The Song of Moses

Chaos to Peace
Bondage to Freedom
Many Idols to One God
A People to His People
Eminent Defeat to Ultimate Victory

Many say the familiar story in Exodus of the Hebrew people leaving Egypt, slavery and idolatry to the temporary promised land seems to be so long ago and so irrelevant to today. May I offer some relevance?

“They cried out”, it says in the text. Notice scripture records they didn’t even cry out to God … they just cried out. But God heard the cry of the people. Our God hears!

After the 10th plague, they left Egypt. The Egyptians gave them gold and silver and fine linen to GET OUT. How odd is that? The Hebrew’s were going into the wilderness. Where would they use the gold and fine linen out there?

They were led by a pillar of smoke and fire. They walked three days, leaving the tomb of bondage in Egypt and ending up at the Red Sea - the Sea of Reeds. Behind them was an army of destruction. Where they were was at the edge of the Abyss. On the other side was the wilderness of unknowns. Trapped!

On that third night, did they wonder if they made the right decision? Over two million people made the decision to follow Moses and leave their homes and security and things they knew. They had seen the finger of God work in the plagues. They stayed up all night “watching” the Angel of Death pass over their home and exact death on the households of Egypt. Here they were again … at night … watching. What would happen now?

At midnight, Moses stood up and walked to the edge of the sea. As instructed by God, he stretched out his staff over the sea. The East wind blew like never before. The sea rolled back. God provided a way. Only two minutes before, what looked like a trap and destruction, now became a path and a destination. The wind … the Ruach … blew and the abyss became dry land. Destruction by men became salvation by God.

In the middle of the night 2.5 million men, women and children along with all of their flocks and herds and possessions walked across the dry land in the middle of the Sea of Reeds. The wall of water was on both sides of the pathway. They were in “over their heads” now. There was no turning back. There was full commitment. Either God will save me or I will surely die!

The Egyptian army followed in hot pursuit. If this is a natural occurrence, then surely they would be able to follow the Hebrews through the sea. They had their own gods. Their god of Horace – the god of war – was providing a way. What happened to the Hebrews was they believed. What happened to the Egyptians was they assumed. The Hebrews were saved; the Egyptians were destroyed and lost.

At the break of dawn, after that third night on the edge of destruction, salvation came. The Hebrews were given a “new life”. They were taken out of the grave and resurrected. Laying on the shoreline of the sea was the rubble of the mighty chariots of Egypt and the dead corpses of horses and men. Standing on the shoreline was a people – God’s people – singing and dancing.

“I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously
The horse and rider thrown into the sea.
The Lord, my God, my strength, my song,
has now become my victory!”

Does this story have any relevance today? Are you battling with the slavery of addictions? Is the comfort of this culture baiting you with the idols of this culture? Is your life wandering about with no direction? Are you being chased by the chariots of your past? Do you feel like your back is against a wall and there is no escape? Are you just crying out?

Read Exodus chapters 12 thru 14 again. Read it slowly. Put yourself, your family, your job, your predicament into the story.

Then read Exodus 15.

Some scholars say that the beginning of the “kingdom of heaven on earth” happened when God chose a people and the people chose God. He “reigned” as their King. I believe God’s kingdom has no beginning and no end, but this certainly was a seminal event.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, there are two songs that we should practice and know by heart. One is the Song of Moses and the other is the Song of The Lamb. You see, we will be singing these for an eternity. Read Revelation 15:3 and then remember regardless of your apparent situation, our God reigns and we can sing and dance. To God be the glory forever and ever.

Gethsemane - The Oil Press

The Mount of Olives lies across the Yoshafat Valley and is about 260 feet higher elevation than the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. It was from this vantage point that David fled from Absalom and wept. It was from this place, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem.

Just below the Mount of Olives is the place we westerners call “The Garden of Gethsemane”. More accurately it was the place where the olives were processed from the harvest. The olives were picked and gathered for fruit, lighting, lubricating oil, health care and anointing. The oil press in ancient days was stone. This stone press was called a gethsemane.

The process of extracting oil from the olive fruit was fairly simple. You put the olives into the basin of the Olive crusher. The Olive crusher had a mill stone that would have a beam that rolled the stone over the olives to “crush” them. Once crushed, the pulp would be put in baskets. These baskets would be placed under the Gat (a place for pressing) shemanim (oil). This Gatsemanim stone would then press down on the crushed olives and extract the oil.

Jesus went to the place where olives were harvested to be “crushed”. The weight of the world was the mill stone. The weight of the sins of the world pressed down on him just like the rock slab pressed down on the baskets of olives.
The Gospel of Luke states that the sweat of Jesus was “like drops of blood falling on the ground”.

Jesus took on the full weight of our sin – yours and mine. He was pressed down.

Somehow, that image of the Gethsemane experience of Jesus makes my burdens seem lite and my yoke easy.