment for sin as with the flood of Noah’s day.
- The Egyptian king ordered his soldiers, “Every Hebrew boy born you must throw into the Nile and drown them.”
Water, especially deep water, is used negatively. Especially to Moses, the Nile was the valley of death, but God “stretched out His mighty hand to rescue Moses from death.” After that, the water did not mean death to Moses, but it was the blessing of God’s protection and providence for Moses and Israel’s people.
The Red Sea experience was a game-changer, turning their fear of water into a blessing. Moses and the people of Israel had a wonderful experience that turned their long-standing trauma of water into joy. So, they finally sang for joy.
After the Red Sea experience, they faced another water right in front of the Promised Land. That was the Jordan River. It was about 90-100 feet wide and about 3-10 feet deep. They never complained about this river. It looked like a piece of cake for them because they knew that the water was no longer harmful and that God would split the water and make a way.
Spiritual Insights
The story of the life of Moses gives us spiritual insights about fear. Everyone has an extreme fear of a particular object, activity, or situation. In the medical field, it’s called a phobia. A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It makes a person have a strong fear of something. In most cases, it is caused by bad experiences.
I can swim very well because I was born and raised in a village near a river with a large dam. But I didn’t like swimming because I didn’t like the feeling of sinking in the water. I almost drowned three times as a child. If my brother hadn’t pulled me up when I fell into the water, I would probably have drowned. Because of those experiences, I feel uncomfortable when I try to swim.
Perhaps the most fundamental human fear is the fear of death. The cross has long been used as a symbol of the most tragic death. Everyone believed that the most cursed person was the one who died on the cross. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” However, by dying on the cross, Jesus Christ changed the most cursed cross into the most spiritual symbol of blessings.
Conclusion
In Christ alone, you can experience your fear breaking. In Christ, death loses its power over us. In Christ, we can sing a song of joy. Jesus said in his parable of the yeast that if the Kingdom of God is presented in you, the joy of God will spring up from your heart, and it will be overflowing through your life so strongly that you could not stop it.
However, there are many kinds of songs: joyful songs and sorrow songs. Do you want to sing joyful songs? You should practice singing songs of joy in your daily lives. I promise you. If you sing joyful songs for God, you will experience the joy of heaven filling your soul.
2022.03.20. Pastor Cloud Poy
@ Photo on Unsplash
